Unconventional & Unstoppable: Parker Olson's Wild Marketing Tactics That Are Redefining Marketing | 663

Speaker A: On the assumption that it's legal, and it may well not be, would you ask the cabin crew of a domestic commercial flight if you could promote your business over the plane's pa? Or on the assumption it's not too cold, would you swim your product out to passing kayakers? Well, today's guest has done both of those crazy marketing ideas and that is just the tip of the iceberg. It's another unconventional episode 663 of the 14 year old award winning Small Business Big Marketing podcast where I said welcome

Speaker B: to a small business marketing show where successful small business owners share their souls

Speaker C: to take your marketing straight to the lead.

Speaker B: Now here's your host, Mr. Timbo.

Speaker A: And welcome back to your weekly dose of do you believe in your product Enough marketing. I'm your host Timbo Reed and I have an insatiable curiosity for uncovering marketing ideas that help businesses just like yours to grow. I uh, do that by having a weekly in depth, interesting, fun and challenging conversation with successful business owners who have very, very kindly walked the path before us. You, infinitely more importantly, are a motivated business owner ready to crank out some great marketing to build that beautiful business of yours into the empire it absolutely deserves to be. As per usual team, there's marketing gold dripping from the ceiling over here at Small Business Big Marketing's hq. So let's get stuck right in. Be sure to hang around after the interview for an update on your favourite marketing podcast. Hmm, interesting. Speaking of which, if you're benefiting from this show in any way, shape or form, if you love to talk marketing and are uh, always always on the lookout for the next big or small idea to grow that beautiful business of yours, then try my Small Business Owner membership free for seven days. Nothing to lose, no lock ins, no nonsense. Why? Great question. Well, in the past week I've posted a commentary and link to the best interview I've ever heard yet about the all important customer experience. A short video snippet of my favourite part of last week's chat with Renee Bunster, along with another video snippet all about how to create a celebrity service with Jacob Spencer of Miniskips. That was a couple of episodes ago. I've also posted a rant on how business owners just like you could be more strategic in deciding their opening hours. Plus, there's 45 marketing ideas that I've captured on video, there's a mountain of video interviews I've done and more short video excerpts from my favourite interviews and your favorite interviews, some productivity tool reviews and the odd Peek behind the scenes. Very odd, I can assure you. And like I said, I'm, um, adding stimulating marketing content every single week. And if none of that interests you and you just like to make a contribution to the running costs of this show, then who am I to say no? For more info, head over to patreon.com marketing podcast. There's also a link in the show notes. And thanks to all of you who've already joined. Every. Every little bit helps to bring the best business and marketing inspirations going around straight to your door. Check it out for free for seven days over at patreon.com forward/marketing podcast. Today's special guest is Parker Olson, a, uh, serial entrepreneur with a passion for unconventional, um, marketing strategies. And when I say serial entrepreneur, I mean this in both respects. He's the founder of a granola, uh, business called Forage. From swimming product samples out to passing kayakers, to taking control of the cabin crew's microphone on domestic commercial flights, not just one, to traveling the length of the United States in his Forage branded Mazda van in order to visit buyers, Parker is an absolute ninja at breaking through the clutter and getting his brand noticed, all whilst spending as little as possible on his marketing.

Speaker B: But, boy, does he get a great

Speaker A: bang for his buck. Topics covered include, of course, unconventional marketing ideas and the process Parker uses to arrive at them, how he measures the ROI of unconventional, um, marketing, why a $10 whiteboard shouldn't be underestimated, and so much more. As always, you'll find a video snippet from this interview that I feel is super interesting over@patreon.com marketing podcast. But right now, enough from me. Let's go meet Parker.

Speaker B: Parker Olson. Welcome finally to the small Business Big marketing podcast.

Speaker C: Thanks, Timbo. I can't believe you're real.

Speaker B: Neither can I. Now, Parker, we're here to talk about unconventional marketing. However, before we get to that, I want to understand along with my listeners just to what extent Forage is your life.

Speaker C: I would say I, at this point, people know me as like the granola man, or, you know, I'm sure we'll touch on it a little bit here or as the airplane guy or the van guy. And these are all referencing specific things I've done to build brand awareness or open up distribution. Um, and yeah, I've sacrificed my life in several ways for the brand that I'm sure we'll touch on. I don't want to give too many sneak peeks here, but, yeah, I would say on some levels, we're one in the same Timbo. I dream about, uh, granola and processing and selling granola and making granola now.

Speaker B: Well, let's go back in time. You spent 18 months. Just give us a sense of age. You're not the oldest bloke going around right now. How old are you?

Speaker C: I just turned 28 last week.

Speaker B: 28. So at some point you spent an entire 18 months, from what I can understand, living, uh, out of a van, um, traveling, uh, the country, just, uh, promoting the Forage brand. Just tell us about that time and why you did it.

Speaker C: Yeah, well, so. So the eight. The 18 months specifically was. Was trying different nutritional diets. That was almost for fun. Like, I. I was. I was working corporate job. I feel like when I listen to the pod, it's like a lot of, like, you hear a lot of this where people are working a corporate job. Just know deep down that, like, you're just unfulfilled. There's. There's a lack of fulfillment. And I think a lot of people just sort of hits them in the face and they're like, I have to go do something else. Um, so I was working a corporate job, and I just got really interested by nutrition, and I was like, you know what? I don't understand why people are vegan. I'll go vegan for 30 days. Let's see what happens. Did that for 30 days. And then I just kept doing that, trying different nutritional diets and documenting how I felt and. And became obsessed with mushrooms, you know, functional mushrooms and supplementing with them. I felt really, really good. And so that. That was sort of like the first test or experiment for me that really got me interested in nutrition and compelled to start a food brand.

Speaker B: So at this point, are you just doing a little sort of nutritional test on yourself to see if you can feel better, be more productive, have clearer thoughts, all that kind of stuff, or was the end goal. No, I'm going to do this research and at the back end of it, start a business.

Speaker C: It was definitely more about nutritional interest. I was trying to start other businesses at the time, so I actually started a reversible pant company that didn't really go anywhere. My takeaway from that was like, did

Speaker B: you say reversible pan or pant?

Speaker C: Reversible pants, so you could, like, flip the pants inside out.

Speaker B: Different interesting parker. Anyway, you've got to go through the ideas, right. To get to the right one.

Speaker C: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Um, and so anyways, I went through all this, and at the end of it, I was like, whoa, there's something really interesting here. Um, and not that many people were talking about functional mushrooms at the time. And so I started just experimenting and making things in my kitchen and bringing them into the office. And next thing I know, it's like people really like the product and we're starting to sell it locally and people are like, oh, are you raising money? And so I started to sort of really organically form as something that, that may have been a viable, um, a viable business around basically including these really health, nutrient dense ingredients into everyday packaged food goods.

Speaker B: So I love these stories because you're not a bloke, you haven't grown up in a, you know, a family that manufactured some type of food product. You were a miserable, what I call potential cubicle escape, dying to get away from the big corporate job and working for the man. And you just, well, I wouldn't say you fell upon this idea, but, you know, it landed in your lap and you made the most of it. So tell us about that point where, uh, the inflection point where you've gone, you know what, I'm, um, earning a good salary. I have relative security. But. Yeah, what's security in a corporate job? I'm going to give forage a go.

Speaker C: Yeah. So I had been working on it for a year. We had interns and at this point, and I think you kind of mentioned earlier, but we were bringing in interns and I was baking the product locally at a cafe, but the cafe wouldn't let me store ingredients there and I didn't want to pay for storage space. So I brought a metal rack in my bedroom. And I lived with two other roommates. We had a house in a backyard. So next thing I know, I had to bring in another metal rack and another one. And I had to get rid of all my furniture. It's just my bed, these metal racks. I tried to build a hanging rack and I woke up one day and I'm like, oh my God, like, I'm going to go crazy living out of here. And so I decided that I'd sleep in my tent in the backyard and I'd get rid of my bed and I just turned into a real office. And I said f it. I was like, eff it. Like, yeah, I'm going to go through with this. Like, worst case scenario, I'll just buy another bed and I'll move back into my room.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Um, so that was in March of, I don't know, 2020. Uh, no, M. 2019.

Speaker B: 2019. Okay. Pre. Pre pandemic.

Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Didn't, um, do great things for my dating life, but it gave me, like, a sense of excitement that I was really working on something and really starting to, like, devote all my time and effort.

Speaker B: Parker. What woman, I assume woman, please. Excuse me if I'm wrong, I can be politically incorrect most of the time.

Speaker C: No, you're spot on, Tim.

Speaker B: What woman, Parker, wouldn't be totally interested in this young, healthy bloke who's studying mushrooms and trying to make granola and is supportive of veganism and I mean, mate, you're a dream date.

Speaker C: Uh, I don't know. Living in a tent didn't. Didn't help. Oh, yes, they did before. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: Come back to my cave, darling. Cannibal.

Speaker C: Exactly. Um, yeah, well, so anyways, I raised that because, you know, it got to the point where, like, you know, people wanted to invest. I thought, okay, we can raise some money. It's a pretty unique product. Let's go out. I told my, I was in a management consultant role and I, my customer knew about my client, knew what I was doing the whole time. And he was a 2000 dot com, uh, founder, and their company went under with the dot com bubble. But he was always very supportive. And actually I was, I was about to quit. Um, and he was like, hey, why don't you stay on part time, Just work for me, like, independent consultant. And I'll keep some, some cash in your, in your pockets and you can keep working on this and like, I'll support you.

Speaker B: Awesome.

Speaker C: And so my biggest piece of advice, honestly, for anybody who wants to go out and start their own business is like, figure out how to make side income where you can support your lifestyle with minimal amount of hours while you can spend the rest of your time, like, figuring out how to be an entrepreneur. Because it's very, very difficult to get people to part from their money for anything.

Speaker B: For anything. I think that's never a truer word spoken. Um, I've so often said on this show, make it easy for people to give you money. Number one, so many businesses don't. But the other part of that is just continually remind yourself of how difficult it is to get hold of people's money in a genuine way. I don't mean that, like, as a, you know, grab and run type way. I mean, it is like, you know, I've been, personally, I've started a Patreon about a year ago and I thought. And I've been doing this podcast for 14 years. This is a bit of a, this is Tim. Tim's whinge time, Parker. So just, you know, humor me. Um, but, you know, it's a great example. I've been doing this podcast for 14 years. I feel like I've built a pretty significant community. I start a patreon to, um, garnish some support from listeners. And it's been really hard and I'm just. And it's a good reminder and wake up call that it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done or how good your intentions are. Asking people to part with their money is difficult and we need to. It's a great reminder every. Go to work every day thinking that, and you'll sit up straight and buddy, work. Work harder or smarter.

Speaker C: Yeah. And just as another anecdote, right? Because, I mean, you'd think 15 years, right? What? Largest pod. Largest marketing podcast in Australia. From what I've seen, like global top 25 marketing podcast. Okay. You would think, right? You have tons of repeat listeners. People would want to support you. Um, uh, there's a food influencer. He's the seventh largest food influencer on TikTok that we're working with. And we were going to build like a private label brand out of and we were going to do everything for him. And we thought, okay, this guy's got 25 million followers across his platform. He's got tons of engagement, people are all over him. And we ran a. Well, we started with running a single survey to his followers and it was like, hey, I'm going to be making a protein bar. Like, would you be interested in buying it? Basically, it was like, what flavors are you interested in? And less than 800 people signed up.

Speaker B: Wow. Out of 25 million, was it 25 million? Yeah.

Speaker C: I mean, granted, it's like, how many saw it? But those, those number discrepancies are massive.

Speaker B: They're massive. And there is an assumption, and I'm guilty of it as much as others, is that you can, from the outside looking in, you can go, oh, you know, these guys are smashing it. But you know that you mate with 25 million. Look, I don't know how he did that. I have no idea how you get 25 million followers, whoever you are. But, um, it is. It's hard. And you can't make assumptions just because the numbers are big that the results are going to be big as well. Parker, um, at this point, you've got your side hustle going. You've got a supportive manager in your corporate role. You're living out of your bedroom. Although You've kind of been pushed out of your bedroom. You put a bed out on the balcony, which I saw a photo of in your Shark tank pitch video. Um, at some point, you take off in a Mazda van of some sort. Uh, lovely, colorful, rainbow ish and big forage branding on the side. You took off around America for 18 months, is that right? Tell us about that. Why'd you do it?

Speaker C: Yeah, just about a year. Um, I did that for. For two reasons. Um, so number one, we were trying to figure out how to market, how to drive, like, you know, basically direct to consumer, you know, purchases online and using performance marketing. So running paid ads. And, you know, we hire a big paid media company there, we're spending silly money on them, managing our campaigns. Classic. Yes, I know. I'm. I'm guilty. And, you know, the results were super lackluster. And one day I got so fast sped up. Uh, I was just like, all right, I need to just learn. Excuse my language. I just need to learn how to do this myself. And then I will. Like, I need to spend two full days just, like, figuring out paid ads. And I will. I swear, by the end of those two days, like, people will come to the website and buy our freaking.

Speaker B: Or at least find the website, the modest hatch.

Speaker C: And. And so I am out there, and I'm, um. And I'm like, okay, I need content. And, you know, I started doing some research and. And, you know, I don't. I don't watch any ads on Instagram. I don't pay attention to any ads anywhere. I think it's all noise. But the only ads I pay attention to are the ones that are just so outlandish, like, completely different. Right? It's, like, really strikes through the noise. So I filmed these videos of me in my tent, and it was like, hey, like, I've been living in my tent for 12 months because I think I've made the best granola product in the world. And it was me, like, in my 10, I looked like a hippie. It was, like, classic. And that single video drove, like, 80% of our revenue, um, for the upcoming 12 months. Like, it was like an insane spike.

Speaker B: Let's just unpack that. That's really interesting. So prior to that marketing agency doing fancy granola ads, Pouring the granola into a bowl. I haven't seen them, but I'm assuming pouring the granola into the bowl. Sunny backgrounds, healthy people, Silly, silly headlines. Cliched stuff. You go, yeah, one, uh, hundred and eighty degrees. Here's Parker in his tent. I'M doing it tough because I'm trying to build the best granola band behind the scenes. People buy into it. There's an emotional connection. Now I get it.

Speaker C: That's exactly it. And that was such a learning for me. Like, like the video quality was crap. Like, I, I edited it myself. Captions were kind of wrong. Like, exactly. It was, it was such an awakening for me. Um, and ever since then, like all of our marketing efforts, it was like, okay, am I doing what everybody else is doing or is this truly unique? Like, will this really stop somebody in their path and be like, what is that? Or like, wait, what? And so that is really, like, to me, like, formed the basis of how I think about marketing in general. Like, you have to be going where nobody else is going, whether that's with the type of content you're putting out, the type of ads we're running. Right. The type of channels you're marketing into. Like, there's a lot of non traditional channels you can be thinking about. It isn't just putting money into the Facebook. Paid, paid. Um, so I straight went to guerrilla marketing and then I also went straight to LinkedIn. So LinkedIn and then, and then organic, like really unique, organic content, um, were sort of my two bigger realms.

Speaker B: Let's just pull those apart. So you mentioned guerrilla organic and then specifically LinkedIn. Okay, let's, let's, well, let's just knock the. So what we're talking about here, we're moving into that, into the non conventional marketing discussion of which you've done a lot of. And some of it. And we'll talk about you swimming out to a, to a passing kayaker. We'll talk about, you know, wacky stuff like that. Um, because I'm interested in, I mean, that's fun. It's a story to tell. I'm interested in the ROI on that. But let's just start with LinkedIn. That's an easy one. How is LinkedIn unconventional?

Speaker C: Yeah. So for me, I was going on LinkedIn and I was sharing a lot of this unique content. And you know, I had some couple posts go viral. So, like, there was one instance where whenever I would fly in an airplane, I'd always bring a whiteboard. Whiteboarding's another interesting thing that I'd love to talk about.

Speaker B: Just go down that rabbit hole, mate. Don't, don't wait to talk about it. Talk about it.

Speaker C: Well, so I would, I would always bring the whiteboard with me and whenever I would set up, I would set up shop anywhere and just start sampling Product. I always had, like, a table in the van, a little sign, and I would always put, like, a. A unique message on the whiteboard to see if it caught people's attention and if they'd be interested to come and try the product. And then using those, like, what I. What I'll call CTAs in, like, paid, paid media. So I was almost testing. I was, like, testing, like, hooks and calls to action in real life on a whiteboard. Did it all the time.

Speaker B: I get it. Okay. I think I've seen your little whiteboard. It's quite small, maybe the size of an A3 piece of paper. Uh, and nothing fancy at all. Whiteboards and airplanes, Parker.

Speaker C: So, yes. So I. For a while, every single airplane I went on, I would get on my whiteboard, and I would write on the whiteboard something along the lines of, like. Of, like, entrepreneur with food products. Like, free product giveaway or something. Like, I don't know. It was like, something along those lines. And I'd walk to the front of the airplane while we're up in the sky, and I'd walk down the airplane with holding the sun. And. It's classic, Timbo. It's so classic. It was such a good learning in human psychology. The first couple rows, people are just, like, avoiding my eyes at all costs. Like, it is just like, they are like. But then finally, like, somebody who's not really paying attention in, like, row four or five is kind of like, oh, like. Like, what are you doing? Like, what's up? And as soon as that person breaks the ice and I tell them, I'm like, oh, I'm a food founder. Like, I'm just trying to give away product, get some feedback. Like, all you have to do is write your seat number on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket. And then. And then the flight attendant will draw it, and we'll announce it over the loudspeaker.

Speaker A: Really?

Speaker C: I usually was lying. I usually was lying, but then I'd actually get them to do it, and then everybody around them, people are like, oh, like. Like, okay. Like, could I participate too? And it would, like, catch on like, wildfire. It's really fascinating.

Speaker B: Talk about a captive audience.

Speaker C: Yeah, totally.

Speaker B: They don't count anyway.

Speaker C: Yeah, I know. I never really got yelled at either. There was one instance where the flight attendants were like, yeah, like, stop doing this. Um, but most of the time. And I started to figure out which airlines, as well, were more lenient, but most of the flight attendants were like, oh, this is super cool. Yeah, like, I'll announce it over the loudspeaker. I got on the loudspeaker a couple times. They let me get on it and talk about the product and do the giveaway.

Speaker B: And again, I have seen video of this because someone videoed it as part of your Shark Tank reel. And, uh, I think the bloke in seat 10C on this instance won a packet of granola or something, which I just think it's fantastic. I was reflecting only the other day, Parker, on the term guerrilla marketing, because we use it a lot. And I was thinking, why is it called guerrilla marketing? And I think it's because of just what you've done there. You sort of. You burst in like a gorilla. You know, they just burst onto the scene. They, one minute they're sitting down, the next minute they're sort of strolling, you know, with total intention through their forest and owning it, you know, And I think that's, uh. I guess that's what gorilla. Why guerrilla marketing is called guerrilla marketing?

Speaker C: It's. It's. It's unclear. Um, so, you know, stuff like that, right? And then taking that content, re. Leveraging that content, uh, across standard channels, but more organically, whatever organic, like videos do. Well, then putting paid ad spend behind it, um, but also taking that content and then trying to find partners. Right? So, like, I reached out to Alaska Airlines for a while and was like, hey, like, this crazy thing happened on the airplane. Like, it'd be really, you know, like, you guys really supported my small business, like, whatever. And I actually got, like, a couple intros. Um, and I'm still working on a potential deal to, like, put, like, small units on Alaska Airline airplanes, so.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker C: I don't know, like, a lot of these things lead sort of to one another. Um, but it's all about, like, how can you make noise and do things differently than from what others are doing?

Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, you know, we. I mentioned ROI on this stuff before, and, you know, as business owners, we want to see the roi. Uh, we want to put a dollar here and we want to get two back. But sometimes that's flawed thinking because. And there'd be business. There'd be listeners out there right now going, oh, well, geez. I mean, it takes guts to get up on an airplane and, you know, talk to everyone when, you know, the context of flying is people are nervous anyway about what's going to happen. Now we've got some nutter walking up and down the aisle. Um, but. And what's the ROI on that? Well, it's not an instant sale. But as you say, it has this cumulative buildup effect where you're getting the name out there, you're actually creating really interesting content, uh, that you can use elsewhere. You're sharpening your sword, you are getting your pitch right real time in front of a real live audience. I mean, there's a lot of upside to doing this stuff. It just takes a lot of guts.

Speaker C: Yeah. And the other component of what's the roi? I think I started doing the airplane stuff and this kayaking when I would swim granola out to kayakers because I was living on a floating home, so people in kayaks would come by, I would just jump in the water and swim over it, and people would be very confused. And then my roommates would, like, grab, like, would like, record it occasionally. But a lot of it was opportunistic. This wasn't like, okay, I'm gonna spend seven hours here, and I'm gonna spend that time, like, what's the ROI on my time there? It's like, oh, this is an interesting opportunity to engage with people in a very authentic manner. Um, and at the end of the day, hopefully help them feel something. Right. People who feel real raw emotion. That's what makes people purchase and that's what makes people follow. And then that's what helps with basically word of mouth. Right.

Speaker B: Helping people feel something. Never a true word spoken. The great definition of a brand isn't it's an emotional attachment. And, you know, if people feel something, it's harder for them to sever the connection between themselves and the business or the brand because they're emotionally connected. If they're just buying on price, for example, they're rationally connected, whereas you're building story and giving them reason to buy in, I guess, the following forage journey. Yeah.

Speaker C: So after I lived in the tent for close to two years, I moved into the van. So. So the van, it's upgrade. That's right, the van. So it was a 1995 Japanese import. Um, Mazda Bongo is. Is the, uh, Is. Is the make and model. And so, like, wheels on the right side, which for me is very strange. I think you guys have the wheel on the right side over there and, you know. Yeah, got it fully branded. And the idea behind that was to basically continue this journey of building a lot of really organic content. And I went around and at this point, you know, the iOS updates had happened and, like, our paid media basically started doing significantly more poorly. Right. It was a lot more challenging to take good content and put paid spend behind it and see the same ROI that we were expecting to see and that we felt was really profitable.

Speaker B: Um, around that same time you said iOS updates, did you mean Google updates?

Speaker C: No. Maybe this was a us thing. But in June 2021, Apple released their iOS update and it was a security update. Um, and basically they just removed a lot of trackable data points. So like trackable IP data points. So paid media became overnight, you know, became a quarter as effective as it was before.

Speaker B: Got it.

Speaker C: Yes. So we didn't have a ton of money. And at the same time as paid media performance fell off, we started to see some traction in grocery stores. So we were selling in some grocery stores and we started to see our unit, you know, sales velocity sort of picking up week over week and thought, okay, you know, I think like, you know, we haven't really touched on, on selling in a grocery stores yet. This could be an interesting channel, but it's a beast. Like I. Are you familiar with selling into retail?

Speaker B: Yeah, very. Yeah, totally. Okay. It seems I've had a few fmcg, uh, business owners on over the years and it scares me. FMCG just looks like such a beast. Such an expensive, complicated, hard to get to beast.

Speaker C: Yeah. And so I, you know, I kind of knew that. But in the similar vein, I'm thinking, okay, this is a channel that has, you know, gatekeepers and there's really ingrained partnerships and like everybody now, because it's Covid. It was Covid during that, that point. Everybody wants to get in front of these grocery store buyers who are kind of largely these gatekeepers, but no one's, no one's doing anything about it except for shooting emails into the abyss now. So these grocery store buyers are getting now hundreds of emails because there's no more in store meetings or there's no more in store, um, in person meetings, there's no more trade shows, there's no more opportunities to meet these people a bit more organically. So that was why I bought the van. So I bought the van and my concept was to drive around the country to these areas where these grocery store buyers were. And I would, and I would send them communications ahead of time. And I'd say, hey, I'm going to drive 1000 miles to your hometown to come out, hopefully maybe have a conversation with you that is socially distanced, you know, and at that point people were kind of going into the office a little bit, but like, it was still like very distanced. And so I thought, you know, what better way to stand out than to drive all the way there. And if they don't at least give me 10 minutes of their time, like, that would sort of be shocking.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker C: So this isn't something like I just drove across the country to see one grocery store buyer. I scoped out the entire United States and really like the grocery stores that I thought we would do well and in the chains and where those headquarters were. And I made the entire trip of it. So, you know, was just driving across country. I would show up at grocery store headquarters sometimes early in the morning. Like, you know, if I knew that all the staff came in on a Monday and I would usually try and call ahead of time to figure that out. I'd show up early and I'd set up like a breakfast buffet right in front of the front door. So like, either their security had to like throw me off out of the building or like they had to walk by the table. And honestly, like we opened up, you know, about 700, 800 doors of distribution from M spending from the first like six, seven months on the road. Um, and it sort of became this thing where grocery, grocery buyers in my category knew who I was because they're kind of friends. And so like, I'd reach out with an email and a grocery buyer would be like, oh, like, I was wondering if you were going to come to me.

Speaker A: Oh, wow.

Speaker B: Did you, did you find, on the most part, Parker, that people were respectful and enthusiastic towards meeting you or because it was Covid, they were like, look, I just don't want to see anyone. What was the general acceptance?

Speaker C: Yeah, I would say generally it was just sort of like exciting to people. And I think people appreciated just like the young hustle and energy that I had on some levels. But there were certainly people who didn't want to talk to me at all. But I would say the most part, people, even with COVID we would kind of be distanced and they would still give me some time of day. And it wasn't always an immediate yes, but it was. I got the product in front of them, they tried the product, they said, okay, cool. I'm not going to look at maybe putting this product on shelf, maybe in for another four months. But like now there's a real connection

Speaker B: there, I imagine too. I interviewed a well known, uh, FMCG fellow from Australia many years ago, Daniel Flynn from thank you. At the time it was a bottled water business that for every bottle sold, helped build a well in an African village. Uh, and Daniel created the problem. He'd never done bottled water before. But, uh, he created the problem. He got a big, big sale from, uh, an independent grocery chain in Australia and all of a sudden had to manufacture some ridiculous quantity of water that he didn't even know how to do that. But he created the problem. Did you, did you come in, experience something similar where you got a big order and then you've gone, okay, not sure how we're going to fulfill that,

Speaker C: but don't tell him. Yeah, yeah, I would say that happened a little, like, earlier on right when we started. And around that time, my brother was kind of like, he's in the food industry. He was managing operations. And we felt like, okay, we have to at least prepare for scale. And he works with manufacturers. And so sort of ahead of time, I was lucky that my brother was involved.

Speaker B: Perfect.

Speaker C: He was like, hey, like, it would take us probably three to six months to onboard with a manufacturer, right? To like, really dial in everything. Um, and so we, we started onboarding kind of right when I left. And then we sort of got lucky a little bit with the timing, and we never really ran out of major out of stocks. Something that did happen, though, is we did run into product rancidity issues. So while I was in the van, because I was so mobile, it was hard to send myself product because I didn't really know I was flexible.

Speaker B: So quality control got defected.

Speaker C: I was flexible. So. But when I was down in Southern California and it was hot out, I would. I had a ton of product in my van and a bunch of it went bad. And. And, uh, because I only had a finite amount, I wasn't eating it myself. I was saving it to give away samples to relevant people.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: And there, there was one day where I gave out a ton of samples and one guy called me and he's like, hey, like, I really, like, this isn't. I know that this is probably like, what happened, but, like, if you've given this product out to other people, like, you should strongly consider, you know, figuring this out. And like, I tried a bag and it was some of the most disgusting, horrible, rancid food I had ever had. And that I still remember that feeling to this day of like, oh, my God, like, that could bring a business heart attack moment. Yeah. Um, thankfully it didn't. And that guy was very nice and ended up selling to him a couple months later into their chain. Um, but, yeah, there's just, like, headaches.

Speaker A: Parker.

Speaker B: The, the unconventional marketing approach is super interesting. It's. It's entertaining. It's fun to talk about. I had a Lady on a few weeks ago who had a silk. A silk mask brand, she went to the extent of literally hopping on a plane out of Australia, hiring a car at lax, driving to the Kardashians compound and knocking on the front door, uh, ending up with a photo of the Kardashians wearing her silk mask. It's impressive stuff.

Speaker A: It's a great.

Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, absolutely. Round of applause. It's impressive. Like I said, it's entertaining. As a business owner, it's got to run out of puff because all of a sudden, well, it's. It's incredibly. It looks incredible. Incredibly time consuming. Um, and at some point, particularly as an FMCG brand, there's going to be an expectation by grocery store buyers that you have, dare I say, a TV campaign or a big social media campaign, you put some serious funds behind it. I don't think they're going to buy. Hey, I swim out to prospects who are kayaking past my lake home. You know what I mean?

Speaker C: Totally.

Speaker B: And m. I'm not being neg. I'm not being negative here. I'm just interested in. At what point does this just become child's play? I say respectfully, and you got to move in to the big boy's pants.

Speaker C: Totally. Yeah. No, I think, you know, that transition happened for me sort of, uh, maybe about 15 months ago. Like, I came and I got off the road because it was like, all right, at that point, like, we had drummed up enough business now where it's like, now I actually had to manage and grow the business. Like, to me, a lot of the guerrilla tactics are really good. From sort of you getting that 0 to 1, it's like, yes, how can we garner the attention, get people in the door, generate the leads and get the business to a place now that it's like you actually have something to manage and grow. It's like getting the first sparks of the fire. And then it's like, you know, now, um, I probably do a lot more boring things. Um, but still, think about from a fundamental standpoint, okay, you know, from our marketing budget, how are we thinking about spending these funds? Right. How much of it do we have to spend supporting these retailers and nurturing these customers in a traditional sense? Because it sort of works. But then, you know, what are we still doing from an experimental and an innovation standpoint, um, in the marketing realm to basically try and. To try and continue and foster that growth, um, you know, in a unique way that's also cost effective. Right.

Speaker B: I don't think, uh, it should Never end. It should be part of the brand, sort of DNA, if you like. Uh, internally, it's like, no, hang on, guys, we have a crack here. We, we have fun getting the brand name M out there. I remember one of my first interviews many years ago with Tom Dixon of Will it Blend? And he, he was, he owned a company called Blendtec, which are the blenders that you see at, you know, McDonald's and all the big juice bars around the world. They're the big commercial blenders. And, um, and he, his whole marketing approach was doing these, um, scientific experiments where he would sit, stand there in a white lab coat, safety glasses, holding up an iPad in front of his blender and going, this is an iPad3. The question is, will it blend? And he'd blend the bloody iPad. But he continued to do these. He'd blend ps, playstations and hockey pucks and all sorts of stuff. Uh, my point is. There, he continues, he doesn't do it anymore. This was many, many years ago. But it doesn't mean you have to stop and get into adult marketing, if you like. But, uh, there's got to be that balance.

Speaker C: Yeah. And I think for us too, like, I, you know, I got to the point where I was a little bit burned out of, like, being the center of attention, doing everything, and. And we started moving more towards, like, digital and thinking about scaling. Right. And, you know, it's like, oh, those tactics never scale. Of course not. Um, you know, and do I still want to, like, take the van around every once in a while and do something? Absolutely. But like, that instead of be 50% of my time is now 5 to 10. 5 to 10% of my time. Um, and now it's like, how can we apply those same principles and that same fun cultural attitude, but just in other ways that are scaling? So, like, things we're working on. Um, our branding has become kind of really fun and are these cute little creatures. And so we're building and kind of have built. It hasn't been fully launched yet. Um, where any customer can scan a QR code now on our items, and they can build their own personal forager. And it's like this little creature icon. And we only feature customers, foragers on, like, packages and all of our merchandise, et cetera. So it, like, sort of brings a slight personalization in. It keeps it fun and light, but it also, like, invites the consumers to, like, join the brand and be a part of that journey kind of moving forward. Um, the other things that. The other things that we're sort of thinking about are, you know, a lot of our, um, products focus around cognitive health. And so we've thought about partnering with. Are you familiar with Brain HQ or Luminosity?

Speaker B: No.

Speaker C: They're kind of like online mental brain training game sets. So it's like, oh, doing fun things with theirs. So we've developed and have worked with a PhD in neuroscience to develop these brain training games.

Speaker A: Awesome.

Speaker C: Um, and so when a customer, if they want, they can sign up for free and they can get these fun daily brain games texted to them every single morning.

Speaker B: Oh, wow.

Speaker C: So, yeah, so we're looking at different ways of, like, how can you consistently stay in front of a customer, acquire new customers or nurture existing customers sort of with some of these just, I don't know, different methods. Right. Of reaching them.

Speaker B: Parky, you've got balls of steel. You stand up in 40,000ft in the air and talk to people about your product, which I absolutely love. Uh, is there a guerrilla marketing idea, an unconventional marketing idea that scares the pants off you and you just want to. You just can't bring yourself to do?

Speaker C: Sure. There's many. I, um, think, you know, I don't know. For some reason, first thing that comes to me that I think I would never do is like, is like, you know, uh, what is it called where you strip and you run across like a, like a professional football field or something? Oh, Ah, yeah.

Speaker B: Streaker.

Speaker C: Yeah, I would never streak. Wouldn't do that.

Speaker B: Thought that'd be the top of your list. You know, some sort of, you know, naturalist, hippie bloke, you know, living out of his van.

Speaker C: That's about right across. Yeah, that's about right across it.

Speaker B: So no nudity? We've established no nudity. Okay. Tell me, Parker, you are, uh, building a business, a brand, um, in a very big marketplace. Everyone eats breakfast. Well, most eat breakfast. Granola's popular. This has the potential, all being well, to be a really big empire, serial empire, whatever you want to call it. Is that your intention or where do you want to see forage in. I always hate saying 5 years time, but this is a long term question. Where do you see it?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think for me, you know, Timbo, I think as I've learned more about business and what I enjoy and life and think about, you know, what do I want to get away with my time here? I don't think at least right now, I really want to be a CEO. Yeah, I kind of think of that. What would that means for me is like, I think once the brand gets To a certain point, uh, uh, I think I'd be interested in bringing in an operator and you know, whether that's, whether that's selling the brand or bringing in someone and kind of stepping away but still being there to engage and make sure everyone's having fun and finding joy and creativity. Like. Absolutely. But I genuinely do think, you know, I'm really most passionate about building in that, you know, 0 to 1 or 0 to 5 or 0 to 10 space of like really going from absolutely nothing and creating something, um, and then bringing it up to a place where there's processes in place. Um, but I think, you know, much beyond that. I don't love just like managing people and processes and um, you know, bringing something from 10 to 100. Right. Or 10 to a thousand or uh, you know, whatever. Just the massive scale.

Speaker B: I m am so glad you've recognized that in yourself. This is, this is the father figure in me talking, Parker. But, you know, I think it's called the Peter Principle where you get promoted or you promote yourself beyond your level of competence. And we see it all the time. And uh, one of the biggest examples that comes to mind for me is a very past guest, I think maybe in my first or second year of this show. His name was Brian Singer and he founded RIP Curl. Do you know Rip Curl? The brand, the surf brand? Everyone knows RIP Curl, right? Big brand. Now he founded that brand because he used to surf at a beach, at his local beach called Bell's beach down in Torquay in Australia. And it was freezing and he came across this neoprene material, bought a World War II sewing machine and made the first wetsuit. And here he is out in the middle of winter, surfing Bell's beach, and his mates are going, can you make me one? Can you make me one? So he made everyone a wetsuit. Anyway, the decades later, rip, uh, Curl is this multi billion dollar global surf brand. And I won't go as far as saying he was miserable because he was very wealthy and he was surfing a lot still. But he was taken away from the heart and soul of where he started because he just, the thing grew and maybe he didn't have the courage to make the decision you have, which is, I don't want to be a CEO. Uh, I really, I hope that works for you.

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, we'll see. You know, it's like I'm still young and, and you know, I'm sure, I know I changed my mind, but it's just, I'm just not super financially motivated either. Maybe Sounds crazy.

Speaker B: Don't beat yourself up over that, Brady.

Speaker C: Maybe I'm lying to myself. Some people think I am. You're going to. You'll love this, Tim. I'm dating this. This girl, and she. She's a. She's an entrepreneur, and she's. She's excited at the opportunity to get, you know, financially wealthy and secure. And I tell her, and I'm like, I think. I think you may end up coming to realize that. Like, that's not necessarily it. And the other day, we're hanging out, and she goes, you know, if you ever want to admit that, or if you ever want to admit that you'd like to be rich someday, you can tell me. And I won't tell anyone. She goes, I swear I won't tell anyone, but you can share that with me. And I'm m. Like, that's just not me, babe.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's part of your generation, too. You know, I've got three kids, uh, slightly younger than you, and I talk to them about this. And it isn't about necessarily building empires.

Speaker C: Of course.

Speaker A: There are people out there who are

Speaker B: always going to want to do that. But it'll be interesting to see how you sort of manage that, because even if you put a CEO in, the CEO is going to want to build an empire. Unless the brief is, hey, listen, once we're turning over 10 million bucks, turn the tap off and put the price up or something like that. You know, stop further growth, just increase margin.

Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. And who knows, right? Who knows? So, uh, it's hard to say, Right? I think time will tell, but, yeah, I mean, for me, it's like, uh. I think if I'm being honest and I look in the mirror, like, there's a lot of other things that I want to do that have nothing to do with building a business. Like, I'd love to be a kindergarten teacher. I don't know why I can't defend that. I like kids. Like, I think that'd be really fun. And I think if I laid on my deathbed one day and I was silly rich, because I had spent all of my years building a business, my nose to the grindstone. I think I would. Would be quite upset, um, at the life that I've lived versus if I got there one day and, you know, maybe I'm wealthy, maybe I'm not, but I had, you know, was a kindergarten teacher and did these other things that I really wanted to do. I. I don't know that's that's where I think I'd like to be.

Speaker B: I totally honor what you just said, Parker. And as a 56 year old bloke, uh, I'd be lying if I said there weren't things where I go, I wish this or I wish that. And I'm sure everyone else listening of, of age, um, would, would say the same. There's a great blog post written by um, a palliative care nurse. It's called Five Wishes of the Dying and it has had, it's probably one of the most famous podcasts in the podcast blog posts in the world. That may be a slight exaggeration, but it's had millions and millions of reads. Um, and she's just, you know, she's, she's helped facilitated people dying for years. It's her job. And she's come down to these five things. You know, one of them was, I think one of them literally was, you know, I won't be on my deathbed wishing I'd made more social media posts or, you know, there's a bit of humor about it too. But yeah, well, I hope you do become a kindergarten teacher, Parker, because uh, that's a noble job and there's not enough male ones of them. I say to one of my boys, he'd be a great primary school teacher but you know, he's a bit stuck on, on building a little content creation business and I'm like, oh, uh, well do that for the time being but hopefully there's an opportunity to, to do something else down the track.

Speaker C: Who knows?

Speaker B: Parker, what would you say just to wrap things up? I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Um, and by the way, thank you for chasing me down because listeners, um, Parker first of all pitched me months ago. We, we um, locked in something, had to cancel it. I ignored him for a period of time because I had other stuff on, but he kept at me and, and here he is today. So again there's lessons in that, you know, um, you know, you emailed me a few times, Parker, like you're still there. Just test, just checking. Um, and many would have given up but you know, people have other shit on, right? So of course it works.

Speaker A: What's your advice, Parker, to the small

Speaker B: business owner listening, who is a little bit scared about the marketing approach that you have, would love to try something?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, I think once you get out of your comfort zone once or twice, it can be really, really quite addicting. Um, and it's really scary. I think the most scary part is the first step. But I guess my piece of advice, and this is something I do all the time, Timbo, and I'm actually curious if you ever do this, but I almost use an alter ego to help enable me to do these things that I find really scary. I'm terrified every single time I go up on that airplane. But in my mind, I almost use an alter ego. It's almost a doppelganger effect where I'm like, okay, well, man, this would be really good content. This content would be really good for the business. And I justify my behavior by saying and convincing myself that this is what the business needs, or this could be a leg up for the business or whatever. And I almost use the title of founder to justify some absurd behavior that I do. So I love it.

Speaker B: I, in fact, I was only reflecting the other day. You call me Timbo, and many people do call me Timber to myself as Timbo. But sometimes it is a bit of an alter ego, you know, if, um, it allows me to step into a slightly larger than life version of who I really am, you know. But I think too, as business owners, I'll talk business owners, but it applies to just us humans generally is that, um, depending on our situation, we have a number of levers that we can activate and that, you know, one, you know, if I'm at a networking event, then I might activate my more formal, you know, less, less gregarious self. And if I'm at a, you know, if I'm doing a keynote, then I might amp up the humor and the, you know, the gregarious nature of what I'm talking about. So, yeah, you play to your strengths depending on where you're at at that point in time. Yeah, totally good stuff, Parker. I wish you all the best with Forage, man. Uh, I wish you even more success as a kindergarten teacher. I hope that happens one day. You know, I've never heard of the kindergarten teacher side hustle, but hey, you know, be unconventional.

Speaker C: It would be. Yeah. Ah, that's the, that's the plan, Timbo. That's the plan.

Speaker B: Forage CO F O R I J CO I love the name, by the way.

Speaker A: It's.

Speaker B: It's.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker B: It speaks volumes. All right, Parker, Love your work, mate. Thanks for sharing.

Speaker C: Cheers.

Speaker B: Well, there you go.

Speaker A: Team unconventional marketer and founder of Forage, Parker Olson. I do love a marketing risk taker. I gotta tell you, there's a lot to love about the way he's growing Forage. And it makes me wonder, why don't more of us Roll up our sleeves and take on some unconventional marketing ideas. At least have one in the mix at any one time. Do what you're doing right, do what's working, but just add a little bit of unconventionality to the way you get heard, to the way you break through the clutter, to the way you get you and your precious business noticed. If you'd like to watch that interview, then feel free to lash out and join my uber expensive membership over@patreon.com marketing podcast. First seven days are free. I'll hopefully see you on the inside. Quick update on where the podcast is at. Uh, it is the end of the year. I never mentioned the date when I do an episode because I try to make all my content dateless, timeless, evergreen. But it is the end of the year. I am going to take a break, uh, for most of February, if not all of February. Uh, and I'll be back with at least a couple of episodes a month. Um, we'll absolutely continue to do my Patreon, my small business owner membership over at patreon.com forward/marketing podcast that really does help keep the show alive. Team. Uh, getting sponsors. Uh, I'm running out of gas a little bit on the whole getting sponsors thing, um, 14 and a half years, um, and I'm not admitting defeat by

Speaker B: any stretch of the imagination, but right

Speaker A: now I'd like to crowdfund, uh, the future, uh, of this podcast. And that means, uh, you getting involved. If you can in any way, shape or form, uh, that would be great. But I love doing this. I love bringing marketing insights to you and they will absolutely continue. And, uh, if you've got anything you'd like to hear covered, a topic, uh, that you want me to cover inside my small business owner membership or on the podcast, then feel free to let me know. Tim Reed, R EE I d.com is where you'll find me. But most importantly, thank you so much for, uh, uh, taking the time to get this far in this episode and for listening to my podcast. Have a wonderful 2024 and I'll see you on the flip side.

Speaker B: Righto.

Speaker A: It's time for you to take action on what you've learned. Because ideas remain exactly that without action. Just go and implement something that would be my best advice. If you enjoyed today's ep, please hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app where you will find 662 more chats with successful business founders. And there are just so many insights, ideas, strategies, tactics, motivations. Call them what you will in that archive, uh, of 662 interviews. A big thanks to editor Sam Heathcote for stitching the marketing gold together. And to our in house rock star Locky Dolly for the wonderful music bed. Most importantly, a big thank you to you for lending me your ears, for tuning in and for being the wind beneath my wings. May your marketing be the absolute best marketing. Bye for now.