Storytelling is so critical in business, but many people have a hard time telling their story. What I love about this challenge is that we get to learn tips and tricks for quick wins as we set up our online presence. Russell Brunson teaches us today that the key is story-selling and setting up an Epiphany Bridge. I read all about this in the Expert Secrets Book that Russell Brunson gives away for free, and the coolest part is that you don’t actually have to do any of the selling, because your leads will be pre-sold themselves on the solution before you’ve even offered them anything. He never gives a sales presentation without an Epiphany Bridge.
For me, when was it when I was sold on the concept of what I’m trying to sell or provide information about. What got me excited was the thought of automating online income streams. I remember back in my early 20’s when I began my full-time corporate career and had a computer for the first that was connected to a steady internet connection. How many remember using dial-up with AOL, which tied up your phone lines? Yep, that was me too for many years through college and into my early 20’s. But I was super excited to get a computer at A.G. Edwards & Sons, where the internet was one full time and we could see email constantly. That was an exciting time, because during college – we didn’t have computers, we didn’t have the internet and we didn’t have an email experience like we do today. I remember standing in line at my university’s library to jump on a computer so I can type up my papers. I remember going to the library and using the micro-fish devices to research newspaper articles and trying to find information throughout all of the outdated books in scary stacks of the library. Who else remembers that? I’m 40, so if you are close to my age, then you’ll definitely understand. If you don’t remember that – you are so very lucky and blessed to have had the internet experience that I so wish I had during college and high school.
I came across an ad in the paper when I was 22 years old from someone who was selling a CD that had Microsoft Word templates, html code for web pages, and PowerPoint templates. I remember thinking – wow – I don’t have to start from scratch, yay. For work, I created newsletters, PowerPoint decks, form letters, intranet web pages, Access databases and more for my corporate marketing job. I loved learning new programs and helping others. I bought the CD from this guy by mailing him a check for $20 and then a few weeks later, I received a CD in the mail. I opened it and I thought – wow, this is really going to help further my job because it had some templates I could use and craft around my responsibilities. I remember thinking – I wish I could make money by putting information on a CD and selling it. Bam! That was me hitting my head against my desk. You see, if I could go back to my 22 year old self when I had that epiphany of how to make money using information products, I would tell myself that anyone can make an information product to sell. What is exciting is that had I started emulating what this guy was doing, I just can’t imagine how successful I’d be online today. I remember getting excited and I told someone about my idea and because they didn’t understand what I was trying to say – they didn’t buy in and support my big idea. They actually told me that a full-time corporate job was the safe path for someone like me. The sad part, is that I believed them and through my 20s I was further conditioned to believe that working for the man, in an 8 to 5 corporate job was the only good path for my career and that trying to start my own business was a waste of my time. Anybody else experience anything like that?
And so I complied to what society told me and I stayed in a low paying corporate job where I didn’t get a raise for the first 5 years and then started to move up in my corporate status by moving to another corporate job where I was appreciated and recognized for my efforts and paid much better than my first position. I got recruited from that position and then got recruited again after 7 years and then again. I was pretty sought after in my corporate job, but I have always had that little voice inside telling me that I’m destined for much bigger things that merely working for the man.
My epiphany happened when I felt a sense of belonging when I stumbled upon Russell Brunson and his company ClickFunnels. I started paying attention to his circle of entrepreneurs and I started to see a common theme: each of them followed Russell’s trainings and were making millions online. Looking at their products and services, it was evident to me that I could also work my way into the online space and make money. Earlier in this message, I mentioned automating online income streams and although I had take many online courses, been researching tons of tools and have tried to build my own conglomerate of tool-sets – it became clear – my path. You see, I have used tools like ConvertKit, Kajabi, OptimizePress, WordPress and many many more. However, the problem was that I had to piece together all of these elements into one in order to make my online sales funnels work. And when I say online sales funnels – they weren’t true sales funnels. ClickFunnels was the answer to my prayers – a fully robust platform that combines everything I need to make a true online sales funnel in order to create automated passive income streams. See the guy with CD had it right, he built a funnel where he did some work on the front end, put it all on a CD, marketed his $20 CD to his target audience and probably made several thousand dollars from this one sales funnel. Fast forward to today – I can’t imagine what this guy has probably been able to do with the rise of the internet, blogging, WordPress, social media and tools to make funnels easily. I wish I knew his name so I could look him up. The point is, today it is even easier to build online income streams. So many people are doing it and making millions. I’d be happy to make a six-figure income from anything I create and either rinse and repeat or scale my best selling information products or affiliate offers.
So that is my story of how I got into this journey, but the point of an Epiphany Bridge is to tell your story and let your audience conclude the big epiphany. When they realize the big a-ha moment, they will want to emulate what you are doing so they too, can share in the big bad world of making money online OR whatever service or product you are offering. It is pretty exciting and I have my work cut out for me, but I’ve been focused on daily progress and chanting daily that failure is not an option!