Welcome to the very first episode of the 6-Figure Sales Funnels Marketing Podcast! To say I'm excited to finally get this new podcast launched would be an understatement. In the years since we ended our last podcast, the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, I've gotten more emails and messages asking when I'd be back in the studio than I can count.
Honestly, I've been dying to get back in the studio but between growing a business and some personal issues that maybe I'll tell you about someday… there was just no time. No bandwidth.
But then, something incredible happened – I'm going to tell you about it episode 4 – that was the catalyst I needed to finally quit making excuses and just make it happen…
Well, today is the day!
So, if you're here listening and have no idea who I am, I want to start by giving you a little bit of background… so you'll know why I'm so passionate about automation, why you want to listen to the 6-Figure Sales Funnels Marketing Podcast, and how it can help you grow your business.
But first, I want to offer a bit of a disclaimer. As you already know, entrepreneurship is not the path of least resistance… in fact, I'd argue it's way harder than being an employee. At least that's been my experience. It's sometimes emotional, and the conversations will get raw at times.
I'm not going to censor myself or my guests so I'm not promising to be safe for work or for kids so throw in your earbuds if you're on company time.
Anyway, back to the show…
My journey into sales funnels and online marketing got its start in network marketing. If you've ever worked that gig, you know bugging your friends and family gets old REAL fast, and the “3-foot” rule is just about the grossest marketing tactic ever developed.
But man, that first taste of residual income – made-in-your-sleep money – is addictive. If nothing else, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of ditching my alarm clock and living a life of my own making.
Sure it may only have been $25 but it was $25 I got for doing nothing. Email money. I was hooked. And I was hell-bent on finding a better way to make it happen.
I wish I could tell you I was an overnight success, but that's not the story at all.
I had no idea what it took to be an entrepreneur… I'd spent my life preparing to be an employee.
My time management consisted of showing up for my set hours and doing the job I was being paid to do.
I prematurely quit my dependable government job – thinking I was gonna be the next network marketing millionaire. I poured myself into learning marketing… bought courses, invested in software, learned to build websites and even built my first rudimentary funnel long before funnels were a thing.
But sadly, as my cashflow slowed to a trickle and I'd sold almost all of my assets to keep the lights on… I came to the terrifying realization that I'd bet on myself and was about to fail. Epicly. Like… “bankruptcy imminent” kind of failure.
Just when I thought all was lost, something amazing happened.
A sale came in. From my website. Without me speaking to anyone.
I thought it must be a fluke.
Then 40 minutes later… another sale. I woke up the next morning to a few more. And then a few more.
And then, the floodgates opened.
I went from struggling to pay for the internet to hitting the top level of my network marketing company's compensation plan.
And now everyone wanted to know how I was doing it.
I was super stoked about all the new online marketing techniques I'd been learning and couldn't wait to tell my network marketing community all about it.
I'd finally proven to myself there was a better way!
So I signed up for a free GoToMeeting trial (remember GoToMeeting? Does anyone still use that?) and ran my first webinar to show other struggling network marketers how to get sales online.
At the end of the webinar, 17 of the 25 attendees signed up for a $97 online course I'd created and I took my first step into the online course arena.
Almost $1700 hit my PayPal account that day – a huge amount of money for me at the time.
It was at that moment that I realized the network marketing company and its products weren't what I was passionate about… it was the marketing and all the technology that went into making autopilot sales. And I absolutely LOVED teaching the tech… taking difficult concepts and making them simple. And that has never changed.
Back then, putting together an online marketing funnel was a serious technological undertaking. There was no such thing as an all-in-one marketing platform – you had to build it yourself from scratch. Here's just some of what you needed…
- a hosting provider,
- a WordPress website to look like an authority and attract business,
- an expensive theme to make it look good (anyone remember OptimizePress?)
- a way to create optin pages and sales pages (way before LeadPages)
- a payment processor (this was long before Stripe existed)
- an email autoresponder
…and you had to figure out how to tie them all together. To make sure new customers got instant access to their products, and that they stopped receiving marketing emails when they'd already purchased. And that they'd lose access if they stopped paying. And that their payment would actually stop when they canceled.
So many things to think about, and so much room for error.
Your system was only as strong as your weakest link. And with everything duct taped together… something was bound to fail.
At the time there were very few people who could build a system like that successfully, and when other marketers realized I had the skill they started hitting me up to put it all together for them. That's when Marrs Marketing was born.
I started building “sales funnels” for clients but that was only the tip of the iceberg… there is so much more that can be automated in a business.
I made it my mission to systemize and automate everything that didn't absolutely require a personal touch…
I put all my focus into my clients' businesses and I did all the work myself. As a result, spent very little time doing the same thing for my own business.
Maybe you can relate.
For a while, I thought I'd found the key to happiness… working for myself, doing something I loved.
But then, the wheels came off.
The thing about being a “tech-chick for hire,” is that your time isn't really your own. The more clients you take on, the more you have to start saying no to other things. I was finally making a decent living working for myself but l definitely wasn't living the “freedom lifestyle” I'd dreamed of when I started.
I was doing what is commonly referred to as “grinding”… working relentlessly, long hours and weekends, rarely taking a break to enjoy life.
I'd hit my income ceiling… not nearly what I'd been dreaming of. And I had no time for friends, family, the beach or happy hour.
My personal relationships suffered. My marriage became strained and fell apart. I learned the hard way what happens when you don't focus on making automation and systems a part of your business.
The truth is if you're running a service-based business… and not being purposeful about setting up systems that allow you to earn more money, while still having the time to enjoy the people and things you love, you could be headed for the same crash.
And that, my friend, is why I decided to create the 6-Figure Sales Funnels Marketing Podcast… to help you identify those critical systems in your business that could mean the difference between you earning 6 figures per year and 6 figures per month, and the difference between regular, family vacations to Disney with your kids, and your years of “grinding” dealing the death blow to your most important relationships.
Here's the most exciting part…
Online marketing, sales funnels, automation, hiring a great team… they aren't nearly as complicated as they used to be.
In fact, depending on your business, you can have your sales system in place in hours, and what used to take months or years can be set up in just a few weeks.
In the last couple of years, several companies have created incredible all-in-one systems that put your entire business in one place and allow you to fully automate your processes.
I want you to take a minute and think about every repetitive email you send, every repetitive action that you take.
Now I want you to imagine what life would be like if you never had to write another one of those repetitive emails again.
For every 15-minute daily task we can automate in your business, you get 2 weeks of your time back. Two extra weeks to spend time with your family, go golfing, hang out at the beach or take a vacation.
And that's just a single task… what if we could do two, or five, or 10?
I want to inspire you to take a step back from the hustle and realize that while life may always be full and busy, your business doesn't have to feel that way. It doesn't have to consume every waking hour to be massively profitable. And I'm going to show you how to make that happen.
But I have to warn you – automating your business is an “important, but not urgent” task… meaning, unless you decide to make it a priority, it's not going to happen. And if you have dreams of earning $10,000 per month or more – without losing your sanity – you have make these systems a priority.
If you're ready to create a business you love, that lights you up, impacts more of your community, and creates abundance and freedom for you and your family, join me Tuesday, and I promise I'm going to share all of my best tech tips – to make sure you have the right software to run your business efficiently, for greater profit and maximum time freedom.
I'll be bringing on special guests… some of whom are running 6 (and in some cases 7) figure sales funnels, and still manage to spend half the year on vacation with their family.
And I'll be sharing resources to help you escape the grind, and scale your business faster than you ever believed possible… without spending months or years in tech hell and neglecting the people you love.
If that all sounds amazing – I hope it does and that I'm not the only one super excited about more money and free time – make sure you click that subscribe button so you never miss an episode!
All the resources I share, as well as show notes and links to the everything you need to automate your business, can be found at marrsmarketing.com/podcast
If this sounds good and you love what you're hearing so far, I'd be so grateful for your rating and review on iTunes or Stitcher.