CEO @ Modern Outbound | Generating $18M+ in pipeline every month for B2B companies

Cold email alone doesn’t build pipeline. Posting generic blogs on company pages isn’t demand generation.

Most growth teams still treat outbound and marketing as separate worlds. One chases leads. The other builds awareness. Then everyone wonders why neither is driving real pipeline.

At Modern Outbound, we connect those dots.

We help growth teams turn outbound into a demand engine where content, outbound messaging, and paid channels work together instead of operating in silos.

We believe growth happens when:
• Outbound amplifies your content instead of competing with it
• Social and email create consistent touchpoints that warm up prospects before sales ever reaches out
• Intent data and personalization make ABM outreach feel relevant, not random
• Attribution shows what’s driving conversations, not just impressions or clicks

The result: outbound stops feeling like spam, marketing stops feeling disconnected, and the entire growth function starts driving measurable revenue together.

We’re not another SDR agency. We’re an embedded growth partner that builds a cohesive outbound + demand system that scales, converts, and compounds.

Our specialists go deep in:
➡️ Outbound tech and deliverability
➡️ Campaign strategy, signals, and triggers
➡️ Copywriting and creative testing
➡️ Posting strategy and ad management
➡️ Attribution, reporting, and data infrastructure

What happens when outbound and demand gen finally align:
🔥 300+ companies supported, generating hundreds of millions in pipeline
🚀 30%+ of total pipeline sourced through Modern Outbound systems
💰 Bootstrapped to 7+ figures in 3 years by doing exactly what we preach

If you’re leading growth and want to turn outbound into a true demand engine that expands your reach, warms up buyers, and drives measurable pipeline, let’s connect.

Joel Graber

just saw a post where someone claimed they replaced a $500k/year marketing team with a $300/month “autonomous AI machine.”

that line alone should trigger skepticism.

because every time I see a post like that, it’s the same pattern: the person making the claim is also selling the “do-it-all” AI agent.

i’ve popped the hood on a lot of these systems and they're mediocre and grossly underdeliver. 

and in some cases, they’re actively dangerous to the brand.

i get it....there’s enormous pressure right now to cut costs.

but just because an AI agent claims it can do everything on automation: 
- build lists + messaging
- connect multi-channel systems together 
- set up mailboxes (+ magically manage deliverability)
- write & A/B test copy
- decide winners
- launch new campaigns
- post on LinkedIn
- apply even a basic level of sales/marketing strategy
- make calls
- log CRM activity
- respond to prospect replies
- book meetings

…all inside a $300–$500/month workflow....doesn’t mean it actually works.

i’m watching competitors sell these shiny “autonomous” systems every day and behind the scenes they quietly fall apart.

context gets lost, judgment disappears, brands get diluted, prospects get burned.

i’ve intentionally kept my pricing reasonable for years because I always want our services to be sustainable over the long haul for growing businesses/startups. 

what worries me isn’t AI...it’s the wave of fly-by-night agencies that launched 4 months ago and claim they’ve “figured it all out” with fancy/haphazard AI workflows.

please don’t get blinded by the light...it’s tempting to believe all your marketing problems can be solved for a few hundred dollars a month.

but this is your company, your department, your brand, your reputation.

vet harder than ever.

AI is a multiplier, not a replacement for thinking and real talent.

Founder @ Modern Outbound I Investor | ex-BlackRock / JPMorgan

Apparently we were top 1% of Clay users for 2025 (specifically the Claygent feature). 

Kinda funny because I’ve never had a call with Clay, never emailed them, no partner deal, no rev share, no “Claygency” badge.

And honestly I’m good with that. We just use the platform hard. Clients love the output. We're in it for results, not glory.

For the last 6 years running modern outbound, we’ve been a service-first agency.

 – We don’t push tools
 – We don’t sell platforms
 – We don’t care what’s trendy

We obsess over the best possible stack so our clients don’t have to. Then we become the quietest power users in the room.

No hype.
No affiliate links.
No side deals.

Just deep execution as long as it drives results.

If you’re choosing tools based on partnerships instead of performance…your clients feel it.

Results > relationships. Always.

Matt Barker

I make posting on LinkedIn fast, easy and fun. $3M+ revenue driven. 75M+ impressions. 250k+ followers.

I help you grow on LinkedIn using fast, easy and fun to write posts.

Results:

- 50+ clients helped since January 2022
- 2,500+ customers served
- £70k 4 day course launch (The Digital Copywriter)
- 2 x £100k+ digital products launched
- $3M+ in new client revenue driven
- 75M+ organic social views earned
- 200k+ LinkedIn followers gained
- 10,000+ LinkedIn posts created
- 13,000+ email subscribers driven

If you'd like to work together on growing:

- Your LinkedIn profile
- Your team's LinkedIn profile
- Your brand's LinkedIn profile

And growing in a way that is fast, easy and fun to do?

Just DM me so we can discuss how I can help you do that.

Writer

Join 11,000+ readers who get daily tips on attracting dream clients online with digital copywriting.

In 2 months I'll become a first time dad. I'm excited and scared all at once. I can't wait to teach a brand new human about the world. But I'm scared about this:

Keeping a brand new human alive 😂

I've always wanted to be a dad. 

But weirdly the more I've become a teacher over the last 4 years, teaching people how to write on LinkedIn, the more I've become excited about TEACHING my child.

And the idea of being the first man in her life:

That's a BIG deal that I am not overlooking for one second.

It's already giving me a new purpose and new set of "rules" for me to be following internally. And she isn't even born yet.

Not that I was being a rascal or doing mad shit or being a lousy guy. But it makes me think even more about what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, why I'm doing things in certain ways and how that will impact her perception of, not just me, but men in general.

Business wise, I've made some changes and I've been planning.

I'll be taking a break from working 1-1 with clients from March to June. I'm doing this so I can free up my calendar while I figure this whole first time dad thing out. Super blessed to be in the position to do this.

Extra focus will be going into my scalable products. 

Community, products, group teaching.

I've planned my 2026 in business out and it's looking pretty cool.

Excited to see how I can execute to that and make it even more successful than I plan, AND make all the time in the world to watch my daughter grow every day.

Excited to write to you more about this whole journey too.

✌️

Dads: what's your weirdest dad-ing advice?

Ladies: how do I be the best dad / male role model possible?

Matt Barker 

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Investor @ MagicPost. Click ‘Books, Courses + Trainings’ below to get my free books on LinkedIn Writing.

My life looks boring:

No swanky office. Barely any meetings. Calendar usually empty. Amateur photography for content.

And most of my days look the same:

Coffee time with my wife.
Write some posts.
Audit / feedback my client's posts.
Comment and DM people on linkedin.
Run / gym / walk. 
Eat. Watch TV. Think.

I'm on at 9/10 and done by 6 normally.

But my life is anything but accidental.

I built a business from writing. I turned writing into leverage. I make money without being on calls all day. I help people build reputations that open doors. I wake up without that intense feeling of dread. I stop working when I’m done not just to clock in the hours.

While everyone else is enjoying saying how busy they are.

I'm over here enjoying saying how not busy I am.

Why is my way not the norm??

All my LinkedIn writing books, courses and trainings here: https://lnkd.in/eWRj-pd9

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Click ‘Books, Courses + Trainings’ below to get my free books on LinkedIn Writing.

Today, I've got 188,402 followers on LinkedIn. 

But if I search my name on ChatGPT:

I’m STILL pretty much invisible.

Can ya believe it? I’ve put the effort in:

- 4 years of consistent posting
- Published 2,578 posts
- Gotten 59.5M impressions

And my personal brand is STILL not strong enough to be the first name when someone searches for “linkedin writing experts” or “best copywriters to follow on linkedin” or “who to follow to learn copywriting”.

So, simple question:

How do my competitors appear in AI overviews / searches over me?

I am absolutely clueless with this kinda thing.

But here’s what I’m gonna do:

1. Sign up to the Ahrefs​ AI Brand Radar
2. See where + how my competitors show up over me
3. Create a plan to make my personal brand more visible
4. Quickly gain more visibility in AI search and start winning

It’s ridiculous to be putting in years of effort:

- growing my personal brand
- attracting more followers
- spending hours every week on LinkedIn

Only to be completely invisible to anyone searching.

If you’re growing your personal brand, check out the AI Brand Radar: https://lnkd.in/ePqpedcW

(don’t even need an Ahrefs​ subscription account btw. totally separate which is cool)

Time to become more visible ✌️

#ad

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I’ve spoken to 1,000s of LinkedIn users about how much they network on LinkedIn. I was surprised, because:

If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your career or business, networking isn’t a good to do. It’s a must do. ESPECIALLY in your early stages.

The worst bit? 

Most people don’t know how to begin networking.

Here’s the ridiculously simple (and tbh, obvious) 5 step LinkedIn networking process I used to find interesting people to network with (and connect with them):

1. Go to the search bar (it’s free guys)
2. Type “{target audience}” eg “founder”
3. Hit search
4. Filter by “People” (to remove company pages)
5. Filter by “Industry” (to niche down)

By now, you have filtered a search down to 10,000s from 10,000,000s.

After that it’s a case of:

- Scroll down your list
- Click on profiles 
- Check them over quickly
- Send a connection request with this note:

“Hey name,

I do {service} for {type of clients}.

I post every {frequency} at roughly {time}. 

Hope it’s useful for you!

Cheers, Matt”

If they accept - great, on their radar.
If they reject - no bother.

10 of these 5 x a week (do 20 if you can).
That’s 200 a month.
2,400 a year.

Even if 20% connect, that’s 480 new connections.

More than the 0 most people are doing.

Simple networking like this can hold back your network growth, post engagement and follower growth MASSIVELY.

If you’re using LinkedIn to grow your career or business, are you networking here?

P.S. this is the exact process I used to grow my profile here - Matt Barker​ btw.

I teach Fast, Easy & Fun LinkedIn Writing. Taught 3,602 people to write on LinkedIn. Investor @ MagicPost.

4 weeks ago, Jacob and I booked 60 minutes at a recording studio. Neither of us prepared ANYTHING. Ridiculous. But it was brilliant because:

We just...chatted.

You're probably thinking:

"Matt. Why the fuck would you spend time and money to go and chat to someone without preparing anything?"

Well, reader. That's a great question.

And the answer is surprisingly simple:

Because we wanted to.

I know. SHOCK. How dare we do something, that costs us money just because we wanted to?

Today all you'll see online is shit about how everything you do has to have a clear ROI or everything you do has to play into a strategy.

We obviously didn't do this for literally no reason.

Outside of "because we wanted to", a big reason was this:

In 2025 me and jacob started very intentionally sharing insights and nuggets from what we both do in our businesses. What's working, what isn't working. And it helped us both have amazing years in our business. Not just from a revenue POV but from a overall quality of life POV.

We get a lot of enjoyment out of these back and forths.

So we wanted to see if we can translate that to a recorded conversation.

THAT's why we booked 60 minutes at a studio.

Did it work?

Well we ended up going over the 60 minutes by a whole hour.

And we accidentally recorded a 2 hour month by month breakdown of what went well and what went wrong in our businesses in 2025.

(it's here by the way: https://lnkd.in/e9Zwxh99)

We both had such a good time.

And we're doing it again.

My advice for you:

Do stuff you enjoy.

Not because it makes money or anything.

But because you enjoy it and it makes you happy.

Can't be more simple.

✌️

taplio

The Battle

Joel Graber

Matt Barker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJoel Graber's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Barker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Joel Graber

Matt Barker

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joel Graber's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMatt Barker's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJoel Graber's LinkedIn Performance