Are You A Tree? Then Change...

I got a text message from my buddy, who reminded me how easy it is to change our circumstances if we really want to.

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---Transcript---

What's up everybody. This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today I want to talk about change. Hey everyone, so I'm actually right now in Atlanta, Georgia, or a suburb nearby, hanging out with my co-founder. My favorite people on this planet, Todd Dickerson, who's the genius who built ClickFunnels. And right now we are in a secret retreat away from everybody planning the future of ClickFunnels. And it is good. It is bright. It is exciting.

But anyway, we're at his Lake house and looking over the Lake and just hanging out this morning. We had elections a couple of days ago. At the time I'm recording this still chaos, no one knows who's going to win. And I'm not going to talk about that because I don't really want to put brainpower into something I can't control.

So I want to focus on things I can control, which is looking at my company, what can I do? How can I make things better? And how can I serve at a higher level? So that's what we've been focusing on. And from those questions come really good conversations. But I actually had something, a text message I got from my buddies, which was really cool. So the way I met this guy, he's actually a jiu jitsu black belt. He lives here in Boise. And I don't know if I told you this story before, but I'm a wrestler. I grew up as a wrestler. I was a good wrestler, was a state champion, I took second place in the country in high school. Started ranking top 10 in college. And I was a good wrestler.

And I remember, I always assumed, because I was a good wrestler I could beat almost anyone in fight. Right? So then fast forward, one day I'm on an airplane and flying home. And one of my old wrestling buddies is on the plane. I hadn't seen him in like 10 years. And he was like, "Dude, you should come do jiu jitsu." And he's actually a really big jiu-jitsu fighter now, which is cool, but he was like "You should come to jiu jitsu." I'm like, "I don't know jiu jitsu." He's like, "Dude, it's like wrestling for old fat guys." And I was like, "Sweet. I'm in."

And he says "There's a tournament this Friday, you should come to it." So I go to this tournament. The night before, literally we went to a wrestling room we had access to, one of my buddies who I talked into going to the tournament with me, he watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to wrestle cheat or fight jiu jitsu and he tried to teach me a couple of things.

The next day we showed up and we were not jiu jitsu fighters, right? So I show up to this tournament and I go out there, and I put my little gi on, and I don't know what I'm doing. And all I know, they taught me is "Hey, if you just take it like wrestling, and if you put your knee on their belly, you get four points." And I was like "Four points? That's so easy." So I just go out there and I was like, boom, double A, the guy I slam him on the ground, put money on his belly and get four points. I'm like, "This is amazing." And I let them go, do it again. And I do it three or four times. I'm just destroying this guy. And all of a sudden he reaches up to my gi, grabs my little collar and he crosses across my neck. And I don't know what's happening.

All I know is that the blood to my brain stops going into my brain and this dark circle from the outside ... if anyone's ever been choked out you've seen before. It's like the circle from the outside starts coming in, and the world around you is getting smaller, smaller, until all of the sudden this dark circle is collapsing, collapsing. And everything's about to go out. And then I look up and I see my coach, my buddy, tapping his hand like "Tap you idiot." And I'm like, "Oh," so I tap my hand. The guy lets go of my thing and blood comes back to my brain, the little circle expands again. I can see the world. I was like, "Whoa, that was horrible." Right?

So I go to my next match, same thing happens. Take them down, boom, knee on belly, knee on belly, four points. Take them down. Boom, knee on belly, take them down. Reaches up, grabs my thing, and somehow chokes me out. I'm like "This sport sucks." I was like "I hate this." Right? And then after that two matches with gi, and then two matches with no gi, which is basically shorts and a T-shirt, right? So I did that, and I had a little better cause there's no collar for people to choke me out on. Same thing though, I’m beating the guys, beating the guys, and then, for those who know jiu jitsu, twice I took the guy down, got overextended, I didn't know about posture. So I broke posture, guy puts me in a triangle lock, chokes me out twice. I got choked out four times in one day for never doing jiu jitsu.

And I still remember all the people that I wrestled, that I did jiu jitsu with, they were all so weak. They were soft. They're all white belts. They're so easy to pick up and slam down, and all this stuff, but they just had the ability to reach up and choke me out. Cause I didn't know what I was doing. Right? And I remember that day being like ... actually this trainer came over to me, one of the coaches came over. He's like "Are you a wrestler?" I'm like, "Yeah. Can you tell?" He's like "Triangle locks are kryptonite for wrestlers. You guys all break posture." I'm like, "Okay." So I get on the mat. I'm like, "All right, I got to learn jiu jitsu." Cause I assumed that anyone ... not everybody, but for the most part, if I met someone on the street I could just beat them all up. Right? And all of the sudden I realized that these little wussy white belts were choking me out.

I was like, I don't know what I don't know. And I do not like this feeling. So I have to learn how to not get choked out. So I did what Russell Brunson does, and I did not go to a class. I found out who's the best person in Boise. Called them up, said "Can I take privates with you?" And then twice a week for the next two years I went and did private lessons with this guy. I went into three or four more tournaments, after I learned how to not get choked out it got real easy to beat everybody. Basically white belt level, blue belt level. And it was really fun, did it for two years and then ClickFunnels became ClickFunnels and my free time shrunk. So I haven't done it in a while, but really enjoyed it.

So the guy who was my trainer, he's awesome. And after doing jiu jitsu stuff for a while, he ended up getting some other job. I don't know what it was, but I had a sense when I talked to him every once in a while, that he didn't love it. But he was doing it and whatever, right? So then this last week I see him posting on Facebook. He's opening a new restaurant, this new ... I'm not sure exactly what it is, I'm going to go when I get back from Atlanta. But it's a juice place or something, and it's all healthy stuff. And he's a vegetarian I know. So it's all these ... anyway, I'm pumped. I'm excited to go check it out. Right?

And I text him like "Dude, did you open a restaurant?" And he texted me back. He said, "Yeah, man." He's like, "I didn't like where I was at. And since I'm not a tree I left." That was his response. At first I started laughing, and then I started thinking how profound that was. And how most people do not look at it that way. Okay? So like he said, "Yeah, I didn't like where I was at." He didn't like his existing circumstances. He's like, "I'm not a tree, so I'm not rooted in and stuck. And so I got up and I left." Right? And I started thinking about me, and you, and all of us. And it's like, how many times are we not happy in our circumstances? And instead, we think we're a tree. We're like, "Well, this is the hand I was dealt." This is the whatever, right? This is where I am right now. And we're frustrated, right?

But that's kind of what we do. And I think the lesson here for all of us is, we're not a tree. So if you're not happy, get up and leave. If you're not happy with your job, get up and leave. You're unhappy with your business get up and leave. You're not happy with your customers, change it. Right? I know we know this, it's funny cause I remember ... very first time, if you've read the DotCom Secrets book, I tell this story at the very beginning of the DotCom Secrets book where I woke up one day and I realized I hated my business. I hated the customers I was serving. And I was like, "I wish I had a boss that would fire me."

And about that time I remember seeing a video, it was New Year's time. And Tony Robinson's wife, Sage, put out a video. I believe they were in Fiji at the time. And she said, "You know, it's New Year's, and obviously we can all change anytime we want. But for some reason we give ourselves permission during the New Year to change." So I want to give you guys permission, if you're unhappy in a relationship, then change. If you're not happy in business, then change. She named five or six ... not happy with your weight, change. You're not happy with your whatever, change. And I remember thinking, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I could just change." And it was just a thing ... I don't know, we get our heads so much, like "This is the reality, this is what we have to be doing," it's like, "No, you don't actually have to, you could just change."

You know? And like my friend Jason said, "I'm not a tree. So I got up and I left," right? If you're not a tree, you have the ability to change. You can get up and you can change your circumstances. And so right now, just in the season of ... I know the last 10 months of 2020 has been hard for everybody. The elections have been hard for everybody. All these things have been hard for everybody. I think that the biggest thing I would say is right now, looking at yourself personally, looking at your family, look at the people you have stewardship over, and saying, "Look, if I don't like this, I can change." And then give yourself the ability to it. Just like my buddy, Jason, like "I wasn't happy and I'm not a tree. So I got up and I left." That's it.

You guys can do the same thing as well. Change is possible. You just got to be willing to do it. So remember that, you guys. You're not a tree, you don't have roots going 20 feet down. You can get up and you can leave. And so that's what you should do. But that said, I appreciate you guys all, thanks so much for listening, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please take a screenshot on your phones, wherever you're listening, and tag me. Post it on Facebook or Insta, and tag me on it. I love seeing those. I love seeing your big takeaways, your ah-ha’s. I appreciate it. Thanks guys so much for listening, and I'll talk to you soon.

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