Why the Same Message Sent Four Different Ways Beats a Better Funnel

You built your list from a bedroom desk, closed a sale from a coffee shop with headphones in, and told yourself the whole time that the laptop was the business. Then somebody makes you close it and sit down next to a stranger you’ve never met, and the business changes shape in about ninety seconds. Jonathan Cronstedt had been assigning that exact homework all weekend at Lake Las Vegas, meet someone new at every meal, and what happened when he pulled two attendees up to the mic to report back is the real teaching hiding inside what looked like a lunchtime icebreaker.

What actually happens when a stranger becomes your seatmate at lunch?

Gary Wenzel drove from Eaton, Ohio, a trip that was supposed to take twenty-nine hours and took closer to thirty-five, and he stood up to admit something a lot of people in that room were probably also guilty of: he’d been dodging a scheduled call with his own sponsor for a week straight. Not out of conflict. Out of the ordinary human resistance that shows up right before any accountability conversation. Then his sponsor sat down next to him at lunch, uninvited, and the whole thing that had felt heavy on a phone screen turned into an actual conversation between two people. Gary’s word for it, on the mic, in front of a thousand strangers: “it lifted me up.”

A few rows over, Victoria from Ontario told a quieter version of the same story. She and her team had met Ed from Santa Barbara over lunch and walked away from the table with an actual commitment: hold each other accountable and get the blogging going, starting now, not someday. Asked what she’d do differently because of it, her answer was one word. Consistency. Cronstedt let that word sit in the room for a second, because it’s the word most people already know they need and almost never build a system around.

Why does sending the same message four different ways say more about a business than any funnel ever could?

The point behind forcing the lunch homework gets named directly a few minutes later, right before Cronstedt introduces the next couple to the stage.

the lost art of actually connecting with someone is still by far the most powerful way to create change, most powerful way by far

Notice what he’s arguing against. Not laziness, not lack of information. The actual competitor is the screen itself, the fact that it’s easier to absorb a training video alone than to sit across from a person who might ask you a question you don’t have a polished answer for yet. He makes the same case again a few minutes later through an entirely different story, introducing a couple he’d been getting to know in the field.

Alex, one half of that couple, has a habit that Cronstedt describes half as a compliment and half as a complaint. Whenever Alex needs to reach him, the message doesn’t arrive once. It arrives on his work email, his personal email, the chat app the leadership team uses, and finally as a text, all four landing on the same phone in his pocket within minutes of each other. It’s the kind of thing that would irritate you from almost anyone else. From Alex, it reads as exactly what it is: someone who has decided a message that matters doesn’t get to go unanswered, and who is willing to look a little excessive to make sure of it.

What do a lunch table and four identical text messages actually have in common?

Same story Alex tells with his own history, minus the phone. Before he’d found this business, he’d tried to build a different one from home, and at one point turned the fence in front of his own vacation home into a billboard for it, the kind of decision that guarantees strangers knocking on your door at odd hours asking questions. His wife, Anna, didn’t leave over that. She built alongside him. That’s the same trait showing up twice: a refusal to let the moment pass quietly, whether the moment is a fence, a phone, or a lunch table with an empty seat next to it.

None of this is really about lunch, or about owning four devices. It’s about the plain fact that the people getting real traction in this room weren’t the ones with the cleanest inbox. They were the ones willing to be a little relentless and a little uncomfortable in the direct pursuit of an actual human being on the other end, whether that meant four messages or one folding chair pulled up at a cafeteria table. Consistency was Victoria’s word for it. Persistence is Alex’s version. They’re the same habit wearing two different names, and it scales in a way that a clever script never quite does, because a script works on a screen and this works on a person.

The full session goes further than what’s above, including the full funnel reveal and the blogging challenge preview that followed. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

One, two, three! Yeah! All right, all right. Welcome back from lunch, ladies and gentlemen.

Hopefully you enjoyed my carb-fueled dance running fest. I don't know if any of you guys know this, but I don't believe in exercise. I basically only run to catch planes or run through audiences. So, you just witnessed my fitness regimen.

That's exactly what I had right there. Never a dull moment, that is for sure. So, what I'd like to go ahead and do is, first and foremost, obviously all of you know your homework at meals, is to meet new people. Some of you did this yesterday.

Some of you relied on the people next to you to do it yesterday. I'd like to hear from someone over in this section that met somebody new at lunch today. So, raise your hand. We've got mics out there.

Right there, gentleman in the black hat, stand up. Yes, sir, you. Yeah, you, man, you raised your hand. Are you surprised?

I'm surprised it's me, yeah. Caught me off guard. Makes you feel any better? I'm surprised, too.

What's your name? Where are you from? Gary Wenzel from Eaton, Ohio. Gary from Eaton, everybody.

Hey. I wish all of you was on the car trip coming out here, jolly. We drove from Ohio here. 29, supposed to be 29 hours.

I think it might have took us 35. Rock on. So, tell me about your homework at lunch. Who did you meet?

I met my sponsor, believe it or not. Oh, all right. That's a power bunch. I made an appointment with him last week, and that didn't happen.

I thought, did I make this guy mad or what? I don't know what happened. So, he finally called me and said, hey, I'm here. Where are you at?

I'm like, I'm here. Then he came up with some kind of excuse why I didn't make that appointment with him. Well, you know, let me ask you a question, though, and this is actually a question I want to ask you because it's going to benefit everybody else in here. How much more real?

How real did the business become after you sat down next to Matt at lunch today? You know what? I told him just that. I'm like, it lifted me up.

Some of the people I met here before I met him lifted me up. Don't get me crying. Well, first and foremost, thank you. Appreciate it.

Appreciate it. And exactly what he's talking about is what we talked about a little bit earlier up here with Zach, and that's the power of relationships. The power of the fact that we live in a world where we don't have to worry about what's going on in the world, where so often screens are all we have, that the lost art of actually connecting with someone is still by far the most powerful way to create change, most powerful way by far. How many of you know that even if you received the information you're receiving this weekend, but you received it on a tablet or on a screen or audio, it would not be as impactful as sitting in this room having the experience you're having?

Exactly. And that is one of the reasons why, despite me just enjoying forcing you to meet new people, we do it for you because it's powerful, because it makes it real, it makes it tangible, and it gives you an opportunity to make a connection that could be something lasting for your business, that could be a lasting friend, could be a lasting accountability partner, could be someone that learns some ridiculously cool trick and shares it with you first. That's a pretty cool deal. So, let's go ahead and take one more over here, Mr.

Mooney with his microphone. There's a lovely. There's a lovely lady right behind you. What's your name?

Where are you from? Ontario, Canada. Victoria from Canada. Welcome.

So, Victoria, tell me what it's all about. Well, today we met Ed from, where are you from, Ed? I forget where you're from. Pardon me?

From Santa Barbara. Oh, all right. And our team and us, we've made a commitment to be accountable to each other and get this blogging thing going. So, we're getting it going.

Awesome. Yeah. Can't ask for more than that in one lunch. Yeah.

And thank you. How many of you are visiting us from Canada? Let's show of hands. Show of hands.

Woo. All right. You know, that is just awesome. Did anyone bring me maple syrup?

Anybody? Oh. Next time. Can anybody help me understand if the Los Angeles Kings are still a venerable hockey team?

No. They are not? Okay. Well, I know that they are, but I don't follow them.

Maple Leafs. I was actually a Chicago Blackhawks fan growing up. I was like, really? Like, back when it was like Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick.

Like, see? See, this is what happens when you have guys that have a sound board with an opinion. That's what happens. So, thank you.

You know, they don't do this to anybody else. It's only me. It's only me. So, what are you going to be doing differently as a result of your lunch when you go home?

First thing. Consistency. That's the biggest thing I think we took away from this. I love that word.

How many of you can relate to what she's talking about, about the importance of consistency? Woo. All right. Thank you very much for sharing that with us.

Thank you. And thank you for doing your homework. Now, on the honor system, everyone, how many of you actually met someone new at lunch today? You know, we're getting better.

We're getting better. We're getting a little more social. And I'm really, really happy about that because it's fun. It's fun.

And if you don't do the stuff I ask you to, you might miss out on, like, really cool stuff. You just never know. So, what I want to talk to you guys about is what we have in store for you going forward. Not only am I going to be bringing to the stage some unbelievable leaders from our field that are going to be sharing with you what's working in their business right now, driving incredible results.

That's first. We're also going to be going over the funnel that we've been telling you all about. That's going to be happening later this afternoon. We're also going to be giving you guys a full update on the core product line simplification and how that fits into the funnel with our always wonderful product expert, Travis Reagan.

And we're also going to be sharing with you the elements of the upcoming new and reinvented blogging challenge that we're going to be starting. Michelle's going to be talking to you about blogging. So, then, at the culmination after all of that, and we show you how we have toiled in the lab tirelessly to put together what I believe is the pièce de résistance of marketing. Now, keep in mind, I've done a lot of funnels in my day.

I've seen a lot of funnels in my day. This is one of a kind, and I could not be more proud to bring it to you this afternoon. After you are unbelievably excited about the materials, the material we have to help you sell more and empower more entrepreneurs, we're going to hear from my dear friend, blogging expert Neil Patel, who's going to teach you about how he was able to take his personal blog to over 700,000 unique visitors a month. So, that way, you know exactly how to use your blog to drive traffic to this shiny new funnel that we have for you.

How many of you are excited about today? Good, because I sure know I am. So, now that I have shared with you the unbelievable afternoon we have planned, how about we start the afternoon? So, who I'm going to be bringing to the stage is a power couple that I have had the pleasure of getting to know.

And what I've always had such a respect for in any industry is couples that find a way to synergistically build a business. That you see a couple that you know their ability to combine forces to build something greater together is unmatched. And anyone who's ever been in business with your spouse, you know that there are those moments where you just know in your heart that you picked the right partner. So, one of the stories that I love to tell about Alex and Anna, before I bring them up, is…

I know there was a moment where Alex knew that he married the right partner. And it was the moment that he came home one day when he was trying to build a network marketing business before Empower, and he decided to turn the fence in front of their home into a billboard for the company that he wanted to market. So, you may be asking, John, why does Alex putting up a billboard indicate that he married a powerhouse of a woman? Well, it was at their vacation home.

And you can only imagine what it's like having people stop at all hours of the day and knock on your door to ask you about the billboard that's in front of your home. Your vacation home, no less. So, Anna is unbelievable. Anna is…

Anna and Alex have truly typified what can happen when you put two powerful entrepreneurs together and just watch the magic take place. The other trait that I love about Alex and Anna is they are tenacious. The reason I can share that with you is because in my role, I get to interact with all of our field. Alex is the only individual in our field that is thorough enough that when he needs to send me a message of any kind, he not only sends it to my work email, but he also sends it to my personal email.

He also sends it to our chat application that I use to keep in touch with our leaders in the field. And, just for good measure, ensures that it also comes to me as a text message. Now, where the irony of this approach really sets in is that all of these messages come to the same device. So, I know whenever Alex needs to get a hold of me, because I have four identical versions of it in the palm of my hand.

And I share that with you lovingly because what it really should help you see is the level of commitment and passion and drive that they have for building this community. And they apply it in every area, every single day. How many of you would like to learn the secrets of an entrepreneurial power couple that is putting rubber to the road every day, driving amazing results, and are literally nearing that million dollar ring? Who's with me?

Well, I know I'm excited. So, everybody, let's get on our feet. And I would like you to help me welcome to the stage the unbelievable couple, the entrepreneurial dynamic duo, the master of harassment via every technology available to get a hold of me, Alex and Anna Zubarev.