Alex Welch On Finding SUCCESS With His Lead Generation Agency

What's going on, guys? Andre Hakel Jr. Here from client Ascension, and I'm here with my good friend and one of the students in the program, Alex Welch. Welcome back to the student Spotlight interview.

Thanks for having me, Andre.

Of course, bro. We were just rolling before this, before we turned on the record button. Had a good conversation there. And so let's just record this thing and see where the conversation goes. So before we dive into some more specific questions about client ascension, I just wanted to start off with who are you and what are you currently working on?

Yeah, so my name's Alex and I'm the founder of Lyft Media. It's a cold email lead generation agency and we're mostly working with marketing agencies at the moment, aiming to book them between five and 30 sales calls per month.

That's solid, bro. And how do you come up with the name? I'm always curious to know, like, was it just something that you spun up? Is there some deep meaning behind it, like something in your family's history, or is it just nothing crazy?

Yeah, well, honestly, there is a story. Like, when I was starting out the agency, I wanted to do something with gyms just because I love, like, working out and fitness. So originally I was going to be like an agency for like just trainers and gym owners and whatnot. And so that's where the name Lyft came from, because, like, lifting weights, right? And then eventually that, like, that was like about a month of just figuring out headaches and whatnot. And I was like, yeah, this is not the industry I want to be in. So I just kind of stuck with the name and I think it works.

Honestly, dude, you just stick with the name. That's what we did with Knowledge X. Knowledge X was named because we were working with knowledge experts and we were helping them to sell an online course. And so then we converted it to lead gen and we're like, name sounds cool still, let's just keep it.

Exactly. It works.

So when you made the decision to pivot from working with like gym owners and in the fitness industry to going into the lead generation industry, was that right about when you learned of client ascension or when did client ascension come into the fold?

Yeah, so I was in another group beforehand of like a quite popular, like YouTuber, whatnot, and just really getting the basics of an agency. Because for the two years prior I did Ecom and like, that was great. Like a lot of drop shipping and whatnot. Yeah, had some success in it, honestly, and I, I kind of enjoyed it, but it was Just to the point where wasn't that like super guaranteed, like MRR every month and didn't really know what was next. So yeah, joined that other program, learned quite a bit about an agency, but I was still very lost. And then, yeah, I was on money Twitter, of course. Found out about Client Ascension. I was like, this really seems like it could help me right now because I had so many issues, just no idea how to solve them. Like countless YouTube videos and whatnot. And yeah, I actually think you or Dan might have reached out to me when I was purchasing some list kits and then hopped on a call and yeah, rest is history.

Now I was gonna say we were talking about it off camera, but you're like the top donor for list kits, so we appreciate it.

Yeah, money well spent there for sure.

Yeah, dude. No, you were supporting list Kit. What was that? Almost two years ago at this point, which is crazy to think about. And yeah, it just made so much sen. Because we have people that will buy lists and then they're like, okay, how do I use them or what do I do with them or how do I build it the same way you do? And those are all questions that, you know, obviously Client Ascension in some way shape or form is able to answer. So I guess you already kind of tapped into why you decided to join Client Ascension. I guess when you joined, what were some of the biggest problems you were trying to solve early on?

Yeah, I'd say I had a lot of like lower tier clients, like where they're just kind of starting out their agencies and they weren't the most like qualified. Like nowadays I wouldn't take any of those clients on just because the scale of what I'm working at. But I think the biggest thing was I didn't really know how to manage all my inboxes. Like I was still using what's the app called? List or Lemless. That's what it was at the time. And you could only connect one domain. And so I was like sending a thousand emails off one domain every month and I was getting some results, but it wasn't like, wasn't anywhere near what I could be doing. So I was really just trying to figure out how to actually send these emails properly and then really just how to actually grow the agency because I knew like I needed a bunch of things, but I just didn't know exactly what they were.

Yep. Yeah. So it sounds like big issue number one is just working with unqualified clients and horror. Mosey talks about this a lot, where he's like it's the 8020 rule. Right. Like you're spending 80% of your time with these really bad clients and only seeing a 20% return or 20% of your revenue is from like the 80% of the time you're investing. And it's like that doesn't seem right. And so that's a big issue that you identified. And then the second is just volume and scale of cold email. Like now we teach or we like set up or make sure people set up 10 domains to send from because you just with cold email, especially now with all the competition and we were talking off camera about, you know, all these new data providers, there's just, you need volume, you really do. Before you could get away with one mail shake account in the early days of cold email mastery and just rip, you know, 40 emails a day and forget about it. But different landscape today.

Yeah, big time. Like back to the 8020 rule as well. I, that was a lot of my issues were just from that. It was like spending all my time working on these clients who were, yeah, really just not getting me the greatest results and also who didn't really care about their agency. Like I had a client who just shut down his agency and was like, yeah, I'm leaving now, I'm not doing this anymore. And I was like, what? Yeah, that's not how it should go. So yeah, yeah, just we've had that as well. Yeah, focusing on just the higher lever, like clients, I should say.

And yeah, and I feel like the qualification is almost baked into the price. Right. I feel like we had our worst clients when we were just doing performance basis because there was no buy in. I always talk about the buy in if no one, if they're not paying you up front to start the work, like they're not invested yet so they can just go and stop the agency and not feel like they lost something. But for you, it's like you just lost a whole client that you were working really hard to get to, you know, results that you could get paid for. And it's just, it's unfortunate, but that's part of the learning curve. So I guess what were some of the solutions that you implemented? Just going through the client ascension community. Did you change your pricing structure? Did you scale up your cold email volume? Like what did that look like?

Yeah, so I mean pretty much changed everything, like the entire system of how my agency runs. But yeah, definitely changed my structure of the pricing where charging almost like four times the amount I used to as well as I also like completely Automated my onboarding and change that up a ton. So now I'm like getting praised by clients because they're like, wow, this is so easy. I've worked with so many agencies who I go spend two hours on like calls with and different things. And then we're three weeks into the process and I think things should be launched, but like still asking me for passwords and going back and forth. So that was a huge one where it's just like super simple because I mean, you think of when you're buying something like on the Internet, you get that email confirmation right away and then you're getting constant updates for like tracking. And then you also might be getting like promotion emails. So it's similar to like onboarding where want to have those emails going out right away and whatnot. And just make sure they're always like in. In the. Keep them in the loop and like make sure they're not having that buyer's remorse type thing. So that was a huge one as well then also, yeah, just really how my service actually performs. So like cold emails for my clients and also for myself. So switching over like the smart lead and also. Yeah, just actually learning how to build lists the right way and ultimately writing scripts way better. Like, I'm a way better copywriter now than I was six, seven months ago.

So yeah, there's a lot there. I think the two biggest needle movers that I got from that is onboarding. And it's so funny because you change onboarding just a little bit. It's not hard to get onboarding. Right. Because it's just a set of steps. Like, it doesn't have to do anything with results, but if you do it the right way, you get complimented on it like all the time. Like, clients are like, wow, like, this is way different than any other experience. It's kind of like what you said with Amazon with the confirmation emails. Right after you get a. You make a purchase, right. Then these are simple things to implement. And then backing that up with results and just improving your skill set of the service you're delivering. I just think that's so important.

Yeah, no, 100%. Like beforehand, if I was still running the emails, how I was and like using that structure, I just, I would be getting out competed by every other cold email agency and it just wouldn't work out. So, yeah, the reason I'm actually like successful with it now, it's because client ascension.

So that's awesome, bro. But you implemented. You implemented.

Exactly.

I always want to. I gotta give credit to where credit is due. There's a lot of students in client ascension. Not all of them are successful or as successful as guys like yourself. And that comes down to one variable, which is mostly just you as the owner, operator, and student.

Yeah.

One thing I wanted to ask about as well is, like, okay, you're in a very competitive space with cold email Legion services. Right. I feel like a lot of guys are offering this Service and you 4x your price, you increased your LTV, like, you did all these things in a competitive market. Why do you feel like you're able to still have success? Is it because of, like, the script writing, the skill set, the onboarding? Like, what do you attribute that to?

Yeah, I'd say there's two different things. One would be, like, on the sales side, like, on that call and whatnot. And then the second one would just be kind of on, like, the results side in what you do. So first off, on the sales side, I think it's more so just like, the personality and just like, the unbelievable confidence you have to have in yourself. Because if you show up on the call and you're, like, kind of unsure of what you're saying and, like, just scared almost and getting, like, power framed by the, like, potential client and, like, lead, whatever, you're really, like, it won't go too well because they'll be like, oh, this guy's just unqualified. Doesn't mean anything. But if you can just actually prove, like, what you're doing and have that confidence in yourself, that helps a ton. Because then they're like, oh, this guy must be the expert. Right. And then on the other side of the service delivery and whatnot, I think it's more so just like, my script writing skills have changed a ton where, like, people are getting hit with the same email, like, five to ten times a day, depending on the industry, maybe even more. So just coming up. Yeah, definitely. So just coming up with, like, some very unique angles of, like, how your offer is, and then also using, like, Christian's script writing, like, methodology and all those resources he provides, really just to keep yourself different from the competition. Because there is a lot of emails getting sent to these people every day and landing in their inbox. But a lot of them, like, really suck. Like, they're not great at all. So just. Yeah, having that good structure to it and then just being able to be creative and write those cool angles.

Yeah. And just to recap that for the audience, no matter what service you're providing is just the process of getting good at what you do, right? Like, that's all it is. Like, you're just learning how to do cold email better than most of your competition and that's it.

Yeah, exactly. And you're not going to start out, like, being the best at it or like, knowing everything. Like, I mean, from what I explained so far, like, I didn't really know what I was doing at all eight months ago, but I was trying and like, like, at least working towards getting better. And now with all the learnings I've had and then also just experience in the game, it's like, that's the best thing is just to get better at it, so.

Absolutely, bro. Yeah, absolutely. So, like, I guess over the last three months or so, what if what is like, your most proudest accomplishment or achievement with the agency? Like, what was where you like, got that win and you're like, yo, I gotta go out with the boys, you know?

Yeah, I'd say, well, I signed like two clients in a week, like a couple months ago, and those are both for, like, larger retainers than I ever charged before. They're both at $2,000. And so that was like, amazing. And I, I had that and I saw the money in the stripe account and I was like, let's go. Like, this is. I knew it was possible beforehand, but then that was just really like, validating, solidify I can do. And yeah, because it was just so much slow, like, sales cycle beforehand and wasn't. Wasn't sending the most emails for, like, myself really, because I was just focused on the clients I had. But then, yeah, once I started to pump that volume up and now, now I'm booking like 30, 40 calls a month for myself and I'm like, I need to scale this back a little bit for the time.

It's always the balance, right, with the pendulum.

Yeah, exactly. Right.

So it's always funny. It's like at first you want more calls, and then now you're like, I have too many calls. And it's like you just gotta with that. Yeah, that's the fun part about entrepreneurship. It's the, like, they talk about the roller coaster, and that's what keeps it exciting, right?

Exactly. It does.

And so you've obviously had some success in client ascension or since joining, you're on track to continue to scale this thing. You talked about bringing on some team members and everything else, so that's all very exciting. What piece of advice would you have for some of these students that aren't as active in the community and just aren't getting the results that they know they should be just seeing guys like you posting in the WINS channel and on this interview here today. Like, I guess a better way to frame the question is if you were to start over in client ascension, like, what would you immediately do it and put into your routine to get the most out of it?

Definitely taking action sooner rather than later. Because even my, like, first month in the program, I, like, I joined. And then there's just some part of your brain where it's like, oh, now I'm. Now I'm good because I paid the money and I'm drawing, but that's not it. Now you actually have to do the work. So I spent my first month just kind of slowly going through things, attended a couple calls, but didn't really take it advantage of the fullest. And then I was like, what am I doing? This isn't going to get me anywhere.

You're like, this is a scam.

Yeah, I want a refund. No. So really it's just a matter of, like, actually going through the trainings and implementing those things. Because it's honestly like a. Like, I still have things I need to implement from the trainings, but I've implemented pretty much like, I'd say 80% of them by now. And that's really what's gotten to me to, like, to where I am today. And as well as just going on every single coaching call, you can. Like, people are busy and you'll have, like, calls scheduled at the same times and whatnot. But if you can make an effort to show up to as many coaching calls as possible, that's perfect because, like, even if you don't have a question, I find just being surrounded by other people who are doing, like, something or similar to what you do and, like, making good money in it. It's just that. Just that environment shift of, like, having that. That people around you. So I think that's the most important thing as well, because it's a lonely game in, like, entrepreneurship, especially if you don't have much of a team and you're just working with a few clients or maybe even no clients. Like, yeah, just get in that. Get in that mind space of having the people around you. And, yeah, it'll work out.

Yeah. And a lot of times you can outsource your thinking to guys like this. Right. Because they might show up to the call with a question, and you hear that question, you're actually like, wait a second, that. I also want to know the answer. It's just. You didn't think of the question in the way that they communicated it. And so it's just helpful to have, like, this pure group that is constantly thinking about how they can solve problems and just get ahead in this game. It's such a cheat code, dude. It really is.

No, exactly. That's. That's another good thing to mention, because first couple calls I went to, I was quite, like, nervous to even ask a question because I was like, oh, I don't know if this is covered in kajabi. Like, I don't know. I don't know if I should be asking this, but it's like, don't. Don't be afraid to. Because everyone, like, every question's a good one. Then also it's like, yeah, there's so many different things that are, like, get last in the group or like, in the calls that you would never think of. And you're like, wow, I actually should implement that in the business. Yeah.

So, yeah, just being a fly on the wall and a lot of these conversations can give you insights and answers that you weren't even expecting, which is such a cool feeling.

Yeah. 100 it is.

So next question is, you know, going back to just agencies in general. Like, what's one piece of advice you'd have for someone just starting in the agency space? And caveat? Obviously, the answer is join client ascension, but you can't say that as your answer. So joining client ascension, what would you say to someone just getting started in the agency space?

I'd say get your outreach going right away, because until you do outreach and actually put something out there, there's no chance people are gonna find you. Just making a website and expecting traffic to come to it is not a realistic expectation. Like, it's just not, bro.

Just three YouTube videos and you're good, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, like, yeah, just a matter of actually getting some type of offer out there in the world for people to buy. Because I think that was the biggest mistake I was making. Like, no matter what business model I tried, like, beforehand until the agency space, it's like, no matter how much work you do or how many, like, colors you change on your website and how perfect you make things, it's like, no one can actually find you until you put your stuff out there. And then once you have a client, like, don't be afraid to fail if you have some type of guarantee in place where they get their money back, because it's just a matter of really trying to stack up some type of results at first. Like, who cares if you don't make 10k a month in your first 30 days. Like, that's not just realistically. I mean, people have done it, but it's not something that's very possible for, for like, the average person, I'd say so.

And who cares? I mean, are you only in the game for 30 days? No. Like, seriously committed to making this work long term, thinking longer time horizons. And just by doing that, you will immediately put yourself above competition because they're going to take shortcuts, they're going to cut corners, and those are all opportunities for you to step in and do.

It the right way, 100%. Because, yeah, at first I, I feel like I was that way where I thought in really short time frames and would, like, get upset with myself and, like, honestly just get down on myself. And it wasn't good because I was thinking, like, oh, if I don't get this done and like, two weeks from now, then it's all going to go wrong. But that's, that's just not how it works. Like, yeah, if you can think in those longer time frames, then you don't get as upset with yourself either. And, like, if things go wrong, it's like, all right, that doesn't really matter in the long run.

So, yeah, you got to go a few steps back to go even more steps forward. That's just one of the quotes I always think back to. But you mentioned outbound and just reaching out. And I feel like that's so important because for some reason now people think, like, I made that joke of, like, oh, just, you know, start a personal brand and record content on YouTube and tweet and make TikToks. And I'm like, in the beginning, dude, like, nobody's going to be seeing that shit. And it's like, you have to ram volume and do outreach. Like, that's. You have to take the initiative of, like, being proactive and going out and getting your own clients. And most people either just don't know how to do it or they don't have the attitude or the energy or the motive to do it. And that kind of leads me into the last question, which is just like, where can people find you, follow you and learn what it's like to work with you? Because that's exactly what you help these new agency owners to do.

Yeah, exactly. So my Twitter is Alex Welch, 90, so you can follow me there. Post quite a bit about cold email and whatnot. And just like, what I'm doing, really, that's mostly what I use for, for any type of social media. And then just for my agency, it's lyftmb.com so the MB, actually, funny story about that. That stands for media buying. Even.

Even worse company, Fitness Media Buying. And then.

Exactly. So it's going to be like Facebook ads and that, Like, Instagram ads, whatever, for, like, gym owners. So not even close to what I do now, but I just felt the name stock, so. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I love it.

Yeah, exactly. Just the short domain, too. I found that was the coolest part.

So, yeah, it sounds nice, too. Lift mb. I mean, dude, it just points to what we were talking about before is, like, your landing page. The colors, the buttons, like, none of it matters.

Nothing.

It's all traffic.

Yeah. I signed my first six clients using a, like, a notion, like, page that I put public on the Internet. Like, I'd literally have a notion link and be sending it to people, and then they'd buy. Like.

Yeah, if you have traffic and a good offer, the other things, you can figure it out or make it work, however, you know.

Exactly.

And so, dude, that was a lot of fun. It was cool for me to learn more about your story and just what your perspective has been, like, going through client ascension. I know you got a couple months left. You have some big things you're currently working on, so I'm excited. We're all excited to just continue to follow your journey, bro.

Yeah. Appreciate it. No, it's great.

100%. All right.