Final up to date on April thirtieth, 2026 at 05:43 am
Stephen Diaz had 120 staff when every thing fell aside.
He’d constructed The Rainmaker Household into an Inc 5000 firm, hit quantity 148 on the listing, and received a number of ClickFunnels awards. Through the years, they’d helped 1000’s of mothers launch Amazon companies utilizing the identical playbook Russell Brunson teaches in Knowledgeable Secrets and techniques.
Then three large hits got here in a row and the enterprise virtually didn’t survive. Stephen laid off 100 individuals, burned by means of money reserves, and was weeks away from chapter. AI grew to become the one factor standing between him and shutting the doorways completely.
However AI didn’t simply save the enterprise. It grew to become the enterprise.
Immediately, Stephen runs a leaner operation with 20 individuals, instructing family-first founders find out how to use AI to reclaim their time. He’s constructing it utilizing the identical funnel frameworks that labored the primary time, simply in a unique market.
And that is how he did it.
From Marriage ceremony Pictures to Inc 5000
Stephen and his spouse Chelsey began as wedding ceremony photographers proper out of faculty. A buddy wanted somebody to shoot their wedding ceremony, they mentioned sure, and earlier than lengthy they’d a enterprise. One wedding ceremony led to a different, then one other. Finally they had been doing 40 weddings a yr, making a number of six figures.
However the ceiling was apparent. They had been buying and selling time for cash at the next fee than most individuals, certain, however there have been nonetheless solely so many Saturdays in a yr. Each wedding ceremony meant driving three hours, capturing all day, and staying up late to edit.
Stephen began on the lookout for a method out. He was on each webinar he may discover, shopping for each program, making an attempt to determine find out how to make cash on-line. They ran seven or eight facet hustles without delay, and Amazon was one in all them. They had been promoting little fidget toys referred to as Japanese kendamas, and at some point at a marriage, Stephen pulled out his cellphone through the temporary dinner break.
“Babe, look,” he advised Chelsey. The Amazon enterprise had made extra money that day than they had been making on the wedding ceremony they had been presently capturing.
That’s when it clicked for her. This factor they’d been constructing on the facet may change the marriage revenue totally. And it did. The following yr they took on fewer weddings. Then fewer. And those they did take had been dream purchasers solely, as a result of they may lastly be choosy.
Following the Playbook
Stephen discovered Knowledgeable Secrets and techniques round this time. He learn the webinar script and realized he’d been sitting within the viewers of that precise construction for months, shopping for merchandise, watching different individuals run the play. However now he had the playbook.
He ran his first webinar utilizing Russell’s script. He actually had the e book on his desk, studying off the frameworks. Thirty individuals enrolled at $2,000 every. That’s $60,000 in 90 minutes, simply inviting mates and Fb acquaintances to a Zoom name.
It will have taken them half a yr to make that a lot capturing weddings.
The webinar felt like magic, however Stephen didn’t know the distinction between heat and chilly site visitors but. He took that $60,000, employed a Fb adverts company, and burned by means of most of it making an attempt to scale to strangers who didn’t know him.
He did take a few of that cash and purchased into Two Comma Membership X, one in all ClickFunnels’ higher-level applications. That’s the place he met the individuals who advised him what to do subsequent.
Two issues, particularly: run a problem as a substitute of a webinar, and area of interest it down.
On the time, The Rainmaker Household wasn’t targeted on mothers. They had been instructing anybody who wished to promote bodily merchandise on Amazon. However when Stephen checked out who was truly profitable with this system, it was mothers. In order that they rebranded the whole factor round that viewers.
The primary problem did about $60,000. The following one did $100,000. The third problem did $1.4 million.
After that they had been doing seven-figure challenges each 4 months. They evergreened it will definitely and hit $3 million in a single month. Between 2020 and 2023, they scaled to 120 staff, helped over 30,000 individuals, and hit quantity 148 on the Inc 5000 listing.
When It Stopped Working
Three issues went unsuitable in a row, and collectively they virtually killed the enterprise.
The primary hit got here from some exterior noise. An ex-employee who’d left in 2022 wasn’t proud of how issues ended, and it become a public factor on-line. What began as venting become weekly newsletters encouraging previous purchasers to request refunds or contact attorneys. Stephen’s staff ended up spending a whole bunch of 1000’s on authorized charges whereas coping with the fallout.
The second punch was their Instagram account getting shut down which was their principal buyer acquisition channel. Folks saved reporting the account, and at some point it was simply gone. Income dropped in half virtually instantly, and Stephen nonetheless had a six-figure month-to-month payroll to cowl.
The third punch got here in early 2025. Tariffs hit the information. It didn’t truly have an effect on Amazon sellers that a lot in observe, most individuals promoting had been high-quality, however it affected how most people felt about promoting on Amazon. Worry took over, and gross sales calls that used to shut simply began flopping one after one other.
Stephen tried every thing. Completely different angles, adverts, and messaging, and nothing moved the needle. The enterprise was bleeding money, and he knew it couldn’t final.
The Hardest Zoom Calls He’s Ever Achieved
Stephen began with layoffs in January 2025. The staff went from 120 individuals right down to 70. However even after letting 50 individuals go, the numbers nonetheless didn’t work.
By Could, the corporate was almost one million {dollars} in debt. Stephen had loaned the enterprise cash from his personal financial savings simply to maintain it alive however they had been out of choices.
He obtained on a Zoom name with the remaining staff and advised them the reality. This paycheck was their final. The corporate had no cash left, and he couldn’t assure something. He didn’t understand how they’d hold going, however he’d be there subsequent week making an attempt to serve the individuals who’d trusted them. If anybody wished to go away, he understood fully.
He advised individuals to take the week off and give it some thought. In the event that they got here again, it will be with no pay, possibly for six to 9 months, and even then he may nonetheless must allow them to go. If they’d any resentment about that, they shouldn’t come again.
Stephen anticipated possibly three or 4 individuals to indicate up the next Monday.
Forty-four individuals got here again.
“These are staff,” he says, his voice catching barely on the podcast. “They’re not house owners of the corporate. That they had no stake on this. However they liked the individuals we had been serving, and so they didn’t need to abandon them.”
Finally a lawyer buddy advised him he couldn’t legally have individuals work without spending a dime in order that they moved everybody to minimal wage. The staff constructed a Slack channel referred to as “miracles” the place individuals shared tales of sudden provision. Somebody’s child obtained into a faculty that will’ve been costly, however it ended up being free. A vegan worker obtained donated meals from somebody who occurred to even be vegan. Small issues that saved individuals going.
The staff obtained tighter throughout that season than they’d ever been. Stephen confirmed them the debt thermometer each week so everybody may see precisely the place they stood, and after they hit sure milestones, pay would bump up a bit of.
What Was in His Hand
At this level, Stephen break up the staff in half. One group saved serving present Rainmaker clients, discovering methods to promote extra to the individuals who already knew and trusted them. The opposite group, the “pioneer staff,” was tasked with determining what got here subsequent.
Stephen saved coming again to this query: what’s in your hand proper now?
It’s a precept he teaches his college students, however he needed to apply it to himself. If you really feel empty-handed, when every thing’s gone unsuitable, you’re not truly empty-handed. You have got one thing. You simply have to take a look at what you’ve already constructed.
For Stephen, that was AI.
They hadn’t got down to develop into AI specialists, they’d simply used it to outlive. If you’re down to twenty individuals doing the work of 120, you automate otherwise you collapse. So Stephen began constructing AI instruments to switch costly software program subscriptions that had been costing them $30,000 to $50,000 a yr. Issues like electronic mail platforms, buyer assist methods, all of the infrastructure that retains a enterprise working.
They used AI to assist with hiring choices, firing choices, content material creation, and buyer assist. They used it for every thing they couldn’t afford to pay a human to do anymore.
And someplace in the course of all that survival, Stephen realized they’d one other product.
“We had been like, shoot, I feel we’ve one other product right here,” he says.
That they had a program from the previous enterprise, a level-two supply they’d bought for $10,000 to $12,000 that taught Amazon sellers find out how to mature their companies off the platform. They took that program, added all of the AI instruments they’d constructed to outlive, and repackaged it for enterprise house owners as a substitute of Amazon sellers.
After every thing that had occurred with the Rainmaker enterprise, Stephen and his staff had been a bit of burned on promoting to shoppers. Enterprise house owners felt like a safer wager. These had been individuals who’d already been by means of some issues, who had an present supply, who simply wanted assist attending to the subsequent degree.
The brand new product was born out of necessity, not technique. However necessity builds higher merchandise than technique generally.
The New Funnel: Identical Playbook, Completely different Market
Stephen ran a VSL funnel first. It flopped fully. He’d gotten the language unsuitable, tried to promote the software program proper out of the gate.
Then he remembered this wasn’t the product. It was the software program that was the lead magnet.
He’d seen one other marketer, Maria Wendt, working a proposal for 25 programs at $25. Stephen borrowed the construction. Twenty-five AI instruments for $25, one-time fee, lifetime entry.
“Nobody’s doing that within the software program area,” he explains. It introduced in actually good leads at a very low value.
The funnel was easy. Decide in, purchase the toolkit for $25, get supplied an growth pack for $95 as an upsell. About 25% of individuals took it at first. Then the thank-you web page mentioned, “E-book a name and we’ll allow you to get began together with your toolkit.”
Some individuals hated that. They only wished the toolkit, no gross sales name. But it surely booked a number of calls. A setter would get on with them, assist activate the toolkit and present them find out how to use it. If it made sense, they’d set an appointment with a more in-depth who’d promote the backend consulting program.
The consulting supply was an eight-week AI Enterprise Accelerator, instructing founders find out how to implement AI throughout totally different departments.
They ran a lean staff with two setters and two closers at first. However now simply one in all every. The margins had been more healthy than something they’d run earlier than.
Stephen has a rule now: 30% advertising and marketing, 30% labor, 30% overhead and bills. If advertising and marketing’s going over 30%, they get artistic, hit the e-mail listing, or do natural outreach. Proper now they’re working underneath 20% on each advertising and marketing and labor.
“I want I knew this within the final enterprise,” he says. “We had been capable of scale actually quick and impression lots of people, however the margins had been razor skinny. Once we took a number of hits in a row, it simply took us out.”
Additionally they began working a problem once more alongside the toolkit funnel. Identical problem construction Stephen used to scale Rainmaker, simply up to date with AI content material. He runs it dwell each month as a result of AI modifications too quick to evergreen it but. By the point he information a problem, half the instruments he taught are already outdated.
Since June 2025, about eight or 9 months, the brand new enterprise has achieved near one million {dollars} in gross sales. Not again to the $20 million-a-year run fee of the previous enterprise, however Stephen’s not chasing that quantity anymore.
The One Precept He Swears By
There’s an idea Stephen teaches now that saved him through the rebuild. He calls it “earlier is best.”
If you’re making an attempt to enhance a funnel, most individuals concentrate on the again finish. They tweak the order kind, take a look at new closes, rewrite the gross sales web page. That’s high-quality, however it’s not the place you get the most important wins.
The most important wins come from the entrance finish. For those who double your opt-in fee, you double every thing downstream with out touching the rest. It’s a ripple impact.
Stephen tells a narrative about his previous Rainmaker funnel. That they had a easy opt-in web page, only a headline and a kind. Later, after they had been making an attempt to optimize, they added one factor: a free PDF that folks would get after they opted in.
Decide-in fee went from 10% to 40%.
“It’s like all the opposite numbers additionally change,” Stephen explains. “For those who double your opt-in fee, you double every thing else with out altering the rest.”
It sounds apparent while you say it out loud, however most individuals don’t function this fashion. They’re deep within the funnel making an attempt to maneuver a quantity by 2%, after they may go to the entrance and transfer it by 20%.
When Stephen rebuilt the AI enterprise, he put virtually all his vitality on the entrance finish. The very very first thing somebody sees, whether or not it’s the advert or the primary piece of the funnel. Get that proper and every thing else flows.
What He’d Inform Somebody Beginning Over Tomorrow
The frameworks nonetheless work.
Stephen used Knowledgeable Secrets and techniques twice. First time, he constructed a $20 million-a-year enterprise instructing mothers to promote on Amazon. Second time, he rebuilt from close to chapter utilizing the identical buildings to show enterprise house owners find out how to use AI.
Webinars, challenges, worth ladders, backend provides. The mechanics didn’t change, the market did.
“There’s by no means ‘I can’t,’ it’s at all times ‘how can I,’” Stephen says. “There are not any partitions, simply ramps.”
However there’s a flip facet to that optimism. Generally it’s a must to let one thing die. Stephen’s a visionary, at all times hopeful, at all times believing subsequent month will flip it round. And that saved him holding on longer than he ought to have.
“For my visionaries within the room,” he says, “I’m such a hopeful golden retriever optimist. I simply saved saying, ‘Subsequent month we’re gonna flip this round.’ And I actually wasn’t taking the motion wanted.”
Companies die after they cease adapting. Sears had catalogs in individuals’s properties earlier than Amazon existed. They had been Amazon earlier than Amazon. However when the web got here, they didn’t pivot. They mentioned, “We’ve obtained the magazines, we’re good.”
Stephen virtually made the identical mistake. He saved making an attempt to make the previous enterprise work when the market had moved on. Tariffs didn’t kill Amazon sellers, however they killed the notion. Folks had been afraid. And no quantity of promoting genius was going to repair that.
So he let it go. Not as a result of the frameworks had been damaged. As a result of the automobile had run its course.
When he opened his palms and requested, “What do I’ve proper now?” the reply was the AI instruments he’d constructed to outlive. And people grew to become the brand new automobile.
The Lesson You Can Use Immediately
Right here’s what Stephen desires you to know for those who’re in a season like this, or for those who’re simply beginning and afraid of ending up right here.
You’re by no means empty-handed.
When every thing falls aside, while you’re weeks from chapter, while you’ve laid off most of your staff and also you’re observing a debt thermometer making an attempt to determine find out how to climb out, you continue to have one thing. You simply have to take a look at what you’ve already constructed.
For Stephen, it was AI. Not as a result of AI was fashionable or as a result of he noticed it coming. As a result of it’s what he’d used to maintain the lights on.
Perhaps it’s a course of you constructed to onboard purchasers sooner, a template you employ for each mission, or a framework you’ve taught 100 occasions however by no means packaged right into a product. Or possibly it’s relationships you’ve constructed, a ability you’ve sharpened, an issue you’ve solved again and again.
That’s the factor in your hand. That’s the seed of the subsequent factor.
And the frameworks nonetheless work. Stephen didn’t reinvent himself. He took what he knew, utilized it to what he had, and ran the identical playbook in a unique market.
Russell Brunson teaches this in Knowledgeable Secrets and techniques. You supply somebody a brand new alternative, you information them up a price ladder, you construct a motion by giving them a future-based trigger. Stephen did that with Rainmaker and he’s doing it once more with AI.
So for those who’re constructing one thing proper now and it feels such as you’re ranging from scratch, bear in mind you’ve obtained greater than you assume. You realize issues now you didn’t know earlier than.
Take a look at what’s in your hand, then construct the subsequent factor with it.
Stephen rebuilt a enterprise from close to chapter utilizing the identical frameworks he’d realized years earlier. The playbook labored the primary time, and it labored the second time.
For those who’re prepared to start out constructing your funnel, attempt ClickFunnels free for 14 days. The technique’s already confirmed, you simply have to put it to work.
