MATE 040 – A futurist’s prediction of civilisation in 300 years, with Steve Sammartino (PART 2)

Steve Sammartino is back for more! In the second half of his chat with Adam, Steve predicts where Planet Earth is headed, (it may scare you) and he also gives some brilliant tips that anybody chasing success can apply in their career & day-to-day life.

 

Topics:

  • Steve’s hack for communicating facts through the art of storytelling
  • “Marketing is telling stories to get people to believe in something you believe in”
  • Steve opens up about his weaknesses, and what he does to work around those
  • Can missing deadlines actually be beneficial in starting a business?
  • The mobility revolution that is upon us, and how it will dramaticaly change the world we live in
  • Where will the world be in 20, or even 300 years? Steve predicts the future
  • Elon Musk’s Tesla could become the world’s greatest company
  • The inspiration behind Steve’s book ‘The Lessons School Forgot’

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 039 – How to build a life-size LEGO car powered by air, with Steve Sammartino (PART 1)

Steve Sammartino is a charismatic radio host, futurist, author, public speaker, entrepreneur, technology strategist and former advertising strategy director.
Steve talks about his career successes and failures, what lead him to being a speaker, and how he teamed up with a teenager from Romania to build a functioning car made from Lego. This is the first instalment of an entertaining TWO-PART MATE Podcast episode. ENJOY!

 

Topics:

  • Do big businesses just pretend to love their customers?
  • Yesterday’s dollar Vs today’s dollar Vs tomorrow’s dollar
  • Being an entrepreneur as a child
  • Why Steve spent over a decade in a job that he didn’t really enjoy
  • Steve’s book ‘The Lessons School Forgot’
  • Steve’s startup business Rentoid
  • How Uber removed the friction of transactions
  • Steve’s move from being an entreprenuer to Director of Strategy and Innovation within the advertising industry, and his time working with Gray Advertising
  • How blogging lead Steve to becomning a published author
  • The story of a Romanian teenage boy who approached Steve about making a Lego car, and a Lego spaceship which was sent into orbit! This became The Super Awesome Micro Project
  • Steve’s book foray into public speaking
  • What goes into writing a book? How do you make things translate to the page? Steve breaks it down.
  • “Smartphone technology is very immature”

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 038 – My start-up failed and here’s what I learned, with Tommy McCubbin (REBROADCAST of MATE 008)

Tommy McCubbin—advertising Creative Director, dad and podcaster—joins me on MATE to discuss why he thinks advertising sucks, how to avoid the #1 start-up mistake and share his thoughts on podcasting. We jump right into his controversial opinions about the advertising industry and why traditional ads don’t work. Tommy reveals the harsh truth behind why his start-up failed and the warning signs he ignored. And we also talk about exciting new technology, trends in podcasting and how to succeed with side projects.

 

Topics:

  • Tommy’s podcast: Future Sandwich.
  • Family (not work) is the only thing that ultimately matters.
  • Writing lists to be productive
  • OmniFocus, the to-do list app mentioned in MATE episode 004, with Leigh Price.
  • Written lists reduce stress and get things out of your head
  • Why traditional ads suck (why we should be creating platforms and products instead of campaigns).
  • What does an advertising Creative Director do?
  • Why is advertising work called “the creative”?
  • Advertising teams were originally organised into departments by discipline; there’s a documentary film about it called Art & Copy.
  • The shift towards everyone in an ad agency being “creative”.
  • Happy Wife, Tommy’s gift reminder app (which has since been shuttered).
  • WhisperTip, bringing pub sports tipping to the 20th century.
  • Why you shouldn’t fall in love with your start-up idea
  • Prove your concept by trying to extract cash from people for your start-up prototype
  • Friends are the worst judges of your start-up because they’re inherently biased
  • The Future Sandwich podcast was modelled off Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
  • The trend of narrative journalism in podcasts (i.e. shows with a “story arc”).
  • Recent Future Sandwich episodes:
  • Here’s the video of PJ Vogt talking about how the best podcasters on Earth don’t even really know what they’re doing:

$5 cash for 5x episodes of MATE ad-free
$5 cash for 5x episodes of MATE ad-free

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 037 – How to break bad habits, buy a private island and argue with billionaires, with Maneesh Sethi (REBROADCAST of MATE 011)

Maneesh Sethi is a serial entrepreneur and a serial troublemaker. He’s the founder of Pavlok, a habit-changing wearable wristband which gives you electric shocks. His career is pervaded with shocking (no pun intended!) stories … like the time he bought his own private island; the story of how he wrote a best-selling book at 14 years-old; or when he had a heated argument with billionaire Mark Cuban on Shark Tank. Maneesh has spent time working with some of the all-time best business thinkers, and in this episode of MATE he shares the business advice he personally received from the likes of Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin and Richard Branson.

 

Topics:

  • What is bootstrapping a company?
  • The Outsiders, by William N. Thorndike, which analyses unconventional CEOs and what made them successful.
  • Maneesh explains why Series A parties are bullshit. You’re buying drinks with borrowed money.
  • Pavlok follows the growth philosophies outlined in Scaling Up, by Verne Harnish.
  • Hear the best business advice Maneesh ever received from Seth Godin

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 036 – How artificial intelligence and robots are revolutionising gardening, with Rory Aronson from FarmBot (REBROADCAST of MATE 014)

Rory Aronson revolutionised agriculture when he created the coolest invention ever—FarmBot—an AI robot which farms your veggie patch. Seriously, this autonomous robot plants seeds, waters the garden, checks the soil nutrients and kills the weeds. In this episode of MATE, Rory explains how he built this precision agriculture machine and why it’s going to transform the agriculture industry. We also discuss how he hacked the product launch video to go viral and smash the goal on their crowdfunding campaign.

 

Topics:

  • What is CNC farming and what are the benefits?
  • How FarmBot works and how to build one
  • Who FarmBot is created for
  • Why Rory decided to make FarmBot open-source
  • How FarmBot compares to traditional methods of agriculture
  • Plans to make FarmBot available for under $1,000
  • Kickstarter’s impact on launching the project
  • How to make your product launch video campaign go viral on social media
  • How Rory has dealt with the sudden media attention of becoming an instant celebrity
  • What’s exciting you right now? Burning Man.

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 035 – The challenges of designing a blockbuster iPhone game, with Ryan McLeod (REBROADCAST of MATE 006)

Ryan McLeod—designer and developer of Blackbox for iPhone—talks to me via Skype about how and why he came up with this crazy idea for an iPhone puzzle game. We talk about some of the design challenges he encountered while making Blackbox, and explore what life is like as an indie developer (when the hordes of fans come bashing on your door wanting new levels!). Ryan also discusses the principles of good design, and what it’s been like creating an interaction-heavy game without a formal design background. It’s a fascinating and hilarious chat!

 

Topics:

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 034 – Making successful advertising campaigns, with award-winning creative Daniel Sparkes

Daniel Sparkes is a Cannes Gold Lion and D&AD Yellow Pencil award-winning advertising creative, with a flair for side-projects. He’s also a long-time friend of Adam’s and a MATE podcast fan. In this fun and interesting chat, Daniel talks about his passion for creativity, how his personality shapes the way he approaches his work, and the experiences that lead him to where he is today.

 

Topics:

  • What is an Advertising Creative?
  • Daniel’s experience breaking into the advertising industry
  • Working for Leo Burnett, and what others can expect once they enter an agency
  • What is Daniel’s “superpower”?
  • The theory that creative agencies are a thing of the past
  • Daniel talks about some of the most successful campaigns he’s seen, from the likes of American Express and Adidas
  • How the Reword app is helping to curb cyber-bullying and the PR that helped it take off
  • Daniel and Adam have a healthy debate over industry awards:
Are they really the “be-all, end-all” of industry recognition?
  • “To be in culture is to be relevant”, and why watching that Justin Bieber video you hate, can be beneficial
  • The benefits of having side projects to stay creatively healthy
  • Daniel’s successful side projects such as “Pillaring”, and failed side projects such as entering kid’s colouring competitions
(Yes, you read that correctly)
  • Interactive artist Ivan Cash, and his influence as a creative
  • Amazon’s upcoming move into the Australian market

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 033 – Powerful public speaking tips from TEDxMelbourne curator Jon Yeo

Jon Yeo is an executive speaker coach and the curator of TEDxMelbourne. In this episode of MATE, he gives some powerful tips to delivering an effective public speech, he tells us the key elements to moving TEDx Talk and he tells us what it’s like going to the global TED conference.

Jon Yeo
Jon Yeo

 

Topics:

  • How Jon’s background in IT at the time of Y2K aka “The Millennium Bug”, incidentally lead him to where he is today
  • Intense focus
  • What does a Speaker Coach do?
  • Content, delivery, composure, and vocal preparation: Is one more important than the other?
  • “Great communication is universal”
  • Make your speech accessible to your audience
  • Thought leadership and reputation trumps features and benefits
  • Apple’s trust relationship with their community of customers
  • Jon tells us what makes a great speech, some of the mistakes speakers make and gives us a taste of his ‘9 Elements’ to a great speech.
  • Jon shares his story of a Nigerian gun runner, and how Jon helped turn his story into a powerful thought-provoking message
  • The power of ideas, and asking the question “what if it wasn’t?”
  • FEAR causes us to lose LOGIC
  • The TEDx experience, culture, the history of TED Talks and the TED mantra: “Ideas worth spreading”
  • Jon tells us about some of the most notable, transformative and surprising TED Talks he’s seen
  • Jon’s heavy involvement with TEDxMelbourne conference, and how he is preparing speakers for their upcoming event on 19th September 2017)

 

TED Talks mentioned:

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 032 – Community Management vs Social Media Management, with Alison Michalk from Quiip

With a newborn baby, Alison Michalk took a crazy leap and started her own business, with the goal of a better “work/life blend”. Alison is the CEO and Founder of Quip, Australia’s leading Community Management provider. She’s also a Founder of Swarm Conference, Australia’s only conference dedicated to online community managers. In this episode of MATE, we talk about why forums are still not dead, how to build and nurture online communities, how Facebook is eating the world (and whether that’s a good thing) and how to manage your business through a crisis. We also dispel the ongoing battle, once and for all: Community Management vs Social Media Management.

Alison Michalk
Alison Michalk

 

Topics:

  • Why online forums are still not dead!
  • The ways in which forums are better than social media sites
  • How Alison’s experience moderating online communities led her to start Quiip
  • What is Quiip?
  • What is Community Management?
  • Community Management vs Social Media Management
  • How nurturing a brand’s community can lead to increased customer loyalty and customer satisfaction
  • Social media’s positive impacts on customer service
  • Alison’s primary motivation for starting her own business: flexibility and freedom.
  • Quiip encourages employees to pursue their dreams outside of Community Management
  • Remote work is the future of employment
  • The “work/life blend” philosophy
  • Starting a business with a newborn
  • Chatbots and the messaging mega-trend
  • How edgy brands can exhibit a cavalier, yet fun, tone of voice on their online communities (e.g. 7-Eleven, Boost Juice and Lorna Jane).
  • The key principals of community management
  • Facebook’s tumultuous relationship with its users
  • Facebook’s tumultuous relationship with brands and advertisers
  • Can we trust Facebook? Do we even have a choice?!
  • The responsibilities of social media platforms
  • Challenges with Facebook Live
  • The thing to remember about Facebook: it’s a business.
  • The genesis of Swarm Conference
  • How to manage a business crisis
  • The key question every manager should ask their employees: “I don’t know, what do you think?”

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 031 – Simon Davenport’s lessons from marketing at Officeworks, Boost Juice and Kmart

Simon Davenport is one of Australia’s premier marketing professionals, with 12 years’ experience in the field. He’s spent the majority of his career working in senior leadership roles at some of Australia’s most iconic retail brands. During this chat, Simon explains what he’s learned about marketing from working at successful businesses like Officeworks, Kmart and Boost Juice. In 2016, Simon was inducted into the very exclusive The Marketing Academy as one of the industry’s most influential and successful leaders. Simon’s main goal is to inspire and motivate the next generation of marketing leaders, something he absolutely does in this episode of MATE.

Simon Davenport
Simon Davenport

 

Topics:

  • Simon reflects on his early years, studying marketing and working in creative advertising agencies.
  • Why creativity is crucial in marketing
  • What Simon learned while working for retail giant Kmart: “No business is too big to benefit from change”.
  • How a youthful culture helped Boost Juice grow to over 250 stores worldwide
  • Boost Juice had a policy for their head office staff to spend time working in customer-facing roles in the retail stores, which helps them better understand the brand.
  • What Simon learned from Boost Juice founders Janine Allis and Jeff Allis (Janine is also a co-host of the entrepreneurial reality TV show Shark Tank).
  • “Passion produces great products”. But can you design for that? And if so, how?
  • What Simon has learned in his current role at Officeworks, Australia’s leading stationery and office supplies chain.
  • The similarities Simon has seen in all of the successful brands he’s worked with
  • Simon Davenport considers his career speciality as being “the fixer”.
  • Simon’s #1 leadership tip: “Ask the experts in your team the right questions”.
  • Does advertising actually work?
  • Simon breaks down the three roles of advertising: (1) sales activation; (2) functional benefits; and (3) emotional priming.
  • What are the consequences of abandoning any of those roles?
  • What does having a “brand purpose” mean?
  • The internal and operational challenges of getting an emotion-driven “brand purpose” campaign launched
  • How Simon was selected for an exclusive leadership program with The Marketing Academy
  • Simon’s advice about leadership in marketing
  • Why Simon keeps a gratitude journal

 

Links:

 

Sponsors:

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 

MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.