Nathan Bush: Look, you probably know this already, but customers aren't just googling products anymore. They're asking AI what to buy. And if AI can't understand your brand, it won't recommend it. That's why Studio Hawk, Australia's largest dedicated SEO and AI search agency, is offering Add to cart listeners a free SEO and AI search master plan. You'll get an in depth audit of how your brand appears across search and AI platforms, plus a a custom roadmap to improve your visibility and to help you get started straight away. You can also download their free e commerce AI visibility toolkit. It's packed with prompts, checklists, wireframes and a step by step digital PR framework. Head to studiohawk.com add to cart that's studiohawk.com au add to cart to download your exclusive toolkit and request a personalized master plan. We'll put the link in the show notes as well. There has never been a noisier time to run an e commerce business. Every week there's a new AI tool, a new feature, a new platform that you have to be on, a new hack that promises to unlock scale. And if you're not careful, you're gonna wake up six months later having built ten things and mastered none of them. That is Shiny Object syndrome and today's Playbook is, is about how to avoid it. We're starting with Adam Yelick, founder of My goals. He's a 15 year operator who has built one of Australia's most recognizable global goal setting brands. Adam's charge is simple. Build a filter. Because the problem in e commerce isn't a lack of ideas. We've all got so many of them, it's which ones do you actually do? Today we'll also hear from George Hartley, founder of Blue Thumb, Australia's largest online art marketplace. Kyra Rumble, founder of Crumbled Group and currently running three high performing brands and ycu, head of E business at Nespresso. Today's Playbook isn't about innovation, it's about restraint. Because sometimes the most profitable growth strategy is saying, no, let's hear from Adam.
Adam Yelick: It's the filter. It's like you gotta filter through that noise in your head and that's where goal setting, writing things down helps you like. Otherwise you're just, it's just too much, right? It's, it's like Shiny Object Theory. It's like, oh, that's cool. Oh, that's good, that's good. And for me, I've realized over time and I've heard other entrepreneurs talk about It I go, drive down the road and I go, that's a cool business idea. I see something, I see a problem, I get old cafe. I'm like, oh, okay, I saw something that could be better. Would that be a cool idea? So it's why the ideas that I generate just keep coming. So I need a filter process to help me just sort of say, that's the one that I'm passionate about, that's the real one. Focus on that.
Nathan Bush: And I could imagine in your business where you've got different formats, you've got calendars, and I saw that you're expanding into digital products, that even within your own business, there wouldn't be a shortage of ideas that you've got. How do you filter what is a good idea for my goals versus something that you can leave on the table for a while?
Adam Yelick: I mean, you look at a broader perspective, you look at the broader the market and you think, okay, what could help someone in this specific thing? You look at trends, you know, like, gratitude is a big thing. Wellness is a big thing. Sleep's a big thing. So it's like, what can we create that might help someone get better sleep, practice better gratitude, and so forth. And then we just break it down from there. I mean, in truth, you know, you can come up with any product. I mean, the fundamentals, the ones that you're really passionate about, are the ones that sell the best. I find, you know, still that that diary is still our key seller. It's like the one that was. That's the OG and that's the one that came from, like, the true space of, like, this is what I need, this is what I'm going to create. And it's, you know, 15 years down the track. It's still, you know, still changing people's lives. I'm still getting emails about, you know, this product has helped me do this. Thank you. Which is. Yeah, when you put your hardest off,
Nathan Bush: how do you get people to take that initial step? Have you found that there's a particular marketing message or content message that you can put out there to get people who are in those situations or who might feel a bit lost, even if it's not as dire as that, but just feel a bit lost and a little bit listless? Is there any particular message you put out in market to go, this will help you?
Adam Yelick: We're trying things. I mean, it's not as easy as what I think in my head and what I think should work, doesn't work ultimately work all the time.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Okay.
Adam Yelick: Otherwise, you Know problem solutions like if you're struggling then this product will help. You know general messaging like that is something that gets people's attentions because everyone wants to improve something in their life. Like that works for me so I always take it on board from, from a marketing perspective, it's like what attracts me. It's like this product will help you live longer. It's like oh, curious, you know, I always click. It's, you know what I mean? It's like, yeah, tell me more. So stuff like that, the general consensus of like if you're feeling overwhelmed, anxious, the this product will help. I think we have to get better at doing it because sometimes you go too broad. It doesn't, yeah, sure, doesn't hit. So I think, you know, again one of our goals is to sort of get more narrow minded and it's like what are the, what's the specific problem that people are facing? How can our product help that? As opposed to just like if you need help then we're here.
Nathan Bush: That's a really good pickup because obviously you've got a product that anyone can use really. When you look at your total addressable market, it is anyone. How are you going to decide who you focus in on?
Adam Yelick: Well, I mean looking at data obviously you know, predominantly 80% female audience, generally 25 to 35. So that age group, whether it be a professional, mum, wife, you know, there's that specific group and look, we're still in that stage where we're not considered a personal development brand which I would like it to be. So I think that sort of has to change from. It's still stationary, right? So when you look at stationary market, the men aren't so receptive to it. It's like I don't need that, you know, I don't write in a diary,
Nathan Bush: I've got chatgpt to share my feelings with.
Adam Yelick: I've got, I've got it in my head, right, that's the main one. And I always, and I remember reading a fact that said, you know, the average human being has 50,000 thoughts per day and it's 50,000. So it's like if you think you've got all your things in your head, that's why you feel overwhelmed, right? Because it's all up here, there's no direction. It's just like survival mode. But yeah, I think, you know, starting at what the data says and then expanding from that and then I think going back to the real principle of how can we help people like that. Genuine, we want to help. So like, what does that look like?
Nathan Bush: All right, let's get into the lessons from Shiny Object Syndrome in E commerce. Lesson one is that you need to build a filter. Adam says it very, very plainly. It's the filter. As founders, ideas don't stop. Even if you're not a founder, ideas don't stop. You see a competitor launch something, you hear about a new AI tool, you spot a friction point and think, we could build that. And suddenly you're chasing everything. Adam realised something critical early on. If you don't build a system that filters ideas, your business just becomes reactive. Writing things down wasn't about journaling for him, it was about forcing clarity. What are we actually building? What aligns with our core goals? What deserves our time? Shiny Object Syndrome isn't a discipline problem, it's a decision making problem. And once you've built your filter, you can actually apply it everywhere, just like George did. George Hartley is the founder of Blue Thumb and he faced a classic tech temptation. Augmented reality was hot, so they built it. Customers could virtually hang artwork on their walls using augmented reality. It was cool, it was innovative and it looked great on a pitch deck. But when they looked at the data, hardly anyone actually used it, so they ripped it out. Most brands would keep it because they were invested in it. George killed it because it didn't move behavior. That in itself is operator maturity. If it doesn't drive usage, conversion or retention, it's actually just clutter. And clutter kills focus. And then there's channel temptation. Kyra Rumble is the founder of Crumbled Group and she runs three brands. She's pretty busy. What started as rolling protein balls in her Bondi kitchen ended up building a multi brand powerhouse of functional brands. And her TikTok accounts were exploding. Organic reach, creator commerce, massive hype. She saw the huge potential here, but she said no. Not because she thought it wouldn't work, but because she hadn't yet mastered her existing channel Meta. And that in itself is strategic restraint. Adding a channel before you've maxed the one you're already working on can sometimes be just dilution. You don't scale by being everywhere, you scale by dominating and mastering one channel first. Focus compounds distraction fragments. It's a lesson that comes through all of these examples. Now for the quiet killer that I'm sure you have experience with, techbloat. YCU is the head of E business at Nespresso and she noticed a pattern. Brands buy a platform for one feature, use 10% of what it can do, then buy something else to solve the Next problem, she called it out. Instead of onboarding more agencies and more tools, Nespresso shifted their strategy. Stop buying shiny things and start sweating the assets. Maximize machine learning, maximize the features already paid for. Extract more value from the existing stack and put pressure on your partners to deliver it for you. Because most businesses don't have a tech shortage, they have a utilization problem. You see this in 90% of businesses. So before you buy the next platform, ask yourself, are we actually using the ones that we already pay for? Shiny Object Syndrome feels productive. You're building, you're testing, exploring, innovating. But honestly, you might just be avoiding focus. Adam taught us how to build a filter to know what is actually Shiny Object Syndrome. George showed us to kill features that don't get used by customers. Kira proved that that you can ignore exploding platforms if you haven't mastered the ones that you're already on. And YC reminded us to maximize what we already have in E commerce. The brands that win aren't necessarily the ones that are doing the most or doing the next cool thing. They're the ones that are doing the right things. Repeatedly. Sometimes growth isn't about adding something new. Sometimes it's about removing something that's unnecessary or that's not being used or it's holding you back. And sometimes the most powerful move you can make is saying no.
