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Hello, welcome to another 
episode, the Winning with 

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Shopify podcast. 
I'm delighted to be joined today

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by an amazing guest called 
Chuck. 

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He's founder and CEO of Mission 
Mercantile, Shopify brand 

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founded in 2015, but in the game
since 2007. 

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Beautiful leather products can 
be found on their website. 

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Chuck, welcome to the show. 
How are you? 

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Mick, thank you, man. 
This is going to be fun. 

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I mean, I'm looking forward to 
it. 

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You've had over 50,000 customers
and you got a 4.9 star review 

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rating as well for the business.
How on earth do you build a 

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company that people love that 
much and want to say so many 

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amazing things about people like
yourselves? 

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Oh. 
My gosh. 

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Well, thank you first of all for
that. 

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That's very kind. 
It's it's one of our three 

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tenants of the business, 
mythical customer care, 

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remarkable products and 
remarkable promise. 

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So the mythical customer care is
intentional. 

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We basically do things that are 
the companies can't or don't 

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want to do these days, 
especially now with AI. 

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So personal touch, we reach out 
to people, you know, they may 

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e-mail us a question, we may 
call them back and just chat 

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with them for a few minutes 
about it. 

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So we call it mythical customer 
care because it it's the thing 

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that we all want from support 
with the company, but it's 

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almost impossible to find it. 
So that's why we do our best. 

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And I warned you before we hit 
record, I'm going to ask loads 

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of sub questions about this. 
I think it's incredible the way 

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people talk about your, your, 
your products and about the 

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business. 
How, as a business, how do you 

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afford to phone people, given 
that phone calls are the most 

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expensive part of customer 
service short of turning up at 

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somebody's front door? 
How do you afford not to? 

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It's a great answer. 
I mean that's, that's the 

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biggest thing in the world. 
There's so much noise out there 

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with business, especially direct
to consumer e-commerce. 

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How do you separate yourself? 
How can you afford not to give 

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the kind of customer care that 
people want to make them keep 

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coming back nowadays? 
I mean, there's, there's, 

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there's a lot of leather goods 
on the, on the Internet that 

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are, that are great products. 
You know, there's companies that

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do a wonderful job marketing, 
you know, they may even have a 

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warranty of some sort. 
But how do you really separate 

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yourself? 
You got to do the things that 

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other people won't or or can't 
do, which is take great care of 

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your customers. 
So I love that I I don't see how

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you can not do that I. 
Mean it's a great answer I I 

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don't think anyone's ever I've 
been running the podcast in six 

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years episode every single week 
and in fact 2 now and I don't 

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think anyone's ever said like 
how can you afford not to as a 

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response to a question we're 
asking how can. 

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You kind of sad actually, you 
know? 

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Yeah. 
But good for us. 

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Maybe it helps us stand out. 
So. 

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Yeah, yeah. 
And I and I absolutely love 

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that. 
And a lot of businesses I talked

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to are lacking that USP. 
They, they don't, they refuse to

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go the extra mile and they don't
actually take the time to go. 

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Do you know what? 
Our customers are really, really

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important. 
What does that do to your 

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lifetime value by investing that
much in your customers? 

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Oh my gosh, where do you start? 
The big question I. 

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Mean you, you, you start going 
down the list when people trust 

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you to come back, whether there 
was a problem with the product 

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or not, whether it was a mistake
or not, if you know you're going

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to take great care of them. 
The way I think about it is the 

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way Marriott used to run their 
run their business. 

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And Marriott would say that not 
that they want to have any 

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problems in any of their 
properties, but it was almost 

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better because the customer got 
to see how they responded to it.

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They didn't ghost you. 
You know, we always tell people 

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thank you for choosing in our 
leather goods, you know, our 

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handcrafted leather goods, if 
it's on the front end, we'll say

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thank you for considering our 
handcrafted leather goods. 

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So what it does for us is it, it
builds what I think is 

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relationships. 
And we see that typified in the 

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high percentage of return 
customers we have. 

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And we have customers in the 10 
years that we've been in 

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business who literally have 
bought thousands and thousands 

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and thousands of dollars from 
us. 

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And we, we treat the customer 
that just had their first 

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purchase, bought their first 
leather product just the same 

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way as we did the people who had
been buying from us for years. 

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And I'll tell you a quick 
example of that back during 

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COVID when every company was 
getting hammered initially, I 

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mean initially as soon as COVID 
hit. 

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Yeah, yeah. 
You saw you saw the damage both 

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in physical stores and online as
well. 

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So what we decided to do was we 
decided to do something counter.

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What we did was we took our list
of the of about the 1st 200 

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customers, 200 best customers 
that we had at the time. 

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And it wasn't a big list. 
And we took them and we sent 

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every one of them a free gift. 
We just sent them a free leather

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good and it ranged in valued 
somebody, some got a $2025 

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leather good and some we sent a 
$300 leather good just to say 

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thank you for your business. 
We really appreciate you 

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sticking with us. 
And you know, you might need a 

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little, you might need a little 
positive in your life at this 

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time. 
So we sent it to them and the 

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responses we got were amazing. 
We got some funny responses. 

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We had some great responses, 
which is, I can't believe you 

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sent this to me. 
We got some funny responses, 

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which we had a couple of kind 
of, I'm going to say angry, but 

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a little missed customers 
initially, but they said I 

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didn't give you permission to 
charge my credit card and where 

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did this come from? 
And then we called them back as 

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we would, Oh my gosh, it was the
most amazing thing. 

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So we like to do those things 
from time. 

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Amazing, amazing. 
I, I love the fact that I think 

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you've mentioned it at least 
twice, possibly three times 

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since we've been and we've only 
been recording what, 5 minutes 

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so far, just over 5 minutes. 
You've mentioned it several 

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times that almost like whatever 
anyone, everyone else is doing, 

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your first thought appears to be
like, let's just do the 

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opposite. 
And it's, and that is how 

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marketing works. 
It's disruption. 

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It's thinking laterally about 
what's going on. 

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I, I guess you guys always kind 
of shy away from trying to like 

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run as fast as everyone else and
catch up. 

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You're like, we'll just do our 
own thing. 

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Absolutely well, it's a race to 
the bottom anyway so trying to 

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keep up I mean today with AI I 
mean AI is a disruptor right now

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in some good ways, but then also
in some bad ways because every 

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CRM platform wants you to 
automate the response and all of

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those things and you're. 
Doing the complete opposite, 

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which is awesome. 
Which is the complete opposite 

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and it works. 
And you know what we find? 

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Well, the more you you, you 
reach out, you become available 

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to your customer and you call 
them back from time to time as 

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you feel like it's appropriate 
to do that. 

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One is they're shocked to cut to
hear from you. 

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But the second thing is that you
find that over time, if you 

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start graphing it, actually 
you're you're disgruntled 

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customers, let's call them 
lessons because they know when 

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they do business with you and 
come back that you're going to 

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take great care of them. 
Rather than kind of the 

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assumption that a lot of 
customers take online today, 

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which is you're going to screw 
me, You're going to take 

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advantage of me. 
I know you are, I just know you 

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are. 
And they're shocked when you go.

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Hello, this is Chuck from 
Mission Mercantile. 

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Just giving you a ring real 
quick to talk to you about your 

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question. 
And they're like, Oh my gosh, I 

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can't believe you called me. 
And they love it. 

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And OK, so you just said 
something. 

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I think again, really 
interesting is that you phone 

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them as the founder, the CEO, 
the owner, you know, whatever, 

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whatever sort of title, you 
phone them directly and say, 

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look, it's my business and 
you're not happy. 

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And I really want to get to the 
bottom as to why. 

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I mean, there's nothing more 
powerful. 

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Than the business could. 
Possibly do than have you on the

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phones in there. 
Well, thank you by the way, all 

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our team is awesome at what they
do. 

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But it starts, you know, it 
starts with me and I actually 

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have a reminder on my calendar 
every Friday to reach out and 

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call 3 customers just to thank 
them for their business. 

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And, and I'm not talking about 
our top customers, they're just 

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kind of random just to call them
and say, hey, I really 

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appreciate that, you know, and 
I, I think most of them go, 

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who's this Chuck guy? 
What is he calling? 

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Me, same question I asked about 
an hour ago was like, I'm doing 

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a podcast who's Chuck and then 
started looking at the business 

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a bit and check the show notes 
and that sort of thing. 

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But I mean, I, I think it's 
amazing that, that, that 

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personal touch has survived to 
2026 that we're in now and 

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moving forwards. 
And I, I, I guess, I guess for 

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some businesses that you say 
it's a race to the bottom. 

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Some businesses are racing to 
the bottom on price and they're 

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doing it so aggressively and so 
rapidly. 

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They hence my one of my first 
questions. 

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They can't actually afford to 
spend any money like contacting 

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customers. 
If a customer reaches out, it's 

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like there's basically the 
profit from their order like 

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we've basically lost it. 
How do you guys therefore go 

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about pricing your again, I 
mentioned that products are 

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beautiful. 
Like I mean they look incredible

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in terms of the design on them 
and then you can see the 

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craftsmanship. 
Just some of them are in the 

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background as well. 
If you're not watching some 

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video, guys, I highly suggest 
going on our YouTube channel or 

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check out one of our socials to 
see see the backdrop. 

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But the products are beautiful. 
How do you go about working out 

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the price of the product once 
you get into the region of like,

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we're not the cheapest, we don't
want to be the mega, mega 

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premium, but how do you find 
that balancing point per 

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product? 
Well, first of all, to me it's 

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about value. 
It's, it's all about there's, 

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there's several factors. 
One is you have to keep an eye 

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on what your real competition is
charging for their products. 

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And typically for us that goes 
from 30 to 40% more up to two to

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more X times what we charge. 
And so because we make all of 

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our products in our own shops, 
they're all uniquely ours. 

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We designed them and we source 
the leather, we source of all 

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the materials, the hardware, the
brass, everything on it. 

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We have as much control as you 
can possibly on not only you 

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know your cost but also your 
quality so you know what's in 

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it. 
So our goal from day one, I 

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wanted to create and and deliver
the greatest value that I could 

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see in the leather goods 
business. 

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So you buy a $500 leather goods 
products from us, I really want 

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you to be buying an 8 or $900 
product honestly for what you 

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get. 
What's incredible is that we, we

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really never tout that, you 
know, but we have reviews all 

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the time that says, Oh my gosh, 
you're way under pricing this 

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product. 
This is a $1500 bag and that 

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makes us happy. 
That makes us happy. 

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But we know that quality begins 
with the materials and then it 

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continues all the way through 
your craftsmanship. 

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And then my background in 
manufacturing was I spent almost

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10 years with Procter and 
Gamble, which is I think one of 

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the best manufacturers in the 
world. 

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So what we learned was to do it 
right the first time. 

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There was never enough time to 
do it right the second time. 

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So you make it right. 
And then later when you deliver 

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this to your product to your 
customer, you know your, you 

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know your cost. 
Of course, you know, the markup 

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that you need to have in order 
to be able to deliver the 

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services and everything that you
get, you know, including, you 

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know, a lifetime promise. 
If the product ever fails 

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because of materials or 
craftsmanship and that sort of 

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thing, we're going to stand 
behind it and and either repair 

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or replace it. 
What's amazing to me, Nick, is 

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00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:14,160
that when you look at huge, huge
brands like Louis Vuitton and 

226
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,560
East St. 
Laurent or even Coach or any of 

227
00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:22,160
these big brands, none of them 
have lifetime promises. 

228
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,840
Yeah, yeah. 
And the question is, you're 

229
00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:30,600
spending 3 to $5000 on a bag, 
why would you not stand behind 

230
00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:34,080
it with some kind of promise? 
I guess they, they probably want

231
00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,360
you to buy another one. 
Having looked at the accounts of

232
00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:38,640
one or two of these big 
companies over the years, they 

233
00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:39,960
probably do want you to buy 
another one. 

234
00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,720
So actually a lifetime guarantee
is terrible news to them, but 

235
00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:45,120
they they're totally different 
incentivized to what you guys 

236
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,200
are doing so. 
Yeah, they want you to buy 

237
00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:50,120
another one, or exactly that's 
what they want to do. 

238
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:52,320
And, you know, I'm, I'm, I love 
the brands. 

239
00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:55,120
I mean, they're beautiful, 
gorgeous brands, but there's 

240
00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:58,840
nearly nothing that sets them 
aside even from materials or 

241
00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:01,240
craftsmanship. 
Then it does, you know, the 

242
00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:03,360
logo. 
But but with that said, I'm 

243
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,840
thinking at least give some sort
of promise. 

244
00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,560
Just, you know, to me, you're 
only as good as your remarkable 

245
00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:14,920
product, your remarkable 
promise, and your what we call 

246
00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:18,200
our mythical customer care. 
That's the only three things 

247
00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:20,560
that matter, right? 
I just want to interrupt today's

248
00:12:20,560 --> 00:12:23,040
episodes tell you about some big
news for Shopify merchants. 

249
00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:26,360
Yopo, which you might be using, 
is Sun setting as e-mail and SMS

250
00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:27,960
products. 
You may have got an e-mail from 

251
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:29,840
them and if you haven't, this 
might be the first time you're 

252
00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:31,600
hearing about this. 
So if you have been using them, 

253
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:33,240
then you might be wondering 
what's next? 

254
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,440
Well, our sponsor Saguno has you
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255
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,240
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256
00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,920
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257
00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,160
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258
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259
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260
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261
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:55,320
Switch to Saguno today at 
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262
00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:57,640
Yeah, yeah. 
I love that you call it mythical

263
00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:00,360
customer care. 
That's awesome with, with the 

264
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:03,640
products, with the products, the
fact that you guys offer a 

265
00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,480
lifetime guarantee. 
I've, I've suggested this to 

266
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:08,240
brands we worked with before and
it scares them. 

267
00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,200
And so my question really is 
because you manufacture your own

268
00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,560
products, it, it must make some 
of the things in like 

269
00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:18,280
economically and financially 
within the business so much more

270
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:20,280
viable for you guys. 
Because you don't have to pay 

271
00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:21,840
someone to repair it. 
You don't have to send a new 

272
00:13:21,840 --> 00:13:23,840
product out, whatever they send 
you. 

273
00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:26,560
We're we're manufacturing 
another however many today, 

274
00:13:26,560 --> 00:13:28,800
tomorrow, next week. 
Well, we could just repair this 

275
00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,200
one as part of that process, we 
could replace a bit of leather 

276
00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:35,400
or a bit of the product. 
You know, the actual completely 

277
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:37,240
lost the word now, but the 
material, that's it. 

278
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,520
The material of the product. 
You can just replace the section

279
00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,320
that you need to or the the part
of that, the panel, almost like 

280
00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:44,760
a car, like, you know, replacing
the bonnet with another bonnet 

281
00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:47,120
that fits there. 
So you just make one, which must

282
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,840
make your economics so much 
better to be able to go. 

283
00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:52,400
Would you know if everybody's 
saying that this new product in 

284
00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,800
the market is amazing, It's got 
an extra pocket or a different 

285
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:56,440
way of carrying it or it's a 
slightly different shape? 

286
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,560
Well, guys, we just make one and
put it on the Shopify store and 

287
00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:00,400
see what happens. 
Right. 

288
00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,760
It's you must have so much more 
control both economically and 

289
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,360
and also creatively. 
You know the creativity goes 

290
00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:08,840
into products. 
You do, Absolutely. 

291
00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:12,000
And, and that's why I do it. 
I really wouldn't have anyone 

292
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,880
else make our products for us. 
Yeah. 

293
00:14:14,960 --> 00:14:17,200
Because when you're doing 
repairs, you made it. 

294
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:19,000
You know how it works. 
Yeah. 

295
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,680
You've got to take the bag apart
often and then replace it back 

296
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,320
to first quality, you know, for 
them. 

297
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,160
But it is so much more possible,
so much more viable to do that. 

298
00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:34,240
Imagine if you didn't do that 
yourself and you have your own, 

299
00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:37,040
you know, your third party 
fulfillment, third party 

300
00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:40,520
warehouse or whatever. 
If they get a product back, they

301
00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:43,720
obviously don't have the 
ability, the capacity, yeah, 

302
00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:45,080
they don't want. 
To do that, it's at the wrong 

303
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:46,400
place. 
They don't want the customer, 

304
00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:47,880
but it's in the wrong place now 
isn't. 

305
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:51,320
It exactly, exactly. 
And, you know, most of the 

306
00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:55,720
repairs that we do that people 
come back to aren't covered by 

307
00:14:55,720 --> 00:15:01,920
warranty because maybe they sent
it to the airport and the 

308
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:06,000
baggage system dismantled it and
we're going, oh. 

309
00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:07,960
My gosh. 
This is horrible. 

310
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,360
We say send it back to us and 
for a very reasonable price, 

311
00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:16,600
we'll fix it for you back. 
That's really the advantage of 

312
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,360
high quality well made products 
is that they are repairable. 

313
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,560
They are fixable as opposed to 
your nylon bag that just you go,

314
00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:26,960
well that's just sad. 
I'll just go buy another one. 

315
00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:33,160
So even when customers make a 
mistake and they do something, 

316
00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:37,240
they get a pin mark on something
or there's other kind of damage 

317
00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:40,720
or whatever, we don't tell them 
just go # sand. 

318
00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:43,200
We say, well, let's see what we 
could do to take great care of 

319
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,520
you. 
And then of course, if we have a

320
00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,480
problem with the product itself 
and it's our responsibility, we 

321
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:50,480
take ownership for it. 
We say send it back and where 

322
00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:51,800
they're going to repair, to 
replace it. 

323
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:53,440
Absolutely. 
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 

324
00:15:53,800 --> 00:15:56,560
I mean, it's, I, I think if you 
can afford to do that as a 

325
00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:58,720
business and I think you guys 
are just in the right position 

326
00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,440
where you're charging enough per
product that the economics mean 

327
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:02,800
it's worth us putting that time 
in. 

328
00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:06,560
As I said, some brands it's not.
But also you're in a sense 

329
00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:08,360
you're undercutting your 
competitors, but you're not 

330
00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,400
racing to the bottom. 
It's it's such a smart part of 

331
00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,360
the market you guys sit in so. 
It's it's smart and I can tell 

332
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:20,960
you Nick, when it's not smart is
that manufacturing, designing, 

333
00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:23,760
hand crafting your own product 
is not easy. 

334
00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:26,400
It is not easy. 
I can imagine you've made some 

335
00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,560
terrible mistakes. 
Some of my God use cases you 

336
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:31,600
couldn't. 
Predict and yeah, yeah. 

337
00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:36,120
So it's not easy. 
So I wouldn't recommend everyone

338
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,000
do it because it's another, you 
know, I recommend do it if 

339
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,600
you've got some experience or if
you've got a passion for it or 

340
00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,160
if you're willing to do whatever
it takes to do it right. 

341
00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,760
But when you can do that, you 
really separate yourself because

342
00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,040
there's hard hardly any brands 
in the world right now that do 

343
00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:56,280
that it it's really difficult to
name almost any brand that truly

344
00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:00,000
manufacturers and markets and 
sells their own product, 

345
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,680
distributes their own product. 
It's really amazing to find 

346
00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:03,640
them. 
Yeah. 

347
00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:06,599
And so you've, I mean you've 
already hinted at and I 

348
00:17:06,599 --> 00:17:08,760
mentioned with the amount of 
customers you've had, the review

349
00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:11,640
ratings you've got, you have a 
lot of repeat customers. 

350
00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:13,520
Some of them as you say, have 
spent thousands with you. 

351
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:16,000
They're very loyal. 
They love the products, but how 

352
00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:18,640
do you find new customers 
because obviously some will 

353
00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,599
churn, some have now bought 
their last product. 

354
00:17:20,599 --> 00:17:22,720
Unfortunately, it's just the 
nature of running a business. 

355
00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:24,880
How do you guys acquire new 
customers? 

356
00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:26,359
What channels do you use to do 
that? 

357
00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:29,480
Well, to keep it simple, I think
you show up in the right places.

358
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,240
You mentioned about earlier, how
can you afford to call your 

359
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:37,640
customers? 
Well, one of the advantages of 

360
00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:41,040
that is it makes a distinct 
impression on a person. 

361
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:44,280
And do you think they're going 
to tell their friends or other 

362
00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,960
people that run into about this 
great company? 

363
00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:49,520
I can't believe I got a call 
from them because they had a 

364
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,880
question or problem or, or 
something like that. 

365
00:17:53,360 --> 00:17:57,800
So word of mouth is big 
returning customers who refer 

366
00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:02,520
other returning customers. 
Others happen because somebody 

367
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:05,440
bought a product and they happen
to run a company and they want a

368
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:09,240
hundred, a hundred duffel bags 
for their customers and for the 

369
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:10,720
employees for Christmas. 
And that happened. 

370
00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:12,280
Those are the best kind of phone
calls, aren't they? 

371
00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:13,400
It's like which products you 
want. 

372
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:15,640
I want 100 of them. 
It's like, great, I want a 

373
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,560
hundred of them. 
We also try to be very generous,

374
00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:23,840
which means there are some 
really wonderful nonprofits out 

375
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,440
there doing great work that are 
close to our heart. 

376
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,480
And we support them. 
We, you know, we help them out 

377
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:30,560
with product and things like 
that. 

378
00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:33,760
And that gets us in front of the
right people. 

379
00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,480
We, we, we know our avatars, so 
to speak, who it is. 

380
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:41,880
And then also we do paid ads as 
well, OK. 

381
00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:47,040
And we do that in on Pinterest 
and Facebook and places like 

382
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:48,600
that and Visual. 
Platforms. 

383
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:51,320
I. 
Guess work well for your sort 

384
00:18:51,360 --> 00:18:51,840
of. 
Product. 

385
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,600
Yeah, exactly. 
Visual platforms, experiential. 

386
00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:57,440
And the thing about Pinterest, 
that's really kind of cool. 

387
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:01,040
Not that Pinterest is a huge 
channel for us, but again, 

388
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,080
Pinterest is just a big referral
board. 

389
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:05,760
You know, people see you're 
bored and they go, Oh my gosh, 

390
00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:06,720
that's incredible. 
Where'd you? 

391
00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,920
Find that it goes. 
Through and I'm going to pin it 

392
00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:14,360
and it lives forever it lives 
forever it's it's not like a 

393
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,280
Facebook ad that stops serving 
as soon as you stop paying it 

394
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,240
continuously and and it's a 
referral somebody else speaking 

395
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,640
wonderfully about your brand. 
So that's a big thing. 

396
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:29,160
And then of course the other SEO
stuff and all of that we also 

397
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:30,000
are. 
In. 

398
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,840
Yeah, exactly. 
We also in are in about 400 

399
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,600
different small, smaller 
typically boutique. 

400
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:40,840
We're not in any big box stores,
but we're in, you know, several 

401
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:42,920
100 boutiques across the 
country. 

402
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,720
Some of them have been have been
working with us for years and 

403
00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:48,320
years, since almost the very 
beginning. 

404
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:49,880
But that fits your brand, 
doesn't it? 

405
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,960
It's if you were in Target or 
Walmart, it'd be like, what are 

406
00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:55,000
these guys doing here? 
Like, and you'd suddenly be 

407
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,440
selling tons of them. 
And then I guess the thing with 

408
00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,800
your product as well is there's 
always sort of two types of 

409
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:01,840
products and I find that do 
well. 

410
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:03,720
One is the like. 
Like, I mean, this water bottle 

411
00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:06,840
I bought on Amazon, I and I, I 
saw two of them at meetings 

412
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:08,840
yesterday in London alone, that 
same brand. 

413
00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:11,280
One of Amazon's. 
One of Amazon's best sellers, 

414
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:12,920
right? 
So either it's a product that 

415
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,000
everybody wants and everyone 
wants to get hold of, or it's a 

416
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:18,040
luxury item nobody's ever heard 
of, no one's ever come into 

417
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,480
contact with, and suddenly they 
see their best friend or 

418
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,480
somebody at the train station or
on a plane with that product. 

419
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:25,320
And that's where it becomes an 
exclusive luck. 

420
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,800
It's where Rolex have done so 
well is you can't just buy a 

421
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,600
Rolex and actually if you've 
been found to sell a Rolex on 

422
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,120
eBay or something, you're banned
from buying Rolexes from now on.

423
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:36,520
Like that's the way Rolex works.
And it's, I mean, I'm not really

424
00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:39,160
into watches, but a friend of 
mine is and that that's how it 

425
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,440
works. 
So I think, I think you guys 

426
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,040
being in those boutique stores, 
being on Pinterest and more 

427
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,680
visual platforms, it makes a lot
of sense rather than just. 

428
00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:48,760
Trying to sell as many as 
possible. 

429
00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:50,600
On Amazon or eBay? 
Like it's just not the market 

430
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,640
for you, is it? 
No, no, no. 

431
00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,360
We were actually on Amazon in 
the very, very early, early 

432
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:59,720
stages of the business like 9 or
10 years ago and and we left for

433
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:02,680
that very same reason. 
It's a brave decision. 

434
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:04,920
It just a lot of people see the 
numbers and go we can't leave 

435
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:06,360
this. 
That's a brave decision, but 

436
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,400
clearly a good one. 
And again, I think how could you

437
00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:11,120
not? 
You know, it's like you have to 

438
00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:13,840
decide what your brand's all 
about and where they can find 

439
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,200
you. 
And Amazon typically is a is 

440
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,480
again a race to the bottom for 
the type of things that we do. 

441
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,720
Yeah, absolutely. 
So those are the channels you 

442
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,520
use to acquire customers. 
The bigger, and this is probably

443
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:29,480
a much tougher question I've got
is you've got so many things you

444
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,840
could say in an advert or you 
could put on a posting or so 

445
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:35,400
many images of different 
products or different people 

446
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,480
with products, products in 
different situations that all 

447
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,520
look incredible. 
How do you choose what to put 

448
00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,720
where? 
Oh my gosh, I think the answer 

449
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,680
to me is authenticity. 
OK. 

450
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:51,480
You know, you're not really 
trying to follow trends so much 

451
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:55,720
as you are. 
You have to help your target 

452
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:57,920
customer and use that word. 
But that's true. 

453
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,800
People who really are a great 
fit for your brand, you're a 

454
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:05,320
great fit for them see 
themselves with your product in 

455
00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:09,840
the way that they use it. 
So if it's a cooler, you know, 

456
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:14,120
out in the field sitting next to
a river, We have a great photos,

457
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:18,840
authentic photo of a guy who's 
sitting on a overturned tree 

458
00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:22,000
with a dog next to him and a 
cooler sitting next to him and 

459
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,840
he's got his hand right there 
pulling his his drink out of the

460
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:29,840
cooler because that's how you're
going to use the product. 

461
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,400
I love that other pictures of. 
Like just even the situation, 

462
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,760
having looked at your site and 
and your products, you feel like

463
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:38,800
you're in that situation. 
Oh yeah, Absolutely. 

464
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:39,880
Exactly, completely. 
Agree. 

465
00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:43,040
And they're authentic. 
They're not AI. 

466
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:45,640
Yeah. 
Generated, yeah, yeah. 

467
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:47,040
You know, they have to within 
it. 

468
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:50,880
People can see through that. 
They have to see themselves, as 

469
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,960
you know, coming alongside you 
in this relationship. 

470
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,280
Yost have just launched 
something that is absolutely 

471
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,920
game changing. 
Their new AI Brand Insights tool

472
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,000
is now in beta, and it's built 
to help you track your brand's 

473
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,760
visibility, sentiment and 
credibility across AI platforms 

474
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,960
like ChatGPT. 
As search expands from Google to

475
00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,920
AI Answers, this tool gives you 
a clearview of how your brand 

476
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:17,560
shows up, combining sentiment, 
visibility and mentions. 

477
00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:20,480
It's designed for marketers who 
want enterprise level insight 

478
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:24,840
without the enterprise price 
less than 4, $400.00 per year. 

479
00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:27,520
And here's the best bit. 
Yost Black Friday sale is now 

480
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:29,600
on. 
So starting November 27th, 

481
00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:33,760
you'll get a 30% discount off 
all annual plans, including the 

482
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:38,240
new Yost SEO AI Plus. 
Head to yost.com to learn more 

483
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,000
and grab your discount. 
Yeah, I think it's such an 

484
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,440
important point. 
And I, I made a joke on somebody

485
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,840
else's podcast a while ago where
they they sort of said like, 

486
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:50,080
look, you work in advertising, 
Nick, what images do you put on?

487
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:52,280
You know, what images do you 
tell your customers to send you 

488
00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:54,840
to put on Meta or put on Google 
Display or Google Shopping or 

489
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,360
whatever? 
And I sort of said the one that 

490
00:23:57,360 --> 00:23:59,400
sells the product to the right 
audience. 

491
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,760
And I've used this example a few
times in the show, but we had a 

492
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,120
client that was constantly 
trying to sell their really nice

493
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:07,000
super soft T-shirts. 
But they were constantly selling

494
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,640
them with pictures of people on 
surfboards or coming off 

495
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:11,920
surfboards and putting a soft 
T-shirt on till we did a 

496
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,400
customer feedback survey. 
How many of you go surfing? 

497
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:16,520
Like none of them. 
How many of you are interested 

498
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:17,960
in surfing? 
Like none of them. 

499
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,320
It was like, where do you wear 
this T-shirt normally? 

500
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,160
Around a city, right? 
It's an urban product and we're 

501
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,600
trying to sell it on a beach. 
We changed the imagery 

502
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:28,840
conversion rate nearly tripled. 
It was insanely uplift. 

503
00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:31,680
And the same thing as well is 
like like go back to the water 

504
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,000
bottle examples. 
If you tried to sell me a water 

505
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,720
bottle because it looked 
fantastic in a white background 

506
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,200
image or the lid opened really, 
really nicely when it was brand 

507
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,120
new. 
I'm about to put this water 

508
00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:46,320
bottle in my backpack and take 
it all over the world with me to

509
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,800
meetings on holidays. 
That water water has been on 

510
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:50,640
safari in Africa and Kenya with 
me. 

511
00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,760
Like actually I want to picture 
of that being dropped out of a 

512
00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,800
building on a concrete floor. 
I want to see a video of it 

513
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,240
being set on fire because I've 
I've had it near. 

514
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:02,880
I want to see a video of it when
it's. 

515
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,680
When you pick it up, you kind of
dust it off, screw the cap back 

516
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,640
on and you're back in business. 
Exactly, and and and will it 

517
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,280
survive the dishwasher? 
Forget the the Outback, the 

518
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,520
dishwasher is the place it 
really needs to survive. 

519
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:15,880
But again, it's it's that thing 
of like and actually this one 

520
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,000
has and the reason it has is I I
looked on, I deliberately bought

521
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,280
on an Amazon that had thousands 
of reviews so I could find one 

522
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:23,280
that had enough reviews of where
it was used. 

523
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:25,880
So I completely echo, know what 
you say about putting the 

524
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,600
product to the right location. 
You're selling what some you 

525
00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:30,680
need to sell, what somebody's 
life is going to be like with 

526
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,840
the product, not the functions 
of the product itself because 

527
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,120
every T-shirt's the same. 
But every time I put it on, even

528
00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:38,080
if I'm sitting in an office, I 
want to feel like I'm 

529
00:25:38,080 --> 00:25:39,920
travelling. 
If it's a travel related 

530
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,560
T-shirt, I want to feel like I'm
at the gaming convention. 

531
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,240
I can't wait to get to on 
Saturday because it's got 

532
00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:47,520
Minecraft or something on the 
T-shirt and I'm allowed to wear 

533
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,280
it at work. 
It's people want to wear things 

534
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:52,240
and engage with products that 
make them feel like they're in 

535
00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,320
the happiest place. 
And I think you've nailed them 

536
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:55,960
with the the cooler by the by, 
you know, by the. 

537
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,240
River Spot on Nick, spot on, 
Nick. 

538
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,160
And, and the longer you have it,
we, we have a saying is that the

539
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,040
first day, the first day you 
receive our product is the worst

540
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,600
it will ever look. 
Love that that's. 

541
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,840
Cool. 
The longer you have it, the 

542
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,000
better it will look, the more it
will become part of you. 

543
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,080
And we say better update your 
will because somebody's going to

544
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,440
want this after you go. 
Yeah, yeah. 

545
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,680
Which it's kind of interesting. 
We got a little a couple of 

546
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:25,400
pieces of feedback about that 
during COVID, during the 

547
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:28,840
pandemic, about the that's very 
uncaring that you will. 

548
00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:32,920
You say the longer we're in 
business, the more we learn 1st 

549
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,080
we said. 
That's right. 

550
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,960
And very kindly we said, well, 
we're talking about your product

551
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,240
and we'll you know, not about 
you. 

552
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,040
So and, and people get that. 
You know, that's the thing 

553
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,120
you'll learn over time is that 
you'll go into your company 

554
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:50,080
thinking you know exactly what 
your company is about and how 

555
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:51,200
people are going to think about 
it. 

556
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,840
You know, over time it becomes 
what your people think about 

557
00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:57,760
your business and how they know 
you. 

558
00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:02,040
And if those reviews that you're
getting or not getting are not 

559
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,080
reflective of what your mission 
is and how you're trying to 

560
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:08,600
promote yourself, then you need 
to really question that and go, 

561
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:13,280
wow, are we not, are we getting 
any customer reviews on our 

562
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:17,880
customer service, right? 
Or are we getting any customer 

563
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,400
reviews on how great the product
looks or how long it lasts? 

564
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,080
Or, you know, if you're not 
getting that, that tells you 

565
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,160
that something's wrong. 
I find most brands don't even 

566
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,800
look at their customer reviews, 
so the fact you're now talking 

567
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,120
about types of reviews and what 
they the content of them is 

568
00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:35,080
fantastic. 
How could you not, Nick? 

569
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,120
I know, I know, I know. 
I mean we so we've been using. 

570
00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:40,000
I spoke about this on the show a
few weeks ago. 

571
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,080
I do a little Tuesday episode if
anyones come across come across 

572
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:45,080
Chuck and myself today and go 
on. 

573
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:46,640
What is this bright pink podcast
I found? 

574
00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:50,040
I do a Tuesday show called next 
Tuesday tea break talks, partly 

575
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,160
because all of you guys in the 
US, you love the fact I'm 

576
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,480
British and drink tea. 
It's like I'm. 

577
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:55,920
Going to play. 
On that, I listen to the reviews

578
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,680
from from all of you guys across
the pond and then we call it the

579
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,600
Atlantic, we call it the pond. 
But I think the one of the 

580
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,560
things I talk about with these 
agentic agentic audiences where 

581
00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:08,920
actually you say to an AI go and
use the site and tell me what 

582
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:10,840
you learned what what customer 
groups, you know, put them in 

583
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,880
34510 camps. 
What are the different customers

584
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,240
you think this business is 
targeted at or who would come on

585
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,280
here? 
But use all the power of a is 

586
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,080
knowledge. 
Don't just tell me who you think

587
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,080
we're targeting. 
Tell me who you think actually 

588
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,960
comes here to buy. 
And then go back to the site as 

589
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,440
each group and find emotional 
problems and friction points and

590
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,880
find technical problems and 
friction points and start to 

591
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,560
tell me what's going on. 
What I love that you're doing is

592
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,280
we do that because brand, some 
of the brands we work with don't

593
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:38,640
talk enough to their customers. 
Or actually we just need a quick

594
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,200
answer. 
Something's been redesigned. 

595
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,280
It has to go live tomorrow 
because of a technical issue. 

596
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,920
It's got to go live quickly. 
But we've got an hour to put our

597
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:48,080
hat in the ring and it's like, 
that's a fast way we can get 

598
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,400
some feedback using the power of
everyone who's ever spoken about

599
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,120
this business. 
And AI has already got that 

600
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:54,680
information. 
Now it applies it into a 

601
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,360
specific question about, you 
know, what's the issue with this

602
00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,760
new form we've designed or 
what's the issue? 

603
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,240
You know, what, what, what might
be the issue with us changing 

604
00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:03,760
the colour of the adds a cart 
button. 

605
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,040
It says, actually, I think most 
of your audience are visually 

606
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:07,680
impaired and you're putting a 
yellow button and a white 

607
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:09,760
background. 
It should be red or dark blue or

608
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:11,000
black. 
You need to have a strong 

609
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,280
contrast because most of your 
audience are of this age, this 

610
00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,040
demographic or you know, you're 
you're a glasses company. 

611
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,240
Everybody comes on here to buy a
pair of glasses. 

612
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:21,720
They have sight problems. 
Make it big. 

613
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:22,680
Make. 
It easy. 

614
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,560
Make it easy, yeah. 
Exactly. 

615
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,400
And say we've been using agentic
audiences a bit for that. 

616
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:29,800
The fact that you, I was going 
to ask a question of what are 

617
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:31,480
some of the most important 
things you've actually got from 

618
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,400
your review content and you've 
just explained that which I 

619
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,320
think is incredible. 
Have there been any moments as 

620
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:39,600
the business has grown either 
because of customer feedback or 

621
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,080
and something has happened 
internally or a product you 

622
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:43,960
design? 
Have there been any big moments 

623
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:46,360
where you, you kind of look back
and you go, that day was a 

624
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,120
massive change for us. 
Like we really changed direction

625
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,720
and course and quite quickly 
because of something that 

626
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:54,160
happens, like obviously COVID, I
think it's a good example, but 

627
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:56,040
were there any things you guys 
learned and you suddenly were 

628
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:57,840
like, we need to change a lot, 
We need to change a lot here 

629
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,000
because of this learning? 
Well, COVID, you mentioned the 

630
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,440
pandemic. 
That was a defining moment, I 

631
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,440
think for a lot of companies, 
either defining from a great 

632
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,920
perspective or not a great 
perspective. 

633
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:15,080
And what we saw it was 
affirmation of the fact that 

634
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,200
during the pandemic here in the 
US, part of the thing that 

635
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:25,280
happened was besides retailers 
not being able to open, that was

636
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,280
huge. 
We actually reached out to a 

637
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,280
number of retailers we had. 
We, we did a full assessment of 

638
00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,240
the top retailers that we had 
and went and looked at their 

639
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,560
websites and said, do they have 
a website? 

640
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,120
Do they have a website that it's
just not a billboard they can 

641
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:44,120
actually sell on? 
And how good a good is it? 

642
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,360
And we actually reached out to 
them and tried to start working 

643
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:49,880
with them to help them with 
that. 

644
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,760
We, we kind of fashioned 
ourselves a bit of a Shopify 

645
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:54,560
would say expert. 
We're, we're, we're pretty good 

646
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,840
at what we do. 
And so we said, let's help you 

647
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,400
because we know you're closed, 
we know you're struggling. 

648
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,320
You need to be able to sell 
online and we can work with you.

649
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,960
You know we can, we can even 
implement drop shipping with you

650
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,280
so. 
You don't even have to go to 

651
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:09,920
your. 
Store. 

652
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:11,680
Yeah. 
That's a nice thing just to 

653
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,360
help. 
Some retailers took us up on it,

654
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:19,440
other retailers didn't and it 
told us something about them as 

655
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,840
well, where we're going to stay 
the course no matter what. 

656
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,200
And quite honestly, some of them
are not in business anymore. 

657
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:29,240
So we so we learned some things.
So people had to stay home. 

658
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:30,600
They had to go somewhere to 
shop. 

659
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,920
And everybody's, I would say 
everybody's, most every 

660
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,960
websites, traffic skyrockets 
during this time because people 

661
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:41,400
are still shopping. 
Plus the fact that the US 

662
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:44,720
government helped out its 
citizens by sending them some 

663
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,160
checks and some money and things
like that and they had some 

664
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:51,920
money to spend. 
So we saw a big increase of, of 

665
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,640
recognition on the Internet 
because of that. 

666
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,440
So that was, I wouldn't say it 
was a defining moment, but it 

667
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:00,280
was a, it was a big moment for 
us. 

668
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,760
It helped us level up to the 
next level. 

669
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,920
In general though, what I would 
say Nick is that I've I have 

670
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,400
found over being in this 
business for quite a while now 

671
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:17,560
that it's not the macro big 
pivots that you make that make a

672
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:21,320
difference in your business. 
It's the continual micro pivots 

673
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:25,880
that you make, the adjustments 
that you make to improve your 

674
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:32,680
website experience, improve your
conversion, get in front of the 

675
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:38,360
customers who really want your 
product and will be repeat 

676
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,720
buyers. 
This continual improvement then 

677
00:32:41,080 --> 00:32:43,400
for us, the continual 
improvement of website images. 

678
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,720
When we first started the the 
company, we had mostly white 

679
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,680
background images, you know and 
by the way we take our own 

680
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,320
product photography as well. 
Yeah, which again is a really 

681
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:54,760
powerful. 
Place to be, Yeah, yeah. 

682
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,960
It, it, it is because it can get
quite expensive not to do it 

683
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:02,360
unless you're using AI And then 
there's a, there's a can be an 

684
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:04,480
element of foamness about that, 
I guess you'd say, and. 

685
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,600
There's a risk of that AI doing 
it wrong and just not 

686
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,600
understanding what it's trying 
to achieve. 

687
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:10,600
Not understanding, no amount of.
Messaging it back. 

688
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:11,800
Saying do this, do this, do 
this. 

689
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:13,560
We'll actually. 
Do it exactly, exactly. 

690
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:19,560
No, no, no, no. 
So the exact, So we did a lot of

691
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:23,840
white background to begin with. 
But then what we did was believe

692
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,400
it or not, we actually found 
some customers who reached out 

693
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:28,360
to us and say, I'm a 
photographer, what would you 

694
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,200
like for me to make some 
photography for you? 

695
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:33,600
And we said great. 
And we, we found some guys and 

696
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,520
one guy I'm thinking of in 
particular, Eric is incredible. 

697
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,840
So what we started doing was 
adding a lot more lifestyle 

698
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:44,880
images with people in those 
images on the website and we 

699
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,040
started leading with them. 
So now we have a combination of 

700
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:52,160
the lifestyle imagery and the 
white background products. 

701
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,520
So people can actually, when 
they kind of are attracted to 

702
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:57,920
your product, they can actually 
dive in and go, well, let me 

703
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,360
take a look at the stitching on 
this or the leather that they 

704
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,200
use or how well this is made or 
the functionality. 

705
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,560
So I think you have to have 
both, right? 

706
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,320
So we started learning and, and 
that's just an example of more 

707
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:13,440
and more things we started doing
on our website to, to, to grow 

708
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:16,920
our business and then be able to
connect with other stores 

709
00:34:17,159 --> 00:34:19,840
through tools like stuff like 
collective. 

710
00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:23,360
And before they had collected, 
we used another app to be able 

711
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:27,120
to connect stores in the 
background so you can help them,

712
00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:29,920
you know, meet their business 
goals as well. 

713
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,120
Yeah, absolutely. 
No, I love that. 

714
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:33,360
And I think that when you start 
to do the maths, if you go 

715
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,560
actually, if we found like if we
just had to make a 1% impact or 

716
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:41,760
a 1% uplift with 50 things and 
you times, it's not because it's

717
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,719
not 50%, it's cumulative. 
So it's 1.01 * 1 point. 

718
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:49,040
Well, yeah, 1.01 times by 
another nought point, nought 1 

719
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,159
plus another nought .1. 
And you keep adding that 

720
00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:53,120
together. 
By the time you've done 50 

721
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,360
things, you're well over double.
And it's like it's, it's the 

722
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,920
same with financial investments.
It's that cumulative build. 

723
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,720
I love that though, because I, I
do think some businesses they 

724
00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:04,360
get, they get so caught up in 
like it gets to a point where 

725
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,760
it's like our business is 30% in
the loss. 

726
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:10,560
Now we need something dramatic. 
And it's like actually, if we've

727
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,760
just been constantly, you know, 
we're not, we're not trying to 

728
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,680
get the ROI on, on our 
advertising from 5:00 to 8:00. 

729
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:19,520
We're trying to get it from 5 to
5.2 and then once. 

730
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:20,840
And if that takes a month, 
great. 

731
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:23,040
If it takes three months, once 
we're there, then we're going to

732
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,440
get to 5.3 and 5.4. 
And we just kind of keep nudging

733
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:28,000
it up. 
Nudging it up in a year. 

734
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:29,440
And you play the long game, 
don't you? 

735
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:32,520
In a year or two, where are? 
We going to be, yeah, absolutely

736
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,840
continual improvement. 
How can we do it a little bit 

737
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,160
better, a little bit better, a 
little bit better, a little bit 

738
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:39,240
better? 
So absolutely, it's a, it's a 

739
00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:44,520
continual almost seemingly 
endless journey of that when 

740
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:45,760
you're online. 
Yeah, yeah. 

741
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:47,920
And I think one of the hardest 
parts and I'd love to get your 

742
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:48,920
thoughts on this. 
And again, you mentioned 

743
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:50,720
something very briefly earlier 
and I thought we're going to 

744
00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:52,720
come back to this. 
I, I think one of the biggest 

745
00:35:52,720 --> 00:35:57,280
lessons I've learned in business
is that the more I humble myself

746
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:01,040
and I don't know what I don't 
know, the faster my company is 

747
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,240
growing. 
And that's from giving people 

748
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,720
AKPI instead of an instruction 
and just saying, here's what we 

749
00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:08,280
need to achieve. 
What do you need? 

750
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:10,800
You must, I'd love to hear your 
thoughts. 

751
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,720
You must have had some similar 
situations. 

752
00:36:12,720 --> 00:36:15,560
So I have over the last sort of 
15, nearly 20 years I've been 

753
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,120
doing this where you've just 
kind of gone, like you say, you 

754
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:21,440
come in in the morning with like
a, we're doing this. 

755
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,440
This is how it's going to work. 
If you flip it on its head and 

756
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,800
be open to the fact that if 
you're 100% wrong, you're 

757
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:28,200
actually quite close to the 
solution. 

758
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,160
Now you're exact opposite to the
solution. 

759
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,080
You know, in the murky bit, in 
the middle bit, it sounds like 

760
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,240
the same for you of just like, 
right, our photography, we don't

761
00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:38,200
know anything about this. 
Let's start doing it ourselves. 

762
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,560
Let's see, see how we can tweak 
it, how we can improve it. 

763
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:41,960
And let's watch what the data 
does. 

764
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,240
Let's ask custom, do you prefer 
this one or this one? 

765
00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:46,360
And they're unanimous. 
It kind of doesn't matter what 

766
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:48,120
we care. 
You must have had so much of 

767
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:50,040
that over there, you know, over 
your journey as well so far. 

768
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:57,120
Mixed spot on, spot on. 
I had a 18 year corporate career

769
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:00,280
before I left to start my own 
business coaching practice that 

770
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:04,280
ultimately led me into this. 
OK, so Long story short, what I 

771
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:10,840
learned is, is positively 
challenge your team to achieve 

772
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,680
certain results. 
And as long as it's ethically, 

773
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:19,240
morally, legally, all those 
things, right, don't tell them 

774
00:37:19,240 --> 00:37:21,520
how to do it. 
This is the results that we 

775
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:23,400
knit. 
We need to go from here and here

776
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,560
to there. 
And then help me understand what

777
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,240
your thoughts on how we're going
to get there. 

778
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:34,040
And then, then my job as 
alongside that is to what I call

779
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:36,280
curate. 
In other words, filter out the 

780
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:39,000
noise, so much noise going on 
there. 

781
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,000
In fact with the marketing team,
our marketing team and I, we 

782
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,600
were talking last Thursday and 
we were looking at different 

783
00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:47,640
metrics and things like that. 
You know, everybody's looking 

784
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,880
at, you know, revenue, net sales
and everyone. 

785
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:53,120
'S got a. 
Slightly different idea if I. 

786
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:55,480
Improve that, everything will be
better and you're like, no, it 

787
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:56,920
won't. 
For these reasons, like we need 

788
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:58,680
to agree, we need to agree with 
the. 

789
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,120
Case we need to agree and we 
agreed. 

790
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,960
I said, so all these metrics, I 
said it's all Stephen Covey, 7 

791
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,080
Habits of Highly Affected People
thing Stephen, I love Stephen. 

792
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:11,960
Stephen said once he said some 
things matter, yeah, other 

793
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,560
things matter more, but what 
matters most is to be able to 

794
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:18,880
tell the difference. 
So as we we look through all 

795
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,680
those metrics, I said out of all
these metrics, which one matters

796
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,320
most? 
And we had a nice little lively 

797
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,080
debate. 
Well, it's this, these all 

798
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:28,760
matter. 
And I said, yeah, they all 

799
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,800
matter, but which one matters 
most at the end of the day? 

800
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:36,480
End of the day, it might be .5% 
difference, you know, but which 

801
00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:39,080
matters. 
And we agreed, yeah, this is the

802
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:42,000
metric at the end of the day 
really matters most. 

803
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:44,640
And now let's talk about the 
relationships these other 

804
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:49,040
metrics have to help drive that.
And then we talked about if you 

805
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,040
focus on them independently and 
how it works. 

806
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:55,360
So we, so my job is not to tell 
them how to do their jobs is the

807
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,560
results you said that that you 
want to achieve. 

808
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:01,840
And then I think is the is the 
key leader in the organization. 

809
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,680
Remove as much noise as I can so
we can all focus on what matters

810
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,600
the most. 
Yeah, I, I think as an agency as

811
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,280
well, we get the delight of 
looking at I, I have a thing 

812
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,120
with an ECG, which my wife's 
medical ECG is a heart rate 

813
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:17,080
monitor. 
So we have a thing with an ECG 

814
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:20,040
internally and it's all my SEO 
clients, all my PVC clients on 

815
00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:22,280
it's a few pages, but it's one 
big dashboard. 

816
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:24,760
And I just at least once, maybe 
twice a week go through the 

817
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,880
whole thing And I'm like, hey, 
how did you like, and the stats 

818
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:31,200
on our website, how did you get 
a 240% revenue uplift in six 

819
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:33,080
months? 
So like it wasn't complicated, 

820
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:35,800
actually, it was a lot of work, 
but it was a simple thing again 

821
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,080
and again and again across the 
whole site. 

822
00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:39,200
I'm like, right, we need that in
a case study. 

823
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:41,480
And then suddenly other people 
in the room are going, I need 

824
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,400
that for one of my clients. 
I'm what did you do? 

825
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:45,360
And so you see how the shared 
learnings. 

826
00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:46,760
I love what you've just 
described. 

827
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,440
I think it's it's really, really
powerful. 

828
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,040
I love that shared learning 
thing. 

829
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:53,080
Absolutely, Absolutely. 
Definitely and well, look, we'll

830
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:55,840
come in to land here. 
I it'd been amazing talking with

831
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:57,000
each other. 
I'm just I suddenly glanced at 

832
00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:58,840
the time and I'm like, where has
40 minutes gone? 

833
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:01,920
And but amazing everyone if 
people are listening going you 

834
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:03,840
guys sound like the most. 
This incredible organization, I 

835
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:05,640
really want to see these 
products, see this photography. 

836
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:06,640
I want to read some of these 
reviews. 

837
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:07,800
I want to see who these 
customers are. 

838
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:10,680
How can people reach out? 
What's the website, what you 

839
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:12,760
know, give us a quick overview 
of your actual product range. 

840
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:14,640
What what's your what's your 
favorite product? 

841
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:16,600
If someone's like, I want to try
one of these products like, 

842
00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:18,440
which one should? 
People, it's like asking me 

843
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:23,400
which is your favorite kid? 
It says I didn't ask that. 

844
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:25,120
You can't tell them in front of 
it. 

845
00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:26,800
So I need to clear all the other
leather goods out. 

846
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:28,600
I need to have one here. 
And I said you're really my 

847
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:30,160
baby. 
You're really my favorite. 

848
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:36,400
No, I'll share some of that. 
He reaches first of all, mission

849
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:42,200
mercantile.com and Mercantile is
MERCANTILE Mission 

850
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:46,880
mercantile.com. 
I think if you Google too, just 

851
00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,680
Google mythical customer care 
and we'll pop up right there at 

852
00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:52,320
the top. 
Mythical customer care. 

853
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:55,520
Nice. 
So Mission mercantile.com, if 

854
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:58,920
you reach out to us, you know, 
you can reach out, of course, 

855
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:05,120
e-mail, phone, text, carrier 
pigeon, whatever those things 

856
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:07,320
are. 
And in fact, one of the things 

857
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,680
we did that it's not really that
expensive for us. 

858
00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:16,960
We have a live text, not an AI 
bot, but a live text option on 

859
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:20,880
on mobile where it'll be a pop 
up and it says chat with us live

860
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,320
and there's a real person there,
a actual real person. 

861
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,520
They're like, I think there's 
1617 hours a day coverage that 

862
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,120
we have where you can chat with 
us. 

863
00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:33,040
And if it's more than they can 
answer, then they hand it over 

864
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,880
to kind of the Next up person in
our customer care to help out. 

865
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:42,120
So that's how you reach out to 
us at all that range of 

866
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:44,480
products. 
Oh, and by the way, it's 

867
00:41:44,480 --> 00:41:47,800
interesting. 
Sometimes we will, our e-mail 

868
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:50,960
team will send out emails from 
me personally and actually it is

869
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:54,720
from me personally and my 
personal e-mail address will be 

870
00:41:54,720 --> 00:41:57,200
on there. 
And then often I'll reply with 

871
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,200
my cell phone so people can call
me if they have a question. 

872
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:04,640
And sometimes we just talk range
of products. 

873
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:10,360
Our shop, our leather shop we 
make for, we made for dozens of 

874
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:16,440
brands, you know, big brands 
like Pendleton and Lukasey and 

875
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:19,240
Buffalo Jacks and a lot of 
different brands. 

876
00:42:19,240 --> 00:42:21,400
King Ranch we made for a lot of 
different brands. 

877
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:23,960
Hut Berry is a great client of 
ours. 

878
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:28,200
So we love making for them. 
So we we garner the expertise of

879
00:42:28,200 --> 00:42:32,240
making their products of, you 
know, so many things We can make

880
00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:36,080
our range of products on the 
website go from a key ring all 

881
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:39,880
the way up to a large rolling 
duffel. 

882
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:44,360
You know, it, it's the breath 
and it's backpacks and 

883
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:48,200
briefcases and desk caddies and 
all of that belts, wallets. 

884
00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,880
But it's also we have categories
like we call it hunting and 

885
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,360
outdoor. 
So if you need a nice case for 

886
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:58,720
your shotgun, we provide that or
shell bag coolers. 

887
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:03,720
We, we sell leakproof coolers. 
So it's a pretty wide range, So 

888
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:05,720
cool. 
And yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a 

889
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:09,080
pretty wide range of, of, of 
budget that'll fit your budget 

890
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:11,120
as well. 
Amazing, will it, Chuck, thank 

891
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:13,240
you so much for your time and 
thank you for running such an 

892
00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:15,160
amazing business. 
It's been honestly a pleasure 

893
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:17,560
like hearing about what you're 
doing and the way you do it. 

894
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:19,600
I've been taking loads of notes.
I hope everyone else at home has

895
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:21,320
as well and I'm sure some people
reach out. 

896
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:23,720
So thank you so much, appreciate
your time and and for joining us

897
00:43:23,720 --> 00:43:25,040
on the show. 
You're welcome. 

898
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,080
Thank you for the opportunity. 
And Nick, I want to stay in 

899
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:29,400
touch with you as well. 
Yeah, definitely, definitely. 

900
00:43:30,320 --> 00:43:32,600
I love that when I click stop in
a SEC, we'll have a quick chat. 

901
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:35,760
And for everybody else at home, 
yeah, please, please do hit the 

902
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,080
subscribe button if you haven't 
already, leave us a review. 

903
00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:39,760
The reviews are some of them are
amazing. 

904
00:43:39,760 --> 00:43:43,560
One of them's one of them's not 
amazing, was quite hurtful, but 

905
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:44,960
it's there and it's fine. 
I can take. 

906
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:48,200
It but it was helpful, right? 
It was helpful and hurtful. 

907
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:51,040
Yeah, the very similar one. 
But I thank you so much for 

908
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:52,840
tuning in, everybody. 
And yeah, join us again on 

909
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:55,360
Tuesday for my tea break talks. 
I'm having little rants about 

910
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:57,440
different bits and pieces in the
marketing world every week. 

911
00:43:57,440 --> 00:43:58,880
Like my wife told me, stop 
calling them rants. 

912
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:02,200
So I'm sharing some knowledge on
things that are frustrating me. 

913
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:04,680
But yeah, we're back in next 
Friday with another another 

914
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:05,840
guest as well. 
So thanks, tuning in. 

915
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:07,840
Hope you can join us again soon.
And again, if you haven't 

916
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:09,760
already, hit subscribe, leave us
a review and go and check out 

917
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:11,960
our newsletter on the website. 
See you next time. 

918
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,080
This episode of Winning Shopify 
is brought to you by Tax Cloud. 

919
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,440
It's the busiest time of year 
for eco commerce. 

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Your stores buzzing, orders 
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all time high. 
But with all that momentum can 

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That's why now is the perfect 
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how you're handling sales tax 
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set up for the growth that 
you've earned. 

926
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Tax Cloud is our trusted partner
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They've got a five star rating 

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I get free migration and 
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switch. 
To apply for that and learn 

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more, you can go to 
taxcloud.com/winning. 

935
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That's tax cloud.com/winning.
