[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout features Gabby Howard, founder and CEO at Flaunter. Flaunter is a digital marketplace for public relations which allows brands such as Allbirds, Cotton on and Asos to immediately connect with publications such as Marie Claire, Popsugar and Vogue. All right, Gabby Howard, welcome to the checkout. We're going to learn a little bit more about you. Five questions. Number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Gabby Howard: I love this question. So at risk of sounding weird, obviously I have bought dog socks recently for my dog. He is old and losing his mind and he paces up and down the floorboards and so which is driving our family crazy. And so I've thought I might try dog socks to see if that quietens down, muffles him out. I haven't tried them yet.
Nathan Bush: All I can picture is that Tom Cruise scene where he's in his socks sliding down the hallway, but instead of Tom Cruise is a dog, like just sliding down a hallway.
Gabby Howard: That's the look I'm going for. Here comes Wilbur, you know, like with your socks on. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Gabby Howard: This is really hard and I have a lot for different reasons. I think I can still hands down say that in terms of speed, delivery returns, net a porter and the iconic, like they just make shopping online so easy and I think that just why I'm in love with them and then in terms of the quality of choice. But you know, the type of shopping that I love to do. I love my Chameleon Australian multi brand e commerce platform. I think they have a really beautifully curated selection of images and they do really well in terms of brand and yeah, so that would be my three good picks.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Gabby Howard: Definitely excessive packaging. That is something that is my pet peeve. And you'll often find me letter so I should say email writing before and I've received like excess packaging. I understand that feeling of wanting to kind of deliver a beautiful experience when you're delivering like, you know, products to people in their homes and they haven't been able to have that physical retail experience. But I just think that, you know, we can't do it anymore. Like it's just just, you know, gotta go. Less is more. Definitely. And that also, you know, feeds into the conversation we had earlier about mass gifting in pr, I think it can be really wasteful, and I think we need to be like, you know, really conscious of that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, great point. In terms of pr, we've obviously got a lot of brands putting a lot of efforts into sustainable practices. Are you seeing that? Those stories around sustainable practices, are they becoming good PR fodder or is it oversaturated?
Gabby Howard: Be very, very careful about greenwashing. And I think, you know, unless that is a core element of your business and your philosophy and your mission as a brand, I would be very careful of using those kinds of stories as hooks. Yes, they have definitely been overused. And I think while we all want to hear stories about people doing better and working hard, I think that is a very fine line. Yeah. And actually Claire Press has a great podcast about that, and so you should follow her. Yeah, cool.
Nathan Bush: And sorry, last question on that. If brands are genuine around their efforts in sustainability or any other matters, for that instance, what are the best ways for them to demonstrate or to get the point across that they are genuine in their efforts and making a real difference rather than greenwashing?
Gabby Howard: Yes. Well, first of all is that you can say it, but you need to prove it. And second of all, I think it's being careful and considerate of your consumer, so understanding who your consumer is and how much they know about your brand. So an example is recently, I think it was last year, Basic, the Australian retailer, did a really great. Did really great work on sharing the story about their commitment to being really sustainable as a brand and being a really, kind of a good actor in the space. And previously, I think the 10 years, you know, they hadn't actually focused on that. They had made the assumption that people knew that that's, you know, how they built their brand and so they went back and actually fixed that. But I think they did a lot of that, some pr, but a lot of that through their e commerce channels, educating their customers while they were on platform. So I think that's an example of where you can do it well is within your customer base, so they know and they can share your story amongst their own peers. But I think just be very careful about using it as a power hook.
Nathan Bush: It's a really great tip. Really great tip. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Gabby Howard: Yes, I think the book that I have read most recently that I will return to time and time again is Zero to One by Peter Thiel. And I think that's Just a highly recommend. It's not necessarily E commerce focused, but there's a lot of good learnings in there. Then in terms of what I like to listen to a podcast, I often try and challenge myself and listen to things that are non industry focused because I'm really trying to think about how I might be able to break down any of my assumptions about life and products and things in general. So one that I really love is 99% invisible and it tells the stories about things that we have come to live with and know in our immediate surrounds and how they have come to be like they are. Esther Perel is fantastic. She does a podcast about relationships. It's super interesting to listen to kind of people experience. And How I Built this is another really good one which everyone's probably, you
Nathan Bush: know, it comes up time and time again, but it is a brilliant podcast and of course.
Gabby Howard: Oh, does it.
Nathan Bush: Yes, no, it's great. You've given some great examples. And you've also mentioned Claire's podcast there as well around sustainability.
Gabby Howard: Yes, yes. Yeah, Great. Claire Press. That's right.
Nathan Bush: Last question I've got for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is okay, so
Gabby Howard: I don't know if this is going to be groundbreaking, just like my how I built this podcast suggestion. But you know, for me the future of retail is omnichannel. It's seamless, it's story based and it's purpose driven.
Nathan Bush: Perfect. All things we covered in our extensive chat a couple of weeks ago. So Gabby, thank you so much for sharing. I love what you're doing with Flaunter and thank you for sharing everything that you did around getting started in pr. It opened my eyes a lot. So hopefully it helps some others out there that are are trying to get a foothold in there.
Gabby Howard: Thank you Nathan. It was really great to talk to you.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Gabby, jump back into episode 78 where Gabby shares how to turn your products into stories that journalists and ultimately your customers will actually care about. We also chat around how to build relationships in the media and how we can help foster more female entrepreneurs in Australia. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
