How to Reconcile Charity - Liberate and Educate - a podcast by Russell Brunson

On this episode of Marketing Secrets Live, Russell explains how he feels about charity and how to reconcile it with your own thoughts and beliefs. Don’t miss the next Marketing Secrets Live episode! Register at ClubHouseWithRussell.com

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---Transcript---

Russell Brunson:
Good morning. Good morning. This is Russell Brunson and welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. Today, we're going to be sharing you guys another clip from the Marketing Secrets live show, if you're not in live show yet, make sure to go to clubhouscewithrussell.com and register, that way you can be at live ones next time. But this episode, I talked about something that I struggle with back and forth in my head. I don't know if you guys do as well, but if you do, this will hopefully be conversation, we'll make it fun for you.

I'm talking about charity, obviously we know that when we do charity, we shouldn't be flaunting it, but at the same time when we do talk about charity, it inspires other people to do it and so, what's the balance of it? What's right? What's wrong? What should we do? What should we not be doing? I'm open to this conversation. I don't know the answers, I'm just going to share some of my thoughts. At the end of this episode, Myron Golden jumped on and dropped some of his thoughts, which were pure gold and so anyway, with that said, hope you guys enjoyed this episode, we'll keep theme song and we'll be right back.

Okay. With that said, I'm going to jump into the thing that has been on my mind a lot lately and this is something that I don't know the answer to. So, I'm just going to kind of go down a path that, and who knows where it ends up, but hopefully get you guys thinking. So, what I want to talk about is, is charity and using charity in our business and our marketing and how these things all fit together. Because I have an internal dilemma with some of it sometimes, on a couple of different sides, so I'll sit back.

I remember, and I would try to find the story last night, I looked through five or six books and I couldn't find it unfortunately, but the gist of the story was there was this man, right? And he was super charitable and he had a lot of money and did all these things and he donated money to this thing and so they named a building after him. He donated money to this thing and so they named a thing after him and all these different things, right? And he had been super charitable his whole life and he ends up dying, going up to heaven and he's sitting there with God and God's like, yeah, well, you did these things, but like, you got your name on a building, you didn't do anything truly charitable. You're doing these things because you were trying to get something in return, right?

And I remember reading that back, man, this is almost 20 years ago I read that and I wish I could have found the actual story, but having that feeling of like, okay, If I'm going to do charity or give or whatever, I got to be very careful about that, right? And then, last night when I was doing my research trying to find the things I want to talk about, I actually found a really cool scripture that's been in my head a lot. And I want to share this because this is going to give you some context to what I want to just put out there in the world for you guys. And it's Matthew chapter 6, it's the first couple of verses here and this is Jesus giving his Sermon on the Mount and, if you haven’t read the Sermon on the Mount, come on now, probably the greatest presentation of all time, right?

And this is what he said, he said take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of others, otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou do sign alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and in the streets, so they may have glory of men, verily I sent you, they have their reward. But when that does arms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. And so, man, I hear that and I was like, oh, this is scary because I think about the things that we do inside of our business that are charitable, right? We village impact, we donated tons of money there. We built schools, we gone to Kenya, we've done those things, but then I come back and I share it, like tell everybody about it, right? We're operation to go on railroad and we've raised millions of dollars, we've helped save children and it's like...

And I have this dilemma. I'm curious if you guys have had that dilemma in your head as well. Okay. I want to do good, but if we talk about it, then the core right here, verily, I say to you then you have your reward. If I talk about it and people are like, oh, good job, you're doing these charitable things like... Your reward is the praise of man, right? And so, you have it there. But, at the same time, if we don't talk about the things we're doing, then might nobody else does it. The fact that we did the, with Operation Underground Railroad, the documentary. We shared it in Funnel Hacking Live, we raised a million dollars year one, we did it again year number two. We talk about these things, we showed the good that's happening. What happens is, it inspires other people.

I watched it, because we did the OUR documentary, raised a million dollars in Funnel Hacking Live, Orlando. After that, there are probably a dozen or so people in the ClickFunnels community who went and went with Tim Ballard, took in his events or took them to their events, they showed the documentary and then they raised hundreds of thousands of dollars at their events and then, from there, it kind of spiraled down and all of a sudden the message got bigger and more people shared it.

And so, for me, I had this internal conflict, right? Where it's just like, man, I want the blessings of charity, but also, if I'm going out there and being charity because it's going to increase my conversion rates or get people to like me more, whatever. Then I keep having this thing going through my head where Christ literally says, verily I send to you, they have their reward. Russell, you have your reward. And so, I have this conundrum and so I wanted to bring up to you guys, just for you to think it through it as well, right? And I'm going to tell you kind of how in my mind, I've come to settle it and I feel comfortable about it and just wanted to put this out there, because I think a lot of you guys either do charity or you want to charity and you have the same apprehension. What do we do? What do we not do, right?

And I remember actually, man, when was it? Two or three months ago, I had a chance to go out to Tony Robbins. We did a little mastermind group for all the people that are top 10 in the product launch they did. And so, we had a chance to go, we were in this little, on his stage in a little room with everyone who was a top affiliate and we each had a chance to ask Tony a question. And I'm not going to tell you what my question was yet, we're doing a whole vlog about it. In fact, in Funnel Hacking Live, we'll show you part of that blog because what he shared with me and what we talked about was insane and you guys are going to love it, but I can't ruin the surprise yet. So, I can't tell you that.

But one thing he said during that, during this interaction, I can't remember whose question it was or something, but he said he struggled with the same thing as well. He's like, I didn't want to publicly talk about the charity things I was doing, but he's like, but when I did, I found out other people got involved and other people got inspired and then it grew and did more things outside of just me, right? So, that was one thing that Tony talked about and you look at Tony, he talks about charities, right? Tony is the number one donor for OUR as well as a dozen other charities, right? He feeds a billion people a year and all these things. And he talks about those things and I think I've struggled in the past too, of like, oh, he's talking about the things, he shouldn't be doing that because that's his reward, is people thinking he's cool, right? And I have this conundrum.

The other thing is interesting. I thought about this a lot when I read Atlas Shrugged and some of you guys heard me and Josh did a four or five hour long podcast episode about Atlas Shrugged. If you haven't read that book, man, as a producer, as an entrepreneur, you should read it, it'll be inspiring for you. But, it was talking about in that book, I can't remember where or what, maybe it was the thought I had, but talking about, even like, when I go Downtown Boise and I see people that are homeless, they're sitting there, right? And we give them money or we buy them food or something. I'm still getting a reward out of that, right? I give somebody money and I feel good about myself, I'm like, oh my gosh, I got value from that person, right? Even someone who's begging, when you transact, you give them money, you give them food, you give them a home, you give them something, the feeling you get, you're still getting value out of that, right?

So, it's like no matter what you do, I feel like I'm getting a reward ahead of time. And so, there's the conundrum in my head. So, I kind of set the stage for that and I want to step back and just kind of tell you guys how in my mind I justify things, how I think about things and hopefully it'll help any of you guys who are struggling with this or thought about this or now maybe you're going to start thinking about this, okay. So, for me, in my mind there's different ways that we can all serve, right? In different ways that I serve.

There are things like, the two big charities that we support inside of ClickFunnels are Village Impact and it's Operation Underground Railroad. In fact, some of you guys, if you've been to Funnel Hacking Live, you heard me talk about this before, but we have a non-profit called Liberate and Educate. And the reason why is, because if you look at what we do as a company, ClickFunnels our mission, right? Is literally to liberate and educate entrepreneurs, we liberate them by giving them software and tools and making them free, right? And then we educate them, so they have the education they need to be able to do it, right? Dan, for example, insanely talented person and he was struggling, came back, read .com secrets, he got the education, right? He used ClickFunnels, he liberated into programming, we liberated and educated, and boom, he's talked about 25 million in four years later, right?

We liberate and educate entrepreneurs, and so that's been kind of our mission from day number one. But then we came back and the first few Funnel Hacking Lives, our focus was focusing on Village Impact, which is a charity that Stewart McLaren and his wife started. And I've had a chance to go to Kenya three or four times, we built schools out there and that was always like a thing that we did. And then, Funnel Hacking Live, Orlando's when we introduced Operation Underground Railroad.

I remember after FHL, Orlando, which was, I'm bad at years, I think it was 2018 or something. We were in Kenya and I was sitting there hanging out with the kids, we were doing the service stuff and I was sitting there and I was like, man, these are two amazing charities, how do we tie these things into the ClickFunnels mission better? And literally, as I'm sitting there, the phrase that entered my head was liberate and educate. And at first, I was like, yeah, that's what we do for entrepreneurs and then I was like, oh my gosh, that's how these two things tie into our charity for ClickFunnels. We liberate children from sex, slavery through Operation Underground Railroad and then we educate children through Village Impact. I was like, liberate and educate, I'm like, oh my gosh, our social mission is the same as our public mission. And so, I became thinking again, we create a non-profit and this is our thing, right?

But for me, I look at this Liberal and Educate, this mission, right? We're trying to do these things and I try to make it as public as possible, knowing full well that I don't believe that I'm going to get rewards in heaven or whatever. My reward from Liberal and Educate is that it brings our community together, right? People see the fact that we're giving and we're sharing, and it gets other people to give and share and we're very public, we're very vocal and very big about that, right?

And in my head, I fully believe that, again, verily I say unto you, they have their reward, I have my reward. My reward coming from that is, I get to see the children, I get to see the impact, I get to see our community get involved, I get to see these things and that's my reward, right? And maybe someday it will be rewarding having sweet bonus points, but I'm not expecting anything from that at all, right? Because it's very public. And so, for me, it's like, I'm able to look at the scripture and say, okay, I'm literally doing my alms before men and I'm being seen of others, I'm doing it because I want to inspire them and I want to have that impact and so, I'm looking at that as like, these are my charitable missions, my reward is the benefit that the other people getting involved and I get that feeling and that's my reward, right?

But, because also I don't want to get to heaven someday and the Lord being like, hey, this is the deal, your name's on a building here, you got this thing over here. Yeah, you did get stuff, but you did it with an ulterior motive. I understand, I have ulterior motives in my charitable, that everybody can see, right? And so, for me, I'm like, I have to have charity in a way that people can't see, otherwise, I don't know, for those who are Christian or believe in God or you whatever, this is probably something that weighs on your mind, at least it does for me. And so, and if not, that's totally cool, you should still worry about it too because it's important whether you believe in it or not, but I'll leave that for another discussion for another day.

But, what I wanted to just kind of think about is like, there's things that we have to do privately as well. And so, I'm not going to talk about those things, but I do things privately that I don't talk about, I don't share, nobody ever sees, because those are the things that I'm trying to do to be actual charitable. I almost look at these other things aren't really charity because I'm getting so much value out of them personally, that it's not really a charitable contribution, right? I'm doing it because it feels good, because I'm inspiring others, because I'm saving children, because these things are happening and that's my reward and I'm cool with that.

There's other things that we do that are private that no one hears me talk about, I'm not ever going to share, I'm not even going to give you a list of what those things could be because I don't want... I want to make sure no one knows, but I want, for all you guys listening to at least as you're thinking about this in your business and in your life, I feel like it's okay to share things as long as you understand that's the purpose, that's the value you're getting in return, is the fact you're able to share and you're able to do those things. And I would recommend having stuff private that you don't talk about, that you don't share, that you keep to yourself because Jesus told us on the sermon on the Mount, that that's what we should do and so, I believe that's very important as well.

And so, anyway, that was the podcast I wanted to share publicly today because it's been on my mind, I've wanted to do a podcast about this for man, probably five or six months, I keep thinking about it and then yesterday they asked me if I wanted a topic ideas for this podcast episode, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to just dive into it because it'll force me to actually not to be nervous to talk about it. But I think it's valuable, I think it's important, especially for anyone who's like me, who's thinking about these things and trying to figure out like, man, how do I consolidate these things? How do I tie these things together? Because I want to give, I want to be shared and I want to inspire other people to do it as well, but I also don't want to be in heaven some day and he's like, hey, you had your reward, you're good to go. I want to be able to have both sides of the coin and so, that's kind of how, I don't know if rationalization's the right word of how... In my mind, it makes sense to me and why I'm going to be as loud as possible about our social mission, about Liberating and Educating, because I'm getting my reward, it's okay and I want those things to go on and inspire, I want to get you guys to be doing those things as well.

And one thing Tony told me, in fact, if you watched the Funnel Hacking Live sales video for, it's the after movie, so the Orlando... I was the Orlando Funnel Hacking Live that Tony told us to meet, but then we showed it, it was the sales video for the first Nashville event. So, if you go to funnelhackinglive.com and scroll down, all the sales videos, we call them the after movies, are down there, just lower down the page because they're still going to want to... I want everyone to be see, if go down and scroll the one, we see the footage from Orlando, but the end of the video, sales video ends and then it comes back and there's this little moment that Tony and I had behind stage, it was really, really cool. And Dan happened to capture it, so the end of the sales video.

And what Tony said, he's like, not only am I proud of you for giving, because that's cool, but he's like, you're inspiring these entire group of people to become givers as well and he's like, that's what it's really all about. And so for me, the Liberate and Educate is all about inspiring you guys to be givers and to try to share your means, right? Making money is awesome, sweet, we can buy houses and boats and cars and all these kinds of things, and I'll send them, those things don't matter as much as what are we doing with that? What kind of... How are we trying to change the world with it? I'm a big believer in that, some people may not be, but I think it's essential and so.

Anyway, that's my goal with Liberate and Educate, inspire you guys to be givers and then this podcast episode is to help you understand, it's okay to talk about those things, but man, I would recommend doing things privately as well because, yeah, because that day, when we come to... When our life's over and we have that chance, I want to make sure that he doesn't say, you had to reward, I want him to say, man, I wasn't expecting that and that would be special for me. So, that's the podcast episode for today.

Myron Golden:
Hey, Russel?

Russell:
Hey, Myron.

Myron:
Do you mind if I chime in on that just a smidge?

Russell:
I would love for you to.

Myron:
Because I think I can add a little bit of value to what you just said, I think everything you said was phenomenal. But in the context and according to the meaning of the words, I think the word that you were looking for was, how do I reconcile these things?

Russell:
Yes. Reconcile. Perfect.

Myron:
Yeah. And so, the way you reconcile them is, you have to note when you're studying Bible verses, you have to do keyword studies. And I know this isn't a Bible study, but when you understand that the key word in that verse that you mentioned is that, that's the key word, that. Make sure that when you give your alms, you don't do it that you may be seen of men. In other words, the motive that you have should not be, there's nothing wrong with people seeing you give, there's nothing wrong with you telling people that you're giving, if you're telling them to give, that you gave and to inspire them to give, as long as your motivation for the giving is not that people see you and think you're awesome.

That's the actual interpretation of what it means when Jesus said, don't give your alms that you may be seen of men. So, I think what you've done with OUR is phenomenal, I think thousands of people have been contributing to OUR because of your example and because you put it out there, but your motivation wasn't that people would think you're cool, right? So, I think that's the key to understanding and reconciling, how do I give and inspire people to give without making me a big deal, so that's all I wanted to share.

Russell:
Oh, it was amazing. Myron, you're the best. Thank you for sharing that and yeah, that was amazing.

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