Create Once, Distribute Forever: Unlock Small Business Growth with Ross Simmonds

Are you tired of creating great content that doesn’t get the attention it deserves? In this episode of Talk About Digital, Mark A Preston sits down with Ross Simmonds, author of Create Once, Distribute Forever, to uncover how small businesses can achieve maximum impact from minimal effort. This isn’t about working harder—it’s about working smarter.

Discover:

• Why most small businesses fail to reach their audience (and how to fix it).
• The four E’s of content creation to captivate and engage your customers.
• Practical examples of repurposing content to save time and boost results.
• The power of reverse engineering your competitors’ successes with the "Sherlock Homeboy" method.

Packed with actionable advice, real-life examples, and step-by-step tips, this episode is a must-listen for business owners ready to turn their existing content into a growth engine. Whether you’re an accountant, marketer, or run a local coffee shop, you’ll leave inspired to rethink your marketing strategy.

Don’t miss Ross’s exclusive TAD Takeaway: a simple technique to uncover winning content ideas and apply them to your own industry. It’s time to create content that works as hard as you do—long after you hit publish.

Connect with Ross Simmonds:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosssimmonds/
X: https://x.com/TheCoolestCool
Book: Create Once, Distribute Forever

Connect with the Host - Mark A Preston:

Website: https://www.markapreston.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markprestonseo/
X: https://x.com/MarkPreston1969
Mark's Latest Book: Customer Growth Unlocked

This podcast is produced by Voice It Podcast Agency
https://voiceitpodcastagency.co.uk

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mark A Preston: Welcome to Talk About Digital, the podcast for small and medium sized businesses looking to grow new customers through impactful, low cost digital marketing strategies. Have you invested in digital marketing with zero positive impact? If this sounds like you, then this is the place for you. Each week, we provide actionable steps to move your business forward with our TAD Takeaway, helping you to harness your biggest asset, yourself, to achieve big impact with minimal investment.

[00:00:36] Stay tuned as we dive into the world of digital marketing, offering insights and advice that will transform your business. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the talk about digital podcast. If you're a regular listener, you'll understand that I usually introduce my guests, but this week I want to be a little bit different because I'd like my guests to introduce themselves because they've so much value and experience and I just don't want to do them any injustice.

[00:01:09] So, over to you

[00:01:10] Ross Simmonds: My name is Ross Simmons. I am the founder and CEO of a company called Foundation. We work with some of the most ambitious and large brands in the world with B2B SaaS, primarily as the clientele organizations like Eventbrite's, the Mailchimp's, the WebEx, like all those types of companies.

[00:01:26] We've supported them in scaling their content marketing engines over the year to reach millions and generate millions in revenue. In addition to that, I'm an angel investor. I've invested in a handful of different stocks. Startups to help them scale and grow. Um, I'm a dad of three, uh, lovely little ones.

[00:01:40] Uh, I'm a big fan of football, American football. So for those in the UK, I'm sorry, it's the ag sport. Um, I'm also a, uh, a big fan and advocate of the wonderful world of distribution. So I wrote a book called create once distribute forever. Um, I was named by, um, organizations like Buzzsumo and SEMrush, one of the top five marketers in the world.

[00:02:03] Uh, and I, I love digital marketing. I love the opportunities that exist because of it. I'm based in Nova Scotia, Canada, which is on the East coast of Canada, as close to UK and Europe as you can get. Uh, and I'm a world traveler. I spend a lot of time on planes, speaking at events and conferences, sharing my ideas, my stories, my research, uh, things like that.

[00:02:24] So Merrick, thank you for having me on. I hope I did myself justice with that introduction. Um, but yeah, I'm excited to be here. 

[00:02:31] Mark A Preston: Wonderful. Well, I'm going to say it's probably between you and me. It's probably a lot better than I could have done. But talking about your book, I've got it here and I've personally read every single word myself.

[00:02:45] For the audience, I'm not usually. I don't read a lot of books because I haven't got time for family. But as soon as you publish this book and I read the title, I thought, that is me. For the audience, Create Once, Distribute Forever. I mean, the title alone just connects with me. I immediately felt guilty because I've created lots and lots and lots of things.

[00:03:14] And usually when I've talked to small businesses, they create something, share it on social media and think that's done and move on to the next. So I'd like to dive into, well, the context. 

[00:03:28] Ross Simmonds: For sure. So yeah, I think the reason why I wrote the book was really because when I got started, I was a small business.

[00:03:35] I was a small business getting started, trying to navigate this wonderful world of the internet to generate revenue enough to kind of make my own way. And one of the epiphanies that I had was I truly did feel like I was creating good content and I was pressing publish on these blog posts and they were getting no traction.

[00:03:52] They were getting no engagement. Um, I started companies selling coffee. I started companies that were events companies, cleaning companies. I had tons of different businesses over the years. And one of the key realizations that I had across the board was that it's not just about creating something that's good.

[00:04:07] It's about ensuring that that thing that you've created that is good actually reaches the right people. And for a lot of small businesses, a lot of creators, a lot of entrepreneurs, they have a great product. They have a great service. They have a great story. They have a great message. But the problem is the They don't actually get it out there.

[00:04:22] They struggle to overcome the algorithm. They struggle to overcome the, um, the noise that exists on X, on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Reddit, on Quora, all these different things. And I wanted folks to read the book. And get clarity and a deep understanding of why it's so important to shift our focus from always being focused on creating.

[00:04:46] I need to write more blog posts. I need to create more social posts. I need to create more videos, more podcasts, more webinars. No, you probably don't. You probably can look back at some of the great things that you've already done. Ask yourself if it's educational, engaging, entertaining, or empowering. What I call the four E's.

[00:05:03] And if it is one of those things, then it is probably something that you could reshare today. Have You could repurpose today. You could repromote today. And the book is intended to really help folks break out of some of the mental models that a lot of us allow to hold us back. For example, fear, fear of being judged, the fear that we've already, our people, the people who we're reaching, um, and connecting to are going to unfollow us.

[00:05:25] Like all of those irrational fears, I try to overcome at the first part of the book. And. guide people on a journey to really see that, um, a lot of their ambitions, a lot of their dreams, a lot of their goals is probably on the other side of fear and also on the other side of their actual efforts required to distribute their stories.

[00:05:45] Now, when I was 

[00:05:46] Mark A Preston: reading the book, you talk about some of the personal stories in the book and use different phrases to, you know, call different scenarios and everything. And I'd just like to. And from your side, obviously from an inside view, what was the like, the light bulb moment for you when you was writing it?

[00:06:10] Ross Simmonds: Yeah. So there's one moment in the book where I'm talking about the, um, process of when I was running a fantasy football blog. Like when I was in university and uni, I had a blog that was paying for a good chunk of my tuition. Um, but it only got to that point. because I started to distribute my content into the channels and the communities where my audience was spending time.

[00:06:30] I would share content on my Facebook. I would share content on X about sports and nobody would like it because the people who followed me didn't have any association with me and sports. But the moment I started to share it in other communities, it unlocked a world of new opportunities for me. I also talk about a story where I ran a website that was dedicated and focused on like plant based food and we took a lot of that content and we started to distribute it inside of Facebook groups where people were plant based and we generated a ton of traction, a ton of revenue on the back of that.

[00:06:58] In fact, it paid for the acquisition of an account and a website, um, just shortly after that. So for me, for me, I think like the biggest, um, epiphany came. Through the life that I've lived, I'm experimenting with this thing called the Internet, and as I wrote the book, I tried to really give folks those stories so they could see that, um, amidst all of the glamour and the glitz and the awards, there's still a reality that those fears impact even someone like myself, that those opportunities and those challenges that we all go through as entrepreneurs, as creators, as small business owners, aren't Intended to hold us back and we need to be open, open to experimenting.

[00:07:39] Um, one of my favorite ideas that I talk about in the book is the Sherlock Homeboy Method. So the Sherlock, that's what I'm talking 

[00:07:46] Mark A Preston: about. Yeah. 

[00:07:47] Ross Simmonds: The Sherlock Homeboy method is the one that for me, um, is probably my favorite concept. Uh, for those who are listening. I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan, um, and I've read all of the, the books.

[00:07:59] I grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and. I always aspired to someday be like Sherlock, but never really had the IQ level, but got caught. I'm kind of, I'm still working on it. Um, but either way, the, the book, I talk about how important it is to do like the reverse engineering process. And I think that idea.

[00:08:18] It's something that more small businesses should think about and keep in mind. So when you see someone, a brand, a business that is five steps ahead, one step ahead, two steps ahead, instead of beating your head up against the wall, trying to always do something new and do something different. What I encourage brands to do is to reverse engineer what they did to get there.

[00:08:40] How did they become successful? How did they get their brand to kind of thrive and like get all of these awards to generate so much revenue, to get so much new business, to get all the press? What stories did they tell? What messages did they share on LinkedIn that generated a lot of engagement? And when you take that approach, To reverse engineering, embracing your own inner Sherlock Holmes, or for me, Sherlock Homeboy, you're able to really start to see cheat codes and opportunities, um, to do things a little bit differently.

[00:09:10] It's a philosophy that I've applied not only in marketing, but in my whole career. When I first got started, I was like, okay, Who's where I want to be, who in the industry is doing things that I want to do, like speak on stage. So I started to reverse engineer their career and I was like, okay. So they spoke at local events first and then they continued to move up.

[00:09:29] So I reached out to local event organizers and I asked them to speak and I was horrible and sweaty mess, but I kept signing up. I kept doing it. And eventually now I get to speak in front of that. Tens of thousands of people, um, and it's because again of that intentional Sherlock Homeboy mentality of if I can't do something today, if I'm not somewhere where I want to be today, I'm going to spend the time to reverse engineer and figure out how someone else got there and then apply those lessons to my own life.

[00:09:56] Mark A Preston: Yeah, that, that is so true when, when you look at somebody that's already successful and basically, you know, your goal, who are the people that's already achieved that goal, no matter what it is, but I've had similar conversations with small businesses, but they say, yeah, but They've got lots of money to get where they are.

[00:10:19] I mean, we, we are, you know, treading on a shoestring. So how can we replicate what they're doing? And I think for the audience, that's probably what's in the mind now, where they think about this. So for those types of small businesses, what advice do you 

[00:10:38] Ross Simmonds: have? Don't focus so heavily on where they are today.

[00:10:43] focus on where they were when they were in your shoes. So instead of looking at the business that has 500 locations and say, I want to eventually have 500 locations, look at where that business was when they have one and start to think about what they were their organization was like, what was their culture like, what was their leader like, what were they doing at that time when they were your size, what were the things they were doing?

[00:11:09] And if you're still able to look at that picture and be like, yeah, but when they first got started, they already had a bunch of money. There's, there's billions of people in the world. I'm sure someone out there is in a very similar situation to you or was in a similar situation to you with a similar playing field that you can find, that you can research, that you can identify and start to reverse engineer.

[00:11:31] And the beauty. of the internet is that boundaries and borders kind of disappear. Because you might say, yeah, but I'm in a small rural community. You know how many rural communities there are in the world? There are lots of them. So someone out there in the world has probably been in a rural community and created a strategy that allowed them to thrive in that rural community, and then go into an urban community and continue to expand and grow.

[00:11:56] So you need to find those people. And if you are not intentional, and you are not willing to spend the time to go find those people. Then you don't deserve the success that you're after because you should be open to finding and having the curiosity to achieve your goals. And if you're not willing to put in that time and energy to achieve your goals, then they're not goals.

[00:12:17] They're just dreams. And if they're just dreams, then what are we doing? It's not a real conversation. So that's kind of my belief on how someone who might not necessarily have a clear understanding of how to get somewhere should approach it. 

[00:12:32] Mark A Preston: Yeah, definitely. Because myself, I do a lot of coaching and training and everything.

[00:12:37] And at the start, they're expecting this, this secret sauce and everything, but the actual positive impact usually comes from something where they think, Well, why didn't I think of that? You know, that's just it. It's, well, why didn't you think of it? To be honest with you, there's things in the book you So, well, I already know that, but why haven't I done it?

[00:13:03] Ross Simmonds: Yeah. 

[00:13:04] Mark A Preston: That's true. And 

[00:13:05] Ross Simmonds: that's something that's so common. And that was a part of the reason why I also wrote the book. Like if you go through the second half, you'll notice that the second half of the book doesn't read like a traditional book front to back. Like it's not intended to be read that way. It's intended to be a book where you can identify certain chapters, certain sections at that more tactical level and say, I need to be better at Facebook.

[00:13:26] I need to be better at Instagram. I need to be better at LinkedIn or blogging, whatever it might be. And you can bookmark that section and just focus on that distribution channel. And what I feel holds people back is that when they go into a channel, when they go into a distribution channel to figure out how to crack it, they don't know where to start.

[00:13:43] They're like, okay, video, what do I do? What do I do? What I do. The book is intended to give you the playbook. If you believe that video is your bet for next year, for next quarter, Just do what's in the video section. Identify a few channels and a tactic that works for you and then double down on it. Um, I believe that experimentation and in small business is our competitive advantage.

[00:14:05] If you're a small business, you can experiment with things, whether it's a story, a channel. More effectively than a large company. They have to get through a bunch of red tape. You're like a speedboat up against a yacht. You can turn around quickly. They need to like work to turn around. So if you notice a trend, if you notice something changing in the behaviors of your audience, It's a perfect time for you to make a shift.

[00:14:27] And I think experimentation and embracing the, the opportunity to navigate different channels is a key way to do that. 

[00:14:34] Mark A Preston: Yeah, I was, um, in, in, uh, an accountancy business, they have two locations, uh, last month and we spotted the, Well, YouTube video, it's such an untapped market for you. And it's such a valuable resource.

[00:14:52] And they say, yeah, but I'm not comfortable. So I said, okay, what I'm going to do, I'm going to hit record. But what I want you to do, I want you to get somebody else in and I want you to just chat together about a subject. And they said, Oh my God, I didn't even realize that, you know, the camera was there. So, and I think a lot of it is, well, as soon as you hit record, I freeze.

[00:15:17] Well, there's always a way around it when you're creating content and from your perspective, what you've seen, do you think the, the more unconstructed, the more, you know, personable content, the real reality rather than the scripted stuff works a lot better? 

[00:15:36] Ross Simmonds: Yeah. When it comes down to it, like people connect with people.

[00:15:39] We don't connect with robots as much as we love our devices and we're addicted to the dopamine hits that we get from the likes and the shares. We always will have that connection with people. And if you're a human and you can have a conversation, you can have a dialogue, you can talk about an idea, philosophy, something that you believe, something you worked on with passion and interest, people will resonate with it.

[00:16:00] And I hear, I know what's going to happen. I know exactly what's going to happen, Mark. People are going to listen to this. You're going to create three videos, and they're going to say, Ross and Mark were just talking BS. Like, none of that worked. I, I don't have any traction. I got five views. One of them was from my cousin, and one of them was from an ex from university.

[00:16:16] Like, this isn't working for us. Like, I quit. Well, folks, like, things don't happen overnight. If you look back at some of the greatest creators of our time, even, like, our greatest artists literally of humanity, some of them didn't get the credibility and the, the value until they were gone. Right? Like so many people think three videos is enough.

[00:16:38] Four videos is enough. It's not even close to enough. If someone listens to this podcast, And they create a hundred videos and they don't have traction after a hundred videos. I promise you right now, I will give you an hour of my time free. Write me a hundred videos, free consulting from me. One hour of my time.

[00:16:57] If you can't reach, let's say, If you don't get one lead, one customer from 100 videos, I guarantee you, I will give you my time for free. Um, because at the end of the day, you have to put in the reps and most people are only willing to do it three times. Consistency is the sole reason why you win at this digital game, because you have to be consistent at creating stories, distributing stories, and making sure that it's content, to your point, that really resonates with folks.

[00:17:26] Mark A Preston: Yeah, I mean, I've interviewed quite a number of people who's been very successful online and the personal brand is huge and consistency is always something they said, said, well, it took me five years before I got any real traction of consistency doing things. And like you said, people think, well, I'm not going to bother with that.

[00:17:50] I'm not going to wait five years until I'm successful. I want results now. So like it's a chicken and egg. Well, they can't be successful just with one video or one blog post or one something, you know, and I think it's a mindset shift. So from your own perspective on how you've seen businesses, what do you think 

[00:18:14] Ross Simmonds: needs to change?

[00:18:15] I think the mindset needs to shift to a focus around Marketing being an investment. And when we talk about it as an investment terms and investment concept, I find that people always start to really understand it better. So view the internet as your bank account. And every single day you have to invest.

[00:18:36] You have to put time. or money into the internet to drive future returns. If you write a blog post today, it could pay dividends for the next two years. If you create a YouTube video today, it could create dividends for the next four years. If you create a TikTok video, maybe for six days, all of those different things, right?

[00:18:53] So what I encourage people to do is to think about everything they do online as an investment and recognize that just like investing, Different things are going to have different risk tolerance, but they also might have different ROI opportunities, right? Like the same way that, um, investing in crypto has a whole different risk tolerance than investing in bonds.

[00:19:13] Investing in YouTube videos is very different from investing in Reddit. You have to figure out for yourself what your risk tolerance is, how much time or energy or resources you can invest into it. But over time, if you can continue to invest in it, the market will always tend to go up because the internet is kind of forever.

[00:19:35] And the content that you create and the stories that you tell have the ability to impact people forever, especially if you create once and distribute forever. If you embrace that mentality of creating great things and sharing them, not just once and calling it quits, but sharing them regularly, that's when you win.

[00:19:55] That's when you unlock some ridiculous returns. 

[00:19:58] Mark A Preston: Yeah, I was going to say, I've, there's some great examples in your book, which I'm sure the audience is going to go out and buy. Yes. Well. I mean, when people say create once, okay, then strip it right back from a small business perspective. What do I need to create once?

[00:20:16] That is the key thing, because there's lots of small businesses creating stuff that quite frankly, nobody wants to read or watch. Sure. 

[00:20:26] Ross Simmonds: Yeah. So let's use the accounting example. So if I'm an accounting firm and I'm trying to really leverage the internet to drive that new business, I'm going to first embrace this idea of the four E's.

[00:20:36] I need to create content that educates my audience, engages my audience, entertains my audience, or empowers my audience. I'm going to give you examples of each of these. So on the educational side, let's say it's tax time. I'm not just going to create a post that says, Hey folks, if you need tax help, reach out.

[00:20:51] That's not helpful. Nobody, nobody cares. Nobody wants to read that. But what they would want to hear is here's a free checklist. that outline all of the things that you should be doing before tax day. Or maybe I create a small business checklist for the small business audience as well. Or maybe I recognize that, um, people might not know what they can expense.

[00:21:12] So the government rolled out a new policy around what expenses are available. I'm going to create a list. It's called five underrated expenses that every small business owner needs to know. So now I've got three pieces of ideas. That I can create around tax time. You might say, okay, but Ross, when am I going to create these?

[00:21:27] Well, you create those ideally months in advance, so you can promote them leading up to the tax time. So it's always being amplified. On the engaging side, maybe you ask a question. You hat start a dialogue with them. Your community and with the industry by asking, Hey folks, we just seen that this new small business credit rolled out.

[00:21:43] What does everyone think about it? So then people are able to comment and respond and engage and you can have a dialogue about that. Then there's the entertaining side. Maybe you start to create some content that's inspiring for businesses. That might say 10 things that you should know before you close out your books this year.

[00:21:59] Or maybe it's entertaining because you're throwing up some memes that make people laugh about accountants and stuff like that. That's fun. It brings in the culture of your industry. And then on the empowering side, maybe you sponsor a small, uh, Um, local club, maybe you sponsor a group that is doing and giving back to the community and you celebrate them on social media and you create content about how your group, your team went out to this event.

[00:22:25] That's empowering content. That organization is now going to reshare it, they're going to comment, they're going to like it, and your audience is going to see that you give back and now they have good feelings towards you. If you can create that type of content, it's going to resonate with your audience.

[00:22:39] And if you create that type of content, you're going to be worth following. And if you can create that type of content a few times and then distribute it forever, you're laughing because that checklist that you created last year about the tax code that everybody needs to know can be re shared the next year.

[00:22:54] And the year after that, and the year after that, and the year after that. In short, things change. So you might need to spend 15 minutes doing an update and deleting one thing or adding another. But at the end of the day, You can create these assets once and then distribute them 

[00:23:07] Mark A Preston: forever. That is fantastic.

[00:23:10] So much value is coming out of this conversation. I know the town's rocking on, but I just want to get onto very quickly. We've created something very valuable now. Distribution. Is it about, well, just sharing that all over the place or what, you know, what's the depth of the distribution? the small business has to go into.

[00:23:33] Ross Simmonds: You have to put on that Sherlock homeboy mindset again and ask yourself, like, where's my people at? Where are my audience at? Where are the people I'm trying to connect with? And it might turn out that in the accounting space that the people that you're trying to connect, if it's just the, the, the average consumer, the person in your, your audience and your reach in your community, then maybe it's Facebook.

[00:23:52] And if it's on Facebook, then maybe you're going into a local community group and you're going to share your content there. Maybe you're going to retail to a local business chamber of commerce or some type of business organization and sponsor their newsletter. Maybe you're going to share this on your LinkedIn account, but it starts by understanding where your audience is.

[00:24:09] And once you understand where your audience is, you go where they are, and you're relentless at building goodwill within these communities and sharing your stories and your content within them. Well, Ross, 

[00:24:18] Mark A Preston: you share so much value so far, but I can't let you go without asking you to share your TAD takeaway.

[00:24:26] It's one piece of actionable advice the small business audience can actually implement into their business now that will help them grow. Grow their customer base. Now, my question to you is Ross, what is your top takeaway? Yeah, my top 

[00:24:41] Ross Simmonds: takeaway is going to be identify your channel of choice. And let's say it's Instagram for ease of use.

[00:24:48] I want you to find five businesses in your niche, your industry, and they don't have to be in your backyard. And I want you to actually create a spreadsheet that showcases and articulates a description of the type of content that they're producing. And go post by post and write down how many likes, how many comments each of their pieces have.

[00:25:04] What I then want you to do is to sort that spreadsheet by the top posts and look at and analyze the top five pieces that show up. And look for a trend across all five. You might find in the accounting world that it's Everybody is commenting and sharing this video that is a day in the life of an accountant.

[00:25:20] So what does that mean to you? It means that that's a video that you should do as well. And maybe you're not in accounting. Maybe you're in the wonderful world of marketing consulting. So guess what I want you to do? To take that idea, Steal it and use it for your own industry and your own niche. Create a day in the life of a marketer with the same format as someone else did.

[00:25:39] So my goal and my recommendation to folks would be stop trying to always recreate the wheel, go find what's working and what's resonating with an audience, and then apply it to your niche in your small business, in your organization. And watch the results trickle in. Mark, thank you so much for having me on.

[00:25:54] This is a blast. I had a great time chatting with you today. Um, I really, uh, appreciate all of the value in the content that you've been putting out there. If you don't follow Mark on X or all the different channels, I recommend that you do so. Um, we've been connected for a while now and it's, uh, it's great to finally connect, uh, kind of in the flesh.

[00:26:10] Mark A Preston: Ross, before you go, please share where people can find and buy your book. 

[00:26:16] Ross Simmonds: Yeah, folks, you can go to RossSimmons. com. There's a big call to action where you can click on there and you can buy the book. You can buy multiple books as well. I have a few deals and packages around that, uh, but it's wherever you get your books.

[00:26:28] If you get them from Amazon, you can go on Amazon and do a quick search for CreateOnceDistributeForever. Um, and I'd be happy to, uh, connect with anyone if you're having any challenges. I'm easy to find on the internet and I'd love to stay connected. 

[00:26:39] Mark A Preston: Well, Ross, many thanks for your time today. 

[00:26:42] Ross Simmonds: Thank you for having 

[00:26:42] Mark A Preston: me.

[00:26:43] Thank you for tuning into the talk about digital podcast. Remember, every small step you take brings you closer to your business goals. If you found today's episode helpful, subscribe to our podcast and sign up to your free 12 week tab Customer growth course At. www.talkaboutdigital.co uk to receive even more customer generating tips and in size.

[00:27:10] Until next time, keep harnessing your strengths and making actionable, impactful moves in your digital marketing journey. See you soon.