WEBVTT - #486 — Built It, Scaled It & Sold It. David Short’s Liquor Success & What’s Next 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:11.040 Welcome to the mentor. I'm Mark Boris, David short you're 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.319 the managing directman, and I guess the founder of short 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.520 Ink I n C short Ink, formerly the owner of 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.599 a Shorties liquor too. Welcome to the mentor. Mate, Thanks Mike, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.840 our mutual friend has got us here together. He's seeing 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:33.040 your praises. So, David, were you called Shorty at school? 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.320 I was, well, you're a big dude. You're about six 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.639 ft two. What are You're a pretty tall bastard. More 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:40.239 person the street and I said, who's this big guy? 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:45.600 And here walking wait waiting to get in. So you developed, well, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.480 can you go back to that time when you first 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:58.880 thought to yourself about Shorties as a as a business idea? 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.640 Like what we where did you think to yourself that 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.160 this is as potential to make a lot of dough 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.600 and maybe one day I'll sell it. I mean, I'm 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.200 always curious to find out people's mindset when they come 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.280 up with an idea. What sparks the idea? 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:19.600 Yeah, okay, Well I've been selling corporate booze for Porter's 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:20.800 Edgecliffe for a couple of years. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:23.760 Well what does that mean? Porters and porters? 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.760 But Porter's Edgecliffe at the time, in nineteen ninety eight 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.720 to two two thousand, or for ten years before that, 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:32.679 was a great corporate retailer. So they are supplying McQuary 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.880 bank right the law firms and merchant banks all their 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:38.480 beverage needs. And I got a job there as a 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:40.920 delivery driver and then worked there for a couple of years, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.720 then went traveling and I was actually traveling through Turkey 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.240 when September eleven happened, living in a treehouse and I 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.040 got an email from a cousin saying, Hey, we've got 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.840 the Australian Hotel and they just opened up cargo bar. 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:55.680 Do you want to come back and do that corporate. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.480 Liquor stuff for the Australian Hotel for. 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.639 The Australian Hotel out of the Australian Hotel and the Rocks. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.560 And then a couple of probably a year later than that, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.680 BW Wes brought Porter's Edgecliff and all of a sudden 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.080 we had a really good business. So, like you know, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:12.720 we sort of boomed and picked up a lot of 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.960 those existing clients that I used to manage and. 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.720 Then well do so if you just stop you there 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:23.960 from them, Dzer because BWS dash Porters lost those clients. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.160 Yeah, so BWS moved the bottle shop into the shopping center. 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:30.600 Right they got that, they brought the liquor license and 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:32.000 they stopped doing the corporate. 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.760 Oh, they stopped doing it. Yeah, so that opened up 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:35.320 for you guys. 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:36.960 That created a little niche and it gave us a 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.840 bit of a momentum to start picking up clients. And 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.359 then soon after that we had an opportunity to open 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.280 a bottle shop out at Road Shopping Center, which was 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.240 the first Shorties in two thousand and four with the 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.040 Walkers that we were very excited about. But it was 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.639 probably my lesson in learning how to run a business. 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.240 Because when you say the Walks, you doing Wark Corporation. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:54.400 Good corporation. Yeah. 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.080 So Walkers built Road Shopping Center in that precinct and 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.160 we excitingly took a bottle shop there. That was it's 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:02.520 pretty hard work in a shopping center when no one 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.359 turned up for the first a year or so, and 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.440 that sort of drove me. By that stage, you know, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.000 I'd borrowed one hundred and five grand off my brother 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.320 in law and my sister and it was like, you know, 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.720 I got to make this work. Three or four years later. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:17.880 After that, it was like, let's go back and do 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.280 corporate sales because the original plan was to open one 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:24.280 bottle shop every year for ten years, and we decided 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.760 not to do that. And I took a warehouse least 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:29.200 six hundred meters from the city in Ultimo in two 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.200 thousand and eight, and that was probably when I got 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.840 some real momentum. The GFC happened and a lot of 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.920 corporate businesses like De Lute started saying, you know, we 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.560 want to do all our entertaining in house, and they 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.280 employed Michelin chefs and you know they it became a 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.040 really good business. So what looked like could have been 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.520 a disaster, we sort of went from one or two 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.720 million revenue in one year to ten million in two years. 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:55.800 Well, what was your back if you go back to 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.640 early days when let's see, when you open up the 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.880 business in the bottle shop in roads shopping center, what 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.600 was your business model? Like people can come to me, 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:12.080 get my staff, they'd just walk into to the bottle 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.040 shop by the bird's walk out. Was that your model 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.360 or was your business model something more than that? Prior 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.480 to that, it was all deliveries. Yeah, and you were 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.200 going out of customers and saying what it would you 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.719 like to buy? Email and maybe saying this is some 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.960 specials we got on. It was more like sort of 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.560 like digital marketing a little bit, but by email or some. 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:31.160 Other or even back in the day we had an 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.000 ad pages, right, so you know under beverages bottle shops 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.920 now you know, saying corporate liquor supply, right. And we 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:40.960 always sort of built the business by taking photos of 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.400 the lobby and then we'd call call those businesses that 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.919 were in each building, organize the time to meet the 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.279 person that would organize the beverages off them bottle of 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.839 champagne if they'd give us fifteen minutes, and you know, 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.720 nine times out of ten would pick up the account. 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.520 So what did you take photographs to lobby for of 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.240 all the different businesses in there? So we're thick the 0:04:58.279 --> 0:04:59.279 of the lobby board. 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.599 Yeah, figured if we're already going to that building, would 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:03.760 take a photo of the lobby board and then try 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.960 and secure all the businesses in each building. And you know, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.080 over twenty years we ended up picking up sixty five 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:10.880 percent of the businesses in Sydney CBD. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.000 That's funny and that's what I often refer to was 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.159 wearing out the shoe leather and the old days. Ye 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:20.800 had no digital marketing as such back in that period anyway, heartily, 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:22.640 the old days actually is only twenty eight years ago. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:25.320 But the way you did was knocking on people's door 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.200 and go and seeing them and doing a demo or 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.760 talk them into it or explain the benefits and then 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.880 follow up the old school follow up, you know, back 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:39.000 on the phone to them, not even text. Everything was 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:44.240 like actual communication, actual communication, like old school communication and 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:45.240 door knocking. 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:46.760 It's exactly how we built it. 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.159 So that was your model. So what is to get 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:52.240 You did some retail. Wedge also did corporate corporate. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.159 Stuff, and then a good client would be someone that 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.440 would order one thousand to one and a half thousand 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.280 dollars every week and then one week. Once we built 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.400 the relationship with them, we'd invite them to wine tastings, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:04.400 like if the chef to Carve of Don Pererion was out, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.240 would do forty five minute master class so they could 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.480 come in and try a couple of wines or try 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.160 a couple of great don perions or penfolds, and then 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.000 still get home for dinner and be home with their families. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.920 So we did a lot of relationship building, We did 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.600 a lot of events within the corporate and we tried 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.880 to solve their problem. So this person was often using 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.800 three or four or five different suppliers, and we were 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.920 pretty much the complete beverage supplier for these corporate clients. 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.160 That means water, soft. 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:35.960 Drink, water, butcher juice, you know, then all their fine wines, 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:37.000 all their beers. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.800 How did you work out what the office should be like? 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.240 Did you work it out? Because I mean, obviously you'd 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.200 had a lot of experience in the corporate world, corporate 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.599 the liquor world, so to speak. But did you do 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.520 it by trial and error or did you sort of 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.720 survey them and say what is it you need from 0:06:55.800 --> 0:07:00.520 someone like me and our business to become like a 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.680 one stop shop? And I hate that bloody phrase, but 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:04.800 like as basically you're one stop shop when it comes 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:06.320 to beverages generally yep. 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.720 Well, we would ask the customers what they wanted and 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.160 would actually look at any other beverage that going into 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.360 that building as leakage. So we're trying and collect that 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.320 we'ld go to a deal with a supplier. Often it 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:19.480 was easier for them to deliver it to us and 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.440 then we could sell it to the client. So you know, 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.320 we were trying pick a core range and then pick 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.520 stuff that would sell, and then that would be what 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.160 we would offer. But you know, we went through all 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.360 sorts of different things over the years, aboriginal water for 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.200 some of the big four accounting firms because I had 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.000 to support supply nation cardboard water, you know, environmentally free 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.080 sugar free drinks. A lot of the big tech companies 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:42.840 were inspired by what they're using in San Francisco. So 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:47.920 I was like, you know, sugar free waters from France 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.320 and all sorts of different things. So we're very reactive 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.480 with what they wanted and that was our point of difference. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:57.000 So be but to have that point of difference in 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:00.400 terms of relevant relevancy, I mean, how do you how 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:04.880 did you remain market relevant? In other words, how did 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.720 you know what was going on in San Francisco or 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:09.280 how did you find this stuff out? 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.640 That would be part like So our key clients would 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:13.880 meet with them regularly every three months and there would 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:15.840 be an agenda and it would be like, what else 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:18.080 would you like, how can we make your work? 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.040 You would you tell them that, by the way, in 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:23.840 all the startups in San Francisco, they're drinking water from 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.120 our Lady of Lords and blessing themselves before they have it. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.000 Or or did they tell you we want the water 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.320 from our Lady of Lords. I think it was both. 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:36.520 You know, would ask them what they're what they're trying 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.840 to do, especially around sustainability. Do you know whether they 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:40.160 wanted to get away from plastic. 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.920 Bottles, because that's that's important because they're relevant, So you know, 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.240 sustainability is relevant relative to the cardboard carton, not in 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:47.040 a plastic. 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.079 Bottle, having non our college drinks at a function. 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.200 Yes, or hydrogen water like what they do these days. 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.600 People haven't put hydrogen water. Somehow they make it high. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.200 I don't know how they do it, but whatever it is, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:59.959 But how did you keep on top of the good? 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.600 I mean, are you a prolific reader or a prolific 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.120 viewer of some station on television or some station on 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.400 YouTube that's telling what the new, greatest and latest is. 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:10.880 We'll just ask the customers. 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.400 Yeah, would really just push the customers and you know, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.520 would consolidated all our customers, would meet. 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.800 With them all and from them. And when you say 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:20.160 we So we. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.720 Had a sales team that grew from just me, you know, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.400 to the end we had sort of five or six 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.079 full time salespeople. 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:29.559 And had and in terms of choosing your sales team, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.040 because you got your business up to be sure, he 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.319 is leaged to be quite available business. But obviously that 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.439 comes off the back of revenue, and the revenue comes 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.040 off the back of orders, and orders comes off the 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.480 back of these discussions, and these discussions come off the 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.559 back of having the right salespeople which you chose, and 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.480 then you're got to train them. So what was your process, like, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.040 how did you recruit a salesperson? Did you recruit them 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.640 in your own image? You know, like I know this 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:57.560 works for me, so I want people who like that, 0:09:57.720 --> 0:09:59.960 or did you yeah, how did you go about recruitment? 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.880 Definitely didn't recruit them in my image, but we do. 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.200 We recruited people that have been working in hospitality, a 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:08.640 lot of people that have been working, you know, five 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.600 nights a week, working in wedding venues or working Saturdays 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.600 and Sundays. Hospitality was always a good one because founds 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.679 what the customers needs were people that wanted to get 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.880 an intro into sales. So do you know we could 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.680 give them sales train and give them exposure to the 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.439 corporate clients, teach them how to do a sales agenda, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.160 manage the manage the clients. So that's how we predominantly 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.280 picked up clients, you know, passion for wine with secondary 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:34.240 So long as they're interested in it, we could teach 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:35.960 them all that. We could teach them about the product, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:37.840 but they had to have an energy and you know, 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.720 be prepared to knock on those doors. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:45.120 As you said, it's a tough gig, and salesmen selling 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.200 an idea selling the wine is probably not really what 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.920 they're doing is probably more selling the whole concept. How 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.920 did you how did you? I mean, do you map 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.760 out a training program? Did you build a training program? 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:00.200 These are the steps or these are the things I 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:01.559 want you to be good out and these are things 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:02.880 that are going to train you at. Yeah. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:04.560 Over the years and over the years we got better 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.640 salespeople too that came in and helped lead the team 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.760 and they brought different different structures to it. We had 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.040 a really good chairman for a long time that introduced 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:13.400 a lot of sales skills. He had done a lot 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.960 of sales training and previous jobs. So we had a 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.240 very clear the business had a clear plan. Do you 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.280 know for the last fifteen years, we've had a strategy 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.240 on what we're doing, how we're going to achieve it, 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.360 and then really clear KPIs with the sales team, and 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.480 they were sort of given a portfolio of clients and 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.199 was their job to grow them. We lost very few clients. 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.920 So because I often talk about this reducing stuff to 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.480 writing as opposed to just you calling your five sales guys. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.959 You're sitting there in charge them, for example, and you 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.600 talk for two hours and everybody no one takes the notes. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.679 There are no summarison made after it. There's no takeaway 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.600 that they can put into a folder, you know, which 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.960 might have a mental thought, which might have clips in it, 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:54.800 which you can sort of say, this is last week's meeting, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.800 and so that then they've got nothing to refer to. 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.880 I mean I often make two talks and I can 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.440 talk to three or for a bit there, and virtually 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.880 no one's writes them down, And I think, why are 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.000 you here if you're not going to write a note? 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:11.960 Yeah, Well that would infuriate me, especially if they went 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.240 and saw a client didn't take notes. So if they 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.000 if they're going to take fifteen to twenty minutes of 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:17.800 the client's time, we want an agenda. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.000 We went climb was to see that. 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:20.840 Yeah, we want to keep that on record too. So 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.480 if they leave, or if there's a new person or 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:24.360 the account get shifted to someone else, you can see 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.520 the change because often the point of contact would change 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.720 it a corporate client, but not the you know, not 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.200 the account manager or vice versa. So do you know 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.440 we wanted that history of being able to see, you know, 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.680 what they've been asking for, what they're what they're looking 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.800 for to, you know, to make their workplace better. And 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.520 often they were looking at us for guidance. Yeah, you know, 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:44.120 because they don't want the booths turning up late on 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.199 a Friday. They want to pick a beer that you know, 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.760 everyone enjoys drinking, or if the CEOs of organizing a 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.360 really special event, they want great booths. So do you 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:55.640 know they trust us? 0:12:55.880 --> 0:13:01.480 Yeah, it's because trust is an interesting concept. Brand is 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.600 interesting when it comes to trust, and trust is interesting 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.040 when it comes to brand, Like but why do I 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.200 trust you? I trust you because I know you will 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:09.679 be on time you say you're going to be at 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.040 two o'clock. You be the two o'clock. I know, I 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.720 know you from last time. Familiarity, Like I don't want 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.200 to see a different dude every time or girl. I 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.400 want to know that your content is good, Like you 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:25.880 know you have valuable insights into the content that you 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.000 will share with me. You can say you know you're 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:29.480 a Deloitte and you want to be able to say 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.640 listen KPMG without giving any name. Way, like one of 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.040 your competitors, there's a style. But one of your competitors 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:39.080 has been buying a lot of is that they found. 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.840 It's very successful. Were they're bigger clients. Giving them, you know, 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.720 a French wine instead of an Australian wine, or giving 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.920 an Australian wine instead of a French wine, or giving 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.400 them a low soul fights wine or a low whatever 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:57.240 wine or a non preservative no preservative wine has gone 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.120 down a treat with their clients. That's what builds trust 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.319 because you give me something valuable, Yeah. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:04.920 One hundred percent, and then you take that one step 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.679 further and we'll build a lot of experiences that we're 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.080 doing so our supplies. We'd do strategy sessions with our 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.800 supplies about how we could retail their product with excellence 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.520 and more. Ennessy is an example. Would work out how 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.920 we could retail Verve and Molt with excellence. That might 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.520 be on Melbourne Cup Day in these corporate offices, you know, 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.920 setting them up as bars with Berkeley Co Bars or 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.280 Womb champagne bars with the glasses, the branded glasses, with 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.800 a price for the best dressed. And from that we 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.560 would hit up the supplies and go what's Verv's brand name, like, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.040 don't give all your marketing material away to the fancy 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.520 bars in the city. We've actually got you know, five 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.560 hundred thousand people for two or three drinks on a 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.240 Thursday or Friday afternoon before they go into the bars. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.880 So we had we had a big influence around. You know, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.200 we got a lot of brand money from the supplies 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:53.560 to activate these events. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.000 So so you sort of in marketing, you did their 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.160 marketing for them, particularly like the big Unfortunately big corpors 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:04.160 aren't great at marketing generally speaking, particularly internally. It's nearly 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.320 like a HR exercise firm, like I'm doing something for 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.840 my Cup Day, could be Christmas, could be a birthday, 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.440 could be whatever. An anniversary of the firm being a thing, 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.040 or could be celebrating some big acquisition, or they could 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.800 have sold something, or they could have had a great 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.200 financial year and blah blah blah. You know, it could 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.880 be a town hall, you know, because a lot of 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.000 these organizations have town halls, particularly in the quarries and 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.680 all the sorts of people of the world. The big 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.360 banks are doing the all the time because they staff 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.920 need updates. The staff needs to know I work here 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.600 every day, But what the hell's going on? What are 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.840 you guys doing? Like do we make money this year? 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.760 You know? You know, how how are we going relative 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.400 to our competition, because you know, competition Australias pretty fierce. 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:51.960 So and liquor alcohol or beverages just generally this say, 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.280 beverages is an important part of the Australian fabric in 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.160 terms of celebration, but it's also an important part of 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:01.880 the fabric of like, let's networking, knowing your colleagues at 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.560 a workplace. If you've got one drink and I'm a 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.720 twm to get blind drunk, I'm talking just a drink, 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.120 even if it's a half a drink, it sort of helps. 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.600 I'm one of those people. I mean, I don't really drink, 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:14.600 but I will have a glass of something in my 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.200 hand because it just makes me feel more relaxed in 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.800 my conversation without even drinking it. It's sort of like 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:24.720 having something to do with my hands, if you know 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:26.600 what I mean. It takes the awkwardness away from me. 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.360 And we always found that we get. The feedback we 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.160 got was that the Friday drinks and those Christmas parties 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.160 was the opportunity for the mail room person to talk 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.480 to the CEO and get a pulse for what what's 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.320 happening in the company. And that was the beauty of 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.200 the events that we did. Whether it was for one 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.280 of the banks entertaining one of the accounting companies, or 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:50.000 vice versa. We often were the icebreaker. So we would 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.040 often put on an event that would go or a 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.440 wine tasting or a really simple experience where they could 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.880 meet someone, you know, iconic in the industry, or we 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.240 could teach them how to make a cocktail. I could 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.120 try a couple of different beers and then we would disappear, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:04.880 and you know, their weight stuff would take over. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.159 It was interesting. I wonder. I mean, you may or 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.160 may not know the answers, But I just often wondered 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:16.560 whether Australia has a lot more of this going on 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:21.840 than say, in the USA. I mean, is that a thing, because. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:23.440 Yeah, I believe so, and I think Sydney had a 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.080 lot of it. I when the Friday drinks and the 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.119 Thursday drinks have really wound down since COVID. 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.439 Yeah, is that right? So our timing, well, no one 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.119 goes to work on Friday. No one goes to work 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.719 on Friday. I don't mean that facetiously. I mean it's 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.359 seriously because my mate, my cousine, Shanes a restaurant across 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.640 the ref and he said to me the new Friday 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.160 when they were people go for drink afterwords? Now Thursday, yeah? 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.960 Or Wednesday? Yeah? Or no? Maybe he said Wednesday. Maybe 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.439 that's what it is. So that's that's the new Friday. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.119 There's another night of the week where everybody goes and 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:50.040 has a few drinks. 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.880 So, you know, we found that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays were 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.040 a lot more we were doing a lot more events 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:58.920 in the last three or four years. Prior to that 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.520 it was and we did expand down in Melbourne. But 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.560 we found that it was a really Sydney centric thing too, 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.600 because you've got these beautiful officers overlooking the harbor and 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.320 they wanted to activate these spaces. And they can activate 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.440 the spaces by clients walking in there and having a 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:14.520 look in the waiting room, but when they're really doing 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.320 events and when they're really doing presentations, it's where they 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.440 could amplify the event, like and as you said, having 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.000 a glass in the hand, it sort of opened up 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.080 the clients and they could engage with them. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.760 But sort of yeah, it's sort of like and it's 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:27.600 interesting you tapped into this, but it's sort of like 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.240 what do you call it? A neutralizer? So like you're 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:36.160 the I'm the receptionist and you're the MD, and I've 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:38.240 got a drinking you've got we've both got something the same, 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.440 something like immediately I've sort of come up to your level. 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:43.800 You've come down to my level, which are where you 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.600