Let’s say you’ve just finished building a sales funnel for a client and it’s time to turn on paid traffic…and then the client says they only have a couple hundred dollars to spend on ads.
The client is asking for some funnel voodoo magic.
This is frustrating because, most likely, it’s going to take more money to truly test a funnel to determine if it’s working or not.
At this point, many clients give up on funnels and claim they don’t work, when maybe they just need a tiny adjustment.
As a funnel builder, if you don’t have the right data, you can’t figure out where the hole in the funnel is and you can’t patch it up.
In this episode, I tackle what it means to successfully test a funnel and how to set expectations with clients who want you to perform some funnel magic.
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Video Transcript:
Hey there, this is Julie. And today, I want to talk to you funnel builders, the people who build funnels for clients. What happens when you build a funnel and the client wants you to perform some funnel Voodoo magic and you’re missing your wand?
So I get this question all the time, and excuse me if I rant a little bit, but here’s the problem.
You build the funnel for a client and then it’s time to turn on ads. I don’t care what kind of ads they are, but then they tell you that they only have a couple hundred dollars.
So, we all know that in order to really assess if a funnel is working correctly if it’s going to do anything, you need to get lots and lots of people into that funnel.
My mentor, Russell Brunson, he likes to see at least a thousand people on step one of a funnel before he can decide if it’s working or not.
So if you’ve built a funnel and you have a client who’s only willing to spend $200 or $300 in ads, guess what’s going to happen? Chances are you’re not going to get enough people into the funnel to even be able to evaluate if it’s working.
If a client puts you in this situation, it can be absolutely maddening. And I have so many students in my mastermind and in my courses that say, “Julie, I don’t know how to optimize the funnel because there’s not enough traffic and my client won’t let me spend any more until they know it’s working.” And you just want to be like, “Gahh!”
This is a classic chicken or the egg scenario. If you are building a funnel, do not build it unless you are willing to spend the money that it takes to get at least a thousand people into it. Now, there are lots of ways to get traffic to a funnel, to be able to assess if it’s good or not. Right?
You can do blogging, you can do Pinterest, you can do Instagram, you can do Facebook ads.
There are methods that don’t require paid traffic. But if you don’t use paid traffic, then you have to hustle. You have to pound the virtual pavement. You have to go and get that funnel in front of at least a thousand people.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Some of you might be like, “Well, can’t you optimize a funnel with just 100 people or 50 people? Why do you need so much traffic before you optimize?”
And that’s because your opinion about whether a funnel works or not doesn’t really matter. The only thing that matters is when people go through the funnel, are they taking out their credit card? Are they purchasing what you sell?
If you don’t have that information, your guess is as good as mine. I can build a thousand funnels, but I can still be wrong about whether a funnel is going to work or not. We need the market to tell us, is this offer good? Is this funnel good? And if you don’t have sales, then there’s no way to know. You are guessing just as much as I might guess.
So, a thousand people on step one of your funnel usually means that you’ve had enough people go through to have accurate statistics, right? Because we know in marketing, maybe one to three percent of people are going to buy, so you need a lot of numbers on the front-end even just to get a small amount of sales on the back-end.
So if you’re in this position and a client will not spend the money and still blame you for not optimizing the funnel, the first problem is that they think that this world has magic. And I hate to break it to you, it does not. But the second problem is actually yours.
And that is I would encourage all of you service providers and funnel builders to make sure your client knows that the very beginning, before they build a funnel, that they have to be willing to roll the dice and play the cards and spend money to get the data they need.
And ultimately that’s what you’re paying for. You’re paying for data. Data that tells you if your offer or funnel works. So no more funnel magic, no more crazy chicken or the egg, hamster in a wheel.
Build your funnel, spend the cash, and then optimize it.
I know the best conversations happen after the camera stops rolling. If you’ve had a client who’s asked you to do funnel magic or maybe you thought funnel magic was a thing, put your comments below. I love to hear what you have to say.
And for more videos like this on digital marketing funnel building Facebook ads, and a good kick in the pants, you can go to Juliechenell.com.
Make sure everyone involved in the project is on the same page by completing each step in all workflow phases.
This plan will help you create the vehicle to market the product, not the product itself. So if you’re the product creator, make sure you either have the product created before tackling your sales funnel, or add more time to your project timeline to get everything done.
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Video Transcript
Hey guys, Julie here today and I want to talk about funnel workflow, so maybe you have decided that you’re going to build a funnel, or maybe you just got hired to build a funnel and you’re just like, oh my gosh, all the things. How do I make a great workflow? So this is my workflow that I’ve done with hundreds of clients and now you can do it too.
So, the first one is called the predesigned phase. This is really, really important. Do not skip this step because this will make everything go more smoothly.
So the first thing you want to do is you want to have a strategy call.
If you are the client, you want to have a strategy call with your team.
If you are the marketing agency, you want to have a call with your client.
You want to map everything out, make sure that the flow is all what you want. You’re all in agreement on the campaign objectives and what’s going to be sold in the funnel. So that’s the first thing.
The second thing that you want to do is you want to collect all the brand assets. You want to have an agreed upon. What fonts are we going to use, what colors are we going to use, what logos do we need for what products, you know, basically get all the brand assets together because you’re going to need them for the pages, the order forms, the ads, everything.
The third thing that you’re going to talk about, is copy and scripts.
This is a huge part. There’s a lot of copy in a funnel. So you want to get a good idea of all the copy you’re going to need from ad copy, landing page, copy, sales page copy, or even the order confirmation copy.
And then don’t forget, there’s also emails that fire emails that nurture people, fulfillment, emails that fire when people make purchases, instructions on what to do.
So this is like emails, pages, instructions, and then ads. Okay?
You’re also going to need to talk about scripts, video scripts, so videos for things like on your OTO pages or your landing pages if you have videos, and then also webinar scripts and video ads.
So you want to get together and make sure everybody understands all the copy in the scripting that has to happen, and then you want to complete that.
So once you’ve done your strategy, you’ve collected your brand assets and you’ve written all the copy and the scripts. Now you can go to the design phase.
So I do design phase like this. The first thing I do is wireframing. Now, this is an old web design term that I just used for funnels because funnels are web pages basically.
And what I do is I actually build out the funnel in ClickFunnels. So I pick all the different types of pages I’m going to need and I take all the copy and I just place it into the page.
Now I actually create wireframe templates. So if you’re an agency, you should absolutely create templates that you can just put the copy in. And so then you have a general idea of where graphics are going to need to go and all that kind of stuff.
So you do wireframing first and then you do what I call set design.
And set design is when the head designer, whoever is the head designer is going to go in and create the first four to five sections of the most complicated page in the funnel.
And they’re going to set the design, they’re going to set backgrounds, they’re going to create the graphical look.
And then once they’ve set the design, the rest of you, the team, whoever it is, are going to carry out the design. So now that the design and the idea is really implanted, the client has agreed you carry out the design along every other page and it’s much, much easier now because you’ve kind of set the whole vibe and feel.
Once that’s done, it’s time to do integrations. Alright, so you’ve wireframed, you’ve set the design, you’ve carried out the full design. Now you’re going to do integrations.
This includes things like getting the right domain hooked up, getting the right payment processor set up okay. It includes things like attaching an email service provider or if you’re using Actionetics, getting all of the smart lists set up in Actionetics.
That’s ClickFunnels. By the way, if you’re using ClickFunnels, which you should use all of the like nitty-gritty building type things.
You also want to check the SEO and the metadata of all the pages. Make sure they’re not set to the defaults, set them so that they look good.
And you also want to set up the products and make sure that the products are hooked up however you’re going to deliver that.
Maybe you’re delivering them on Teachable or Kajabi or you know, set up the products and get all of that nitty gritty stuff done.
The final thing that you want to do is the email sequencing. So place all your emails in whatever you’re using, make the automation and make sure it works with the funnel.
The last phase is testing and launch. Okay, so you’re going to want to test the funnel and make sure that everything’s working.
Make sure that the pages all go, you know the steps, work, the emails fire, all that kind of stuff, so test the funnel and get that ready.
Then the next thing that you want to do is put together your traffic campaign. So where are you going to get traffic for your funnel?
And so usually for most people, this is where they start talking about Facebook Ads, so now they’re planning what ads are going to go where and what and how. So a lot of people do Facebook Ads, but you could do other things.
You could launch it to your email list. You could do Instagram, Pinterest, so here you’re putting together your traffic objectives.
Now what happens in this stage is sometimes you come up with this brainiac idea that you want to send Facebook traffic to one funnel and then you want it to expire and then you want to send them to a different price point.
You want to do crazy things like that. Once you get all of this done, you may want to duplicate your funnel for different objectives,
like, ooh, we’ll make a version of it for Pinterest or Instagram, so once you have that, make any last modifications or duplications to your funnels for tracking.
All right, that’s basically what you want to do there and you don’t want to do that till the very end til you know exactly how the campaigns are going to work and when you have this all set because you don’t want to duplicate anything and then realize you have to make a change because now you have to make a change twice or three times.
All right, so that’s the funnel workflow. That’s how it works.
People ask me all the time, how long does this take? You know you can do this if you’re crazy in 48 hours. I typically did six to eight weeks, and remember this is only about designing the vehicle for the product, not the products themselves.
If you are the course creator or you’re the client, make sure they understand that this happens and this doesn’t really have to do with the actual content.
So if they have to create the content as well, sometimes that can double eight weeks and it can make it all the way up to 16 weeks depending on how big the program or the course is.
So I hope this helps. I hope this gives you the flow of how to build a funnel and so you can get out there and start making money.
Copywriting is the single most important skill you can learn if you’re looking to get into digital marketing and sales funnel creation.
Time and time again I’ve seen “ugly” and poorly-designed landing pages convert because the copy is just so good.
Copywriting can also be one of the most intimidating things to learn, but it doesn’t have to be!
In this episode, I share my top tips for getting started as a copywriter for digital marketing and sales funnels.
Be sure to comment below or over on Facebook if you have questions about getting started as a copywriter.
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Video Transcript:
Hey, Julie here, today I want to talk about copywriting 101. If you’re looking to get into digital
marketing or funnels, you know that copy is the single most important skill that you can learn and it’s also sometimes one of the most intimidating.
My recommendation is if you want to get started with copy that you first look up a bunch of long-form sales letters in all different kinds of industries. So pick some from real estate, from making money online, from health and from various topics and once you get those sales letters, your job is to rewrite the sales letter. So put it in something simple like a Google Doc.
Copy all the text and then your job is to rewrite the sales letter. But do it for something completely random. Maybe change it to selling pens or selling shoes. Think of something really really random and kind of difficult to sell and rewrite the entire sales letter using the same form structure and words and try to sell your object.
Secondly, when you’re starting out with copywriting, you don’t have to start from scratch. I recommend that you start to gather a bunch of swipe files. So you look up things like in your junk mail when the mail comes. Grab the headlines. Grab the things that catch your eye and catch your attention. The same thing goes for ads on Facebook or sales letters other funnels that you’re in.
Anytime you see something that you like go ahead and create a resource pile because I find that when I’m writing sales copy, I often go back to the same emails the same subject lines and just tweak them.
And here’s a cool little tip: if you’re writing in the let’s just say you’re selling a real estate course. Sometimes I deliberately look for sales letters in a completely different industry because I
find that there’s some fun connections.
So let’s say I go and look up one of my sales letters in the health niche and it’s like how to lose 20 pounds in 30 days. I take that headline, I take out the parts about it that our health-related and I try to rewrite it for real estate. And this can create some fun play-on-words and help you think about ways to say things that you might not have said in the first place.
The next thing is when it comes time to actually describe your product there are three things you want to focus on. Most amateur copywriters focus on one or two but there are actually three.
You want to describe the features. So whatever it is you’re selling, is it what is it? Is it a book? Is it a course? Is it a program? so outline what those actual things are. The deliverables that they receive when they buy. that’s step one.
The second step is to talk about the benefits. What are the ultimate results and goals of whatever it is they’re buying? What are they going to get out of it? What is the payoff? Make sure you describe that.
Most people stop at features versus benefits but there’s actually a third step. And the third step is meaning. And that is writing about why those benefits matter. So if you’re talking about doing a real estate course the features might be eight modules workbooks some video lessons. Maybe a call the benefits might be that they can get their real estate business up in 30 days or less. It might mean they can get more leads. They can close their first deal… Those are the benefits. The results. But why is that meaningful to a real estate agent? Maybe it’s meaningful because they want to take a family vacation or because they want to help put their kid through college.
So describing features, benefits, and meaning make your copy that much more powerful.
Finally, don’t forget the two most important things in copy which are scarcity in urgency. So whether it’s a limitation of time a limitation of quantity or a limitation on price, you want to try to hit at least one if not all three of those different types of urgency and scarcity. People need a reason to act so give them one. So whether it’s the price goes up, the bonuses expire, enrollment goes away or there’s only 10 or 15 people allowed, try to find the urgency and scarcity and make it believable.
I know the best conversations happen after the camera stops rolling, so if you have a question about getting started as a copywriter leave a comment below and for more videos like this you can go to Juliechenell.com.
We’re going to do a little math and figure out the Average Cart Value of someone in your sales funnel to determine if the entire funnel is profitable.
To begin, you want at least 100 people (1000 or more would be better!) to go through your sales funnel, so you have some data to work with. It’s tough upfront to spend money for testing, but it’s necessary to get the data you need in the long run.
Watch this week’s episode to analyze your numbers, figure out if your sales funnel is profitable, and get tips to raise the lifetime value of the entire process.
If you find your funnel isn’t as profitable as you’d like, check out what to do if your sales funnel is broken.
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Video Transcript:
Hi, Julie here, today I want to talk about how to make the numbers work in your sales funnel.
We’re gonna do a little math today and we’re going to look at how you can figure out if your sales funnel is going to be profitable.
All right so don’t be scared. We’re going to do a little math and what we’re going to do is we’re going to figure out the average cart value of your funnel. So in order to do this, you’re going to need to have a little bit of traffic first. So you have to mentally prepare for spending some money even without the, the funnel being optimized. So prepare for that.
So we want to send a hundred people through your funnel and get some statistics. It would
be better if you could send a thousand but not everybody has the budget to get a thousand people through a funnel.
So let’s pretend that you are selling a $15 ebook on the Thank You page then you have an order bump for an additional $7 and that’s like some extra resources and meal plans… Let’s say we’re in the health industry.
And then on the one-time offer upsell you have a $47 course that’s fifteen plus seven plus forty-seven which means if somebody buys everything in your funnel they’re going to spend $69.
Now if they just buy the book and the course and they don’t take that little extra order bump, they’re gonna spend $62.
And some people might not buy the order bump or the OTO. They’re just going to buy the book and that would be $15.
So you have three different options.
So what you do is you send a hundred people through your funnel and then you take how many purchases there are. You add them up and create an average. So for this purpose of this example let’s say that out of a hundred people who went through your funnel you had five buyers two of them spent the full 69 two of them just spent fifteen and one person spent sixty-two so that equals two hundred and thirty dollars. That’s how much you made off of a hundred people.
If we divide that by the five purchasers your average cart value is forty-six dollars.
This means that the most you could possibly spend to acquire a customer on this funnel would be forty-six dollars and then you would break even.
Now if you’re looking at me and saying “that’s the only funnel I have” then you’re gonna have to spend actually quite a bit less to acquire a customer in order to make money on just one funnel.
This is why funnel stacking is so important because you can get people to buy again and again and on different funnels. The idea is, is if you use one funnel to get your leads for free, then you can make money on them in all the other funnels.
So if you have a funnel and your average cart value is forty-six and it’s costing you forty-six dollars to get the customer this just means that you have to create a better lifetime value process.
Create more funnels. Get them to buy more, to consume more, to pay more.
Then you’re making money and you’re getting your leads for free. But if this is your only funnel and this is all you’ve got, then what you need to do is you need to make sure that you’re getting traffic and leads for less than forty-six dollars so that you can scale.
The best conversations happen after the camera stops rolling so if this was helpful or you have any questions about how to figure out how much money you can spend in your funnel, leave a comment below and for more videos like this you can go to Juliechenell.com.
-To see all the Instagram Story highlights of FHL 2018, check me out on Instagram at https://instagram.com/juliechenell and peek at the FHL 2018 highlights on my story profile.
I really hope I can do this event justice. It’s going to be hard to capture the depth and breadth of emotion that I experienced over the last two weeks, but I know if I don’t write it down, the intensity will fade and I will have no record to remember!
Quick review if this is the first blog post you’re reading about me – I’m Julie. I run an online digital marketing business with a membership, course, and a mastermind group, and I’m also part of Russell Brunson’s Justice League.
This was my first Funnelhacking Live as an “insider” – and my oh my, what has changed in just one year.
In fact, last year I went to FHL 2017 in Dallas, and barely ANYONE knew me. It was an amazing event and I left super inspired and pumped up. So much so that over the next 12 months, I would go on to make a million dollars, win the dream car award as an affiliate, get a 2 comma club award, join his Inner Circle, explode my business, and then join Russell’s team as a coach and writer.
Funnelhacking Live is the best Internet Marketing event in the world…largely because it’s not JUST about marketing. It’s about business, life, relationships, heck even God. It’s incredible. And you should go. If you take nothing else from this post, take this – you do not want to miss next year.
Prior to arriving, I knew that I would be split in a million directions because of how many hats I was wearing…
I was there as a Clickfunnels team member
I was there as an attendee who is Inner Circle, 2 Comma Club Member, and Dream Car Winner
I was there as an entrepreneur with a business and following of people who’d want to come by and say hello
I was there as a 2 Comma Club X coach
I was there as a wife to my husband Alex
I was there as a mother to my son William
I was there as a Disney addict
Needless to say, this produced MASSIVE amounts of excitement, anticipation, AND some definite stress because I was never sure which “hat” needed to be on my head at any given time…and frankly…how many I could wear at once.
Day One – Monday
We arrived in Orlando around 12pm and William was completely over stimulated by the plane, buses, and monorails we took to arrive at our resort. He did something he never does – he fell dead asleep in my arms.
Carrying a sleeping William across Disney World is super fun.
We managed to transfer him and ourselves to our room at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort, and then had a nice afternoon swimming and shopping. The rest of the Clickfunnels team was due to arrive on Monday night, but we weren’t able to get a room at the Coronado (where the conference was) so the first day was just about Alex and I enjoying the amenities with William before the madness began.
Day Two – Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, I was hankering to get to the Coronado to see all my people, to get the scoop, and to be a part of all the planning. It didn’t go quite as planned since #1 – I wasn’t really in the loop with all the prep meetings, and #2 – Every time I tried to leave William for a few minutes, he would dissolve into ridiculous screaming.
This was the first moment where I felt a bit like “Which hat am I supposed to wear right now?”
It was so odd. I was worried about William adjusting to all the new people, worried about Alex feeling like a babysitter, I was in the lobby saying hi to anyone and everyone I could recognize from my tribe, I had lunch with Inner Circle Peeps, and meanwhile I had this bizarre feeling like I was missing some important prep meeting with the CF team. FOMO is such an annoying thing to have.
On top of that, we had to perfectly choreograph the following:
Get our luggage from Port Orleans to Coronado
Unpack and get my clothes out and ready for the VIP dinner
Shower and do makeup and hair for VIP dinner
Register for the event and get all our badges and all access passes
Keep William from napping so he’d fall asleep at EXACTLY 6pm so a stranger babysitter could come in and watch him
Get the shuttle for the VIP dinner by 7pm
It was tight. We basically hung out in the lobby until 4pm, got our room and luggage by 5pm, and yes – William did go to sleep and the babysitter was very nice and we made it to the shuttle in time for the VIP dinner.
The VIP dinner was AMAZING.
Amazing peeps at the VIP dinner!
Russell and company took all the IC members, 2 Comma Club winners, and executive team to Hollywood Studios for an Indiana Jones dinner.
This was the first moment where I started to really feel the energy and excitement of the event, and I knew- the next several days would be amazing. I was able to relax and thankfully, William stayed asleep the whole time and there were no frantic texts from the babysitter.
Day Three – Wednesday
Wednesday morning, Alex, William, and I took an Uber over to the Polynesian…where we had a Mickey breakfast with a delicious all you can eat family style meal…complete with Mickey waffles.
His first encounter with Mickey!
We also rode the monorail and a boat, just to give William something to do (we both knew the afternoon would be dull for him).
We got back to the hotel around 11am and that’s when I got a little bitchy with Alex.
Here’s why…
I am MOST comfortable barefoot, in jeans and a t-shirt.
I get SO STRESSED at the idea of putting clothes on. For real. It’s so annoying. Especially in a situation where I knew I’d be recognized.
And with every shirt I tried on, I got more and more annoyed because they were too big or too tight or too frumpy or too…I don’t know.
Alex knows this about me, so he just let me be until I could figure out what I was going to wear.
I finally settled on just wearing all black. My black Clickfunnels jacket (that I love), black leggings, cute shoes…end of story.
Alex and William stayed behind and I went downstairs to the main room, and h..o..l..y…c..o…w. I had no idea how many people would already know me. That was super cool and fun and really unexpected.
I got to talk to a ton of people and then…the event began.
Russell did two incredible presentations —
Conversation Domination
Funnelhackers – We See Things Differently
And even though I knew a bunch about the presentations because I got a preview, I still loved to watch it all unfold live.
Wednesday night was the Vendor Speed Dating Event, and this night was so much fun. I hung out with a bunch of my mastermind members, and we ate and drank and chatted until it was time for the documentary showing of Operation Underground Railroad.
Some of my most favorite people – Digital Insiders!
The documentary was intense. And that isn’t even the right word to describe it. Everyone was in tears by the end. It documented Tim Ballard’s mission (with O.U.R) to stop human trafficking around the world, and it was crazy — Clickfunnels and all the attendees raised OVER $1,000,000 for the organization. That’s insanity!
I left that night feeling so damn proud to be a part of the Clickfunnels team.
Day Four – Thursday
Thursday’s presentations were SO good.
My favorite of course, was Russell’s Funnel Audibles. You could see the room frantically scribbling down notes. You could hear the aha! moments. My phone was going off with my students and clients around the room pinging me “I get it now!” It was so fun. He did an amazing job.
There were some other memorable presentations – Alison Prince from $0-100k, Dave Lindenbaum’s Redemption Funnels, and then Todd, Ryan, and Russell unveiled the updates to Clickfunnels and the new Actionetics MD.
If that wasn’t enough for one day, there was also an impromptu proposal and performance by a broadway star. Never a dull moment is 100% true when you come to FHL.
Hanging out in the green room with the geniuses behind Clickfunnels.
I think Thursday was the day I finally felt like I was able to wear my “CF team” hat. Up until this point, I had missed all the meetings, not even had a moment to say hi to anyone on the team, and just felt a bit disconnected. I hate that feeling. People who know me…know that I am the personification of the word community. I love being a part of something I believe in.
It was during the break – I went to go eat lunch with the crowds, and I started to feel a little stressed. I couldn’t really walk more than 10 feet without being stopped, I was also trying to see Alex and William during the break, and it was hard to find a moment to breathe.
James Friel said to me, “Why don’t you go in the staff room to have lunch?” – and yeah, this whole time I had no idea that was even a possibility. Thank God for James.
Lunch was quiet and delicious, I got to see everyone, talk to a bunch of people, and work with Russell to help finish out a presentation. I hung out in the green room with him, Todd, Ryan, Jake, Dave, and Melanie and watched the presentations from backstage. It was awesome.
Thursday night we had a babysitter (again) and Alex came out to take photos and support me during the Round Table event. This was so crazy fun. I talked for 3.5 hours straight with a full table, and got to meet and hear so many peoples’ stories and questions. I love this stuff!
Thursday night round tables!
The only hard part was Alex and I had now gone nearly two days without connecting so I could tell he was tired. He’d been with the baby all day, and now couldn’t even find a seat next to his wife in this crazy crowded room. He gets husband of the year award for sure.
One last thing to mention about Thursday. I had an experience which can only be described as spiritual.
Forgive the momentary rabbit trail…
My whole life…I’ve been attracted and attached to the continent of Africa. I can list at least a dozen events and moments that connect me to that part of the world, and in recent months – this connection has resurfaced.
I had two Africans join my mastermind
I had several Africans buy my course
I was a key speaker in the Marketing Summit to support clean drinking water in Uganda
I donated to African charity organizations after the Expert Secrets contest
I connected with an African charity at a retreat this past fall and became their top donor
So…on Thursday, one of my clients in my mastermind – from Africa, she came up to me and gave me a gift. It was a set of spoons with intricate beading on the handles. The woman who made them had her name printed out in pen on the back. And I literally….burst into tears.
A gift from South Africa – from Carol
No idea why. I just sat in my chair crying.
Not five minutes later, Russell got on stage and presented Stu Mclaren with an enormous check for World Teacher Aid – an organization that builds schools in Kenya. Then, by chance? I happened to meet Stu in the hall where he mentioned there might be an opportunity for me to go to Kenya. I don’t know if it’ll pan out, but I talked about this series of events with James and Yara over lunch and they both said, “How many more signs do you need Julie?”
Good question. None.
Day Five – Friday
I will never forget this day as long as I live.
I don’t even know where to begin or how to start. Maybe in the middle.
I’m now officially a part of Russell’s Justice League.
I can’t remember much about Friday morning except that I was again – super stressed about what to wear. But this time, it was times ten because I knew I’d be up on stage in front of 3000 people.
Oh wait! I do remember one presentation. Peng Joon’s. He brought the house down with value, content, as well as great storytelling and vulnerability. I’ve never seen him present before and was incredibly impressed.
Otherwise, I spent a lot of time in the staff room, alone and concentrating on memorizing all the things I wanted to say during my portion of the presentation.
After lunch, the award ceremony began. I got to take the stage twice – once for the dream car – once for 2 Comma Club. In the flurry of preparing for my presentation, I forgot to tell Alex to come to this portion so I didn’t actually get many photos!
Then, Russell, John Parkes, Stephen Larsen, James Friel, Alex Charfen, and me – Julie – took the stage for the 12 Month Millionaire presentation.
It was the one BIG sales presentation of the event and so nerves were SUPER high. We were all about to sell the 2 Comma Club X Coaching program and damn…pressure was on to do a good job.
When we walked out onto the stage, I couldn’t believe how many people there were. I thought I was going to pass out.
I tried hard to hide my nerves and focus on the person talking in front of me.
Don’t slouch Julie… Don’t forget to smile – your concentration face is a resting bitch face and that won’t go well…
These were the things I kept saying to myself.
And then…it was my turn.
I don’t remember it all that well (thank God my friend Renee recorded it). All I knew was this…
I wanted to make sure I could communicate in a way that would stir up hope and belief – not just facts
I wanted people to have a core nugget or aha! moment they could remember
I wanted to give 1000% because I had a team (and mentor) depending on me
I wanted people to come away feeling, “Julie is no one special. If she can do it…I can too.”
There was no timer, so I realized after I went five minutes over – which sucks. I hate being late or not timely, but I got a standing ovation that seemed to go on forever…and I nearly broke down on stage.
It’s hard to explain what 3000 people screaming and cheering feels like…it’s exhilarating and scary and awesome and also…there is a ton of pressure. I wanted so bad to be able to help them have the breakthroughs I’ve had myself.
When all of our presentations were done, Russell did the stack and the close…and I decided…
Speaking on stage alone is cool. But speaking on stage with a team is the most incredible feeling in the world…especially when the leader of the team takes time to tell everyone just the exact reasons why you’re the best person for the job.
I didn’t hear it live because I immediately went to the back of the room and proceeded to answer questions for 3 hours. But Yara recorded it and I was so grateful.
Funnelmindset captured this shot which I think depicts how intense this day was. I talked for HOURS!
Then we hopped back on stage for hotseat coaching, talked some more, and then talked some more.
Friday night was the first moment where I felt like I might need help getting out of the building.
Thankfully, Alex’s tired Romanian stare worked well. He managed to help me find a hamburger at 11pm after talking and being “on” for a million hours straight.
When all was said and done, Russell and the Justice League sold over 600 coaching spots for 2 Comma Club X and it didn’t really sink in what happened until the next day.
Day Six – Saturday
William woke up…not okay.
This day was hard, not gonna lie. I could tell William was feverish, Alex was delirious, I was exhausted and excited at the same time, and a LOT was about to go down.
I wanted to make sure I saw Myron and Russell’s presentation
I was hosting a lunch for all the new 2CCX members with the team
I planned to meet the people from Create Your Laptop Life for coffee in the morning
Tony Robbins was going to speak
Alex and William had to transfer AGAIN, to a new hotel
The big kids were flying into Orlando for a vacation
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have planned all this in one day. It was insanity…especially with a feverish kid.
But we did it. We got through it intact and alive!
I carried a sick baby downstairs so I could see my CYLL peeps. It was great to catch up!
The CYLL crowd!
Russell and Myron’s presentation was off the chains.
The 2CCX lunch was super fun! This is when it really hit me what we’d accomplished and the incredible adventure I was about to go on as a coach.
-Do you want to see what 600 coaching students look like at a lunch? Go to https://instagram.com/juliechenell and peek at the FHL 2018 highlights on my story profile.
Tony Robbins did a great job. It was my first time hearing him (last year I left before his presentation). He’s really good at what he does. I will say that based on the way people talk about him, I think I expected something a bit more intense and emotional….and I didn’t get emotional during his talk. So that was surprising to me. But it could just be my expectations.
The only major bummer of the day was that I didn’t know about the post-FHL CF family dinner at Epcot and I was super sad to miss it. I really wanted to be able to debrief, but I had to go to the airport to get the kids and couldn’t change plans at the last minute.
Leaving for the airport was not fun because I couldn’t say goodbye to all the people I wanted to! And then…I forgot my license and the kids were texting me in flight that their ears hurt, and there was literally NOTHING I could do. It was their first solo flight, and so I was nervous.
The whiplash I felt having to transition from FHL to family vacation was intense. I definitely cried on Saturday.
I was SO EXCITED to be on a Disney vacation with my whole family. I was also missing my FHL people. I wanted to debrief. I wanted to spend several hours just reveling in what all went down. And I didn’t get that chance. So I cried in the bathroom for about an hour, then got my shit together, and kept going.
Once the kids landed in Orlando, my excitement about our Disney vacation took effect and then I went into FULL Disney mode. Finally I would get to spend time with Alex and William and the three big kids.
It was the first time going to Disney in four years…and realistically, our first blended family vacation.
The next four days were a whirlwind. Except for one really bad sick day, we had a blast. What we did would require another 3000 words I don’t have right now.
Now…I’m home. I’m still so pumped up and excited about the future of this year, the next 12 months, and what the next FHL will bring. I learned a ton, hugged and met so many people, bonded with members of my tribe in a deeper way, and got the distinct honor of speaking on stage with some amazingly talented humans.
Everyday I wake up so grateful that I LOVE my work. That is not a given for a lot of people, and I don’t ever want to take for granted that I don’t wait for the weekends to have fun…because the work I do…is fun. And I love it.
I love FHL, Clickfunnels, the Funnelhacker family, and my Inner Circle of people who know all my ups and downs.
I am supremely blessed and think God has given me such abundance that I could give 100% of myself for the next 40 years and not tap into the depth of the blessings I’ve been given.
I’ve mentioned many of them in this post, but I want to shout out a word of thanks to the following people who really supported me and helped make this event what it was…
Alex Stoian – Thank you for supporting my entrepreneurial endeavors and being my rock while I pursue my dreams. I love you to the moon and back!
Alison Prince – Sister from another mother!! I can’t wait to catch up more with you! Love you lots and lots!!! xx
Yara Golden – I love you. You’re amazing.
James P. Friel – I’m so flippin’ glad I get to work with someone with your wit, wisdom, and creativity.
My Insiders (Stephanie, Renee, Carol, Allie, Chris, Dani, Arianne, Jamie, Rose, Tatiana, Esther, Cathy, Dallin, Elise, LJ, Heather, Matt, Roota, Alecia, Tamarah…and all the ones who couldn’t make it too!) – When I hang around you all, I feel like I can kick off my shoes, drink a beer, and just BE myself. You’ve become like family to me. xx
Create Your Laptop Lifers – Even though it was a New York Minute, I was grateful to be with you all and love our community so much.
Stephen Larsen, John Parkes, James Friel, and Alex Charfen- My fellow Justice Leaguers – so honored to be working with you!
Dave Woodward – I honestly thought you WERE Indiana Jones. LOL
Dave and Roni Lindenbaum – It was so fun getting to know your family better. I hope we can do it again soon!
Melanie Knueven – You put on an amazing event. In awe of what you pulled off!
Nick Sanders, Jake Leslie, and Karen King – You guys are some of the most amazingly helpful and funny and awesome people to work with ever.
Myles Clifford – Your energy and positivity – well it’s just infectious!
Brent, Todd, and Ryan – I feel like I finally got a chance to know each of you a bit better, and I can see why the Clickfunnels company is the best place to work ever. It has an amazing leadership team.
Collette Brunson, Carrie Woodward, Amber Coppieters, Ashley Dickerson, Andrea Montgomery, Vanessa Parkes – Six of the most smart, supportive, beautiful and amazing women that enable the executive team at Clickfunnels to do what they do.
Russell Brunson – For being the best example of true leadership I’ve ever seen. Behind you 100%.
-To see all the Instagram Story highlights of FHL 2018, check me out on Instagram at https://instagram.com/juliechenell and peek at the FHL 2018 highlights on my story profile.
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