[Voiceover]: Affiliate marketing has come a long way from the days we used to send out content and a prayer. Impact is a technology company that helps retailers create revenue driving partnerships with other brands, influencers, mobile apps, publishers and more. And the best part, all the manual backend work is all automated for you so you can spend your time on the important stuff, building and nurturing your relationships with your top performing partners. IMPACT is trusted by some of the world's biggest brands in E commerce, including Nike, David Jones, Walmart and Woolworths. Your prayers have been answered. Hallelujah. Visit impact.comgrowth to learn more or jump back into episode 81 to hear how Booktopia is driving 219% growth through the power of partnerships with Impact. Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous guests of Add to Cart where we ask them five quick questions to understand more about them and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Michael Tutek, who's the founder and CEO of Prezy, a guided conversion and discovery platform for online retailers. Preezy helps remove customer confusion and and overwhelm for retailers including Lorna, Jane Brevilles and baby bunting. Michael2Tech welcome to the checkout. Let's get through our five checkout questions. We're going to learn a little bit about you here. Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Michael Tutek: All right, so believe it or not happened last week, so it's coincidental, but me and my partner Tanya just went hack on herbs and spices. So we just spent like 60 bucks buying like this, like fancy, like Greek, like basil and all this interesting stuff. So I thought that was strange, like herbs and spices online. So that's definitely, that definitely takes the cake for me.
[Voiceover]: How'd they arrive?
Michael Tutek: I'm still waiting for them.
[Voiceover]: Oh, okay. So they don't come as like seeds or anything. They're like, I don't know, I don't know. You got no idea what you bought?
Michael Tutek: Just me and me tell you, like, oh, you know, special Greek, you know, basil you can't get anywhere else. And we just, yeah, I want it beautiful.
[Voiceover]: It's a dangerous path. Once you start buying herbs online, you never know where it'll lead to some dangerous habits there.
Michael Tutek: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[Voiceover]: Number two, who is your favorite retailer working with?
Michael Tutek: Prezi or just in general?
[Voiceover]: Just in general, yeah.
Michael Tutek: Cool. So I think some brands like Nike just, they just got their stuff. So on point. The story, how they work with the community, what they're going for they have that narrative. So brands like Nike, I think are just, I think they lead the world with stuff like that. So I'm going to have to say someone like Nike. But having said that, like, it's not a retail brand, but like, I can't move past like Tesla, Elon Musk like that. That gets my soft spot. So I want to go with Nike for retail and Tesla for everything else.
[Voiceover]: Fair call. I can't doubt what you're saying there. Are you into bitcoin?
Michael Tutek: Yeah, I was, I was one of those. I mean, I started, I started a startup, so I was one of those guys who put in some money and it went up a lot and everyone was like, cash out. And I'm like, no, no. Like I'm. We're gonna be millionaires. Like, let it, let it skyrocket. And then, you know, just like, just like everybody I know it fell back down. So I'm not brave enough to get back in. I'm just going to work on Prezi being the dream. But yeah, happy days. Then I got burnt and now I'm done with it.
[Voiceover]: I was speaking to someone the other day who had five Bitcoin back in the 2010s, early 2010s, and they're just filthy about it now and it just haunts their dreams.
Michael Tutek: Yeah, I mean, I had a friend who had a million dollars of one and it was a bit younger and he was like, you know, I'm waiting, I'm retiring, I'm cashing out 10 mil and I'm done. I was like, even I was like, listen, you got 800 grand, like get out a million bucks. And yeah, it happens.
[Voiceover]: There's a whole episode on bitcoin stories number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Michael Tutek: So I'm just, I'm not a huge fan of like discounting models. So what we do is like, I guess the opposite to that. Even though you do, you know, negotiate in store. But I understand discounting is important and you got to do it to clear out stock. But that and then some things like buy now, pay later. I love afterpay what it's done, but I'm just not sure how it fits long term paying for stuff that you probably shouldn't be paying for. We'll see how it goes. But more discounting. Like, I think the fact if you're making a lot of money just because you sell something cheaper than someone else, you know, there's probably a long term sustainability issue there.
[Voiceover]: Have you ever had conversations with the afterpay crew around potential partnerships with Prezi and Afterpay?
Michael Tutek: No, I mean, I think we did once, but it never, never eventuated to anything. I would love to, to be honest, but yeah, it's a big fish.
[Voiceover]: It is a big beast. Now, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Michael Tutek: Okay, so I think at the cart you're too kind. Yeah, but I figured if. I figured if I say that, that's too cheesy. So now there's a few others. So there's one called E Commerce Fuel in America that's pretty good. And also Marketing School by Neil Patel. You know, there's some that I've kind of come by that I think are really good. I mean, obviously I can see in the background catch of the decades. I've seen that about 400 times on LinkedIn. So half your readers have probably read that already.
[Voiceover]: I should really take it down. I've given Gabby enough, I think.
Michael Tutek: Yeah, he's, you know, 27 plugs in 20 podcasts is probably enough.
[Voiceover]: It is a good read and I love his story, but it's funny how it just keeps coming up. He's just the best promoter I've ever heard from. Number five, finish this sentence.
Michael Tutek: The future of retail is personalized with first party data. I think that's the. That's the future.
[Voiceover]: Beautiful. Well said. Thank you. Michael, appreciate you joining us on Add to cart.
Michael Tutek: No, I really appreciate it, Nathan. Thanks for having me.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Michael. Michael, jump back into episode 58 where Michael shares his journey from a 15 year old salesperson at the Good Guys with a big idea and turns it into the service that it is today. He also shares why he has a customer psychologist on the board of Preezy and why his dad continually threw buckets of water on him to wake him up in the morning. It's a bit rough. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to car.
