The secret behind Guns 'N' Roses’ success?

Great music? Controversy? A palpable frisson of danger?

Nah. List building...

As bassist Duff McKagan reveals:

"As soon as Guns began to play regularly in LA, we started up a phone and mailing list.

We obsessively made sure people who came to shows signed up – well, actually, what we did was send stripper friends out into the audience and have them convince people to sign up.

Obviously we had to write good songs and play well live to get a bigger audience… but the mailing list really worked for us – within six months we had a thousand names with contact info for each.

Other bands had mailing lists, but one of the secrets to GNR’s success was how much time and effort we spent building and maintaining ours…

We were relentless about calling the names on our list.

At first we had to hustle really hard… but we grew our fan base faster as a result; as our mailing list expanded, it was easier...

Like death and taxes, a stone cold certainty as a business owner is that some day, you'll leave your business... and you can't always know when.

If you don't plan your exit, bad things happen: for you, for your family, for your clients, for your employees, for your suppliers. For society, in fact...

Luckily, in the the new episode of the Growth Moves podcast, Christine Nicholson is on hand to explain her 3 Steps To Make Your Business Worth More - And Have Complete Peace Of Mind.

Christine is an author, speaker and award-winning Professional Business Mentor who works with business owners in technology, engineering or product or services businesses turning over £1m or more. She was UK Business Mentor of the Year 2020 and a Global Top 50 Woman in Accounting and you may have seen her on the BBC talking about business...

Listen in now, and also finally get an answer to that other question keeping you awake at night: do Koala Bears have...

Like it or not, almost all of us are doing more webinars, online meetings, calls, and events than we did a year ago - but the problem is, most online events are really BAD... boring, unengaging, uninspiring and rarely delivering from a business perspective, either.

Luckily, online events expert Judy Rees is here in the newest Growth Moves podcast to show you how to do online events that don't just work - but actually work BETTER than your offline events!

Sounds impossible? Listen in and with Judy's innovative approach you'll see it's not... 

Named a ‘Top 100 influencer in Remote Working’ by Onalytica, Judy was an early adopter of remote facilitation as she trained international groups on high-level communication skills for leaders. She designs and facilitates online events that engage and connect people, building and maintaining professional relationships even when people can't get together physically, and in this show we cover a lot of ground including:

• The...

If you've ever told yourself you 'hate marketing' or felt uneasy with some of the tactics you see used online, Sarah Santacroce is right up your strasse...

Fed up with hard-selling, 'value-stacking' marketing tactics that felt  grubby to her, Sarah decided it was time the current marketing paradigm changed.

She's all about marketing effectively, but bringing much-needed empathy and kindness to the whole process… she calls it The Gentle Business Revolution and is author of the new book The Gentle Marketing Revolution: Grow your business your way, with integrity and kindness.

Listen in to the brand new Growth Moves podcast to hear how you can join the Gentle Marketing Revolution, discover Sarah's 7 Ps of marketing with integrity and kindness, and much more...

If you thought 2020 'a bit strange...'

...we just seem to be getting crazier still, and - leaving aside the rights and wrongs...

...or how you may feel about the man himself...

...amidst it all, there was a BIG marketing lesson last week, and we're ALL at risk if we don't grasp it.

Take 4 minutes to understand what it was, and what you must do now to protect yourself, in my brand new Growth Moves podcast...

Cliff Farrah is President, CEO and Chairman of The Beacon Group and a pioneer in the field of growth strategy consulting.

In this episode of the Growth Moves podcast Cliff talks to Rob about the four key questions to growing the top line that his firm uses as the first step in over 1500 client engagements over 20 years, with some of the world’s most successful companies.

The promise of technology for most consultants, coaches and services businesses rarely pays off, in large part because they lack the kind of intelligent strategy my guest Gareth Everson shares in this show...

Gareth explains why, unless you have one of three outcomes at the end of every client engagement, you've got a problem.

Gareth founded software company Connectably to help business owners who aren't naturally "software people" to systemise processes, understand marketing technologies, improve client experiences, get paid their true worth and increase their business' value.

We talk hot tubs, party-loving alcoholics (are there any other kind?)... and the Yes/No Game makes its debut!

Listen in to understand the strategy then get Gareth's one-pager here.

We've been hearing for 20 years that email marketing is on its way out... and it's still nonsense! Running your own, opt-in email newsletter - even if 'newsletter' is not what you call it - is still priority number 1 in my eyes.

But how do you get subscribers?

What should you send them, and how often?

And finally, how do you generate business with your email newsletter?

My guest on the latest Growth Moves podcast episode is Nathan Littleton, who sends over one million emails every year on behalf of his clients ranging from small accountancy firms to international franchises, and in this show he shares his three essential pillars for winning with email newsletters. Including:

• Why email is still #1, even if you think you get so many emails it 'can't work'
• Email threats and downsides as we go into 2021
• The best strategies for adding subscribers and building your email list
• Should you ever add people to your list without consent - if they give you a business card, say?
• How...

John Vuong is the owner of Local SEO Search and he works to help small business owners rank on Google and grow their business. Listen in to the latest Growth Moves podcast as Rob and John discuss 4 key tips for amplifying your SEO in 2021, including:

• The one completely non-technical but totally essential thing you MUST do before you even TRY to work on your SEO
• What it takes to build a good website today
• How to use the right content to support your business
• What content 'recipe' is better: short and frequent, or long and less frequent?
• How to amplify your message with SEO
• How to protect and enhance your online reputation
• What's the future of SEO, in 2021 and beyond?

I was sad to hear that one of my all-time favourite copywriters, Clayton Makepeace, passed away recently. With permission, I'm sharing one of his many insightful articles here. Enjoy - Rob

• The six qualities all great products share…
• How flawed marketing models kill great products and render brilliant sales copy worse than worthless …
• The quickest, easiest way to find the best marketing model for your product …
• And much, MUCH MORE!

Dear Business-Builder,

It’s your lucky day:

You’ve found a great product to promote.

Maybe it’s a client’s product; maybe it’s your own.

It could be an information product – a book or e-book, newsletter or website membership, an audio or video, a live teleseminar or webinar, a course, conference or a live coaching service – that really does help folks get richer, healthier, thinner, sexier or just plain happier.

Or, maybe it’s a widget – a gadget that slices and dices...