Matt Clark is the founder of The Virtual Edge through which he has helped 1700+ entrepreneurs from 26+ countries create systems to grow exponentially. He is a seasoned expert in the field of sales, marketing and business development, with more than a decade of experience in various industries from energy to telecoms and more.
He is also a TV show host of “The Rainmaker Show”, which is launching soon and is aired on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, Samsung & LG TV.
Currently, Matt is on a mission to help service based entrepreneurs create freedom through systems. He has spoken on stages around the world with the likes of John Demartini, Kane Minkus, Les Brown, Paul O’Mahony and many more.
What you will learn
- Hear about Matt’s transformative journey from working as a waiter to becoming a successful business owner and mentor.
- Understand how Virtual Edge helps entrepreneurs generate leads and grow their businesses in a competitive digital landscape.
- Find out Matt’s secret techniques for turning cold outreach messages into valuable leads on LinkedIn.
- Uncover strategies to navigate and conquer platform algorithms while maintaining high engagement levels.
- Learn the essential steps to creating a LinkedIn profile that attracts and converts leads.
- Get insights into how Matt leverages AI tools to dramatically boost his productivity and sales outcomes.
Transcript
Jeff Bullas
00:00:03 – 00:00:48
Hello and welcome to the Jeff Bullas Show! Today, I have with me Matt Clark. Matt is the founder of The Virtual Edge through which he has helped 1700+ entrepreneurs from 26+ countries create systems to grow exponentially. He is a seasoned expert in the field of sales, marketing and business development, with more than a decade of experience in various industries from energy to telecoms and more.
He is also a TV show host of “The Rainmaker Show”, which is launching soon and is aired on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, Samsung & LG TV.
Currently, he is on a mission to help service based entrepreneurs create freedom through systems.
Jeff Bullas
00:00:49 – 00:01:05
So Matt, welcome to the show. Great to have you here.
Matt Clark
00:01:06 – 00:01:08
Thanks for having me on Jeff.
Jeff Bullas
00:01:09 – 00:01:29
So Matt, you’re dialing in from downtown Vietnam. So even though you’re from downtown Johannesburg, South Africa, so Matt, why are you in Vietnam instead of South Africa? And that’s my first question and I’ve got many more.
Matt Clark
00:01:31 – 00:02:11
Uh, I would say the number one reason is Wanderlust. Uh, I love to travel and, uh, you know, I’ve been to the other side of the world before. Um, but I’d never fully experienced Asia. And so, you know, my wife and I, 2.5 years ago decided that we can either buy the house that we’re living in, in South Africa, um, or we can celebrate things and go traveling. And so we took option number two, you know, uh, it’s, it’s amazing how much stuff you have in a house that you don’t realize until you have to get rid of everything and they were gonna, and
Jeff Bullas
00:02:11 – 00:02:13
I’m sure you haven’t seen it for years.
Matt Clark
00:02:14 – 00:02:57
Yeah, some of the stuff you haven’t seen for years, but you never know when you’re gonna need it. Right. And, you know, we kind of looked at each other and we’re like, all right. So do we get a storage locker or do we just like, say, you know what good? We are just going. And so once again, option number two. And so we sold everything. So friends, family, Facebook marketplace. My wife was an absolute machine when it came to that. And then we had a whole bunch of stuff that just didn’t sell. And we found this company that is like an auction house. So they literally came with a couple of trucks loaded everything on and, you know, we left and they sold everything, they took a 20% fee and gave us the rest of it. So
Matt Clark
00:02:57 – 00:03:06
I know it all just worked out great. Uh, and we stacked some stuff at my, at my mom’s house and my dad’s house, apart from that, we’ve got two bags.
Jeff Bullas
00:03:06 – 00:03:17
Well, I, I’m sure your dad and your mum are going to say to you one day uh come and get your shit one day, right? Uh Because it’s still sitting in the cellar. I um,
Matt Clark
00:03:18 – 00:03:38
well, the good news is the good news is like, ok, so there’s a story behind this. I mean, when we, when I moved into the one house, my dad was like, hey, can I store some stuff at your house? I was like, yeah, sure, no problem. Uh He took an entire bedroom to store his shit in it. Plus he had crap in the garage. None of it was mine. Um And it was full
Matt Clark
00:03:39 – 00:04:04
and so when this opportunity came, I was like, who pays back time? But um, we, we actually like, I was, I was really, we didn’t want to keep stuff for the sake of keeping it. So I think I maybe got like one bag of clothes that’s there and it’s just literally all our warm clothes because it’s so warm in Asia all the time. You don’t need jackets and jerseys and stuff So that’s all I’ve really got there. We were kind.
Jeff Bullas
00:04:05 – 00:04:10
Ok, so when you say warm clothes, it’s not clothes to keep warm, it’s clothes to keep cool. Is that what you’re really saying?
Matt Clark
00:04:12 – 00:04:25
No clothes to keep warm? Um, so jackets and jerseys and, you know, like big stuff to keep warm because in Asia it’s just hot all the time. So, you know, you don’t need jackets and jeans and so
Jeff Bullas
00:04:25 – 00:04:28
you, you got rid of those, did you, or you put them in storage?
Matt Clark
00:04:30 – 00:04:33
Uh, I just got, I’ve got one bag of those clothes at my dad’s house,
Jeff Bullas
00:04:34 – 00:04:47
right? Ok. So he’s got warm clothes. You got the cool clothes. There you go. Is that right? So you got it. Ok. Well, I’m, I’m, I’m from Australia so I’m a bit of a slow learner, you know, ex-convict and everything. So, um, so,
Matt Clark
00:04:48 – 00:04:53
but we like to, we like to barbecue, drink beer and play rugby, man. So, you know, there’s that.
Jeff Bullas
00:04:54 – 00:05:03
Yeah. Well, I look, I used to like watching rugby. Will Australia get kicked all the time? So I decided that, um, I might as well watch something else. Right. So, but anyway, they had a
Matt Clark
00:05:03 – 00:05:05
bit of a fall off.
Jeff Bullas
00:05:06 – 00:05:08
Oh, yeah, we had a great, we weren’t going to that but it’s, uh,
Matt Clark
00:05:08 – 00:05:12
Yeah, we went the other way.
Jeff Bullas
00:05:13 – 00:06:00
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we hired a coach that didn’t know what he was doing or just, I don’t know, was smoking the wrong pipe, I think whatever you call it. But anyway, all right. So let’s, let’s get on from smoking pipes and warm clothes and cold clothes and uh let’s move on to. So, Matt, you help people generate leads in a digital world so they can actually make money. So tell us about what you do. Like give me a thumbnail sketch of what virtual edge does and you, you’re doing it with a partner. Um So, but before we get to that, um what led you to do what you’re doing today? So, like some people do art, some people do entrepreneurship. Some people do, you know,
Jeff Bullas
00:06:01 – 00:06:35
paint pictures, photography, dance. What made you do what you do? What did you do at university? Did a marketing degree? Did you go? Um Nope. No. So what was the call for you to do what you do today? Like you’re going God, I hate, I hate my life. I’m a waiter and I um am or else I’m a ninja in Japan. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing. Um I’m shit at Ninja r. Um What,
Matt Clark
00:06:35 – 00:06:39
What can you throw, to start to save my life?
Jeff Bullas
00:06:39 – 00:06:45
I can’t start things very well. Um So why do you do what you do, Matt?
Matt Clark
00:06:46 – 00:07:13
Yeah. Well, you know, funny enough, I, I actually started off, my first job was being a waiter and, um, I realized that. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But, you know, I, I’m kind of like, I’ve never really had AAA calling since, you know, since I was young. And, you know, there’s those people who, they just know what they’re gonna be when they grow up, they’ve got a vision, they go out and get it and they do it right. Or their parents or their parents push them in a direction but, like, they’ve got a direction.
Matt Clark
00:07:14 – 00:07:40
I never really had that. Um, I never really had any ideas of where I wanted to go or what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do. And my dad was like, well, one thing I know for sure is you are going to university because no one in our family has gone to university before. And I kind of looked at him and I was like, yeah, you’re barking up the wrong tree here, man. Um, I hated school and now you want me to go back? I just got out now. You want me to go back for another four years there? That’s not gonna happen. So
Matt Clark
00:07:40 – 00:08:21
I got a job as a waiter, I realized that I was really good with people and, you know, I made some decent money as a waiter and, um, I was partying quite a lot at the time. I think I was like, you know, just before I turned 18 and, uh, I’d saved a whole bunch of money and rolls of cash in my cupboard. So I was, I was pretty good with money, like, save half, spend half. And so, um, the one day I think it just got too much and I ended up crashing my dad’s car and, uh, he went into the, into the cupboard, pulled out the money. He bought me a ticket over to the UK, um, to go and do something like anything. He’s like, just go and do something. You’re not doing anything here.
Matt Clark
00:08:21 – 00:09:00
And so there I landed up getting a job as I, I’m going way back but it, it kind of all leads into each other. Um, and I, uh, the first job that I got there was actually installing sky TV onto the roofs. And I looked at this and it’s like from 5 a.m. until 11 pm, it’s freezing cold. I’m like, I hate this, this is the worst job ever. So it lasted a week and then I landed up in a job doing door to door sales, selling gas and electric for a company and I loved it. It turns out I was really good at it and I did that for a year in the UK, came back to South Africa and I’m like, now what? There’s no opportunities like that here.
Matt Clark
00:09:00 – 00:09:32
I got a call from one of the guys that I used to work for and he said to me, as I remember I was working for one of my dad’s friends at the time, um, because I just needed to do something I was doing nothing. You know, that’s the problem with not having direction. It’s like, where do you go and what do you do? And if you’ve got a whole bunch of money, it’s like, well, I don’t need to do anything. And so I remember getting the call, he phoned me on a Wednesday. He was like, Matt, you need to come and see me. You need to fly down to Cape Town. I’ve started this business. This is the easiest thing ever selling telephone systems to businesses, door to door.
Matt Clark
00:09:32 – 00:10:02
And so he called me on Tuesday. I quit my job on Wednesday. I quit my job on Thursday. Flew to Cape Town started there and that just completely took off. Um, you know, we were, we opened up an office in, we started off in this tiny little garage in, in a warehouse in Cape Town. And then we grew to open up an office in Joburg in Durban and all around the country. And then I actually landed up, you know, getting out of that and starting my own business
Matt Clark
00:10:03 – 00:10:28
and a couple of years down the line. So now eight years later, I’ve been selling telephone systems in the last business. We, you know, we built it up to $6 million a year in four years. So a really good business, but it was the golden handcuffs. And so I said to myself, I’m like, I need to travel, I need to get out of this thing. It’s sucking my soul dry. I hate it. And so I sold my shares and I went looking for what’s the next step?
Matt Clark
00:10:28 – 00:11:03
And I wanted something that could give me freedom that I could use systems that I could use technology that could earn something other than South African Rands. Because you know what that’s like, uh, trying to travel on the RAND is a horrible experience. Even if you have a lot of things lying around, you know, it’s just scary. And so I started going to these events, all these speakers came to South Africa and I looked at what they were doing, getting on stage speaking, making money traveling the world. And I was like, this looks amazing. How do I do this?
Matt Clark
00:11:03 – 00:11:41
And I went one step further and I looked at the systems they were using in the background and it was, all of them were using Infusionsoft. So I thought, well, why not let me go check this out? I understand sales processes and systems. Now, here’s a tool that can automate the entire thing. This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. And so I went and got certified. Um, I flew to Arizona, the guy said to me, if you sell 12 of them in the next three months, uh we’ll give you your certification feedback, which I did and then it kind of just took off from there. We started helping people automate their sales processes, but now we realize that OK, you can automate, but now you’ve got to feed the beast. So how do we do that?
Matt Clark
00:11:42 – 00:12:21
Linkedin? Uh uh Facebook didn’t work for me. Google didn’t work for me. None of these things worked for me. So I looked at it, and one of my friends was using linkedin and she said to me, she was like, you know, man, um you gotta check this out. It’s the easiest thing to do. And I looked on and I’m like, oh, this is like virtually knocking doors except I can skip the red tape. I can just go directly to the business owner and start that. And so we started just reaching out to people putting a process together, and started working for us. We started helping some clients. I started speaking on stages around the world and it really just blew up and, you know, now we’ve just been uh making it better and better and better and we’ve gone through
Matt Clark
00:12:21 – 00:12:46
the times in the beginning where linkedin was amazing and you could just send stuff out and have millions of messages and calls booked through the times where linkedin started chatting people’s accounts down through, you know, now when everyone’s getting back on again and just like spamming people and automation and A I, and we’ve kind of weathered through all of that and realized what works and what doesn’t work. It’s a bit of a long answer but it’s, it is a wild ride.
Jeff Bullas
00:12:46 – 00:13:28
It’s a good answer and it is a long answer, but it’s also a good answer. And uh you just mentioned, like we’re battling the algorithms of the platforms and uh the algorithms are designed for them to make more money, not designed for you as a business owner. So, exactly. So, you know, like I look, I’ve got like 55,000 followers on linkedin um engagements, not what it used to be. I have 560,000 followers on Twitter. The engagement’s not there again because um you are removed from the stream to maximize revenue for the platform.
Jeff Bullas
00:13:29 – 00:14:02
So tell us about how you overcome that in the latest version of linkedin to generate leads because OK, so number one, you need to get leads, then you need to get them engaged, then you need to actually make money out of them. So maybe let’s just dumb it to keep it really simple. So how do you generate leads? How do you get, how do you continue to keep them engaged? And then how do you make money out of those leads? Let’s maybe just double to that, those three steps. Is there? Have I missed a step in that? I think that’s pretty good. It isn’t it?
Matt Clark
00:14:02 – 00:14:45
I think it’s pretty, you know, it’s pretty simple. It’s in the nuances where the things work or where it doesn’t work. I mean, we’ve literally seen people that have come in. They’ve got great linkedin profiles. They’re doing all the outreach, they’re doing all the stuff that everyone is supposed to do. And then we go and make a couple of tweaks and then, you know, but they’re getting no engagement, they’re getting no leads, they get no conversation started. We go and we help them do a bit of market research, make a couple of tweaks and then the thing just blows up, right? Like crazy. I mean, the other day, one of my clients, you know, he worked with S IOS Chief information security officers, he did a post that had 100 and 80,000 views. He had 1000 300 engagements and over 280 comments
Matt Clark
00:14:46 – 00:15:21
right off of a short post and you only got 5000 followers, 5000 connections. So the key to getting this right is very simple. Number one, it’s simple, not easy. OK, a distinction there. But number one is, you’ve got to decide who is your ideal client and get really targeted on that. So we call this the power of one, to solve one big problem for one ideal client. Most people are trying to put everything that they do on there and their profiles start looking like a CV, like they’re applying for a job and how great they are in their skill sets. And all the rest,
Matt Clark
00:15:21 – 00:15:52
we turn that into a landing page. And if you think about a landing page, it’s got one big promise. It’s got a video, it’s got testimonials. It’s got what this thing is about showing them, how you get them from point A to point B and it’s got a couple of other points in there too. And so that’s the first step. So the second step and, and we always tie that, that first step in the positioning around. What’s that one outcome that they can get? So a measurable outcome in a fixed time frame through a system or methodology,
Matt Clark
00:15:54 – 00:16:19
Once we get that dial, then, then we start, you know, actually figuring out who is in the network. Because if we’re trying to go after, let’s say CEO S but CEO S of tech companies and everyone that you are connected to is a, a systems, a systems engineer from the previous organization that you were in. Well, your stuff’s not gonna get engagement because no one’s gonna care,
Matt Clark
00:16:21 – 00:17:02
right? So we first take a look at who is in the connections. And then based on that, that tells us what the next steps are. Because if we’ve got a lot of people who are ideal clients, first steps are run a poll drive engagement, we’re asking what are the things that they wanna know most about based on that create a lead magnet and then drive traffic to that lead magnet to get people to raise their hands open up a conversation, uh qualify them and get them on a call, then you create a video out of that. Um put it up onto an article, page drive traffic to that and you can even start running ads once you found a winner and um it, it generates conversations.
Matt Clark
00:17:03 – 00:17:48
And so the key thing is the more specific you are and the more targeted you are and really understand who your ideal client is, the better it works right now. If you don’t have ideal clients, uh if you don’t have them as part of your network, then your f your first goal is gonna be. Well, I need to go and do market research to figure out what are the big pain points that they’re facing? What are their fears, their goals, their desires and how does what I do relate to solving those problems with a specific outcome? Because that’s gonna get your positioning once you’ve got that, then your entire, your, your next steps are, I’ve got to go and build more of these connections and then start taking them through and then go back, taking them through the same process.
Jeff Bullas
00:17:49 – 00:17:49
Is this all
Matt Clark
00:17:49 – 00:17:50
it depends.
Jeff Bullas
00:17:50 – 00:17:52
Is this all done on linkedin?
Matt Clark
00:17:53 – 00:17:59
All on linkedin? Yeah, 100%. OK. All on linkedin. So how do you know what is interesting? Yeah.
Jeff Bullas
00:17:59 – 00:18:06
So how do you get it? So you’ve got engagement, you’ve got traffic, you’ve got comments. So can you collect leads on linkedin?
Matt Clark
00:18:09 – 00:18:16
What do you mean by collecting leads, we get people raising their hands, start a conversation, get them on a call. Absolutely.
Jeff Bullas
00:18:16 – 00:18:25
OK. So that’s one. But do you, can you capture their email? Can you own, can you own the client sort of linked in owning the client? In other words, it’s all on their platform.
Matt Clark
00:18:26 – 00:19:02
Yeah, you can 100%. There’s a couple of ways to do this. Um If you put your lead magnet onto a landing page, you can do that. Um There also are uh like the, the tool that we use to do the automation to, you know, send people messages has also got a piece of it where you can actually enrich their data which will pull their email and their contact numbers that are linked to their linkedin account into the system. So what we do a lot of the time as well as now it sits in your CRM is when we’re sending linkedin messages out, get the emails, get the contact numbers. And now we can also send emails and SMS
Jeff Bullas
00:19:02 – 00:19:07
S OK. So you’re doing that with platforms like uh Infusionsoft?
Matt Clark
00:19:08 – 00:19:11
No, we’ve got our own platform, Rainmaker A I
Jeff Bullas
00:19:11 – 00:19:23
OK. Cool. So that’s your tool which basically uh is that got like a um what can we say uh connection into linkedin,
Matt Clark
00:19:24 – 00:19:25
correct?
Jeff Bullas
00:19:26 – 00:19:31
So you’ve got um so linked that allows you to actually plug into the network. Is that correct?
Matt Clark
00:19:33 – 00:20:04
Yeah. And um you know, the trick is with all of these A I tools because, you know, everyone shouts, you know, uh shouts from the rooftops like automation is bad and everything is not, automation is bad if you abuse it, right. These links will shut you down if you abuse it. So the trick is to do it in a way that is, you know, still within their rules, still within their guidelines still um actually using what it’s designed for, which is building your network. Right?
Matt Clark
00:20:04 – 00:20:24
OK. Right. Because it’s a networking platform, you know, when it says linkedin is a social media platform, it’s not, it’s a networking platform, right? You know, like, I don’t know many people that sit there and scroll through uh linkedin looking for cool stuff to read. Um You know, we do it all the time and I, I scroll through things like Facebook or Instagram or whatever because it’s more entertaining.
Jeff Bullas
00:20:26 – 00:20:39
Well, I try to avoid social media. I try to avoid social media platforms because I’d rather read a good book than actually be distracted by an influencer in a bikini. Like I like an influencer, but I don’t really don’t want to uh
Matt Clark
00:20:40 – 00:20:40
I
Matt Clark
00:20:42 – 00:20:47
I want funny videos, you know, I want something to laugh at. Like there’s a lot of fun that come up
Jeff Bullas
00:20:47 – 00:20:52
what like cat videos which have been around for a long time or, or
Matt Clark
00:20:52 – 00:21:00
influences in bikinis that are falling over and hurting themselves and yeah, what influences in the wild. It’s hilarious. So,
Jeff Bullas
00:21:00 – 00:21:06
What’s the social platform, search, um, influencers in the world who drink? Um, maybe, I don’t know,
Matt Clark
00:21:07 – 00:21:26
You see that one influence in the wild is hilarious. And then you watch how, like the, the woman is there trying to get her bikini shot and then the husband’s there trying to, like, you know, be the, the man behind the tech and the poses that they do and then you got someone just filming this whole thing being like, look at these guys like what’s going on here.
Jeff Bullas
00:21:27 – 00:21:51
Yeah. Well, the, the, the trouble is you go through into Europe and you go like, and you’re in the, uh you’re in Milan, you’re in the square there in front of the cathedral and it’s like, it’s like, it’s full of uh influences with husbands or partners, boyfriends or even professional photographers taking photos and going, ok, so this is your life. Um I’m glad I’m glad you’re happy. That’s really good. Um Anyway, we, we d
Matt Clark
00:21:53 – 00:22:32
we, we did this one funny story for you here. Um We did this one and we posted it on, so we’ve got like a travel Instagram as well. And um we posted this one, you know, those uh expectations versus reality. And there was this one where we were in uh Athens in Greece and we were at the Parthenon and uh we where it was quiet and it was like expectations. It is like, we’re there and it’s amazing. And there’s a picture of me behind a picture of me and my wife and the Python on behind us and looks beautiful. In reality. You scroll down and there’s just lines of people waiting to get up and you’re like, yeah, that, that, that’s true. Yeah, it happens. Yeah.
Jeff Bullas
00:22:33 – 00:22:38
Just, just go, go to Europe during summer. That’s the end of the story. Thank you very much. Yeah,
Matt Clark
00:22:38 – 00:22:39
you got it.
Jeff Bullas
00:22:42 – 00:23:04
All right. So um you, so you’re typically doing this for more mid to high um value businesses. So in other words, someone selling a $20,000 coaching program or $100,000 widget that actually um takes someone to the moon, right? As an example. But um so
Matt Clark
00:23:04 – 00:23:07
probably cost a bit more than 100 grand. But yes,
Jeff Bullas
00:23:08 – 00:23:14
Well, you know, Elon Musk might be running a sale next week. We don’t know. Um But yeah,
Jeff Bullas
00:23:17 – 00:24:05
so, so you, I. I’m fascinated by the fact that you’ve actually sounded like you’ve really grown, hacked linkedin, which is fantastic, right? Um, I hacked Twitter during the day. And um I just, I just sort of got over it. The fact is I just was over battling all the algorithms of the platforms because one week you can do this next week, you can’t do that. Ah the following month you can plug in next week, you can’t plug in. So tell me some horror stories as well as great stories about how you work with linkedin because I’ve, I’ve expanded with content linkedin and got like, my best post got like, um
Jeff Bullas
00:24:05 – 00:24:38
I was the top content on linkedin back in 2013 with a project about um uh basically why you shouldn’t, you know, use Facebook, sort of, I can’t remember the exact headline, but I ended up with 300,000 views and like 1000 comments in days. Right. And, uh, yeah, so I hacked linkedin back then. How are you dealing with the constant changing because Microsoft bought linkedin, change the game again. Right.
Matt Clark
00:24:39 – 00:24:40
Absolutely.
Jeff Bullas
00:24:40 – 00:24:56
So what are some of the secrets to growth, hacking Linked in to drive leads and sales? Can you give us some insider secrets that, uh, you can tell me? But, uh, you’d have to kill me if you told me and no one else would know about it. But, you know, so,
Matt Clark
00:24:57 – 00:25:32
well, I’ll give you the, I’ll give you the broad picture of it, um, you know, minus the, the nuances that make it work. Uh, so I think that’s, that’s fair enough, you know. Um, so what a couple of, a couple of the big things, I mean, we’ve tried everything from, you know, doing the, when you could initially like blasting out like 200 connections a day. I mean, that’s how I grew my linkedin, you know, uh, uh, very quickly but then, you know, at the time it was all in South Africa. So now you start going outside South Africa. Now you got all these people from South Africa and like, ok, now we got to disconnect all of that.
Matt Clark
00:25:33 – 00:25:44
But the key thing is, you know, be very intentional about who you are connecting with. The number doesn’t mean anything unless it’s the right people in there and it doesn’t go anywhere and
Jeff Bullas
00:25:44 – 00:25:46
they actually engage with you. Exactly.
Matt Clark
00:25:47 – 00:26:31
Yeah. Exactly. Well, you know, you want to be putting content out that your ideal client actually gives a shit about, you know, and so if you’ve got, if I use the example from before, like if you’re looking for uh tech CEO S and you’ve got software engineers and you’re talking about stuff that only CEO S are gonna be dealing with your content is gonna go nowhere that so it, it’s, it’s really the, the key is getting that message really, really dialed in. And so once you’ve got that dialed in, what we figured out is we’ve kind of taken the best of automation, think, you know, infusion, soft click funnels, like all of these automation tools, cr MS and outreach on linkedin, making it really personal and then putting them together.
Matt Clark
00:26:32 – 00:27:04
OK. So the key really is once you’ve got that position and dialed in is to create a lead magnet, right? A very simple lead magnet, which is a piece of the, of the piece of the process that you take people through um you drive traffic to that through outreach posts. Once you get one that actually works, you can start running some ads to it as well. Then you start a conversation with people, um get the video to them, invite them to jump on a call with you and make some offers, right? That is the
Matt Clark
00:27:04 – 00:27:34
The simplest, most straightforward direct approach is obviously a whole bunch of things in, in between that, that make those nuances work. Um But then the content that you post out uh is structured in a way that it’s taking people down that journey of how you get them from point A to point B from the pain that they’re in right now to the goal that they want to get to, and you wanna be releasing these lead magnets at least twice a month on the low end. So lead magnets at least twice a month. Um You can do once a week,
Matt Clark
00:27:35 – 00:28:17
right? Getting people to show their interest, raise their hand and the more you do this, the more people are going to get engaged because you don’t know what that thing is that’s going to get them across the line. So we always want to be testing that. And then once you found the ones that work, you can start running ads to it and inviting people to, to calls. Uh and then what we do is on the, once you’ve built up a nice profile and you built up nice connections and people are starting to engage more is then run an event, run a webinar and you can invite all those people through to a webinar. I mean, uh last year we did, we added over 650 grand to our business and we were doing two webinars a month. So just from webinars
Matt Clark
00:28:18 – 00:28:57
right, there was over and above everything else that we were doing. And so there’s, there’s, it’s, it’s a cycle, it’s like a life cycle. And if you just think about it, you wanna give people different ways to interact with you and see you in a different light and be able to connect with you in a different way. Whereas most people are just going linear, they’re like, OK, I need to just do the outreach spam the hell out of people, throw my offer out spaghetti against the wall, hopefully something’s gonna stick and inevitably one or two things will stick um for a time, but it’s gonna be a lot of hard work to be able to get them there. I mean, we just got
Matt Clark
00:28:58 – 00:29:25
uh yeah, so one last thing is we got one. My business partner just sent me a message from one of our clients. Now. Uh she’s just had 70 people sign up to her virtual event. 60% of them are her exact ideal clients. And um she’s got one sales call booked before the event has even started from the processes that we’ve taken her through, I’ll wait to get the numbers afterwards. But so far so good.
Jeff Bullas
00:29:26 – 00:29:35
So you’re writing like a 360 degree marketing that actually, um, runs a range of tactics to actually, rather than just doubling down on one.
Matt Clark
00:29:36 – 00:29:57
Yeah, it’s not linear. I mean, people are not linear. I mean, imagine how easy business would be if, you know, you could design a sales process and everyone would just follow it, step by step and what a life. But we’re dealing with people. It’s worse than herding cats. It’s gotta do what you want them to and then you got to get them to give you a credit card on top of it. Good luck.
Jeff Bullas
00:29:59 – 00:30:14
Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s the good luck part. So describe, so your business model for Ramaker, how does it work? So, in other words, how do you onboard clients? Uh What do you charge? What’s the process? Give us a bit of a thumbnail sketch of that?
Matt Clark
00:30:15 – 00:30:39
Cool. So, uh we’ve got three different levels at which we play with our clients. We’ve got a, you know, come in, um, done with you. Uh So you more like to do it yourself with some coaching, which is at five grand. We’ve got a, uh, done with you in depth with a one on one plus group, which is 10 and we’ve got a much longer, uh uh, a yearly program which is uh 35,000.
Matt Clark
00:30:39 – 00:31:01
And so what we do is when somebody comes in, um, we’ll do an on boarding session, we’ll take a look at, we’ll do an audit of their account. So, who have you actually got in there? Who are you looking for? Who have you got in there? What’s the process we’ll identify? Well, what level of the business are you actually at? Some people are at the, at the starting stages, some people at the growing stages and some people are at the scaling stage,
Matt Clark
00:31:02 – 00:31:38
you know. So have you got your message positioning offer dialed in? Have you got case studies? Is it proven? Have you got all of that stuff? If yes, great. We can plug straight into the system, start generating leads and get this thing moving forward. If you don’t, then we’ve got to go and build that right and validate it in the marketplace. I mean, some of our clients, especially in the beginning of the program that I spoke to you about, they’re looking to get their 1st 1 to 5 clients, all 1 to 5 clients from linkedin, right? And so we help them do that and then um
Matt Clark
00:31:39 – 00:31:50
We work closely with them for over four months and after four months, they can decide, do they want to continue working with us or have they got enough that they want to continue by themselves? And we’ve got a couple of options on that.
Jeff Bullas
00:31:51 – 00:32:05
Yep. Cool. So, uh this sounds very labor intensive. Um um So how do you scale you? Because you know, do you want to be turning up at 12 a.m. to talk to someone in the USA, for example.
Matt Clark
00:32:05 – 00:32:07
No, that’s a really good question.
Jeff Bullas
00:32:08 – 00:32:25
So how do you scale? Um In other words, yeah, you gotta run webinars, you gotta do face to face, you gotta get the lead, you gotta convert them to sale. I’m just listening. I’m exhausted. Tell me how you scale you.
Matt Clark
00:32:26 – 00:33:08
Mm Yeah. No great question. So um we’ve, you know, after the uh over the last couple of years, I mean, we actually built all of our processes out, we templated it, then we framework them and we did all of that. So what we do now is we’ve actually built all of our training, all of our processes into A I which means that when people are coming in, they don’t need me so much anymore. They don’t need us on the delivery side of things. They can go in and answer a couple of questions and they can get it to 70 or 80 90% of the way there. Um And then we help them make some tweaks on the weekly calls. So we do still do a couple of delivery calls um
Matt Clark
00:33:09 – 00:33:46
at the same time as running the events. I mean, we use uh go high level and we’ve got some automation uh and our A I automation tool as well. We’ve prebuilt the whole system. So for us to run another event. It’s like, well, what’s the name, what’s the topic? Um, we’ve prebuilt all the, the, the emails that work and now to change them over, I’ve got that as a template so I can put in the prompts with the new titles and the benefits and all the rest and it will write all the emails for me too. So to get up and running is, is a day. I’m Not even a couple of hours and we’re up and running, a new event is set up and going.
Matt Clark
00:33:46 – 00:34:01
So everything we’ve created systems out of it. We use it in depth in the business. We use automation, we use the tools available, you know what I mean? Running a seven figure business and uh we’ve got four people in the organization.
Jeff Bullas
00:34:02 – 00:34:03
It’s also
Matt Clark
00:34:03 – 00:34:05
so you have to use systems.
Jeff Bullas
00:34:05 – 00:34:16
Oh yeah. Um I think it was uh George Lucas says not only need to fall in love with what you do but fall in love with the process of what you do. So it sounds like you’ve done that. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Clark
00:34:17 – 00:34:18
And how are the right people?
Jeff Bullas
00:34:19 – 00:34:20
Oh, you need the right
Matt Clark
00:34:20 – 00:34:48
because I don’t love building. I don’t love building systems. But you know what my business partner does and uh my wife’s actually joined us in the business. She loves building systems like that. Such a happy place. And then um my business partner’s wife is in there as well. And, you know, she loves dealing with clients and, you know, she was an ex teacher. So we’ve got this, like, and I love to be out there selling and being on stage and talking on webinars. So we’ve got this, you know, it’s the right mix of people with the right skills.
Jeff Bullas
00:34:48 – 00:34:56
Very cool. So using an I to sort of answer the questions. Uh, so you put your own sort of custom chat. but is that what you’ve done?
Matt Clark
00:34:57 – 00:35:32
Yep. To help write the profile for people to write all their outreach messages, to create their offer if they need it to create what we call a signature solution. Um Literally every piece of the process we’ve built in there. So, you know, when, when we first started doing this without A I and, and having to try and work people through the worksheets, it used to take in some cases if people weren’t on it 2 to 3 months before they’d be up and running. Now, they’re up and running on the first call. I want people to have quick wins, like right from the first call, they’re launching their first campaign.
Jeff Bullas
00:35:33 – 00:35:37
So in other words, uh A I is actually amplifying your productivity
Matt Clark
00:35:39 – 00:35:44
100% 100% probably like 1000%. It’s wild.
Jeff Bullas
00:35:45 – 00:35:46
So
Matt Clark
00:35:46 – 00:35:48
did the coaches.
Jeff Bullas
00:35:48 – 00:35:52
So you’re creating your A I chat bots to do this.
Matt Clark
00:35:53 – 00:36:13
We’ve created our own chatbots. We’ve created our own um G BT s. We’ve built it into our own platform. So, you know, it’s got all of our branding and everything on it and that’s actually our membership site now. You know, it’s no longer a case of let’s have 60 videos or I mean, I remember the first version of the course was 12 hour long videos.
Matt Clark
00:36:14 – 00:36:50
I don’t know why the hell anyone watched that, but we sold like 400 almost 500 of those. Um And people got results. So I’m happy with that. But now it’s like we’ve got the short 5 to 10 minute videos, the bite size chunks, which literally explains how to use the A I what output we’re looking for and how to double check it. And then we built an AIS that will review the output to see if it is getting everything that we need in the way that we need it and you know, reaching your, your goals. So now it’s the, the, the amount of learning that has to happen along the way is dramatically decreased. We’ve done it already.
Jeff Bullas
00:36:51 – 00:36:58
So you’ve created an A I assistant for them to actually scale their productivity and also accelerate their velocity
Matt Clark
00:37:00 – 00:37:26
100%. Which means that when they get started, they can start generating leads. The fastest we looked at it yesterday. Uh The record we’ve got so far for someone generating a lead from when they started is two hours actually getting on a like not just a lead which is like, hey, I’m interested but actually getting them on a call uh is two hours was the fastest one and they closed the sale. It was like a 10 grand sale. It’s wild.
Jeff Bullas
00:37:26 – 00:37:27
That’s very cool.
Matt Clark
00:37:28 – 00:37:29
Yeah.
Jeff Bullas
00:37:31 – 00:37:49
So what this is the question? So this sounds really, really cool. And I’m so if you’re going to board someone, uh is that done by processes? Do you do it face to face, how do you engage with a client from day one?
Matt Clark
00:37:51 – 00:38:31
We do it face to face. Um Because we want to make sure that people are going in the right direction, they’re thinking about their business the correct way. Um You know, we, we found that the start is the most important because if someone has got their ladder up against the wrong wall, then, you know, I’m going forward but in the wrong direction. Uh and then we’ve got to recalibrate and it’s not a great experience for anybody. So the first one we always do in person, um my business partner handles the onboarding and we’ve got a whole process for, for absolutely everything and sops and as we built this, we’ve been doing it a while now. Um So he does the onboarding and then
Matt Clark
00:38:31 – 00:38:38
We follow the rest of the journey depending on what level people are coming in, and will depend on what level of support they get from us.
Jeff Bullas
00:38:38 – 00:38:49
Cool. And what’s your ideal customer profile called ICP is an acronym. Uh So what’s your customer profile for virtual edge?
Matt Clark
00:38:50 – 00:39:30
So we typically work with um uh B to B service based service businesses that have, you know, high client lifetime value. Um You know, which is probably $20,000 plus because it’s gonna take some time, energy and effort. You wanna make sure if you’re getting on a call with someone, you know, you’re gonna get the return. Uh So if you’re selling a, you know, $100 thing, I wouldn’t recommend linkedin is the place for you to go. Well, not with us anyways. Um But we typically look for people who are selling at least something that’s $5000. They’ve got proven client results. They’ve got case studies, they’ve got testimonials. Um They’ve got an offer that they’ve sold and they’re looking to grow. Um,
Matt Clark
00:39:30 – 00:39:57
you know, if they’ve got a va that’s great. And there’s, there’s two levels, there’s the people who are at the place where we want them to be, where we really help them grow, which is what they’re doing on average, you know, they’re doing like 50,000 or 25,000 a month and they want to get to 100,000 plus. And there’s the people who are starting out who are aspirational, who want to get there, they’ve got the vision, they just need, how do I get there? Right. And so if someone’s got a team amazing, either a va or a sales team,
Matt Clark
00:39:58 – 00:40:13
it moves super fast because everything is validated. They just need to grow if they don’t, they want to get there and they want to build that out in which case we help them do that, build the sops, find the right person and take over the day to day for them so they can focus on doing the things they love.
Jeff Bullas
00:40:13 – 00:41:08
Alright, cool. Ok. So you’ve got your ideal customer profile. So $10,000 plus and uh B to B is typically where you’re focusing B to B services. So that’s cool. So B to B services. Yeah, B to B services. So just to wrap it up, this is something I um ask every one of my people that I have a chat to the fireside chat as we call it. Um, I love it. So Matt, what brings you joy and you would do it for free every day if you weren’t even paid for it? What brings you deep joy? I’m not talking about smoking dope. Um doing drugs or hanging out with bikini squares. I’m talking about deep joy, not frivolous, frivolity. Um So tell me what we do.
Matt Clark
00:41:09 – 00:41:58
Uh you know, for me it’s like I’m actually a pretty simple dude. Um you know, I don’t wear designer clothes or I don’t worry about any of that crap. Um, I went through a lot of health challenges a couple of years ago. So for me it’s like being alive is pretty awesome. Um, and you know, something that would bring me joy every day, I think, I think you do something every day. You’re gonna get bored at some stage. But it’s, there’s a couple of things I love to do, which is, I love to travel. I love to experience new places. Um, new cultures, like food, learning them, getting involved in the languages, meeting the people like that. Really is incredible. It’s like it lights me up. Uh, and fishing. I love fishing. Just being outdoors. Ok. Love fishing. Right.
Jeff Bullas
00:41:58 – 00:42:04
Ok. Well, um, there’s something good about being in nature, certainly. Um, and
Matt Clark
00:42:05 – 00:42:07
It’s soul enriching. Yeah.
Jeff Bullas
00:42:08 – 00:42:13
And I think we need to take our ear pods out and listen to the birds occasionally.
Matt Clark
00:42:14 – 00:42:41
I just, I love it. Most of the places I go to are so remote there’s not even a cell phone signal. I mean, we fished on, um, you know, I went back to South Africa at the end of last year. My wife needed to go back because she was selling her business and she needed to do a handover. And I was like, I don’t want to spend time in Joburg while you guys are, uh, while you’re working. So I went on a fishing trip with a couple of buddies to Mozambique
Matt Clark
00:42:41 – 00:43:19
and we went on a yacht. We went about, uh, I think it was about a 40-40 ft Cameron or 50 ft Cameron went out about, you know, 30 kilometers out into the ocean, found a reef and we just caught massive fish for a week and uh I came back rejuvenated. Um We went to the lower Zambezi in, in Zambia, uh tiger fish where you’re going up and down the river and there’s hippos in the river and crocodiles on the, on the river banks and elephants walking past like in the wild. It’s like a different world. Like that’s the kind of stuff I like to do. Not just, you know, local dams and uh sit there with cell phone signals and play games.
Jeff Bullas
00:43:21 – 00:44:09
12. Thank you for sharing all that. And uh I used to love fishing so much because I didn’t catch enough fish. I used to say after half an hour, I wasn’t catching fish in the Adelaide Gulf. And uh dad said, what are you doing? He said, I’m just reading a book under the front of the boat. So um and guess what I love doing, I love reading contemplation, science writing. So, and I, the other thing that brings me deep joy um is having conversations like this and uh meeting people and I pref yeah, connecting. Yeah. And as I quite often say, this just confirms a Harvard study of 90 years. It shows the best, deepest joys in human connection. And I think in a world of a I, we’re gonna keep looking into that. So, um
Jeff Bullas
00:44:10 – 00:44:22
but thank you very much Thank you very much for sharing your insights and I can see your passion shining through and um bring your gifts to the world. So, thank you very much, Matt. It’s been an absolute joy mate.
Matt Clark
00:44:23 – 00:44:26
Yeah, it’s been amazing. Jeff. Thank you so much for having me on
Jeff Bullas
00:44:27 – 00:44:37
and look forward to catching up in real life. Somewhere in, it looks like Asia is your thing at the moment. So, I haven’t done enough in Asia. So, yeah,
Matt Clark
00:44:37 – 00:44:39
What kind of books do you like reading?
Jeff Bullas
00:44:39 – 00:45:33
Um I’m leaning a lot into a I, the biggest question I have at the moment is um is, is two areas. Um I just interviewed Nick Bostrom, the polymath out of Oxford University, which is about uh A I is producing well, can be and is producing an existential crisis. In other words, what makes us human in a world of A I and human? Uh what, who are we if A I does everything for us? So for me, um I love exploring what I call suitcase words like happiness, success. What? Because they, you can open up a suitcase with those words in them and there are many meanings sitting inside there. So, um so for me, uh the books I read, I read about 60 to 70 books a year and I
Jeff Bullas
00:45:34 – 00:45:59
a little bit, I’m a little bit like what Charlie Munger said about Warren Buffett. He said that Warren Buffett just sits in his arse all day. And read books. I don’t know what he does. Charlie said. So um but we live in a world of information. So what you gotta do, you’ve gotta actually consume information cos out of 100%. So we need to actually consume so we can actually share and learn and uh
Matt Clark
00:46:00 – 00:46:01
and test and implement.
Jeff Bullas
00:46:02 – 00:46:54
Yeah, exactly. So um I have a AAA bit of a philosophy about life which is summed up in five pillars. Number one is I think as humans, we are creators. So the first pillar is actually discovering why you’re here on the planet. And as Steven Spielberg said, it usually doesn’t shout, it just whispers from behind what you should be doing with the rest of your life. Number two, then you create something and implement it. In other words, put your gift out into the world. Number three is share that with the world. So it might publish a product. Um Number four, you actually then need to amplify and then number five, you need to actually then keep iterating. So the five, I call it the freedom code for me. That’s um
Jeff Bullas
00:46:54 – 00:47:18
I just discovered it fits what I should be doing for the rest of my life. And it was basically um to follow my curiosity till it became compelling and then create something and share it with the world. And then out of that, I think synchronicity and the world shows up for you. And it’s happened to me ever since that discovery. So,
Matt Clark
00:47:19 – 00:47:31
yeah, it’s interesting, you know, after you say that now I think that um and I gave you a kind of long answer in the story, but that actually is just what you’ve described.
Jeff Bullas
00:47:32 – 00:48:28
Yeah, it’s um I, I think, and the other thing that I think I’ve also learned in the discovery phase and it’s Joseph Campbell said, we don’t have any purpose in life but to follow our bliss. And I think the key word in that is follow, which means actually just step into the gap and actually do something because your purpose is not a destination. It’s actually a journey. And that’s a cliche. I know the journey. But the reality is and mentioned by George Lucas, that you need to not only enjoy what you do, but love the process of what you do. So for me, following your bliss is not arriving but in doing and enjoying students along the way, um 100% because we will, none of us will ever arrive.
Jeff Bullas
00:48:30 – 00:48:45
There is no destiny. It’s just a journey. And you’ve got to choose what you love doing. Otherwise you won’t be able to stay the distance. You won’t keep stepping in every day, you won’t keep stepping up every day. So uh for me, that’s really, really important. So anyway,
Matt Clark
00:48:46 – 00:49:00
I love it. Yeah. No, I mean, like we, you know, we’re talking. That’s one of my philosophies as well, like the goal is not the goal, the journey is the goal. It is, you know, the destination is not the goal, the journey is the goal. Um That’s where all the fun happens.
Jeff Bullas
00:49:01 – 00:49:36
Exactly. Because if you think it’s gonna be a destination, you turn up to it and you’re going shit, this is actually what I didn’t want. Um or this is not what I expected. Um And uh and my dad passed away a few years ago and he had an idea of what the destination was going to be for his life. And um he whispered to my s my brother sort of like it just didn’t turn out the way I expected because the destination wasn’t what he wanted. And uh yeah, and you’re right. So
Matt Clark
00:49:36 – 00:49:53
It really is the idea that you have in your mind and the reality that comes through are very often two different things, you know, because you can be very creative up here, but then might not be the same. I’ve experienced that too, you know.
Jeff Bullas
00:49:54 – 00:49:59
Yeah, be uh the old be very, be very, very careful what you wish for.
Matt Clark
00:50:00 – 00:50:06
Mhm mhm Don’t miss your life away literally.
Jeff Bullas
00:50:07 – 00:50:11
So Matt, thank you very much for a great conversation and um
Matt Clark
00:50:11 – 00:50:13
really cool connection with you, Jeff.
Jeff Bullas
00:50:13 – 00:50:20
I would love to catch up in real life IRL as I say acronyms but um I hate acronym
Matt Clark
00:50:21 – 00:50:24
but um are you on whatsapp or you got iphone or something?
Jeff Bullas
00:50:25 – 00:50:26
Yeah. Yeah, I’m on whatsapp.
Matt Clark
00:50:26 – 00:50:32
So it’s numbers and chat in your whatsapp quickly. So, so what do
Jeff Bullas
00:50:32 – 00:50:38
Do you want my mobile? So, um what do you need? Just my mobiles or what is it
Matt Clark
00:50:39 – 00:50:42
just mobile? Yep. All right. It’s 61.?
Jeff Bullas
00:50:42 – 00:50:47
Ok. Yeah, plus 6 +1413 double +62620.
Matt Clark
00:50:50 – 00:50:57
Uh 413 double 62620. Ok, sweet.
Jeff Bullas
00:50:57 – 00:51:01
All that I can accept you or not.
Matt Clark
00:51:02 – 00:51:09
Yeah, exactly like you know it’s a nice chat. Don’t wanna talk again or whatever
Jeff Bullas
00:51:09 – 00:51:33
I would love to. So um I’ll just wrap it up here. I actually have a bit of a chat afterwards quickly if you want. Um Matt, fantastic mate. It’s been an absolute joy and I can see the passion of life oozing from you. So um and it’s fantastic to see there’s a lot of people that are dead on arrival and you’re not one of those.
Matt Clark
00:51:34 – 00:51:42
Yeah, there’s too much cool stuff to do. I haven’t explored enough yet. You gotta be strong for that man.
Jeff Bullas
00:51:42 – 00:51:45
Exactly. So thank you very much, Matt. It’s been an absolute joy.
Matt Clark
00:51:46 – 00:51:49
Yeah, thanks for having me, Jeff. It’s been great connecting.