Business Tools & Resources
Online Education & Training:
Two Comma Live: 3-day Event. ~ 8 hours per day.
I personally attended via Zoom, Feb 2021, and way blown away!
The price at the time was $147.
Having previously attended a variety of other 2 - 3 days events,
it's easy to recommend Two Comma Live
Without a doubt, one of the best business
training event I've ever experienced.
More than worth the price of admission.
full details here: Two Comma Live:
(Note: Although, it's a "Clickfunnels" event. Everything you learn can
be applied to the funnel software of your choice.)
My current and favorite funnel builder.
OFA: One Funnel Away (30 days) $100.
The OFA online trainings begin every 2 weeks or so.
Be check the link above for other start dates.
The training was intense with 30 days of video's lessons followed
by daily homework assignments and accountability provided
with a private facebook group. Russels Team went over the top
with support and set hours throughout the week to provide
real-time answers to your questions.
*Note: Although Russels books and online training knowledge can
be applied to any business or software, He obviously wants you to
use his software, Clickfunnels and to stick with it after the training.
The question becomes, "should you pay for Clickfunnels (CF) ?
Answer: try it using their free trial), and then decide.
Personally...
After demoing many all-in-one platforms including:
CF, Dropfunnels, Kartra, Groove, Influencersoft, Builderall, and HighLevelBliss
and considering all aspects, included features, loading speed, price, support,
professionalism, etc, I'm moving everything over to HighLevelBliss
Training + Software?
My suggestion...
Learn from Russels books (and / or trainings)
Then choose your favorite tools to build your website, funnels,
and email automations.
My personal recommendation?
Begin with One Funnel Away. The training is intense and life changing. You and your business, should you accept the challenge, will be transformed. Russel consistently over-delivers and backs it all up with a money back guarantee. OFA: One Funnel Away
Funnel Builders:
Clickfunnels;
Dropfunnels,
Groovefunnels,
InfluencerSoft,
Builderall,
HighLevelBliss,
SystemeBliss
Zenler
Website or Funnel?
Yes!!! : )
Where a nice website makes...
an ideal brochure for your business with ability to access everything you offer...
your products, services, about, photo gallery, etc,
Funnel builders focus on...
conversion, ROI, converting your visitors into customers.
No doubt you've experienced funnels before.
You arrive on a page.
The menu bar is sparse or none existent.
There are very few options,
minimal distraction.
The page, like a digital consultant, presenting you with a clear path
to solve your problem.
Funnel builders are typically packaged as "all in one" platforms
including website builder,
Site hosting,
landing pages,
opt-in forms,
CRM
Email Automation
shopping cart,
Thank you pages,
download/delivery page,
LMS (Learning management System)
for delivery of you courses or membership portal),
+++
The Funnel builders:
Clickfunnels: The most popular, most well known
DropFunnels: Offering fast page loading
GrooveFunnels: Currently an excellent page builder with beautiful templates
but still has a ways to go before it gets all of it's promised features.
HighLevelBliss: Agency grade platform built for people serious about scaling their business.
Clickfunnels:
Prices range to use their software: $97 to $297 per mo.
The most well known funnel builder.
- Allows you to build funnels quickly with drag and drop simplicity
- Huge active support community
- Unmatched training by Russel Brunson.
Regardless of what business.
Regardless if your business is online or an offline brick and mortar,
Russels books and training programs produce ROI.
Books:
Dotcom Secrets
Traffic Secrets
Expert Secrets
Whether or not you go with Clickfunnels, be sure to read
all of Russels books. ALL are outstanding!
Although you could get them on Amazon, be smart and order them direct via the link for 2 reasons. 1. You'll get bonuses, and 2. You'll get to "experience" Russels funnel from a buyers perspective. I do suggest that you move slowly through each page, and pay close attention to the videos, headlines, and offers to add to your cart. Notice the layouts, headlines, choice of words (ad copy), and how smooth it all works. Realize you're not just making a purchase, but seeing genius at work.
Dropfunnels:
$49 and up. Dropfunnels is unique in that it's built on wordpress and loads faster than most funnels.
- Dropfunnels All inclusive features:
- Drag & Drop Visual Website builder
- Your own Blog
- Hosting included
- Funnel Builder that auto links pages as a simple "next step" in your page sequence.
- A Cart to accept payment with built-in features like order-bumps, and 1-click upsells that typically increase total sale by 20-30%
- Digital Course Builder + Membership builder included.
- Unique in that it's built "upon" a managed wordpress environment.
Translation: You get all of the Wordpress advantages (SEO, Speed, flexability) and
without any of the typical wordpress maintanence. - No dealing with plugins or security. They handle it all in the background. To my knowledge, Dropfunnels is the only one offering this. If you're current using Clickfunnels, you'll be happy to know they have a 1-click funnel importer to bring your clickfunnels into Dropfunnels.
My recommendation: Try it. Click the link above and use their 14 days trial. Use it, test it.
Be sure to mark your calendar or set a reminder for 12-14 days out from today so you'll remember cancel or to continue. I personally tried it, and decided to continue. : )
Dropfunnels 14 Day Trial
Value: That $49 a month includes everything!
Without Dropfunnels, you're likely paying...
$20 for hosting, $80 for course builder,
$50 mo for a shopping cart like SamCart or Thrive Cart,
$15 for a link-tracker,
$? for theme, $? for sitebuilder, etc.
A flat $49 per month for all of it, is a better deal.
Groove: Complete suite of integrated apps
Their free forever plan is truly free.
Website builder: Free
Shopping Cart: Free (which can be hosting on their site, or embedded anywhere)
Should you use it??
If "Free" is your #1 must have, then yeah, worth testing it.
Click here >>> GrooveFunnels: Free forever plan <<< sign up free
use it, and if you love it, then may considering upgrading to their paid version.
Keep in mind, you can opt to just stay with the free version forever.
You can either build now and use work-arounds,
or... just sign-up and then park it until it's out of Beta.
The good:
The Grove suite of apps sounds impressive.
GroovePages, GrooveMail, GrooveDesk, GrooveSell, GrooveBlog, GrooveAffiliate, +++
You can get a free account right now, with NO credit card info.
Thus try it, and later decide to keep the free, delete your site, or to upgrade.
Me? I heard about it and immediately signed up for the free. I like free. Sometimes. : )
GrooveFunnels: Free forever plan <<< Click and Get it free.
Email List Building / Email Service Providers (ESP)
There are many services to choose from. A few popular ones...
MailChimp,
Aweber,
ActiveCampaign,
ConvertKit: 1,000 contacts free.
SMTP Providers:
Mailgun
SendinBlue
SendGrid Twilio
Amazon SES
Booking / Scheduling Apps
Calendly,
Acuity,
ScheduleOnce,
BuilderallBooking
HighLevelBliss
Calendly. Easy to use, easy love. Both free, and Pro versions.
(used on this website)
Calendly offers a free version. Good place to begin to see if like it. If you have a real business, I suggest getting the paid version ($12-$15 month) to remove their branding banner, and to get their text reminders feature.
Acuity
Course Creator Platforms & Hosting:
LearnWorlds
Kajabi
Teachable
Thinkific
New Zenler
Systeme
InfluencerSoft
Clickfunnels
Dropfunnels
Groovefunnels
Need FREE everything?
Combine: Thinkific free plan along with Convertkit free plan
and you can do it all for free until you're generating more than enough
revenue to move up to paid platforms.
Podcast Hosting:
Although Libsyn may be the most well known,
Buzzsprout won me over with their
support, youtube videos, and friendly user interface.
Using this BuzzSprout link
allows you to signup for free (90 days), and then if / when you upgrade to a paid
plan, they'll send you a $20 Amazon gift card. As will most services, take advantage
of every free trial you can (test it for yourself) and put a tight limit on research time.
Wordpress Website Hosting:
WPX
Tests shows that WPX is the way to go if maximize site speed along with top customer service is important to you. I've been using WPX since June 2020. Their customer service support team replies within less than 1 minute! Often times less than 30 seconds. Although you'll likely pay $20-$25 month. The page loading speed and support is worth it. When building a website, needing customer support is likely, and if you have to deal with the typical back and forth emails with budget hosts, you'll being paying a far high cost due to time lost.
Siteground
Priced right, fast, 24/7 Phone support! Website issues can
be scary and downtime costly and that's why I LOVE Siteground. Always available
when I need them!
Page Builders:
Elementor Pro:
Possibly the best builder to create a "pretty website". complete with all the spinning, flipping, abundance of animations. Used it previously, but found Thrive more intuitive and more importantly, I found thrive much far better for "conversion". Meaning... better to help me turn visitors into fans and customers.
Although Elementor is popular,
I much prefer the UI and features of Thrive.
Thrive Architect and Thrive Membership
offers what's arguably the best
integrated conversion focused website tools. This website, MindsetBliss, was built using Thrive. The video below is a complete walkthough of building a website with Thrive.
Check out Thrive Here: >>> Thrive Themes Builder. <<<
Which to use?
The most popular page builder , and also my favorite is Elementor.
If you can budget $49 (1 site) or $99 (3 sites) then for sure,
get Elementor Pro Version.
If you're not yet sure, begin with the Elementor Free Version.
Video Hosting and Editing
Dubb "Video for business communication"
An app and service that makes it super fast and easy to create customized videos
for individual clients, or for your website.
Vimeo
Although Youtube is far more popular, When it comes to embedding videos on a website
Vimeo always you to disable showing related videos, with the ability to sway out a video
using the original link. Vimeo or Youtube? Use both!
Loom
My favorite tool for ultra quick and easy screen casting /recording. $0 to $5 a month.
Screenflow
Screencasting App for Mac and ios
Marketing your Live & Virtual Gigs:
GigSalad
GigMasters (AKA The Bash)
Both GigSalad, and Gigmasters are responsible for many of the
Speaking, & Entertainment Gigs I've booked since 2015
Education:
BusinessMadeSimple.com
This is the online academy created by Donald Miller (of StoryBrand)
$275 a year gives you access to all 4 of Donald Courses.
Just 1 of his courses is worth more than $275.
If I had College age kids, which I don't, they'd be signed up.
Yes, it's that good!
MasterClass.com
Once you click the link, visit their page, and see their list of courses taught by some
of the most famous people on the planet, you'll wonder what took you so long!
Public Speaking:
Craig Valentine Speakers Academy
Craigs Valentine Humor Course.
Darrin Lacroix's STU Programs.
Both Craig and Darrin are Toastmasters World Champions of Public Speaking,
both are outstanding instructors, and both offer online and offline training.
Credit Cards:
Chase Sapphire Reserve
If you think a $450. Annual fee is crazy, then you'll want to check their card
and your calculator will quickly show you how much money you've been losing
not having this card in your wallet. Some benefits include. $300 annual travel
credit, TSA "Pre" and Global Entry reimbursement, Lost baggage, and flight delay
insurance, ++++. Bottom line, if you fly at least a couple of times a year, the relative
fee is $0.
Accepting Online Payments:
Paypal
Square
Stripe
Paypal is my favorite for invoicing options,
Square wins for in-person CC swipes,
and Stripe (along with paypal) seems to be the best options for selling products
and services online.
Task Management Apps
TickTick
Todoist,
Things3
Appsumo
Developers sometimes list their Apps on Appsumo with lifetime deals which are
not available even on their own websites. The deals appear and disappear quickly.
*Disclaimer:
Some links on this page use referral links. The ones that do, are one's
we're currently using or have used, enjoy, and thus happy to recommend.