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Review · 18 min read

AI Secrets Challenge Review 2026

Russell Brunson's free 5-day AI Secrets Challenge reviewed day by day, plus the VIP upgrade catch and who should attend in 2026. Read before you sign up.

By AI Funnel Insider · · Updated
AI Secrets Challenge Review 2026 by Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson — free 5-day live virtual event
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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you register through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

A $2,000 course with no live access to the instructor is the going rate for AI training in 2026. The cheaper option is theory from someone who’s never run a real operation.

The AI Secrets Challenge is neither. Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson are doing five live days teaching the exact AI systems they’ve built inside ClickFunnels, a company that has processed over $12 billion in client transactions. And it’s completely free to attend.

Here’s the full breakdown: what’s inside each day, what the VIP upgrade actually gets you, and who should register before spots fill.

Last updated: June 2026

Reserve Your Free Seat →

TL;DR: The AI Secrets Challenge is a free 5-day live virtual event (June 22–26, 2026) hosted by Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson, co-founders of ClickFunnels, which has helped process over $12 billion in client sales (ClickFunnels, 2026). Across five sessions you learn five frameworks: the 7-Figure AI Shortcut, the Billion Dollar Breakthrough, a one-person marketing machine, building software with no code, and AI side hustles. No credit card required for the free tier. VIP adds replays and daily Q&A via a free MarketingSecrets.AI trial ($97/month after 14 days).

What Is the AI Secrets Challenge?

The AI Secrets Challenge is a free 5-day live virtual event running June 22–26, 2026 at 11:00 AM PT (90 minutes per day). Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson, co-founders of ClickFunnels, host it. ClickFunnels has helped its users process over $12 billion in client transactions (ClickFunnels, 2026). This isn’t a theoretical AI seminar. It’s practitioners teaching what they’ve actually deployed.

The premise is specific. Over the past two years, Todd Dickerson rebuilt ClickFunnels’ internal operations division by division, replacing entire teams with AI systems. The challenge is five live sessions where Russell and Todd show attendees how to do the same thing in their own businesses.

AI Secrets Challenge homepage showing free registration and June 22 start date

The target audience covers four groups:

  • Employees who want to become the most valuable person in their department
  • Founders building lean companies without bloated payroll
  • Business owners trying to cut overhead without cutting output
  • Anyone who’s watched the AI wave and felt they’re falling behind

Who Are Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson?

Russell Brunson co-founded ClickFunnels in 2014 with zero outside funding. He’s the author of DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets, three of the most widely read online business books of the past decade, with millions of copies sold (Russell Brunson, 2026). His newsletter, Marketing Secrets, has over one million subscribers.

Todd Dickerson is the technical architect behind ClickFunnels. He built the platform from scratch and has been the CTO for over a decade. For the past two years, he’s been systematically replacing ClickFunnels’ internal departments with AI infrastructure — not as an experiment, but as the actual operating model of the company.

Both instructors are teaching from live production systems. The Day 1 Chief of Staff methodology, for instance, isn’t a concept Todd read about — it’s the same agent architecture he runs to manage ClickFunnels’ operations daily. That makes the quality of instruction materially different from most AI training available today.

These are not AI influencers. They’re operators who built a real company, ran it for a decade, and rebuilt it with AI. The credibility gap between this and other AI challenges on the market is significant.

What Does the AI Secrets Challenge Cost?

The free tier costs nothing. No credit card, no upsell required. You get all five live sessions: 90 minutes per day across five days, for a total of 7.5 hours of live instruction from two of the most credentialed operators in the online business space.

Here’s the full pricing breakdown:

OptionCostWhat You Get
Free Registration$05 live sessions (June 22–26)
VIP Backstage Pass$0 + 14-day trialReplays + Q&A + community access
MarketingSecrets.AI$97/month after trialFull platform access
Selling Online add-on$67 one-timeRussell’s one-to-many persuasion system
Scaling Online add-on$67 one-timeFunnel ecosystem + scaling blueprint
Both add-ons$97 one-timeFull add-on package + mystery gift

The VIP pass is the only item worth thinking about. It’s free for 14 days. The trial starts June 22 and nothing gets billed until the 14 days are up. Cancel any time before then via email to support@marketingsecrets.com and you pay nothing.

The add-ons (Selling Online and Scaling Online) are optional and one-time charges. Neither is required to get full value from the challenge itself.

What Do You Actually Build Across 5 Days?

Most AI trainings teach concepts. This one runs as a build-along. That distinction matters more than it sounds. By the end of Day 5, attendees who do the work walk away with the frameworks installed and a working app they built themselves, not just notes from a lecture. Here’s what each day actually covers.

Day 1: The 7-Figure AI Shortcut

Day 1 is the foundation. Russell’s claim is blunt: one person plus AI can now produce what used to take a whole team. The method is a three-part stack: Swipe File, Attractive Character, and Creative Director.

The Swipe File is the piece most people skip. Instead of letting AI scour the internet for an average of everything, you feed it proven, high-converting examples first. His phrase for bad inputs is hard to forget: “poop brownies.” Garbage in, garbage out, no matter how strong the model. The Attractive Character and Creative Director layers then make the output sound like a human with a point of view. For any solo operator, this is the session that fixes why your AI content falls flat.

Day 2: The Billion Dollar Breakthrough

Day 2 reframes what to actually sell with AI. Russell’s argument: a billion-dollar business is not software alone or information alone — it is software blended with your framework (your secret) so the product sticks and pays you monthly.

He is direct that courses are dead — information is a commodity AI gives away free, so what survives is software that implements your secret. He walks the ClickFunnels story (six failed software launches, then the breakthrough of teaching the framework and selling the software as the tool), and the Josh Latimer case study: a failing product, $25K to consult with Russell, $5M over the next 18 months. This is where the Chief of Staff (one AI agent that holds all your context) first appears.

Day 3: The One-Person Marketing Machine

Day 3 replaces the marketing department, and for affiliates and offer-owners it is the most immediately useful day. Russell maps the assets you need (VSLs, emails, landing pages, ads) and shows how to generate each one with AI working from your swipe file.

The email frameworks are the takeaway: the Soap Opera Sequence to warm a new lead, then the Daily Seinfeld broadcast to mail every day without burning the list out. He also drills “multiple frontends” (one core offer, many entry points) and tells the story of funnel-hacking Agora, a $1.5B publisher, by studying 43 of their VSLs until the pattern was impossible to miss.

Day 4: Building Software With AI

Day 4 is Todd Dickerson’s session, and it is the one that surprises people. Todd builds working software live, in plain English, with no code. He walks three paths: Lovable for fast and simple, Claude Code for powerful and complex, and his own tool Overskill — a guided hybrid that ships with auth, databases, and payments already wired in.

Simple prompts produce working apps in roughly 10 to 20 minutes. Todd’s framing was “you are now a developer,” tied to the 80,000 developers Oracle laid off. This is also where the Chief of Staff becomes a persistent super-brain that carries context across ChatGPT, Claude, and Manus. If you have ever wanted to build the software Day 2 told you to sell, this is the day the barrier disappears.

Day 5: AI Side Hustles

Day 5 turns the week into money. Take the skills from Days 1 through 4 and sell them. Russell lays out five fast paths: custom app builds, AI audits, lead-generation tools, AI agents and chatbots, and done-for-you marketing assets. Most are billable at $3K and up per project.

The guest, Chris Thomas, makes it concrete: he replaced a 30-person agency with AI agents, says he built a healthcare system that saved a client roughly $500K a month and charged six figures for it, and opens doors with free AI audits. His advice is the part that sticks — do not chase a million dollars today; make one dollar, get one quick win, because the first build is what flips you from “learning AI” to “building with AI”.

Free vs VIP: What’s Actually Different?

FeatureFreeVIP
Live sessions (5 days)YesYes
Encore replay accessNoYes
Daily VIP Q&A with RussellNoYes
Dedicated VIP Zoom roomNoYes
Marketing Secrets Backstage Pass communityNoYes
MarketingSecrets.AI 14-day trialNoYes (free)
CostFreeFree (trial required)

The free tier is genuinely complete. You get all five live sessions and nothing is withheld to pressure an upgrade.

The VIP tier matters if replays are important to you. If you miss a live session or want to rewatch a build-along step, replays are VIP-only. Daily Q&A access with Russell for five consecutive days is also a real offer — not a pre-recorded FAQ.

The MarketingSecrets.AI trial is the mechanism behind the VIP upgrade. It’s free for 14 days starting June 22, then $97/month. Cancel by emailing support@marketingsecrets.com before the trial ends if you don’t want the charge.

What Is MarketingSecrets.AI?

Selling Online Challenge homepage — Russell Brunson's funnel ecosystem for online operators

MarketingSecrets.AI is the new integrated platform ClickFunnels built alongside this challenge. It’s an AI aggregator — a single interface routing your queries to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other AI engines, with shared memory across all of them.

The problem it’s solving: most operators pay for four or five separate AI subscriptions. Research lives in one tab. Writing in another. Image generation in a third. Nothing carries context between sessions. MarketingSecrets.AI puts all of it in one interface where your context persists.

Features positioned for launch include:

  • Managing online products and courses
  • Building and running sales funnels
  • Creating micro-software (the Day 5 methodology)
  • Running ads and full marketing operations
  • Funnel Oracle AI guide — points you to the right training for your specific situation

Standard price is $97/month. Through the VIP pass, you get a 14-day free trial starting June 22. Cancel before the trial ends if you don’t want the recurring charge.

The math depends on how many AI subscriptions you currently stack. If you’re paying ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo), Claude Pro ($20/mo), and Perplexity Pro ($20/mo), that’s already $60/month for three tools with no shared memory. MarketingSecrets.AI at $97/month is a $37 premium for a unified interface — a reasonable trade if you actually use all three tools regularly. If you only use ChatGPT occasionally, the math doesn’t hold.

What You Walk Away With After 5 Days

Attendees who do the work across all five sessions leave with the full system: the 7-Figure AI Shortcut for AI content, the software-plus-secrets model for what to sell, a one-person marketing machine, a working app built with no code, and a playbook for selling AI services.

The key phrase is “do the work.” This is a build-along, not a passive lecture series. Missing sessions or skipping the in-session configuration means the systems don’t get built. The value is entirely in the execution during each 90-minute window.

Here’s what each deliverable looks like in practice:

The 7-Figure AI Shortcut: The Swipe File, Attractive Character, and Creative Director system that makes AI content sound human and actually convert — the Day 1 foundation everything else builds on.

The Billion Dollar Breakthrough: The software-plus-secrets model for deciding what to sell, so you build recurring revenue instead of one-off sales.

A one-person marketing machine: The Day 3 asset stack (VSLs, the Soap Opera and Daily Seinfeld email frameworks, landing pages, and ads) generated with AI from your swipe file.

A working app, built with no code: The Day 4 build-along with Todd. You watch a real app ship in plain English, then follow along to build your own.

An AI side-hustle playbook: The Day 5 paths for selling AI services (custom builds, audits, agents, and done-for-you assets) at $3K and up.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • 100% free to attend live, no credit card required for the basic tier
  • Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson teaching live, not pre-recorded content from 2022
  • Five build-along sessions. You leave with real systems, not a list of concepts
  • Day 3 monetization angle is genuinely differentiated from anything in the market
  • VIP costs nothing upfront. The 14-day trial is fully free if you cancel in time
  • Credibility: two founders who built a billion-dollar company on the content they’re teaching

Cons:

  • Live-only format means missed sessions require the VIP pass for replay access
  • MarketingSecrets.AI converts to $97/month. Cancellation is on you to remember
  • Fast-paced build-along delivery. Beginners may need to rewatch sections
  • No standalone refund policy since the challenge is free (though the software trial has a cancel option)

Is the AI Secrets Challenge Worth It?

Yes — with one honest caveat.

The free tier is a no-brainer. Five days, 90 minutes per day, with two of the most credentialed operators in the online business space teaching what they’re actually running. You lose nothing by attending.

The value depends entirely on showing up. If you register and miss the sessions, you’ll get nothing. If you attend and do the work, you’ll walk out with the frameworks installed and a working app you built yourself by June 26. That’s the deal.

On the VIP pass: it’s worth claiming if there’s any chance you’ll miss a live session or want to rewatch a build-along step. The 14-day trial is genuinely free — just set a calendar reminder to cancel before the 14 days are up if the $97/month doesn’t make sense for you.

The optional upsells (Selling Online and Scaling Online at $67 each) are priced reasonably if you want the underlying frameworks beyond the five challenge days. Neither is required to get full value from the challenge itself.

ClickFunnels homepage — funnel builder platform co-founded by Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson in 2014

Reserve Your Free Seat →

FAQ

Is the AI Secrets Challenge really free?

Yes. All five live sessions (June 22–26, 2026) cost nothing. No credit card required for the basic free tier. The VIP upgrade is free for 14 days through a MarketingSecrets.AI trial, which converts to $97/month after the 14 days if you don’t cancel.

Who are Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson?

Co-founders of ClickFunnels, which they built from zero to over a billion dollars in client transactions with no outside investors (ClickFunnels, 2026). Russell is the author of DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets. Todd is ClickFunnels’ CTO and the technical architect behind the platform since 2014.

What do you actually build during the 5 days?

Across five days you learn five frameworks: the 7-Figure AI Shortcut for AI content (Day 1), the Billion Dollar Breakthrough software-plus-secrets model (Day 2), a one-person marketing machine with the Soap Opera and Seinfeld email frameworks (Day 3), building software with no code (Day 4), and AI side hustles you can sell for $3K and up (Day 5).

What is MarketingSecrets.AI and how does the VIP trial work?

MarketingSecrets.AI is an AI aggregator platform that routes your queries to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other tools through one interface with shared memory. Standard price is $97/month. VIP attendees at the AI Secrets Challenge get a 14-day free trial starting June 22. First billing lands when the trial ends. Cancel before then by emailing support@marketingsecrets.com to pay nothing.

Do you need coding skills to attend?

No. The entire challenge is designed for non-technical operators. Day 5 (building software) uses plain English inside MarketingSecrets.AI. No coding is required at any point.

What happens if you miss a live session?

You lose access to that session’s content unless you have the VIP pass, which includes encore replays. The free tier is live-only. Set calendar reminders for 11AM PT each day if you register free.

The Breakdown

Full pros & cons

What we liked
  • 100% free to attend live (no credit card required)
  • Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson teaching live, not pre-recorded
  • Day-by-day hands-on build. You leave with installed systems, not just notes
  • Day 4 is a live no-code software build. You watch Todd ship a working app in ~15 minutes
  • VIP upgrade is free if you claim the MarketingSecrets.AI trial
  • MarketingSecrets.AI 14-day free trial bundled into VIP at no cost
What could be better
  • Challenge runs live. Replay access requires VIP (free trial)
  • MarketingSecrets.AI converts to $97/month after the 14-day trial
  • Fast-paced content delivery. Complete beginners may need to rewatch

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AI Funnel Insider Independent

AI Funnel Insider is run by a full-time affiliate marketer in the AI-tools-for-business space, who has spent $120,000+ running search ads in this niche and personally joins, pays for, and tests every Skool community and tool reviewed here. Reviews are independent and may contain affiliate links, at no extra cost to you.

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