The Russell Brunson Show
Getting Stuff Done: The Framework for Finishing What You Start | #Success - Ep. 08
Mon, 10 Feb 2025
Most entrepreneurs struggle to finish what they start. They jump from one idea to the next, never getting their projects across the finish line. In this episode, I break down exactly how I get so much done - from launching multiple companies to rolling out new funnels, events, and content at lightning speed. If you feel like you’re constantly spinning your wheels but not making real progress, this is the episode you need. Key Highlights: The secret to actually finishing what you start – Most entrepreneurs are great starters but terrible finishers. I’ll show you how to break the cycle and complete the projects that will grow your business. Why deadlines are everything – I don’t just set goals—I set letter gold deadlines that never move. I’ll explain why this mindset shift is the reason we get so much done so fast. How to compress time and get more done in a week than most do in a year – It’s not about working harder—it’s about working smarter. I’ll share how we execute projects at record speed. The ‘Who Not How’ principle that changes everything – Stop trying to do everything yourself. I’ll teach you how to find the right who’s so you can move faster and scale bigger. Why launching before you're ready is the key to winning – Perfection kills momentum. I’ll show you how we launch fast, iterate, and improve with every version to build million-dollar funnels quickly. Most people waste months (or years) waiting for the perfect moment to launch - only to get stuck in a never-ending cycle of planning. If you want to break free and actually build something great, this episode will give you the framework to get things done! https://sellingonline.com/podcast https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Special thanks to our sponsors: NordVPN: EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal https://nordvpn.com/secrets Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! Northwest Registered Agent: Go to northwestregisteredagent.com/marketingsecrets to start your business with Northwest Registered Agent. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at LinkedIn.com/CLICKS Rocket Money: Cancel unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster at RocketMoney.com/RUSSELL Indeed: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/clicks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: How can you finish what you start?
Now, obviously, if you want to sell stuff online, you're going to need a good funnel. But if you want a great funnel, then you're going to need to use ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is the number one funnel builder in the world, helping more first-time entrepreneurs to leave their nine-to-five and to launch their dream than any other company on earth.
ClickFunnels was built for the dreamer and the doer, and you can get a free 14-day trial by going to clickfunnels.com slash podcast right now. That's clickfunnels.com slash podcast. ClickFunnels, because you're one funnel away from changing the world. This is the Russell Brunson Show. What's up, everybody? This is Russell. Welcome back to the show.
I'm excited to be hanging out with you guys today. And right now, I am in the middle of one of the heaviest seasons of our entire year here. We have Funnel Hacking Live happening in less than a week. Right now, I've got 10 presentations I'm personally working on. It's late at night right now. I'm recording a podcast for you. And on top of that...
At Funnel Hacking Live, we're launching two new companies. We are doing a thousand other things. We just finished our Selling a Line event, literally today, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And the number one question I get from so many people is, Russell, how do you get so much stuff done?
Sometimes they replace stuff with other words, crap, or other things like that, but I'm gonna say stuff for the podcast and for the YouTube channel. But how do you get so much stuff done? And that's what I wanna talk about because I feel like so many people are trying to do things and their wheels are always spinning. They're never quite getting things finished
Yet for me and for our company, we get a lot of things done. You probably noticed how many offers and funnels we put up, how much content, like how much stuff we're able to do with a very small team. And the question people ask all the time is how do you do it?
So I'm gonna show you guys behind the scenes a little bit of that today and hopefully give you some ideas and motivation and just some frameworks to help you to get more things done and actually get things to the finish line, right? Because how many of you guys have half-built bridges, right?
You've got this project over here and this project, and four or five projects that are halfway done, but they're not finished yet, right? How do we actually close those things? How do we get them done? And that's what I'm gonna show you guys today, and I think this will be very helpful for most of you,
entrepreneurs like me and like you who have probably some sort of entrepreneurial ADD that keeps us from focusing. How do you focus enough to finish so many things? Because when all is said and done, you're not going to remember in your business for the things you're creating.
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Chapter 2: Why are deadlines crucial for productivity?
I was trying to be in proximity with people who were having success because proximity is power. And so that was kind of the thoughts. And I remember at one of these events, this guy spoke. And his name is Alex Mandoj. And some of you guys may know Alex. Just one of my early mentors, really smart guy. And he said something that was so powerful.
He said, Russell, you have to understand there's two types of people in this world. There's people who are great starters and there's people who are great finishers. Okay, there's starters and there's finishers. He said, you have to figure out which one you are and then surround yourself with the others. And I remember thinking about that. In the time, I had a whole bunch of half-built bridges.
I had a whole bunch of projects that were halfway done. And I was like, I'm really good at starting things. I love starting things. I get so much energy and excitement and like passion from the starting of a thing. How many of you guys are the same as that? How many of you guys are like the starters in your business, right?
It's so much fun to have the idea and to brainstorm, to figure it out and get the logo design, buy the domain, start talking about things. But as you get further and further, at least for me, It's like further and further along the path, the less fun it gets, the less fun it gets.
And then for me, as soon as like the project's done, like before I ever launched, like when the funnels, like the product's been done, the graphic design's done, the funnel's finished, as soon as that's done, for me personally, that's where I get bored. I'm like, okay, I'm done. I want to go create another funnel. Like I literally, as soon as like, and it's funny because
For me, the only way my business actually makes money is everything happens after that point, right? Do we actually sell? Do we continue to sell? Do we grow? Do we scale? Those are the things where you actually make money. But for me, I'm a great starter. And I started realizing when I heard Alex say that, like, man, I'm a really good starter, but I'm not a great finisher.
And he said, he said, you gotta figure out which one you are and then surround yourself with the others. And so for me, I started hiring people. I started hiring people based on that. I wasn't hiring other starters. I didn't need another starter. I was starting more stuff than anybody ever should, right? But I needed finishers.
One of the times I started realizing this is when I, again, I first got in this game and I started going to seminars and I was speaking to seminars. And back then I wasn't as smart. I figured out a couple things along the way. But every time I go to seminar, I sit in the back, I'd be making my slides while I'm looking at other speakers and figuring out what I was gonna sell.
And I'd create a new offer literally every single time I would present. So I'd get on stage and I would teach something and I would sell something. And I would just be making it by, okay, first you're gonna get this and I'll give you this. How many of you guys want this? I'll throw in this. And so I started making all these different promises.
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Chapter 3: What does it mean to work smarter, not harder?
Like, what does that, what does that look like? What's this vision? Um, for me, every time I start a new project, one of the very first things I do, cause for me, I get this idea and it sits in my head and I think everyone's got probably a different order, different process. But for me, the way it works is it gets in my head and it's just like, it's, it's kind of this like fuzzy idea.
Like I have an idea, like, Ooh, we could sell something, you know, whatever. Like I've kind of an idea of something that we could create. right? And then for me, it's usually like, I got to figure out a domain. I got to buy a domain name tied to it. And I got to design a logo. Those are my next two steps for me before it can become real. It's got to be tangible.
And for me to make it tangible, I got to have a domain name and a logo. Okay. I have literally, I would say conservatively, probably three to 4,000 domains I bought in the past, all of them tied to a great idea. So it's like an idea. I go buy a domain instantly, something secrets like, you know, or something hacker or something. Um, you know, it's, it's all some version that for me. So
that first thing I do for me is I'm buying a domain as quick as I can, right? Number two, I'm getting someone to design a logo. Because then it's like, okay, now I've got something tangible. Now I have something I can cast a vision around, right? So when I bring my team together, it's like, here's the vision.
I show them the design, I talk about the name, and then it's easier for me to share my vision. So that's just me personally. You may be different, but for me, those are the things I need to be able to share the vision. And then whenever I create a new project, the first thing I'm doing after I get the domain and I get the logo, I sit down and I literally sketch out
The way I do it for my team, because we're mostly remote now, is I have a Remarkable. This is it right here. And I just go open and I can screencast it to my computer screen right here. And then I open up Camtasia or ScreenFlow or Ecamm Live or Loom or whatever you record something with. And I record myself doodling out. Okay, here's the first thing. And the second, I cast the vision.
so that everybody can see it. And for me, I like casting a vision in a way that's recorded for a couple reasons. Number one, it used to drive me crazy when I have a meeting, I bring everyone in, and I cast the vision, everyone gets excited, and they go back, and then like a week later, they come back and, no, Russell, how does this work? Explain that again. And it drives me crazy.
I hate re-explaining my vision. I don't know if you guys, if you visionaries are similar, but I hate re-explaining my vision because I gave you my vision. I shouldn't have to re-explain the thing to you, right? And for me, it sucks energy to have to re-explain something like, I'm like, well, you're not paying attention. Can you not see what I see?
You know, and it's hard because for people who are non-visionaries, it's hard for them to see what you see, right? And it's frustrating, or sorry, for a visionary, it's hard because most people around you are probably non-visionaries. So it's frustrating for you when, at least for me, it's frustrating when they have re-askings.
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Chapter 4: How does the 'Who Not How' principle work?
Or, again, I partner with the who's. I offer them equity. I offer them profit share, rev share, things like that, right? But for me to figure out how to do all the pieces, it's going to take forever, okay? So instead, I've got to figure out who are the who's who already know how to do this, and then I can figure out how do I get them on board to be part of this project, okay?
One of the keys is I cast the vision. Here's the vision. I show them the video. This is the vision I'm trying to create. It's going to be amazing. I've got no money right now, but after we launch this, I'll give you 10%, or I'll give you, you know, after it launches, if it's successful. I'm hoping it will be, but I don't know for sure. And you're finding people I can negotiate with like that.
So get all the who's. And then the last piece I had here before I'd walk into the next portion of these is really understand why are you doing this? And this kind of comes back to the vision, like you're casting the vision, figure out the pieces, who are the who's.
But the big thing when you start getting the right who's on board, they want the vision of what they're creating, but they also want to know why they're doing it, right? What is the why? And you hear this talk, you know, hear like Simon Sinek and people talk about like, what's your why? What's the reason behind you actually doing this?
And it seems cheesy, I think, but the reality is it's so important. It's so true. When you understand the why and you cast a vision, people will follow you. They'll follow you to the ends of the earth. Hey, it's Russell Brunson, and I have a confession to make. When I first started in B2B marketing, I thought I needed to be everywhere at once, every platform, every ad type. But guess what?
That's not where the magic happens. The magic happens where the decision makers are, and that is LinkedIn. LinkedIn ads let you target who you want, CEOs, C-suite executives, and 130 million professionals ready to take action. These aren't random clicks. These are people who are already in the mindset to do business.
With LinkedIn's advanced targeting, you are not just throwing spaghetti at the wall. You're placing the right message in front of the right person at the perfect time. Here's what blew me away. And here's the cherry on top. LinkedIn is giving you $100 credit for your next campaign. Go to linkedin.com slash clicks to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com slash clicks. Terms and conditions apply.
LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Hey, funnel hackers, let me paint you a picture. You're running a business, your funnel's finally converting like crazy, and suddenly it hits you. You need to hire someone like yesterday.
Maybe it's a copywriter to help you crank out more sales pages, or a designer to refresh your landing pages, or someone to do customer support to help you to handle your growing audience. The problem is you're swamped, and you don't have weeks to shift through resumes. So what do you do? You turn to Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all that you need.
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Chapter 5: Why is launching early beneficial?
You have to put more emphasis and more priority on those. Then you have all the nice-to-haves. Okay, and this is what happens for me. Okay, I get closer and closer and closer and closer to the deadline. As I get closer, I'm like, holy crap, we're not gonna make it. Okay, and this is where people try to push the deadline. No, no, no, don't, letter gold, not gonna happen.
You do not push the deadline. Instead, you start looking at all the tasks and say, okay, all right, well, I wish I had a chance to write all the pre-email sequence. I don't. So that's the nice to have. That does not have to happen. I don't have to have that to launch. And then like, oh man, I wish we had more designs and stuff like that. But we don't have to have that to launch.
I wish we had this. I wish we had this. And so I start cutting out all the nice to haves as I get closer and closer and closer. But I stick to the straight line, the things that I have to have. I do not deviate from those. I do not push the deadline. But I get rid of all the nice to haves because as we get closer and closer and closer, things just kind of fall where you can't get everything done.
ever. I've never had a chance. We're like, we got everything done just in time for launch. Not once in two and a half decades of playing this game. Okay. It's not going to happen. Okay. Think about in sports. I'm the same way in sports. Like I've been training and practicing and training and practicing and getting closer and closer to the match. Okay.
Nice thing about sports is like when they set the schedule for the year, those are letter goal deadlines. That match is happening. I'm competing against this school, this team, this whatever on those days, no matter what the tournament's not moving for me if I'm not ready. Right? And so I'm like, I always need to do to get perfected for the tournament. It's like a closer and closer.
Like I'm not going to make it. What are the things I have to do to compete? Okay. As a combat athlete, what do I have to do? I have to make weight. Okay. So I have to wait. I have to lose, you know, 20 pounds to be on the scale by Thursday at whatever weigh-ins are, or I do not get to compete. So like that's a non-negotiable. Okay. Like that has to happen. Like.
And honestly, I have to win my wrestle off at my team. If I don't do those two things, I do not get a wrestle. So those are the straight lines I have to have. Everything else is nice to haves, right? Like getting in better shape, getting your cardio, getting your muscles, doing the drilling. Those things are all great, but they're nice to haves, not the have to haves.
If I do not make weight on the day, I do not get a wrestle. So those are the straight lines. For me, if I'm launching a project on next Thursday, one of the things that have to have happen for people to actually buy, okay? Um, and so those are the things I'm thinking through, like what's the straight line.
And as you get closer and closer and closer, all the nice to have is going to fall apart, fall apart, fall apart. You hit the deadline, you launch it. And after launches, then you come back and say, okay, what are the nice to haves that we didn't finish? And now we start weaving those and start backfilling those after the project goes live. And that's how we play the game.
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Chapter 6: How to compress time and achieve more?
Number three, we've broken down from the vision. Again, all the starters were great at the vision, If I had to finish now, take that vision and say, okay, here's all the pieces that you need to get in place to be able to actually get this thing done. And if you can't afford a finisher yet, then you're going to have to be both. It's going to be painful, but you've got to do it anyway.
For the first decade of my business, it was me. And so for the first decade, I had to be the finisher. I had to go take the big project and break it down. I was not good at it. But I didn't have any money, so I couldn't hire somebody else to do it. So it was me figuring all those things out. And so you figure out what are all the different pieces.
After that, the goal is to figure out who are all the who's who can help you with this. Okay. Again, if you've got to go and try to relearn all the, or learn all the different pieces to make this successful, you're probably not going to be successful. So figuring out who are the people I got to start gathering my adventures team. I need the Hulk. I need Iron Man. I need, you know, Dr. Strange.
Here's a lot of pieces, people I need. And then figuring out how to either pay those people or partner with them or give them equity, whatever it takes to get those people on your team. After you've got them all figured out and you find out from everyone how long it's going to take, you set a letter goal deadline, you get everyone's buy-in on this, and then you do not deviate, it does not move.
Then as you start marching towards that letter goal deadline, you're focusing on the straight line, things that have to happen for you to be able to actually launch. As you get closer and closer and closer, all the nice to haves will start falling off, falling off, falling off, falling off, falling off. But you stick to the straight line until you get it done.
You launch it, and after it's out in the world, then you come back and start weaving in all the nice to haves, weaving in all the nice to haves. And that's how you play the game. Now I want to tell you guys a real quick story to kind of wrap this up to show you the results of this. Because a lot of times we think the launch, putting the project out there, then it's done. And it's not.
It's like that's the beginning of the game. So man, six months ago, I had a vision for a project and it was an event called Selling Online. You guys probably heard of it. If you haven't, go register for it. We do it once a month. It's amazing, okay? So Selling Online event, cast the vision for my team. Everyone got excited. We saw the whole vision in two weeks, okay?
We put together the whole thing. So what do I have to do in two weeks? So there's a lot of stuff, right? But number one, we got people to actually show up. So step one, create the funnel page, the upsell sequence, members area, and we promoted it. So we promoted the list before I even created one presentation. Now this is a three-day event where I'm doing basically every single presentation.
So we launch it, people are registering, they're signing up, and it's like, cool, people are registering. Step one is done. I don't know what I'm gonna talk about. Okay, well, all right, that's step number two, right? So then I'm going back and I'm killing myself. I know that for me to be successful, we do the entire event, but there is an offer on the event, right?
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