Whisky & Commerce with Laura Doonin

About Whisky & Commerce with Laura Doonin

Come join me, Laura Doonin on my Whisky and Commerce podcast where I chat with cool thought-leaders in the digital space. These rockstars are bringing their whole self to business and creating success on their terms. Topics I cover include; VC funding, female entrepreneurship, working in tech, unlocking potential, becoming more conscious in business, mindset practices - sprinkled with some Scottish humour! A little about me, I am a Scottish business loving yogi and made a conscious decision many years ago to bring more of myself to my technology career... I now live and work by the philosophy there is no dichotomy between work and life. It's all just life. So if you want to learn ways to form deeper levels of connection and hear me give others permission to do the same, subscribe to my Whisky & Commerce podcast, because a wee whisky always helps life go better.

Publisher

Laura Doonin

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 Jan 2019

Latest episode

9 Apr 2020

Latest episodes

10 episodes in the feed.

1. 9 Apr 2020

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 10 • Michael Fox from Fable Food

   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.

2. 15 Nov 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 10 • Shannon Ingrey, VP & GM of APAC at BigCommerce

   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.

3. 22 Sept 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 9 • Justin Irvine, Seko Logistics

   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

4. 28 Aug 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 8 • Jeremy Meltzer, I Equal Change

   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.

5. 5 Aug 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 7 • Rhys Furner, Shopify Plus

   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.

6. 27 Jun 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 6 • Carl Hartmann, Lyres, Hurricane Commerce

   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.

7. 9 May 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 5 • Tink Taylor, DotDigital

   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

8. 7 Apr 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 4 • Julie Mathers, Flora and Fauna

   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.

9. 11 Feb 2019

   Whisky & Commerce Episode 2 • Ryf Quail, Imedia Summit

   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."

10. 30 Jan 2019

    Whisky & Commerce Episode 1 • Ben Popplestone, Magento

    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.

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