The Business Excellence Podcast

AI-Enhanced Email Marketing: The ROI Revolution with Matthew Montoya | Constant Contact InterviewMost small businesses are leaving money on the table with their email marketing. Matthew Montoya from Constant Contact knows better. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by ActionCoach UK, we reveal the strategies that actually work for business owners and entrepreneurs looking to maximise their digital marketing ROI.Matthew brings 15 years of experience from the world's number one email marketing platform, having taught over 14,000 small businesses face-to-face. His insights? Email marketing delivers £36 return for every £1 spent, with an average 2% conversion rate that outperforms nearly every other marketing channel at a fraction of the cost.Discover why click-through rate is the ultimate KPI that matters, not open rates. Learn the exact email structure that captures attention in just 9 seconds: no more than 25 lines of text, 3 images maximum, and 3 calls to action. Understand why 80% of your content should educate and only 20% should promote, and how this balance keeps your audience engaged rather than teaching them to ignore you.Matthew debunks the biggest myth in digital marketing: that email is dead. Despite the flashiness of TikTok and social media, email marketing has thrived for 30 years because it works. The secret? Strategy, segmentation, and understanding that your audience is talking back to you through their behaviour. Are you smart enough to listen?This episode reveals how AI has transformed email marketing from an eight-hour manual process into a minutes-long strategic exercise. Constant Contact's AI builds entire omnichannel campaigns, identifies target segments, determines optimal send times, and creates content that mirrors your brand voice. The friction that once prevented small businesses from competing with large corporations has been removed.Learn why you should never buy email lists, how to grow your database organically, and why owning your email contacts gives you control that social media platforms never will. Understand the critical importance of relevance, timing, and personalisation in an era where audiences expect tailored content and have increasingly short attention spans.Whether you're a small business owner just starting with digital marketing, an entrepreneur looking to optimise your email strategy, or a content creator seeking better engagement, this episode provides the blueprint for email marketing success from real experience growing campaigns to millions of subscribers.

From Paralympic Silver to Building a Purpose-Driven & Life-Changing Business | Dr Mark Williams Limb Art InterviewMost people who face life-changing adversity spend years coming to terms with it. Dr Mark Williams turned his into a superpower within months. After losing his leg in a cycling accident at age 10, Mark became a world champion Paralympic swimmer and world record holder. Following 25 years climbing the corporate ladder at Ecolab, a chance encounter in a Morrison's car park changed everything. A 4-year-old boy spotted Mark's prosthetic leg cover and begged his mum for one. That moment birthed Limb Art, a company transforming how amputees see themselves. Today, Limb Art operates in 15 countries and has won the King's Award for Enterprise. One ex-para who'd lost three squad mates and his leg in an IED explosion had their memorial tattoo recreated on a leg cover. When he clipped it on, he said "my mates are back," a moment that left everyone in tears.Dr Mark Williams lost his left leg in a cycling accident at age 10 in 1982. He broke British swimming records, won silver at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, and became world champion in 1989. After 25 years at Ecolab, he founded Limb Art in 2017, now operating in 15 countries and winning the King's Award for Enterprise in 2024.

TV Advertising Demystified: Insider Secrets for Business GrowthMost business owners believe TV advertising is reserved for corporate giants with bottomless budgets. Kurt Edwards knows better. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by Action Coach UK, we reveal how businesses of any size can leverage TV advertising to build trust, scale rapidly, and achieve extraordinary results.Kurt Edwards brings over 20 years of media experience leading business development for the UK's most iconic media brands. Now working with AdSmart from Sky, the world's leading addressable TV platform, he shares exactly how modern TV advertising has transformed to level the playing field for small businesses.What You'll Learn:Why TV Advertising Builds Trust:Discover why trust has become the second most important factor in consumer purchasing decisions post-pandemic, and why TV remains the most trusted advertising environment whilst social media ranks as the least trusted.The Real Cost of TV Advertising:A six-week TV campaign on Sky starts at just £3,000, with creative production around £2,000. Kurt shares a case study of a local bed retailer spending just £1,000 per month who saw customers mentioning his TV ads within two weeks, compared to eight years of Facebook advertising where not a single customer ever mentioned seeing an ad.Sophisticated Audience Targeting:With Sky's access to 9 million customers and approximately 1,200 data points per customer, small businesses can now target audiences with surgical precision using data matching—competing on the same playing field as multinational corporations.The Science of Creative Effectiveness:Learn about System One research on "The Price of Being Dull" and the concept of "Compound Creativity" that explains why the best brands stick with what works rather than constantly chasing creative refreshes.10-Second vs 30-Second Creatives:With attention spans now between 10 and 20 seconds, discover how brands are creating impactful short-form content alongside traditional formats.The Power of Audio Branding:Fascinating research on sonic logos and how music influences consumer behavior in ways people don't consciously recognize.

What does it take to build a travel business from nothing?How Two Backpackers Built A Travel EmpireIn this powerful episode of The Business Growth Podcast, recorded live at Sky Studios, Alastair Donnelly and Simon King, co-founders of Inside Travel Group, share how they went from teaching English in Japan to leading an £80 million global company employing nearly 300 people and sending tens of thousands of travellers around the world each year.This isn’t a story of overnight success. It’s a story of grit, friendship, purpose, and doing whatever it takes to survive.Alistair and Simon open up about:- The moment a life-changing trip inspired their business idea- Building a company from a spare bedroom with no experience or money- Surviving financial crashes, inefficiencies, and a pandemic that almost wiped them out- Finding the right systems, advisors, and people to create sustainable growth- How purpose and profit can coexist when you truly care about people“Business is about people. You have to care about them - your customers, your team, your suppliers, your community. If you really care about people, success will follow.”

YouTube and The Secret To Getting More Views with Rob Wilson from VidIQMost people treat YouTube like a lottery. Rob Wilson knows better. In this episode of the Business Growth Podcast, powered by Action Coach UK, we reveal the strategies that actually work for business owners and content creators.Rob built his channel to 100,000 subscribers before VidIQ hired him to grow their channel from 1,500 subscribers to over 2.2 million subscribers and 250 million views. His secret? Understanding your audience and creating content that genuinely changes how they feel.What You'll Learn:YouTube Strategy for Business Owners:Discover why 70% of content is discovered through browse and suggested features, not search, and how to leverage this for exponential growth.Finding Your Niche:Rob's proven framework for identifying your ideal viewer and niching down effectively. He made 150 videos on a single topic and built a loyal audience that followed him on his content journey.The Four-Step Growth Framework:1. Define your ideal viewer (understand their pain points, fears, and goals)2. Find your niche by identifying what content resonates3. Double down on that niche to build authority4. Take your audience on a journey to expand your content

Finding Meaning in Life After 15 Years Battling Cancer | David Smith MBE🎙 Powered by ActionCOACH UKThe help you need to grow your business: https://business.actioncoach.co.ukWhat happens when everything you’ve built your identity around—success, strength, achievement—is suddenly stripped away?In this deeply moving episode of The Business Growth Podcast, David Smith MBE shares his remarkable story of resilience, recovery, and rediscovery after 15 years of living with cancer.David isn’t just a survivor. He’s a seven-time surgery veteran, a Paralympic gold medallist, and a man who’s redefined what it means to win at life.From the outside, David’s story is about sport and survival.But listen closer, and it’s about something even greater—how to find meaning, gratitude, and connection when life tests you to your core.“Cancer stripped away my identity. It forced me to ask: Who am I when there’s nothing left to prove?”What You’ll Learn in This Episode- The truth about resilience – and why it’s not about strength, but surrender.- How to live as a human being, not a human doing.- The role of emotional intelligence in healing, leadership, and growth.- Why awareness is the real gift—and how to use it to make better choices.- The four legs of life – a simple model David uses to stay grounded.- How to build a life that matters even when the plan falls apart.David opens up about life in and out of hospital wards, the voices that kept him going, and the unexpected teachers he met along the way—including world-class coaches, Buddhist monks, and his own inner critic.“I realised I’d spent my life trying to be somebody, when all I needed was to be me.”For entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone facing uncertainty—this episode isn’t about illness.It’s about living. About slowing down long enough to hear your own truth.And about discovering that growth doesn’t always come from winning—it often comes from letting go.