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[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 through your front Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.
[Ad]: Today's checkout features Karen Lawson, CEO of Nontree. Karen is an award winning business executive and leader in the digital technology and startup industry. She launched and led Peloton Australia in the middle of the pandemic and prior to that was the MD of Spotify Australia and New Zealand. Karen, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. We had a great conversation around everything, innovation, curiosity, product joy with at your time at Spotify Peloton and now at sustainable household and cleaning products Non Tree. But we're here to learn a little bit more about you. So I've got five quick questions for you.
[Voiceover]: Okay, shoot away.
[Ad]: All right, number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
[Voiceover]: So in lockdown, I'm sure we bought lots of weird stuff on lockdown. I'm also my side hustle is a food and travel journalist. So like everyone, I went down the rabbit hole of sourdough and I actually bought a mother dough from one of the chefs at Fellong in the Opera House, which is something like 40 or 50 years old. And so it arrived on my doorstep in the sachet and I revived the mother dough. So and it's now living today and I bake from it every couple of days.
[Ad]: Holy moly. And I know, is it noticeably different in taste?
[Voiceover]: Well, everyone says the older the sourdough, the more complex the taste. So mine's called Madonna. Yes. So when you have a sourdough starter, you have to name it and because I was like a virgin baking bread. So there you go.
[Ad]: Although it was more like a prayer, you're just praying it turned out, oh
[Voiceover]: my God, I'm gonna use that next time. Both of Those.
[Ad]: As a travel journalist, I know you're on holidays at the moment, but is there any spot in Australia that you're like, oh, this is the hidden gem that people should be checking out.
[Voiceover]: Where I am right now, I absolutely love it because the tunnel was just opened up in the city. So to get down south to kind of the Wollongong area even further is now probably 15 minutes quicker. So we're in an area just north of Wollongong. It's kind of near Thoreau. It's called Bellae and it's phenomenal. It's got beautiful beaches, dog beaches, if you've got pups, which most Australians now do because of COVID And it's got fantastic breweries, got cocktail bars, great eateries. We've just been having a blast and just so many lovely people. It just feels really, really homely. So, yeah, I just have to say thank you to Standard Beach Cottage. We're having a blast and we've got to leave today, so it's really sad. Had a great time.
[Ad]: Well, you've got it on my list. Thank you for that. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
[Voiceover]: Oof. Do you know what I really like? Pet Circle. Probably not the easiest user interface, but I love it because the customer service team are magical and whenever you get an email from them, most of them have got dogs too. And they often will talk about their dogs and what their dogs like. So it's not talking to a robot, you're actually talking to a warm human being with, with family and pups and four legged friends in their environment. And if anything goes wrong with your delivery, no questions asked, super fast, it arrives the next day or don't worry about it, here's a replacement. There's no quibbles. The trust they've built in me, even though the auto delivery UX is really painful, I stay with it. But I just love the team there. I think they're for them all.
[Ad]: That's amazing to hear because I am interviewing John, who's their CMO at the Mumbrella Retail Marketing Summit in two weeks time. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Oh, tell John thank you.
[Ad]: I will. I'll pass on your feedback about the UX as well.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, thanks.
[Ad]: All right, number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
[Voiceover]: Oh my God, the one that drives me nuts. Actually. It's probably worse for apps than it is for websites, but when you can't actually see the product that you go to the front page and it's kind of all blurred out and it's like Put your email address in and your name. Absolutely not. No, stop it.
[Ad]: Give me something first.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, I really, really hate that. And the other thing I hate is we love you. Please do this questionnaire. Why? For the love of God, please just, like, enter me into a competition to win. I like a sack of potatoes. Just provide a value exchange. I just. I really hate the selfishness and greediness of companies that ask for us as consumers who like your brand. And there is no value exchange for that. Don't tell me it's because you care about me. No, no, no. Do something for me. Yeah, so I'd like. Those are the two things.
[Ad]: I love them both. Spot on. I just got an email this morning about. I bought a phone charger online. Most unsexy product ever. 50 bucks. I've had three emails asking for a product review. I'm like, I don't care. It charges the phone. That's all I need.
[Voiceover]: Is it good? Do you like it?
[Ad]: It's fine. Plugs into the wall, turns on. Great. All right, number four. Can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
[Voiceover]: Oh, I love podcasts so much. I'm not a huge book reader, but I absorb podcasts. So many. I love. Let me just think. So every day. The Squiz. I just love the team at the squares. It's short, sharp, snappy. But they also do deep dives into what sometimes can be quite complex, like what's going on in the Middle East. How did that all happen for someone that actually do a deep dive to help you unravel all of those, I guess, quite complex world stories. So I love them. Masters of Scale again is another great one. I just like the episodic collection of how Amazon got to where it was or how Netflix built their business and their culture. The Chanticleer, the AFR team. Again, just anything around, financial advice, what's going on in the market makes it really easy and accessible, and I love their dynamic. And then this is an oldie but a goodie. If anyone's familiar with the world of podcasting, then one of the founding fathers, one of the biggest podcast companies in the world, is Gimlet, which actually got bought by Spotify. And there is an actual podcast called the Startup Podcast, and it follows the story of the founder, founding Gimlet, so before it was even a thing. And it's hilarious because it's a fly on the wall documentary of him trying to raise money and he's. There's some just, like, stomach churning, embarrassing. Like, just, oh, My God. He goes to some of the best silicon brains and capital investors in that area, and his pitches are just terrible. And he's talking to his wife about the name and she's just like, what? That's awful. And just this raw and honest. It's just. I loved it. It was so authentic. And he moves the story on into kind of delving into other kind of startup stories. But that very, very first one about how they started the business is just so engaging and heartwarming. And I got to meet him in person when I was in New York, which is great. Yeah.
[Ad]: And it would be remiss of me not to ask, as a humble podcaster and your time as leading Spotify here in Australia, do you have any inside word on how to make your podcast appear in Spotify for more listeners?
[Voiceover]: I think you've just got to make them vocal. Look, I think that. Just do what you do. It's like it is. Audiences love you. Get great guests. Make sure the guests are also sharing it as well to their audiences because it's like anything. We're so time poor that we're all looking for recommendations. And whilst we're probably very used to getting recommendations for shopping or for buying new books, I don't think the process is to find a podcast that you like because you, this is your world or these your interest. It's not as easy to kind of find your tribe in podcasting. And so I see a lot of people posting on Facebook to their mates going, what are you listening to? And oh, okay, let me bookmark that. Because we haven't yet found a really easy way to curate the ones that we like. So I'm sure there is a company out there trying to become the new POD club of Australia, but if there
[Ad]: isn't, I think you've given plenty of people the idea now, so indeed, keep
[Voiceover]: doing what you're doing. It's just doing great. Such a great job bringing these stories and to life.
[Ad]: Lovely. Thank you. All right, last question I have for you, Karen, finish this sentence. The future of retail is be human. Nailed it. Thank you, Karen. Thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
[Voiceover]: Absolute pleasure. I've had a ball. Thanks so much, Nathan.
[Ad]: To hear more from Karen, jump back into episode 386 where Karen shared how to turn product like into product joy. She gives us her take on how to successfully move into different international markets and we get some great tales from her time leading two of the most impactful companies in the world. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
