M & A Rainmaker

Article by Chris Windley .. cofounder/investor/strategist .. there from Day 1.

In the last few days I have been talking to various people about magazine launches and in particular online magazine launches and why most of them flop but MilliOnAir Magazine went global really fast.

The second issue was the Lori Mixson cover story – a key issue.

( Not appearing above ).

It is worth thinking back to before MilliOnAir was launched ( June ). Then ( from January 2016 ) we had been focused on building the Millie Cooper brand and The Branding Initiative network ( the Global Co-operative Network as I call it ).

From January when I met Millie until now we have been building Millie’s personal brand globally together.

The analysts that I spoke to said that this was a key factor because often ( typically ) magazines are launched by people with no personal brand and no network.

Both Millie and I had pretty strong personal brands ( Millie after I helped her with it ) and I already had a huge, global network.

The first issues in particular drew heavily from my network and were promoted by a combination of my huge network, Millie’s network and The Branding Initiative network.

There was no cover star on the first issue.

Above pic: Early version with May on it – see below for later version with June on it – both issue 01.

Or at least no ” known ” cover star.

In fact – as I am reminded now – I was the nearest thing that issue had to a cover star !! Along with The Rolls Royce Dawn.

We worked on that first issue closely together – Millie creating the design and content and me proof reading until we were both happy with it. Of course it had all of The Branding Initiative co-founders in it , Kelly Ann and Melanie MJ Jones and other friends.

Issue 02 was the one featuring Lori Mixson who was a long standing member of my global network. Based in Texas Lori wanted to be promoted globally and I told her that MilliOnAir was one way to do that.

I was a ” digital ghost ” for her Linkedin and twitter accounts while she was recovering from illness and looking after her children and family. It was a delight to see her pleasure at being on the front cover and she must have bought about 14 hard copies to distribute to her family and friends.

The analysts that I spoke to said that this was a pivotal point. Although at the time it didn’t drive huge amounts of views and shares.

Issue 03, Celia Sawyer came from my connection Derin Cag. Celia being our first big TV star,

Issue 04 Ange Loughran – again from my network.

Issue 05 – ahhh my friend Jamie Baulch from South Wales. Olympian and all round fabulous guy.

Issue 06 – Niyc Pidgeon – a connection from Ange.

Issue 07 – Mariett Ramm – an introduction from Mary Kurek and our second ” Business Partner ” after Lori and our first external investor. Mariett also part financed the launch party along with me and other people that we got to contribute.

Issue 08 came from an event that Millie went to.

Issue 09 came from Lori.

Around the 2nd issue I could see that a global franchise could be established and the way to do this was for the ” Business Partner ” or ” Country Manager ” to start to build feature pages in the main magazine to start ie ” The Mixonitup pages ” and then move on to e.g. MilliOnAir USA magazine.

I also could see multiple ways of generating revenue which I highlighted in business plans and investment proposals that I wrote.

Mariett in particular understood exactly where I was headed,

The media analysts and I have decided to produce detailed case studies on MilliOnAir as quite clearly the foundations have been laid for substantial future growth.

so .. more soon …

Find Out About the London Launch Party with more than 10 MILLION VIEWS of #MOALaunch … https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/millionair-london-launch-31st-january-2017-chris-windley