Expert Secrets

By Russell Brunson

The underground playbook for creating a mass movement of people who will pay for your advice

If you are looking to position yourself as an expert authority in your field, Russell Brunson once again offers tips for success in this highly-acclaimed addition to his marketing secrets collection.

Expert Secrets shows you how to deliver your message to the people who need it most. The right message at the right time can be life-changing – so, if you can impact your audience and inspire them on a mass level, you can expect them to reward you for sharing your specialised knowledge.

Brunson provides a step-by-step roadmap to building a following of people who will pay for your information and help drive you towards a profitable business.

If you know your product inside-out, you are already the expert. There is only so far you can go. It’s now time to help others become like you.

There are two types of expert businesses:

Expert Business #1: Selling information products

This type of business involves packaging up your life lessons and expert knowledge into an information product to help others. It usually starts with an obsession to learn more about something which you are highly passionate. Then, when you know everything there is to know – you teach.

Expert Business #2: Leveraging information products to grow an existing company

This approach is undertaken by a company already in existence. The business easily acquires new customers from leveraging the available information products relevant to their industry. These products provide effortless advertising for your business, showing the customer why they should buy from your company.

Reaching enough people with your message means …

Creating a mass movement

Ou may be full of great advice and opinion but if no one is listening, it won’t get you very far.

Building a significant audience requires three main elements:

1. A charismatic leader or attractive character

2. A cause bigger than yourself

3. Offering your audience a new opportunity

This winning combination attracts your True Fans.

A True Fan is someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.

Let’s delve further into how you create these true fans.

Secret #1: The charismatic leader / attractive character

Like or loathe certain historical leaders, there’s no denying their shared quality. From Hitler to Jesus Christ – one thing they all had in common was loads of charisma. People wanted to be near them and were willing to bend to their every whim.

You may think you don’t have what it takes to be a great leader; that you’re somehow inadequate. There’s that inner voice that says you’re not enough.

More often than not, you hear this voice because your unique qualities are second nature to you and, therefore, don’t seem all that amazing. You tend to dismiss them.

But once you accept your talents and find your voice, you can influence people on a grand scale. When you identify who your true fans are and what kind of leader you aspire to be, you can create a vehicle for monumental change.

Secret #2: The cause

Like all the great charismatic leaders, a successful business leader knows how to paint a picture of the future they’re trying to create and of what life will look like once there. They incorporate cult-like doctrine that can sway the masses to believe just as passionately in their cause.

Brunson researched this cult philosophy and discovered some common threads that create mass movement. He has borrowed these elements to help businesses all over the world.

One fundamental factor to consider is your perception of the future. Are you fearful? Or do you place your faith in hope?

Author of The True Believer, Eric Hoffer says, “Fear of the future causes us to lean against and cling to the present, while faith in the future renders us perceptive to change. “

For your cause to be successful – you need to create hope for your followers, so they have an unwavering belief that you are offering them something better.

Secret #3: The new opportunity

Brunson claims this vehicle of change to be the most important element of the three. How you implement the new opportunity determines whether you create a little bit of success or a transformative change.

It is not so much about presenting an opportunity that fixes a problem; it’s more an opportunity directed at replacing what’s not working with something better. Rather than providing an ‘improvement’ offer, you want to be showing your followers something entirely new.

There are various reason why people crave new opportunities over improvements, and Brunson sets these out in greater detail.

There are only two ways to position a new opportunity:

The Opportunity Switch vs the Opportunity Stack

1. Opportunity switching: this method looks at what your audience is already trying to achieve through a different product and offering to switch it for something better so they may reach their desired result.

2. Opportunity stacking: this is the process of stacking more opportunities on top of the new one you’ve already offered. If your customers have accepted your new opportunity – you don’t need to find them another one as that becomes confusing. You want to provide them with options within the new opportunity they’ve just joined.

Brunson elaborates on how to create these opportunities correctly from the ground up.

This next piece of advice for growing your following is so simple in its approach, yet one which could easily be overlooked due to its uncomplicated nature – however, Brunson urges you to take heed:

The simplest but most powerful formula for success

1. Find a hot market
2. Ask them what they want
3. Give it to them

Do your research, find out where your target audience is, and ask as many questions as you can.

Section one was about understanding who you must become and how you start building a mass movement. In section two of the book, Brunson shifts his focus to:

Creating Belief

This is about creating certain beliefs in the minds of your followers.

You must persuade people to believe in what you are doing, and you do that by mastering the art of storytelling.

Great storytelling revolves around finding the one key thing that will have your audience believing your narrative – and subsequently knocking down all their other objections. Don’t complicate it with too many perks. Keep it simple, and it will be much more compelling.

The best way to persuade your audience is to use:

The Epiphany Bridge

You shouldn’t have to sell your idea. The idea will sell itself when you can trigger the emotions of your followers – leading them to an ‘aha’ moment.

You have to create an emotional connection that excites your audience to the point where they feel they can’t live without your product. You can’t tell them ‘how, what, why?’ – They have to arrive at this place themselves. And the way to do this is determined by the pull of your story.

People don’t buy logically; they buy based on emotion.

You need to master the art of:

Effective Storytelling

What makes some people better storytellers than others?

Through experience, Brunson has learnt that it only takes a couple of things to make a captivating story.

Firstly – simplify. Speak at a third-grade level. It’s easier for people to take your words in and digest them. Overcomplicate it, and they will start to lose interest. Think about how you can take a complex concept and relate it to your audience in a way they will understand.

Secondly – Add feelings and emotions. The more detailed and descriptive you can get about how your customer might be feeling, the better. You then have the power to transport them into your world and create instant empathy and trust.

More of what you’ll find in this book …

Brunson explains his theories further using the archetypical story pattern of The Hero’s Journey. It’s the transformative voyage of an adventurer who is faced with having to overcome adversity and conflict, finally returning victorious. Ideally, you want your consumer to experience your journey through character rapport and compassion.

He then presents his secret Epiphany Bridge script to help simplify and bolster your storytelling capabilities, taking you through a progression of eight core components that streamline the process. You will also gain a greater understanding of the false belief systems that create customer resistance and how to overcome them.

In his final sections, Brunson talks more about the sales and marketing aspects, touching on his sales funnel technique. He shows you how to utilise everything you’ve learnt from the first two parts of the book to start making money from your ideas; handing you all the tools you ultimately need to build success.

Via case studies and personal anecdotes, Brunson paints a first-hand picture of what works and what doesn’t, and he includes various cheat sheets to help break it down.

And at some point, he wants you to realise it’s no longer just about the money. It’s about striving for the greater good.

“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”