One Funnel Away: Evolution - How We Scaled ClickFunnels to $1 Billion | #Success - Ep. 138

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The Russell Brunson Show 1h 22m 1 speaker 7 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Why is Russell retiring the Russell Brunson Show and launching Bootstrap Secrets?

Russell Brunson 0:00

Do you have a funnel but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next Selling Online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast. That's sellingonline.com slash podcast. This is the Russell Brunson Show. What's up, everybody? This is Russell. Okay, this is the time. This is probably gonna be the last episode of the Russell Brunson Show. I'm not gonna lie, ever since I changed the name from Marketing Your Car to Marketing Secrets to Russell Brunson Show, I felt like I hated that name. I was just like, I feel, who names a show after themselves?

Russell Brunson 0:40

I don't know. I did, because I wanna talk about all sorts of stuff. And I realized I just didn't love it. I hated calling it the Russell Brunson Show. You know, so I was like, welcome back to the show. I never even said the name. So we're going to be winding down this chapter of the podcast. And I'm excited for relaunching YouTube channels, actually multiple YouTube channels, and a couple of podcasts that are going to be different and better. The core one you guys will be subscribed to automatically is the Bootstrap Secrets Podcast, which I'm so excited for. We're filming those this week. Episode's coming out soon. But as we're preparing, getting a bunch of them in the can so I can start sharing with you guys, I wanted to be able to...

Russell Brunson 1:12

give you guys two last episodes. So last week I gave you guys, I let you guys listen to the original One Funnel Away presentation from Funnel Hacking Live. And afterwards, hopefully you all went and got your tickets at funnelhackinglive.com because the last one ever is happening. This is a one-time only Encore event we're doing all about AI. And it's gonna be insane. So that's number one. And then today I'm gonna give you guys the second One Funnel Away presentation. Again, the first one talked about everything we did to get up to the spot where we launched ClickFunnels. The second one was all about how we grew and scaled ClickFunnels to over a billion dollars in sales and the emotional journey. There were ups, there were downs, all sorts of stuff.

Russell Brunson 1:48

I hope you guys enjoy this one. After you do, watch this. Go get your tickets at funnelhackinglive.com and then get prepared. I think the next episode you're going to see is going to be Bootstrap Secrets, episode number one. At the very first Funnel Hacking Live where we introduced the two Comic Club awards, I did a presentation called your One Funnel Away. This is before the One Funnel Away challenge or anything. It was called One Funnel Away. Let me throw up slides real quick. This is the present. Anyone remember this, the original One Funnel Away presentation? When people joined OFA, I had everybody watch this. And this was basically, we had just launched ClickFunnels. It was like going into orbit. It was really, really fun.

Russell Brunson 2:25

And I told them the story like the last decade of my life. Here's all the things that happened. Here's all the ups and the downs, the ups and the downs, like the highs and the lows that got us to launching ClickFunnels, getting out in the world. It was interesting because it's basically, it was me telling my hero's journey up to that point. Right? Like it was me, this awkward kid. And I was doing these things. I was in my ordinary world. And I heard the call to adventure. We went on this journey. And this kind of timeline, a lot of things. Like when I was a kid, I had a junk mail collection. Then I made Zip Brander. I made Potato Gun DVDs. And then the webinar where everything was failing. I created a webinar and saved Christmas for me and my team.

Russell Brunson 2:55

And then we had a call center that grew up to 100 employees. And the whole thing crashed. and and fell apart and i met todd dickerson and todd built click funnels and then we launched click funnels nobody bought it and we tried over and over and over again finally i did i spoke to mike phil sims event we crushed it we created webinar we started in webinars all the time and then we started growing click funnels so that was this whole hero's journey i told the whole story it was very emotional up and down um and it kind of ended it ended with click funnels launching i thought about that at the time i was like

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Chapters

7 chapters

1 Why is Russell retiring the Russell Brunson Show and launching Bootstrap Secrets? 0:00–3:35 2 How did the ClickFunnels team build the first product and secure a world-class UI designer? 3:35–30:23 3 What went wrong with the initial ClickFunnels launches and how did Mike Filsaime’s event change momentum? 30:23–41:08 4 How did a spontaneous shower idea lead to filming a life-saving documentary with Nick Nanton? 41:08–43:48 5 What happened when Russell set world-record sales goals at Grant Cardone and Funnel Hacking Live in 2018? 43:48–47:21 6 Why did Russell and his team turn down a $110M+ acquisition offer to build ClickFunnels 2.0? 47:21–53:42 7 How did personal loss, platform launch problems, and a viral scandal reshape Russell’s mission and comeback? 53:42–1:22:28

Speakers

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Russell Brunson 72 min

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Topics in this episode

Amazon 1 Tony Robbins 1 Grant Cardone 1 Russell Brunson 3 Dave Asprey 1 ClickFunnels 3 Dan Kennedy 1 Funnel Hacking Live 2 Neil Strauss 1 Moz 1 squatty potty 1 Bullet Train 1

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Recorded27 Jul 2026

Publisherrss.introcast.io

Transcriptspeaker-named · 100+ languages

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Show notes

Last week I told you the story of everything that led up to launching ClickFunnels — my original “One Funnel Away.” I ended it like the hero coming home victorious with the elixir. But here’s the thing about a hero’s journey: it always has a sequel. And the sequel is where it gets real. This is the final episode of The Russell Brunson Show — I’m winding it down and relaunching as a new podcast called Bootstrap Secrets. So to close it out, I’m giving you part two: “One Funnel Away: Evolution,” the presentation from the last Funnel Hacking Live about how we scaled ClickFunnels past a billion dollars in sales. Not the highlight reel — the real version, with all the ups, the downs, and the moments it nearly fell apart. Key Highlights: ◼️The launch that almost killed the company — two years and every dollar of savings gone, a “reverse launch” that stalled out, and the five failed attempts before one event with Mike Filsaime finally cracked it ◼️The “booth babes” funnel — told I could speak at Traffic & Conversion but couldn’t sell, how Dave Woodward funneled a hallway of people into the most talked-about room at the event (and how Dave hired himself on the spot) ◼️Why DotCom Secrets became “the doctrine of the movement” — the book that finally made people get ClickFunnels, and the explosion from a few hundred members to twelve thousand ◼️The London meltdown — landing overseas to thousands of messages (some of them literal death threats) with ClickFunnels down for hours, and the one thing I did instead of hiding that flipped the whole community from rage to support ◼️Why I turned down $110 million — the private conversation with Moz’s Rand Fishkin about VC money, depression, and control that made me walk away from the check Looking back, none of it was sunshine and roses — and that’s exactly the point. Every high came wrapped in a low I didn’t see coming, and the business only survived because I had a team and a community carrying it with me. Like Gary Halbert said, one idea, properly exploited, is worth more than ten lifetimes of hard work — and I’ve watched that one idea change more lives than I ever thought possible. So as I close out this chapter and step into the next one, here’s what I’ll leave you with: what’s the one calling you’ve been carrying that’s worth getting punched in the face for… and who’s in your corner for when it happens? ◼️FUNNEL HACKING LIVE AI: The last Funnel Hacking Live ever is this September in Las Vegas — a smaller, one-time, AI-everything encore, and the room where this whole community comes together one final time. If you’ve never been, this is it. → https://www.FunnelHackingLive.com ◼️If you’ve got a product, offer, service… or idea… I’ll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event → https://sellingonline.com/podcast ◼️Still don’t have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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