Andrew Griffiths is Australia’s #1 small business author, with 11 books published in over 50 countries. Yes, he’s prolific! His ability to create relevant, easy to understand and implement content laser-targeted at growing any small business is unmatched. He’s also an all round good guy.

My initial intention for interviewing Andrew was to discuss how a small business owner should and could go about writing a book as part of their overall marketing strategy. However, very early on in our chat, it became bleedingly obvious that quality time should be spent discussing the overall importance of creating useful, engaging content in all its forms – not just a book. So that’s what this interview is all about.

This is right up there with one of my favourite interviews. I hope you agree.

In this week’s episode I have a fireside chat with Adrian Swift, the Nine Network’s Executive Producer of The Voice – one of the most successful TV shows Australia has ever seen. At the time of the interview they were getting 2.5 million viewers per episode – by the end of the series, this had skyrocketed to 3,000,000 viewers … just slightly more than Australia’s #1 small business marketing podcast ;0)

Now, you may well be wondering what can us small business owners learn from the marketing of a hit TV show like The Voice. The answer is PLENTY!

Three years ago BlackMilk Clothing didn’t exist. Then one day in 2009, James Lillis sold a pair of leggings for $10 that he’d stitched together around his kitchen table. The dream was launched.

Two and half years later BlackMilk Clothing is a multi-million dollar, 100% Australian-owned business employing 130 people and selling out of everything they make … bought by an unbelievably loyal following of raving fans – 160,000+ of them on Facebook, alone!

Not to mention the tens of meet-up groups that connect globally, all manned by volunteers who live for BlackMilk’s next product.

Oh, and did I mention they’ve done this on a modest marketing budget of ZERO DOLLARS! Yep, nudda. Zip!

Larry Bloch co-founded Netregistry in 1997 – right in the high diddle diddle of the dot com boom. Things were going swimmingly with the business doubling every couple of months … until mid 2000 when the boom went bust.

BUT that’s where it gets interesting … really interesting.

You see, marketing a business in boom times is relatively easy – there’s plenty of money and eager buyers – especially in the area of domain names and websites where every one was trying to stake their claim. But how do you manage a business through the down times, and come out the other end shining? In fact, in 2012, Netregistry is now Australia’s most trusted provider of online services.

Danial Ahchow founded Service Central in 2005 and has built it to become Australia’s leading online marketplace for finding all sorts of service providers. This online business now hosts millions of visitors and generates hundreds of millions of dollars of work requests each year.

Listen in as Danial takes us on the journey of where the idea came from and how he managed to bring it to life after quitting his day job as an Industrial Relation lawyer and cleaning office buildings in order to pay the bills.

PLUS I welcome into the Small Business Big Marketing community my new sponsor Netregistry who are the experts when it comes to sorting small businesses out with all your online marketing needs. Exciting times, folks!

Tania De Jong AM is one of Australia’s leading Sopranos – no, not the gangster type – and also manages to run a variety of very cool businesses including an innovations workshop business, a talent agency and a charity that helps disadvantaged people find their voice.

In this fireside chat, Tania reveals how she manages so many businesses, where the ideas come from, what drives her to succeed plus her opinion on why so many businesses find it hard to be creative.

PLUS she has a very big surprise for us at the end. (Dare you not to fast forward!).

In 2009, muesli and porridge maker Flip Shelton, decided that a National Porridge Day would be a mighty fine way to build both the porridge category in Australia and sell some of her own brand of oatie goodness along the way.

Now starting a national day for anything is no mean feat, however, Flip has done it with aplomb and had some great successes along the way including national (free) media coverage on TV, radio and newspapers. In this fun and revealing chat with Flip, she reveals exactly how and why she did it.

And what her plans are for keeping National Porridge Day run well into the future.

Well, I could summarise this interview as being all about how to market condoms. HOWEVER, it’s so much more than that. In fact, Lloyd Perry from Big Richard Condoms actually set out to create a clothing brand, but, thanks to a Venture Capitalist with a sense of humour (what?!) he ended up starting and running a condom business. So, in this revealing interview (BTW, it’s not one for the kids’ ears) we go under the covers (pun intended) and get some fantastic insights in to very smart marketing strategies around ….

Every industry has an inner circle of people whose names come up in conversation for all the right reasons, they attract the right opportunities, they earn more money and have more fun. My guest has aptly labelled these folk Key Persons Of Influence. So, listen up as Daniel Priestley explains how you can enter your industry’s inner-circle by becoming one yourself.