How Farouk Signs LinkedIn Clients DIRECTLY From Client Ascension

You created the launch video that we used when Liskit finally launched. And, like, that was just, like, a free gift that you extended to us. That was a beautiful video. That's a video that we still use today. It's no surprise that we're still doing work together.

I specifically always reached out to you because in our community, working with Liskit, working with Client Ascensions, very flashy. These are flashy names. So when you mention those as part of your portfolio, like when I mentioned to people, like, like, literally just before this call, I'm not even exaggerating. An hour before, I was talking to a guy. His name is Andy. He loved that as well. But the fact that I could leverage, like, ListKit as part of portfolio is insane.

What's going on, guys? Andre Hagel Jr. Here from client Ascension, back with another Student Spotlight interview. And this is another one that's very close to home for me because I'm talking with my brother from Lebanon. We were talking off camera, I think, two years ago. We first met in Lebanon when I was visiting with my dad. Look at where we are now. So you've been absolutely crushing it with all the different services that you provide at your agency. I know you do a lot of LinkedIn growth. You do a lot of website design. Like, your team is the best that I've come across when it comes to, like, webflow and making landing pages, especially for SaaS companies. And I know recently you had a huge win signing a client for just over $10,000. And so, like, you're winning in so many different ways from a country like Lebanon, which just makes it ten times more impressive. So tell us, like, what's. What's been happening recently?

Yeah, man, sure. I run an agency. It's like we build LinkedIn funnels. So essentially it's a combination of, like, helping you grow on LinkedIn, but also kind of help you funnel that traffic to, let's say, your landing page, your website. For anybody that's looking to kind of build their website, have a VSL edited or even written for them, we kind of handled the whole thing. And so, yeah, man, like, I launched this offer while I was in Client Ascension. When I first. When I first joined Client Ascension, I was doing social media funnels in general. So we were driving traffic for SaaS companies from Twitter Now X, and then also from Discord. I was in a certain industry that kind of died out while I kind of joined Client Ascension. So I had to make a pivot at some point, and LinkedIn seemed like a very Natural transition for me, especially since I used to working with a lot of SaaS, companies and agency owners and they're quite present on there, to be honest. I learned a lot about growing my own social media presence from the coaches within Client, essentially. I mean, Dakota Robertson, early on, when I first joined Client Ascension, he was part of one of the coaches in Client Ascension. And I later on also ended up, like, getting private mentorship from him. He's the real deal. He helped me, like, kind of understand everything about LinkedIn, because when I first joined, I didn't know much. So it's crazy to think that not only did I learn how to build my own personal brand on LinkedIn, but a year later I ended up launching that as my own service. And now it's like the main. It's like the front end offer for me. And, you know, over time we kind of had things such as, you know, we started building websites, started kind of creating animated videos, and we kind of combined this all under one offer.

That's amazing, bro. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, you've been in the program for a while and I know when you joined you had a different agency that was in the sneaker reselling space, which. Yeah, dude, I saw a new pair of Jordans go live yesterday that I, like, wanted so bad growing up. And they were just sitting, like, the stock was just sitting. Christian texting texted me the link and like, I'm like, no way. They're still available, like two hours later and they're just sitting and I'm like, I don't even want them anymore. Yeah, like, there's an element to it where it's like, oh, if they're that easy to get, like, I really don't care for them like I used to. But yeah, that industry died off. So it was really cool to see you pivot and use the program, obviously to come up with like a new offer and a new way of doing things and even to find, you know, like, early clients that you could test this with. I think one thing you've done extremely well from what I've seen, is like, provide value to the community and through that, you know, find people that you can test and validate your offers with and then eventually become clients. And that's something you did for us at both my companies, List Kit and Client Ascension. Like, you created the launch video that we used when List Kit finally launched. And like, that was just like a free gift that you extended to us. That was a beautiful video to promote our SaaS and like, that's you know, that's. That's a video that we still use today. And so it's. It's no surprise that we're still doing work together and, and you're managing, you know, some of our social medias and our YouTube. Like, you'll actually take this video and edit it for us and put it on my channel, which is pretty cool. So shout out to you for all the great work that you do. But, like, yeah, what were some early breakthroughs that you experienced in a program? Because I know you came into the program having run a successful agency, but you had to make a big pivot to a completely new service that you weren't really used to fulfilling quite yet. So, like, what were some things that the program helped you with early on? Who are maybe some of the coaches that you work real close with? Like, you did mention Dakota there. What was that like?

Yeah, man. As you kind of like, hinted at at the beginning. So when I was making my pivot first, I kind of. Before I got into, like, building LinkedIn funnels, I started, like, doing animated videos and I needed somebody to test out the whole thing with because we, as an agency, I've never even done that before. So I was just like, all right, let me. I mean, liskit's about to launch, so let's just try it out with them. Same thing. Few months later. You know, we wanted to do LinkedIn as well, and we needed somebody to kind of start that because we had no social. I'm like, well, maybe the list Kit guys would be interested in that. We reached out to them, to you. And then, you know, you guys were like, yeah, let's. Let's give it a try. Same thing a month later for the websites as well. You know, we want. So it's like the same thing. As you mentioned, it's kind of leading with value. And I specifically always reached out to you because you guys, especially in our community, working with Liskit, working with client ascensions, very flashy. These are flashy names. So when you mention those as part of your portfolio, like when I mentioned to people like, like, literally just before this call, I'm not even exaggerating. An hour before, I was talking to a guy. His name is Andy. He's inclined Ascension too. He's looking to design his website for his first SaaS. You recommended me. Somebody else recommended me as well. He loved that as well. But the fact that I could leverage, like, ListKit as part of my portfolio is insane to me. At some point, it's like Whenever I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at the very beginning and I was kind of struggling to know what's the next step, I was like, let me just test it out with somebody credible. And so that's what we did with you. In terms of coaches, I benefited a lot from, as I mentioned, Dakota, also Clifton as well. Both of these coaches are no longer in client ascension, but both of them are experts in social media marketing and especially with LinkedIn and X. And so I was able to leverage their, their expertise to kind of launch my offer which was with, you know, which is now LinkedIn funnels.

That's awesome, bro. Yeah, we've had some coaches come and go for sure. We got a strong group of coaches now as well and we're even looking to add some coaches and I think we've even had conversations with you about potentially bringing in you to be an expert coach at some point, which is, which is a really cool thought. So that's awesome, bro. I guess as you started to pivot to like this new agency model and this new offer, like what were some of the things you struggled with during that process and how did you use the program or use what you were learning or use the coaches or the training videos to kind of help solve those things?

Yeah, in terms of training videos, whenever I felt lost because obviously I had to like recreate a new offer and I, you know, at first I was a bit like, you know, it's a bit nerve wracking kind of experience thinking about just having to make a complete pivot with your offer. But I kind of happened to be in the right place at the right time. I mean, Daniel Fazio, king of offers, watched all his training material that is like pre recorded in with Incline Ascension and then obviously hopped on a bunch of his calls as well. Just kind of like really walked him through where I am right now. Like this is everything that I have, this is everything that we've done. How can I leverage this to, you know, as social proof for my next offer? He just kind of gave me a complete roadmap in terms of how to do that from A to Z. I followed his advice to the, to the dot and, and yeah, it's, it's cool because even though we are doing LinkedIn funnels, but we've been able to, to leverage our experience from like building other types of social media funnels and he kind of recommended like leveraging all the different case studies from different offers and just kind of put them all out on your landing page because still Social proof, like you've worked with ListKit, even if you didn't start working with them on LinkedIn, you still did other things for them, you know. And so like you got to like mention all of that. So yeah, Daniel was a huge help. Connor Sunderland as well was a huge help at the beginning as well. He helped me kind of understand like how to, how to rebuild my offer. David, sales coach guys always very straight to the point as well. So yeah, overall all the coaches in Client Ascension, they have, they offer their unique touch and I've been able to benefit from pretty much all of them.

That's awesome, bro. So, yeah, man, that's awesome bro. So like, let's talk about like, okay, you go and you make these big changes. You get clarity from some of the coaches on like the best ways to do it. You put all the pieces together. Now, you know, you're starting to string together some wins. We mentioned like the $10,600 client win that you recently had and even if not monetary wins, like what were some of the other wins? Maybe like you hired a key team member. I've seen recently as well. You've gone super viral on LinkedIn. You've even been featured on the news to talk about some of your recent success in your home country. Like, what have been some of the wins or milestones that you've experienced recently?

Yeah, you mentioned the news. Like I got featured on BBC actually the other day and it's pretty cool because they were looking to interview local entrepreneurs here in Lebanon and obviously like, you know, they had somewhat of an established business. So it's great. Like I've been able to build this business back from like scratch and leverage that to kind of get access to BBC as well, which is going to be huge, you know, as like social proof. Just adding that to like. Yeah, I've been interviewed by these guys also. The films. Yeah, I shot two LinkedIn films ever since I joined Client Ascension and these went mega viral. Like each one of them got over around like 850 reactions on LinkedIn and like almost 100,000 impressions got me a bunch of people like wanting to work with me as well. What's cool about these short films is like you get to, and anybody who's watching this, you can, I have them pinned to my LinkedIn profile. The fact that I get to pin them to my LinkedIn profile, whenever somebody lands on my LinkedIn profile, they'll, they'll get to see those and like, whoa, this guy's the real deal. Then they go and they see the web, my website, they see all the people that we've worked with as well. And that gives me even more credibility. And I'm such a big advocate of like having a really good, not just like good, you know, portfolio and case studies, but also really good website. Because people are going to trust you more. And then as a result, like they're going, you're going to be able to like, it's going to be the closing, the deal is going to be much easier but you're also going to be able to charge premium prices. You're going to be able to justify that because you're going to show the world like, hey, like I'm the real deal. Like, look, we're not some just like a one person team. We got a full team. We're really professional, we've worked with big guys and we want to do the same with you.

So yeah, super exciting, bro. Yeah, those short films are no joke. They're like movie quality. And that's, you know, a good point about like having your LinkedIn profile set up in a way where it is your landing page. And then even if they go to your landing page, it's set up in a way where there's just undeniable proof of, you know, the level of services that you offer just based on, you know, the types of companies you've worked with. So you're definitely, you know, figuring out how to, how to run it up in this, in this space. And it's been really cool to watch because again, like this has not been, you know, three month success story. This is something that you've been in the program for two years and anytime we do work together, I know part of, you know, our back and forth negotiations is like, here we'll do this price but also extend our time in ca so like you'll probably be in CA forever at this point. And so I'm sure we'll do a couple more of these to get caught up and talk about some new wins and milestones. But I guess what's some advice you'd give to other students in Client Ascension? I feel like you kind of play that big brother role as well in Client Ascension because you've been in there for a while and you kind of like know the ins and outs of how to leverage the community and what, you know, coaching calls to go to and what videos implement and how. But like to other students in the program because I know you're very close to a lot of different students and you're like a super connector as well, I'd say in that program, like, everyone knows you. Like, what would be advice you'd give to some of those students in the program that have just not experienced the other side of it yet? Like, they're still implementing, they're still learning, but they haven't seen the results yet. Like, what are some things that maybe they're doing wrong or maybe they're spending time on the wrong things? Like what, you know, simple advice would you give to those students that are just struggling?

Yeah, and I noticed a lot. So for a lot of people, and that happened to me as well when I first joined. It's like speed, like, how fast, like, people take action. People, like, when they first join client ascension, they get a bit, like, thrown off by how active the whole thing is. Like, you know, like, you have a student success coach and they're like, they have. They like, set an action plan for you and all of a sudden you gotta, like, do all these additional things and you were like, you have to run your own agency, not to mention. And so you're like, thrown off. So a lot of people. And this happens because, as you mentioned, like, I connect with a lot of people when they first join, and a lot of them are, like, interested in having their VSLs edited or having a landing page created. And so they're like, oh, you do that great. Once I have my VSL recorded, I'll send that over to you. And then I reach out to them like, like a few weeks later, and they're like, I'm like, have you done the VSL so I can edit it for you? And they're like, not really, no. So they spend like five, six weeks, maybe like two months just to have, like the VSL done. And, you know, obviously the game's all about speed, people. I've seen that, like, the faster that you can operate, you know, you may not always, like, have the most perfect VSL done, but the fact that you have a VSL and you're able to progress then and have a website and all that, rather than just wait two or three months, you know, just to have all of that. It definitely helps to like, be able to operate with speed. You don't have to because some people just get too fixated on, like, they having to have the perfect bsl, the perfect landing page, perfect, like social media post. But no, like, you got to operate with speed. There's a lot to take in when you're in client ascension. A lot of different coaches you got to learn from. Not to mention you got to hop on a lot of these calls, especially beginning people aren't freeing their time up for this stuff. So that's why I recommend them. But I also recommend all the time to, like, connect with other people. Yeah, I was like. It was crazy. I was seeing, like, my. Like, I was studying the numbers from last year. The majority of my clients for all my services have all come from client ascension last, which is insane because if you think about it, like, my friend. My friend was sitting next to me and he was a bit worried. He was like, dude, like, aren't you worried? Like, you're really reliant on client center for all these, like, stuff. I'm like, I mean, no, because, I mean, we're good. But it's like the fact, like, I could get traffic from other areas, but these guys, they're already in client ascension. Not to mention everybody's paying high ticket. So it's like client ascension access, some sort of, like, filter.

Right?

You know, when you're pitching somebody, they're serious. Everybody in client attention is serious. That's something that you'll know. Everybody's got, like, money ready to invest. You don't have to convince them why they need a website or bsl or why they need to be on social media. Like, they know that. So it helps to already kind of have this client ascension filters. All these people, and then I just switch my services and just kind of very natural fit.

That makes sense. Yeah. That's awesome, Brad. And that's like, part of, you know, the benefit of being in the community as well for a long time. Because, you know, we've had people come and go, and typically people leave and then they come back a few months later because they realize that it's like, all right, well, like, I have access. I got what I wanted out of the program. But it's like, well, you don't have access to the next 100 students that are going to join if you leave. So it's like, there's always new value being added. I always say, like, every new student that joins the program has an added value for every other community member. Because some students have, like, a more limited mindset of like, or a limiting belief we should say is, like, if someone else joins, it's less time and attention for me. And it's like, that's just not how it works. It's like, there's still only going to be a small percentage of students that are actually active enough and willing to ask questions and willing to leverage the support channels that we've made Available through coaching calls. Like how many people are attending coaching calls? It's still a very low number. And then how many people on those calls are asking questions? It's a very low number. And like, even to this day, I've never been on a client ascension coaching call where I haven't gone through everyone's questions with like, plenty of time remaining to push people to ask more questions. So it's like the support is available and that's great. Like how you're using the community. And I've seen it from way back in the beginning when you even met up with some of the students in Toronto, when you're spending time there. And then obviously now in Lebanon, we have a much bigger community than we did when we first joined. Funny enough, you connected me with, with Eddie Maloof, who we're now working with. So, like, you're a super connector, bro. And it's cool to see like, over the last two years all the connections that have been established and like, man, with where we're at now and how much momentum we have, like, where does that go from here? What are the next two years going to look like? And I just look forward to having you back on to talk about it. So we're here in February 2025, so still pretty early into the year. As a last question for you, bro, like, what are your goals for this year? Do you have like, revenue goals? You have just big general goals of where you kind of want the business to be Anything for, For that?

Yeah, I would like to. My, my main goal for this year is to try to maybe perhaps split my business into two where it's like I'm working with clients on a retainer basis. But I'm also, I want to, I would like to go back to what I did when I first started my, my first agency, which was to have like these, to play a more fractional CMO type of role with companies, to have to have like a rev share deal going on basically to work with three, four companies really, and help them scale to the next level. The reason I want to do that is because as you know, especially with like marketing and LinkedIn, creativity is limited. If I would like to leverage my creativity for the sake of my clients and if, you know, it's much easier to do that when I'm working with three, four big clients and having them like just focusing on them for that rather than having like 20, 30 clients, which is good. Some clients, like, are happy with just you, you know, kind of doing the basics for them. But other People really want to scale big with LinkedIn, and I'm aware of that. And so I would like to sign a couple of these clients also shoot more films, too. This is something. These films have brought a lot of traffic to, to my. To my LinkedIn profile. And a lot of people now know me in the community and they see that I'm associated with a lot of these big guys and people like Lara Acosta, Yasmin Alge, these are people that have, like, commented on these movies before and they're huge on LinkedIn. Like, each one of them has over 200, 000 followers. So kind of shoot more of these films. I even. I'm in touch. I'm not going to reveal with the company here. We haven't finalized the deal, but there's a massive company that recently raised like 40 million. They're worth like, they have a $1 billion valuation. These guys are interested in shooting a short film. So, yeah, man, there's a lot of big projects on the horizon, hopefully. And just looking to capitalize on whatever. More website deals too. We're redesigning, like, Lisket's entire website and we want to sign more of these deals too. So, yeah, bunch of stuff, hopefully.

Love it, bro. You want it all and you do, like, the level of quality of your work I think justifies, you know, where. Where you're looking to go. So I'm excited to see it, bro. And so we're rooting for you and obviously in the community, like I said, you're. You're one of the top, you know, most active, most successful, most connected with students out there. So I'm pumped to see it. I've done case studies, like multiple case studies with the same students only a couple of times. And I just know, like, we'll be back on at some point in the near future to talk about some of these deals in the work. So, Farooq, thanks for your time, brother. As a last question, where can our audience find you and follow you online? And I always say as well, if they're in client ascension, just shoot you a DM there in Slack. But outside of client ascension, where can they find you?

Yeah, my main channel is LinkedIn, so just type Farouk Basha. Farouk spelled F A R O U K. Basha B A C H A. I'm on there at the time of this. I'm just gonna announce this here on time of this video. I have, like, maybe over like 6,000 followers. So I want to see the next case study, how many followers we'll have. By then. But yeah, follow me on there, watch my films. I really, these were really cool projects that we worked on and if you guys are interested in working with me, just shoot me a DM on LinkedIn. And if you're Client Ascension, just hit me up in there as well.

Absolutely. Awesome. Thanks again guys for listening. If you're interested in Client Ascension, you know where to find us. Just client ascension.com and we'll see in there at some point. Appreciate you all. Peace.