Whisky & Commerce with Laura Doonin

Michael Fox CEO of new plant based protein company Fable , ex Co-founder of Shoes of Prey shares insights into being an entrepreneur and living on purpose over a single malt whisky.

In light of the ever-changing global pandemic around COVID-19 the realisation that we have very little control is a hard concept for us business people to grasp. Something that is super important to me is to try and stay grounded and meditation has been so important to doing that. Here is a super simple Resting in Awareness meditation focused on stillness for anyone needing it. Love and light -Laura

Shannon Ingrey, VP & GM of APAC at BigCommerce is a young gun sales executive who is championing the underdog mid to enterprise ecommerce platform in the APAC region - BigCommerce. Listen in as Shannon and I discuss, over a single malt whisky, the shift to SaaS technology and the need for organisations to act and think agile in both mindset and their tech stack.

Justin Irvine, Chief Product Officer of Seko Logistics is a down to earth Kiwi bloke looking to keep challenging the status quo from a Customer Experience perspective by creating solutions that are in demand whilst remaining focused on retailer bottom line. Listen in as we talk cross border shipping, their new product for domestic next day shipping and their move into the SaaS space with a new Shopify App. https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-irvine-670a9a22 https://www.sekologistics.com

Jeremy Meltzer, founder of I=Change https://www.iequalchange.com is passionate about impact - turning retail into a force for good and is seriously one of the most sincere people I have met. Listen in as we talk about why we are at a pivotal point in not just retail but in the consciousness movement for both business and individuals. Jeremy is a true pioneer of purpose and values as core pillar of millennial consumers.

Rhys Furner is Head of Partnership in APAC for Shopify Plus. Rhys is passionate about technology as a tool for entrepreneurship. Listen in as we chat over a single malt whisky, Edradour, about the “new enterprise” retailers that have emerged over the past 5 years, the importance of the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) in making sure the brand/retailer DNA shines through and the ever evolving relationship between technology and business strategy.

Carl Hartmann is Australian entrepreneur best known from his work as Co-Founder & CEO of Temando. Carl Co-Founded Temando in response to the disconnect between the delivery experience consumers were receiving and the fulfillment capability of today’s merchants. Listen in as Carl and I discuss retailers selling globally and why it’s important for retailers to double down and get the data in the right area to set up for success. We also discuss Carl’s newest venture and launch of a non-alcoholic drinks business called Lyre’s.

Tink Taylor, Founder and President of DotDigital, an AIM listed company with offices around the globe, joins me for a wee chat. Listen in as we talk entrepreneurship, the new world of marketing automation and opportunities for Australian retailers. We are joined on this episode with a lovely bottle Macallan single malt, a super smooth and easy to drink tipple. Tink is one of the most unassuming successful entrepreneurs you will meet and I enjoyed hearing his logic and grounded view on the state of ecommerce globally and from an Australian lense. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it. Cheers

Episode Notes. The best bits 1. Julie: We launched with 500 products from 30 brands in November 2014. We just went, let's see how this goes. Laura: Was it Dropshipped? Julie: No, no. I'm such a true blue retailer. I'm like, No, no, own your stock, take the risk. So then we bought all the stock, and we're lucky because where we live is on acreage and when we bought the place, it came with a warehouse, which was great. So for the first few years we used that warehouse. So yes, we bought all the stock. Because I was really focused on the customer experience from the start. And my belief — unless you get it really right - just have your products and ship it out same next day to your customer. And give them one box as well. Because I think one of the worst experiences I've had is I've ordered six products off a well-known department store. And I got six different boxes, six different days, six different trips to the post office to get them. 2. Julie: If you don't do this now, you will never do it. Flora and Fauna was kind of, as with any start-up, it starts slowly, unless you have lots of funding, which we didn't, but it was a case of 'Come on, back yourself on this one.' And it's difficult to go, to step away from the corporate world, and go, 'Crikey, I'm basically going to a salary of zero.' But I knew that I sort of have to give myself that opportunity, and the appetite to do the reverse. And I could've taken the easy route out, and gone, 'Cool, I'll go get another corporate job somewhere,' or, 'I'll go work at Woolworths,’ and I just really didn't want to do that. So I'm really glad that I did what I did. And I sort of had the guts, really. Laura: I can't believe it's been 4 1/2 years. Julie: I know, I know. It's nuts. And it's... Your whole perception on things changes, too. You know, you don't care about the salary you get that you're so hung up on before. It becomes completely irrelevant. And actually, as long as you can pay mortgage, that's all that matters. And so you develop — this is what happened with me anyway — you just develop a whole different reason for being. And you're going into work because you're making a difference. Because you're building something, because it's fun. You're not going into work because your contracted to go to work. 'And I have to work those hours a week, and I get paid at the end of it.' It's like no, actually you're not getting paid at all. And we don't know when we're gonna pay you. But the joy in building things, and the frustrations, too, but the challenge is just brilliant. And I would say to people, 'Look, if Flora and Fauna were to fall over tomorrow, and you know, that's it, gone, I would not regret at all, what I've done for these four years, because it's been such an amazing journey, and I can wholeheartedly say that I have given everything to make it what it is right now. 3. Julie: I think this is where it's so important to have really strong partnerships with those brands. So we work with them on promotional plans for the year. But it can't be a 'beat them over the head, give me more margin.' Because that just doesn't work. One of our brands yesterday told us that they just pulled out at one of the big supermarkets. They'd make the call. A small brand had told the big supermarket No. Because they didn't like the way they were treated. And so it's so important that you have strong relationships and partnerships and you work together on things like content, things like social media, things which are modern-day retailing, as opposed to, bash over the head, give me more margin, and pay for your spot on the store. Laura: Do you think that's being... Because I guess there's been this whole brands that have went direct to consumer probably for a number of reasons, one being the big retailers are not moving fast enough, and maybe that we've been treated from the bigger retailers as just not being good enough, and nobody really stands for it. Do you see that as being a main reason for why... Or do you think it's just, 'game on, don't tell me what to do, there's no rules anymore?' Julie:I think that is part of the reason, the hang on we’re not been treated greatly but I think also you know, go to your customers direct, take all the margin why wouldn’t you do that. Plus being online is so accessible now so every brand can do it and do it well. So I think there is a few reasons on why this has happened but I think the accessibility to the customers is something that brands didn’t have in the past because everything was store based and most of them didn’t have their own stores but now its online its like game on.

Episode Notes. The best bits Frothing "So frothing is like Aussie surf slang for... Well, I think the dictionary says we're being really amped. I think that's pretty much it. But if I say someone is frothing or you're a frother, it's someone who's operating at a high energy level, and someone who inspires you to be better. So if you're having a conversation with a frother, you can get a froth transfer, and it allows you... Yeah, I call it froth state. So I was talking to Jannie Wheel about froth state into flow state, so using like frothy conversations to allow me to access flow state to go and do the things I need to do in my day. And I was like, 'Don't f*&king kill me' because he's one of the kings of flow state. He was like, totally yeah. He was telling me about how our heartbeats can sync when we're really connected with people, and we can really take on the stuff that they tell us" So My Name Would Be "My name would be Optimus Wallace [Glass?]... would be my superhero name, which is what I would come up with. It seems like a Transformer.It is Transformers, yeah, Optimus Prime is the Transformer. So Optimus Wallace. Not very original. Well hey, I thought it was. And so his superpowers, he led these good Transformers into bringing the world together, and the people, and I don't know how that directly correlates, but I like the name Optimus Wallace and I feel like my calling is to try and guide people and bring people together, collaborations. Wow." Talking To Bigger Corporates "Why am I talking to bigger corporates? Because the only way that this mindset shift happens is if the alcohol companies buy into a shift, because it's all well and good for them to say, "Drink responsibly" which I don't even know what the fuck that means, to be honest, none of us do. But if they're saying that people aren't doing that, if their brand ambassadors aren't doing that, the bartenders aren't doing that, why would the consumers listen? So it needs to be this shift, and this is why I'm going and doing the corporate workshopping and redesigning their culture which is the latest thing I'm working on. And they're saying it came, because if they don't believe in a mindful drinking message which is what I say, not 'responsible'. Because mindfulness is accountability and consideration with reflection, then that's how we're going to have a cultural shift. And it's not just the alcohol companies. It needs to be the media companies as well that make the advertising, it needs to be the companies that are pouring the drinks, and then it needs to be Google and the bigger companies of the world that take the lead." What do I want to be "What do I want to be when I grow up? I want to be someone who has guided one per cent of the world to understand their vices in a better way. I'm calling upon conscious consumption, because we all have the abilities to be conscious consumers. And we don't have to all go out there and be the best classic recycler and make sure we turn vegan and all this stuff, but what we can do is find what we're passionate about and apply conscious consumption to those areas. And what I found is by conscious consumption of alcohol for me, turns the conscious consumption of meat, conscious consumption of plastic. And it's because once you put in the structures and you understand that you can actually reach whatever that goal was, then that's how you can get a knock-on effect. So I believe that that's my calling at that moment, and that might change."  

Check out this episode where I have a chat and a whisky with Ryf Quail, Managing Director of Comexposium for Australia and New Zealand. Ryf has a super impressive career across publishing, media, marketing and digital. A business man and entrepreneur, and most importantly, he is a great guy. We chat about whisky, what keeps him going, what brings him mindfulness, his thoughts around search, the retail dominator that is Amazon and the trends coming through in retail. A few favourites:   1. Brands diversifying Ryf "It's really about so much changes going on and how data is really informing so much. I mean, Crayola has launched a makeup brand.  Me "Crayola, the crayons?" Ryf "Yes. It doesn't sound very intuitive, but obviously, they know something about their customers and say, They'd buy makeup." Me "Actually, I think it makes complete sense because if you've seen some of these makeup tutorials, it looks like these girls are putting crayons on their face." Ryf "I think we should start at the positive place." 2. How will google play in voice search? Ryf "Google dominates search. It still dominates search because it's product is better than anyone else, right? And no one really can surpass them in that text-based search. That's fantastic. But voices come along, and it's very hard for me to look at that model and go, Is there a commercial model around voice? Now Amazon's got voice, but they don't need a cost per click generated model because everything that they ask for on Amazon points to their store. So it's the utility that drives the retail purchase. Whereas Google doesn't have anything behind it. Their whole transaction's around the search transaction."   3.Stalky Ads Ryf "I think that whole tech space is a bit like — and I use this analogy a lot — It's a bit like, when the library puts in a system to stop you from taking books out, you threw the books out the window to get around the system.... the point is, it's no different, say 30% of Australians, now thats a finger in the air number, are using ad blockers. Now, one of the big claims that native ads is that it doesn't get blocked. Me "Do you think thats going to grow?" Ryf "Yes, lets take a step back. One of the biggest failings of the ad industry digitally is that the ads are shit. So the consumer's gone, I don't want to see them. So therefore I am going to put in blocking software. And, they are either creatively bad or they're creepy in the way they behave because they're being a bit stalky."

Episode Notes: Noble Consumerism: "as consumers we have a responsibility to be engaged in the right businesses. I think that's gonna become more prevalent over the next few years. There's gonna be a rise in noble consumerism. Not just that businesses will be challenged to think broader than just short-term profits".   Success to Significance "One of the things for me is moving from success to significance. So I've had some success in my life. There's some big names under that, but I'm grateful for some successes I've had. But I want to see how I can plug more into significance and making a difference. And I'm on the board for a charity in Sydney. It's a charity called The Freedom Hub. It focuses on the issue of slavery. It runs cafes, it plugs 100% of its profits back into that cause. And that's something which has sparked in me desire to do more of that sort of thing, generating a longer term wealth back into society."   More Human in the Age of AI: "In a fast world and a time-driven world, you just want to get to the next place, you don't want to waste any time. But I think being able to stop and connect and just be able to dream and access your creativity is really, really important. As we think about giving our whole selves to work, which I think is super important for things like innovation. Because you can't truly innovate if you're just giving part of yourself to that. I think as you do that, there's a challenge for us to be more human in the age of AI".   Supply Chain There's probably more slaves in the world today than there has been in history. In Australia, they are largely getting hidden. It's not so much about the sex trade in Australia, it's more about getting paid to work below the minimum wage, or not even being paid, having ___ taken away when they're being brought over, that sort of thing. So I think the biggest question that I hear when I talk about it is, 'Does this really happen in Australia?' And it does. And the great thing is that you hear is that... slavery has been brought in, and corporations are now gonna have some of the best supply chain.