Future Tribe - Business Podcast

Welcome to a new season of the Future Tribe podcast! This season we're going video first - bringing you the latest news in design, tech, branding, business and everything in between.

Your hosts for this season are Germaine Muller, Founder and Managing Director of Futuretheory, and Kelsey Allen, Marketing Coordinator at Futuretheory and Manager of the Future Tribe Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe).

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In this episode we discuss:

1. The new Chandon logo

2. Twitter's controversial redesign (so poorly received that the redesign is being redesigned)

3. Australia introduces the .au domain (finally!)

4. Yoast SEO (a WordPress Plugin) has been acquired by Newfold Digital - we'll explain why we're concerned by this.

5. Poddit gets acquired by PodMatch and the future of podcasting

6. WordPress cracks down on the use of WP for WordPress extensions (and why we think this is an odd move)

7. Haagen-Dazs has a delicious new logo and branding

8. Gawker has a new logo and website - and Germaine REALLY doesn't like it. _______________

Here are all the relevant links discussed in the show:

Future Tribe Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe

Chandon logo: https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_identity_and_packaging_for_chandon_by_madethought.php

Twitter redesign: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/13/22623717/twitter-buttons-contrast-design-changes-eye-strain

Launch of the .au domain http://info.auda.org.au/webmail/872051/508298140/a991aec948788f58665eced3233ee21dddb677a6ec775f9fa386ef7cfeb37c75

Yoast SEO acquisition: https://wptavern.com/yoast-joins-newfold-digital-team-to-stay-in-place

Poddit acquisition: https://www.prweek.com/article/1724473/podcast-interview-booking-company-podmatch-acquires-podditnet

WordPress cracks down on WP branding: https://www.coywolf.news/content/wordpress-bans-developers-from-using-wp-in-plugin-names/

Haagen Dazs rebrand: https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_packaging_and_revised_logo_for_haagen_dazs_by_chase_design_group.php

Gawker logo https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_for_gawker.php

Gawker website: (https://www.gawker.com/media/welcome-to-gawker)

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Find us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe

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Discover who Futuretheory is: https://www.futuretheory.com.au/ (and hopefully soon to be futuretheory.au!)

Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/future-tribe-business-podcast/id1475493358

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/66iv9EWcsDa4fd3pal9JgD

Listen on Google:https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2Z1dHVyZXRyaWJlL2ZlZWQueG1s

This episode marks the final instalment of the podcast for 2020 as well as the end of our third season of the show. We couldn’t be more proud of all we have accomplished during this tumultuous year and we would like to extend a thank you to all of our listeners for allowing us to work on a project that we are so passionate about. To celebrate this milestone, we decided to bring on Damiane Muller, Futuretheory’s co-founder and lead developer, to reflect on our recent website launch. In the initial portion of this episode, Damiane covers why Futuretheory needed an updated online presence, the tools he used to develop our new website, and how this project was intimately connected with our revised content marketing strategy. Additionally, Germaine and Damiane discuss why Futuretheory decided to continue using WordPress as its development platform, citing that its open-source nature continues to make creating customised and secure solutions for clients extremely simple. Finally, the episode concludes with Damiane discussing future development trends such as the growing importance of SSL and changes to search engine rankings.

What we talk about

• Reflecting on Futuretheory’s new website
• The viability of WordPress
• Content marketing 
• The future of website development

Join the community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe/ 

Links from this episode

https://futuretheory.com.au/podcast/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

This episode we talk to Alicia Lillington, who works in change and communication. Upon receiving her bachelors in International Relations and Affairs at the ANU, Alicia found herself in a position that all thousands of graduates face every year. She had missed out on the Government graduate programs she had been applying to in her final year of study and had no prospects of full time employment in her industry. Despite this setback, however, Alicia remained resolute and used her networking prowess to procure herself a position in the private sector as a Communications Manager. The experience she garnered in this role then allowed her to enter the public service as a Communications Lead in the Department of Industry. Ironically, her superb performance in various government roles ultimately afforded her the ability to work at the very government agency that she had unsuccessfully applied to after graduating, the Department of Defence.

In addition to her professional accolades, Alicia also has a love of education that has seen her take on a mentoring position in the ANU’s MomentuM Program. Naturally, our guest spends a great deal of this episode talking about the importance of mentoring, and even imparts some valuable career advice that she would often share with her mentees. More specifically, Alicia delves into the topics of how young professionals should network in their industry and seek out opportunities to advance their career. Outside of this, Alicia also discusses her strong belief in the importance of workplace equality and how she is finding different avenues for women to enter male-dominated areas of public service. 

What we talk about

• The value of networking and the tools/events you can utilise to network effectively 
• Alternate paths into your desired industry
• How participating in mentorship programs can benefit you professionally
• Workplace inclusivity

Links from this episode

https://www.instagram.com/alicia__louise/ (Alicia on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicialillington/  (Alicia on LinkedIn)

https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/study/cbe-momentum-program/ (ANU’s MomentuM program)

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, Future Tribe. Welcome to another episode on this week's episode, I've got Alicia Lillington with me. How are you Alicia?  [00:00:59] Alicia: [00:00:59] Good. Thank you. [00:01:00] Good. Um, we're, we're both sort of coming off the back of, uh, some, some sort of health issues, very minor, but some sort of health issues. I love that when we're chatting about it, you, you sort of mentioned that you do a lot, and even when you were sick, you were just, just, you know, at 50%, but it's probably still 50% for you is sort of quite high amount of work and output compared to, to other people. [00:01:23] Um, Tell me a bit, a bit about yourself and I guess your, your approach to everything that you do, because I know you wear a few hats and  [00:01:30] yeah, for sure. Germaine so, yes. Um, thank you so much for having me today. Firstly, um, I guess I've worked full time for government as an advisor in the change and communications space, um, kind of where culture and technology meet and then part-time, I love kind of singing, acting, modeling, and mentoring. [00:01:49] So I think it's so important to be kind of that role model for younger people. I think of myself. When I was, you know, at uni or just graduating and I just thought, what am I going to do? And particularly in 2020, um, you know, it's been a bit of a tumultuous year and I think a lot of people are unsure of what to do next. [00:02:07] So I really like to mentor it and just. They that person, particularly as a female in the tech space that kind of, um, can lead the way for people. And then with my modeling and things like that, that I just do as a hobby, I like to share, um, messages around body positivity and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. [00:02:26] Like I'll try and use it. Sport or something like that. And I just do silly little videos, but I get a lot of feedback from it. And I was initially quite reserved and didn't want to share much, but I found that when I would share, you know, trying, um, you know, skiing for the first time or something like that, um, people reached out and said, Oh, that's like inspired me to try something new. [00:02:45] So that's kind of in a nutshell. I mean, dude, what's. Yeah, as you said, lots of different hats, lots of different things, then that's trying to keep it brief.  [00:02:52] Germaine: [00:02:52] See you in a nutshell, because I met you through modeling cause I do photography. Um, but then I got really hooked into and we really ended up chatting, um, a bit about work and that side of things. [00:03:04] So I guess, I guess we connect on, I guess, both sides of creativity and more of a hobby or something that we, we don't necessarily earn a huge living from, but they're also the other side of, uh, you know, Actual work, if you can call it that. So tell me a little bit about how you got into what you do in terms of your work. [00:03:23] Alicia: [00:03:23] Yeah. Okay. It's a long story. I'll try and yeah. Explain it really well. Okay. So at university studied international relations. When I graduated, it was like around 2013 from university and, um, the job market was really, really rough. Um, so then I thought, what can I do? What's a career that you always have a job in. [00:03:42] So then I kind of went in and did the graduate degree. Diploma of education. I thought if I'm a teacher and cause I love that mentoring, tutoring, that type of thing, you know, I thought I'll always have a job in that space. So international relations education then from there, um, I went back to teach at my high school and I love my high school. [00:03:58] I love teaching, but I just thought, Oh, there's a little bit more to the world. I just was like, I've, I've been here a lot. I need to go out and feather a field, have a bit more life experience and maybe come back as one of those. Cool, like older relief teachers, you know, the ones that just come in a relief teacher and like sing or something. [00:04:14] I'd love to see that one day. I also kind of thought I was like, Oh, I could be like Chris Lilly, a drama teacher doing, um, Mr. G and you know, sort of doing performances for the kids, but that wasn't quite what it was like in reality. Anyway, from there, I really did want to get involved in international relations and I was. [00:04:31] Researching the market. I was looking at embassies. I was looking at foreign affairs and I found this place in Canberra called the Commonwealth club, which is a members based club. Um, I reached out through LinkedIn at the time. I think it was about 2016, 2015, or no, it was actually 2014. And, um, I, so LinkedIn was quite new and you could kind of reach out to people at that time. [00:04:52] Um, and it wasn't, it wasn't a bombarding of all these messages. It was only a few people on there. So I reached out to this general manager at the Commonwealth club and I said, Hey, I'd really like to work for you. Um, I've just, um, you know, you've got two degrees and I I'm interested in international relations. [00:05:06] I understand you have. Quite a lot to do with that space. Um, and he invited me to be a waitress, which I am the most clumsy kind of Mr. Bean type waitress you've ever met. I have tried it actually at someone's wedding. Um, I was there, wait, no, it was not, it was not my best career. I always give things a try, but I would kind of was falling over dropping flights. [00:05:29] Germaine: [00:05:29] And how people like wait staff so much respect. Cause you've got to deal with all these people deal with their food. So people get really grumpy about it. And then on top of that, you've got to balance stuff. So yeah. I mean, I wouldn't even try it so kudos to you to actually actually like try it in the first place. [00:05:45] Alicia: [00:05:45] Yeah, I know. And yeah. Shout out to all the hospitality people out there. It's actually not that easy and you know, some. Um, Hey, we'll convey quiet, um, entitled even about a latte or a drink. And, um, I definitely think of that when I go to restaurants and I th I think it's kind of, you know, influenced the way that I am as a customer as well, working in customer service for a number of years. [00:06:04] Um, but yes, so like, I was kind of doing all of that and, and he kept saying, you know, yeah, you can be a waitress. And then I waited a little while I thought I'll reach out again and just see if anything's come up. And then, you know, again, just, he was offering waitressing. I kind of forgot about it was applying for a few different roles. [00:06:19] Um, kind of it. And this is in the not-for-profit  [00:06:22] Germaine: [00:06:22] sector  [00:06:24] Alicia: [00:06:24] or, um, I was

On this episode of the podcast, we had the pleasure of chatting with local entrepreneur and recipient of the 2018 ACT Australian of the Year, Dion Devow. Dion is a proud indigenous Australian who has spent most of his adult life using his business acumen to provide opportunities for disadvantaged members of his community. Initially, this took the form of consulting with Government agencies and academic institutions on how to address the issues indigenous people face when attempting to pursue higher education. As time went on, however, Dion began to yearn for financial independence and the ability to make a more direct contribution to the indigenous community. This led our guest to start a multitude of successful businesses (the most prominent of which are his fashion label Darkies Designs and ICT consultancy Yerra) aimed at celebrating his culture and giving opportunities to those who shared his struggle. 

Naturally, a large portion of our discussion with Dion centres around his mission to empower indigenous people by nurturing their passion for entrepreneurship. Our guest also discusses some of the reasons why it is so difficult for indigenous Australians to reach executive positions in large companies or start their own business. When asked about his individual success, Dion attributes most of his good fortune in business to great time management, networking, and an organic approach to business development. The show then concludes with Dion sharing a cautionary (yet amusing) tale about a time he ordered hundreds of yoga mats for his company that he just could not sell!

What we talk about

• Managing time between projects
• The importance of promoting higher education and business paths for young indigenous individuals
• Overcoming adversity

Links from this episode

https://darkiesdesigns.com.au/ (Darkies Designs’ Website)

https://yerra.com.au/ (Yerra consulting’s Website)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dion-devow/  (Dion on LinkedIn)

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, Future Tribe. Welcome to this episode of the podcast. Uh, we've got Dion Devow this week with us. How are you today? Dion?  [00:00:59] Dion: [00:00:59] Good.  [00:00:59] Germaine: [00:00:59] Thank you. Um, tell me a little bit about what you do and the businesses that you're involved with.  [00:01:05] Dion: [00:01:05] Uh, well, I probably need to start way back when, when I was young, I  had a long career in indigenous working in indigenous health, education and justice. [00:01:15] I'm an Aboriginal international, a man originally from Darwin. Came to Canberra back in 1994 to go to university. And so I worked in the public service, um, helping Aboriginal people, uh, like I said, in areas of health and education and justice, primarily as an Aboriginal health worker. And then, um, went on to. Uh, coordinating and running the ICT indigenous courts and came up basically to minister at sports. [00:01:40] And then I kind of, uh, went into the higher education sector where the Australian national university and the juvenile center helping in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander uni students, um, with their, with their academic aspirations. And then, uh, about a decade ago, I kind of fell into. Uh, business. So I, uh, created an indigenous clothing line because that sort of gap in the market and going back 10 years ago, that's probably myself and possibly three other clothing labels. [00:02:10] One that had been around already for maybe 20 years before that. Um, but it's still, still going strong. Um, and those other ones that I started with back then have now kind of dwindle away, but now the market's flooded with. With, uh, indigenous clothing labels. And I think that's a, that's a good thing. [00:02:29] Cause like I said, when I started this a couple of months and I'm somewhat of the longest hiding labels because it's kind of, it's been a decade now that had been around school, dark is designed and I use the word, um, deliberately to celebrate, you know, my. Indigineatity. And, um, you know, being my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, all the heritage of being black and I'm used to have used that as a vehicle to promote Aboriginal and Torres shell, to us through clothing and all sorts of different things. [00:02:57] Design art. Artists and culture and language. So it's been quite a powerful, a powerful platform. And, um, I've also been able to continue my work around community development, through business, around the neuron and indigenous entrepreneur program. Um, and I have a business kind of the Canberra business yarning circle, which is a community consultation vehicle that I use to, uh, connect with Aboriginal entrepreneurs to see what we can do to help them with respect to their. [00:03:27] Business journeys and aspirations through the program. And, uh, yeah, I'm an ACT Australian of the year back in 2018, uh, because of the work that I've done through Darkies and since establishing Darkies, I've established for other businesses. So I've got a cleaning company called jingling. I've got two, it companies one's called Yerra and one's called Indignation. [00:03:49] That's all about change management and automation and AI, uh, um, and, uh, What else do I have? Um, I started, I've developed a business for my daughter called Tia, and she's was 11 at the time. She's 18 now. So that's another kind of Australian, um, contemporary online shopping store that has kind of, uh, Australian products, but with an indigenous twist. [00:04:14] Um, so she's an upcoming, uh, key pronounced. They call them these days and I think that's about it. Yeah. Yeah, but anyway,  [00:04:21] Germaine: [00:04:21] wow, many that, that you, you, um, sort of struggled to even remember them. How do you, I assume you're not sort of actively involved with every single one day in day out, is it, is it, um, more now a matter of sort of putting the right people in place and then managing it from a, from a higher level? [00:04:41] Dion: [00:04:41] That's exactly right. So I do probably do bits and pieces on each. Um, of the businesses every day, some more than others I'm heavily invested in because the darkies is so well established, it kind of just runs itself. So, um, I'm obviously still the, the fittest of it. I do all the invoicing, um, the creative kind of force behind it and, and people know me more, I think because of darkies that, like I said, that kind of discipline. [00:05:05] So that's what you want to do, want to create something, employ people to then come in and. Do it take a step back and work on the business, not in the business. Um, not everybody wants to do to do that, but because I'm perhaps a different interests, that's what I've chosen to do. I think it's a good thing to do. [00:05:19] Obviously you have to, you know, build and develop your business to a point where you can, you're able to do that. It's  [00:05:25] Germaine: [00:05:25] all about raising up, uh, a person or even, you know, raising up and training a pet or something where, where you just want it. You can get it to a stage where it can be self-sufficient. It knows where to find food and, you know, um, in the case of a child, more than just find food, but, you know, get into the, get into the world. [00:05:42] Um, but you do want to, you can't just give birth to a teenager. You sort of have to take it through that January business is that is the same thing. You can't just create a business tomorrow and go, okay. Um, I want to work on the business, not in the business. I'm going to remove myself from it and watch it take off. [00:05:58] That's not just going to happen. How many people do you have sort of  [00:06:02] Dion: [00:06:02] working  [00:06:02] Germaine: [00:06:02] for you and with you? Across the businesses. If you don't mind me  [00:06:06] Dion: [00:06:06] asking, I engage. A lot of it depends on which one. So I engage other people to do different things. I employ someone full-time through darkies, um, uh, and have a few employees through two different. [00:06:21] Um, the other different businesses are cleaning our business. Obviously there's lots of employees cause you know, there's lots of cleaners, um, lots of different buildings and doing lots of working on different, lots of different projects. So it's a bit of mix and match. So can go from having one or two employees to having. [00:06:37] Quite quite a few. So it depends on the industry and the demand and the resources and the capability of the business and the cashflow and all that sort of stuff as well. So, um, yeah, so  [00:06:48] Germaine: [00:06:48] it varies a little bit. Yeah, it sounds like you've, um, it sounds like the businesses are fairly low. Um, I guess. Not very cash cash heavy. [00:07:00] Not that there aren't a lot of, sort of, you guys have offices for every single business  [00:07:07] Dion: [00:07:07] for a long time. I just worked from home, but I, uh, um, you know, it ha

On this episode of the podcast, we chat with the founder of Redboat animation studios and Brivvio, Adrian King. Adrian is a veteran of the animation industry who started his first business nearly 20 years ago after he became disenfranchised with not receiving the full fruits of his labour. His flagship company, Redboat, primarily works with government agencies and large businesses to create video content that helps explain complex concepts to the general public. Almost three years ago, however, Adrian noticed that many of his customers wanted simple brand elements in their videos and had to go to large animations studios to do so. After identifying this market gap, he began working on creating an iPhone application (Brivvio) that could help users, without technical experience, to create branded videos that looked professional.

Whilst discussing his professional journey, Adrian addresses the lack of security many business owners face compared to regular employees and how this is the price people must pay to ‘be their own boss’.Additionally, Adrian touches on the differences between starting his first small business versus starting his new and much more ambitious venture. Specifically, he discusses how founding Brivvio has required him to seek out capital from outside investors and guidance from the various accelerator programs in order to scale the business up rapidly. With this being said, one through-line Adrian has ensured all his businesses have is being purpose-driven. Throughout the episode, he highlights how his commitment to running purpose-led companies has helped him weed out bad clients, communicate authenticity to prospective customers, and ultimately achieve long-term viability. 

What we talk about

• Sacrificing stability in order to be your own boss
• Running a startup vs a small business
• The importance of being purpose-led

Links from this episode

https://www.redboat.com.au/ (Redbot’s website)

https://www.brivvio.com/ (Brivvio’s website)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianking/ (Adrian on LinkedIn)

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

[00:00:52] Germaine: [00:00:52] Hello, Future Tribe. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. On this episode, I've got Adrian King from two different businesses. Actually tell us a little bit about what you do, Adrian.  [00:01:56] Adrian: [00:01:56] Hey, Germaine. Uh, yeah, look, uh, I've got two businesses, which is, seems like a crazy thing to do, but, uh, you know, one, one of them is very new and one of them's I've been there for about 20 plus years and you know, the one I've been. [00:02:06] Doing for most of my career has been animation and video production, more focused on the animation. And, uh, it's kind of led to the, the new business, which is really, really exciting. So the first one's called bread boats, which is the animation business, and we do a lot of animation for government, for technology, for science explaining tricky, complicated subject matter. [00:02:27] Sometimes very, uh, abstract ideas or complex ideas and distilling them down into really condense, smart, concise messages that can be transmitted to huge audiences in an animated format. And so I've had this career 20 plus years in video. And animation production. And what happened was it led to this new business because I had a client come to me and say, Hey, can you put all this sort of animated intro bottle onto our videos for us? [00:02:57] And we're going to make 30 videos every single week. And they're just a single shot of about 90 seconds. And we animated logo at the beginning and a call to action at the end and some branding on them. And I thought to myself, wow. That's really great bread and butter. I'm just going to make a killing out of doing this is great. [00:03:15] Just like, but then it's going to be really boring, right? Somebody is going to be sitting down, it's working. I'm going to have one of my team members working on this stuff all week, punching out the stuff, and it's going to be how I've got to be able to automate this. Right. It's got to be something that I can find a way to make this simpler and faster. [00:03:31] And that set me off on this path, which has now become revealed, which is a separate business. And, and that's, uh, the one that I'm kind of working pretty hard to promote at the moment, too.  [00:03:41] Germaine: [00:03:41] Yeah, right. So red boat is a bit more of an established, um, business. And then you've got Brivvio how old is Brivvio? [00:03:48] Adrian: [00:03:48] About a year and a half, but we only really released, uh, on the app store in February, on Valentine's day, this year.  [00:03:56] Germaine: [00:03:56] So Breo is, uh, an iPhone or an iOS app at the moment. Isn't it?  [00:04:00] Adrian: [00:04:00] Yeah. So Brivvio is an app and a, uh, it's kind of growing into a bit more of a platform, but at the moment you, you you'd download the app on the iPhone. [00:04:08] And what it does is it enables anyone with zero training, zero skills. There are no how or anything like that. Pretty much anyone can do it to create branded and captioned videos really, really fast and really easily. So. Puts your tops and tail was you with your branding on it and add captions across the bottom. [00:04:29] Germaine: [00:04:29] And then where does the footage come from? Is that, can you shoot, just shoot that on your iPhone? Or can you bring in different bits and pieces of footage or  [00:04:37] Adrian: [00:04:37] a mix? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you can film within Brivvio so you can film a single shot. Let's say you want to do a 62nd or two minute video on your phone. [00:04:47] You film it in Brivvio or you can import a video that you've created elsewhere.  [00:04:51] Germaine: [00:04:51] Right. And we were sort of really jumping into the, to the meat of the episode already. But tell me a bit about how you, like, did you get a team together to build the app? I know maybe the craziest sort of dropped off a little bit now, but, um, a few years ago everyone wanted an app for everything and you know, there's different qualities of. [00:05:11] Apps like there's and there's different types of apps. There's apps that you can download from an iOS store, but then there's, what's essentially a web app that you just use through a window on your phone. Tell me a little bit about how you put it together and who you use.  [00:05:25] Adrian: [00:05:25] Yeah. Great question. Germane, because it was an Epic journey to get there. [00:05:28] Like we were really spent a year and a half developing this and I have no idea how hard that was going to be to, you know, to do the development. Bit of technical background in my skillset as one of the creative and stuff with the animation. But, um, yeah, certainly a journey and we tried several different technologies to make it work, including progressive web apps and, you know, Mo like multi-platform, but we ended up having to rebuild the technology from scratch in order to make it work, um, because, uh, it requires a lot of heavy video processing. [00:06:00] And so. Yeah. Some of, some of the initial attempts once a good, how it all started was I had this idea because this client said to me, we want to do this. I said, well, maybe I can automate this. And I had a bit of conversation with them. They said, yeah, that'd be great. If we could just kind of like upload the video and it just comes back to us. [00:06:15] That'd be great and thought, right, I'm going to make this systematized. And because I'm sure other people are going to want this. And so I built a prototype. I mocked it up. I did a little bit of basic. Prototyping, you know, actually the first thing I did was I built, I did the lean startup method. [00:06:33] Everybody's probably heard of the lean startup, if you haven't much definitely a book you should read. And so I did the lean stuff. I built a web form and I said, and it kind of mimicked the process of how to like field. So upload video here, putting your title, uh, uh, putting colors, choose a background and that kind of thing. [00:06:51] And it didn't really do anything. It just pretended to be the process of putting, and I showed a few people, I said, yeah, great. I can use this. And so that was kind of my first sort of validation. So then I've built a proper prototype and brought a developer on to help with that. And we built this very, very rough prototype and I realized, you know, I probably need to get some funding to develop this properly. [00:07:14] So. I started on that path. And I then met, uh, the Canberra innovation network and, uh, heard about the Griffin Accelerator. And so I applied to be to get on to that because they, they sort of mentor the people that get, uh, get into the accelerated program and then put a bit of funding into it. And. Uh, and I got in, we had to pitch it's a bit like shark tank except friendly. [00:07:38] And this is like 20 investors and mentors there. And I had to pitch for five minutes in front of them, answer all their questions and go, that was nerve wracking, but really wort

With the holiday season fast approaching, we thought it would be a good idea to once again record a gift buying guide for our listeners. Unlike last year’s instalment, however, this episode will focus much more on functional products that will help our community achieve their personal and professional goals. Throughout this episode, our hosts touch on the best hardware and software money can buy, as well as some other tips you can use to find some great deals this holiday season. 

Hardware recommendations:

• Computer components
  • Second hand 1080ti 
    • https://www.ebay.com.au/b/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-NVIDIA-Computer-Graphics-Video-Cards/27386/bn_7116470191
• Laptops
  • Laptops with Ryzen 4800h processor
    • Lenovo Legion 5 - https://futr.link/legion-5
    • Hp Omen -  https://futr.link/hp-omen
    • ASUS TUF - https://futr.link/asus-TUF
  • Apple’s M1 chip
    • Apple MacBook Air M1 - https://futr.link/macbook-air-m1
    • Apple MacBook Pro M1 - https://futr.link/macbook-pro-m1

• Phones
  • iPhone 11 - https://futr.link/iphone-11
  • Google Pixel - https://futr.link/pixel-4a

• Headphones
  • Airpods - https://www.apple.com/au/airpods/ 
  • Galaxy Buds - https://futr.link/galaxy-buds
  • Galaxy Buds+ - https://futr.link/galaxy-buds-plus
  • Galaxy Buds Live - https://futr.link/galaxy-buds-live
  • Sony 1000xm4 - https://futr.link/wh-1000xm4 

• Cameras and recording equipment  (Don’t know what links to put for these)
  • Look at eBay for cheap studio equipment 
  • Any Canon Camera that will fit a 50mm portrait lens
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 - https://futr.link/canon-50mm
  • Sony RX100 series - https://futr.link/rx100vii
  • HyperX Quadcast - https://futr.link/HyperX-QuadCast
  • Logitech c922 webcam - https://futr.link/logitech-c922

Software/Sites:

• Team organisation tools /Workflow management systems 
  • Plutio - https://www.plutio.com/
  • Google Workspace - https://workspace.google.com.au 
  • Asana - https://asana.com/
• Graphic design and editing suites
  • Adobe Creative Cloud - https://www.adobe.com/au/creativecloud.html
  • Crello - https://futr.link/crello
  • Final Cut Pro - https://www.apple.com/au/final-cut-pro/  
• Website development
  • Local by Flywheel - https://localwp.com/ 
  • WordPress - https://wordpress.org/ 
  • Shopify - https://www.shopify.com.au/
  • Squarespace - https://www.squarespace.com/ 
• Email marketing software
  • Mailchimp - https://mailchimp.com/ 
  • Mailpoet (WordPress plugin) - https://www.mailpoet.com/  
• Royalty-free music/image providers
  • Our favourite free stock photo sites: https://futuretheory.com.au/4-best-free-stock-photo-sites/
  • Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/ 

• Online portfolios
  • Behance - https://www.behance.net/ 
  • Dribble - https://dribbble.com/
  • Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, Future Tribe. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. On this episode, we've got the second episode of this season, featuring a Futureheory. Staff members. So this time around it's Hayden, who is our podcast manager, and he's going to be editing this podcast this episode right afterwards. But how are you today? [00:01:08] Hayden: [00:01:08] Yeah, not too bad. Germaine. How are you doing  [00:01:10] Germaine: [00:01:10] good. Thanks. He used to feature a lot more, um, on the broadcast. Yeah. Thanks. Hopefully I haven't  [00:01:16] Hayden: [00:01:16] lost my touch.  [00:01:17] Germaine: [00:01:17] Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully you haven't lost your podcast persona.  [00:01:22] Hayden: [00:01:22] I listened to enough of them. I'm sure that I can get  [00:01:24] Germaine: [00:01:24] it back  [00:01:25] Hayden: [00:01:25] the rest off and I'll be, I'll  [00:01:27] Germaine: [00:01:27] be here. [00:01:27] Be good to go. Um, yeah, this, this episode is a bit of a different one from what you're used to. Um, we wanted to that the team had a chat and we wanted to come up with an episode that was a bit of a buyer's guide so that if you're buying. Something for the, for the festive season, for Christmas, for someone special or for yourself, you had something to go off, but then as an extension as well, we wanted to have an episode that would give you ideas around software tools, recommendations that you can use. [00:01:56] Um, no matter what sort of. Project you're working on. So, you know, whether it's the new year's resolution that you want to start your own podcast, um, or whether it's in new year's resolution that you want to start a side business or go go full time into your business. We hope that this episode essentially is it's just sort of cast a wide net and suggest things that are based off our experience based off using, using a lot of these tools, all of these tools, these are the things that we can vouch for ourselves and stand behind that, you know, You should go out there, buy these, buy these for like, I was just having a chat with some of the team earlier today that I think for a long time and you went there hadn't you hadn't got, gotten to work yet, but for a long time, and even now we, we sort of buy people, physical objects for, for Christmas or as gifts. [00:02:43] And I know games are technically software, but I feel like surely sooner, rather than later, people should start buying. They loved ones, software, like, you know what, why aren't we buying? Like I know it's not as cool, but why aren't you buying like a 12 month subscription to an accounting package for, you know, someone, someone who's really always thought about going into business, but had no idea because there's such a  [00:03:05] Hayden: [00:03:05] stigma around it. [00:03:06] I think like giving the physical gift is still what. Do you  [00:03:09] Germaine: [00:03:09] do at Christmas time?  [00:03:11] Hayden: [00:03:11] Yeah, because I mean, if you unwrapped like a card that says, you've just like got 12 months of like an Adobe creative suite subscription, I'd be like, wow, awesome.  [00:03:23] Germaine: [00:03:23] Maybe, maybe you're not enough of a nerd or a geek because I'd be so ecstatic if I got that. [00:03:28] Yeah.  [00:03:30] Hayden: [00:03:30] That is true. Yeah,  [00:03:31] Germaine: [00:03:31] it might be. I mean, saying that like, even in, even in sort of that more, I don't know how, how do you classify those people who would appreciate it? I don't know how to classify it. I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't want to put a label  [00:03:43] Hayden: [00:03:43] notice such a yeah. nerd is such an all encompassing term. [00:03:47] I feel like,

On this episode of the podcast, we chat with the co-founder of Base Soaps, Lianne Brink. Lianne and her life partner Mick started their company almost four years ago as a “passion project”, with the hope it would eventually generate some additional household income. The couple had no idea that in just a few years their small family business would evolve into one of Canberra’s most successful social enterprises. 

As Lianne highlights throughout the episode, the rapid success of Base Soaps is largely attributed to how well her business acumen complimented her partner’s product knowledge and people skills. Naturally, a great deal of this episode touches on what it is like starting and operating a company with your spouse, and the unique problems attached to such an arrangement. Additionally, Lianna discusses how she was able to get Base Soaps products into the hands of suppliers despite having an extremely limited budget and no industry connections. As the episode concludes, Lianne touches on the importance of social enterprises and how important the assistance of organisations such as Mill House Ventures was to the growth of her business. 

What we talk about

• How to break into the market, get your products into the hands of suppliers, and conduct market research
• Running a business with your spouse
• What it means to be a socially responsible company

Links from this episode

https://www.basesoaps.com.au/ (Base Soaps Website)

https://www.facebook.com/basesoaps/  (Base Soaps on Facebook)

https://www.instagram.com/basesoaps/ (Base Soaps on Instagram) 

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, future tribe. Welcome to another episode on this one. We have Lianne from Base Soaps. Tell me a bit, a bit, a bit about what you guys do, uh, Lianne.  [00:00:59] Lianne: [00:00:59] Sure. Um, thank you very much for having me on the podcast. So in my, um, company, um, is called Base Soaps, which I, um, run together with my, uh, my life and business. [00:01:12] and we produce and sell art sites, shampoo, bars, conditioned bars, and also liquid sites and, um, shaving sites and yeah. Base Soaps as a social enterprise, we started, we started this in early 2017, as they, as we felt. Very excited to, um, about the idea of starting a family business, um, kind of, uh, on the side business at the time and make heads been, um, had made so a few years earlier as, as a Christmas present for his brother. [00:01:47] And so he had kind of had looked into it and knew how to do it. So, yeah, we decided that would be a good, a good idea for, for a small business and, and just started from there.  [00:01:57] Germaine: [00:01:57] Why soaps? Um, I, when I think about soaps, I think of, you know, it's in sort of the fast moving consumer goods. Section of the market. [00:02:06] And from what I understand about soaps, um, just like a lot of commodity products, you really need to be selling at mass to make any sort of actual money and have a business, um, around it. You know, um, Unilever for example, is a company that comes to mind when I think about soaps. Why, why did you guys think, you know, you want to get into, into that, that sort of game? [00:02:29] Lianne: [00:02:29] Well, at the time we really were in a, like a, the, the big business mind space at all. We just wanted something that would enable us to start a business that would also enable us to start quiet on small scale, because we, we had a little baby and we had a mortgage, so we didn't want the, we were risk adverse, I guess. [00:02:48] And. Yeah, because, um, so it makes a chemist by trade. So he first started making, you don't have to be, but it does come in handy, you know, with better how things react the way they doing things like that. So we felt like that was for us a good way to start and, and you're right. I think it does. It you'd have to. [00:03:07] Her. So it almost to make it like the big money, but you know, businesses come in all sizes and for us, this was just a good, a good way to start and yeah.  [00:03:17] Germaine: [00:03:17] Sort of get your foot in, even sort of start playing around with the idea of having your own business, I guess, in a way that, um, is not going to be too soon, but sort of starting off with something. [00:03:29] So now I get what you mean. It's I guess business doesn't always have to be about making money or making huge. Huge profits. It can, it can be about, you know, making some decent money and having something that you can do on the side. Um, you mentioned when you got started in 2017, that this, it was more of a side hustle, is that fair to say? [00:03:49] Lianne: [00:03:49] Yes, because it was so small and it takes. Um, a few years, you usually with a small business to make any profits, we were, we had other jobs and we would, um, yeah, as an extra thing with the stock.  [00:04:02] Germaine: [00:04:02] So were you sort of working for, were both of you working full-time and then doing this after hours to start off with, or? [00:04:09] Lianne: [00:04:09] Um, so I was working part-time as well. I'm working part time. So yeah, it gives us a bit more space to do this as well.  [00:04:18] Germaine: [00:04:18] Yeah. Yeah, because I could imagine that there would have been a lot of experimentation at the start, let alone thinking about the whole marketing side of things, but you would have had to experiment with, um, compositions and, you know, flavors. [00:04:31] So the lack of a better word, sort of the, the different options. How did you make those decisions initially? Did you just sort of go with one. Skew or did you have, did you just open up with a whole bunch of options for customers  [00:04:46] Lianne: [00:04:46] right. From the start I had in my mind that I wanted it to be a very kind of a simple and plain Brent, it not too many options. [00:04:53] So we started with three and I remember that the one that we really wanted to start with the lemon Myrtle. And, uh, because I think a lot of people really liked that and it's always been one of our most popular products. So that was fun. That was. Donald, we were, we were doing that one and the other two, I can't quite remember, but I think we just played around and get some feedback. [00:05:15] When we started, we had one store in our hometown that we knew was interested in selling it. So we would have got feedback from them and, you know, thought about what we wanted to make. And yeah, it just went from there and it very quickly though, already banded out through, I think. Six spots. Six different sense. [00:05:36] So, because we were like, thinking, this is my spot too, and this is a nice one too. So we didn't keep it as simple as I had in my mind. But you know, you want to cater for everyone. Yeah. And we started quickly using different types of exposure and dispel. We use like Walnut shell and marketing and Michelle and. [00:05:54] So they're all quite different times, so,  [00:05:57] Germaine: [00:05:57] yeah. Yeah. Well, so you mentioned that, uh, your hometowns Bungendore so still Canberra region, but is the business based out of Bungendore then?  [00:06:06] Lianne: [00:06:06] Um, so yeah, our business is still at, uh, at our home and that is in Bungendore. We do have, um, a lot to do in Queanbeyan as well. [00:06:15] We have the storage there. And yeah, most of it is starting in Queanbeyan and Canberra.  [00:06:22] Germaine: [00:06:22] How's that been? So you still produce it out of Bungendore you then take it in and you, you don't have your own store. You just have a retailers who sell the product, correct? That's  [00:06:33] Lianne: [00:06:33] right. Yeah. We have an online store only. [00:06:35] And the rest it's or, um, other stores and it used to be markets as well. Not so much these days.  [00:06:40] Germaine: [00:06:40] Yeah. Give us an idea of, um, so when you mentioned you, you guys started in 2017, um, how old were the both of you just to give us an idea of, you know, the stage of life you are in, if you don't mind me asking. [00:06:56] Lianne: [00:06:56] I was 32, Mick was 35. And we, so we had, um, uh, my oldest daughter, she was born in 2015. So we had a baby that was over one year. And that's, I guess after that one year we kinda felt like we were. Starting to get back to normal again, getting out of that, that baby, um, came alive. Like we had a little bit more space, um, to start doing this. [00:07:25] Germaine: [00:07:25] Yeah. I mentioned was a, is a chemist. So he, he brings. That skill. What did you feel like you brought in sort of initially or what, what, what did you handle? How did you, I guess what I'm trying to understand is how you can balance this out, sort of working with a partner. Um, you know, you mentioned you put it really nicely. [00:07:44] He he's your business and life partner, but. I'm sure that that adds a level of challenge because you've got to put up with each other and you know, you don't want t

On this episode of the podcast, we had the pleasure of chatting with Tahlia Cooper, a local fashionista and entrepreneur who founded the wildly successful Jaeke collection in 2017. 

Despite her initial reservations about starting a fashion label with no previous industry experience, it took Tahlia less than a year after starting her company to get her pieces into the hands of some of Australia’s biggest socialites and on the red carpet of the 2018 ARIA awards. Throughout the episode, Tahlia talks about how she overcame the steep learning curve associated with starting an online retail business and some of the critical mistakes she made along the way. She also highlights how the digital marketing skills she developed when starting the Jaeke Collection helped her find lucrative job opportunities later in life. The show then concludes with Tahlia discussing the importance of entrepreneurial groups centred around empowering women, as well as the future of her boutique.

What we talk about

• Differentiation in the crowded fashion industry
• The learning curve associated with starting an online business from scratch
• Leveraging the skills you develop when starting a business into future job opportunities
• Female-led entrepreneurial groups 

Links from this episode

https://jaeke-collection.com/ (TJC Website)

https://www.instagram.com/jaeke.collection/ (TJC on Instagram)

https://www.facebook.com/jaeke.collection/ (TJC on Facebook)

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, future tribe. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. On this episode, I've got Tahlia Cooper from Jaeke collective. Did I get that right? Or collections? All right.  [00:00:59] Tahlia: [00:00:59] You did you did it is Jaeke. Jaeke? . Kind of like, cause you [00:01:09] look like my middle name's Jae. So it's spelled J a e it's yeah, it's a little bit different to, you know, classic J a Y. but when I started the business, because it's a Parisian themed boutique, I kind of wanted something that sounded a little bit, you know, unique, and also a little bit more premium. [00:01:27] And I guess Jaeke kind of just like came into the mix. So that's yeah.  [00:01:35] Germaine: [00:01:35] Yeah. I mean, you've got to, I guess it goes to show, you got to think a little bit more about your name than just sort of coming up with something it's got to like, like you've touched on, it's got to have that sort of Persian sort of European flavor to  [00:01:50] Tahlia: [00:01:50] it. [00:01:52] Germaine: [00:01:52] Hey, I mean, that's all part of sort of the vibe that you're going for and not bougie, but the sort of premium, aesthetic. We, we sort of jumped right into it on, on this episode so far, but give me an idea of, what you guys do first for those who don't  [00:02:08] Tahlia: [00:02:08] know. Yeah. Yeah. So basically we are an Australian online boutique. [00:02:12]we specialize in both men's and women's fashion and. Essentially the collection is sort of tailored around what I touched on earlier. Australian and Parisien is Parisian fashion trends. and I'd like to think that we're quite affordable and we're quite unique in market at the moment as well.  [00:02:31] Germaine: [00:02:31] Okay. [00:02:31] And, when did you start the business?  [00:02:33] So I started this a little over two and a half years ago. Now I was working in hospitality at the time. I had a budding career in hotel management and I was thinking to myself, you know, do I really want to be in hospitality for the rest of my life? No offense. I love everyone in hospital, but I just felt really uninspired. [00:02:53] And I thought, you know, I've done. I had a degree in entrepreneurial management. I managed people for a living as well, so I figured, you know, why not fuse those two together and come up with something creative that I can call my own. And it was kind of like, I try to think back about like when, when it started or why I did it. [00:03:11] And it was one of those things that just sort of. Jumped out of nowhere, I guess I kind of went home and started doing all this research. And, you know, if I look back on what my first website looked like, Oh my God, that thing was horrendous. And pretty sure it has like type of background, but, you know, we all start somewhere and yeah, I couldn't think of that, that I was just really uninspired and it just, just started the business out of nowhere. [00:03:35] Yeah,  [00:03:36] right. I mean, it's, I guess it just goes to show sort of, I believe that businesses started out of an out of a need and a passion and not, not sort of, I know a lot of people who spend time trying to work out, you know, I want to start a business, what's the business going to be in. And then they do all this research. [00:03:51] And what you end up with, I believe is sort of, you get into business because you want to. You want to get into business? Not necessarily because your, you have a passion or you have some need that you see you're solving. I mean, you've mentioned you guys are sort of unique in the market. so I would assume that you felt like there was a need for, for that sort of solution or that sort of product. [00:04:12] And then just sort of  [00:04:13] Tahlia: [00:04:13] same time. I have a really unhealthy obsession with clothes. So I mean like most. Girls my age as well. and I think when I started it, one of the big things that I thought about was, you know, spending all this money, giving to other online retailers and I had this light bulb moment was like, you know, if I have my own business, I'll have my own clothes that I can access little. [00:04:38] Did I know there's so much more work that goes into running a business and then just having a couple of blows on the side. yeah, that's kind of what fueled a little bit of, the business journey and start and just not wanting to do the nine to five grind as well with big, big factor there too. [00:04:55] Germaine: [00:04:55] Yeah, especially in hospitality, I assume that can be very tiring, very on your fate and managing people in hospitality. It's a, it's sort of a wild ride. I, I, I was thinking about it, like in the restaurant or hospitality space, you don't really. Ever know what's going to happen. When you, when you open, you don't know how many customers are gonna have it, or know how many orders are you going to have? [00:05:14] You sort of, it's like every day you just take upon and just go, okay, we're going to open up and then just go where it takes us. There's no, there's no real predictability. At least in a lot of other businesses, you can book in appointments. You can book in meetings. You can book in work. Hospitality is nothing like that. [00:05:30] So I'm sure there's an element of when you. Got into your own thing of having a bit more control and arguably a little bit easier. Even you talked about, you know, girls.  [00:05:41]Tahlia: [00:05:41] so 25, almost 26 now, but when I thought a Jaeke, I would have been like 2017, maybe 22, 23, I think. Yeah. Okay.  [00:05:52] Germaine: [00:05:52] So you were in hospitality at the time. [00:05:54] So you would have had a degree under your belt, sort of finished that up and then gone into full-time work at that  [00:06:01] Tahlia: [00:06:01] stage. So, because I'm in the hospitality industry or in hotel management, I was working nights. So that meant that I could go to uni during the day. So I would always work full time and I would always go to uni during the day. [00:06:13]but once that finished, I didn't really. Have anything else to do? I was just working and I was like, well, got to, I've got to do something with my degree. And I have got all these skills. and I had a, you know, full French, schooling as well since kindergarten. So I was fluent in French, for 10 years and thought maybe I should do something with my French language and my business acumen and make something of it. [00:06:39] Germaine: [00:06:39] Yeah. And so you're based in Canberra or  [00:06:42] Tahlia: [00:06:42] I was when I initially first started the online store, but that's the beauty of being online. Right. I can take it anywhere. I still have a lot of stocks still down there, but I'm now currently in Sydney and this is purely have a lot more suppliers up here. It's easier to have those day to day interactions with them. [00:07:00] Germaine: [00:07:00] Yeah. Yeah. So let's go. I, I'm definitely gonna get into, sort of suppliers and how you made that happen, but let's go rewind a little bit. So you, you were in hospitality, you decide that you want to try this business. What, what was the next step for you? Did you. Quit. And then just start the business from, from day one or what was your approach there? [00:07:24]Tahlia: [00:07:24] well, I couldn't quit straight away. I mean, if there's one takeaway, you can't just quit your day job, you know, you still, unfortunately still, you

On this episode of the podcast, we had a chance to chat with the founder of Send and Shred, Jo Clay. For those who don’t know, Send and Shred is an E-commerce business that allows companies to dispose of their sensitive documents in an environmentally friendly manner and ensure this waste does not end up in landfill. Naturally, this business idea was spurred on by Jo’s passion for sustainability, which she discusses throughout the episode alongside the trials and tribulations of starting a niche online business. More specifically, Jo discusses why she chose a lean business model for her company as well as the financial viability of the recycling industry. 

In the time between recording and publishing this interview, Jo was elected as a member of parliament in the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly representing the Greens. In the later parts of the episode, she details the process behind running a political campaign and what she hopes to achieve during her tenure in parliament. Additionally, Jo provides her stance on the role government agencies have in supporting sustainable businesses. 

What we talk about

• The recent ACT election
• Environmentally sustainable businesses 
• The financial advantages of starting an online company

Links from this episode

https://www.facebook.com/joclayginninderra (Jo on Facebook)

https://www.sendandshred.com.au/ (Send and Shred)

Find us elsewhere

https://futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

After a brief hiatus, the Future Tribe team is back with an all-new season of the show. We are excited to bring you some of our best interviews yet, as well as some other valuable content that will hopefully help you make your goals come true. To kick us off, Germaine sat down with Futuretheory’s new marketing coordinator, Kelsey Allen, to discuss Futuretheory’s recent rebrand and website launch. During the episode, our team members discuss what rebranding campaigns are meant to achieve and what the process looked like for us internally. This leads to a more general discussion about what constitutes branding, how to align your branding with your company’s market position, and how branding can affect business functions such as recruitment as well as sales.  

What we talk about

• Brand personality
• Logo design
• Aligning brand elements with company values

Join the community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/joinfuturetribe/

Links from this episode

https://futuretheory.com.au/podcast/ (Future Tribe Website)

https://www.instagram.com/futuretri.be/ (Future Tribe on Instagram)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/germainemuller/ (Germaine on LinkedIn)

https://www.instagram.com/germa_ne/ (Germaine on Instagram)

https://futuretheory.com.au/ (Futuretheory Website)

Transcript 

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated automatically and as such, may contain various spelling and syntax errors

Germaine: [00:00:00] Hello, Future Tribe and welcome to season three of the podcast. you'll notice actually that there's a few things that have changed this season, a few things with the podcasts, with the podcast cover with the intro and things like that. So I'd really love to hear what you think about. These changes that we've made this season is a little bit different.

[00:01:08] It'll feature all the usual conversations, but we'll also hear from three of our team members at feature theory, the team behind the podcast behind the Future Tribe podcast. if you didn't know, that's a good segue to get into our first guests this season on this episode. And that's Kelsey's our marketing communications coordinator.

[00:01:28] And she's here to discuss, a few of the changes that I've mentioned above and a few of the changes that we're making at Futuretheory. How are you today, Kelsey? 

[00:01:36] Kelsey: [00:01:36] I'm good. Thank you. How are you going to Germaine? 

[00:01:38] Germaine: [00:01:38] Good. Good. it's a little bit funny because we're in two different rooms, recording, but it's the best way that we could think of Jamaica to happen.

[00:01:47]tell us a little bit first about sort of your experience and then. Tell me a little bit about your experience of feature theory when you applied for the role of what two, three months ago. 

[00:02:00] Kelsey: [00:02:00] Yeah. Gosh, it does. It feels like it's gone very quickly actually, but yeah, it's about that time now.

[00:02:05]so yeah. my background in marketing, graduated from Monash with a bachelor of business in marketing, and I've worked at across a few different roles. In the past few years as I'm developing career, I'm one of those included being in London, which was an incredible experience, really loved that.

[00:02:19]and that was at a pharmaceutical company, internal comms, and also, various marketing comms roles, just, developing different companies, outward facing personas, so yeah, when I I dunno, it's a bit of an interesting story of how I came to Canberra. Not sure if it's appropriate for right now, I can go into that a different time.

[00:02:37]I found myself in Canberra during COVID and had some time to spare. So I was like, Oh, let's see what's out there. and this role popped up for Futuretheory as marketing coordinator for a couple of days a week. And I thought, wow, this looks great. It would be a fantastic way to continue to develop my career in a sort of local environment and everything.

[00:02:54]supplied for the role came in, had an interview with humane. We are now. 

[00:02:58] Germaine: [00:02:58] So yeah, 

[00:03:01]Kelsey: [00:03:01] exactly. And yeah, it was just a, an opportunity to really take a bit of ownership in the company. and. help take a company somewhere as well. with the team of very clearly passionate people. So super excited to be here.

[00:03:15] Germaine: [00:03:15] Yeah. Yeah. And, we should say in, you have been offered a full-time role, so you'll be coming on and around a lot more, you were with us part-time but you'll be around a lot more. Part of the reason why we hired you, was that we were looking for someone to look at Futuretheory, look at Future Tribe and look at everything that we're doing.

[00:03:34] And I guess look at it from an external in point of view. cause what I found was thinking about the business, thinking about everyone involved was that everyone who was already involved. Had almost what's the saying, like where you can't, when you're, so like in the forest, you can't see the trees or something like that, or your, we were so lost in it that we didn't necessarily see everything from the outside in.

[00:03:59] Did you, when you first saw Futuretheory and was exposed to the brand. What sort of first impressions did you get? What did you understand about what we do? 

[00:04:09]Kelsey: [00:04:09] Yeah, that's an interesting question. Cause I think, part of the application process was, a bit of a practical application, where you asked.

[00:04:16] Some notes on the website, for example. and I think from memory, I might've ripped into it a lot. 

[00:04:22] Germaine: [00:04:22] Hey, that's what we liked. We were looking for someone with honesty. So 

[00:04:26] Kelsey: [00:04:26] Exactly. yeah,  the website. Did what it needed to do to an extent, but I think I initially just saw a lot of opportunity for development.

[00:04:34]and to take it a little bit further, specifically looking at the website, beyond that, I I think I had a, quite a generic understanding of what the business was. just in the context of the space that the work that you do is in, But then, I guess coming into the interview process, it was very clear, the passion and everything that you Damien the rest of the team have for what you do.

[00:04:56] And I think for me, I saw a bit of a disconnect between the website and speaking to you in the interview and how they were presented so differently. So many, first impressions were that the website just wasn't doing the company justice. And there's a lot of opportunities to develop further on that.

[00:05:11] Germaine: [00:05:11] Yeah. And that's something that we identified as well, is that, every organization that we work with, basically all our clients have build something. They work on something with them, they make it themselves, or they get someone to develop it a few years ago thing before they come to us.

[00:05:26] And what we find is that, and ironically enough, we were in a similar position. What we found and what we find is that people just it just it's enough for a little while. So you just create that and you let it stay. And do you get stagnant, where in reality and organization, especially an organization that's thriving continues to change and continues to evolve, and it's important that our website and everything that you do represents that, For us, we'd when we built that website, it was not that long ago, but we were at sort of a point where we were starting to ramp up and things have changed a fair bit since then.

[00:06:04]when we introduced the podcast presence on the website was very sort of ad hoc. I don't know if you felt like if it looked like it to you, but it looked like it was just like. Glued in just attached as this side thing. did you see things like that through the website and through your initial interaction before you came in?

[00:06:25]Kelsey: [00:06:25] yeah, I suppose a little bit, Yeah. As I said, it just didn't feel like an overly cohesive yeah. Sort of website, that pulled together and communicated really effectively what you guys do and all the passion and everything. and I think, yeah, when it comes to the podcast as well, obviously that wasn't, as present, I think when you did the website, so checking that on afterwards, it's quite easy to fall into that trap of not considering it as.

[00:06:49] Part of the overall website, and having it tacked on in that sense. 

[00:06:53]Germaine: [00:06:53] yeah. And then when he joined, we had a logo, we had the bones of some sort of brand, but I think what we've done over the last, just the last few months is really start to flesh things out. and what we needed was this external person.

[00:07:08] And I keep telling Kelsey, we want to get all this stuff done from. get, I guess Kelsey's output before she gets into the second mentality. Not that it's a bad mentality, you become part of it. And then you just don't see, or don't always see the bits and pieces that a completely independent third party might see.

[00:07:27] So we just tried to over the last few months, what you will see is, and. Tomorrow or, on the Friday. So this episode will come out on a Thursday as usual. And on the Friday we'll be launching our new website. What you also see with that is that feature there is now got a new logo, a new website, and we've taken the time to really consider who we are, what we are and position ourselves and make sure that the whole website.

[00:07: