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Virtual Edge Founder Matt Clark Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast

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Introducing Matt Clark From The Virtual Edge

Virtual Edge founder Matt Clark is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast.

He is the founder of The Virtual Edge and co creator of The Rainmaker System – an online marketing system that helps coaches,
advisers and consultants get 2-5 high value leads per day from Linkedin without paying for ads.

Matthew and his business partner Wesley Longueira have helped over 1000 businesses in 17 countries grow exponentially.

Their 3 step approach places human connection at its core, paving the way for a new wave of lead generation marketing.

They are a multi million dollar company and have helped their clients grow to six and seven figures without paid advertising.

Now this isn’t something that occurred overnight.

As with all stories on Join Up Dots there are a lot of dots to join up and that is certainly the case of 

How The Dots Joined Up For Matt

I began in door to door sales and quickly became highly successful earning between 80-200k per month at just aged 19.

I co-founded a telecom sales company at age 23 and grew that to more than 6M in sales by year 3.

Instead of enjoying this success however I ended up completely burnt out realising that the business could not function without me.

I knew that I wanted a different lifestyle- to travel the world, earn multiple currencies and to have more time to enjoy my life.

That’s when I switched gears and began focusing on automation and developing systems that support business growth.

I started consulting with businesses working on-to-one with big names on the global stage including Samsung, Loral Langemeier and Peter Sage.

I soon came to realise that I wanted to have more impact. I know the only forward was further systematisation and automation.

The success of the Rainmaker System has led to Matthew becoming a sought after international speaker and has shared the stage with big names like Dr. Phill, JT Foxx, Michael Douglas and many more.

Matthew is also the author of The Proven Path, The Automation Playbook and The Automated Income systems and has been featured in Wake up- How to live a Healthy Vibrant Lifestyle.

So is a thriving business as much as coming up with the idea, or overcoming the obstacles that always come our way?

And why do so many people love to do the clunky spammy approach on Linkedin time and time again?

Show Highlights

During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Matt Clark such as:

Shares how every door that he knocked on over months and months and months gave him many of the skills that he uses today.

Why we should dig deep into the online world to truly see what is available to us before we ever make a quick decision as to where we want to head. 

Matt shares the process of getting amazing leads from Linkedin by becoming truly focused on providing value, value, value.

And lastly…..

Why Jim Carrey’s amazing character Ace Ventura might just provide the greatest business advice the world has ever seen.

How To Connect With Matt Clark

Website

LinkedIn

Return To The Top Of Virtual Edge Matt Clark

Full Transcription Of Matt Clark /Virtual Edge Interview

Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.

David Ralph [0:25]
Yes, hello there. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, and welcome to the squillian episode of Join Up Dots who’s counting? They’re all pretty much the same conversation. But we’ve got a good guest today. We always had good guests Actually, I’ve been with we’ve been on a roll for about the last seven years. And so today’s guest has got a lot to match up to. He is joining us on the show because he’s the founder of the virtual age and co creator of the Rainmaker system, an online marketing system that helps coaches advisors and consultants get two to five high value leads per day from linked in. here’s the kicker without paying for ads. Now him and his business partner Wesley have helped over 1000 businesses in 17 countries grow exponentially in our three step approach, places human connection at its core, paving the way for a new wave of lead generation marketing. They are a multi million dollar company. And they have helped their clients grow to six and seven figures without paid advertising. As we say, Now, this isn’t something that occurred overnight, as we’ve all stories on Join Up Dots. There’s a lot of dots to join up. And that is certainly the case. As he says I began in door to door sales and quickly became highly successful earning between 80 and 200 grand per month at age just 19. Bloody hell. I’m going to read that again. I began in door to door sales and earn 80 to 200 grand per month right This isn’t who busy selling. I co founded a telecom sales company at age 23 and grew back to more than 6 million in sales by year three instead of enjoying the success, our brand I ended up completely burnt out realising that the business could not function without me. And I knew I wanted a different lifestyle to travel the world and multiple currencies and to have more time to enjoy my life. And that’s when I switched gears. I began focusing on automation, and developing the systems that support business growth. And I started consulting with businesses working one to one with big names on the global stage, including Samsung and Peter sight. I soon came to realise I wanted to have more impact greedy little, so I know the only way forward was systemization and automation, and the success of the Rainmaker system has led to him getting back. He’s also the author of the proven path, the automation playbook, and the automated income systems and he’s been featured in wake up how to live a healthy, vibrant lifestyle. So is a thriving business as much as coming up with the idea or simply overcoming the obstacles that always come our way. Why do so many people love to do the clunky spammy approach? on LinkedIn time and time and time again, you can since I get a lot of these, well, let’s find out as we bring them to the show to start joining up with the one and only Mr. Matt Clark.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [3:13]
Good morning, Matt. How are you? I am amazing. Thank you. What an intro. Wow.

David Ralph [3:20]
It was a long one. It was a long one. I’m gonna go straight to this because I sort of did this a couple of days ago. I didn’t reflect 80 to 200 grand per month, I use just 90 door to door sales. What were you selling?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [3:35]
So we need to clear that up first because that is in South African rents, right? So it’s about four to 10,000 pounds.

David Ralph [3:43]
Right? It’s still not bad for over 19 years.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [3:46]
That’s fantastic. Are you kidding me? So I actually started off my my, my first job was working as a waiter and you know, commission only only work for tips. And it was good that actually got me to pay for my first trip overseas. which landed up well, my first job essentially overseas to I came to the UK. And I was in the UK doing door to door sales selling Gas and Electric. Right. And so I was one of those guys that would come through and knock on the door and get you to change from your provider over to our provider and sometimes get kicked out or shouted at or had the dogs late on their pick your pick your insults.

David Ralph [4:25]
And so what’s this going on? I’m gonna throw this back at you. And it’s kind of reflecting on my own life because I used to be a cold caller. Well, I used to sign up for bank and try to get people to come into the bank and have a review of their finances. And literally, I used to just pick up the phone, and I’d have to try to connect very, very quickly on a personal level, so that it was like a friendly approach. And even though that was years ago, I still reflect every single day, but that was the probably the biggest podcasting masterclass. I had Even though it had nothing to do with it now with you talking about linked in, and making it a personal approach, how much of those skills from that door to door sounds work actually had led to where you are today?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [5:16]
All of it? Absolutely all of it. That was the foundation for who I am today, really. And you know, it’s interesting. So after I got back from the UK, I came back to South Africa. And I started doing I had a job that I absolutely hated, which was doing corporate clothing and gifts. And one day, I got a call from the guy that I used to work for in the UK, my ex boss, and he was like, Matt, I’ve got the most amazing thing that we’re selling. You’ve got to come and see me. So he phoned me on the Tuesday. I went and saw him on the Wednesday I quit my job. Today afternoon. I flew down to Cape Town on the Thursday, and I started working we would it sounds like

David Ralph [5:53]
a crazy song. I don’t know if you know this in South Africa. No. But in the UK, that will be a good year. That’d be

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [6:00]
a good yeah. I love it. I love it. I know that song. You know that the man day data did it on the Tuesday?

David Ralph [6:07]
Yes. Although you weren’t making love on a Wednesday you you were still working Really?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [6:12]
Well, you’d be surprised

David Ralph [6:16]
you weren’t you were any 40 when you were 19 COVID-19 I bet you wish shagging every day of the

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [6:21]
week was naughty, I won’t lie.

So, you know, we I went over and we started selling these things like telephone switchboard systems. And it was crazy. I mean, it did incredibly well and I ended up doing that for eight years. And you know, we then started well I did that for about four and a half years and then started my own business with two guys that I was working with. And we really took over I mean, we had a Samsung dealership selling PBX copier CCTV and you know to kind of join the dots I love that term by the way and and how you got your no The idea behind it is that I left the industry because I wanted something different, I wanted to stop working so damn hard. And also what started happening was that everything just became about money. And so I felt like it wasn’t aligning with my values and actually like eating my soul. So I decided to leave that and I wanted to go online. And I went down the route of you know, because that’s where all the money was. And I could I could travel the world and multiple currencies work from anywhere turns out to work from everywhere, and quite honestly, sitting on the beach with a laptop is crappy. I got one cocktails and sunshine, the laptop and sitting doing work,

David Ralph [7:34]
right. People always think that don’t know they always think that and, yeah, I think sand gets everywhere. Anyway. Why would you want to pat me on the beach?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [7:43]
We’ll see you get those stock photos that get put up everywhere. I think Tim Ferriss was the dude who you know, he put that the four hour workweek and he put the picture of the dude sitting on the you know, legs up on the on the thing in front of the beach. And the last thing I want to do is have a laptop in front of me working it’s too hot as well.

David Ralph [8:00]
You can’t see the screen anyway. Kenya. Yeah, you’ll be sitting with a download.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [8:03]
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And then you look ridiculous is never as glamorous as they make it look in stock photos.

David Ralph [8:10]
It never is so so with that early sort of approach to business, and you obviously realised, but you could have a different mind. I realised it because of Tim Ferriss. Funnily enough, I read that book, and I thought, bloody hell is this possible? And I started looking now, I often once again reflect I had the ability to look around because I had the internet in front of me. Yeah, what people did in our dads lives, they basically once again looked around what their mates were doing and stuff and they went into a similar world. How did you start to change direction and realise actually, but I couldn’t have the life I want, and this is the right option for me.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [8:53]
Yeah, it’s interesting, you know, first thing, just going back to the comment about what the parents did, I mean, if you listen to some About parents stories, they had to walk over mountains to find anything, anything out, you know, and connected by a carrier pigeon.

Yeah,

we’d be very careful about what we believe there, you know, but for me, it was how I connected to to where I got to today was that I really just wanted something different. And I heard that the online online world was the way to go and you know, multiple currencies, all the rest. And so I started digging deeper. Now, the good thing was is that I sold my shares in the company and I had another side venture going on as well. So I wasn’t desperate to look for cash. And I’m very fortunate actually got the time and the freedom to go out and to look for what I wanted to do. And I started attending some of these like, you know, wealth seminars, we had a bunch of American speakers come on here and you know, there were rah rah and buy my stuff and all the rest. But there’s a saying that we kind of look at in our businesses don’t listen to what people say what what they do. And we were taking a look, I was taking a look at what some of these people were doing and you know, they’re trying travelling the world that these international lifestyles. And the cool thing was is they had a lot of systems and technology in place that allowed them to automate a lot of their processes, which allowed them the freedom to do that, and also earn a lot of money. And I was like, that makes sense to me. And I found the system called Infusionsoft. And you know, it’s a marketing automation tool. And when I looked at it the first time and how it was presented to me, the first time I looked at this, I was like, Oh my God, this tool can do something that I used to have 25 salespeople doing that used to like pull my hair out and drive me nuts. And now I can hire a piece of software that just works 24 seven, they phones never broke. There’s no excuses, no cars breaking down, no money for petrol, and none of that. Right. And I was like, this is the thing I want that. And so I started diving deeper into it, and I realised that my business wasn’t in a place but the business that I’d started wasn’t in a place where I needed it. So I started helping other businesses that didn’t need it. And we got to a point whereby we got their businesses automated, and we had the system set up. Now they needed more leads. And we went down the route of Facebook. We went down the route of YouTube went on. We’re sorry, Facebook and Google, and we weren’t getting the results. And then one day, I said to myself, I was like, What are the skills that I have? I’m great knocking doors don’t want to do that. I went and looked at LinkedIn. And LinkedIn was like this virtual, you know, this professional network online. Yeah. And I realised that I could virtually knock doors there. So I started with 20 doors a day, so 20 connections a day, and I started getting responses and I’m like, Oh my god, this is the easiest thing ever. There’s no I can reach out direct to the person I want to talk to. There’s no gatekeeper. There’s no receptionist. There’s no one telling, you know, jumping through hoops to get to the person, reach out, connect and have a conversation. And that was a game changer for me. And you know where it really hit home for us was in October 2016. We decided to go run an event. And the event was pretty simple. We decided to do it what we call a lunch and learn to invite businesses over for three hours, do a presentation, feed them, right. And they pay to be there. Yeah. So we had there for two days a day one or 20 businesses day to sorry, 10 businesses day to attend businesses. And what we did was because Facebook and Google wasn’t working for us, we decided to go and directly connect with people on LinkedIn and bite them. And so we filled up both of those days, 10 businesses each day. And what happened was that at the end of those days, we made offers for people if they wanted to work with us further, let’s have a conversation. And what happened was that 40% of the people, eight out of 20 bought from us at 70 $500 and above, which means that we made 60 k in two days. Right? So

David Ralph [12:50]
are you down there because there’s so much gold. So basically what you did you I like the fact you say yes, yes. So much. Yeah, I’m talking Um, what you’re doing there is you are doing real world webinars, as we can do online now where we drive people into a room and then we present and we give information now, but different from what you did, it sounds like to what most people do. It was live. First of all, there was a real personal interaction. And you showed them the promised land, you weren’t trying to sell to them, you were showing them what the systems could do. And that’s why they bought and that’s what I have time and time again, I look at these webinars that people are doing. And after about 30 seconds, I think, Oh, here we go. hour and a half and they’re just gonna flog something at the end. And you should never have to sell something people should want to buy if you do it, right. Mm

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [13:50]
hmm. Hundred percent. And you know, I’ve tested all models. I mean, we’ve tested, I’ve done that model as well, where you do the webinar, and then you sell something at the end and so interesting You know, I find the best ones that I’ve done are ones where, you know, I’ve started the webinar and like, right, here’s the price of the thing, okay, I’m going to make an offer at the end, here’s the price of the thing, write it down, put it to the side. Now you know that there is something coming and you know what the price is? Can we focus on actually teaching you some stuff here? And you kind of feel like there’s just almost like this big sigh of relief. Everyone’s like, oh, like, thank you. Yeah. Dynamic, exactly. changed the whole dynamic.

David Ralph [14:31]
Now, once again, this is kind of obvious stuff. So let’s take it into the LinkedIn environment because I must get, I must get 15 to 20 a day where somebody connects with me and I basically connect with everyone they say, Can I request by say, connect? And then a little bit later, they send me a message and say, David, thank you so much for connecting us I hope that we can virtually find some synergy and I think properly Not but there you go. And they start sending me stuff like I had one today, David, I thought that you would like this conversation that I had with Warren Buffett. And I think, I don’t know why you’d think that. Why would Why would you just think that I would like that conversation with Warren Buffett, there’s no resonance to my business. Why are you sending that? And I get so many of these that come through very, very rarely do I connect? So where are they going wrong? And you’re obviously going right?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [15:30]
Well, I mean, I think the first thing is that we got connected through LinkedIn as well. I mean, my sister and Rachel reached out to you unconnected, and she actually uses the system that we teach. Okay. And I think the big thing where people go wrong is that they’re trying to take a shotgun approach. And they’re trying to target absolutely everybody. So they’re just going out there connecting and attack a spray and pray method and it’s like, let’s see what happens. And where we do things a little bit differently is that we get laser target Get said, we go so focused on the ideal client. So, you know, you read art, our focus at the moment, which is we focus on coaches, consultants and advisors. And we have a very clear promise to them, we teach them how to get two to five high value leads per day from LinkedIn without paying for ads. And so my approach is very different. I don’t reach out to everyone in anyone and try and connect with them. I reach out to coaches, consultants and advisors, I specifically target them that I know are going to be a good fit. And when I have a conversation with them, it’s specifically targeted to what I help them do. And so, you know, it’s like, let me give you another example. Okay, if you have back pain, could you

David Ralph [16:40]
go to my wife and she walks up and down me with stiletto shoes.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [16:47]
I’m not talking about after a couple of whiskies. I get the back pain from

David Ralph [16:53]
I go to a back doctor.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [16:56]
Right you go to a chiropractor, or that’s the word Yes. hundred percent right off do your wax wax walked all over you with a stiletto boots.

And but you know you’re not going to go to a GP, you’re not going to go to a cardiologist, you’re going to go to the back doctor. Now it’s the same thing as if you know, you’re gonna rock up then the guy’s gonna say to you Well, this is not I can’t help you with this, what do you want from me? So that’s really get targeted, get focused, be the doctor for your clients be the chiropractor for the people you’re trying to reach out to, and then they’re going to want to talk to you.

David Ralph [17:30]
So what you’re saying is that you’ve already isolated the pain point that people are dealing with. And when you are looking closely at their profiles to work out which people are highly experiencing this pain point every day, and then you pop up and you say, look, we might be able to help you with the situation that we’re pretty sure you’re going through anyway. And then I go left let us have a look. Let’s have a look. We’re not promising anything but let’s have a look.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [17:59]
Yeah And the kind of conversation that I have with them when I reach out is, you know, so I’ll do, I’ll connect to them and when there’s a connection message, but the message that we send, and it’s pretty simple and straightforward is, you know, so it’d be something along the lines of this. Hey, David, thanks for connecting. The reason I’m reaching out is because I help coaches, consultants and advisors get to five high value leads per day from LinkedIn without paying for ads I’ve been working with, with business owners around the world, and we’ve seen incredible results. We helped one coach increase their business by 800% in two months, and other consultants increased their business by 10 X in one year, and another one added 60,000 $60,000 to the bottom line in two months. I wanted to know if you were looking for results like this, and if so let’s set up a time to have a chat, see if there’s a good fit, and we can take it from there.

David Ralph [18:49]
Simple is that the message is so simple. We’re gonna hear from Jim Carrey, and then we’ll be back with Matt very shortly.

Jim Carrey [18:56]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible. For him, and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

David Ralph [19:22]
Now, looking at what you’re doing now, was it a chance, because this is where people struggle when they start with businesses, they think that they’re risking something, but I keep on saying to them time and time again. But what we need to do, we need to find a value point but people want then we need to get laser focused on the type of person that wants that. Then we try to dominate the smallest market we possibly can to prove our worth, and then scale from that point, but I still think but it’s taking a chance and Matt I don’t get it because Just doing the research, the data is out there. Why would you not use it?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [20:06]
Well, there’s an even simpler way to do research. And this is the one most people mess. And it is the simplest of them all. If you want to be successful at business here is the secret formula. ask people what they want, and give it to them. Right? It’s, it’s that simple solve problems. Find out so one of the one of the exercises that we get our clients to do when they come in work with us, the first thing they’ve got to go do is get laser focused on the ideal client. Yeah, but then they’ve got to go deep into who that person is and not just look at them as a potential prospect or you know, as money in the bank. They need to look at them as a human being. And so we actually tell them to go out and interview people. Don’t make an offer, don’t sell, just asked them what are they biggest pains and frustrations. What are they? What are the things that they feel things that Keep them up at night. What are they goals and desires? And what are their dreams and aspirations? Nine times out of 10 after having that conversation with people not making an offer at the end, they’re like, Wow, that’s amazing. Because how can we work together? And the reason that they do that is because nobody actually takes the time to ask them these questions and to genuinely listen to them. They’re just trying to sell their stuff and throw stuff at them all the time. And so we’d like to switch it around. Because for us, how we run our business is that we’re not just after one time sales all the time. Those are great. But that’s not really what builds business. What builds a business is focusing on lifetime value. How long can people stay with us, and people stay with us because they get results. And that’s, you know, in terms of any business, anyone that’s listening in terms of business right now, you’ve got to switch your thinking up from just making one of sales all the time to creating lifelong relationships with people how get results, ask them what they want. And if you’re stuck, and you’re wondering, what else can we give them? Awesome what they want to ask them what they need, and then give it to them.

David Ralph [22:08]
I agree, I agree with this totally. And the way we do it for our coaching here, I say to people, you know, there’s got to be a community based around your issue, that there’s gonna be one, find them, and then look for questions, go up and down and look for questions. Because questions, are people asking for solutions. And you start getting bows and you start drilling down there and reading between the lines, your whole business expands and you realise that that bat niche that business proposition that maybe you might have struggled with, there’s a much better one in there just by looking at what people are really asking when they’re asking for a situation to be sold for them.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [22:51]
Yep. So I got a question for you

David Ralph [22:55]
go for I might lie. I might lie in response, but you go for it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [22:59]
I’ll do it. It’ll be interesting it’s slightly off topic here, right? It’s maybe very off topic. But are you a fan of Jim Carrey? Yes I am. Yes

David Ralph [23:07]
my wife hates him but I’m I’m a big fan and because we’re in lockdown me and my son we’ve tried to yes yeah a whole day of the a spin to the mouth. And she won’t have it. She will not have it. She says a stupid All he does is pull silly faces. And I go Yes, but it’s so much more to it

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [23:30]
Hundred percent. Okay, so here’s the question. What’s your favourite Jim Carrey quote?

David Ralph [23:35]
I probably what Yeah, the just the one a solid about or already them? That’s that’s probably the one that’s the one that I do all the time in the house. But yeah, I would say both ones. But yeah, you can throw the Yes man at me. You can pro liar. Liar. You can throw any of them. Um, I just think they’re good.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [23:54]
I think there’s one I know the Ace Ventura is my favourite absolutely killed me. And there’s this And they that we use in our business today, you know, when things go really well. And there was a scene in a picture when he’s driving his car with his head out the window, yes. And he goes to park and he spins the car around and he parks it like, did in between these two, like mixes a whole bunch of stuff up at the end and he goes here like a glove.

And so we use that in business. When things go really well. It’s like, boom, you got it.

David Ralph [24:29]
But there’s a real passion to that, isn’t it in that one statement is, it’s perfection. You can’t beat it. And I think one of the things is bringing it back on to kind of I could talk about Jim Carrey all day, but bringing it back onto a sort of business level. I don’t think people aim for that. I don’t think people certainly had a beginning. They kind of don’t believe in themselves to be able to provide that not perfection, do you find?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [24:56]
Well, I think that I think comes from two things right? One is definitely a lack of self confidence and a lack of self belief hundred percent. And I think that also comes from, you know, school, I mean, we could have a whole different conversation and go down that path as well. But there’s definitely a lack of self belief. And it’s so interesting, like, I do a lot of travelling, and I deal with entrepreneurs, we’ve got clients in 18 countries around the world. And you can actually see, different countries have got different levels of self confidence. Like in South Africa, for example, people are very afraid. People are very afraid to put themselves out there. People are very afraid to you know, take the bull by the horns and run with it. The Americans on the other hand, are you know, gung ho they jump into anything and they go full force. The Australians are, you know, they they go in, they do stuff, but they do it carefully and calculated. It’s beautiful, and that’s why stuff works there. But in general, as a whole, and I think that’s why there’s such a large amount of small businesses is because they don’t have the confidence to take the step forward. But confidence, really comes from in business, particularly confidence comes from things going well and working. And so you know how to fix that is by starting to put systems in place so that things start working without you. And then you start getting confident. It’s beautiful.

David Ralph [26:18]
When you get that competence, you know, talking about what we do through Join Up Dots, I always say to people, look, I’m going to teach you how to build a business. But I want you to understand the principles of online business, so that once the penny drops, you can then rinse and repeat. You can just duplicate it’s all about finding value. And so they come to me with this idea, but more often than not, I say to them is too big, you’re tackling to something too big at the beginning, you’re going to lose momentum. And what we need to do is just a tiny little business that starts bringing in some cash, might pay your grocery bills for a month you know, nothing major but it’s a nice When, and then you can see what’s working behind the scenes and understand it and maybe scale it or maybe build something bigger. But you understand because I remember when the first bit of AdSense on my first website paid, and it was it was about 45 pence and i i get pressing f5 all the time and I was thinking, I can’t believe this I just made money for nothing. Well, I put a lot of work into building after that 45 cents and even 15 years down the line that website still brings me money and just just brings it in and principles as bad and not much different now. Other people you’ve got to find the market you’ve got to dominate you’ve got to be open and on an honest and transparent with the customer. Exactly like shops do shops do it remarkably well. You know, they have a big window, but you can see in First of all, so that you know what spare, you go in, you browse a little bit. Then somebody comes across and says Can I help you and you say No more have a moment when they go off, and then they come back five minutes later, and they come in, they’ve got the perfect sales funnel operating in real life. But then online, I find people just make it all clunky, don’t you?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [28:13]
Hundred percent and, and that’s because it was exactly what I said earlier, they go in with a shotgun approach, trying to target everybody trying to hit everything at the same time. So we follow in our business, the rule of one, okay, and that is one ideal client one niche. And when we go into LinkedIn, we start running our searches. I mean, there’s four search criteria that we use. Now, you and I both know is that in the online world, you can go write a whole customer avatar sheet and you can go into interests and page likes and all the rest. on LinkedIn, we keep it super simple. I mean, we’re only looking for the job title, their industry, their geographical location, and the company headcount. And what that does is that gives you that limits you to only choosing one Because the interesting thing I look at is that most of the people that we deal with, they don’t need 5050 clients a month, 100 clients a month, they don’t even need 20 clients a month. Most of the people that we deal with if they had four or five extra clients a month, it changes the game. For most of them. That’s the difference between struggling and having a six or seven figure business.

David Ralph [29:24]
I was watching a video the other day with Simon Sinek. And it’s the classic start with wine.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [29:30]
Yeah, and I love that.

David Ralph [29:32]
Yeah, I loved it. And I’ve watched it loads of times, but I haven’t watched it for ages. And he was talking about conversion rate. And he said he asked a lot of these companies what their conversion rate is, and they say about 10%. And he says, you can fall over 10% You know, that’s not clever. And it really stuck with me because I looked at it and I thought, yeah, you don’t need much if you’re like 10% balling over customers. Yep, just make it to 15% and you’re laughing You know, you don’t have one nomination?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [30:02]
Well, that’s the whole thing. I mean, that’s what everyone thinks. And it’s my, it’s the best question ever. It’s like, Who is your ideal client? And the best answer that I ever get is anyone that can pay me money.

Right? Well, you can go stand on the side of the road, and I’m sure you’ll make some money. But it’s so nonspecific. And, you know, because the first step is create is get your ideal client clearly defined. Second step is then you go create the message that’s going to move them to buy. And we call this the pickup line. Now, if you’re trying to target everybody, how on earth are you going to be able to create a message that’s going to target everybody? We’re just too different. Right? It’s possible. We’re at different stages in our businesses, different stages in our lives, different mindsets, different countries, different cultures. It’s absolutely impossible. I mean, you’ll probably find that you and your next door neighbour are incredibly different people, even though you live right next door. So how can you Time and talk about today.

David Ralph [31:02]
Yeah. And he just painted ease ease fence panels. And he’s annoyed me because he’s painted the top. He’s painted the top of the fence panel and I haven’t painted mine. And now I’ve got this coloured strip along the top. And I think to myself, should I paint mine and then paint over top is it’s winding me up my every time I look at my bedroom window now I see the spent with a blue strip along it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [31:24]
And I mean, you know, and what did he do it now during the lockdown what people are doing?

David Ralph [31:31]
were even pressure washing out kids, you know, whatever. Whatever stands in one spot, it’s a job and we’re going to deal with it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [31:39]
I know we’ve done the same thing. It’s been brilliant. You know, the crazy thing. So my fiance there is, I mean, we obviously live together. And my brother came over. I mean, he’s a he’s a sous chef. He’s a chef on those big super yachts. And he actually came back we were supposed to get married two weeks ago and with a whole MacDonald. All of that just, you know, came to a grinding halt. And so he’s been staying with us for the past. I don’t know, like a month now, I guess. And we’ve just kind of got stuck in. And you know, I’ve been working all day every day because my business is online. It’s 100% online. And the interesting thing is that it’s gotten busier since this lockdown is happened because people are reaching out to me that I’ve been telling them you guys need to get online for the past five, six years. Now they’re reaching out to me saying, I guess we need to be getting online now. So it’s been really interesting. And you know, I must say, I’m really grateful that my brother has been here so you know, to stop my fiance from going absolutely crazy with me just working all the time. But it’s exactly that we’ve also cleaned out every nook and cranny in this house. It’s crazy. Yeah, we made

David Ralph [32:45]
the fatal mistake of going hell for leather in the first three weeks because we didn’t expect it to extend and I drain pipes. I did everything and then and now you think yourself what’s there to do? Bye. Never busier, I’m not being locked down. I it’s my business is thriving the audience is going amazing. And, and quite a few of my guests have told me that all they wanted for their business to explode was a pandemic, you know? And now they’ve got one and they say, yeah, you know, I know people are dying and it is terrible and we’re being a bit flippant, but there’s positives to the situation we’re in if you look at it, but you’ve got to be online. If you’re only looking at the brick and mortar business down the road, you’re gonna be closed up, you know, it’s, I’ve actually got a brick and mortar business as well. I’ve got I triple E businesses, and I had to close it up 23rd and I put the staff on furlough, and 23rd of March and we’re still close once a month. Yeah, exactly four weeks now. It’s been it’s been a month, and there’s issues there’s issues which I haven’t gotten my online business. So what we’re saying people what we’re saying you’d be sitting out there Get online started just started. And it doesn’t have to be massive just look to $20 a month, but you learn so much in the process.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [34:10]
Exactly. Just get started. That’s one of the biggest things that I see is that people are afraid and these two things, two sides to this, they’re afraid because what if it’s not going to work, they’re afraid to put themselves out there. But then the second side is that they’re trying to make it perfect before they put it out there. Yeah, just get it out, get it going. Make it better along. In fact, one of my favourite quotes is by Reed Hoffman, who you know is the founder of LinkedIn. He’s not as

David Ralph [34:36]
good as ever though easy, you know, quite honestly, he’s not as good as a

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [34:41]
nice picture quotes are 10 times better than this one is, this is a business quite right.

And it was if you have if you’re not embarrassed by your first version, you waited too long to ship.

David Ralph [34:53]
Yeah. If you go back and look at Join Up Dots and I do every now and again on wayback machine. Which is a great website to sort of look at the non sexy star. It’s, it’s amazing. The Ugly is so ugly, it’s just a blog post and nothing else. And it was ugly for about two or three years about two years really. And and there was so many mistakes and things behind the scenes, but I was still making money. It was still a business that was thriving. And even now in lockdown. I’ve been going over every single episode of Join Up Dots right from the very first one, getting it all SEO optimised and I’m seeing the traffic go up and up every day. I’ve got a three time but there was issues. As I say every episode I’ve always done has got issues and now I’m zoning into almost a sort of a perfected business really, but I couldn’t look up there other than that.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [35:51]
But how long has it taken you right? It wasn’t overnight. You were doing this for seven

David Ralph [35:54]
years. Yeah, seven years. I was a young man, young man when I started Life has been hard on me. So if we take you back to that door to door salesman, but you was Yeah. Could you do that? Again? If this business went wrong? Could you go? You could just step back into those skills and do it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [36:16]
You know, the thing is, is because I’m not relying and I think this is one of the advantages that we’ve got

is that a lot of online businesses go out there and they start online and they start running some ads and they get some success and you know, some good things start happening. And then their account gets shut down or something happens and it all comes tumbling down and then they just stuck. To me. I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to go and knock doors, because it gave me the ability to sell. And most people that I know most people that I come across most people that I talk to, are terrible at sales. They’re great at what they do can’t sell and current market savvy lives. And for me, it’s like I look at that as it doesn’t matter what Industry I go into it doesn’t matter what I do, I can sell sell always be okay. And that came from the door to door sales that came from being told no more times than I even remember that came from knocking sometimes 300 doors in a day, you know, that came from having people let dogs out on me and chased me out the harsh and cold police on mass and, you know, it gives you a thick skin. But also more importantly, it teaches you not to not to worry about the small stuff, because at the end of day, everything is small. And sometimes when people are shouting at you and going nuts, it’s just that they’re having a bad day. It’s not because you’re a terrible person. And so, you know, there was a lot of self improvement and self development and it just made me a better person.

David Ralph [37:45]
I’ll tell you what, also that I think customers and certainly business owners need to understand is just because a customer says no, it doesn’t mean that they’re always going to say no, you know, I I have quite a lot of clients that come through my coaching now. But kind of connected with me four years ago. And then they’ve just been kind of chipping away getting it right in their mind. And then suddenly they come out of the woodwork and they say, David, I’d like to, I’d like to work with you now. And I say to them, yeah, absolutely no problem at all. But I’m a lot more expensive than I was when you first connected with me. Yeah, but they still do it, they still do it. It takes time for that know, to become a yes.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [38:26]
And sometimes you just haven’t positioned you just haven’t done a great job in selling. You needed to level yourself up, you didn’t position your value correctly, or, you know, you didn’t actually get that person to move along. You know, sometimes it’s your fault as well. And sometimes the clients just not ready and that’s okay. You know, I’ve had people come back to me after two years and they like Matt, do you remember me? I’m like, not really. Say I so you had an event two years ago, and I’m ready now. I was like, okay, a lot has happened in two years. What are you ready for Ready to grow? What have you got? I said, Okay, cool. And then you know, then we find out something that’s gonna work for them.

Unknown Speaker [39:06]
It happens all the time. I

David Ralph [39:08]
have guests come along and they say, oh, David David, you know, when I was on the show six years ago, and I’ve got quite a good memory for the majority of them, but some of them I just don’t remember at all. I don’t remember. Yeah, I think about the conversation. And Funny enough, they normally become the ones I become more connected to, where I, what I kind of do, Matt is I fall in love very quickly on the first session, and then go out of love very quickly afterwards. And so I can be speaking to people and I think this is the greatest person I’ve ever met this, this is gonna be a big relationship. But the ones that I kind of forget, and then I go, Oh, yeah, I do remember you, how are you? I sort of warm into that sort of deeper relationship. And once again, I think that is how business needs to operate. I don’t think businesses that make you fall in Love, instantly have that longevity. It’s almost like the real catchy song, but you love after the first here, and then you hating on the free. Here’s where your favourite albums of life are the ones that you hated when you first played it, but you just kept on chipping away chipping away until it becomes the love of your life. And you do. But I think that’s why consistency in business is so important as well. You know, the fact that I’ve been here seven years, and people always say to me, you know, how do you grow a successful podcast? And I always say, do it for seven years. You know, it’s that consistency.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [40:36]
Well, you know, and the interesting thing on on top of that, I think it’s like any relationship, right? It takes to to play. You know, I’ve had I’ve had people where I’ve met them. So one of my best friends right now is we met actually, he’s a South African guys well, and he’s from the other side of Joburg in Pretoria, and we met at an event in LA in Lhasa. leaves, and we kind of just connected. And we start to start talking. And he’s like, Yeah, I got a farm. And you know, we enjoy going to the farm and you know, doing a bit of hunting and you know, lighting a fire and doing a bride and just really enjoying the outdoors. That’s like, that sounds amazing. So when am I getting an invite? He’s like, yeah, I mean, you can come anytime. And I think very often what happens is that when people say those things, and they don’t follow through, but like, when I connect with people, I follow through with it, you know. And so when I actually showed up the one that his family was, like, very impressed, and that would become best mates. And it’s very often like that in business as well. It takes two to tango. You know, people want to build the relationships, they want the success that everybody else has got, but they don’t want to put in the effort. You know, it’s like they want the success without the sacrifice. And I think you know, because maybe, I don’t know, maybe they’re afraid of putting themselves out there. Maybe they don’t want to look silly, who knows. But like anything, I mean, like the relationships you’re talking about now. They made more efforts you got connecting again, you got to know them on a deeper level. So it wasn’t just a flash in the pan. But you could actually start building a real relationship which is stunning.

David Ralph [42:11]
Well, let’s hear from the man, I probably have built the deepest relationship I’ve ever had never met him never will. But he changed my life with these words, Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs [42:20]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference

David Ralph [42:55]
should be the kind of words that schools should have above their door. Do you think?

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [43:01]
Yeah, you know, I think those are the kind of words that if schools do have them above their doors, no one would realise the meaning and the level of the depth of those as they’re looking at them. But if I had to return a couple of years later and see those words again, that’s when it would hit home. Yeah,

David Ralph [43:20]
yeah. And so with your life, man, looking back on it, what was your big dot? I always ask this to most of the guests. So it’s coming to you that the Big Dot where you think yeah, that’s, that’s when it transformed. For me. That’s when I started to really understand what my path was.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [43:37]
I don’t know if I still understand what my pathway is, but I know my path is but I know that it’s it’s going to be okay. But for me, the big thing was the door to door sales when I started knocking doors in the UK. That was the pivotal moment, because I really had a choice. And you know, the interesting thing was that when I worked when I worked for that company actually did an interview so they used to recruit people from South Africa. And send them over to the UK to go knock doors. And I went for the interview here. And I said no, because I heard a lot of bad things about it. But then when I was in the UK, I landed up there. And there was a whole funny sequence of events that happened. That landed me up actually doing installation of sky TV. I was like, this sucks. I don’t want to do this. And so I went, I saw an ad in the paper, and I went to this thing in London. And I did the interview again. And I said to the guys at the end, this is for universal, isn’t it? He’s like, How did you know? I said, Well, I’ve done this before. He said, okay, cool, but don’t tell anybody else. And at the end of that I had a decision to make. I had a decision to something that I’d said no to before already. Or I could say no to it again. Or I could say yes, and take a chance and move forward. And I said yes. And that has been the pivotal moment where I you know, I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back joining up the dots. That was the pivotal moment for sure.

David Ralph [45:03]
And you know, away from that story that the thing that I bloody loved was the fact that you said, I don’t know my path. But I know it’s going to be okay. And I think that is that is such a powerful statement. I had a message from a guy used to work with me years ago this morning. And he said to me, you know, you know, I’m really worried about the lockdown. I’m really worried about Kobe, you know, he said, I’ve been listening to your podcast, you seem to be on top of everything. And I went back to him, I said, I’m not on top of everything. I’m just allowing it to happen, because it’s gonna be okay. Every decision we make is really just to make tomorrow come, and then the next day, and you can’t really go Am I going to be here a year’s time am I going to be five years time and the fact that I’m coming up 50 years old now, and I think about this a lot. But I must have done 1,000,000,002 billion decisions and probably 50 people Senator, we’re wrong, but I’m still here. Yeah, and I’m still sort of moving along. And I’m still waking up the next morning in a bed with a roof over my head, paying my bills and stuff. And I just think that I’ve had an epiphany over the last couple of years. But as you say, it’s gonna be okay. There’s no point in stressing, you just have to keep doing stuff.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [46:22]
Well, I think and one of my favourite quotes is from a former Navy SEAL by the name of Brent Gleason. And he said, you know, we really rise to the occasion when placed under extreme pressure, we sink to the level of preparedness and persistence. And so for me, you know, I am constantly doing self improvement. I’m constantly doing personal development, I’m constantly exercising my body constantly exercising my mind learning new skills. So that I know is that if anything happens, I can make a switch very quickly if I need to. And that’s kind of really where where I’m like, it’s fine. Whatever happens happens. I’ll make up They will be away somehow. And just having that mindset of there’s always an opportunity. And there’s there’s always choices. You know, I believe that life is about choices you can choose to nothing, which is a choice, or you can choose to do something. And so, you know, it’s what is your choice? What do you want to go

David Ralph [47:19]
be a good title for podcasts when it What is your choice? I might, I might do it. I might do that in time. No one I like it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [47:27]
proceeds go to me.

Unknown Speaker [47:29]
Thank you.

David Ralph [47:31]
You’re, you’re a businessman.

Unknown Speaker [47:34]
You really like that when

David Ralph [47:36]
you slip that one in? Well, I’m gonna do what I like. And we’ve been leading up to this this is the part of the show that we call it a sermon on the mic when you get the chance to go back in time and speak to your young version and and join up your dots and give them some advice. And if you went into a room and you had a chance to speak to the young man, what age would you choose? What would you tell him? Well, we’re gonna find out because I’m gonna play the music when it fades is your time to talk. This is the Sermon on the mind

Unknown Speaker [48:10]
with the best bit

Unknown Speaker [48:11]
of the show.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [48:26]
So I would be talking to my 19 year old self in the UK, confused and all I know is I am going and I’m knocking doors and I’m making money, drinking way too much partying way too much. And I would say to myself to get focused, to absolutely get focused, and to start thinking a little bit further than where you are right now. And go deep. go all in on everything that you’re doing. Read as many books as you can practice your sales ability to the next time level so that no matter what comes in away, you know that you can either you can sell your way or talk your way out of it. But more importantly is that with the money that you get in it, take that money and invest it into yourself, invested into doing courses that will teach you how to grow your wealth beyond you invested into things that will take your your skill set to the next level that will teach you how to be in a place whereby you don’t have to work in the next 10 years. I would also say that, put a portion of that money aside and travel once a month, at least into Europe, take a week off a month and go and travel into Europe and go and experience a little bit more. Go and learn more cultures go and learn a new language, right? And knowing what we know now Chinese is probably the one to learn. It’s an exciting language as well. But really, I think the biggest takeaway for me would be to trust your gut to listen to your gut. to continually educate yourself now, don’t ever stop reading. Don’t ever stop being playful. Don’t ever stop enjoying the world experiencing the world. And on a day to day basis, just be grateful every single day, look at the small things and be grateful for the small things, because you never know what’s going to happen. And the last thing is to take care of yourself and take care of your health. Take care of your exercise every single day, get a proper eating plan, and you know, work hard at it and take some time to rest and just enjoy it from your parents. Find your friends more often tell them that you love them. And the biggest thing is to tell yourself that you love yourself and really focus on you know, put a plan together putting a plan together for the next couple of years and aim towards that. So instead of mindlessly going on, have a vision have a goal. Put yourself first Do the things that you really love.

David Ralph [51:02]
Right advice, not just for the young Matt, but but everyone, Matt, for the listeners out there, what’s the number one best way that they can connect with you.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [51:11]
So the best way to connect with me is LinkedIn. That’s what we do. That’s what we teach. So my LinkedIn name is Matt Clark Si, Ma, double t CLA, rk s A for South Africa. And then I’ve got a little gift for people that I can share that

David Ralph [51:27]
person as you go through it.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [51:29]
Okay, cool. So if you go to my website, www dot virtual edge.com. I’ve got a gift for you. If you’re looking at getting into the online game, if you are even offline and you want to start taking your business online. If you are somebody that has got an online business, you’re looking for more clients, to show you how to position yourself properly. We’ve created a little course called the LinkedIn mini makeover, which will show you how to position yourself for success on LinkedIn. So you can go into get that for free. And there is even a free training at the end of it about a 47 minute video. There’s no sales pitch or anything, just giving you guys something that you can absolutely use today, some of the things that we’ve been talking about. So if you want to go and get that www.hp.com and I really want to see your success,

David Ralph [52:18]
right stuff, and we have over links on the show notes just for a moment, when you said a free gift, I thought, Oh, it’s gonna be masks and hand gel, and maybe 20. It’s gonna be viral.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [52:29]
Yeah, well, my fiance is busy. She’s got an import export business. So they busy working on the licences to import masks in that. So I could do that very soon, too.

David Ralph [52:38]
You’ve got it all covered. Matt, thank you so much for spending time with us today. joining up those dots. And please come back again when you’ve got more dots to join up because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting our pasts is actually the best way to build our futures. Matt, thank you so much.

Virtual Edge Matt Clark [52:55]
Yeah, amazing. Thanks so much for having me on. David. Really, really cool show. I had so much fun.

David Ralph [53:01]
Mr. Matt Clark, who uses linked in to get great leads and but the key message, the key messages to that is if you don’t know your customer, you’re not going to make sales, you’ve got to really understand exactly who you’re talking to their issues, their demographics, their age group, you know, you really have to create your ideal avatar. And quite often when you create an avatar, you kind of do it off the top of your head. You don’t need to, but it’s so much data you can get onto Facebook and look at the forums, you can go onto group chats, you can go on to anywhere you can just ask questions, you can say, you know, if I had this, would you buy it? Yes or no. Just simple stuff to try to find out as much about your ideal customer and their pain point. And once you get that you can then really start finding those people. It’s not hard to drive them to that thing, but you’ve got to you’ve got to so until next time You’re looking after yourselves, be safe. Wear your mask, wrap hand gel all over your bodies, not other people because you’re not allowed to touch. And I’ll speak to you again soon. Cheers. Bye bye.

Unknown Speaker [54:14]
Are you ready to make a full time living online? Check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching. Hello, my name is Alan. And I’ve just completed the excellent eight week course with David.

Unknown Speaker [54:24]
Before I started working with David

Unknown Speaker [54:26]
Actually, I had no idea at all, where to start.

Unknown Speaker [54:30]
I had a lot of ideas about what I probably thought was going to be good business. David was able to help me through that though, to find that passion. Within literally minutes. We had we had a business idea and for the last seven weeks, we’ve been building on it and building on it and the position I’m in now but I’ve got an ever got here on my own

Unknown Speaker [54:50]
because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He’s got the full package here and he explains it in a way that I can understand his support. is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. David helped me understand, okay, what

Unknown Speaker [55:06]
were the next logical steps that I should do? How can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and at some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business, whether as

Unknown Speaker [55:23]
a full time job or as a side hustle.

David Ralph [55:25]
So it was really excellent.

Unknown Speaker [55:26]
I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business. But both it’s an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years.

Unknown Speaker [55:34]
Thank you, David for your amazing help and support which keeps on going. And we certainly couldn’t be where we are today without you. So you’re awesome.

David Ralph [55:45]
So if you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, fine tuned over many years to take away the effort and expense that others struggle with. Then come across to Join Up dots.com and buy A free call with myself. Let’s get you living the easy life as it’s there waiting for you to get it that is Join Up dots.com business coaching.

Outro [56:10]
That’s the end of the conversation. Now it’s time for you to start taking massive action. Create your life, busy only life. We’ll be back again real soon. Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Join Up Dots john Jones, Joy Joy