“Change is constant. Whether that change is leading in a positive or negative direction is not always clear immediately.”
~ Debra Hilton
Another Era Comes to an End
Last week at Funnel Hacking Live in Orlando, Russell Brunson (owner of Click Funnels marketing automation software) and DanKennedy announced that Click Funnels is the latest owner of Magnetic Marketing. The company has had a turbulent 10 years moving through a series of VC owner/managers who were making it less about Dan Kennedy and Russell is the second of Dan’s successful students to purchase the brand and continue the move of bringing Dan to the forefront.
What’s So Great About Dan Kennedy?
I’m a big fan of Dan Kennedy’s teaching and I’ve seen Magnetic Marketing implemented successfully or been instrumental in implanting it in several different contexts from community development to retail to coaching, training, and consulting businesses.
Not only does he have unparalleled experience with the promotion and marketing of businesses that are not necessarily ‘sexy’ big names, he’s also earned the title of ‘the millionaire maker’ from the impact Magnetic Marketing has had transforming harassed and struggling small businesses into prosperous and profitable businesses whose owners have time for their relationships, hobbies, and philanthropic ventures.
Dan’s #1 characteristic is his focus on PRINCIPLES rather than tactics… Because those principles apply across industries, cultures, and eras. He is probably one of the most incisive thinkers when it comes to marketing, which is why so many people clamour to get on his list of private clients – the ROI on his fees has several zeros attached.
The Next Invention of Magnetic Marketing
Only time will tell what happens now. Change is part of life and leads to many positive outcomes.
Over the past 3 years I’ve been encouraged to see the company move back to it’s roots and return Dan to front and centre. Apparently, in this new iteration we’re going to see even more of Dan’s material than we have recently, which is a great sign as it means that he has continued his fantastic recovery from near-death.
While I dislike Click Funnels as a marketing tool (I was an early adopter, moved away from it after a couple of years and have not seen any reason to go back), I think that Russell is charismatic and has built his business on Magnetic Marketing, so he certainly understands the principles.
At the same time, he’s very much an ‘internet marketer’ which Dan Kennedy never was… So I think the jury’s out over whether he can deliver the same breadth that has always been the hallmark of the Magnetic Marketing community.
Before It Goes Away
In 2020, Darin Spindler at Magnetic Marketing undertook the gargantuan task of digitising over 20 years of Dan Kennedy’s newsletters, Copy Confidential (an analysis of projects Dan was working on, what he changed, and the thinking behind those changes, and more), and many other previously unpublished works by him and then turned them into a searchable archive of Dan’s work.
The “Dan Kennedy Searchable Archives” are still available for purchase until the end of October at https://debrah.me/searchdank.
Trust me..
If you’re interested in grounding your own marketing in proven principles and strategic thinking…
If you have a habit of reading between the lines and going deep into the why’s and wherefore’s…
If you like to build on universal truths rather than fads and trends…
Then you’ll LOVE Dan’s archives.
