Simone Douglas talks about how she started and manages to successfully run Digital Marketing AOK and 4 other small but thriving businesses .

[00:00:00] Hi, it's Michael Kerr here presenting Small Business Banter.

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[00:01:09] Welcome into another edition of Small Business Banner Community Radio and podcast, Simone

[00:01:14] Douglas is joining me today. Simone is a multi business owner. I'll tell you a little

[00:01:23] bit about her in a second. Welcome in Simone all the way from Adelaide. Thanks, Michael.

[00:01:28] It's great to have you here. Look you've got once you give me and the audience

[00:01:35] a minute on the portfolio of businesses you have and then we'll dive into some

[00:01:40] you know some questions. Yeah, sure absolutely so I currently have five different businesses.

[00:01:47] The first one being digital marketing A.O.K which is a specialist digital marketing agency

[00:01:53] based here in Adelaide but surfs in clients worldwide. Then I have a business network international

[00:02:00] franchise so I have about 190 members in eight different groups that meet every week.

[00:02:06] That we know commonly as B&I? Yeah, B&I yeah absolutely and then I have two pubs and a cafe

[00:02:14] so it keeps me out of mischief most of my days. It's an interesting spread of investments and

[00:02:23] you know we're going to drill into how and why you got into those. So I look broadly in terms

[00:02:28] of those listening in the themes for today. I think being human in a digital landscape which is

[00:02:38] like pace homage to your digital marketing but also your B&I which is different ends of the

[00:02:45] spectrum in terms of getting profile and we're also this interesting move into one of the

[00:02:54] Duke of Brunswick Hotel and Port Adelaide. Port Adelaide yeah. And so and building accessibility

[00:03:07] and inclusiveness around those pubs is and also just I do want to get you take on business networking

[00:03:14] we were just chatting prior to this starting about how you know you're busy and one of the reasons

[00:03:21] you want to jump on and do a bunch of podcasts this year is to kind of keep keep yourself networking

[00:03:28] effectively. Keep yourself in front of others because it's it is all too easy for all of us in business

[00:03:34] to just work in the business and we need to get out pop a head up every now and again.

[00:03:43] Yeah I was just going to say I think it's really easy for us as business owners

[00:03:49] you know to live in our own cave and become caved wellers so we can become victims of our routines

[00:03:55] and so anything that you can do that breaks you out of your routine and takes you out to meet new

[00:04:01] people or meet new groups of people is really powerful because it exponentially expands your

[00:04:07] opportunities every time you do it. Yeah I think there's a lot of comfort, comforts maybe not the

[00:04:14] right word but there's supportive available in the right sort of groups because many

[00:04:21] others have been through whatever it is you're going through as a business owner and and tapping

[00:04:28] into that from another owner particularly I know there's a lot of great professional advisors

[00:04:33] but to tap into other owners you know I think is you know as top of at least so just briefly

[00:04:41] your personal background some own so we can see. I don't think I have a short version of this

[00:04:47] but I'll give you a clip notes version so I started originally in hotels in my 20s so you still

[00:04:55] work for Australian leisure and hospitality group back when Foster's owned it and then I went

[00:05:01] through its independent iterations and finally Woolworths and then I got out of pubs and

[00:05:06] into registered training organisations so I managed a couple of RTOs here in Adelaide and in between

[00:05:14] all of that I did a diploma in trans personal counselling, I had a counselling practice for a couple

[00:05:18] of years and then finally started digital marketing AOK so I've been across the breadth of all sorts

[00:05:27] of different industries and working with all sorts of different people over the years

[00:05:31] and I think that that's where my real attachment to you know creating communities of like-minded

[00:05:40] individuals really comes from because it's a really powerful thing to do in a pub or in a cafe

[00:05:47] or in a hospitality setting to create a space where everybody knows that they are perfectly okay

[00:05:54] in and of who they are you know they can walk into a venue and not be judged you know because of

[00:06:00] how they look or what they're interested in or how they feel and I don't think we have enough safe

[00:06:05] spaces out there you know in the world at large for people to just find a bit of an oasis

[00:06:11] and I think in marketing it's the same you have to start telling the human story of your business

[00:06:17] because we want to connect to the people we don't want to connect to the product

[00:06:22] yeah yeah like it's yeah I did so that's the interesting thing in doing a little bit of research

[00:06:27] before you are able to there's digital and there's real and you're seeing you know the connection

[00:06:35] and in both is possible and indeed something to strive for so not one or the other

[00:06:43] all right so yeah heavy it started in pubs let's get kick off with right now how you actually

[00:06:57] manage what's the secrets behind managing five different you know disparate businesses

[00:07:04] yeah good teams is really the secret and I think when you have your first business and you kind

[00:07:11] of enter all the time it's very easy to stop there because you kind of in boots and all

[00:07:18] managing the day-to-day activities and it can be a little bit threatening for a business owner to

[00:07:23] kind of replace yourself but it's the most powerful thing that you can do so if you build up a team

[00:07:28] underneath you or around you is a better turn of phrase so to team around you that can run

[00:07:34] the business can manage the business and you're just bringing your 1% of genius to it so you know

[00:07:40] the thing that makes you and the piece of amazing that you brought to make the business successful

[00:07:45] in the first place then it's easy to go off and have another bright shiny object I'm a bit of

[00:07:51] a bright shiny object also my businesses have found me I haven't been shopping for them necessarily

[00:07:58] they've just turned up but it's and then you have to keep building that team and keep leveling up

[00:08:04] and get used to different stages of discomfort and have a different appetite for risk you know so

[00:08:13] at this point now I have an internal accountant you know which if someone had told me I'd have

[00:08:18] my own accountant that it was on my payroll years ago we laughed a lot but you know I have

[00:08:23] accountant and manages all of the finance and just comes and talks to me about the red flags

[00:08:29] you know and I'm not so interested in the winds but very very interesting you know where are we

[00:08:35] dropping the ball what are the red flags what's the culture piece what's happening I have an

[00:08:40] executive assistant that runs my entire life so I don't have to think too much and I think that's

[00:08:46] really important if you want to go off and do lots of exciting things and kind of live that

[00:08:51] bucket list life you have to free yourself up to be creative and you can't be creative if you're

[00:08:56] stuck managing them the Monday you know if you're busy cleaning that's not going to work

[00:09:04] yeah yeah and when you say yeah the freedom to think it's it's freedom to think about you know

[00:09:09] the neck number six in your case maybe or yeah number six or how to how to really transform a business

[00:09:16] not so much the day-to-day because you've got a team and a pup I gather when you say the businesses

[00:09:24] found you was that you've got a profile as an active investor in businesses is that why

[00:09:32] opportunities are finding their way or I just know a lot of people how I'm interested is to

[00:09:37] well digital marketing a k.a started mostly because the registered training organisation I was

[00:09:43] working for want to meet a manager full-time and do sales in it full-time my kids were really

[00:09:48] little so when I'm not going to play went off and started something else but then the first

[00:09:56] pub when we found the jika brunzwick I was looking for office space for the digital marketing agency

[00:10:01] and on a higher day like a broker that negotiates leases because I'm really bad at negotiating when

[00:10:10] I want something I get very excited I'm like can I have the keys let's go you know so I don't ask

[00:10:15] all the right kinds of questions that should be asked so I had a broker and you're not

[00:10:21] not poker faced enough in that scenario because you're so excited don't want to get this done

[00:10:26] yeah exactly yeah so I had a broker and that taught me a lot too but the first meeting I said to

[00:10:33] me know in a perfect world I need a hundred square meters upstairs it can be more I'll just

[00:10:37] sub lease it and I need a training room with good natural light because the run lots of training

[00:10:41] you know in a little bar or cafe would be fine because I host a lease networking events because we do

[00:10:46] a lot of face-to-face networking for digital marketing are okay because we have this

[00:10:52] mantra being seriously social so you have to do that in real life his face is doing all this

[00:10:57] weird stuff my general manager's like it's okay she knows he can't get exactly what she wants

[00:11:02] just believes in asking for it he's like no no I've got what she wants not on the market

[00:11:06] can you come look at it at 11 o'clock and I'm like absolutely didn't tell me it was a pub

[00:11:12] and I didn't tell him I had a background in pubs and pulled up out the front and the rest is kind of

[00:11:17] history then with B&I same thing the national director of Australia came to me and said oh the current

[00:11:25] franchisee and South Australia wants to split the state in half we think that you're the right

[00:11:31] effect would you like to buy it and I actually said not right now because I don't only had the

[00:11:36] pub for about six months and my team in the pub wasn't ready for me to you know go running off

[00:11:41] to do something else so I said no and he said how long do you need or wait for you and I'm like

[00:11:48] that's not how business deals work you know like generally someone goes would you like to buy

[00:11:53] you say no they go sell it to somebody else less capable when you regret it for the rest of your

[00:11:57] life that's kind of in my head what was going to happen but he's like I don't know why I said I

[00:12:02] probably need another eight months and I love yep that's fine so that's B&I then the current landlord

[00:12:10] at the jica bronze week finds another building as a cafe in it and he has been asking me for years

[00:12:16] to come and run that I finally said yes and the poor ad rule went into liquidation about

[00:12:24] all these track now for six months ago or something I spent a screenshot of the article to my

[00:12:30] current landlord is that I don't suppose you want to go buy me another pub ha ha and they said yeah

[00:12:34] onto it so he went and had a meeting with the owners the deal didn't stack up for him but he goes

[00:12:40] there you're kind of landlords you should go talk to them and the rest is history do we are?

[00:12:45] yeah that I think what you say there is underpinning what you're saying there is there's you know

[00:12:53] there's a can be a natural instinct to barter and negotiate everything but it's got to be right

[00:13:00] in the sale of a business it's got to be right for you right timing right kind of business but it's

[00:13:04] also a good example when you've got a landlord involved they want a good operator and I think

[00:13:11] they'd rather wait for a good operator than just plug it to the next yeah so you know I think

[00:13:17] taking your time assessing the opportunity and having them come the way they do is you know is

[00:13:25] really yes it's a nice way to be able to do business or to just come back to something in

[00:13:33] a minute but on today's edition of small business band it we're chatting with Simone Dockless

[00:13:39] from from digital marketing AOK and a couple other businesses in Adelaide I had written down that

[00:13:48] your mantra is seriously social and that fed into this idea of you know being a bit more human

[00:13:57] in your digital interaction so everything is said so far you know the smacks of being seriously

[00:14:06] social and putting yourself you know into you know for training yourself in the right way human

[00:14:13] way and because all too easy to be robotic and formulate with so you don't want to talk a little bit

[00:14:20] about which we're changing tracks but that's just how we do it but you know the the digital landscape

[00:14:27] I think you know opportunities are bound but it's the massive and tumultuous moves coming

[00:14:38] deriving from AI just over the last couple of months kind of make it feel like you could

[00:14:43] you could automate just about everything is it you know is it really a counter opportunity to say no

[00:14:48] this is me this is how I write this is what I do to approach yeah I think look AI is a massive

[00:14:57] opportunity to speed up your creative processes and your your transactional processes but it can't

[00:15:05] replace that human connection and I think there's a huge opportunity in the next probably three years

[00:15:13] for businesses who know how to do human really well to really stand out and cement you know positions

[00:15:21] in the marketplace because a lot of people are going to default so they're going to look at AI as a

[00:15:26] way to save costs they're going to what you'll find then is the language that comes out of that

[00:15:32] in terms of their marketing is going to be very transactional based as opposed to emotion based

[00:15:38] and we don't buy with our heads you know like I've done all the research you know all of our buying

[00:15:43] decisions are made you know on instinct and basically on the reptilian brain so at the end of

[00:15:50] the day the people that can build real relationships and allow their customers to feel like they're

[00:15:57] connected to you the business owner or the business manager of the people in the business

[00:16:04] I'm connected from an emotional perspective they're the businesses that are really going to thrive

[00:16:09] you know and that's been my experience certainly with the five that I've got is it's the relationship

[00:16:16] piece that is really important so and is that when you say relationships it was that is that

[00:16:22] putting for example people front and center like in a pub if the public can is can be there you

[00:16:31] know the the nature D the front of house that you know the greater and but also the personality

[00:16:38] and you know culture driver of the place is that what you're partially talking about to mean your

[00:16:44] business to be you have to do that but you have to you have to get the team on board because I'm

[00:16:50] not in the business all the time so and particularly if you look at it you know a large amount of our

[00:16:58] sales come from our Facebook content for all of the hospitality venues you know a lot of other

[00:17:04] hospitality venues really big on Instagram we've got Instagram but we don't put a lot of focus

[00:17:09] on it all of our you know football is driven through Facebook but it's driven by

[00:17:15] posting really cheesy photos of the staff having a good time you know and and handing it up and

[00:17:22] creating online the same environment that our customers can expect when they walk through the door so

[00:17:29] you know we're very big on that connection and I think in you know in business to business

[00:17:37] we we often default to that transaction thing so here are some stats his okay study here's this

[00:17:45] as opposed to you know he's a great photo you know of me catching up with you know the local

[00:17:51] dentists that we work with did you know that they've just put on their fourth chair like we

[00:17:55] that is the storytelling piece that we need to do more of in the human piece and

[00:17:59] yes but for Dean and some and when someone a new customer gets to the portable

[00:18:06] minimal portable hotel for example and you know the longer that the real life is the experience is

[00:18:14] consistent with what it has kind of why they're there for yeah yeah look at some I really do like

[00:18:22] that in you know for all there's a lot of a lot of discussions with a lot of owners and

[00:18:31] you know there's there's always this push to you know to do a lot of things in a robotic way but

[00:18:40] you know I think we can be drawn to businesses with culture personality or you know difference or

[00:18:49] yeah and using using social media to kind of you know to to flag and to promote that's it's a great

[00:18:58] great use of you know digital media and I just want to on networking B&I I'd say quite a lot of

[00:19:08] listeners are familiar with B&I and there's a lot of precious day-to-day for an owner

[00:19:17] well what's what what do you see is the upside for getting out of your day-to-day and mixing it up

[00:19:24] with some other business owners which is primarily what it is yeah look what I would say is

[00:19:29] you know for me and every business owner on the planet and often asks this question when I'm

[00:19:34] you know doing keynotes I'll go you put your hand up if you currently busy and all the business

[00:19:39] owners in the room will put their hand up and I said well you know busy is a really dangerous

[00:19:43] word in business it's really dangerous because when you tell people you're busy basically saying

[00:19:48] you don't need any more work so no one has to think about you your business or anything else

[00:19:53] so I always say my time's at a premium and I have to be very careful about how I spend it

[00:19:58] so you know spending 90 minutes in you know any kind of structured networking environment

[00:20:05] and a B&I you know chapter meeting or networking event is a good example of that it's 90 minutes

[00:20:10] of structured time getting to know you know 30 other business owners and also getting to share

[00:20:17] your business story and the quality of the relationships are built on seeing those people over

[00:20:24] and over again not so that you can go in there and sell to them no one rolls into a B&I event wanting

[00:20:29] to be sold to but so that you can build strong relationships where you have credibility in the room

[00:20:36] they like no one trust you enough to tie their reputation to yours and they're prepared to then

[00:20:41] refer you onto their wider networks and I suppose the other reason that it's really important our

[00:20:46] sort of just making more money is it's that community of business owners that actually know you

[00:20:52] because it's like said it's really lonely out there if you are earning a business and your

[00:20:58] significant other you know is a pay G employee so they draw a paycheck every week and the

[00:21:03] taxes automatically taken out for them and they don't have to think about you know whether staff

[00:21:08] have called in sick or whatever else you know they don't they don't understand in the same way

[00:21:13] they can't empathise in the same way and they can't give you tangible solutions or support

[00:21:19] in the same way but if you walk into a room for a business owners you know at bass time where

[00:21:25] everyone's just emptied their bank accounts to pay their GST for arguments like you know like every

[00:21:30] GST quarter you know there goes 30 thousand dollars in super payments there goes you know another

[00:21:36] 80 thousand dollars in bass payments every other business owner's feeling the same way we're not

[00:21:41] it's not our money but it's still sad when it leaves the bank account so yeah and as you say it's

[00:21:48] nice to be able to share that emotion that you know everything with somebody else who is in a

[00:22:00] similar situation or has been there and you know because it's hard to take stuff home if you know

[00:22:07] as you say there's the contrast is someone is you know happily in employment and doesn't quite

[00:22:15] understand that you know the pressures of dealing with meeting paying the bills you know every

[00:22:23] time every month so yeah look you talked about that they were community and we've had a number

[00:22:29] of episodes of small business band to focus on properties and mutuals as an example where you know

[00:22:38] that the pub or similar businesses have become a meeting you know meeting place particularly

[00:22:46] in regionals you know and and remote areas you know there's some businesses that take on much more

[00:22:54] than just being the place where you buy you know a beer or bread or milk so yeah community

[00:23:01] I can't help but feel that as we go as we you know before further and more rapidly towards

[00:23:09] where it seems we're heading that you know you can you can use social media in a different way

[00:23:16] to just you know don't discount it just use it in a different way to help your business

[00:23:21] yeah I think you need to partner with your communities too it's the most powerful thing that

[00:23:27] you can do is to become the centre of it and to draw other people who are feeling isolated like

[00:23:34] if you use businesses as an example you know go find all the new startups in your local community

[00:23:39] and like take them under your wing go you know build a network of people who have achieved success

[00:23:46] so that you've got all of the layers of the business journey you know from startup all the way

[00:23:51] through to succession or exit or whatever that looks like if you have that really diverse network

[00:23:58] then you bulletproofing yourself for the tough times and we're all gonna we're gonna have tough

[00:24:04] times and the and the muscle memory that we've got from covid and surviving the pandemic means

[00:24:10] those tough times are going to be even tougher from a mental perspective so you really do like if

[00:24:16] you if you're one of those people that's listening and you're feeling particularly isolated you know

[00:24:21] take a pump back yourself and go and start making some new friends because you're gonna need those

[00:24:26] people to debrief with so I think it's really important yeah and look yeah it's a it's a theme has come

[00:24:33] up a few times today but there you know this power of engaging and collaborating or just being

[00:24:42] friendly or familiar with other small business owners I think it's you know it's it's possibly

[00:24:50] going to become more effective than ever I mean it's been around for a long time networking and

[00:24:54] has probably had different iterations where you go and you know we want to support each other

[00:24:59] directly with sales but this sort of support community aspect you know is really

[00:25:06] you know very powerful Simone I just wanted to in the last minute and a half or so just

[00:25:14] given you've got five businesses what are the things that the sources of influence

[00:25:19] and support for you in terms of to have some heroes some some blogs and podcasts that you'll

[00:25:26] listen to that you'd like to share is there anything that I spend a fair bit of time

[00:25:33] Patrick Lensyonia I think it is or Lenekon always confuses last name five dysfunctions of a

[00:25:40] teens one of my all-time favourite books Chris Hyder who wrote useful belief he's an Australian guy

[00:25:47] who's amazing but beyond that I spend a lot of time you know listening to and watching TikToks

[00:25:56] these days so there's there's a host of motivational stuff on TikTok there's some great clips from

[00:26:02] Alan Watts there's all sorts of gold cast type stuff I think is really important you start your day

[00:26:09] that way yeah I look I'm amazed at what you fit into your and you mentioned children and

[00:26:18] to hell of a work load being sound that you're enjoying it I'll include links to those when

[00:26:24] I get the transcription done so anybody that's listened is I'm not for me with some of those so

[00:26:30] they'd be good to share them around Simone thank you so much for your time today on small business

[00:26:35] band-to if someone wanted to reach out what's the most what's the easiest way I look you find me on

[00:26:41] LinkedIn but realistically I'm on just about every social media platform so if you search up some

[00:26:46] own Douglas Adelaide or Simone Douglas Jacob runs week old pop-up pretty much straight away

[00:26:53] thanks so much for your time today Simone has been great my pleasure

[00:26:57] so that is all for today's episode of Small Business Banta I continued to be inspired bringing

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