Russel Brunson’s One Funnel Away Challenge Review
It is essential for all online businesses to build an effective sales funnel.
My book sales increased by 150% after I started using a simple ClickFunnels sales funnel. And compared to thousands of other businesses that use ClickFunnels, my results were modest.
However, it can feel overwhelming to get started if you have never developed a sales funnel before or you are new to selling online.
Where do you start?
I was a total beginner to sales funnels one year ago. So I signed up for the One Funnel Away Challenge. It is the flagship training guide for ClickFunnels which founder Russell Brunson created.
In this comprehensive review of the One Funnel Away Challenge, I will be telling you all about the important aspects of this popular training program that is based on my own personal experience of going through the challenge.
I will be:
Providing you with a comprehensive overview of this challenge.
Give you a step-by-step description of how the program helped me sell more books from my website.
Discuss the pros and cons of enrolling in the challenge.
My review of the One Funnel Away Challenge is ideal for anyone who wants a straightforward introduction to the popular training program or who is a sales funnels newbie.
I wish I would have had this article when I was trying to decide whether or not I should enroll in the program.
So let's get started with my review.
An Introduction To The One Funnel Away Challenge
This virtual 30-day program guides you step-by-step to help you create a very popular and effective sales funnel.
When I was first getting started with sales funnels, I personally went through the challenge.
The instructors of the challenge are Julie Stoian and Russell Brunson. Through video lessons, they teach you everything that they have learned in the process of creating numerous million-dollar sales funnels.
Every day, they break complex topics down and assign missions (homework) to you that you must complete before moving on to the next step in the process.
People are able to retain about 90% of the things they learn when they immediately put them into practice. So completing the daily missions helps to solidify what you have just learned.
However, don't worry, Russell's daily missions are not too hard to complete. They have been designed to help you think outside of the box and stretch your limits.
Once the 30 days are over, you will be prepared to launch your first (or next) sales funnel.
Who The Challenge Is For
Is this challenge right for you? In my opinion, I do not think the challenge is right for everyone.
This is a very fast-paced challenge that is very demanding of your attention and time for a 30-day period.
This challenge is ideal for you if:
You have an idea for starting an online business but are not sure how to get your services or products introduced to consumers
Your business has hit a wall and needs to have a structured game plan to help you make it to the next level
You want to increase your affiliate marketing sales
You have not built a sales funnel before but would like to learn how
You have an existing funnel that needs to be fixed
However, this challenge is probably not best for individuals who:
Who don't have enough time to watch the videos and complete their missions
Are looking for a “get rich quick” plan
Are looking for a training program that can be set aside for weeks
Are not willing to invest money into their business (the challenge does cost money and I will be discussing the price later on in this review)
Believe they have perfect sales funnels already and do not welcome tough-love to help them grow and learn
If any of the above describes you, then you can probably stop reading this review of the One Funnel Away Challenge since this challenge is most likely not right for you.
How I Was Helped By The One Funnel Away Challenge
I really do not like to blow my own horn when it comes to making money online.
Many online marketers are a lot more eager to do this than I am.
However, I do think it is useful to provide you with a step-by-step discussion of who exactly I was helped by this training program.
It will provide context for everything I discuss in my review of the One Funnel Away Challenge.
So here is a brief discussion of my personal experience.
I was a blogger and not earning a lot of money before I found the One Funnel Away Challenge training program. If you happen to be a blogger or know someone who is, then you understand I was not the only one in this situation.
I am a decent writer and did know how to drive lots of traffic over to my website. But I was terrible at earning money from the subjects I was blogging about.
Here is information on my 2019 organic traffic:
By August, my website was receiving more than 60,000 unique visitors per day from search. That was not too bad.
Five years ago, when I first started to blog, I thought I would be earning tons of money if I was ever able to get that level of traffic to my website. AlthoughI was earning a decent amount of money from Adsense and a couple of other things, I wasn't vacationing in The Hamptons.
I realized things needed to change.
One of the most important things that I needed to accomplish was to sell a lot more of my eBooks.
One of the main ways that my website earns money is by selling eBooks. It isn't my main focus but I wanted to get this right.
I wrote 7 eBooks in 2918 on topics that ranged from taking responsibility for your own life to mindfulness to Buddhism. They were good books but my sales were not impressive.
To sell my books, I started to use Shopify. It might be a good e-commerce platform, but it is not well-equipped for helping people sell eBooks. I thought the functionality was poor and the sales pages were ugly.
However, my biggest makes was I didn't have any kind of sales funnel.
I had heard good things about ClickFunnels and sales funnels. However, I had absolutely no idea how to create a sales funnel. So it was pretty daunting starting on my first sales funnel.
This I why I decided to join the One Funnel Away Challenge. To create very profitable sales funnels, I knew that I needed o get some hands-on training.
I learned step-by-step in the One Funnel Away Challenge how to develop the ideal sales funnel for the ebooks that I was selling. It became the launching pad that helped me increase my ebook sales by 150% almost overnight.
Here is exactly how I was able to achieve this.
I have been able to increase my eBook sales by150% one year after starting to use ClickFunnels.
Using Shopify I was selling an average of $120 of eBooks per day and increased it to $300 per day using ClickFunnels.
I haven't significantly increased the amount of traffic going to my sales pages. The keys to my success are that I increased my average order value from $11 up to $19, and my conversion rate is much better.
That is a pretty good increase for something that is just a side hustle for me.
A Close Look At My Sales Funnel
I decided to use the 2-Step TripWire that I learned about while taking the One Funnel Away Challenge.
It is a fairly simple funnel and ideally suited for the eBooks I am selling.
Offering an irresistible upsell is the key to the funnel.
One of my eBooks costs $9. After buying it, they are transferred to my 1-click high-priced upsell. If they do no purchase my upsell, then they are offered a 1-click lower-priced downsell.
My 1-click upsell contains a bundle that includes all 7 of my eBooks. It costs $25. My 1-click downsell contains 2 ebooks that are closely related to the eBook they just purchased. The cost of the downsell is $8.
The funnel's 1-click aspect is very important. The customer's credit card information has already been collected from the one eBook they have already purchased so the downsell or upsell can be added to their shopping cart with just one click. It isn't necessary to ask them again for their credit card information.
My sales funnels include the following 6 steps:
Sales page
Order form
1-click Upsell
1-click Downsell
Order confirmation
eBooks Delivery
Instead of being only able to earn $9 on one eBook from a customer, I now can earn as much as $34 per transaction.
How I was helped by the One Funnel Away Challenge.
The funnels you will be designing after you take the challenge will probably be much different than mine. Depending on what kind of business you have, sales funnels can be quite different.
The One Funnel Away Challenge helps you design almost any kind of sales funnel that you want to.
Why You Should Care About Funnels
I want to briefly discuss why funnels are so important before getting into the details of the One Funnel Away Challenge program
If you do not understand why sales funnels are so critical for your business, then you will not understand why the information that the challenge shares with you is so invaluable.
You will not want to skip this section of the review if online selling is new to you.
A sales funnel is basically a journey that helps to guide your customer in the direction of your offer, whether it is an affiliate sale, service, or product.
With a properly structured funnel, it acts like a salesperson that shows your prospects the way and motivates them to buy from you.
Every day we participate in multiple ales funnels, from buying morning coffee to shopping online to purchasing groceries.
As a shrewd business owner, it is important to know you to properly optimize your sales funnels to obtain more clicks, leads, and sales, ultimately.
Sales funnels can, unfortunately, be complex, so if you don't understand what an effective sales funnel looks like, then you could up causing more harm than good.
A sales funnel that is poorly designed along the way will leak prospects, which will leave you with frustrated customers and low conversion rates.
A well-designed sales funnel, on the other hand, is the key to being able to scale your business.
You will be taken by the hand by the One Funnel Away Challenge that will take you everything you need to know to develop high-converting sales funnels to use in your business.
Does this sound good to you? Let's take a close look at the program.
What is included in the One Funnel Away Challenge?
This robust system has been designed to get you set up properly to earn more money online.
After you have enrolled, a box will be delivered to your doorstep full of resources and materials (if you decide to pay for the shipping, otherwise all the materials are online).
Here is what you will receive.
30 Days of Russell Brunson MIssion Videos
Russell Brunson, the ClickFunnels founder, started his very own $360 million SaaS business, which he funded completely himself.
He has millions of entrepreneur followers and is a best-selling author who has sold more than 250,000 books.
Brunson is definitely someone you definitely want to listen to.
For 30 days, Brunson will be sending you various missions that help to simplify the sales funnel-building process.
Coaching for 30 Days from Julie Stoian and Stephen Larsen
Julie Stoian, who is also a seven-figure entrepreneur, provides you with the exact necessary steps to put Brunson's mission into action.
Stoian will help you get the funnel-creation process started and guide you the entire way.
Stephen Larsen has built more than 500 sales funnels and is ClickFunnels' former Lead Sales Funnel Builder.
After leaving ClickFunnels, he started his own company and in just 13 months earned more than $1 million.
Stephen leads group calls on a daily basis and helps to keep you accountable. He will tell you exactly what you need to know and is a straight shooter.
Bonuses
The accountability calls and training videos above are worth over $2,000 when offered separately, and all you need to create your very own sales funnels.
However, Russell Brunson, like all good salesmen, adds a number of bonuses to make it even more enticing to sign up for his challenge.
You will receive the following bonuses immediately after enrolling in the One Funnel Away Challenge.
Physical workbook copy
It has been shown in studies that writing down notes using pen and paper can help you better remember what you are learning compared to just digital notations.
Your physical workbook can be used to take notes to help you remember what you have learned.
Hardcover 30 Days book
Brunson asked 30 members from the Two Comma Club (members of ClickFunnels who have earned over $1 million from their funnels) the following question:
“If you were to lose everything, including your followers, reputation, and name, what would you do?” How would you earn your millions back in just 30 days?”
So he asked these members to provide a daily plan for people just beginning, so they could achieve $1 million in sales.
The answers were compiled and added to a hardcover book.
It provides you with 30 different blueprints in one place for building a million-dollar sales funnel.
This is an awesome bonus.
MP3 Player containing all of the recordings
If it is difficult for you to fit in one extra hour of work each day, then the MP3 player can be used to listen to the daily recordings to help make things easier.
The coaching calls from the final challenge are also included in the recordings.
The MP3 includes more than 40 hours of interviews and coaching calls in total that can be listened to anywhere at your convenience.
30 Day Interviews – Unlimited Access
Throughout the 30 day challenge, you will be working on getting your missions completed and building high-converting sales funnels of your own.
This bonus includes interviews that are full of helpful advice, but you do not have enough time to watch all of them during your 30-day challenge, you will have unlimited access and can watch them later.
Two Comma Club Interviews
In the interviews, 30 members of the Two Comma Club discuss the mistakes they made (to help you avoid them) and the things they did right (to draw on their success).
These members do not hold anything back and only OFA Challenge members have access to these interviews.
What you will learn
The following is an overview of the things you will learn during the One Funnel Away 5-week challenge:
Pre-challenge week – This covers developing the proper mindset to get your business moving forward in the right direction.
Week 1 – You will be taught the basics of how to effectively sell online, which includes using a hook to grab the attention of your customers, why storytelling is so important and how to build an attractive and irresistible offer.
Week 2 – Sales copy. I enjoyed this week the most since it is so relevant to selling eBooks. I learned precisely how to get hooks implemented, tell an interesting story that evokes an emotional reaction from prospects, and how that “aha” moment can be generated in the audience's mind about your offering.
Week 3 – This week covers the nuts and bolts of how to build a sales funnel. I could not have found this practical advice anywhere else. I learned how to make sales pages, One Time Offers (OTOs), sequence pages, etc.
Week 4 – The focus is on promotion and traffic. Although I am a big fan of organic traffic and am an SEO guy, it was very interesting to learn about the various paid traffic opportunities that are available.
Over the course of the 5 weeks, I learned hundreds of different practical things. However, there were two things that really stood out as being complete game changers for my business:
How to exactly tell the story for whatever product I am trying to sell. As explained by Russell Brunson during the first couple of weeks of the challenge, there is a template available to tell stories to build trust, emotion, and belief that can be applied to any product. After learning this, my sales pages have greatly improved.
Creating a sales funnel. By the time I got to the end of my challenge, I had learned everything I needed to know about how to design a high-converting sales funnel using ClickFunnels to build it. I learned how to build upsell pages, squeeze pages, sales pages, etc, and the proper sequence to use depending on the specific product.
Many people claim you must listen to and read everything provided by the 3 instructors and complete every homework assignment. I think that is overstating the program and how rigid it is.
Compared to many online marketing courses, you do have to do more work. However, I skimmed over a couple of things that were not as relevant to my business and then focused in like a laser on things that were very important to me.
I think with this program it is fine to do some cherry-picking.
One Funnel Away Challenge Benefits
In addition to receiving materials worth thousands of dollars that you cannot find anywhere else, there are some other benefits to the OFA Challenge that I would like to point out.
Many doors will open for you after you join the One Funnel Away Challenge, which includes the opportunity to get to know some of the leading online marketers (Russell, Stephen, and Julie).
You can also interact with other members of the challenge. Many of them are great to get acquainted with and network with.
One Funnel Away Challenge Drawbacks
This is really a fast-paced course. There is no option for working through it slowly.
You will end up falling behind if you decide to take some time off.
I was not the most devoted challenge student but I did force myself to set aside some time on most days to keep learning new things from the challenge.
Is it worth it to work hard for 30 days to learn how to create very profitable sales funnels?
For me, it definitely was.
One Funnel Away Challenge Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the program cost?
It costs $100 to take the One Funnel Away Challenge. If you would like to have a physical kit, then you will need to pay a shipping charge. Within the US it will cost $19.95 and outside the US costs $29.95. There is also the option of the digital-only version without any shipping cost.
Is the challenge worth the price tag?
There is a total investment of $100 to enroll in the One Funnel Away Challenge.
It is not simply pocket change but compared to everything you will learn, it is a fairly small price. By the time you have finished the program, you will be earning our money back within one day with your improved and new sales funnels.
I definitely did earn my money back on the first day that my sales funnel was launched.
And to put this $100 into perspective even further, currently, Russell Brunson charges $100,000 for a client to sit down with him for just one day of coaching. That doesn't even include Stephen's and Julie's coaching rates.
However, you get 30 days of coaching with the OFA Challenge with three of the best marketers in the world for a low price.
Is a ClickFunnels membership necessary?
One of the best things about the challenge is that no other add-ons or software are necessarily needed to learn from the provided information or complete the work.
To be completely transparent, ClickFunnels does make the entire funnel-building process a lot easier. After you join the challenge, you may want to sign up for ClickFunnels.
It will definitely help to have a ClickFunnels account, by the third week of the challenge when you start to build your own sales funnels.
However, there are several different ways that you can build a sales funnel:
Use funnel building software
Use email marketing software
Via your website
So, don't worry if you want to join the challenge but not sign up for ClickFunnels. You can still benefit from all that the course offers.
Why can't I just learn what I need to know online for free?
It is definitely possible to learn about direct response marketing and sales funnels for free.
Most of the things that I have learned about online marketing and blogging have been from free online resources. However, I signed up for the One Funnel Away Challenge without hesitation.
Here is the reason why.
First of all, there are almost 55 million Google results for “sales funnels for beginners.”
However, many of these resources are inaccurate and outdated.
Also, just think about how much time it will you to piece together all of the information on your own.
How much is your time actually worth. If you have years or months to learn how to create effective sales funnels completely by yourself and you aren't in a hurry to take your business to the next level, then you might want to try learning everything on your own.
You will also probably make some mistakes in the process, which can cost you future customers and sales.
When considering it from this perspective, $100 is not that big of an investment if it will help to prevent lost sales and wasted time.
If you would like to learn how to build profitable sales funnels in 30 days, then your answer is the One Funnel Away Challenge.
Second of all, free courses are notorious for having very low completion rates. In fact, 85% of all individuals who enroll in free courses and programs do not complete them.
You are probably thinking that you are different and would complete a free course. However, when you need to invest your own money, it is much more likely that you will go through the materials of the course and learn the content.
Can the challenge be joined at any time?
No, unfortunately, not.
Since the challenge is very hands-on, Stephen, Julie, and Russell need to work it into their schedules in order to provide you with personalized attention.
It is currently open but there isn't any guarantee that it will be opened up again (There is no date set or the next challenge or even stated plans of there being another one).
Final Verdict
Recently there has been a lot of buzz among online business owners and entrepreneurs about the One Funnel Away Challenge.
When it comes to online courses, particularly internet marketing ones, I tend to be fairly skeptical. And the ultimate salesman is definitely Russell Brunson, as can be seen from the One Funnel Away Challenge's shiny sales page.
However, the truth of the matter is that genuine value is provided by the One Funnel Away Challenge to those who commit themselves to the 30-day training program.
Before signing up for the challenge, I hit a brick wall trying to sell my eBook. I was able to increase my eBook sales by 150% immediately after I launched my first ClickFunnels sales funnel.
If you do a small amount of work each day for 30 days, then the One Funnel Away Challenge can help you earn more money online.
