I just had one of the most value-packed conversations on the Marketing Minds Podcast with Jeff Brewer, who is one of the foremost experts on the challenge launch model for coaching, consulting & course-style businesses.

And what Jeff shared wasn't just theory - this is a battle-tested system that has driven INSANE results for both beginners & established experts alike.

Here's the thing - this isn't the type of "challenge" where it feels like a free virtual event with a bunch of speakers & 4-hour marathon sessions. This is a challenge that actually drives real transformation & allows participants to go from zero to one - actually implementing & creating something tangible during the experience.

I'm talking about a model where 20-30% of attendees are converting into paying clients on the backend. That's not a typo.

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Jeff said something on the podcast that really hit home - we are in what he calls a "Trust Recession."

Think about it. People keep saying webinars are dead, online launches aren't working like they used to, sales cycles are getting longer. And while webinars aren't actually dead - the OLD way of running them absolutely is.

You know the model - run some direct response ads on Meta straight to an evergreen automated 60-minute webinar & expect to have a million-dollar business overnight. That model is done.

So the question becomes: If we're in a trust recession, how do we build the MOST amount of trust in the LEAST amount of time?

And that's exactly where the challenge launch model comes in.

Jeff broke this down brilliantly & I want to make sure you understand these two critical components because they are what separate a true challenge from every other type of launch:

1. Paid, Community-Driven Experience

You invite people into an exclusive community-driven experience where they actually have to pay to join. Now, you can do free challenges - those work too. But Jeff's approach (and I agree) is that people who pay, pay attention.

Even if it's a low dollar amount - $47, $97 - when someone is paying for something versus opting into 10 free things, they're going to show up, engage & actually do the work.

They join a private Facebook group, a School community, or something similar where they can interact with a curated group of like-minded people. This is KEY because the community becomes one of the most powerful elements of the whole experience.

2. Micro Transformation

This is the BIGGEST differentiator. With webinars, four-part video series, or online summits - it's one expert talking to many people, teaching, educating, storytelling. But there's no micro transformation achieved.

A challenge flips that on its head. Instead of spending most of the time teaching, you spend less time teaching & more time telling people exactly what to do, what to create & what to implement.

By the end of the challenge, they have something tangible - an asset, a result, something they didn't have before they started. That right there is what builds unshakeable trust.

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One of the best things Jeff shared was how to think about what content goes INTO your challenge without cannibalizing your core offer.

If your core offer (your course, coaching program, or done-for-you service) helps people go from 1 to 10 over 6 weeks or 6 months - your challenge helps them go from 0 to 1 in 3 to 14 days.

That's it. You're not trying to deliver your entire program in the challenge. You're getting them in the game. You're helping them create their first asset, get their first result, take their first meaningful step forward.

Jeff used his own 14-Day List Building Challenge as an example & it was a masterclass in execution:

Days 1-2: Participants built their first lead magnet using templates & AI tools Jeff provided (Canva templates, share funnels - not "go figure it out yourself")

Days 3-4: They got their lead magnet funnel up & running with marketing automation connected - and Jeff had tech office hours so literally no one was left behind

Days 5-9: He taught them 5 different organic traffic distribution strategies they could deploy for FREE to start getting people downloading their lead magnet

Days 10-14: People were getting real leads - some getting hundreds, even thousands of downloads in just days

Notice what happened there - in 14 days, people went from having NOTHING to having a designed lead magnet, a live funnel, AND actual leads on their list. That's a real transformation.

And here's the genius part - Jeff's daily sessions were only 15 to 30 minutes each. Not 4-hour marathon productions. Just enough teaching to tell them what they need to do, give them the cheat codes & templates, then send them off to actually DO it.

This was one of the most powerful principles Jeff shared & I think it applies to so much more than just challenges.

In a trust recession, show me, don't tell me is more important than it has ever been before.

If all of your competitors are busy only educating & teaching people the "how" - but YOU'RE the only person actually helping them achieve a meaningful micro transformation where they've done more for a lower dollar amount in a shorter time duration than ever before - you're going to rise to the top as the ONLY logical solution.

Think about it - if someone helps you get your first YouTube ad up & running in 5 days during a challenge, why would you NOT want to continue working with that person at a deeper level?

And Jeff made a great point about this - even the people who DON'T invest in your core offer still walk away with real results. So when they're ready to invest later, who do you think they're coming back to? The person who actually showed them results.

Most people wait until someone becomes a paying client to ask for a success story or testimonial. Jeff does it DIFFERENTLY.

The final assignment of his challenge is for participants to submit a success story video about their experience & transformation during the challenge. And he does this using an AI-powered tool called VideoAsk.

Here's how it works: Jeff films himself asking 13 specific success story interview questions (designed in the order of the hero's journey) one time. Then at the end of the challenge, participants click a link, VideoAsk asks them each question one at a time via video, they record their answers, and the tool compiles everything.

The result? In one challenge with 500 paid participants, they generated 150 success story videos in 48-72 hours. All automated.

Those videos then become fuel for EVERYTHING - pre-framing the graduation webinar, sales page social proof, cold traffic ads, retargeting ads - the compounding effect is massive.

After the challenge is complete, Jeff invites everyone to a Live Graduation Training - which is essentially a webinar, but with a completely different pre-frame than a traditional cold-traffic webinar.

Instead of starting with "Hey, you don't know me, here's my life story" - he starts by celebrating the wins from the challenge. He shares those success story videos. The walls come down. People are already primed, they already trust you, they've already gotten results.

The numbers Jeff shared on this are staggering:

And that's not just for low-ticket offers - those conversion rates hold for high-ticket offers too.

Combining the high conversion rates of live launches with the time freedom of automated ones.

There are two approaches:

Option 1 - Facilitator Model: You pre-record your expert training content once. Then a team member (an MC or facilitator) runs the experience live - greeting people by name, creating engagement, playing your pre-recorded training, then guiding the community through assignments. It's live for the participants & your team member, but automated for YOU.

Option 2 - Simulcast Model: Your pre-recorded training is streamed as a live experience using tools like EventLive or Pigeon. You still have live community managers answering questions in the chat. The key is you NEVER just dump people into a library of videos - the community & live interaction elements stay intact.

The critical point Jeff made: whatever you automate, you cannot compromise the community-driven experience & the live micro transformation being delivered together. That's what drives the results.

Jeff used a great analogy - your audience is like a well full of water. Every time you run a challenge, you're removing water from that well. If you don't refill it, eventually it runs dry.

Here are the 6 strategies he uses to keep filling the well:

1. Paid Media - YouTube ads, Meta ads. Scale by increasing creative, increasing spend, or adding platforms.

2. Earned Media - Organic content across all short-form channels (YouTube Shorts, Reels, TikTok) & long-form channels (YouTube, podcasts).

3. Partner Media - Collaborating with indirect competitors & complementary businesses who serve your same ideal avatar but with different offers.

4. Owned Media - Your email list, text list, messenger list. This is the audience YOU control & can communicate with on your terms.

5. Alumni Media - Getting your previous clients & alumni to share their stories & refer new people back to you.

6. Outbound - Proactively reaching out to your dream 100 partners & potential clients. Jeff's team will actually audit someone's existing challenge & send them a Loom video with improvement suggestions as a value-first outreach.

All of those first three (paid, earned & partner) funnel INTO your owned media - which is why building that list is so critical.

Jeff closed with something I 100% agree with & it ties perfectly into everything we talk about with AI.

He said: "It's not humans versus AI. It's humans without AI versus humans with AI."

His advice? Become the best AI architect in your space - leverage AI tools to stay at the cutting edge. But at the same time, double down on being a community-driven leader who curates in-person, real-world relationships & experiences.

Because when you look at the four things every business sells - Content, Coaching, Community & Code - AI is already commoditizing content & code. Coaching is next. But the one thing AI can't replace? Community.

The leaders who combine cutting-edge AI with deep, genuine community will be the ones who win in the years ahead.

I went DEEP with Jeff on this topic & honestly there's even more that I couldn't fit into this newsletter - including more examples, specific strategies for different business types & how to think about merging multiple launch systems together.

If you're a coach, consultant, course creator, or run any kind of expert-based business - this is a MUST watch.

Watch the Full Challenge Launch Masterclass on YouTube!

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I hope you found this week's Newsletter valuable - the Challenge Launch Model is truly one of the most powerful strategies for expert businesses right now & I wanted to make sure you had the full framework.

Stay Tuned for More Great Value & Content Coming your Way!

I'll see you in the next one!

To Your Success,

- Aleric Heck | Founder & CEO of AdOutreach

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