Shownotes
How & Why To Get Your Product Sustainability Score
In this fascinating conversation, we discuss:- How Austin identified this need in the market and created his startup
- Balancing incorporating customer feedback while staying true to your values & principles
- The 5 dimensions of product sustainability (including things you never thought of!)
- Busting myths about sustainability <-- Listen to the full episode for these surprises!
- The importance of allowing consumers to make better-informed decisions by providing more information about your product
- Visibility opportunities associated with a sustainability score
- How to get started to get your product sustainability score
- Plus lots more!
Resources Mentioned
- Content for Makers
- Click here to join me at the next BASH party. It's free!
- Visit the Merchandise Shop
Contact Links
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Become a Member of Gift Biz Breeze If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe so you automatically get the next episode downloaded for your convenience. Click on your preferred platform below to get started. Also, if you'd like to do me a huge favor - please leave a review. It helps other creators like you find the show and build their businesses too. You can do so right here: Rate This Podcast Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify Thank you so much! Sue Know someone who needs to hear this episode? Click a button below to share it!Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 373.
Speaker:You only know if you have something of value to your
Speaker:end customer by testing it and seeing if there is a
Speaker:market for it At Tinton gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker:Before we get into the show,
Speaker:I have a quick message for you as a handmade product
Speaker:maker, you make the most beautiful,
Speaker:delicious, and life enhancing products.
Speaker:I'm honestly so impressed with your talent and you always put
Speaker:a smile on my face.
Speaker:When I see your newest creations,
Speaker:I'm always watching and I'm also always listening.
Speaker:Let me back up here for a second.
Speaker:In our Facebook group,
Speaker:gift biz breeze.
Speaker:I asked you a while back,
Speaker:what you need help with the most right now.
Speaker:And you totally surprised me.
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Speaker:up a solid growing business.
Speaker:Nope. What you are asking for help with is social media
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Speaker:I hear your frustration.
Speaker:Some of you have even told me you're at the point
Speaker:of throwing in the towel on social media altogether,
Speaker:wait, please don't do that.
Speaker:Here's the thing.
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Speaker:That's all you see putting in more time posting the same
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Speaker:posting. You don't need to put in more work.
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Speaker:I have another great topic coming your way.
Speaker:I've had a lot of great topics from our guests lately.
Speaker:If I don't say so myself,
Speaker:do you hear the one on quizzes for product based businesses?
Speaker:I've gotten so many messages from you on that one.
Speaker:And I bet today's will be the same.
Speaker:So let me ask you,
Speaker:have you ever given thought to how sustainable your products are?
Speaker:Of course you talk about the benefits of your products for
Speaker:your customers,
Speaker:like containing only healthy or all natural ingredients,
Speaker:but how about what they do to support the environment.
Speaker:These are two different things and they don't automatically go hand
Speaker:in hand.
Speaker:I've learned so much through this conversation and I'm pretty sure
Speaker:you will,
Speaker:to things I never considered before.
Speaker:Like the various ways a product can affect our world.
Speaker:Austin will share with us five different what he calls dimensions
Speaker:of product impact.
Speaker:There's no doubt.
Speaker:This is becoming more and more a topic,
Speaker:no matter where you fall on the global warming discussion.
Speaker:So being informed is just smart and using it to strengthen
Speaker:your business and do the earth.
Speaker:Some good is even better without any more from me.
Speaker:Let's get right into this enlightening conversation Today.
Speaker:We are going to get to know Austin Sims.
Speaker:After more than 20 years spent working at major corporations like
Speaker:Nike Phillips and Brooks running Austin had a desire to use
Speaker:his skills to address climate change.
Speaker:Austin believes that putting the power in consumer's hands is important
Speaker:to make real change.
Speaker:He recognizes that the first thing that consumers need is access
Speaker:to information to make better decisions.
Speaker:That's why he co-founded day rise in 2019 to make impact
Speaker:assessment transparent for businesses and consumers.
Speaker:Austin believes commerce and sustainability are linked and business needs to
Speaker:be a major catalyst for addressing climate change.
Speaker:Austin, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:I am really interested in diving into this topic.
Speaker:We've never addressed it before,
Speaker:and I see some huge application for our listeners.
Speaker:So we're going to get to that in half a second,
Speaker:but I do have a traditional question here for you,
Speaker:Austin, that I'm going to ask you to answer.
Speaker:If you could share with us in a little bit of
Speaker:a different way,
Speaker:more of a creative way,
Speaker:I'll say,
Speaker:how would you describe your perfect motivational candle?
Speaker:Thanks. So my perfect motivational candle is I think in terms
Speaker:of color it's yellow,
Speaker:because I think that's the most joyful color.
Speaker:And I think I'm always glass half full solutions.
Speaker:Forward-looking what can we do?
Speaker:So yellow,
Speaker:I think is the co-op.
Speaker:And I think maybe as a motivational saying,
Speaker:I think the one that's maybe a set with me the
Speaker:longest, and maybe I revert back to is jumping.
Speaker:The net will appear in that.
Speaker:Just take a chance,
Speaker:push forward,
Speaker:make a decision.
Speaker:And maybe you don't know the outcome of it,
Speaker:but if you have enough confidence and you've thought it through,
Speaker:you'll find a path.
Speaker:So I think the ability to make a leap and have
Speaker:confidence that the rest that we figured out as you make
Speaker:that leap is something that really motivates me.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And so important because we can sit and think forever,
Speaker:but until you actually do something to your point,
Speaker:make a leap.
Speaker:You're never going to know,
Speaker:but it's hard to make that leap initially because you're jumping
Speaker:into unknown.
Speaker:I think it takes a special type of person or maybe
Speaker:just that special type of mindset to be able to do
Speaker:it. But I think that's where the energy comes from is
Speaker:if we all had certain outcomes and everything that we would
Speaker:do life would be a little bit too predictable and boring,
Speaker:I think by taking that chance.
Speaker:And when there is an unknown at the end of it,
Speaker:I think that's the excitement and that's the energy and when
Speaker:we're still a startup and I know a lot of your
Speaker:listeners are in the startup mode,
Speaker:so we're still sort of in between starting up and scaling
Speaker:up. So there's still a lot of unknowns in our business.
Speaker:And I think that's the intensity and the energy that we
Speaker:get each day.
Speaker:So it comes with a little bit of complexity,
Speaker:but I think it comes with a high energy at the
Speaker:same time.
Speaker:Agreed. And also that you're not going to necessarily get it
Speaker:absolutely a hundred percent perfect right out of the gate.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think so many people think,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:I don't know where to do what if I'm not doing
Speaker:this right.
Speaker:It's more important to start and figure it out and make
Speaker:adjustments along the way versus waiting,
Speaker:learning forever until you're think you're going to get it right.
Speaker:Because you really never do.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:We've already been through one full pivot.
Speaker:So we started in 2019.
Speaker:So we were only three years old and we've already pivoted
Speaker:our business.
Speaker:I won't say 180 degrees,
Speaker:but certainly 90 degrees.
Speaker:And we had a separate piece that was a big part
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:So I think you're exactly right.
Speaker:You will never get it right first time.
Speaker:And the market will tell you whether you're right or wrong.
Speaker:That's the great thing with product market fit.
Speaker:You only know if you have something of value to your
Speaker:end customer by testing it and seeing if there is a
Speaker:market for it.
Speaker:And they'll let you know very quickly.
Speaker:And I think being able to listen to that and being
Speaker:flexible enough to adapt to that is one of the ingredients
Speaker:for success.
Speaker:Yeah. My listeners are very familiar with that concept because I
Speaker:talk a lot about specialty when you're starting,
Speaker:that you may make the most beautiful candles in the world.
Speaker:I'm just going to stick with candles here,
Speaker:but until you actually test it out and see if your
Speaker:customer not other people's customers who have candle companies,
Speaker:but your customer is going to like what you're making,
Speaker:it can be beautiful and you can love it,
Speaker:but if they're not willing to buy it,
Speaker:doesn't help.
Speaker:So you've got to actually test everything and markets change along
Speaker:the way too.
Speaker:So there's always room for adjustments.
Speaker:I think it's a Thomas Jefferson quote to give some American
Speaker:bonafide east to me.
Speaker:And if I forgot that this ride we said is in
Speaker:matters of principle,
Speaker:stand like a rock and in matters of tastes swimming with
Speaker:the stream.
Speaker:And I think that's the great thing of,
Speaker:you want to make sure that you listen to your customer
Speaker:and sort of adapt to what they need,
Speaker:but you also want to make sure that you stick with
Speaker:your values and your principles at the same time.
Speaker:So getting that balance right.
Speaker:Of knowing what's a principle of yours that you don't want
Speaker:to give up,
Speaker:it's very important to you and knowing what is something that's
Speaker:more taste driven that you need to adapt getting the decision-making
Speaker:right. And both of those,
Speaker:those really important Makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah. That's food for thought,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:So you made a leap out of multiple,
Speaker:very successful corporate careers.
Speaker:Talk us through how you did that and how you came
Speaker:to day rise.
Speaker:Yeah. So mostly stage of life for me,
Speaker:I've got two kids at home.
Speaker:I've got two,
Speaker:basically Greta Thornberg's at home that constantly remind me that we're
Speaker:not leaving a great planet in great shape for them.
Speaker:So that's a good reminder.
Speaker:And I was actually how I started was I was on
Speaker:holiday with a friend of mine.
Speaker:Who's now my co-founder.
Speaker:And we were actually,
Speaker:our kids were playing in the swimming pool and on this
Speaker:floating device.
Speaker:And we got into a huge debate about whether that floating
Speaker:device was sustainable or not.
Speaker:And so that the boat raged for a while,
Speaker:and then we realized that we had no way of actually
Speaker:knowing if it was sustainable or not.
Speaker:There was no objective measure.
Speaker:We were just arguing our points of view.
Speaker:So I think that really unlocked a path for us as
Speaker:well. If we don't know the no one knows how do
Speaker:we help actually unlock that.
Speaker:So I think I got into it based on stage of
Speaker:life, wanting to having had a career in more of the
Speaker:corporate world,
Speaker:wanting to turn that to something good.
Speaker:And there was just a moment in time where there was
Speaker:a great clarity for me in terms of where the gap
Speaker:was. And having worked in consumer marketing and communication for a
Speaker:long time,
Speaker:how can we actually unlock that transparency for consumers to put
Speaker:the power on the consumer's hand?
Speaker:So it was building towards that,
Speaker:but there was that sort of one moment,
Speaker:almost like an aha moment when I was away and sort
Speaker:of figured out what our role and what our path could
Speaker:be. I think that's so important because we do vote with
Speaker:our dollars,
Speaker:right? So people who really want to help impact climate change
Speaker:with, through our purchases.
Speaker:Haven't had a method of doing that.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:companies can say one thing,
Speaker:but I love this idea of the ranking.
Speaker:And I know we're going to get into that a little
Speaker:bit later,
Speaker:but that makes so much sense to me.
Speaker:So you had this light bulb moment,
Speaker:let's say.
Speaker:And did you leave your corporate job?
Speaker:Did you merge into this?
Speaker:Or how did that all happen?
Speaker:Yeah, so we had an idea and obviously we'd spend some
Speaker:time honing it and sort of figuring out,
Speaker:okay, how do we turn it into just a thought into
Speaker:something that has structure and a bit of direction.
Speaker:And one thing we realized was between the two of us
Speaker:as founders,
Speaker:we didn't have the skillsets,
Speaker:all the skill sets required to make this a success.
Speaker:So one of the skillsets we were missing was how do
Speaker:we create something that is a technology that actually understands sustainability
Speaker:and the complexity and the nuances of it and can automate
Speaker:that. And so we found a partner that can do that
Speaker:for us.
Speaker:That's a lady called Ava Gladys,
Speaker:who was actually CEO of a big sustainability company in Europe.
Speaker:And then we actually,
Speaker:at the time we were actually trying to turn it into
Speaker:an e-commerce marketplace.
Speaker:We've now moved away from that.
Speaker:But, and that was the pivot that I spoke about earlier.
Speaker:And so we actually wanted someone with e-commerce skills.
Speaker:So that was the first thing we did was realized we
Speaker:didn't have the right skillsets or enough of the right skill
Speaker:sets. So we actually brought in the founders' team to get
Speaker:the right skill sets on board.
Speaker:And that probably took us about six months to do that
Speaker:and sort of work through all of that.
Speaker:And then I left my corporate job and we started day
Speaker:rides. So yeah,
Speaker:so it didn't leave straight away.
Speaker:There was a little bit of sort of setup work to
Speaker:make sure that we felt like there was enough the business
Speaker:plan underneath it,
Speaker:and that we had the right people that could actually make
Speaker:it a success.
Speaker:And then we jumped in.
Speaker:It makes so much sense.
Speaker:And now looking at your website,
Speaker:I did a little snooping before we got on today.
Speaker:So I had some questions to ask you,
Speaker:but I was really impressed by the team you've developed.
Speaker:You have quite a few professional people who are they giving
Speaker:input? Are they the board members?
Speaker:Like who are those people that I'm seeing on your website?
Speaker:So There's like how many 20 people there may be something
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:It's about 15 of us.
Speaker:And I guess in full transparency,
Speaker:we were a bigger team about six months ago.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:going back to that pivot,
Speaker:we have this technology that we'll talk about that actually drags
Speaker:the sustainability and we had a marketplace and we're bringing that
Speaker:to life on the marketplace,
Speaker:but we realized that the marketplace wasn't actually,
Speaker:whether the man was for the technology.
Speaker:So we actually shut down the marketplace and just fully focus
Speaker:now on the scoring or sustainability technology.
Speaker:But that was really difficult because we'd had people working in
Speaker:the business for two years,
Speaker:w we were very close to and because we made that
Speaker:people, we had to shrink the team.
Speaker:So we lost about 10 people sort of about six months
Speaker:ago. So that's part of the pain as a startup and
Speaker:that pivot.
Speaker:So now we're down to 15 people and they're mostly across
Speaker:technology and sales,
Speaker:the two major functions that we have Makes sense.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:So let's dive into the topic at hand challis and to
Speaker:ground everybody let's talk about sustainability and what that is,
Speaker:what that actually means.
Speaker:Yeah. I really shoot with the term sustainability only because I
Speaker:think it's so overused now it's become misused and overused and
Speaker:it's quite opaque in terms of what it actually means.
Speaker:And we talk a lot about greenwashing and there is a
Speaker:lot of greenwashing out there,
Speaker:but my view on that is a lot of the greenwashing
Speaker:actually happens not through bad intent.
Speaker:It's just,
Speaker:people don't know,
Speaker:it's just a lack of transparency and a lack of information.
Speaker:So we're a solutions based company and we want to help
Speaker:people on their sustainability journey.
Speaker:And we do that by providing a level of transparency.
Speaker:So what we actually measure is impact.
Speaker:So we talk more about impact and sustainability.
Speaker:So how do we measure the environmental and social impact of
Speaker:products and give that transparency?
Speaker:So that brands,
Speaker:producers like the people that listen to your podcasts can actually
Speaker:understand where their impact is,
Speaker:and then translate that into consumer facing tools as well.
Speaker:Okay. So we would look at,
Speaker:for our listeners who are handmade product creators,
Speaker:we are then looking at the different parts of the product
Speaker:that we make and the impact that they have in the
Speaker:environment and consequently,
Speaker:the product that we're putting out out the total products impact
Speaker:on the environment and possibly places where we could make some
Speaker:changes, make some adjustments to have I'm using your words higher
Speaker:impact or being more sustainable or environmentally friendly,
Speaker:I guess I would say.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:That. So zoom out a little bit.
Speaker:So there is a way,
Speaker:so we don't have the information for consumers.
Speaker:That's where it started.
Speaker:As I said,
Speaker:we were saying,
Speaker:how do we solve it?
Speaker:So consumers can make better informed decisions when we sort of
Speaker:pulled on that thread and sort of tried to figure out
Speaker:why there wasn't enough information for consumers.
Speaker:It's because most brands,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:every brand that we work with and we work with over
Speaker:500 brands,
Speaker:don't have all the information through their supply chain.
Speaker:And so there's a lot of unknowns and that might be
Speaker:less for your actual listeners if they're making them by hand.
Speaker:And that's really exciting because the more you actually understand about
Speaker:your supply chain,
Speaker:the better school you generally get.
Speaker:So we then collect them to actually score the products.
Speaker:We actually collect the information from the brands and we have
Speaker:a very holistic view of how we measure a product.
Speaker:And we actually measure the impact of a product against five
Speaker:dimensions of sustainability.
Speaker:So the first one is climate impact,
Speaker:and that's the one that we all generally know that's about
Speaker:carbon primarily.
Speaker:So how much carbon is used to actually create your product?
Speaker:And that's in the sourcing of the materials,
Speaker:in the manufacturing of their products and how it gets distributed.
Speaker:So what's the total footprint of the carbon.
Speaker:And how do we break that down through those three steps?
Speaker:So, you know exactly where the carbon is.
Speaker:Okay. Question,
Speaker:I've got a pop in my questions or I'm going to
Speaker:forget. So for example,
Speaker:if somebody is sourcing product from overseas,
Speaker:let's say that would have a greater carbon imprint than if
Speaker:they were sourcing locally.
Speaker:Well, it depends,
Speaker:it's a little bit more nuanced than that in terms of,
Speaker:if those three things that I talked to that.
Speaker:So the sourcing manufacturing and distribution,
Speaker:certainly from a distribution or logistics point of view would have
Speaker:a higher footprint because obviously you're using carbon to move it
Speaker:from 1 10,
Speaker:1 place to another.
Speaker:But if you actually taking it from,
Speaker:let's just say,
Speaker:you're sourcing cotton.
Speaker:And the cotton that you're getting from India is a lot
Speaker:lower carbon impact than the cotton that you're sourcing locally.
Speaker:Then it actually might be a lower footprint,
Speaker:even though that cotton has to come from India to get
Speaker:to you in the United States,
Speaker:it could actually net result be a lower impact because the
Speaker:actual sourcing of that cotton is a higher impact on cotton
Speaker:than the actual logistics of it.
Speaker:So it's not as easy to say that just because the
Speaker:source material needs to travel further,
Speaker:that has a high impact.
Speaker:We really need to look into the complexity of how that
Speaker:actually that raw material is sourced because that needs to factor
Speaker:into it as well.
Speaker:And that's the complexity that we can actually build into it,
Speaker:through the technology that we've gone.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's very interesting because you would just automatically assume that if
Speaker:it goes shorter distances,
Speaker:it's a lighter carbon footprint,
Speaker:and that's not necessarily the case because a lot of people
Speaker:will claim that everything's sourced locally better for the environment.
Speaker:And what you're saying is maybe yes,
Speaker:maybe no.
Speaker:Yeah. And maybe there's a good example here where we did
Speaker:some work recently,
Speaker:there's apples here in the Netherlands that come from New Zealand
Speaker:that have a lower carbon footprint than apples that are grown
Speaker:in the Netherlands,
Speaker:not far away from here.
Speaker:So that is part of the issue with sustainability is it
Speaker:is so nuanced and complex.
Speaker:It can become overwhelming.
Speaker:And we've tried to simplify that through technology to say,
Speaker:okay, you just need to give us the information of where
Speaker:it comes from and where it's going to and what sort
Speaker:of material it is.
Speaker:And we can then start to do those calculations for you
Speaker:to make it easy for you to understand it.
Speaker:I'm getting really excited about this.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:So the first one is climate impact and you say there's
Speaker:five dimensions,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:So that's that's climate.
Speaker:The second one is ecosystem impact.
Speaker:So that basically measures what's the impact across the bio-diversity with
Speaker:how you create the products.
Speaker:So when you actually sourcing raw materials,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:how is that impacting the biodiversity around there when you source
Speaker:it and then how it fresh water is used to create
Speaker:that product.
Speaker:So that becomes really important to measure how much impact is
Speaker:it having on the environment.
Speaker:And we can assess that for you,
Speaker:depending on where you're sourcing the product from the third one,
Speaker:which I think is really interesting for your listeners,
Speaker:as well as the circularity of the product.
Speaker:So when you're making a product,
Speaker:how much of them it's you as you're using are reused,
Speaker:recycled, or refurbished that this is Virgin materials,
Speaker:knowing that obviously by recycling materials will be fair materials.
Speaker:We're putting less of a strain on the Earth's natural resources.
Speaker:And also when the product is end of life,
Speaker:how do you end of life?
Speaker:Is there a take-back scheme?
Speaker:Can you repair it or when,
Speaker:if it needs to,
Speaker:is it at its end of life?
Speaker:How easy is it for those warm materials then to be
Speaker:reused as well?
Speaker:So we look at that end to end the circularity of
Speaker:the product of how sparkly it is and how much pressure
Speaker:it's putting on the Earth's natural resources.
Speaker:Okay. So let me ask you a question here.
Speaker:I know I keep interrupting you.
Speaker:I hope that doesn't irritate you.
Speaker:Okay. So we have a number of people who listen here,
Speaker:who part of the interaction with our customers is a program
Speaker:where let's say pampering products like lotions or sugar scrubs,
Speaker:things like that,
Speaker:where when they're done,
Speaker:they can return the container that the product came in and
Speaker:they get a discount on their future order because they can
Speaker:then reuse those containers.
Speaker:Would that fit into this dimension of circularity?
Speaker:Totally would.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:One thing I didn't say is we actually,
Speaker:for each of these elements,
Speaker:we look at the impact of the product itself and the
Speaker:packaging, and then we combine them,
Speaker:but also separate them.
Speaker:So you understand what your overall impact is,
Speaker:but also how much of your impact is coming from your
Speaker:actual production of your product.
Speaker:How much is coming from your packaging,
Speaker:if you do have what we would call conceivable products,
Speaker:so where something you sell it and the product is fully
Speaker:consumed, and then you have a take back scheme that actually
Speaker:takes that packaging back and compare reuse.
Speaker:That's a fantastic way.
Speaker:You get a very high score for circularity on that.
Speaker:Okay. So for all our bakers,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:or anyone who's making something that you're eating that already in
Speaker:this particular dimension of circularity and would get a good score.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:And the health and VA products where you actually use the
Speaker:cream and then send it back.
Speaker:Anything like that would score very well.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Cool. So they're the three ones that I talked about environmental
Speaker:and social impact.
Speaker:So they're the three environmental impacts.
Speaker:We also look at social impact.
Speaker:So how are people treated through the supply chain when you're
Speaker:producing the product?
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I think that's super interesting for your listeners.
Speaker:So for the bigger companies we're looking at,
Speaker:obviously the factories they were using to promote their products and
Speaker:how are they using fair pay?
Speaker:Is there gender equality,
Speaker:all these types of triggers to make sure that the people
Speaker:that are sustainable part of it,
Speaker:isn't just the environment,
Speaker:but that needs to be made sustainably and this to be
Speaker:supporting people sustainably and budding.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:If you have a real visibility on your supply chain,
Speaker:if you're a sort of a smaller supplier and you actually
Speaker:even make it yourself or don't know where that's made,
Speaker:you can get a very,
Speaker:very high score for that.
Speaker:Interesting. Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Would it hold true that if you're using a factory,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:in China,
Speaker:your score here might be a little lower.
Speaker:Yeah. I think it depends where like this is done at
Speaker:a regional basis.
Speaker:So we do it in two ways with this.
Speaker:If you have third party authentication,
Speaker:that's sort of the same as you,
Speaker:or if there's been an audit of that factory and it
Speaker:makes a certain benchmarks and then you can still score reasonably
Speaker:well. But in the absence of that,
Speaker:we take a risk based approach.
Speaker:So we know based on the different regions of these countries,
Speaker:that various risk levels of,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:yeah. Not having fair pay or not having gender equality.
Speaker:And then we apply a risk to that.
Speaker:So it's not always the case that China is bad.
Speaker:Obviously it's a riskier proposition because there is more bad practices
Speaker:there. So if you can provide the third party documentation that
Speaker:proves that there's good practices,
Speaker:then you can still score well.
Speaker:But if you can't provide that,
Speaker:then generally you will score less well because there is a
Speaker:bad practice in China that we need to be alerted to.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Interesting. Okay.
Speaker:And what's the name of that dimension?
Speaker:I don't think I caught that.
Speaker:Yeah. Sorry.
Speaker:Livelihoods and wellbeing is what we call.
Speaker:So that's the fourth dimension,
Speaker:livelihoods and wellbeing.
Speaker:And then the fifth dimension,
Speaker:which is a little bit harder to quantify public feel is
Speaker:really important is the purpose of the product.
Speaker:So what's the actual purpose of the product.
Speaker:So consuming things and consumption and itself isn't necessarily bad.
Speaker:We just need to not over consume.
Speaker:And we need to make sure that we're diverting resources into
Speaker:areas that are of highest value to us as consumers.
Speaker:So if you're creating a product that has a high purpose,
Speaker:such as clothing,
Speaker:such as shelter,
Speaker:these types of things.
Speaker:So we've always got an extended Maslow's hierarchy of needs to
Speaker:sort of judge what the overall purpose of the product is.
Speaker:And then we take all five of those dimensions and they're
Speaker:equally weighted to come up with a score that it gives
Speaker:you an overall sustainability score.
Speaker:Okay. That is so cool.
Speaker:Well, first off,
Speaker:I'm going to say that all of my listeners products are
Speaker:high value on purpose.
Speaker:They rank so high.
Speaker:Okay. So all five of these come together and then you
Speaker:get an overall score.
Speaker:And just for everybody to kind of get this,
Speaker:I was looking on the website and you know,
Speaker:how you can do like your credit scores.
Speaker:You can go to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all the different sites and they show you a circle with
Speaker:a range and a number that's kind of how it looks
Speaker:like here with day rise to you,
Speaker:get a number.
Speaker:And what's the perfect number.
Speaker:How, how high can a number go?
Speaker:Yeah. So let's go with out of a hundred,
Speaker:out of a hundred,
Speaker:to a hundred being good to the higher,
Speaker:the score,
Speaker:the better.
Speaker:And then as you're looking at the website,
Speaker:you'll see that the,
Speaker:you get a score and then you actually get that score
Speaker:out of a hundred and you get a comparison to other
Speaker:products in your category.
Speaker:So it's benchmark against other products in your category.
Speaker:So you get a good sense of where you are and
Speaker:then you get a breakdown of that score over those five
Speaker:dimensions that I spoke about.
Speaker:So how do you actually get to that overall score of
Speaker:a hundred?
Speaker:You get a breakdown of that.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:then what's really interesting for your listeners is then you get
Speaker:a report on each of those dimensions.
Speaker:So climate impacts,
Speaker:ecosystem impact,
Speaker:circularity, livelihoods,
Speaker:and wellbeing and purpose.
Speaker:You get a full report for each of those dimensions that
Speaker:shows you exactly what your impact is.
Speaker:Product versus packaging,
Speaker:really detailed about where it is that you are doing really
Speaker:well and where it is that you potentially look for improvements
Speaker:and suggested improvements.
Speaker:So it's a really rich dashboard that you get for each
Speaker:of your products,
Speaker:where you can really explore these reports,
Speaker:really get a breakdown of that impact and a level of
Speaker:visibility that you haven't been able to get before.
Speaker:And then as part of that,
Speaker:obviously there's the consumer,
Speaker:which is the exciting part as well.
Speaker:We can actually take a simplified version of your score report.
Speaker:That's more consumer friendly and then export that into your direct
Speaker:to consumer channels,
Speaker:into your social media.
Speaker:If you're working with retailers,
Speaker:you can also export it to the retail site.
Speaker:And then you can really start to verify your sustainability story
Speaker:to your end consumer.
Speaker:You're giving credibility,
Speaker:versus just making a statement about your product in general,
Speaker:as a category,
Speaker:you're talking about your product specifically,
Speaker:that you've made.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:So this is,
Speaker:this is almost like an independent verification and assessment of your
Speaker:product. Yes,
Speaker:yes. Okay.
Speaker:And so when your product is benchmarked,
Speaker:it's benchmarked then against other similar products who have gone through
Speaker:your process,
Speaker:cause it has to match against what you're looking at.
Speaker:Right? Exactly.
Speaker:So we do actually do two things.
Speaker:One is exactly that,
Speaker:which is in your category or the products that we score,
Speaker:where you sit and that sort what's the average and where
Speaker:do you sit versus that average?
Speaker:But the other thing we do with the products is we
Speaker:have, there's actually,
Speaker:it's not our database or the global database that anyone can
Speaker:access. That actually has a standardized measurement of impact across every
Speaker:single product category.
Speaker:So from candles to jump to sweaters,
Speaker:to computers like what's the standard impact measurement.
Speaker:And we also do a comparison of your product.
Speaker:This is that standard.
Speaker:So we do a benchmark against our own database,
Speaker:but also against sort of the global database standard impact.
Speaker:You also get that as a measurement tool.
Speaker:That's really quite powerful,
Speaker:particularly when you start to tell that story to consumers,
Speaker:if you can,
Speaker:if you are sort of a lower impact,
Speaker:understand that impact,
Speaker:that becomes a really powerful story to tell to consumers.
Speaker:Yes. All right.
Speaker:So I want to talk to everybody who's listening right now.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:how we talk about having something that separates you from everybody
Speaker:else who does what you do.
Speaker:Let's just stick with candles since we started there and you
Speaker:guys know that's my favorite product ever in the whole world,
Speaker:but if you are a candle maker,
Speaker:whether it's soy candles,
Speaker:whatever, and you were to get your score here and then
Speaker:started talking about it in social media or on your website,
Speaker:because you've gotten your number from Austin,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:how it compares against other candles,
Speaker:even other candles in your category,
Speaker:that is a point of separation for you.
Speaker:That is what I term a unique,
Speaker:special power,
Speaker:because you are showing the impact that your products have on
Speaker:the environment.
Speaker:Given that it's good.
Speaker:If you could,
Speaker:if you got a lower score,
Speaker:then there may be some things that you would want to
Speaker:adjust, but this then is a new story that you can
Speaker:be talking about with potential followers and everybody.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I, Austin it's worldwide.
Speaker:Everybody is interested in knowing that what they're purchasing is having
Speaker:a positive impact or I'll go the other way,
Speaker:not negatively impacting the environment.
Speaker:It's a huge deal right now.
Speaker:Yeah, totally.
Speaker:I think that's completely true.
Speaker:I think the ideal use case of this is you're using
Speaker:it to go to retailers,
Speaker:to get distribution,
Speaker:I think is also a really big one.
Speaker:We're working with one of them,
Speaker:the big us retailers at the moment,
Speaker:and their first use case for this is actually to use
Speaker:it in range reviews.
Speaker:And they're actually giving their buyers now,
Speaker:not just targets in terms of KPIs,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:price ranges and profitability,
Speaker:but in impact range as well,
Speaker:and then need to start using this tool to actually only
Speaker:buy products that are within a certain impact range are they're
Speaker:getting impacted budgets.
Speaker:I think that's a really interesting use case,
Speaker:but for your listeners,
Speaker:if they can almost reverse that and start to use this,
Speaker:as you say,
Speaker:as a really unique selling point to consumers,
Speaker:but also to retailers to say,
Speaker:Hey, every consumer wants something that's more sustainable.
Speaker:Look at this great school that I've got,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you should write your product Yeah.
Speaker:For wholesale accounts.
Speaker:Absolutely. And not many people are talking about it really,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:especially on a smaller scale,
Speaker:like the independent producers like we are.
Speaker:So this could again be a huge,
Speaker:huge advantage for you.
Speaker:So before we go any further,
Speaker:because I know this is a question that everyone's thinking in
Speaker:their mind,
Speaker:how affordable is this?
Speaker:If someone would be interested in doing this for their product,
Speaker:is this like thousands and thousands of dollars?
Speaker:So I talked about the lifecycle assessment,
Speaker:which is the standard way of measuring impact.
Speaker:That's like $30,000
Speaker:for one product to actually get a life cycle assessment done.
Speaker:And so even the big brands don't do it because it's,
Speaker:it becomes way too expensive and time consuming.
Speaker:And it,
Speaker:and it's got a limited use case.
Speaker:What we're trying to do is democratize sustainability.
Speaker:We're trying to make it accessible for anyone,
Speaker:whether it's big business or small business,
Speaker:and obviously ultimately the consumer.
Speaker:So we've deliberately priced it in a way that makes it
Speaker:accessible for big brands and small brands,
Speaker:because obviously big brands that we're working with have tens of
Speaker:thousands of products.
Speaker:So there's the multiplier effect.
Speaker:And then there's obviously small brands.
Speaker:So it's actually,
Speaker:because it's a software service,
Speaker:it's actually $65 per product to have it scored.
Speaker:And that's an annual subscription for that.
Speaker:You get the five reports that I mentioned.
Speaker:So we'll put those different across the five different dimensions.
Speaker:You get access to the consumer,
Speaker:which had,
Speaker:and can use that number.
Speaker:See if you have your own dashboard.
Speaker:So it's only $65 per product as an annual subscription.
Speaker:And that needs to get renewed each year because we actually
Speaker:update our methodology each year because we want to make sure
Speaker:that we're using the latest and sustainable science.
Speaker:So we've deliberately priced it in a way that makes it
Speaker:really approachable and really affordable for any size business to use
Speaker:Super affordable Austin.
Speaker:Okay. So everyone can keep listening because you can afford this
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:Even if you don't do all your products right away.
Speaker:So, all right.
Speaker:So it's an annual subscription.
Speaker:So what do you do?
Speaker:Just go sign up and then you pay by-product that you're
Speaker:analyzing. Yep,
Speaker:exactly Easy,
Speaker:easy. All right.
Speaker:So let's pretend I've created a subscription and I make candles.
Speaker:When I go in there,
Speaker:what information do I have to have on my end to
Speaker:be able to get a score?
Speaker:What types of information do I need to share?
Speaker:You'll get the answer to this question right after a quick
Speaker:break to hear from our sponsor.
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Speaker:That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select
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Speaker:go to the ribbon print company.com.
Speaker:Yeah. So once you signed up,
Speaker:you actually have access to the portal.
Speaker:There's a survey that you need to fill in.
Speaker:So it's an online survey that it's a really,
Speaker:it's like a survey wizard in that it adapts the answers
Speaker:to IGA to actually adapt to what you're doing.
Speaker:And we break the survey up into nine different sections,
Speaker:but the major ones are,
Speaker:you need to know what your materials are.
Speaker:So you need to,
Speaker:what, what are you making your product of a split between
Speaker:the different materials?
Speaker:The whites are really important.
Speaker:So what weights,
Speaker:if you're using,
Speaker:if you are making a candle to use to continue with
Speaker:that analogy,
Speaker:what's what are the materials that go into it?
Speaker:And if,
Speaker:if it's a certain way,
Speaker:what percentage or what in grams that you were actually using,
Speaker:that's a really important one.
Speaker:Okay. And so that you guys,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:how we talk about pricing and how you're going to build
Speaker:up your price.
Speaker:You should already know all of that because you know how
Speaker:much material you're using for each individual product,
Speaker:But you need to know where it comes from those materials.
Speaker:So if you're sourcing your materials from India versus Bangladesh or
Speaker:the us or Canada,
Speaker:that's important for multiple reasons,
Speaker:obviously, because when we know where it's coming from,
Speaker:both in terms of the sourcing and the manufacturing,
Speaker:then we can then start to really accurately approximate the impact.
Speaker:And that's at a sourcing manufacturing and distribution level.
Speaker:So the materials and what you're using in the whites,
Speaker:but importantly,
Speaker:where those materials are actually coming from.
Speaker:But what if we're buying from a supplier like on the
Speaker:retail side,
Speaker:let's say,
Speaker:what if they're buying from a local retail shop?
Speaker:Cause they're just starting.
Speaker:Or then they go wholesale and they're buying from a supplier
Speaker:who sells candle supplies.
Speaker:So they sell the waxes and the materials and all of
Speaker:that. Do you go back to them and ask them where
Speaker:it's being sourced from?
Speaker:Yeah. To get an accurate school,
Speaker:you need to go back and ask that question and they'll
Speaker:have that information.
Speaker:That's an easy way.
Speaker:We haven't had any instances of brands not being able to
Speaker:access that information.
Speaker:So just go back to where you're sourcing it from.
Speaker:If they're not sourcing it in its raw form,
Speaker:if it is somewhat made already,
Speaker:then just go back to where you're sourcing from.
Speaker:And they'll be able to tell you exactly where they get
Speaker:it from.
Speaker:And that's really important to make sure that we give you
Speaker:an accurate school.
Speaker:Do you have a database that says this type of wax
Speaker:supplied by this name company is sourced from,
Speaker:do you have any of that like established data already?
Speaker:Not at a company level,
Speaker:but what we were able to say is the fuel sourcing
Speaker:wax from this region of the world,
Speaker:we can actually start to go,
Speaker:okay. Then the impact of that would be this because we
Speaker:know the impact on general biodiversity,
Speaker:their carbon footprint from there.
Speaker:So we don't know at a company level,
Speaker:but we know when you can tell us the region where
Speaker:it comes from,
Speaker:that's where our tool takes over.
Speaker:And that's where the technology is really important to be able
Speaker:to even start to approximate with a high degree of accuracy,
Speaker:what that impact is.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:And that's information.
Speaker:You might take a little bit of legwork,
Speaker:but that's not hard information to get.
Speaker:Yeah. That's generally accessible.
Speaker:And then how the product is made,
Speaker:who makes it,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so a lot of yours will be handmade locally.
Speaker:It is really good,
Speaker:but if it's not,
Speaker:where is it actually where's the finished product actually puts together.
Speaker:And then information about that in terms of it's,
Speaker:are there any certifications that that factory has?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:then if you just tell us where that factory is and
Speaker:what it's making again,
Speaker:then the technology takes over.
Speaker:It can estimate that impact with a high degree of accuracy.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And, oh my gosh,
Speaker:you're right.
Speaker:This is something that we would never really be able to
Speaker:acquire on our own because how would we know any of
Speaker:that with products made it all the various places.
Speaker:And so then you take all of the parts of my
Speaker:candle because I have now supplied you with all of that
Speaker:information. And that's where your software takes over.
Speaker:You merge all of that data together.
Speaker:And that then gives us a score.
Speaker:Exactly. If the technology works in two ways,
Speaker:the first one is no brown.
Speaker:We're working with massive multinational brands and very small bands,
Speaker:but no brand has the com all the information that is
Speaker:in the survey.
Speaker:No, no brand has it cause it's really not,
Speaker:not so much impossible to get,
Speaker:but it's difficult to get to the first,
Speaker:whether the technology works is the parts that you don't have
Speaker:information on.
Speaker:The technology can draw upon,
Speaker:got 31 different databases that we call upon.
Speaker:Some of them are proprietary that we've developed.
Speaker:Some of them are external,
Speaker:but the first one that technology goes,
Speaker:okay, you're missing this piece of information,
Speaker:but we know these three other pieces of information.
Speaker:So we can fill that in with a high degree of
Speaker:accuracy. So if you don't have all the information,
Speaker:you can still get an assessment because the technology can fill
Speaker:in the gaps.
Speaker:That's the first way that it works.
Speaker:Once we have all those data points,
Speaker:then the algorithm goes to work and actually assesses all those
Speaker:data points across those five dimensions of sustainability that I talked
Speaker:about and gives you a score for each category.
Speaker:It gives you the overall score and automates the reports that
Speaker:you get on your dashboard.
Speaker:That then give you a really detailed breakdown of where your
Speaker:impact is.
Speaker:And then actually starts to make recommendations of how you can
Speaker:reduce that impact.
Speaker:But that's the second way the technology works and that's all
Speaker:automated from outside.
Speaker:And all of that I'm feeling is something that can be
Speaker:used in social media for your brand to,
Speaker:you could even say,
Speaker:I've just started doing this with my products and like I'm
Speaker:switching over a product cause it's more like you can take
Speaker:people on your journey with you.
Speaker:I was using this wax.
Speaker:Now I'm switching over to this wax and whatever the story
Speaker:behind it is,
Speaker:which again is going to endear people to you because you're
Speaker:caring about something that they also care about.
Speaker:That's a really important point because I think as I'm sure
Speaker:most of your listeners fall into the camp,
Speaker:they want to be more eco-conscious and most consumers do,
Speaker:but the barrier has been information.
Speaker:And I think that's what most consumers want.
Speaker:Yes. They want to buy products that,
Speaker:that school score well,
Speaker:but more important than that,
Speaker:they just want transparency.
Speaker:They just want access to the information.
Speaker:And if you can take your consumers on that journey and
Speaker:say, look,
Speaker:we've just done this score.
Speaker:And we did really well in this and not so good
Speaker:at this.
Speaker:And therefore we're making these changes.
Speaker:It's just that consumers love that transparency and honesty and you
Speaker:sorta helping help and then go on that journey.
Speaker:Yeah. I love this.
Speaker:Okay. So we've talked about that.
Speaker:We've talked about how this is good to help you get
Speaker:placement in wholesale.
Speaker:How else can you give us a couple of examples about
Speaker:how your clients have been using this to increase their sales
Speaker:as well?
Speaker:Other than what we've talked about already?
Speaker:Yeah. So the two benefits are cost reduction.
Speaker:So the biggest impact is a cost.
Speaker:So once you know your impact,
Speaker:you can actually start to reduce the impact and reduce the
Speaker:cost. So it works at both ends.
Speaker:You can actually look at ways you can reduce your impact
Speaker:and cost by actually having visibility to this information,
Speaker:which is really important.
Speaker:And then from a revenue side,
Speaker:I think we're seeing,
Speaker:as I talked about increased,
Speaker:ranging from partners,
Speaker:so actually being able to use this information to increase range,
Speaker:but we've also mostly anecdotal is the age.
Speaker:To be honest with you,
Speaker:starting to see brands,
Speaker:come back to us in their own direct to consumer channels
Speaker:where they're actually starting to increase conversion.
Speaker:So some brands that have the scoring on some products,
Speaker:but not in others,
Speaker:we're starting to see case studies coming back where they're actually
Speaker:getting an increased conversion on those products that actually have a
Speaker:sustainability score to it.
Speaker:I think that makes sense because then it can,
Speaker:she was just above that level of transparency on it.
Speaker:Yes, for sure.
Speaker:So if I were to do two of my products,
Speaker:this I,
Speaker:I was subscribed and I did two of my products this
Speaker:year made adjustments to the materials.
Speaker:If I make some adjustments,
Speaker:then I have to send that product through again with the
Speaker:adjustments. Correct?
Speaker:Correct. Okay.
Speaker:And then I get to the point where I'm really excited
Speaker:about my score.
Speaker:Maybe it happens right out of the shoot,
Speaker:who knows?
Speaker:Right? Cause not all of this is obvious to the point
Speaker:about sourcing overseas force versus sourcing here.
Speaker:It's not an obvious choice necessarily,
Speaker:but let's say I get to a score that I'm really
Speaker:happy about.
Speaker:I like how it compares against my industry,
Speaker:my product industry overall,
Speaker:is that score then good for years in the future.
Speaker:Do I have to do it again every year?
Speaker:How solid is my score?
Speaker:My investment in my score.
Speaker:Yeah. So,
Speaker:so I should say that you can update your score at
Speaker:any time by updating your inputs.
Speaker:So if you score your product in may and then you
Speaker:make adjustments in July,
Speaker:you just go back in and put those adjustments in your
Speaker:school. We updated.
Speaker:So there's no limit to how many times you can go
Speaker:into the,
Speaker:your dashboard and update your score.
Speaker:Do you get charged again?
Speaker:Nope. Your subscription is for a year.
Speaker:So you basically can update your school.
Speaker:You, you,
Speaker:your situation is to get access to the technology and the
Speaker:dashboard. How many times do you go back in there and
Speaker:actually update your materials or your sourcing or your information that
Speaker:you can do that as many times as you want to
Speaker:actually update your scores Per product,
Speaker:per product,
Speaker:within a calendar year With their county.
Speaker:And then you can use it obviously in the following years
Speaker:just by paying that $65 subscription.
Speaker:So you can update it as many times as you want
Speaker:during the year,
Speaker:as you make changes to your product to optimize it,
Speaker:but you need to pay the annual subscription to continue to
Speaker:get access to those dashboards and use those assets in your
Speaker:consumer facing or retailer facing forms.
Speaker:Okay. Let me clarify.
Speaker:If I make 10 different sense of candles,
Speaker:some of my materials change for each scent of candle and
Speaker:potentially size of candle.
Speaker:So I'm going to start and I'm going to do three
Speaker:products right now.
Speaker:Okay. So I have my three products there.
Speaker:I get my scores.
Speaker:I make my adjustments.
Speaker:Those are only good for the individual size,
Speaker:the individual scent for those products that I scored on.
Speaker:I make adjustments.
Speaker:I get my scores.
Speaker:And now are you saying I can only promote and talk
Speaker:about that score while I have this subscription?
Speaker:Like what if my subscription,
Speaker:I'm asking you kind of two questions at the same time,
Speaker:but I think you're going to understand where I'm going with
Speaker:this. What if now my subscription ends,
Speaker:I already know my score for those three products,
Speaker:but I want to do more sense.
Speaker:I want to know my scores about other sense.
Speaker:So year two,
Speaker:I'm not doing those first three products.
Speaker:I want to do another 3,
Speaker:4, 10 products.
Speaker:Can I still promote the scores from that first year,
Speaker:even though they're not active on your site anymore.
Speaker:Okay. In a way that's yeah,
Speaker:because that's obviously what you're paying for.
Speaker:So you're getting a really accessible solution.
Speaker:That's $65 per product,
Speaker:but you need to redo that each year to be able
Speaker:to leverage it.
Speaker:And what if someone were,
Speaker:is that false representation?
Speaker:Yeah. So that's part of the contract that we sign is
Speaker:to be able to promote it.
Speaker:You need to have an active and UpToDate subscription.
Speaker:So, and we haven't had a case of that yet.
Speaker:It may happen in the future.
Speaker:We generally work with brands that want to do the right
Speaker:thing. So hopefully it's just going to be the fact that
Speaker:it's lapsed and they needed to have a reminder.
Speaker:So you need to have be an active subscriber to be
Speaker:able to use the diary school.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Well that makes sense.
Speaker:And these questions are more for understanding than anything else.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:for one product making your money back at $65 should be
Speaker:a no brainer.
Speaker:Really? That's the model.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:Some other examples from past clients and what this has done
Speaker:for them kind of a before,
Speaker:after. Yeah.
Speaker:It's mostly those it's retailer conversions to sell through reducing the
Speaker:impact, but also reducing their costs and starting to see an
Speaker:increased conversion rate,
Speaker:the heart,
Speaker:the thing that we have here,
Speaker:and we've only been live now for let's call it eight
Speaker:or nine months.
Speaker:What we haven't been able to measure is the more of
Speaker:the intangibles,
Speaker:like brand resonance and brand impact.
Speaker:That's something that we've got more longer term studies on,
Speaker:but there is a,
Speaker:there is an admitted commercial return.
Speaker:I think most of your listeners,
Speaker:I think we'll be able to almost get the benefit back
Speaker:just by being able to reduce their cost of their products
Speaker:and the impact of their products.
Speaker:They'll learn the revenue upside.
Speaker:So there's multiple ways that it can benefit from a commercial
Speaker:sense. Got it.
Speaker:Right. And you know what?
Speaker:Most of the people who are listening,
Speaker:if they're following what I'm suggesting is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they're a specialist in a certain type of a product.
Speaker:So unless you are a gift store where you have tons
Speaker:of products that you're carrying,
Speaker:but if you are a maker,
Speaker:then you are a specialist in candles or pampering products or
Speaker:baking. So it's not like you're going to have this huge,
Speaker:numerous skew of products that you would be having to analyze.
Speaker:So this feels very,
Speaker:very doable Austin,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:And we also work with retailers too.
Speaker:So your manufacturers,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:we've got a couple of very big retailers that we work
Speaker:with. They then work back with the brands to get the
Speaker:schools because we ultimately,
Speaker:we do needs to get the information from the brands.
Speaker:But a lot of times retailers are our introduction to those
Speaker:brands because the retailers want their scores on their website for
Speaker:the retail store to be a point of difference.
Speaker:So it can actually work for that at a retail and
Speaker:a brand level.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Okay. And do you have anywhere I'm thinking the answer is
Speaker:no, but do you have anywhere all the products that you've
Speaker:reviewed and people have given permission to show their scores like
Speaker:any like master place We dine actually,
Speaker:it's a really good question.
Speaker:So we did have a marketplace that had all the products
Speaker:on it originally,
Speaker:but I think as what we found was the demand was
Speaker:coming from outside the marketplace from bigger brands that didn't necessarily
Speaker:want to be on a marketplace,
Speaker:but wanted to get access to the technology.
Speaker:So we've done that we have,
Speaker:that is something that we've thought about doing is just having,
Speaker:not a commercial place,
Speaker:but just a catalog of places where all the products we've
Speaker:scored are.
Speaker:So consumers can find them.
Speaker:We don't have it at the moment,
Speaker:but it's a really good idea that we've talked about for
Speaker:sure. Well,
Speaker:it's only a thought as a consumer.
Speaker:Now, if I wanted to go and be able to get
Speaker:direct access to products that have,
Speaker:and people would have,
Speaker:and like,
Speaker:I'm thinking if my product's scoring low,
Speaker:I wouldn't want it there yet.
Speaker:So it would be a permission-based thing,
Speaker:but that would also be a reason why apart from my
Speaker:own needs,
Speaker:but to be able to get,
Speaker:to want to be on that list,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm going to get it up kind of as another motivation
Speaker:to make your product as sustainable as possible.
Speaker:Yeah. And again,
Speaker:we're not in the business of naming and shaming brands.
Speaker:That's not our approach for brands.
Speaker:We really,
Speaker:as support too,
Speaker:we're a solutions based tool.
Speaker:How can we help brands make better products that are less
Speaker:impactful and how can we help?
Speaker:Could she make better decisions?
Speaker:That's really at the core of our company.
Speaker:Absolutely. It is so exciting because finally,
Speaker:now we can figure it out,
Speaker:especially on a level like we are here as makers.
Speaker:How would you have ever been able to come across that
Speaker:you think,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:but some of our assumptions aren't necessarily accurate either now,
Speaker:not only can we know,
Speaker:but we can add a layer of credibility because we can
Speaker:have a score.
Speaker:Think that's amazing.
Speaker:So, all right,
Speaker:Austin, any final words for our listeners here?
Speaker:Yeah, but suggesting it just trial it,
Speaker:give it a go.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:as you say,
Speaker:depending on how big your range is,
Speaker:it doesn't need to be all your products.
Speaker:But I think if you can actually go through the,
Speaker:probably that we always talk about understanding or certainly for the
Speaker:bigger brands that we work with,
Speaker:but you really want to stand up the process,
Speaker:you go through the outcome and how scalable it is.
Speaker:And so I think starting out by scoring a few products
Speaker:is a good way to understand it and then go from
Speaker:there, but just jump in the net will appear,
Speaker:give it a guy with a few products and I'm sure
Speaker:you'll be happy with the results.
Speaker:Absolutely fabulous Austin.
Speaker:And where would people go to learn more and to jump
Speaker:on the network?
Speaker:Yeah. So our website is diarized.io.io.
Speaker:So that's diarized with a Zed.
Speaker:So diarize.io,
Speaker:or just drop me an email directly@austinatdiarize.com.
Speaker:Perfect. And as you know,
Speaker:there'll be show notes page that will give you all of
Speaker:the information.
Speaker:So if you didn't catch it here,
Speaker:definitely jump over to the show notes.
Speaker:And when you do this,
Speaker:let us know if you're going to do your product,
Speaker:reach out.
Speaker:I want to know what you're doing.
Speaker:You don't have to tell me your score,
Speaker:but I'd really love feedback on this because I think it
Speaker:is so important and it gives us just another way to
Speaker:stand out in the crowd.
Speaker:So Austin,
Speaker:amazing product.
Speaker:I am so glad to know you now.
Speaker:And I am so appreciative.
Speaker:You've given us so much information and I'm really excited about
Speaker:the future for you and for day rise.
Speaker:Thanks. It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker:One of the things I found most interesting is that the
Speaker:sourcing decisions you make that may seem harmful could actually be
Speaker:better than what you think would be the more eco-friendly alternatives.
Speaker:I'm thinking now specifically about when you source products overseas,
Speaker:which many of us do?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:even if you get your product elements locally through a wholesaler,
Speaker:many of them are still made in another country and that
Speaker:may not be all bad.
Speaker:You just have to do your research to know.
Speaker:Another thing I really appreciated is to find that analyzing a
Speaker:few products is so affordable.
Speaker:It makes all the sense in the world.
Speaker:To me to learn about the sustainability of at least one
Speaker:or two of the products that you create before you move
Speaker:on to your next activity today,
Speaker:make sure to get your name on the list for at
Speaker:least one gift biz bash.
Speaker:You can see the dates and times for upcoming sessions and
Speaker:get signed up over at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash bash.
Speaker:And if you're enjoying the podcast and would like to show
Speaker:support a rating and review would be wonderful.
Speaker:It helps spread the word about the show too.
Speaker:So it's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:There's also another way to get something tangible in exchange for
Speaker:your support.
Speaker:Visit my merch shop for a wide variety of inspirational items
Speaker:like mugs,
Speaker:journals, water bottles,
Speaker:and more featuring logos images and quotes to inspire you throughout
Speaker:your day makes a great gift to,
Speaker:and we've just added some new products for the season,
Speaker:which is my favorite design right now.
Speaker:It's a toss up with that gorgeous lemonade image and a
Speaker:quote about refreshing and the beautiful butterfly design what's yours.
Speaker:Turnaround is quick and the quality is top notch,
Speaker:nothing but the best for you.
Speaker:Take a look@alltheoptionsatgiftbizonwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash shop.
Speaker:All proceeds from these purchases helps me offset the costs of
Speaker:producing this podcast and now be safe and well.
Speaker:And I'll see you again.
Speaker:Next time on the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
