Aussie hermit shares 3-step lead funnel fit for professional coaches; with Luke Charlton

Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur with me, Jim James. And today we're going to Byron Bay in Eastern Australia to meet Luke Challen. Luke, welcome to the show.

Hey Jim, pleasure to be here.

I am resisting the urge to say g'day. You and I are going to talk about how you're helping business owners to drive leads from social media to their pages. You've got 100% success rate for your clients using a 3-step methodology. So I'd really love for you to help us to navigate, you know, the challenges because many of us have got services to offer businesses with products, but it's getting people from the outside, from the internet, the great metaverse to our door and to our funnel. That's really a challenge. So Luke, tell us what you do and how you help entrepreneurs to not only get noticed, but Yeah.

So pretty simple. I just use advertising to help them get high-paying clients, really.

You make that sound so simple. Are you going to break it down for us?

Yes, we can go in. Yes. Yes, we are. So break it down. But I'm not the, I'm not like the complex funnel or the complex tech guy, although I can do complex stuff. I grew up kind of around computers. So it's, it's second nature to me. But when it comes to getting clients, I know that my clients just want simplicity. They just want something that books them appointments. They don't want to, you know, write a whole book and create upsells and downsells and all these different products just to get a high paying client. They're just like, look, what's the simplest way to get clients? So that's what I teach and that's what I do in my agency for my clients as well. So yeah, more than happy to dive into the details of the system that I use.

Yeah, let's do that. Because for many of us listening on the internet, there are so many courses and so many funnel Books, podcasts.

Yeah.

I've got to say it gets a little bit bewildering, to be honest. And then there's all the talk about Facebook ads becoming bad value. And so maybe paralysis by analysis. So Luke, that you've got a simple 3-step approach that delivers, you know, you've said 100% results for your clients.

Yeah. So there's like kind of 2 parts to my business. There's the done-for-you agency. And then there's like coaching where I coach people through my systems now. In terms of the done-for-you agency where we control the result, that's where we've got 100% success for our service professionals. What that means is every coach that I've run ads for and built a system for, we've created profitable advertising campaigns. So I just want to be 100% transparent there. Now, in terms of, yeah, the system. So again, I'm all about simplicity and you just mentioned a second ago, I think people are really tired of, you know, investing in all these different little programs. It could be a $3K program or a $2K or $1K or a $5K group program. And then not getting results. And I feel like, you know, group programs have been really big over the last few years and it feels like the pendulum's almost like swinging back a bit. We have group coaching, but my program, I'm kind of shutting that down and we just focus on done for you because it's just the easiest way for us to control the results and get appointments for coaches now and service professionals. How do we do that? Again, very simple. Okay. So I'm going to talk about the system. I'll give you a high level overview, but then I'll go into like what actually makes it work because it's going to sound almost too good to be true, too simple. So basically we have a system where when we get the message right, it's super simple. So we literally pitch the coach or the expert's program in the actual ad, right? And then it goes to a little 5-minute video that explains the offer in full, and then they book an appointment. Okay. So that's the system. So that's generally where we start. It goes ad, 5-minute video, and then calendar booking. If sometimes we have to go kind of lead magnet, which is like a free guide. So you advertise a free guide. That's what generates the lead. And then on the very next page, again, another 5-minute video, which gets them on the, which gets them in the calendar, but it's a very similar system. It's just one might have a lead magnet instead of kind of a, just a 5-minute video, right? So there's got a lead magnet in front that we're advertising. Anyway, the point is that's all it is. It's like ad, video, appointment. And so super, super simple. But the way that that works, obviously it's like, you know, the devil is in the details, as they say. It's like, because I could, you know, we can tell that to the people listening, the entrepreneurs listening right now, and they're going to launch a campaign that won't convert. And again, I'm more than happy to go into the details of what actually makes it convert if you want me to do that now.

Yeah. Yeah. Do that. Because I think, you know, for all of us, when you say, well, you, you, you do a lead magnet and then you do a 5-minute And then you get, actually, for someone like you, that's plainly, you know, what you do and you deliver that both for your own company, for your clients. But for most of us that are actually selling something else, like where does that lead reside? Are we, are we hosting that video on YouTube or Vimeo, for example, or we, we're using ClickFunnels. So it's some of the complexities, I think, that certainly for me are one problem. Plus, what's the messaging? Because that's also key, isn't it?

Yes. Okay. So I'll talk about the tech and then we'll go into the most important part, obviously, which is the messaging. And I'll give you a client case study that a client that recently signed up that we're generating leads for now. So yeah, the tech is really simple. It's like 3 systems is all you need. So we use, we recommend ClickFunnels. It just, it, yes, it's a bit more expensive than most landing page builders, but for the clients that we work with, they're not great at tech usually. So ClickFunnels, I think I find that the simplest landing page builder. We just upload the videos to like Vimeo as an example. And then you need an email system. We recommend ActiveCampaign. That's what I use. And then a calendar system. So there's really kind of 3 pieces of tech you have to pay for. So it's the landing page builder. That's about $100 a month. Email system, that's about $20 a month to start usually. And then calendar system, $10 a month or so. So you might be spending $150 a month on tech just to generate appointments, which, I mean, if you're running a business, it's pretty efficient compared to like what you would have had to pay for like a couple of decades ago, getting people to code things for you and stuff. So the tech side of things again is very simple. It's that way for a reason. Like our clients just want appointments, right? Qualified appointments. So we use the simplest system to do that. Now, what actually makes this whole thing convert? And this is where a lot of entrepreneurs, coaches, experts This is where their campaigns fall apart, right? They go to advertise a lead magnet, people don't opt in, or they go to advertise a lead magnet and then people don't book in a calendar, right? Because they're getting the wrong leads onto their list. Or they pitch their service in the ad and no one books an appointment, as I said before. So why is that? Well, I'll give you a client case study. So this guy came to me the other day and he signed up to our done-for-you service and he's selling kind of mindset, right? And this is what a lot of coaches and experts do is they, you know, we're so deep in our program and our topic, like we know the value of our service, whatever that is. We know the value of our system, our methodology, right? And so because we know the value, we lead with that with our marketing. So that's what he was doing. He was saying, hey, you know, I will help you with mindset and I'll help you with procrastination. I will help you with being more consistent and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said to him, like, look, After he signed up, I said this to him. It doesn't mean anything to, you know, it doesn't mean anything to anyone, right? So what he was doing is leading with his service of like, I can help you with mindset, but no one wants that, right? That's not appealing. So I said, what we have to do is we have to take this offer, your mindset methodology, and we have to put it in the context of an actual problem that people want to have solved.

Okay.

So I kind of went through his offer. We spoke about it and I said, okay, what's like the biggest problem that we could solve with this offer? Because obviously the bigger the problem, the more that we can charge. And so what we settled on was sales, like an actual sales problem. So we figured out that this could actually help salespeople. He actually wanted to focus on coaches, so coaches that have issues with their sales. So again, I know the coaching market well, so that was good for me. And actually a big problem they have is like, I can't afford it at the end, right? Like I can't afford it from the prospect, or I need to think about it as a really big one. And the reason why that happens a lot is because the coach is incongruent with their value. You know, they, they feel kind of like a fraud, right? Because a lot of coaches are new and they feel weird charging like $2,000 or $3,000 for their service, even though they know what they have is really valuable. They're just not at that level yet where they feel comfortable. They haven't done it enough, right? So I know that's a big problem, but the real problem is low closing rate, right? That's the real problem that we're solving is like they're, they're not closing at a high level. So they're losing income. They're losing clients. So that's how we positioned his offer. Basically the headline is something along the lines of like, never hear I need to think about it again. Right? So that's kind of like the problem we're going after. And I explained in the ad, like the reason why coaches hear this a lot is because they're incongruent. So what my program, I don't call it a mindset program, by the way, but what my mindset program does is helps coaches become more congruent with their value, help, and then they start closing at a higher rate, which is actually true. Like I went through his case studies and testimonials and these are the results that he was getting. So we're not kind of like. I'm making things up here. Anyway, we launched that ad immediately. We started getting people applying for his program, right? Because now we've taken the mindset methodology and put it in the context of a problem in a market. The lesson here, it's not about your offer or your methodology. It always comes back to the market. It's like, what's the actual problem? What's the problem that you're solving in the first instance? And then what is offered to solve that problem? But it always starts with the problem. And this is what we forget often as experts and entrepreneurs is we're actually solving a problem. And again, it sounds really simple, right? That's all business is, is like, what's your problem? And here's the solution. That's business. That's how you provide value. So the bigger the problem, the more that you can charge. It's very hard for business owners to identify what that problem is, that service level problem. Again, because we're so knowledgeable, it's like the curse of knowledge. We speak to these underlying problems that we know is the real problem. Right? So as I said before, the real problem is like they're not congruent with their, not congruent with themselves. But the actual big problem we're solving is low sales, right? It's like losing the sale. And so we do one of two things. We'll either lead with our methodology, mindset, or the next level that people do is they'll speak to the underlying problem. But because people aren't experts in your topic, it goes over their head. It doesn't like resonate with them. So you have to lead with the problem that's on their mind, which is I'm not closing sales. I'm losing sales. Why do I keep getting I can't afford it or now's not the right time? So we have to speak to the problems that's going on in their mind, not the real underlying problem that we know that they have. Again, it's a very hard thing for people to do because they're so deep in their topic. So does that explain a bit about how you make messaging work?

It does. And it's wonderful as well how you're, if you like, being to some degree a psychologist for your clients at the same time in order to create that copy. So you're translating that copy or formatting that copy as both Advertising, I think, Luke, and also his emails, right? So how are those different? Because advertising copy is not the same as email. You know, one is awareness and perhaps one is relationship. Do you want to just tell us how do you break those down differently?

I guess you've got to understand emails first. It's a sales medium. It's not marketing, right? Because once they're on your list, you've done the marketing is really to attract the right people to you and the sales Maybe whatever your mechanism is for sales, it could be email, phone call. Sometimes you use email with a phone call, right? You use email to book a phone call, but email is really a sales kind of medium, I would say. So that's the differentiator. Like with email, I can put a lot more of my personality into it. The tonality can be different. I can use things like, hey, I'm the Aussie Hermit, you know, so I can be a bit more casual with email. With a cold audience, it's kind of like when you're meeting, if you're meeting someone new for the first time, you wouldn't, you'd be a bit more reserved, I guess you would say. And so that's how you kind of want to chain approach your copy for cold advertising, people who don't know you. You don't want to stick to your personality too over the top. So that's one kind of differentiator on the tonality. But other than that, like I said, advertising is more of a marketing lead generation play than email. Once they're on your list, you're still using the same message, right? So for me, an offer is like, what's the result that you're promising? It's not really what What are all your coaching modules or course? Or that's obviously part of underlying part of the offer, but the main offer is like, I will help get you 10 clients, or I will help you lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Like what's the result promising? That's what I'd consider the offer. Anyway, when they're on your email list, you're still talking about the same offer. Your offer doesn't change. It's still speaking to that main problem that you're solving. So that's kind of similar to your advertising because with your advertising, you're speaking to that market with that problem. So you're getting those people onto your list. And then on your email list, you're still speaking to that problem because you want everything to be in alignment. Like once they're on your list, you don't all of a sudden change the messaging to something different. It's always, you want to be, everything has to be in alignment. And that obviously makes things a lot easier for service professional. But yeah, the messaging there is still in alignment, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does. And you mentioned about the 5-minute video. Do you just want to touch on what's in the video? Because plainly that 5 minutes is quite long. 1 minute would be sort of like a teaser. 5 is, you know, a significant amount of content. So I was interested that you make such a long one.

Okay. So what I'm about to go through, my video converts about 25%. So what that means is for every 100 people that opt in for the video, I'll get 25 appointments from it, which is quite high from industry standard. And the framework that I use is, again, my offer that I'm promoting at the moment is the done-for-you offer, right? So as I said before, we usually just go Ad and they opt in for a 5-minute video just to explain this, the done-for-you service. If it's coaching, generally it's like lead magnet and then on the thank you page, another 5-minute video. They're both slightly different frameworks. Anyway, the framework for the done-for-you service is like the beginning, I address the demographic, like, hey coaches, then I talk about the main result that I'm promising. So, hey coaches, if you're watching this video, I'm going to promise to book you 20 appointments per month within 90 days. Or I'll give you a complete refund, plus I'll cover your ad spend. That's my main offer. And then I go into the 3 big results of the service. So it could be, you know, we write all the copy for you. That's number one. We launch it and we tweak it until we get you appointments. And then I think the final one is we work with you one-on-one to make sure that you're closing and we'll give you our sales scripts. And then I say, and the best part is you only need a budget of— so the next part of the framework is, and the best part is, after the 3 key results, and the best part is, then you just give another benefit. For me, that was, you know, you need a budget of $30 to $50 per day. And best of all, again, if I don't get you those appointments in 90 days, I'll give you a refund plus I'll cover your ad spend. So that, I remind them of the guarantee and then I go into my credibility, right? So then I go to, why can I make such a big claim? And then I go, here's my proof, right? I've written copy for Bob Proctor. I've spent over $16 million on ads. I've worked with over 1,000 coaches to help them get clients with high, you know, high paying clients from advertising, blah, blah, blah. So if you feel like I can little bit of credibility very quickly. And then I go, if that's all you need to know, click the button below, book a spot on my calendar. And then I say, but if you want to know why it works so well, then I go into a little bit of kind of like what makes the method faster, cheaper, or easier than everything else. So a bit of more of like a, what makes it unique. And then I do one final call to action and that's it. So that takes you about 5 minutes.

I love the anatomy of that. And obviously that'll then be in, in the show notes as well. And we're just about out of time. So you, you do have, I'm hoping of a one takeaway. You've been an entrepreneur for now over 10 years. You went to London, didn't work out. You've come back. You've built a business now, a really successful business. Luke Charlton in Byron Bay. If there's one piece of advice you'd give to fellow entrepreneurs on, you know, what you've learned on how to get noticed, what would that be?

Yeah. We've spoken a lot about strategy, right? So my piece of advice is a mindset, speaking of mindset, but it's the most important. Like, so what I have this analogy that I use sometimes with clients. You can imagine that you're like a mouse in a maze and there's the cheese in the middle, right? And you can kind of like smell the cheese or the mouse can smell the cheese. And what I mean by the cheese is just like your goal, like whatever that is for you, it could be $100K a month, whatever. And, you know, a mouse, when they can smell the cheese, they just, they go back and forth. Like if they're just going back and forth and they'll just keep doing that until they get to the middle. And that's sometimes like. What we have to do as entrepreneurs. And what that means is you, as long as you don't give up, like you'll get to your cheese, whatever that is for you. You will find that the moment that you give up and go back to a full-time job or whatever, you know, whatever it means for you to give up and stop chasing your dreams, obviously that's when your dream ends. But if you keep moving forward, if you keep testing and tweaking and obviously finding mentors is important, finding mentors that have done what you want to do is so crucial. But if you If you just keep moving forward, like you will get to where you want to go, but you've got to have that attitude, that mindset of I'm going to make this work. For me, I never had the mindset of, if this doesn't work, I'm going to go back to a job. I've never had, and that didn't even cross my mind to get a job. Even when my parents were saying in London, when I was broke, like you should go work at a bar or whatever. It just, for some reason, it just didn't enter my mind. It just, I just always like, okay, this is my career. Like, this is what I'm doing. This is my identity. So. If this is your career. If you had that mindset of like, this is what, who I am and this is what I do, like you will get to where you want to go. It may take a little bit longer than what you would have wished, but you will get there. Just be patient, be persistent, and you will get there. So that's my bit of advice.

Luke Child, thank you so much for joining me. If people want to find out about you, where can they get you?

So I have a free guide called the 9 Email Offers That Get Clients for Free. So you can opt into my list and I talk about my simple system of just sending regular email. Like I'm all about simplicity. So just go to 9emailoffers.com. So the number 9. emailoffers.com. It's got, it's a great guide. Send it out to your list if you've got a list, but other than that, like there's a lot of great advice on my email list as well.

Look, it's so much detail because you have simplified it, but you've also given us enough detail to understand the complexities of what you do and how you're getting leads for your clients, but also plainly for your own business. So, Luke Chull, thank you for joining my fellow Unnoticed Entrepreneurs and sharing your wisdom today.

No problem. Thanks for having me, Jim.

Luke, it's been a pleasure. So you've been listening to Luke Charlton. Of course, I'll put all his details in the show notes. And you've been listening to me here, Jim James. If you like the show, please do share it with a fellow entrepreneur because we are on a mission to help as many unnoticed entrepreneurs as we can. And if you like the show, it would also really help us if you can review it. That way we can get noticed too. Until we meet again, I do encourage you to keep on communicating.