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I was scrolling Twitter a few months back and spotted this tweet from Timothy Armoo, the former CEO of Influencer Agency FanBytes. In his tweet, he shared valuable lessons he had learned during his journey of selling his business for an eight-figure sum.

I immediately recognised parallels between his experiences and my own with Learning Heroes. So I asked if he’d be willing to share (and expand on) the story for our VAMO audience. I was pleased when he agreed, and I enjoyed recording this conversation for you. There are some great insights and takeaways. Enjoy! 

Follow Timothy for more on LinkedIn and Twitter (he’s a great follow if you’re into this stuff)

Question 1: Why did you decide to start your own business?

I started really because I wanted to be rich and I realised that a business was probably the fastest way to get there. At 17, I was tinkering around on the internet and I started my first real company called Entrepreneur Express, and that was where I found out the value of social communities and social pages.

Within 11 months, that company got bought by an American company, and I realised, “Oh my God, this thing can fundamentally change my life”. For the next three to four years I tried a bunch of ideas, pretty much all of them failed, and then I discovered FanBytes. As a consequence of the right market timing and right skills, we grew the company from zero to 75 people and sold it in May of 2022. 

Question 2: How did you get started?

In the beginning, we focused on a particular niche, specifically music labels, and then we scaled by doing a lot of speaking engagements, and content marketing. By just focusing aggressively on just that one niche, we became known as the best people in that particular niche, rigorously marketed into that set segment of people, and then eventually became so popular there, we could then go to other industries.

I found this really interesting. I’m a big fan of owning a small niche first and working your way up the leagues. "Riches are in niches," a famous quote by Pat Flynn, emphasises the importance of identifying a specific market or audience to excel in business. Go too broad early on and it can be challenging to compete. For example, surpassing established figures like Steve Bartlett or Joe Rogan in the podcast space is unrealistic for newcomers.

However, by focusing on a specific niche, you can establish yourself as the go-to source of information in that area. For instance, hosting a super niche podcast on Agile Training may not achieve viral numbers, but it enables you to create the best Agile podcast worldwide and become a recognised thought leader in that niche.

By conquering battles in your niche, you gradually pave the way for broader opportunities and overall business success.

Question 3: What obstacles did you overcome?

The biggest obstacle that I faced was probably getting out of my own way. What you need at the beginning is to have that sense of self-belief that you can actually do it. It's so easy to read a lot of books and documentaries and think that the people who've achieved what you're trying to achieve are better than you. And starting at 21, I had this sense that I was not as great as the people I read about. 

So, actually getting out of my own way and understanding that they are human beings just like me. And they have a way of thinking about the world, which I just need to adopt. And so once I got out of my own way, I was able to think bigger. I was able to act bigger. I was able to just be bigger, which meant that anytime I had a problem, I just intuitively thought about a bigger solution because someone else had actually solved that problem for me. 

Question 4: Did you ever feel like quitting?

I never felt like quitting. In fact, I was chatting to my co-founder and commented “Isn't it funny that we never thought there was no other outcome than to sell the company?”

At no point did we think about failing because we just had this view of the world that there was only gonna be one outcome to this business, which was for it to be acquired. My age also helped me quite a lot. The fact that I was 20-something, I started in university. I didn't have any dependents or anything like that. Therefore, I just had this attitude to risk, which was very Laissez-faire. 

If I did quit, what else would I do? What I would do is still run a business. So if I'm doing the thing, which I would've done if I quit anyway, I might as well just keep going on.

Ian and I resonate with this mindset. When we embarked on the journey of starting Learning Heroes, we were unwavering in our belief that there would be only one outcome. Doubt never crept in.

However, we've come to realise that this level of unwavering certainty hasn't always been present in other projects we've been involved in. And from those experiences, we've learned a valuable lesson. If you don't feel 100% confident about accomplishing the specific end goal you've set for yourself, it may be worth reevaluating your chosen direction.

If doubt begins to overshadow your confidence, it might be an indication that some adjustments or reassessments are needed.

Question 5: Can you sell? If so, what is your sales style?

From where I grew up, I didn't know anyone who had built a business, so everything I had to learn was through books. So I’d just go on Amazon and get the top 10 books on sales and read them. 

I have this fundamental belief that rather than trying to sell, the aim is to get people to buy.

How can you get someone to not only recognise they have a problem but then also convince themselves that your product and your solution is the right thing for their problem? 

Nobody ever pops out of the mother's womb and goes, “I now know how to sell.” It's a trait and it's a feature that you can consistently hone, but I think it's all a mental thing like you tell yourself that you are not a salesperson, so therefore you don't actually go out to sell. You have to build an identity around just being someone who can learn and upscale rather than I'm this type of person.

When someone says they hate sales, usually what they really mean is they don’t want to be salesy. But you don’t have to be salesy to sell. If selling makes you feel sleazy, you’re doing it wrong. 

Your goal isn’t to persuade or trick someone to buy. It’s to help them make a decision.

I’ve closed millions using a simple technique built around asking questions. 

You have to forget selling for a moment and leave behind all the negative connotations associated with that word.   

Instead, you’re going to have a conversation that helps you to understand the prospect's problems and see if you can help them. 

When you get the prospect to talk, closing becomes easier. There are different ways to close, and different books and gurus share their own systems. But I shared my system here: My 6-Step Closing Technique 

Question 6: What pisses you off about the business/entrepreneurial world?

There are a lot of things that piss me off about the business and entrepreneur world. I'll name a few. The first one is the need for people to always rush into getting investment. They do that before they’ve made sure the product or service is something that people actually want. People wanna skip that section because they believe that fundraising is the achievement. I blame the press for that. You know, they celebrate a lot of things around fundraising.

The second thing is people who have a very unrealistic view as to what their business success actually looks like. I spoke to someone who runs a doughnut company, and the previous year made around 20k, and the following year they made 40k.

I asked him “So, what's your (exit) number?” And he said, a hundred million. It took all my strength to not slap him around the face and just go, “Come on man. Your business is in no way going to make a hundred million even if you did this for the rest of your life.” 

So, having unrealistic expectations. For us, I was very clear to investors, to my team, to my co-founder. I said, look, the odds are this company is not going to be a billion-dollar company. This company's also not going to be a hundred million, but I can comfortably say this company's going to be sold for tens of millions.

And it's exactly what happened because I understood the way these businesses were valued. I understood it was a tech-enabled agency, and understood that people were at the core. And when we sold the company, we had 75 people. But to get to say hundreds of millions, We'd have had to be doing it for another 10 to 15 years.

So, those two things are the things that really piss me off. Unrealistic expectations and standards, and there's a constant desire for investment and fundraising when really what you need to do is figure out, is this something people want? Do the hard yards of actually seeing, is this something customers want?

Build something that can actually scale before you go and get investment. 

Question 7: What part of the business growth did you enjoy the most?

When we were going through the business sale I actually created a lot of voice notes on my phone (every single day). I would give my thoughts on how I was feeling etc. About two weeks out, I remember saying to myself, “Oh my God, I can retire. I'm completely done”. I was thinking about all the fancy places I'd go to and all that stuff. And I did that for two months. For two months I intentionally tried doing nothing, and the truth is doing nothing is actually incredibly hard. It ends up being quite boring. It ends up being quite repetitive.

More importantly, as entrepreneurs, we think that the end goal is to work really hard so you can just chill and relax. But I actually think that especially when you go through a company acquisition, what it gives you is a freedom of choice to be able to choose to do things that you actively want to do, rather than doing things that you have to do.

Question 8: What was the biggest lesson you took away front the experience?

The biggest lesson I took from selling my company was actually not to be too greedy. A lot of founders start their companies and they want to absolutely rinse everything out of the market opportunity. And then when they're tired or frustrated, that's when they sell. Actually, what you want to do is focus on where there's room for growth.

So rather than trying to rinse out 100%, get to the point where you've got to 70% of the story, 70% of the opportunity complete. Because when a buyer is coming, they're buying future growth. 

Don't get too greedy because a lot of people want to max out everything in their business. And then when you then choose to wanna sell it, or someone is approaching you and they ask you, well, “what are the growth levers we're going to pull to be able to get 3, 4, 5 times back our money?” You say, “Whoa, we've done everything. We've expanded everywhere. We've served all customers”. Then there's nothing for them to buy.

This is a great reminder that businesses are more appealing to buyers when they demonstrate the potential for further growth. You might think, "I won't sell yet because if I secure some significant deals, I can sell for a higher multiple."

However, that's not always the case. Buyers are not interested in acquiring a business when there's no one left to sell to. Holding onto your business for too long can be counterproductive.

Prospective buyers are looking for businesses with untapped markets and growth opportunities. 

Just like a bird isn't afraid of the branch snapping, don't become too attached to your business, thinking it's the one and only opportunity.

Key Takeaways

• Owning a small niche first and working your way up can lead to business success. Focusing on a specific market or audience allows you to establish yourself as the go-to source of information in that area, gradually paving the way for broader opportunities.

• Overcoming self-doubt is crucial. Recognise that successful individuals are human beings who have faced similar challenges. Adopt their way of thinking and believe in your own capabilities to think bigger and find solutions.

• Having unwavering certainty and a clear outcome in mind can drive your entrepreneurial journey. Doubt should be a signal to reevaluate your direction if you're not feeling 100% confident about achieving your specific goals.

• Selling is not about being salesy or persuasive. Instead, focus on helping potential customers make informed decisions that address their problems. Engage in conversations that allow you to understand their needs and provide relevant solutions.

• Unrealistic expectations and a rush for investment can hinder business success. Prioritise ensuring your product or service meets customer demand and build a scalable foundation before seeking external funding.

• Selling a business requires avoiding excessive greed. Instead of maximising every opportunity, focus on demonstrating potential growth to appeal to buyers. Keep room for future expansion and avoid exhausting all possibilities before considering a sale.

I hope you found the conversation useful and apply some of the learning to your own journey. 

Thanks again to Timothy for being generous with his time, I hope we can catch up again after his next big exit. 

That’s all for this week.

I’ll be back next week with more tips and strategies to help you sell more and market better. 

Thanks,

Mike 

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A subscriber-only Q and A, answering sales and marketing questions asked in our member-only Slack community. 

This month our questions are from the mysterious anonymous bunch. Here’s what I’m answering:

How Do You Avoid The Drought In Business?

What do I do with my content once it's created?

What's your view on discounts?

What did it feel like when Learning Heroes took off?

What's your advice on getting too many leads? Should I go get investment or stick to bootstrap?

Is it possible to market yourself without a 100K Marketing budget?

What are the best marketing stunts you have done?

How to control self-doubt?

Would you do anything different in your current business based on your previous business experience?

Let’s get into it. 👇

"How Do You Avoid Periods of Drought In Business?"

You've got to prospect for new business, even when you are in a feast season. I always set aside a certain amount of time every day to do outreach, follow up on any content I've posted, and see who's engaged with my content. I call them my 1’s and 2’s. 

So, first, it’s reaching out, and introducing yourself. Finding out what I can potentially do for them. I do that every day, even if I've got loads of sales to close because I know it might not always be like that.

You know the old adage “make hay while the sun shines”, that is what I do. Just do so much prospecting that you never, ever get to a drought.

I explained my full process on how to avoid feast and famine sales cycles here: How to Beat the Feast or Famine Problem in Your Business 

"What do you do with your content once it's created?"

Loads. Strap in. 

So, there are numerous places you can put content. If you think you can just bang your content on YouTube and people are gonna find it and then start buying your products and services, you're gonna be bitterly disappointed. 

That’s why I always recommend a search-first strategy. 

What type of content would your ideal client be searching for when they need to buy something or learn something? 

So when your content is shown to them you look like an authority, you're credible. You give them the information they want, and then they're more likely to use you when they are ready to buy. 

We’re YouTube first, so we store our video there (making sure it’s optimised) but you then need to take that content and use it off YouTube. You need to share it where your ideal client hanging out. 

For most B2B companies in VAMO, I’d say that place will be LinkedIn. But how many of you actually post a video to LinkedIn? 

Make sure you’re sharing your content on the platform, utilising some sort of structure. 

For instance, you've got a LinkedIn company page, so you might now upload your videos to your company page.

When somebody sees any of your other content marketing that you do in other places, they will go on your LinkedIn company page and then they will be shown your best videos, your best content, and the stuff that kind of removes objections and makes it easier for them to purchase your products. 

Don’t worry about view counts. Views won’t count on YouTube when you upload the content natively. 

So, when you see people saying, “Well, that video has only got 200 views on YouTube”, that same video uploaded directly to LinkedIn might have 2,000, 3,000, or 10,000 views. 

You're not trying to go viral. You just want your content in all the right places. 

To help, get other people in your business to share it too. 

So it might be, you've got John, Carol, and Gaz. There are three people that you've identified as your lead gen. They do prospecting, they do sales on LinkedIn, so you will then look at what videos they can release, and they might release the same video every week, but on slightly different days. So you might do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, same video.

This results in a slow and steady release of content across LinkedIn. 

It’s shared on your business page, your personal page, and distributed evenly through the team. That’s how you maximise how many times it’s seen in someones feed. 

Hopefully, you get some engagement (if you don’t, you’re putting out the wrong stuff). 

When you do, this is what I do. 

If my ideal client likes my content and they're not connected, I'll send the connection request to them. And, If I know what video's coming next week, I will already proactively start to connect with the people I know that video will be relevant a week beforehand.

So, when my content's released, they'll see I'm creating the stuff that talks directly to them about their problems in their business, and I could potentially fix them. Or if they're already connected and they engage my content, I'll reach out to them and talk to them about the topic that they actually engage with. 

Content marketing does NOT replace outbound. It helps it get easier. 

"What's your view on discounts?"

I don't really like them as a general rule. However, I do get it when they can be used strategically.

I will never say “never do it”. But most people use them when they're not confident in their product or they're not confident in their sales ability.

“If you just do this now I'll, I'll take 500 quid off, or I'll take 50 pounds off”.

Don’t do that. 

If the product's good, you can position the value and stick to the full price. 

Yes, discounts can get clients over the line, but you’re instantly not making as much profit, you're probably not gonna do as good a job for those clients that you've got anyway. So you probably would've been better off holding up the full price and getting slightly less work, but making exactly the same amount of money.

My own experience is you don't actually close that much more business by giving them a discount because they probably would've bought from you anyway. 

Those that are only closed because of a discount in my opinion (and I might be wrong) they're usually the biggest pain in the arse. 

They expect the world and they're not even giving you the same amount of money as some of your less hassle clients. 

So, I would say to avoid them where possible, unless it's strategic and you know there's a reason for it, like a long-term value of a client, or it means that you've got lots of capacity to take on a lot of work, and you just want to keep people busy. 

"What did it feel like when Learning Heroes took off?"

It was a good feeling. 

It was difficult to get started because it can feel like a thankless task when nobody even has heard of your business, let alone understands what you're trying to do.

But it feels really good when it starts to pay off (hitting sales targets, getting press coverage, customers recommending you, etc.). 

It does get better. And it got to a tipping point where people started to know me for solving e-learning problems. I was the “saving the world from boring e-learning” guy. 

Over time outbound switched to inbound.  We had people that had never worked with us recommend us. And then it got to a point where I was so sure that we were gonna hit our goal.

And I would say that came after maybe 12 months. So 12 months into that three-year journey, I was a hundred percent sure that we were going to do it.

We had a good product, we marketed well, and we were aggressive with our sales and marketing. 

There was nothing too clever, it was just about doing the hard yards every single day. 

So, how did it feel? It felt fucking brilliant. 

"What's your advice on getting too many leads? Should I go get investment or stick to bootstrap?"

I can only talk from experience and I've never ever got investment because why would you give equity away if you are at a stage where you know that it's gonna work?

What is an investor really bringing, unless it's mega-money and they want very, very little equity? 

But then even when you're thinking about investors, and this is just my opinion, are they just investing for a financial return or are they actually opening doors for you? If I had a product that I could sell in the supermarket, Joe Blogs comes along - a local businessman with no links to supermarkets offers 50 grand to invest in my business. It's a pointless investment to me. 

But if it was one of the Dragons who's actually got multiple products in supermarkets and they can give me access to their little black book, then it might be worth it. But from my own experience, I wouldn't get an investment.

I'd look at maybe strategic partnerships and build that way instead. 

"Is it possible to market yourself without a 100K Marketing budget?"

100% 

You can take more risks, and you can try more things. You need to be smart with it. You don't want to just waste money and do stuff that doesn't get any results, but you've got so much freedom to try different things.

But honestly, the best form of marketing, if you've got no money, is content marketing. The stuff that you say in posts. But you can't just hide behind that. You need to be talking about your product, the problems that you solve, connecting with the people that you sell your product to, hearing what they're talking about, and engaging with their types of content.

You can beat some of these huge companies with huge marketing budgets because they can spend a lot of money and make lots of mistakes. You can take the piss out of their marketing, you can rip off their marketing, you can talk about their marketing, but yet it's very easy to do.

I explained specific examples in more detail in this previous newsletter: Cheap marketing strategies to get your business noticed.

"What are the best marketing stunts you have done?"

So there are two stunts I did at the beginning of Learning Heroes.

#1 - I needed to find out who the most affluent companies in the UK were on the basis that they would have a bigger budget for their L&D department. So I drew up a list of 50 people and sent them a box (so lumpy mail) and when they opened it inside would be an animated explainer video that auto-played on a screen. It cost about 2k. They would explain who we are and what we did. Out of the 50 that went out, 26 signed up to Learning Heroes in the first 12 months. So we got a huge return on that, and the response was, we've never seen anything like that before.

#2 - So for £10 we had the stickers that we've well documented. We spoke about it numerous times in VAMO. "Don't piss away your L&D budget." And we put them in all the urinals and all the toilet cubicles at our events because everybody has to go to the toilet.

It was funny, a bit cheeky, a bit tongue in cheek, and we knew it'd get attention. 

People photographed it and shared it on socials.

I think we made £100k worth of sales in the 30 days that followed that. 

"When do you know when to pivot?"

We've done it lots of times, but what I think we are good at is we don't throw everything out. We try and learn. Our aim is to be 1% better every week.

We're constantly looking at mistakes that we've made. You know, things haven't gone quite as smoothly. The processes aren't right. 

Always look for small improvements. 

But you don't want to flog a dead horse, but equally, you don't want to give up too soon either. 

But I think the problem with a lot of people is they really believe in their product too long, when they're quite clearly isn't a market for it, and they burn through money.

I think you need to be smart enough and objective enough to look at what you are doing, who you are targeting, and the response that you're getting, and take feedback from the people that you're trying to sell to. 

We targeted the wrong people early on at Learning Heroes and we didn't really make any sales for the first five months.

It got to the point where we actually thought, “If we don't get a sale for Christmas, we are gonna pack it all in”, and you know the story. 

We carried on for another two years and we ended up selling that business for 8 million pounds. 

But a key moment for us was switching the target market we were approaching and it allowed us to go from a £40 B2C sale to a 5k B2B sale.  

There’s no rule book sadly. You’ve got to trust your gut. But in a nutshell, you should pivot if you're not getting the results that you want to get. 

"How to control self-doubt?"

We all have self-doubts, right? I think we live in a world now where a lot of people fake it before they make it, and they see other people doing things, so they try and convince themselves they can do it.

If you actually have evidence that you can do things (you've achieved something yourself) that self-doubt is reduced. 

I feel like I'm confident and qualified to talk about marketing content and business because I've actually done those things in real life. 

There’s a quote from Alex Hormozi that said, you should outwork your self-doubt.

I like that. You need to outwork your fears so they’re replaced by actual evidence and time-serve successes. Do that are your self-doubt will disappear. 

A wise man, Ian Darlington once said to me,

I think there's some truth in that.

I like processes. I like following through with the same activities each day because I know roughly what the outcome will be. For example, I know if I speak to X amount of people, that are the right person, I know I will close a number of those people. 

The problem is (and this is where you do get imposter syndrome and doubts) when you don't do that work and therefore have no evidence you can do the things you say you can. 

So yeah, outwork your self-doubt. 

"Would you do anything different in your current business based on your previous business experience?"

Yeah, lots. I'll enjoy the journey a lot better, and I think I'll be better prepared for the results that I'm a hundred per cent confident we're gonna get.

We're getting better systems in place, we're getting paperwork in place, better-managed accounts etc. 

Things like that that we didn't really do in the beginning part of Learning Heroes. My new business is being set up with those things in place from day one because I know how important they are down the line. Sounds obvious, but the basics of business are the same, but the processes that you use to achieve those goals and achieve those things change over time.

So, yes, I will change lots of things, but the actual main fundamentals don't change at all.

That’s all for this week.

Thanks for your questions, I really enjoyed answering them. 

Don’t forget to submit your question in the private community if you’d like to be featured (by name or anonymously). 

I’ll be back next week with more ways to grow your following, sell more, and market better.

In today’s issue, I want to show you how I build brand trust. 

If you can master it (yes, anyone can) you’ll convert more sales and make more money. 

But here's the thing: most business owners are clueless when it comes to creating that all-important social proof. 

Even worse, some resort to faking it.   

As you're aware, I only share what has proven successful for me. So, I’m going to explain how I've built trust and generated sales for both my current and previous businesses.

It will only take you 7 minutes to watch or read. 👇 

The Science of Social Proof

In ‘The Contrepreneur Formula Exposed’, we showed you how gurus can sometimes use fake social proof to convince people to buy their courses.

That’s because social proof is a powerful form of persuasion. 

Essentially, as Bobby Cialdini taught us, it’s borrowing third-party influence to sway potential customers.

Social proof greatly influences purchasing decisions, particularly when it comes to your own buying habits. When planning a hotel stay, reviewing feedback from other guests is a common practice.

There are three proven strategies for generating social proof for your business:

Celebrity Endorsements

Reviews

Customer Testimonials

Businesses that understand this concept tend to do really well.

The good news is, you don’t need to fake it, and it doesn’t take much to sway your potential customers to buy. 

In a moment I’m going to share some specific strategies that have worked for me.

But before we dive into that, let’s start with a small experiment with Joe Gebbia, Co-Founder of Airbnb. 

Understanding Trust

During a talk on Airbnb's success, co-founder Joe Gebbia asked the audience to pass their unlocked phones to the person sitting beside them in the arena.

If you watch, you’ll hear the nervous energy in the room when he asks people to hand over their phones.

That’s because the more different someone is from us or the less we know about them, the harder it is for us to trust them. It's just how we're built.

It's a social bias that goes way back in our evolutionary history. 

Think about it. Would handing your phone to a stranger make you feel nervous? 

Would you feel any better if you knew a bit more about the person sitting next to you before you handed it over? 

Maybe you'd feel a little more at ease, right? 

That's because when we know more about someone, we trust them a bit more. 

There was a study conducted in collaboration with Stanford University that confirmed this very idea.

One particularly interesting finding was how little we need to know about a person for that to change. 

I found it interesting that we can be swayed by such a small number of reviews. 

In fact, we don’t have hundreds of reviews for our animation business. 

Our goal, particularly in the early stages, was to surpass that magical number 10. 

To achieve this, we implemented a few key strategies:

Delivering On Our Promises

We made sure to deliver exactly what we had promised to our clients.

Timing Is Everything

We identified the opportune moment to ask for reviews, which, for us, was right after delivering the animation. This ensured that the experience was fresh in their minds, increasing the likelihood of receiving genuine and detailed feedback.

Incentivising with Cash Prizes

Let's be honest, nobody wants to fill out a lengthy review form, even if the service was mint. To motivate our customers, we found that cold hard cash was a fantastic incentive. It was a budget-friendly way to encourage social proof, especially when starting from scratch.

Streamlining the Process

We made it as easy as possible for customers to leave reviews by providing direct links and clear guidance on how to complete them. Removing any unnecessary barriers or complexities encouraged more people to participate.

By explaining to our customers that leaving a review would enter them into a prize draw for a £250 gift voucher once we reached our 20-review milestone, we cleverly incentivised their participation. This approach allowed us to avoid paying for each individual review and only required a payout upon reaching our target.

Remember, it's not just about leaving the reviews on the dedicated platforms. We also repurposed those reviews across our social media channels. By sharing the positive feedback with a wider audience, we amplified the social proof and strengthened our online presence.

Customer Testimonials

Reviews are undoubtedly a powerful tool and the go-to method for building trust in business. However, it's important to acknowledge that people have become increasingly skeptical of reviews due to the abuse and fake feedback we discussed earlier.

So, here's the deal: once you've secured your first 10 reviews and established a foundation of credibility, it's time to up your game. 

While reviews are still crucial, consider incorporating additional strategies to complement and reinforce their impact.

When we reached this stage at Learning Heroes, we wanted to showcase our real customer stories in a unique way. 

But there was a problem. 

All of the testimonial video styles we looked at either bored us to death or looked like some form of a hostage video. 

We wanted real customer stories—the kind they naturally shared with us during our phone conversations.

That's when we came up with an idea for a competition.

We sent out emails to our customers, challenging them to demonstrate the best adoption of our training within their workforce. The grand prize? A whole year's free subscription, valued at £10,000! We had some runner-up prizes too.

To enter the competition, all they had to do was send us a short video (usually recorded by the training manager) explaining what they had accomplished and how it had impacted their workforce. 

Honestly, we weren't sure if anyone would actually participate. But they did. In fact, the videos that flooded our inbox blew us away.

Among the incredible entries, the team at CarpetRight took home the prize with a mind-blowing documentary-style video. But all the submissions were fantastic. 

We suddenly had an instant catalogue of authentic customer stories, and not a single one felt like a sales pitch.

Of course, there are other ways to build social proof. 

You can partner with names and organisations your customers are already familiar with. 

And you can build safety nets, so consumers feel protected if something goes wrong. 

At Learning Heroes, we implemented both of these strategies and continue to do so at IAM. 

However, I still think that the customer story videos were the most impactful form of social proof we’ve ever generated.

That’s all for this week.

It's your turn to take action.

If you currently have less than 10 written reviews from real customers, ask yourself why a new customer would trust you over your competition. 

To boost your review numbers early on, consider implementing an incentive program that offers a cash reward for leaving reviews.

Once you surpass the 10-review milestone, it's time to up your game. Get creative and produce engaging customer testimonial videos. The competition format worked really well for us, so give it a shot. 

If you have any questions or need help, make sure to jump into the conversation over on Slack. If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for?

I’ll be back next week with more ways you can sell more and market better.

To keep this work sustainable and the content useful, I need to take the occasional break. So, there’s no free newsletter this week. 

The newsletter has crossed 10k subscribers and became a best seller on Substack with a top 10 ranking globally. But the most rewarding stat so far is that the subscriber Slack community continues to grow. I never imagined reaching this scale, and none of this would be possible without you. Thank you for reading, participating, and for subscribing. There’s so much more to come. 

However, after going strong for more than 90 weeks without a break, I've decided to give the team a well-deserved rest this week. And guess what? I encourage you all to do the same! Take some time for yourself, recharge, and enjoy some well-deserved downtime. We all need it from time to time.

Don't worry, though, we'll be back next week. But, if you’re hankering for something to read over the weekend, or you’ve recently joined the community, check out this collection of our best stuff or my most viewed posts 👇

Grow Your Following 

1. The marketing strategy that needs no budget

2. The stand alone strategy 

3. Permissionless co-marketing - How we hijacked Gymshark's audience

4. You're not too old for TikTok 

5. Personal brand Q&A

6. The podcast blueprint 

7. How to grow your Twitter following 

Sell More 

1. Feed your funnel and win new business for free

2. The 6 step sales closing technique

3. Prospect stopped responding? Send the ‘close the file’ email

4. Why you should be selling yachts, not dinghies

5. Do this to make more sales

6. Improve your cold sales messaging

7. How to keep your pipeline full

Market Better 

1. Cheap marketing strategies to get your business noticed

2. The content marketing blueprint

3. A simple method to launch a new service so it doesn’t flop

4. The anti-marketing approach to marketing that works

5. The no-brainer marketing strategy

6. Market your business better

7. Tips to start your content strategy from an agency owner

See you next week!

That's massive.

But hold on, that's just a fraction of what YouTube gets – an astonishing 14.3 billion visits each month!

It's a powerhouse platform that surpasses even Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in terms of traffic. Yet, despite its immense reach and potential, loads of businesses I speak to overlook it as a marketing channel. Instead, it often becomes a dumping ground for videos that don't fit anywhere else.

If that sounds familiar, this edition will help you out.

Most of the business owners I speak to who want to optimise their channel are worried that:

• Their industry is too boring to do well on YouTube

• It's a lot of work and they don't have the time.

In this week's newsletter, I share why both assumptions are wrong and provide a detailed blueprint (normally reserved for IAM Clients) that will help you set up your channel.

The information is primarily aimed at YouTube newbies (0-100 subs), but if you have an established business channel, you might still learn a thing or two.

It’s a 9-minute read and a 7-minute watch. 

The YouTube Myth: Beyond the Gurus and Empty Promises

There’s no shortage of self-proclaimed YouTube gurus who promise that setting up your own YouTube channel is the ultimate shortcut to financial freedom.

But here's the catch: If you pay close attention, you'll notice that most are not just sharing their "secrets" for free. 

They're actually trying to sell you a course on how to do it.

Read more

Have you ever heard of a call to action? It's basically something you say at the end of your content to encourage your audience to take action.

You know, like "click the link below to learn more" or "subscribe to our newsletter for updates."

But let me ask you, how many CTAs have actually made you take action recently? I'll be honest, I can't remember the last time I clicked on one.

I think a lot of us are guilty of lazily slapping a link to our company page at the bottom of a post on social media. It's like we think our audience will just magically know what to do next. But the truth is, if we want people to take action, we need to be more creative with our CTAs.

In this newsletter, I'm going to share a 3-step formula I’ve stolen from a YouTube script writer, and show you can use it to create CTAs that work.

It’s a 4-min watch or 7 min read 👇

Breaking Free from the 'SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON' Trap

Do you remember back in the day when every YouTuber would scream "SMASH THAT SUBSCRIBE BUTTON" at the end of their videos? 

It eventually became a tired trend. And lost its value because everyone was doing it.

And that's the thing with CTAs. If we're all using the same tired old phrases, they're not going to stand out. We need to be creative, innovative, and intentional with our calls to action. 

We need to give our audience a reason to take action.

How I Use Call to Actions in My Own Content

In my latest posts on LinkedIn, I've been experimenting with different CTAs. Sometimes I'll incentivise my audience to repost the post, tag someone, or leave a comment.

Read more

Picture this: you're sitting in front of your computer, staring at a blank screen, feeling completely uninspired. Sound familiar?

If you’re tired of feeling like your marketing efforts are stuck in a rut, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Loads of clients I've spoken with feel the same way.

With endless demands for content and ever-increasing pressure to stand out from the competition, it's no wonder that so many businesses feel overwhelmed.

That’s why I reached out to Paul Mellor, MD (Master of Decibels) at Mellor and Smith, an ad agency with a long and successful track record in getting brands noticed. 

He charges clients between £30k to £140k for his ideas, so I was pleased when he kindly agreed to take time away from one of his new projects as Executive Producer on the movie Boiling Point, and kindly answer my questions for the VAMO community. It only cost me a coffee and a trip to Manchester. 

We discuss the importance of focusing on a tight brief, and he shares his agency's simple GET/WHO/TO/BY process that you can use to create your own marketing ideas. 

Thanks for sharing Paul. 

It’s a 10-minute watch or read.  I hope you take some value from it 👇

Read more

A subscriber-only Q and A, answering sales and marketing questions asked in our member-only Slack community. 

Let’s get into it. 👇

Read more

Most economists predict that a recession is on the horizon for 2023.

And while no one can accurately predict how bad it will be, it’s a good idea to start planning for tough times 

That’s why I’m encouraging business owners to scrutinise their sales and marketing teams.  

Have they got the grit, skills, and confidence to support you? 

Or, to quote Dan's Grandad, are they soft as lard?  

This topic was prompted by a recent conversation I had with a business owner and his marketing team. 

The owner came to me concerned they weren’t selling enough. 

Yet, when I pointed out what they were doing wrong, the marketing manager told me that she has a marketing degree. 

F*cking brilliant. 

I’m sure everyone was very proud of you for getting a 2.1 with your dissertation on ‘the impact of cultural differences on international marketing strategies’ but your boss is here telling you he’s not got enough sales to take a wage. 

If you are in for a bit of a scrap, it’s worth reviewing who is in your corner. 

I wouldn’t take fitness advice from a fat personal trainer, and I wouldn’t share advice if it didn’t work for me in the real world. 

In this edition I spoke with Benjamin Dennehy, The UK’s Most Hated Sales Trainer, for advice on how to weather a downturn in sales, and I share my own daily sales activity so you can see how your team measures up.  

I hope you find it useful 👇

What should people do if they’re struggling to sell during an economic downturn? 

Unless you’re selling a product or service that nobody actually wants, the way you’re behaving is causing you not to sell. 

This is a common problem with salespeople. They like to blame external factors. 

“It’s the economy, it’s the war in Ukraine, it’s Brexit, it’s the cost of living crisis” 

Yet despite all the shit going on in the world, trillions upon trillions of dollars are still changing hands

It’s got bugger all to do with those external factors, and everything to do with the crap going on in your head. 

If you're struggling to sell in a tough climate, you need to look in the mirror. 

Because do you know what’s really happening? During the good times, you weren’t selling Jack. 

You were just taking orders!!!. 

If you enjoy Benjamin’s direct style, you might want to check out his free video content on his new YouTube channel created by the IAM Studio Team: The UK's Most Hated Sales Trainer

Comforting words of wisdom from Benjamin.

But let's be frank. You subscribe to this newsletter because we provide honest, no-bullshit advice. 

And whilst I might not agree with everything Benjamin said (events like Brexit have undoubtedly made it more difficult for some businesses), I do think some teams have gone soft. 

Now is the time to scrutinize your sales and marketing strategy and ensure that you (or your business) are not simply order-takers. 

“Can I take your order please?” 

When you go into McDonald's, if you were to tap someone on the shoulder and ask them, “what are you doing?” the odds of them saying “oh, I’m just browsing” is pretty slim. They're in there to place an order. 

If your sales team is made up of order takers this is bad. Because order-taking is very dependent on circumstances outside of your control. 

During a recession, consumers tend to be more selective in their spending, and businesses that are merely fulfilling orders are likely to see their sales decline.

When the tide is high, order-takers do well. But with the tide going out, is your business going to get caught with its pants down? 

Sales Bootcamp - How to check if you’re ready for a scrap

In general, boxers know that success in their sport requires not just physical talent, but also mental toughness, discipline, and a willingness to push themselves to their limits in training.

Is everyone (including yourself) disciplined and willing to push themselves in your business?

We all know my Learning Heroes story. 

The strategies I used then continue to generate new business now. 

They’re not fancy or complicated. But I thought I’d share them with you, so you can see how you or your team measure up. 

#1 Daily Prospecting

I actively seek out potential customers who fit my target market.

This typically includes reaching out to 10 leads with a personalised message. 

Leaving 10 comments using the waffle house strategy.

And making at least 10 new connections on socials. 

#2 Qualifying 

Just like in boot camp, where not everyone can handle the intensity of the training, not all prospects are a good fit for your business. 

To avoid wasting your time and energy on 'tyre kickers', it's important to disqualify prospects who are unlikely to convert. 

In sales, disqualifying prospects is just as important as qualifying them, and it takes discipline and determination to do it effectively.

So I typically remove 25-50 connections on socials every day. 

And push my prospects hard with upfront information about costs and processes before agreeing to a call. 

#3 Ask for the Sale 

If I’m not speaking to 5-10 qualified leads a day I get annoyed. I know my product can help them, so I’m not worried about being a pushy salesperson. 

To ask for the sale you need to get prospects on a call. 

I’m clear about the outcome of the call and will say things like

 “By the end of the chat, we’ll decide if we’re going to move forward or not, does that sound reasonable?” 

Also, I only send personalised proposals to prospects I’m confident will close. Don’t waste time documenting your stupidity by sending proposals to clients who are never going to buy. 

If you can be disciplined about the number of calls you book in, and execute them with skill, the money will follow. 

#4 Follow Up 

We all know the stat that it takes 5-7 follow-ups to close a deal. But you’ve got to develop a sales brain. There’s no magic formula or amount of time you should wait before following up. 

Every case is different. But your sales team should be performing these disciplined CRM tasks every day:

Review the leads in your CRM - where are they up to? Do you need to follow up? 

Send the close-the-file email to any leads that have gone AWOL. 

And brutally remove dead leads from your CRM.

And that’s it. Told you it was simple. 

But if you or your sales team are performing those activities daily, you’ll have a great chance of making more sales for your business. 

Just like the gym, you can’t skip a day and expect the same results. Show up and get it done. 

Tough times require grit and discipline. Now is the time to remove anyone who you don’t want in your corner.  

And don’t forget to review your marketing activity. 

If the content being shared isn’t resulting in new sales opportunities, what is the point? 

Huge brands can put out content not linked to sales, but you’re not a huge brand. 

Your marketing content should complement sales activity.  

And I don’t need a marketing degree to know that.

Key Takeaways 

There’s a difference between ‘order takers’ and ‘order getters’. Which are you?

If sales are slowing in your business, you might find that your sales and marketing activities need urgent review. Set a daily sales boot camp based on my own activities. 

Is your team hard or lard? Tough times require grit and discipline. Now is the time to remove anyone who you don’t want in your corner. Be brutal. 

Review marketing activity - if the content being shared isn’t resulting in new sales opportunities, what is the point? Huge brands can put out content not linked to sales, but you’re not a huge brand. Your marketing activity should be sales focused, to help your sales team complete its daily prospecting activities. 

VAMO Member Shout 

Someone who is definitely not an order taker is Mark Simpson from Boostly. 

Inspired by our cheap marketing strategies to get your business noticed resource, he headed to Nashville with an OOH marketing campaign of his own. 

Brilliantly executed and resulted in 82 sales calls. Good look closing that new business, Mark. 

We hope it inspires you and your team to push yourself that little bit harder.

That’s all for this week. 

We hope you found it useful. 

If you’ve not already, don’t forget to subscribe to our paid community

You’ll get all of this:

⚡ 1 x email per week that covers sales/marketing/growing your following with a coaching video.

⚡ Access to the private Slack community

⚡ Early access to watch the VAMO Podcast (1 week early)

⚡ Submit questions to be answered on the VAMO Podcast by Mike and Dan

⚡ Community meetups

For £150 for the year, it’s a real no-brainer 🧠

Subscribe now

But most marketing ‘experts’ tell you this is the only way to be successful.  

I'm here to tell you that's simply not true. In fact, putting too much emphasis on daily content can be detrimental to your early growth.

I've seen first-hand how this kind of pressure can break start-ups and distract them from more im…

Read more

I felt like an amateur, worried that my content wasn't interesting enough, and wondered if I was wasting my time. 

But despite my doubts, I hit 'publish'. Not only did it open up new opportunities, but it also brought in a stream of revenue that I could never have imagined.

If you're on the fenc…

Read more

Time is not on your side, especially if you’re a bootstrapped Founder or a small business. 

How do you avoid certain death? Where should you put your time when you’re just starting out so you don’t run out of runway? 

Facebook ads? Email? Press?

I own a Creative Agency. So does Dan. We both like money and wish we had more. So, you might (fairly) assume we’d suggest a content marketing solution at this point. 

But that’s not actually how we found our first customers for our own start-ups.

We secured our first customer with targeted outreach, a bottle of Baileys, and reckless regard for the UK's Bribery Act. 

It’s a story we discuss in this month's content marketing podcast special. 

In the episode, we discuss the right time to start using content marketing, and offer strategies to help you avoid common mistakes.

You can watch the full episode on YouTube here 👇

“Mike, you’ve just told me my business is going to die, I don’t have time to watch that. Give me the good stuff now”.

Ok. But watch it later 👀

Lesson #1 - you can learn more from the things successful companies do, than what they’re trying to sell you. 

With that in mind, I want to share some research that I think you’ll find useful 👇

Lenny’s Kickstarting Menu

How did the world's most successful companies land their first customers? 

Lenny Rachitsky (ex-Airbnb) surveyed the Founders of over 100 top companies and it turned out there are only really seven reliable ways to find your first 100 users:  

1. Reach out to friends and colleagues

2. Reach out to targeted strangers

3. Go where your target audience hangs out (online or offline)

4. Enlist influencers (paid or organically)

5. Get press

6. Create viral content

7. Get physical placement (e.g. flyers, stickers, signs)

He calls it his ‘kickstarting menu’

The strategies accounted for 99% of all early growth, and he broke it down further by business type.

The typical path to the first 1,000 users for consumer startups:

1. Reach out to friends and colleagues (e.g. email them, post on social media, call them)

2. Go where your target audience hangs out, online or offline (e.g. forums, Product Hunt, college campuses, Craigslist, etc.)

3. Enlist influencers

If you’re a marketplace or platform (e.g. DoorDash, Cameo, Substack):

1. Reach out to targeted strangers (e.g. DM celebs, email owners)

2. Get physical placement (e.g. stickers, flyers)

3. Enable your supply to drive your demand

If you have a remarkable story to tell (e.g. Airbnb, Spotify, Superhuman):

1. Get press

2. Try to create viral content

Your job is to pick an item and try it. Does it work for you and your business? If it works, order more. If it doesn’t, try something new off the menu. 

The majority of successful businesses found their early growth in just one or two channels. So, don’t be greedy and order everything on the menu. 

Full blog here:

Lenny's Newsletter

How to kickstart and scale a consumer business—Step 4: Find your early adopters by doing things that don’t scale

👋 Hey, Lenny here! Welcome to this month’s ✨ free edition ✨ of my newsletter. Each week I humbly tackle reader questions about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that’s stressing you out about work. Subscribe to get each and every issue…

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4 years ago · 98 likes · 5 comments · Lenny Rachitsky

There are some fantastic examples for each strategy. It’s well worth a read. 

Two and three (reach out to targeted strangers & go where your target audience hangs out) were my go-to channels at the start of Learning Heroes. 

What are yours? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the private slack group (for paid members). Are you having success with any of the seven? Did you do something different? Are you tempted to try something else on the menu? Let me know. 

Subscribe now

The Wrap-Up 🌯 

In case you missed it, here’s what the VAMO slack community has been up to throughout February.

Your Questions Answered: Timothy Armoo

In last month's edition of ‘Your Questions Answered’ we spoke to Timothy Armoo, who built and sold two successful businesses. 

Every month our VAMO paid members get to ask our guests questions specifically about their business. 

Just like Holger did 👇

What would you tell your younger self, not to do?  - Holger Bösch

Do not poo-poo the idea of company culture. 

I know. It sounds very fuzzy-wuzzy. 

When I was starting the game, and I’d listen to people say the secret to their success was ‘great people’, I’d be like “come on man, that’s some bullshit, tell me the thing you actually did that got you the customers, right?”.

But, it is true. A company is just a group of people that come together to solve a specific goal. So, your people are a big competitive advantage. 

Because of my own immaturity, at the beginning, I believed we could easily swap around people. “Oh, you’ve left, bring in someone new”. 

That was a bad mentality to have. 

In my next company, I will spend a lot of time thinking about the type of people we want and how the company culture can attract and keep them.

Read the rest of the article here.

VIEWS ARE MY OWN

Your Questions Answered: Timothy Armoo

Watch now (9 min) | 👋 Hello and welcome to this month's edition of community questions. This subscriber-only email is where we answer your questions submitted in our member-only Slack community…

Read more

3 years ago · 6 likes

Next Guest Annoucement ⚠️

Our next guest in the hot seat is Steve Bartlett.  Investor, host of the DOAC podcast, a Dragon on BBC's Dragon's Den, and is (annoyingly) pretty decent at football, too.

Believe it or not, he's also a fan of VAMO (yes, really) - so we're off to London to put your questions to him.

If you want to ask him a question about your business, join our paid community and gain access to our private slack here.

Subscribe now

Unlock The Power Of Reactive Marketing 

When it’s pissing down outside, “cabin fever” can set in and you start to daydream about somewhere hot. The result? An increase in online searches for flights and holidays. 

Reactive marketing involves responding quickly to events, trends or customer behaviours in real time. 

Carrie Rose has built a business around this idea. In this VAMO edition, she shared how she does it, and how it can be used in small businesses and start-ups. You can watch/read it below.

VIEWS ARE MY OWN

Unlock the Power of Reactive Marketing ⚡️

Watch now (7 min) | When it’s pissing down outside, “cabin fever” can set in and you start to daydream about somewhere hot. The result? An increase in online searches for flights and holidays. Reactive marketing involves responding quickly to events, trends or customer behaviours in real time…

Read more

3 years ago · 3 likes · Mike Winnet

VAMO Member Shoutout 🚀

We love it when people try the strategies we suggest. And because we only suggest stuff that we do ourselves, we know they work. 

As Christine Smethurst discovered using the Waffle House Method to land a big new client.

Success in any area comes from doing the basics, every day. So, we’re really pleased to see Christine showing up daily and getting the results. 

Don’t forget to share your wins in the community slack channel so we can celebrate with you.

That’s all for this week. 

We hope you found it useful. 

If you’ve not already, don’t forget to subscribe to our paid community

You’ll get all of this: 

⚡ 1 x email per week that covers sales/marketing/growing your following with a coaching video.

⚡ Access to the private Slack community

⚡ Early access to watch the VAMO Podcast (1 week early)

⚡ Submit questions to be answered on the VAMO Podcast by Mike and Dan

⚡ Community meetups

For £150 for the year, it’s a real no-brainer 🧠

Subscribe now

Most failed because of 7 common mistakes. 

So, we sat down to discuss them in this special episode and discussed how to fix them. 

The video will be particularly useful for early start-ups and small businesses. But some of the lessons apply even if you have an established plan.

It’s a 90-minute watch. Yep, it’s a long one. 

If you’ve not got the time to sit and listen to the full episode, don’t worry. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to split each of the sections into full newsletters and resources with tailored advice for our VAMO-paid community. 

We will also invite you to ask specific questions about your own content plans and put them directly to our team in the private Slack group. 

If you have already nailed your content marketing strategy, you can skip this one. For everyone else, we hope you find it useful 👇

Introduction to Content Marketing

In 1926 a humble motorist guide changed the restaurant world forever. The Michelin brothers published a guide for French motorists. At first, it didn’t include any mention of restaurants or food. Instead, just the typical, mundane information any tire company would share. 

But, after a few tweaks and the addition of a restaurant section, it became a hit. 

And the guide's popularity boosted Michelin’s brand worldwide.

The success story demonstrates the power of content marketing. An approach that involves the creation and distribution of content to a target audience. We think it has the potential to make or break a business. 

Fail to do it, or get it wrong and you’ll:

• Lose customers to competitors

• Damage your brand, and

• Waste resources

But effective content marketing can be a game-changer when it comes to:

• Brand loyalty

• Improved discoverability, and the most important metric

• Cash in the bank.

To help you succeed there are 7 major areas that you need to understand. 👇

#1: What is it, and is it worth doing?

Content marketing is the practice of creating content to convey a certain message that helps you build an audience. The longer you engage in this practice, the more trust you can build with your audience. The theory is that if you have an audience that trusts you, it will be easier to sell to them.

It involves sharing valuable information with your target audience for free, in order to attract them to your business. 

This can take the form of text-based posts or any other type of content that resonates with your audiences, such as humour, comedy, personal stories, or entertainment. 

The goal is to create content that your audience finds engaging and useful so that they see the value in what you offer.

Typical formats we use in our own business: videos, images, social posts, blogs, and newsletters. 

#2: Purpose-Driven Posting

When developing your content strategy, it's important to be clear about your goals. Are you looking to build your personal brand? Generate leads for your business? Increase awareness of your business in preparation for a potential sale in the next few years. 

For example, if you are the face of your business, your content will likely be different than if you are trying to promote your business as a whole. It's important to identify a single, clear goal to focus on so that you can map your content strategy to that goal. 

If you have too many competing goals, it will be difficult to achieve any of them effectively.

#3: Understanding Where to Start

It is important to figure out who your target audience is and conduct research to understand their behaviours and preferences. 

While research can provide valuable insights, relying solely on surveys or focus groups may not provide accurate information, as people may feel obliged to give a certain response. 

Instead, it is better to learn about your audience over time and test different messaging to understand how they respond to content and how they act on their buying habits.

For example, at Learning Heroes (which was online learning) we’d identify businesses that took learning and development very seriously. 

From there, we aimed to find out what their pain points were, so content marketing could be tailored around those issues. 

We observed what types of conversations were they having online, on LinkedIn, and in forums.

This approach allowed us to tap into a ready-made market that could understand and relate to our content.

Read more

This subscriber-only email is where we answer your questions submitted in our member-only Slack community.

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This week I wanted to share with you a couple of things I do to turn posting content into new customers and 💰 in the bank.

As the co-founder of IAM Productions, we speak to a lot of people about content marketing and I’m genuinely surprised at the number of people that have absolutely no strategy before they post content or after they post to turn views and engagement into sales.

If you’re hoping that once you post content people will start flocking to your business, demanding to work with you and spend shed loads of cash, you’re going to be bitterly disappointed.

In this newsletter, I’m going to share with you just 3 (of 12) strategies we use ourselves and we advise our content marketing clients to also do – so they can turn “just posting content” into sales.

This one is a 10-minute read 👇

I’m sure you’re bored of hearing the story about how Ian and I sold Learning Heroes for $11m (£8m in proper money) back in 2017?

I know I’m bored telling it.

What you may not realise is that we didn’t have a marketing budget to do paid ads and had to solely rely on content marketing on LinkedIn and YouTube to grow our audience and attract clients.

But just getting 👀 on your content is useless if it doesn’t convert to new business…

We quickly realised that if we created good content, that resonated with our ideal client, we would get noticed. But, as we weren’t an established brand (no one had ever heard of us before) we were unlikely to win much business by just posting content alone and sitting back and waiting.

So we had to work harder than all our competitors to turn what little attention we initially got, into paying customers. Doing that allowed us to sign up 340 corporate clients like; Boots, The FA, Matalan, Halfords, NHS, Arcadia Group and eventually lead to that £8 million exit just 2.5 years later.

That’s the dream, right?

Work hard for a couple of years, grow your business and cash out? Well I tell you what… it’s not going to happen if you just sit there waiting for sales off the back of posting your content.

You’ve got to make your content work hard for you and you’ve got to work harder once it’s been posted. Can’t be arsed with graft? Stop reading now.

Have you ever heard of the 95-5 rule?

The 95-5 rule is a rule in marketing that suggests that at any one time, 95% of your potential clients aren’t ready to buy today.

So no matter how good that bit of content you just posted this morning is 95% of your ideal client are “out-market” today. They won’t be buying your stuff.

Only 5% of your potential prospects will be ready and looking to buy right now. but you’re now in competition with all the other providers in your niche for that 5%.

Sounds shit, right?

So your content marketing should be aimed at the 95% that will become “in-market” and ready to buy in the future.

You want to be creating content that’s “front-of-mind” with that audience, consistently. So when they are ready to buy – you’re the option they (in an ideal world) immediately think of or (more likely) are one of the two they’re considering to work with.

So how did I make sure my content was working hard to turn the 95% into future sales and close more of the 5%?

Here are 4 ways I did that 👇

Read more

Hey and welcome to this week’s edition of community questions.

This subscriber-only email is where we answer your questions submitted in our member-only Slack community.

Let’s get into it. 👇

Q: I want to delegate more and scale the business but no idea how?

Read more

The result? An increase in online searches for flights and holidays. 

Reactive marketing involves responding quickly to events, trends or customer behaviours in real time. 

Carrie Rose has built a business around this idea. 

Read more

It goes against everything they’ve been taught in business. 

But trust me, the give-to-get approach works. 

Gone are the days when simply sharing a post with a link would suffice. Content marketing has changed. 

In this edition, I share how you can stay top-of-mind with a straightforward content strategy that anyone can use. 

You’ll learn how to boost your followers and sales with budget-friendly content marketing. 

It’s a 2-minute watch and a 5-minute read. 

The Story.

When I started my YouTube channel, I already had around 60k followers on LinkedIn. 

I figured a good percentage of that audience would migrate over when I asked them. 

“I’ve got a new YouTube channel - click the link and smash that subscribe button”

But they didn’t. 

I’d made a common mistake, one I see lots of businesses still making on their socials. 

“If you build it, they will come” 

Well, no, actually. 

The Science.

“It’s harder than ever to get audiences to click that call-to-action” - Amanda Natividad

And that’s for two main reasons: 

1. People are lazy - we don’t want to click on links that take us away from our current platform.

2. Algorithms reward platform-native content - they don’t promote content that pushes users away from their own platform. 

This is the best write-up I’ve read on the topic - zero-click content 

In it, Amanda explains that Google is continually updating the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) so that users don’t even need to click on a result in order to satisfy their query.

Information is displayed directly on the search engine results page, so the user does not need to visit the source website.

You’ll notice this with content like

Weather forecasts:

Sports scores: 

And direct answers to simple questions:

You get all the info you need without having to click through to a website. 

The challenge for marketers and business owners has only escalated with the rise of social platforms that either penalize or outright ban the use of links. 

This makes it even more difficult to reach and engage with audiences

If you’re only publishing your best content (video, images, blogs, and guides) on your own website or behind a paywall, it’s going to go unnoticed. 

The Solution.

Make stuff for the platform you’re on. Native text posts, videos, and images. 

We call it our stand-alone strategy.

Here’s how not to do it: 

I’ve picked a random tile company on LinkedIn. But loads do it. 

Now, the idea behind this post is solid. Educational content linked to topics their ideal client would be interested in. We know that strategy works.   

But here’s the f*ck up. 

They’ve gone to all that effort of creating a collection of guides (23 in total), but only used the info on their website. 

“For more information visit our official website”

2 Likes, and we know that link isn’t getting clicked anytime soon. 

Instead, they should have shared the “how to” demonstration natively. 

People are often worried about giving away the crown jewels, but content marketing has changed. 

You’ve got to give away the good stuff up front. 

The Tile Shop “how to” could easily be shared as an image carousel on LinkedIn, a 60-second video on TikTok, or a short thread on Twitter. 

People are busy. They don’t have time to click on your link to read more. 

The best content doesn’t win. Success is down to distribution. 

“Ok, this sounds right, but I haven’t got time, I’ve got a job to do Mike”

I get it. But do what I do. 

Block out time to make long-form content. It could be educational or entertaining. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s value driven. 

Not sure where to start? Write down the questions you get asked by clients every week. 

Start by answering those. Write them down or record yourself answering the questions. 

Then repurpose the long-form content into short-form pieces suitable for whichever platform you do best on. 

Remember. It’s better to establish yourself on one platform first before migrating to others. 

That said, if you’re clever, it’s not too difficult to produce lots of different content with a system. 

In our tiling example, I would create a long “how to” video to be shared on YouTube and native on any platforms that support video. 

I’d also chop it up into a shorter 60-second version for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Reels. 

Then I’d take the transcript and turn it into a short bullet point post for LinkedIn and Facebook. 

I’d then recycle that content. 

Don’t worry about sharing something you’ve already posted. There are always new followers who haven’t seen it, and chances are they won’t remember it if they have. 

The Result.

Measuring the success of a content marketing strategy can be challenging as it's not as straightforward as tracking SEO clicks or web page visits. 

However, the benefits are unmistakable. The more engagement, trust, and followers you build on social platforms, the more you'll elevate your brand and increase your chances of success. 

This effect is commonly known as 'brand lift.'

More simply, you’ll stay “top of mind” and the audience will remember you when they’re ready to buy. 

If your profile is optimised and your landing page ready to convert (full article VAMO here) you’ll be ready for them when they do, eventually, click. 

Key Takeaways.

• Play to the platform algorithms with native content. 

• Invest time in platforms that offer improved organic engagement (e.g. YouTube shorts right now). 

• The best content doesn’t win, it’s a game of distribution. 

• Bulk record long-form content and repurpose it as shorter pieces to save time. 

• Recycle old content shamelessly. 

That’s it for this week. 

As always, I’m more than happy to answer any questions about the newsletter over in the private VAMO slack community. 

Leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you. 

If you’ve not already, don’t forget to subscribe to our paid community.

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If you publish 21 episodes you will be in the top 1% of all podcasts globally.

That’s because 90% of podcasts don’t get past episode 3.

As we know, people love to quit stuff. This provides those who don’t quit with an opportunity to stand out.  

We’ve received more sales and opportunities via our own podcasts than any other type of content marketing we’ve tried. 

I speak to a lot of business owners who want to try podcasting, but they’re worried that:

1. It’s too late, and the market is already saturated.

2. It’s a lot of work and they don’t know where to start. 

In this week's newsletter, I share why both assumptions are wrong, and speak to a professional podcaster, Chris Williamson who has over 70 million downloads to get his advice on where to start.  

It’s a 10-minute read and a 7-minute watch. 

This is a detailed breakdown of our own podcast process, normally reserved for IAM clients. I hope you find it useful. 

How to Start and Grow a Podcast with Chris Williamson (Pro Podcaster)

Chris is the host of the Modern Wisdom podcast, which has gained an insane 70 million downloads since he started back in 2016. He’s so far recorded over 500 episodes featuring appearances from over 100 New York Times best-selling authors. And with Chris’ recent appearance on the Joe Rogan show, it's fair to say he knows a thing or two about podcasting.

First up, we wanted to ask Chris what advice he had for our VAMO community when it comes to starting a podcast.

Read more

That’s why pilots are taught the 1 in 60 rule.

It's a framework designed to reinforce the importance of making course evaluations and corrections.

Everyone knows you have to set goals. We love dreaming of that new destination. But few check their progress or make adjustments to make sure they actually arrive. 

In this edition, I share the simple processes and systems we use to keep our business goals on track, and how they helped us to build and exit our first start-up for 8 million quid. 

It’s an 8-minute read. I hope you find it useful.  👇

How can it help you 🫵

“I’m not a pilot Mike, how is this useful to me?“.

The 1 in 60 rule is a mental model about decision-making, evaluating your progress, and making corrections. 

All stuff (if I’m honest) I’m not particularly good at all. 

You’ve no doubt heard me talk about ‘starting with the end in mind’. 

At Learning Heroes, we wanted to create a monthly recurring revenue model and exit the business for 10 million after 3 years. 

It’s a nice line to use in podcasts when telling our story. It sounds like we had it all worked out from day one. 

In reality, that end destination evolved from a series of goals and course corrections. 

And that’s ok. It’s normal. 

If you’re anything like me, and your ‘new year, new me’ energy is waning. Crushed by the sheer amount of shit you need to get done to achieve your goals, you might find these simple systems helpful 👇

Set Goals and Get Things Done. 

You’ve probably heard of OKRs. 

Objectives and Key Results. 

It’s a goal-setting framework that works like this: 

Objectives: “What do you want to achieve?” 

Key Results: “How will you know when you’ve achieved it?”

Initiatives: “How are you going to achieve it?”

It’s been around since Back to the Future was released (all the best stuff was created in the ’80s). 

Big-name companies like Google, Intel, Spotify, and Amazon all use it. 

OKRs bridge the gap between strategy and execution. 

Now, before we continue, far more intelligent folk have talked about this topic.

In fact, there’s a free video and course you can watch here if you want to understand the full mechanics:

But I want to share how we’ve actually used them, not just more theory. 

Here’s an example:

Objective: Massively grow revenue.

Key Results: £30,000 MRR (this is the metric that lets us know we've gotten to the desired result).

Initiatives: Launch a new ‘YouTube for Business’ package (step needed to get to the result) and hire Creative Lead to project manage (action required to get the result). 

OKRs can feel a bit nerdy. If you reframe them as company commitments it can help to make them more relatable, rather than being some spreadsheet activity that no one actually looks at. 

Our goal was to make sure Learning Heroes OKRs were broad enough to encompass the whole company so that each department and team can feel that their work contributes to at least one of its priorities. 

When it comes to tracking them, we find a simple spreadsheet with a traffic light system works well: 

Whatever system you use, the goal is to visually show which OKRs are:

On Track

Lagging

Way off track 

How frequently you check in on your OKRs depends on your business size and personal preference. 

We have a weekly leadership meeting. If we notice something way off track we create a written solution to get it back on track. 

One final word of warning. Don’t bombard your business with hundreds of OKRs. 3 per quarter is achievable for most small businesses. 

Next time you’re goal-setting for the business, use the OKR framework. 

Areas of Responsibility.

Ok, so now you know what you should be doing, but who the bloody hell is going to actually do it? 

Remember. A dog with two owners never gets fed.

At IAM Productions we’re really good at coming up with ideas to improve and grow our business.

Ideas get shared, we all agree on what should be done, and we feel great.

Then, two weeks pass and nothing happened. We all get pissed off with each other and wonder what went wrong. 

If that sounds familiar, you should channel your inner Steve Jobs and be like Apple, and use areas of responsibility (AOR). 

It means grouping tasks into categories and assigning each category to one person. 

Again, no need for any fancy software. A google sheet or spreadsheet will do the trick. 

Create a new document and list every possible function in the company. Yes, all of them. 

Next to each, name a responsible person. And a backup. 

When you get super organised, add a documented process write-up column (great for training and ideal if you ever sell your business). 

It’s a great stick to beat your team with when things go wrong. Sorry, not stick. Important accountability tool. Yes, that's it. 

Ideally, everyone should be able to access and see it. Worked well for us. Give it a go. 

Get Shit Done.

Ok, you’ve set your goals and initiatives. You know who is responsible. Now it’s time to get the actual work done. 

There’s a simple system we use inspired by the book:  

Getting Things Done - David Allen 

I first came across it as a system for managing your email inbox. But it works for all types of tasks.

Your inbox is basically anywhere people bug you (Email, Slack, Teams, WhatsApp).

When something arrives do four things with each job:

1. Delete/Archive

2. Delegate

3. Defer (snooze)

4. Do

If it can be done quickly (less than 2 mins) I get it done and out of the way. 

Each deferred item goes on one of these lists: 

Delegate: A list of things I’ve asked others to do and I’m waiting on. 

E.g. Chris to create a proposal for x company.

Parked: Non-urgent tasks that you might want to consider when things are less busy (warning - they never get less busy). 

E.g. book recommendation ‘F*cking Good Content by Dan Kelsall’.

Agenda: Tasks I want to discuss during our next meeting. This stops your blurting out ideas and suggestions and disrupting people from tasks. Instead, save them for a specific meeting. 

E.g. where should we have our next staff engagement day 

Projects: Bigger tasks that need calendar time to be allocated to complete. 

E.g. write a new VAMO script on x topic. 

Review your lists weekly and you should find you’re much more productive and have a nice clear inbox. 

That’s it for this week. 

That was a bit of a deter from our usual marketing and sales advice. Hopefully, you found it useful. 

We’ll be back next week with new ways to help you get seen, make more sales and grow your following. 

Thanks for being part of our VAMO community. 

If you’ve not already, don’t forget to subscribe to our paid community.

You’ll get all of these: 

⚡1 x email per week that covers sales/marketing/grow your following with a coaching video.

⚡Access to the private Slack community

⚡Early access to watch the VAMO Podcast (1 week early)

⚡Submit questions to be answered on the VAMO Podcast by Mike, Dan and the guests

⚡Community meetups

⚡Early access and discount to training sessions

For £150 for the year, it’s a real no-brainer 🧠

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