Stephen Bishop On Going From Low Revenue Months To Signing MASSIVE Web3 Clients | EP. 15

What's going on, guys? Andre Haeckel Jr. Here, back with another Student Spotlight interview, my good friend Stephen Bishop. Welcome to the show, man.

Thank you, thank you. It's an honor to be here.

Awesome, man. Yeah. I've been watching your journey inclined ascension, I think for the past three or four months. I'd want to say is when you actually joined and you've just been sprinting. I know in the start of the year, one of the themes or one of the initiatives that Daniel put out was the sprint. And you've just carried that throughout your entire time in the program, which we'll talk more about on this call. I'm just so interested to hear more about your background, what you do for business, how you've had all this success recently and where that's all headed. So just to get us started, for the audience out there that might not be familiar with you and your work, who are you and what are you currently working on?

Yeah, for sure. So I'm Stephen, as you said, and I'm essentially working on a company called Script and we have a decent background in the last two years in the crypto industry, which is essentially where the name Scrip came from. We originated in the paid advertising space. We were working with a lot of crypto clients like Brave Browser and some others like Phantom Wallet in the advertising space, which was going pretty well. But I think obviously we encountered the bottleneck that a lot of people were coming across, which was the regulations in the crypto space for the advertising. So then essentially what we decided to do was just to pivot towards the creative side of things. We were working with quite a few of our clients to actually produce the creatives, the ads we are running. So then we essentially just dialed down the offer, made it creatives only. So, yeah, that's what we've been working with and that's what we're still doing today.

It's so interesting, man, because I've seen you absolutely dominate in the Web3 industry. If someone were to just go to your website or your Twitter profile, even if they're not super into web3 in crypto, I can almost guarantee they'll be able to recognize a few of the companies you've done work for. And that's an impressive thing to say for quite a new agency. So props to you for that. And I want to go a little bit more into how you've been able to work with like the industry legends like Brave Browser and walletconnect and Immutable X. Like these are all companies that I'm familiar with and I barely spend any time in crypto. And so maybe talk about that for a little bit is like how as a new agency you're able to start to work with these really noteworthy companies in the space.

For sure. I mean, I think that was obviously a big thing from us early on because when we started with the paid advertising, we were actually trying to find a solution to platforms like Twitter and Facebook that weren't regulating crypto companies. So we ended up moving towards Brave browser. We started actually using that as a platform for advertising and then built up a relationship with Brave from that before they came a client of ours. And then when we pivoted the offering, it became more creative based. To be honest with you, I can't give you a specific way we got that. We got lucky with our first client, which was Immutable studios that just came from cold email. And we just nurtured a really good relationship with them. We produced about 25 creatives for them in the first month that they just used as variations and got great results from. And I think everything from then just compounded. We work with other companies like Woo Network, who are another big company in the space. And I think obviously over the time that happens, we built up quite a lot of case studies. We had great testimonials from the two sort of founders there at those two companies, which went a long way in terms of building up the relationships with Web3 brands and then obviously just having that recognition too.

Yeah, that's super interesting, dude. Good for you, man. And I want to talk a little bit more about Client Ascension because I remember for maybe a couple of weeks or months, it was on Twitter, you kept putting it out there. You were working on the agency and I'm not sure where you're at, but you kept mentioning that you're working towards being able to join a program like Client Ascension. So even though you weren't ready to join the program, you continued to put it out there and basically have us and other people on Twitter and in the space hold you accountable. So talk about like what that journey was like, how you first heard of Client Ascension and what the motivation was because you had probably the strongest conviction, I want to say, out of any student that joined the program. You're like, as soon as I can afford this, I'm in. I know exactly what I'm getting into. I know exactly why. I know it's going to help me to grow. Not everyone comes into the program like that. So maybe speak on how that all.

Came to Be, Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think. Well, it was around summer, summer last year. I first came across the money to it, a space as it was, and then just sort of connected with people in the space like yourself and obviously Black Hat wizard Daniel and just people like that. And obviously I saw that you guys were the people sort of leading from the front when it comes to Internet money and marketing and that sort of field. And I think I soon realized that that was almost the. I saw people doing well and the people that were doing well ended up in Client Ascension and did even better. So for me, it just seemed like that natural progression. And then, yeah, I mean, I think it was around August last year, actually. I couldn't at that point. I wasn't ready to join Client Ascension. But I ended up paying for a consultation with Daniel and speaking to him and just it felt like I was on that natural progression. As I said, that path was the right option. And as I said, I saw everyone else that was doing well ended up there and it just felt like where I needed to be in order to grow my business to where everyone else was.

That's so cool, man. And I guess what was the breaking point for you? Like, when did you do. Because there are people, and I've been in positions like this as well, where I know there's this opportunity or this program or this thing that I should invest to or into for my business to grow, but I'm just not there yet or I don't feel like I'm ready. So for you, like, was there a point in time? Was it hitting a certain revenue mark? Like, what triggered you to say, okay, I'm ready, let's go all in on this?

Yeah, I mean, I think it was, to be honest with you, I was actually. I joined in a pretty bad time for my agency because I just. This new offer was doing really well. As I said, I got some really good clients and I think we scaled up to some good amounts in like September, October, and then we just sort of plummeted down completely in November, December. And I think that was a really tough hit. And obviously we had a lot of consecutive Ls back to back. And I think for me, in the back of my mind was always Client Ascension and that I realized that in order to get to that next step, I needed the advice and the coaching. So I just decided, you know what, I'm just going to go for it. At the time, revenue wasn't great, so it was a massive, massive risk. Ended up just putting on a credit card Because I was that confident would pay off. And I just, to be honest with you, even though I was making such a huge, huge risk when I did that, I still felt such a relief because I knew that what I was going to, the value I was going to get out of it was going to get me to where I needed to be.

That's so cool, man. Yeah. And again, props to you for, for taking that risk. I think if I look back on my business career and I've only been in business for a couple of years, granted I'm young, you're young, but I can recall like the specific moments where things really change for the better. And it was when I took the leap of faith and the risk to do something that I had real conviction in. And it sounds like you just had conviction in the fact that Daniel's done it. I've done it. There's other guys all throughout Twitter that are talking about joining and getting better results. And so that was enough for you to be like, this is what I need. And it's interesting, it came at a time where you knew you could do good revenue months, but you struggled to do it consistently. And that's where you started to lean on a community and a program like Client Extension to basically show you how to keep that going, not just at the same pace, but to scale it even further. So I guess when you first joined, like maybe walk me through or walk us through what that journey has been like. Like, what was that first problem or like really urgent task that you looked to Client Ascension for to help solve?

Yeah, well, in a way, I think it was actually just the accountability because I recall speaking to Daniel, as I said, when I had a consultation call with him and I said to him, I feel like I have the knowledge to be consistently doing, you know, multiple five figure months. But for some reason it just, something wasn't right. It just felt like I needed to tweak a couple of small things and I'd be there. And it felt like just coming together with the sort of the guidance of everyone in the community, you know, speaking to obviously the coaches, but people that are like minded going on a similar journey. And as I said, it felt like I didn't have a major issue with anything specifically, but I had a couple of small issues that needed tweaking in terms of sales and Legion. And obviously I felt like Client Ascension just put me right in terms of doing the things that I needed to do just that one step higher and then obviously combining the, the added quality in terms of what I was doing with just volume, which was a concept that I wasn't really. I thought I was doing volume, but I really wasn't until I joined Client Ascension, if that makes sense. And I think that that realization was probably the biggest factor.

Yeah, yeah, 100%, dude. Once you start to see what some of these other business owners are doing when it comes to volume, it's like, wow, I'm not doing nearly enough. And even I feel like that sometimes just going through the community to see what others are up to and it's a good place to be in because you can look at it two different ways. You could be like, well, I'm not gonna. I'm not as good as they are, or I'm not enough, or I can't do that. Or you could look at it as, hey, like, if he can do it, I can do it. And that's what I feel like the vibe and the culture is with Incline Ascension, which is really cool because it's competitive, but it's also like we're all trying to see each other succeed, which is really nice. The two topics that I want to talk about a little bit more is, is first off, lead generation. I think the way I look at a business is it starts with Legion and then sales and then fulfillment. So talk about how cold email has played a role in you being able to grow your business more consistently. And then after, we're going to go into the sales process.

Yeah, 100%. Well, I think obviously it goes without saying, you know, lead gen and cold email specifically has been the biggest vehicle to the growth I've had since joining. I think, again touching on that point, I. Before I joined Client Ascension, I thought I was doing volume with cold email, you know, sending 100 a day or something like that. And obviously I came to realize that wasn't nearly enough. And I think obviously it was a massive help having Christian help me write the scripts when I joined. And then ever since. Ever since then, I just been able to combine the scripts that we're working with with the volume. And then, yeah, before I joined, I was. I was having some weeks where I was having 10 calls and some that was none. So it was really about the consistency for me. And that was obviously the big thing.

And just for the audience out there, maybe share one or two strategies or big lessons that you learned that other than volume, it sounds like that's the main thing. And then obviously going to Christian to get your scripts written in a way that he's already tested and knows works like is There anything else that you'd say to someone like, that's doing cold email right now that they should focus on that'll really help them get better results?

Yeah, well, I mean, I think obviously the main things that stood out to me were, first of all, the first lines. You know, I was spending like a couple of hours a day manually writing first lines for each prospect I was going through then, obviously with what you guys are doing in terms of just creating a sort of concept for first line that can apply to multiple different prospects in the same sort of niche was. Was like a game changer for me because obviously my. My niche. Crypto and Web3 can be quite specific. I mean, we've set up quite a lot of different campaigns that are even more specific within the crypto space in terms of different, like, wallets and things like that. And then obviously with that, we've been able to come up with first lines that, you know that they're fantastic because they're the one first line, but they sound to every prospect as if they're written directly for them.

Yeah, it's pretty genius, dude. I remember when we discovered that at our agency internally, and it was a huge breakthrough because a huge bottleneck is sitting down and writing those first lines. And even when AI was a thing and it spit out like these super boring, really random personalizations that just didn't work. It actually worked against you. I don't know if you've used these before, but they were like, complimenting them on where they went to school or on the sports team that's local to where they live, and people would comment negatively about them more than they would positively. And it was just like, it wasn't really working. And so that. That's really cool to hear. And the. The next thing I want to talk about real quick is just sales, because I know in the beginning as a new agency owner, like, you might think you're good at sales, but then you meet guys like David and Connor and you're like, wait a second. Like, this is a whole new level and it can be super intimidating, especially with someone like, I'll call him out very specifically, but David, Jacob, like, this guy is an absolute madman when it comes to sales. And in a good way. Right? Like, his personality is super aggressive. I almost look at him like Simon Cowell on America's Got Talent or whatever that show was back in the day. He's like the mean one, but he. He means so well. Like, he. He really loves each and every student and has helped him so much with Sales. So maybe walk us through what that process was like, just improving your overall sales.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, 100% got a shout out David as well, because he's been a massive, massive help for me personally in terms of sales. But I think, you know, before, before joining Client Ascension, I hadn't even come across terms like holding a frame or any sort of frame within the cause. And I think realistically I was creating scripts that I thought would work and I was just winging it because I had zero idea about any sort of sales psychology. And then as well. Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty widely known inside the client essential community. People have, people have asked me and you know, I had about 30 to 40 calls in a month period and I didn't close a single one of them. And people, people like just realize that there was such a problem I had with sales. And the reality was that I wasn't terrible at sales. You know, I was pretty confident getting on sales calls, but I just didn't know what I was doing. As I mentioned, I didn't know anything about like holding a frame or any sort of psychology. And I was just going straight into my pitch from, from the off, which was obviously a massive red flag.

Yeah, it's so cool to see your growth, dude, because you, you have all these elements that go into having a lot of success and just going and there. I give a lot of credit because a program like Client Ascension is very intimidating. There's so many moving pieces and so many areas you can go and focus on, but you went right to the areas that you needed the most help with and that your business was really showing you that you needed to spend more time on, which is just. You got to give a lot of credit to that because I feel like if people are not good at sales, it's almost something that they want to avoid because there's reasons why they're not good at sales. Either they're afraid of it or they don't have the self belief and so. Oh, actually, have you been on any of the mindset calls with Mario? Because I, I'm a big advocate for that. Not everyone is, but I just feel like that plays a huge role in, in the sales process as well. So I'm just curious to get your take on like the mindset coaching that we have in there and Mario specifically, if you've had any experience with, with him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, I've been on a few calls with Mario and I think, to be honest with you, I Think they're fantastic. Because, you know, the main thing that I feel you can. You can go to so many different places to get help with Mindset and this, that, and the other, but nothing specific to the problems that people inside Client Ascension or other business owners like ourselves face, which I feel like is such a unique set of problems compared to other people. And I think obviously with someone like Mary who has, like, experience in these specific problems, it really is a game changer. And I think I've been going to those calls regularly and I feel like they've made a massive difference. And I mean, even just aside from the actual cause, you know, when you're in. When you're in the Slack channel, when you see people posting in the WINS channel all the time, and it just. That's one of the biggest things for your mindset as well, because you can either just let that consume you and let it get you down and see other people winning, but I think you can actually just take that the other way and just be super inspired by it. And I feel like that's what I've done. And that's just been like, a massive help to the mindset as well.

That's awesome, man. Yeah. I've been working with Mario for, like, three years, and it's hard to conceptualize, like, how has he helped me. It's not like he's booked this many calls for me or increased my clothes. Like, you can't really measure what someone like his coaching does for you. But everyone I've talked to that's gone to a handful of his calls are like, yeah, like, this is making a big impact. I don't have specific numbers to. To explain it. I can just tell you personally from an experience level, this helps. So that's all cool to hear. So I think just to kind of recap, like, it's very clear that you've been able to extract quite a lot of value from a program like Client Ascension. And not too long of a time period. I think you've been in there for what now? Like three or four months?

Yeah, yeah. So I joined on New Year's Eve. I think it was actually. Yeah, just about three months.

Yeah, so. So only three months and you're pretty far ahead. I don't think there's many students that I've actually done this style of interview with that have been in here for that short period of time. So that's really cool. But I guess going off of that, like, what would you say to a student like yourself that's just joining Client Ascension or a program like Client Ascension, like, how would you recommend that they extract the most value out of this program? Like, what would be the few things that you tell them to do? Like, if your best friend is just now joining Client Ascension and he's like, hey, what should I do to get the most results by being in here? What would you tell that person?

Yeah, well, I think there's definitely a couple of things. I mean, first things first, it goes without saying, like, actually just do join the cause, because, I mean, obviously, I know that's, like, it's incentivized for you guys to want us to join the calls, and it really does help so much because you come on the call, and even if someone's not answering a specific question to you, you can learn so much from other people's problems. Because even if someone's agency is completely different to you, yours, the problems that you face, you know, the responses you get from people are still so similar. So there's definitely that. And I also think getting stuck in straight away, I mean, obviously, I was more incentivized to do so because as I mentioned, I was in that situation where it was like I was joining Client Ascension as a lifeline. And I think that sort of really hurried me to actually just get started as soon as possible. You know, booking the call with Daniel, booking the call Christian, and get everything sorted as soon as possible. And I think that that is definitely something I'd recommend because, you know, we. We talk about speed and the importance of it, and it's definitely so true, because you come in and you have so much value that that's there to you. And I think, obviously, the sooner you can get acquainted with everything that's there and just get familiar, the better. And I think, obviously, as well, like, the only other thing I'd add is to not write anything off. I mean, you know, I came in and operations wasn't, like, a massive priority for me because I was still trying to just focus on leads, but then I could still learn so much from people that were, you know, on the operations calls or posting in the channel that was relevant to me right then. So, yeah, definitely just not writing anything off that you don't think is relevant to.

Yeah, it's one of the things I always tell students is, like, everything that's in the program is in there for a good reason. Like, it's all very curated, and the way the program was designed, it's just by looking back at what myself and Daniel and my other business partners and coaches have done to have success in their business that we know would work for others. And we've had now over, I think, 400 or 500 students that actually have gone through the program. And so, like, it's continuously updated and improved based on what we see works. And so I love that you said, just don't write anything off, because if it's there, it's there for a reason. You might not be, you know, it might not be the time and the place for you yet based on where you're at in your business, but eventually it's going to matter and it's going to be relevant. So I think that's great advice. And just to zoom out even more, what would you say to someone that's just getting started in the agency space if they're going to go and start an agency, whether it be a Web3 marketing agency or a video editing agency or anything like that? What would you say for someone just starting off?

Yeah, I definitely say the number one thing I'd say to anyone is just persistence. I mean, I think the first time I ever tried to start my agency was back in 2020, which is, what, about three years ago now? And obviously, through different iterations, I've got to where I am now in terms of the offer. But it took me three years to do that. And I think I've been through a lot of things where, you know, it could be easy to just give up and just try something simpler. And I think, obviously that's what, you know, people say, you know, 99% of it's actually just showing up every day. And I think that's. It sounds really, really simple because it's actually not. It's harder than it may sound because I think a lot of people are going to lack the, like, the willingness to do that. But if you can just show up every day, keep doing the same thing, stick to the plan, good days, bad days, I think you're going to do well.

Oh, that's a great way to. That's a great way to end it, dude. That's really, really good advice. It's actually. I recently said this on a podcast, too, and I got asked a similar question of, like, just show up every single day consistently. It sounds really simple or easy, but it's. It's not. I mean, it's clearly not. There are so many people that fall out of it. And it's the requirement, number one is just continue to show up every single day when you want to show up and on especially the days where the last thing you want to do is show up because you just don't feel like it. That's where you got to show up 10 times more. And so really good advice, really good conversation, dude. It was great to learn more about you and your business and just the background and just hearing your experience in the program, I feel like I don't get a ton of opportunities to do, like, a deep dive like this with every student. So super grateful to be able to do it with you here today. And just to end this for the audience out there that's listening, I'm sure there's a bunch of them wanting to just, you know, learn more about you and even reach out and just have a conversation with you and pick your brain. So where can they find you, follow you and learn? Even if it's a Web3 marketing agency or just a Web3 company out there potentially wanting to work with you?

Yeah. So, I mean, haven't been super active across multiple different channels, so I'd say the main one for now is Twitter. And yeah, you can find me there at uncore. Steven Bishop.

Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for spending the time with us here today. Keep crushing it. And guys, if you're watching this, we appreciate your support. If you're in Client Ascension, hit us up. Myself or Stephen, we're both in there. Available through dms. And if you're not in Client Ascension, be sure to check it out@client ascension.com and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

See you next time. Sat.