In today’s episode you’ll learn:
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Why asking for help is one of the most important things you can do for your business
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How to form and sustain meaningful relationships with suppliers and manufacturers
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STOKEDNZ’s rapid success and loyal following
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Debs’ go-with-flow approach to business
Where to find Debs, the books and podcasts she talks about on the show:
Where to find Debs
https://stokednz.co.nz/
Books Debs recommended
Podcasts Debs recommended
Transcript:
Dahna Borg
Hi, and welcome to the Bright Minds eCommerce podcast. I’m Dahna, founder of Bright Red Marketing, Your eCommerce advertising specialist. Today we’re here with Debs Brocklesby from Stoked and Den, Debs launched stoked in then after recovering from a brain injury. While still recovering, the thing she missed the most was being out in nature, biking, surfing, hiking. She also realized life can be super short and always knew she wanted to work for herself. Fast forward a couple of years and she has a multiple-figure business that hit six figures in its first year and continues to grow, Debs is so deeply passionate about the human she works with to make the tallies and loves that StokedNZ is ethically made and transparent. That is completely self-taught with a previous career working in high-performance sport. She had no eCommerce, marketing, or business experience, but has gotten this far with naivety a lot of hard work, and heaps of passion. I love this episode as Debs shares her story as well as many lessons she’s learned along the way. So let’s get into it. Welcome to Episode 17.
Dahna Borg
Hi, and welcome to the bright minds of the eCommerce podcast. Today we’re here with Debs from StokedNZ. Welcome. Hi, I’m so happy to have you on the show.
Debs Brocklesby
I’m so stoked to be here. Thank you so much.
Dahna Borg
A pleasure to have you. So tell us a little bit about how StokedNZ started.
Debs Brocklesby
Okay, so I was working in a corporate and a cool job. And I had a freak accident that resulted in a brain injury in 2015. Long story short, it was a really long recovery. I couldn’t cross the road, I couldn’t leave my house. I was like, you know, standard hip injury in a dark room. And the thing I miss the most was like being at nature, swimming, mountain biking, kayaking, doing all the things and towelie something that I already had, but everything on the market at the time was like, I don’t know, like, a little bit rubbish or not exactly how I wanted it.
Dahna Borg
Yep.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, like with a little bit of naivety and a lot of hard work I guess, I launched Stoked.
Dahna Borg
Awesome. So for those of us who don’t know, I know because I’ve looked at your website and I’m now I need one. What is a towelie for those listening?
Debs Brocklesby
Sorry, fickle. So, a towelie is it’s a towel puncture. So we make ours out of TURKISH COTTON. So that’s super quick-drying, they pack it really small. And it’s essentially I’ve made them quite baggy. So it’s like a portable change room and a towel all on one. So if you’re on the beach, and there’s no way to change, or after a mountain bike ride, and there’s no like public toilets, you can throw it on and at the side of your car, like literally get dry and changed into a whole new set of clothes without anyone saying anything.
Dahna Borg
Yep. And now that I’ve seen these, I now need one in the back of my car, because I live on the Gulf Coast, and I go to the beach a lot. And my life is now no longer complete. I now need one so that I can get changed at the beach. So being completely self-taught, what was probably one of your earliest lessons in business?
Debs Brocklesby
Oh, there’s a lot. One of them would definitely be: get help. Like, so find the experts, reach out to people that have forged a similar path to where you want to go. You needed all the big picture dreaming and all the thinking and ultimately, know your life or being in business or starting a business. But for some of the more technical aspects like Facebook ads, for example, reach out to experts and be a sponge and yeah, learn as much as you can. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and do it all the hard way. Yeah, I did a lot.
Dahna Borg
What was that the first thing that you kind of got help with that you were like, why didn’t I do that? You know?
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, so I got a business mentor, kind of right near the start. And my parents were like, well, that’s a chunk of money. You could spend it on so many things. But to be honest, she really helped me, like, lay the foundations for my business. You know, everything; marketings, legals, financials, all the things. And yeah, without that, I don’t know, I think it just took a lot of the way of the like, time of figuring out, do I need this? Do I not need this? And just setting up like good practices?
Dahna Borg
No, I think that’s great. So obviously, one of the big things about your business is that it’s ethical. Why is ‘ethical’ so important to you? And what does that mean for you and for your business?
Debs Brocklesby
So I’m in New Zealand, and obviously, we’re recording this during COVID-19. And there’s a lot of discussions right now about finding modes of the local economy. And while I’m all for that, I think that the question should actually be instead of “Is it in New Zealand made?”, I think the question should be “Are the people making our things good humans? Do they have good working conditions? Are they exploited? Are they paid fairly?” I think those are the questions we should be asking. So yeah, right at the start. like I always knew, like for me rural, all that people in the planet because those are my values in Stoke, it’s just an extension of myself, basically.
Dahna Borg
Yep.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah. When it started getting a little bigger, I got a wholesale order for 1000. So I flew to Turkey, with no idea. I talked to a bunch of families. And then when I work with two families, and I’ve, I’ve had cups of tea with them, I’ve hugged it out with them, I take them gifts. They don’t all speak English. My Turkish is a bit rubbish. But the wise guy that I deal with the most, he can translate everything else and, like, hugs are a universal language and…
Dahna Borg
Which is true.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, yeah. And I just think it’s so important that like, oh, that like family, you know, without them, I wouldn’t have a business and without me, I help like, I paid their wage. Do you know what I mean?
Dahna Borg
Yeah, you fund their livelihood.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah.
Dahna Borg
That’s really lovely. I love that you’re that close with them too. Like, it’s not just some Oh, we went through an unethical supplier and I know they’re good, then. You know, like, you’ve been to their house, you’ve given them hugs, you bring them presents like it’s a real relationship, rather than just straight business deals via email.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, for sure. So I was going pre-COVID. I went every year. So I’ve been over twice. And yeah, it’s really important to me. I’ve seen, it’s like it’s a generational family business for them, too. So yeah, I just think it’s really cool. And I can’t imagine doing business without them now, but absolutely…
Dahna Borg
That’s so lovely. I love that. So for anyone who wants to start an ethical business, or for someone who’s moving towards that kind of model, do you have any suggestions or tips for people in either making that transition? Or at least starting from scratch that way?
Debs Brocklesby
Do a lot of research. It’s really there’s so much greenwashing…
Dahna Borg
Yeah.
Debs Brocklesby
…everywhere right now, but I think you just need to do a lot of research. And honestly, for me, because I was already getting TURKISH COTTON out of Turkey before I flew through another supplier that I found just by hours of googling. And when I went over there, this was still like, because I got the wholesale order really early on in my business. So it was sore at the start. And going over and finding the families and then choosing to work with them, honestly. Relate like it was the biggest step in my business. Relationships are key. So there’s no fast track, there’s no easy way. But I think you need to like go and physically see for yourself that like their actual working conditions, all that kind of stuff.
Dahna Borg
Yeah.
Debs Brocklesby
Like chat to the makers. And then you can build relationships. You’re not just this, these words at the end of an email. You’re human, and you’re equally invested in the relationship. I think that’s really important.
Dahna Borg
Yeah, I think that’s good. I think a lot of people kind of get stuck into that I can just google and I’ll work it out. And all these people say they’re ethical and kind of go from there. I love the idea. I mean, especially being an ethical business, like it’s really nice that you’ve met these people and you’ve you know, you can establish that relationship face to face. Well, I mean, you could pre COVID it’d be a little bit more difficult now, I suppose.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, but now like so the main guy that I deal with like they had a baby during COVID. And then like, they see my photos. And like, I remember this one time, because my partner’s Northern Irish, we’re actually in Wales for a friend’s wedding. And I was walking around the coastline in Wales, and I was chatting to my supplier on WhatsApp. And I was like, he was asking me all these questions, and I was like, mate, can you give me an hour strolling around this beautiful coastline of Wales? Can I come back to you? But like, we have conversations like we are right now because we’ve built such a good relationship, you know?
Dahna Borg
Yeah.
Debs Brocklesby
Go see for yourself would be my advice.
Dahna Borg
So obviously, you hit six figures in your first year, which is super exciting. How did you kind of get your first customers and kind of build-up that momentum?
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, frank question.
Dahna Borg
Million-dollar question. Everyone wants to know this one, we could just do a podcast just asking this question. And everyone would be very happy.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, for sure. So I went to… So my product, there’s a towel Poncho. Every weekend for the like, the first summer, I was at a market, like beachside markets and that kind of stuff. And I knew that I needed to get brand awareness, and I just needed to get my name out there. And I was working on the business, like, full time through the week. And I never saw my partner and I never, you know, it’s like the hustle that you kind of do have to just do when you got a new business. But I knew it wasn’t sustainable, and I knew that ultimately, I was building a business for freedom. So we got through that summer, we sold a bunch of stuff, we got a bunch of brand awareness, that was cool. And then I shifted my focus to online, which I hated because I really hated marketing for a while. But my background and data analytics, and now that I can see the return and like I’m a little data nerd. I love it.
Dahna Borg
As a fellow data nerd, I understand.
Debs Brocklesby
I love that. But I guess Okay, so there’s no like, one size fits all I, you just have to do the work. I got the brand awareness, we still don’t have the biggest social media following at all. But we have a super-engaged set of like mega fans that have we’ve got like a 55% return customer, right? That’s not ever-handy.
Dahna Borg
Especially for products that you wouldn’t think like I know some people that sell products that you would expect people to buy multiples of like your business is not one of those ones that you would expect like people don’t need 70 towels. Like a towel doesn’t die after a month. You don’t mean like it’s not a consumable. So to have a 55% return customer rate is insane. That’s amazing! Well done.
Debs Brocklesby
Thank you. But I think it’s because I’m like so people buy them for themselves, but then they buy them for a gift. So whenever someone needs a gift, like at the really practical, functional item. So it’s just the go-to gift. Yeah, just so I’ve just focused on that online and went all-in on that, I guess and you know, set up all the back-end systems. And we moved to klaviyo, my CRM and Facebook ads, all the things. Yeah, that’s it. I guess I was over the moon.
Dahna Borg
Amazing. You said you got a really big wholesale order in your very, very early days. Is wholesale a big part of your business now?
Debs Brocklesby
No, it’s not. And that order fell through. I got no order. I bought my tickets to Turkey, to get to Turkey, I went over by myself, like 25, little naive at the time, whatever. Whatever worked out. But no, wholesale is not a massive amount. I had a mentor that I was mentioning early on. And she was kind of suggesting to me 20%, Max wholesale, and 80% direct customer. And that’s something I definitely haven’t tried to exceed. For us, like wholesale is more, it’s almost more of a brand awareness tool. Yeah, it’s certainly not a big revenue stream for us. But we’ve got a few like adventure tourism companies. So they did like pre-COVID. They were all international tourists. And then we would actually get like, you know, orders from Germany we sent worldwide and stuff because they might see them and or want them. And then a couple of local surf stores. But everyone like we don’t just, we’re not mass-produced. We’re not in any chain stores. All the stores have to like having an alignment of values with us. Yeah, they have to be good humans.
Dahna Borg
I love that your thing is just if you’re a good human will work with you, which I mean realistically, should just be everyone’s way of doing business. But unfortunately, it’s not the case. So obviously you started out doing kind of markets really hit the ground, running hustle, you’ve moved a little bit more online, what do you find is your most profitable channels for getting new customers now? Is there anything that you’re like this is our one thing? Or is it a little bit of a mix of all of the kinds of digital channels?
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, I don’t think it’s just one thing. I think it’s like, you know, we use Facebook for a lot of cold traffic, and then we try and funnel them into klaviyo. And we’ve got really comprehensive conditional flows set up in the US, we can nurture them with the content funnel, and then ideally, that would buy. But I’ve also spent a lot of time on our SEO, understanding our Google Analytics, and all that kind of stuff. I don’t think there’s one thing I think they… all the things kind of working together and coming out. I’m the last person to say that I’m not the best, but trying to be consistent organically on social media as well. Yeah, I just, I try to show up. And every time I show up, we get people just DMs and they were just like wanting to have a yarn. And that’s how you build community and relationships and loyal mega fans. I think, in my experience.
Dahna Borg
So loyal mega fans are a huge part of your business. I love it. I think you’re right, though, from a marketing perspective, most of the successful businesses I know it’s never one channel, I get even I mean, we specialize in Facebook ads, all of our clients that use Facebook ads, they work really well because they work in conjunction with everything else. I think if you just rely too much on one, one other thing, it’s the greatest customer experience, but too, if any of them go down, you’re putting yourself at a lot of risks. When you’ve built things the way you’ve built them, kind of if any one piece of the puzzle fell apart, you would still be fine. So I think that’s a really good solid way of building a business.
Debs Brocklesby
Thanks. Also, though, how easy like imagine how good and how easy would it be if you just did a one channel I’ll just do that you’ll be a millionaire.
Dahna Borg
That was the hope with Facebook ads. I think that’s why so many people are so sad, or at least with like organic Facebook and organic Instagram. They used to be this like magic sauce that you could Post a couple of pretty photos on Instagram, you have this huge overnight success business. And that worked for like the first year of Instagram. And I think a lot of people got very, very sad and disillusioned when Instagram sort of petered out in its organic nature. It still works, it still can do it, but it’s a little bit more of a little bit more hard work now than it used to be. But I think it’s just about adapting as things change.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, that’s such a good point. Yeah, you see all those businesses on Instagram with like, massive followings. But yeah, exactly what you just said, a lot of them started, right back, when the Instagram kind of first came about, right?
Dahna Borg
Super easy. It’s like all the Facebook pages with millions of fans the same situation, you know. You can get there organically now. But it’s a really, really hard slog, whereas you used to be able to do it so much.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, I completely agree. I think, as well, like was because he was that day when Facebook went down.
Dahna Borg
Yeah, I remember that day. I had been blocked by happy clients that day.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah. But if you can still be nurturing them through your email marketing, and other things, then you don’t need to freak out as much, you know.
Dahna Borg
100% agree. 100% agree. So obviously, we sort of touched on this a little bit, but I just wanna see there’s anything else you can share? Is there anything you wish you’d done or known in the kind of early days of your business that would make, you know, scaling, growing, and existing as a business now easier?
Debs Brocklesby
So I’m just about to hire out who first staff? I’ve worked with a bunch of, yeah, I’m really excited. I work with like, a bunch of contractors and like videos and outsource stuff, and like, throughout our time, but I really wish I had like this time a year ago, I was talking about hiring and I was, I don’t know, too scared to do it. And back myself. I don’t know. But I wish I did.
Dahna Borg
It was terrifying to hire people. That’s understandable.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, it is terrifying. We had the biggest November we’d ever had. And we sold out of that Christmas stock two weeks into November, and we had nothing more basically. And then I got pneumonia in January, like who gets pneumonia in summer. And I just wish I ordered. I wish I had staff then. So I think that saying like, jump before you need to or something maybe I made that sewing up. But if you think it’s time it probably is. So take the leap and back yourself. You bet yourself to get this far.
Dahna Borg
Yeah, I think that’s a big thing a lot of people struggling with is hiring too late. There’s a lot of people that hire too early. But it’s a real tricky one to kind of balance and everyone’s like, oh, but is it too early? Or is it too, like, it’s a really tricky one to balance. But especially with eCommerce businesses, like you’re juggling so many different things and wearing so many different hats. It’s very freeing. If you can take one of those hats off and give it to someone else.
Debs Brocklesby
I’ll let you know.
Dahna Borg
I’m very excited to hear your new hires, especially considering you’re hiring people during COVID I mean, you guys are doing much better than the rest of the world. So it’ll be easier for you guys. But still, it’s very exciting.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, thank you.
Dahna Borg
So you’ve obviously got this business that could be very heavily skewed towards summer. But you’ve very cleverly created some products to kind of cover year-round. Was that something that you originally started or something that developed as a response to kind of the seasonality of selling towels? And how did that kind of play out?
Debs Brocklesby
So it wasn’t even necessarily a response to the seasonality. It was just listening to our customers. So yeah, so when we launched we had one size towelie and four colors. And that quickly grew to seven sizes and over 50 colors within the first six months. And all of those sizes were just listening to customer feedback. We want a shorter one or a wider one, whatever. So we did what we could. And then I feel like because we grow because that grows so fast. We’re a bit playing catch up for about a year. But just in the last kind of this year, we’ve been able to release a few more products and they are all based on customer feedback. So we’ve got a lot of general I mean when I say eco joking, like cronies. You know, like the grannies that go to like the sewing poles and they do like aqua aerobics.
Dahna Borg
Oh, yeah.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah. So we’ve got like, Hey, I call them Aqua jogging, granny.
Dahna Borg
Adorable.
Debs Brocklesby
They just started bringing me up. I used to have my phone on the website, my phone number. I kind of had to take that off because people would ring me up man. That rang me up and they’d be like, I love your towelie. But I’ve got Parkinson’s or I’ve had a stroke or I’ve got arthritis in my fingers. I don’t have the mobility that I used to be able to pull a towel puncher over my head anymore. Can you make us something? I want long sleeves. I want to a bit sicker, and I want to be able to drive home in it so I can have a shower at my own home. Yeah. And I was like, yeah, sure, no worries. And lots of them keep bringing me so I ended up just having like, I have like hour-long chats with those guys.
Dahna Borg
That’s amazing. One that you actually took the time to speak to them. And two that you had these women giving you phone calls to be like, I like your product. It’s not quite what I need. But let’s chat for now if I can tell you what I want. Like, I love that.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, it was super cool. So we made bathrobes for those people. And they sold out super fast. And then when I was in Turkey, the first time, they made me this beautiful throw for my bed. And my mum was like, I want it. I’m like, no. Lots of my friends wanted it. And then I was like, oh, maybe we should make some. And I never had an intention because I didn’t know how to fit with the towelie, like the towelies kind of like that adventure and lifestyle on the beach and stuff. And then I was like, how does the throw fit under that? So I only released our throws the night that New Zealand came into, we went until level three, lockdown. So that meant we were still kind of meant to stay at home. But klaviyos Could I stop running again. And we sold out of 11 of our 14 styles of throws within an hour. I was like, what just happened? We’re in a global pandemic, what is going on? And then yeah, I froze. I went nuts. So we quickly made more, and the next lot sold out again. But it wasn’t necessarily Yeah, sorry. long version.
Dahna Borg
No, I like long version.
Debs Brocklesby
Okay, in response to the seasonality, it was more customers and like we want this. And then we released this home collection launch that I was talking about. We also released some clubs, which are all just like a part of being an ethical business. And well, I do laugh, I didn’t want to waste. So we had kept all of the offcuts from when we make our towelies, and we literally just kind of overlock the outsides, sold them for $4. And I like the best like makeup removers or I use mine in the kitchen and the bathroom. Anyway, you need a cloth, dishcloth, whatever, people use them as reusable baby wipes. So that was another thing we launched. And then a little mini towels that, like the tea towel, or gym towel, whatever you need it to be. And that was all just reducing waste, but have been going nuts.
Dahna Borg
I love that. Not only does it like meet a demand that you may or may not have known you had, but it also reduces waste, which is super important in that kind of manufacturing space. That’s super exciting.
Debs Brocklesby
Yes. It’s funny. I found I have an assaulter like didn’t say, but I use whatever. Yes, we have a plan. But also, you can’t plan everything out like we, the home collection stuff, and the bathrobes especially that was purely responding. Like, I always say, we’re here for our customers. And without them, we wouldn’t have a business. So if they need something because they’ve got mobility issues, then you know, we’ll have a go and see if we can make it. So…
Dahna Borg
Yeah, I don’t know whether it’s a unique way of running a business. It’s not common, at least. And I think it’s a really great way of running a business. So now that you don’t have your mobile number on the website, how are you still getting customer feedback? Obviously, you’re not having our long chats at midnight anymore. So how are you kind of making sure you stay in contact with those customers?
Debs Brocklesby
So as Amir it’s just hidden a bit more. But also, so I’ve got a live talk/chat on our website, which people constantly giving me feedback. Also, like the Contact Us form and stuff on the website that’s easy for people to find and have a chat to me through. But it also goes live on Facebook, I try to at least once a week and they will just know my name is Debs and that just stopped messaging me on Facebook or responding to a live or whatever, they can still definitely get in touch and they’re more than happy to tell me their two cents.
Dahna Borg
I think that’s amazing. I love it. Are there any plans to kind of continue expanding the range? Or are you just gonna keep seeing what everyone wants and just going from them?
Debs Brocklesby
No, I have actually got a few other plans of really cool things I want to do. I just want to keep them on the low term.
Dahna Borg
You don’t have to share the specifics. I’m just curious as to the planning process.
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah, cool. Yeah, there are a few other things I want to do to expand our home range, and we definitely, these bathrobes, just with COVID right now like Turkey’s obviously part of Europe. They are not fearing as well as New Zealand that stole social distancing. And our factories are not at full capacity right now. So it’s more of just getting our stuff out the door for our summer. But there are a few things that we’re working on as well.
Dahna Borg
Very exciting. I have to keep an eye on your website. I need to go and buy myself on a dais and I’m trying to decide what color throw I want. So, yeah, I think you’ve got some very loyal customers out there. And I can, I can see why just having a look at your website. So we’ll get you to share your website and stuff in a second so people can come and have a look. And so we’re just about to get into the last couple of questions. But before we do, is there anything else that you think you could share that would be helpful or interesting to our listeners?
Debs Brocklesby
In terms of the business stuff, I’ll just kind of reiterate like get, there are so many people out there willing to help. And if you didn’t get a really cool, like, I’ve got a really cool accountability group, there’s four of us, and we catch up every week. And then we have a deep dive in someone else’s business out like one of the fourth business each month. Because sometimes when you’re so like if you’re working by yourself, you’re so in your business that sometimes you can’t see something really obvious. And it’s just really good to bounce ideas and get feedback, invest on experts, and your personal and professional development.
Dahna Borg
I think there are some great parting words and definitely agree with you on the accountability thing. I’ve got a group that we meet every fortnight and do the same thing. And it’s been completely revolutionary to my business. So definitely agree with you on that one. So we’ll just jump into our last couple of questions. Do you have any kind of secret strategies, routines, habits that you kind of follow every day to keep you on track and business?
Debs Brocklesby
Really, everyone thinks you should like high-performance habits. And I’ve tried it. And I don’t know, I’ve just felt that maybe it’s not that realistic.
Dahna Borg
Either. I’d go with the flow kind of person, so I’m with you there. But I still have a few bits and pieces that they’re more like aims. And they’re like, flexible strategies and flexible routines are what I normally do.
Debs Brocklesby
So my like exercise every single day is a non-negotiable for me. And then I like to write my to-do list for tomorrow. So I would write it like this afternoon before I leave my office., I’d write tomorrow’s to-do list so I can go to the gym and then go home and try and switch off otherwise, I don’t sleep. And I think about Facebook campaigns at two in the morning. But yeah, I just, I think that’s a really good habit. And I’m really trying to stick to that one.
Dahna Borg
I like that one. I like that one. Do you have a favorite business book?
Debs Brocklesby
I’ve got a couple. So when I first started or before I first started, I listen to Simon at reading. Simon Sinek: Starts With Why. And I think, for me, I needed to, I think you just need to get really clear on why you’re doing something. So when you’re doing that school thing, 15 hour days, and it seems like a slog, or you get a mess of water from Turkey and it’s all wrong. And you’re like, why am I doing this? You can just come back to like, no, this is what I’m doing. This is what I want out of this. And this is why I’m here. So yeah, I love Start With Why. And then also Let My People Go Surfing by, I can’t say his name, but Yvon Chouinard, he’s the founder of Patagonia. And it’s a book, what I got from it was like, essentially the best book on the business culture I’ve ever read.
Dahna Borg
It sounds amazing. I need to add that to my list.
Debs Brocklesby
It is like it is amazing. I love it.
Dahna Borg
It sounds very much the way that I like to do business, which is not just crazy, insane, pressure, hustle. 24/7, and let people have their lives sort of a thing. But I obviously haven’t read the book. Is that sort of course?
Debs Brocklesby
Yeah. And he’s so they like they’re all surfers. And so they’re essentially saying like, if the waves are pumping, get out there and surf and do your work when it’s dark or whatever. Like obviously, if you create a good culture, and you have people that love their work, they’re not going to take advantage of that.
Dahna Borg
Yeah.
Debs Brocklesby
And so another example like they had all these humans working for them, and then they all kind of got to that stage where they start having kids, and they didn’t want to lose these people. So they built a crash in the office. So these people could work on their terms like I just love it so much.
Dahna Borg
Definitely adding that to my list. I think that sounds amazing. Any other books? Or they’re your top 2? Do you have your favorite podcast?
Debs Brocklesby
I’ve been loving your end since summer told me about it.
Dahna Borg
Thank you.
Debs Brocklesby
Otherwise, I love Brand 50 by Anita. I don’t know if you know her?
Dahna Borg
I haven’t heard that one. I have to take a look and listen.
Debs Brocklesby
She’s a copywriter. She’s so good. Brand 50, I highly recommend.
Dahna Borg
Awesome. Oh, no, I have heard of it. I have heard of it. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet.
Debs Brocklesby
She’s cool. We started out actually Anita and Stevie from CBC social. We all started our business with the same mentor within a month of each other.
Dahna Borg
Oh, wow.
Debs Brocklesby
And yeah, I love Stevie’s, especially her earlier podcast which is so much in the air just like for me like at that time there’s so much good stuff on like, you know, getting socials and things you need to do. And just recently, there’s a podcast by Privy which is called The eCommerce Bass Line. I’m loving that. So yeah,
Dahna Borg
Love it. Some great ones there for people to kind of expand their podcast listening because we all need more podcasts to listen to. I have a huge list of ones I need to listen to. I’m sure I’m not alone. For anyone who wants to come check you out, have a look at what you do, maybe buy some towelies, because I know I need one to back my car somehow. How can people come visit you, check around on socials, etc.?
Debs Brocklesby
Well, thank you, you’re too kind. So yeah, the website is stokednz.co.nz, and Instagram is @stokednz, and Facebook @StokedNewZealand and I’ll be hanging out there.
Dahna Borg
Awesome. And we’ll put those links for people in the show notes. So if you want to double check how you’re spelling things, they will be there nice and easy for you. So again, thank you so much for joining us. This has been an amazing insight into your business. So I really appreciate you coming on the show.
Debs Brocklesby
Thank you so much for having me. I loved it.
Dahna Borg
Thank you for listening to the 17th episode of The Bright Minds ecommerce podcast. Don’t forget we like all the links and show notes onto a website. You can find everything at www.brightredmarketing.com.au/shownotes/Episode17. The link will also be in the episode description. Thanks so much for listening.
