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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cut guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday.
[Ad]: Here's your host Bushy Today's checkout features Dave Hack and George Brown, co founders of Creator Flow. Creator Flow is a platform that connects brands with UGC style ad creators. The founders saw a gap between those who have a need for social media video ad content and those who have the talent, experience and availability to make it. They've filled their books with high quality Australian creators and are working with some pretty impressive clients such as Sharkninja, who Gives a Crap and the Ooty.
Nathan Bush: Dave George, welcome to the checkout. We've had an awesome conversation around what you're building with Creator Flow, both how you're helping brands and agencies create great content for short form video ad content, but also how you're building a community of creators rather than just influencers who can create great content on behalf of brands. We're here to learn a little bit more about both of you guys. So I've got five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online? Dave, that smile tells me that you've got something first.
Dave Hack: Oh look, it's probably about 15 grands worth of inflatables.
Nathan Bush: What? Inflatable?
Dave Hack: What like you know, bouncy castles and all sorts of weird and wonderful inflatable water park. It was pretty wild. I was like running a youth. I was still running a youth program and. And then I was like, I'm not paying 30 grand for local stuff. And when it's just already I know the factories is probably coming from. So I found the factories well done, got on Alibaba and bought huge inflatables. It was a good time.
Nathan Bush: I was like, if you've got kids, they're very lucky.
George Brown: Yeah. Yeah.
Dave Hack: Well, unfortunately I don't own them, the inflatables anymore, but I still see them getting blown up and used around the place. So that was fun.
Nathan Bush: Nice work, George.
George Brown: I'd say probably when I was running Washblock in the early days, just buying weird and wacky ingredients, like 20 kilo slabs of cocoa butter or kilos worth of essential oils. Yeah, it's pretty random having that rock up at your door. But yeah.
Nathan Bush: What's the ingredient that you bought for wash block? That just didn't work.
George Brown: That didn't work. Good idea. I tried a few different essential oils and sort of, I guess, fragrances that just did not hit the mark. So, yeah. Not sure what to do with those.
Nathan Bush: Still, I could imagine because even on the side as it is now, and I know that you're out of wash block, but some pretty out there combinations going on.
George Brown: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like to keep it spicy.
Nathan Bush: Nice. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer? George, we'll start with you.
George Brown: Yeah, sure. My favorite retailer. I haven't actually bought from them yet, but I plan to one day if I have a big back garden. But it's Flow Hive, they're an Australian company. Are you familiar with them? I am, yeah. So they basically make it possible to tap honey straight into your jar and take all the hard part out of it. So it's an awesome Aussie invention. Yeah, I'm definitely going to be a customer one day. Fingers crossed. Anyway.
Nathan Bush: And they're absolutely huge. Right. Like you look at some of their stats for how big they are internationally. They are so much bigger internationally than they are here in Australia, which I love those stories.
George Brown: Yeah, it's awesome.
Nathan Bush: What are you. Dave.
Dave Hack: It's probably my business shirt retailer, ctshirts.com okay. Or Charles Turret. And the reason being is like, I've got really long arms
George Brown: and they're like
Dave Hack: the only, like around the world. I've tried so many shirts and they're the only one that does like a really good length for the arms that I have. Like my wingspan is bigger than my heart and just the fact that they can nail it every time is unreal. And Then probably my other one would just probably be ASOS is the other one that I probably spend the most on.
Nathan Bush: Let's be honest, it's a great tip for listeners with long arms.
George Brown: Yeah.
Dave Hack: Ctshirts.com it's good stuff.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
Dave Hack: Dave the one that drives my gears the most is when you get straight to a website and there's already a pop up saying give me your email. Yeah, it's, you know, promising a 10 discount or whatever, but it's like I don't even know anything about your site yet because you haven't let me seen your site or your products. So like, please just add a timer to it, people.
Nathan Bush: Just be chill for a bit.
Dave Hack: At least get some intent going before you like stop people. I just find it really annoying. I don't know why every single e commerce site does it or maybe I should know because it's probably about getting their data.
Nathan Bush: So have you ever seen anyone use short form video as a pop up?
George Brown: Actually that's a good question. Not off the top of my head, but I think that would probably be a great idea. Maybe we could implement that. Maybe a little founder story or something.
Nathan Bush: You're welcome. Don't worry about it. George, what about you? Anything get your goat?
George Brown: Yeah, I guess just the sea of sameness on e commerce websites. They all seem to be using a very similar sort of formula and sort of your template. I always love when you jump on an E comm site and there's something so unique and different about it. But yeah, seeing the same thing over and over again gets a bit painful.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And I think it says more about just there's a bit of thought and a bit of love that's going into it.
George Brown: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? George?
George Brown: Yeah, I guess for me, Seth Godin, this is marketing. Yeah, that was really great book. I loved every page of it. And it basically just preaches. It's not about getting lots of clicks or anything. It's about just getting a really small cohort of, of people that believe in your brand and are strong brand advocates. And that's all you really need, really. So yeah, that, that was huge for me.
Nathan Bush: Yes, great book, Dave.
Dave Hack: Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis. It's kind of the bible of growth hacking. I just reread it the other other week as we were kind of working out, hey, how do we grow this thing? And just reminded just how many great, just helps you get in the right frame of mind about thinking about how do you actually what kind of experiments and, and what kind of things can you do to move the needle and push things forward. So yeah, growth hacking.
Nathan Bush: You are the second person in the last month to recommend that book and to call it a Bible.
George Brown: Yeah, well, it is.
Dave Hack: He invented it, so.
Nathan Bush: All right, number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is Dave alive and online. There we go, George.
George Brown: Yep. Yeah, I'd second that. I reckon that sounds pretty good to me.
Nathan Bush: Alive and online. Well, obviously with video, more alive than ever. So that's a great segue into what you guys do. Thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. Great to hear more about what you're building at Creator Flow and to meet you both.
Dave Hack: Thanks Nathan.
George Brown: Thanks so much. Nathan. Do we need to reshoot that
[Ad]: to hear more from Dave and George? Jump back into episode 364 where Dave and George get into all the detail of exactly what UGC is and how it differs from influencer content. They share wisdom from both sides of the equation, both how to produce great content and the must haves. When brands are briefing for ugc, we also get into their predictions on what we're going to see most for future disruption in the video content creation space. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
