Over the past 12 months, I’ve been blown away by the response to resources such as the Waffle House Strategy, The Close the File E-mail, and the LinkedIn Red Hot Leads Process. 

One of the best, and if I’m honest, unexp…

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If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:

How to Get Your First 10 Reviews

The YouTube Channel Blueprint

Creating Attention-Grabbing Calls-to-Action

Subscribe to get access to these posts, and every post.

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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 create…

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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 h…

Read more

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.

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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.

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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. 👇

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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 🧠

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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…

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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. 

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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…

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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.

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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…

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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 🧠

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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.

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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 👇

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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?

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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.

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 🧠

Subscribe now

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.

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