[Ad]: E Suite's 10 Week E Commerce accelerator is now open for enrollment. Our very first accelerator earlier this year was a huge success with 54 graduates who are now putting their skills to use to further their E commerce careers. Over 10 weeks, I personally will take you through the fundamentals of E commerce from strategy to marketing, tech, finance, supply chain and more. We've made this course 100% remote and flexible to fit around your busy life with recorded live classes, an active community, over 20 cheat sheets and more than 600 pages of e commerce content. But the best part is you get to meet and connect with some of the best and brightest up and comers in E commerce in Australia. Enrollments are now open and class kicks off on Tuesday, August 23rd. So whether you want to enroll as an individual or sneaky hint, persuade your boss to enrol the whole team. Head on over to esweettalent.com au forward/acceler to enrol online today. I hope to see you in there.
[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 feature Harry Sanders from Studio Hawk. Harry started his SEO agency at just 17 years of age. It is now the largest dedicated agency of its kind employing more than 50 SEO specialists. With over 300 clients including well loved e commerce brands such as Officeworks, Mecca and Flora and Fauna. Harry grew Studio Hawk into the multi award winning company it is today despite going through a period of homelessness along the way. Harry, welcome to the Checkout. We've heard all about SEO and Studio Hawk. We're here to learn a little bit more about you. The person. Five questions.
Harry Sanders: Number one hit me.
Nathan Bush: I feel like we've already learned a little bit about you actually. Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Harry Sanders: Okay, I'm going to justify this purchase. Nathan, I bought a pair of heated socks a year ago and my just they was it cost me $250. Heated socks. All right. They're Bluetooth heated socks. Now let me sell you these socks. So people spend tens of thousands heating their floorboards. You know everything else. What if you just heated the socks and so I bought actual socks that are meant for ice fishermen like out ice fishing because I, I have this. You know again let's get too personal. I get cold feet and I don't like having cold feet. So I figured these heated socks would be a life changer. And yes, it's a weird product, but I absolutely stand by it. Nathan.
Nathan Bush: So what do you actually, do you charge them or how do they work?
Harry Sanders: Yeah, they've got this little Bluetooth pellet that goes into them and warms them up. And you're just trying to charge that every couple of weeks or something. And you know, I'm devastated every time I put them on and there's no charge. But yeah, that's probably the weirdest purchase and the one that caught the most flak because, you know, you'd go through your purchases and the worst thing was I put that, you know, when you're like selecting the card, I put it on the wrong account. I put on the business account. So I had to pay that back to my personal account. Obviously not a business expense, but I had to explain to, you know, my practice manager what the hell that purchase was and she wasn't on board.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, we had one of our team recently put some, put some underwear purchases on the work credit card by mistake. Very unfortunate, very unfortunate. All right, number two, who is your
Harry Sanders: favorite resource retailer or my favorite retailer? I'm a sucker for any retailer that, you know, I guess my background that specializes in something like I love retailers like just spas or Mr. Pullman or, you know, even Reese Plumbing, like anything like officeworks, the kind of retailers that you're like, I need this. I know exactly where I'm going to go evolve Skateboards. They know what they do and they do it well. And so I get email communication about exactly what I want from them. I get the right follow up, the right, you know, engagement, the right user flow, anything like that. That's really good. So yeah, any kind of specialty retailer, I always just love. And when I'm looking those search engine results and I see someone, it's like I'm searching for washing machine and I see a brand. It's just like. Just washing machines. Yeah, click on them. Oh, awesome.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, which E commerce practice do you wish was history? It doesn't have to be an SEO practice if you don't want it to
Harry Sanders: be all the pop ups, man. Like the pop ups, like get 20% off on your first purchase if you put your email here. And I'm just sitting there being like, so hang on, if I don't put my email here, they're going to overcharge me. 20% on a purchase they already factored in would cost 20% less. So that turns me right off. Those kind of retailers, I'm just like, I know how this Works. I know that you've priced that 20% in just to get my email. Now you've got to bombard me with stuff and I'm just not about it. I just wish that would go away.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it's like, treat your existing customers well first.
Harry Sanders: A hundred percent. 100%.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Harry Sanders: All right. There's a great book. It's called Giftology. It's called Giftology, the art and science giving gifts. You probably haven't heard of it. If you have, I always recommend it. It is like a two hour book, which is my favorite read. It gets to the point and then gets out of your life. It's not trying to reinvent your life or anything. The whole book about how to make people feel special and valued and that is such an incredible skill to have and harness. And it talks a lot like the books are so much more deeper than giving gifts. It's about remembering, celebrating, and understanding the way that people want to be connected. Say two hours of your time and it will change the way that you think about appreciating people.
Nathan Bush: That's a great tip. I'm onto that straight away. I love it. And number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is.
Harry Sanders: The future of retail is building brand Again, you know, we, we spoke about this a lot in the episode, but a lot of retail is now shifting from, you know, spend a punch on paid ads and own that channel to now how do I actually own a brand? What are the guys like Mecca and the real killers that we all look at do well? And it's not. They're not. They don't have the best paid ad strategy. That's not why they do well. They have a great brand. And so if you can build a great brand, then that's the future of retail. A retail if you're just focusing on, you know, those quick wins all the time, you might build a business, but it might go south just as fast. But if you build a brand that'll be around forever.
Nathan Bush: Very well put. Harry, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. Go enjoy those socks.
Harry Sanders: Thank you, Nath. I will.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Harry, jump back into episode 185 where Harry shares how a video game started his love affair with SEO, which SEO metrics are BS and which ones really matter and why information architecture is crucial to effective SEO. Go nerd out, you SEO lovers. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cart.
