Mick Colliss is an author, writer, rugby commentator, emcee, guest speaker and modern day poet. He was also the vice captain of the first ever Australian Sudoku team and travelled to India to represent Australia at the World Sudoku Championships. Oh, and he’s also a copywriter by trade and owns a copywriting agency in Perth, West Australia.

He’s an interesting fella with a great story to share about how he came to represent Australia in Sudoku PLUS he’s got some great insights in to the importance of copywriting for small business. Enjoy!

Jim Penman started Jim’s Mowing (the first franchise of the Jim’s Group) as a part-time gardening business while he completed his PhD in History. It went full time in 1982 and was franchised in 1989. Currently, there are over 2,900 Franchisees in four countries covering 36 industries, and growing at the rate of around 200 per year.

For all the business success he has enjoyed over the years, Jim Penman remains remarkably unassuming. In this fireside chat I had with him, Jim reveals how and why Jim’s Mowing came about and how he built it in to the second biggest franchise group in Australia today. This is a wonderful story of nailing your brand, providing exceptional customer service and knowing exactly who your customer is.

Enjoy! (And don’t forget to share with one other small business owner).

The Voice is currently Australia’s most popular TV show … and Adrian Swift is responsible for making it that way on the Nine Network. In this revealing fireside chat, Adrian takes us behind-the-scenes of how The Voice is marketed, what they learnt from last year’s success (I also interviewed him during The Voice’s first season), what messages work best and how they’re using social media to seriously engage with their audience.

PLUS I share what’s going on inside the Small Business Big Marketing Forum – there’s plenty! PLUS I tackle a listener question about transcribing each episode, another one about the importance of having a sales funnel and one about how I choose guests for the show.

So much to cover, so little time. Enjoy! (Oh, and tell a friend ;0)

Content marketing is the new marketing black … I think most motivated small business owners are on to this important marketing fact by now. It’s possibly the best marketing strategy for helping small business owners share that mountain of knowledge that they’re standing on and become the thought-leader in their industry.

Great content marketing starts with identifying your editorial mission. “My editorial what?!”, I hear you say.

Great question. That’s why this bonus episode is 100% dedicated to helping you uncover your editorial mission, in order to make your content marketing a breeze. Enjoy!

Tristan White is the founder and CEO of The Physio Co, which in 2012 was named the 8th Best Place to Work in Australia by BRW magazine. With this award, The Physio Co has been in Australia’s Top 50 Places to Work for 4 consecutive years in it’s 9 year history. And in this fireside chat I have with Tristan he explains exactly how to create a strong workplace culture that ensures he attracts and retains the right type of people.

PLUS in this episode of Australia’s #1 ranked marketing show, I share some great marketing discussions that are happening in the Small Business Big Marketing Forum and answer a listener insight in to some marketing one-percenters. Enjoy!

Imagine running a business based on happiness – that’s what Naomi Simson decided to try when she left a serious corporate career to set up online experience retailer RedBalloon in 2001. Since then RedBalloon has sold 1.8 million experiences and has been named a BRW Great Place to Work four times running. Naomi received the 2008 National Telstra Business Women’s Awards for Innovation and the 2011 Ernst and Young Industry Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Not a bad little effort, huh?!

PLUS in this episode of the Small Business Big Marketing show, I have a whinge about three things that annoy me with email etiquete, share the hot topics that are being talked about in the Small Business Big Marketing Forum and read some listener feedback (there’s plenty coming in, let me tall you!).

Enjoy!

Four years ago, Daniel Flynn had a big idea. Some would say an epiphany. Appalled to read that 900 million people had no access to safe water and equally angered by the idiocy of bottled water in a country where the tap is safe to drink from, the 19-year-old university student wanted to do something.

He decided to start his own bottled water company (as if that market place wasn’t already over-crowded!) that would channel all its surplus revenues into funding water projects rather than making a profit.

This is another inspiring story of starting a business and doing the world of good. Not unlike my fireside chat with another social entrepreneur in Rebecca from Streat late last year.

PLUS in this episode of the Small Business Big Marketing show I help listener Christian promote his local bookkeeping business having been made redundant from his full-time job PLUS I share what’s happening inside the Small Business Big Marketing Forum.

Ever wondered how to market a professional services business? I mean like really market one – in a clever, effective way that doesn’t cost a fortune? In a way that avoids spending large sums on advertising or direct marketing? Excellent … then you’re going to love this interview with small business author Heather Smith – who has recently launched the wonderful book titled ‘Learn Small Business Start-Up in 7-Days’.

Covering all the start-up essentials from finances, through to cloud technology through to legal matters – there’s an entire chapter dedicated to marketing. Gotta love that! So, in this fireside chat, Heather and I share our views on branding, message creation, social media (in fact, Heather’s book deal came directly as a result of her business-building tweets), referral marketing and that all important content marketing.

PLUS in this episode of the Small Business Big Marketing show I help a listener add public speaking to his skincare business’s marketing strategy PLUS I share what’s happening inside the Small Business Big Marketing Forum.

So much to cover, so little time!

It’s time for another round of Funny Business with Timbo and AG. This time:

– Timbo shares a recent happening with a Scoopon experience.
– We discuss those embarrassing moments when spell check lets you down.
– We share some ideas about how to maximise business from an existing client.
– AG suggests the comfort zone is a dangerous place to be for small business owners.

PLUS I’m just back from giving a marketing keynote in Vietnam (I do love being a marketing speaker!) and I share three marketing lessons from the crazy city of Saigon!

Oh, and I also share what’s happening inside the Small Business Big Marketing Forum.