Your Network Matters – Networking, Community in Business

Full Transcript

Note: the following transcript was generated by AI and therefore may contain some errors and omissions.

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So when I heard that Vicky was retiring, she’d announced on Facebook that she was going to close the magazine down. It was almost like, oh no, like this institution that’s been on the coast for 17 years and one of the few magazines on the coast that still highlights and showcases business owners and their stories and just delivers great content. I just reached out to Vicky and I said, I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m just kind of curious on, I want to learn more about matters itself, the magazine and start to think about is there a way to continue it.

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G’day, welcome back to the Coast and Commerce podcast. I’m Ben Amos  from Innovate Media. And the Coast and Commerce podcast is all about sharing stories, insight, and inspiration from business leaders from the Sunshine Coast and beyond. And one of those business leaders I’m joined with here today is Luke Hawley. Luke, welcome to the show. I’m glad to be here. Thank you for inviting us. Hey, Luke, in my introduction there, I…

Thought to myself, what business do I say that you’re from? Because I think you’ve got your fingers in a lot of pies here. But for those listeners or viewers of the podcast that haven’t come across you before, which I’d be surprised if they’re in business on the Sunshine Coast, but if they haven’t come across you before, tell us, who are you, what do you do, what’s your business? Yeah, I’ll just start as, I’m a connector on the Sunshine Coast. So my job I see is to help Sunshine Coast business owners.

to share their story, share their advice, and share their offers with their community. So I do that through multiple communities that I personally manage. So Marketing Broker Australia, which is around helping marketers to connect with their community. B2B Sunshine Coast, which is about helping B2B professionals connect with their community, and that’s a LinkedIn first approach. Buy Local Sunshine Coast, same thing, helping small business owners connect with their community through Facebook.

And then more recently Matters Magazine, where we’re connecting business owners with the community through print, through magazines. Awesome. So we’re gonna talk a little bit about that Matters Magazine transition later in the show. So stick around for that guys. But I want you to take us back even further. Oh, hang on, here we go. I love it. Take us back even further. Take us back to like, what got you into?

into business, like where’d you first start in your own thing? Because you weren’t always running your own business, right? So take us back to who was Luke prior to the entrepreneurial journey? Yeah, sure. It’s funny, you know, when you’re in school now, so what do you want to be when you grow up? I was always saying businessman. I was always like this businessman. Yeah. And this is back when like in grade eight, I had the full comb over full wet slick look like very much looking like I’m ready to

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to get out. Did you have a mobile phone hanging on your belt? No, but I did have the belt. I just looked very dorky in school, but always itching to be more in business as a business person. So I studied in school, and then my first gig out was with Procter & Gamble, which is one of the world’s largest consumer goods company, a company that’s almost 200 years old. So I had such a great opportunity to work with some of the best brand builders in the world.

and building partnerships. So actually my first job with Procter & Gamble was here on the Sunshine Coast as a territory manager, working with independent grocery and independent wholesalers. And then took over the states, looking after Metcash and independent distributors, primarily working with Duracell batteries and Gillette razors were sort of the main categories I worked on. I then moved to Melbourne, started working on with Kohl’s and Kmart and Target.

with Olay, the female skincare brand. So if you are looking for skincare tips, I’ve got plenty, but the answer’s always Olay. And Fidmin hygiene products and pregnancy tests. I just worked in a variety of categories, right up to moving to Sydney and then took on commercial operations. So at that point, it was a $130 million business in terms of retail, and then working with our brand teams across the world.

to introduce plans into the market across Australia, New Zealand, and working with our account team to implement that. So that very like middle management role, kind of working with the seniors across Singapore and Geneva, as well as the account team. So I felt like that was my MBA. So I just learned so much, but long hours, and that very like working your 20s, working till like 7, 8 p.m. every night to keep up with it all. So I loved the experience, got a lot out of it, but I felt it was time to…

be the businessman and get back to it when I wanted to do, which was start my own thing. I didn’t know what that was. I just knew it was time to quit what I was doing with P&G, go traveling and hopefully be inspired by something. So when I came back to the Sunshine case, I still didn’t know what that business idea was. So I started teaching at the Sunshine case uni. I’ve been doing that now for over eight years as I was starting to play with where to go next. And at the time, digital marketing obviously was

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It started being established, business owners recognizing it, so I started to dabble in that space and it started to evolve from there. Okay, so you put your businessman suit on, started your thing. Going from that real big business world of rock, do and gamble into starting your own small business on the Sunshine Coast would have been quite a transition. So what were some of the…

I guess challenges you had to overcome in those early days, you’d like, I’m gonna start a business. And where are my clients going from? Like tell me about that, take me back to that. Yeah, I think one of the things that you take for granted when you work for a big business is the work’s been done for you. So you’ve got an amazing, well-established brand that already has demand. You’ve got a wealth of information and research that you can pull into to start to craft what’s the right pitch.

So for me it was about well how do I take what I know is very effective in kind of putting forward a You know persuasive pitch and start and bring in those insights There’s a lot that worked really well with coordinating and building partnerships with likes of Coles But I can bring to a small business owner like well, how do we build you know? These kind of this idea of joint business planning or partnerships How do we build something together that works for both businesses, but it took time to kind of work out. What’s

What is the value that I’m offering? What’s the partnership I want to bring forward? I’m very collaborative as well. So my role at Procter & Gamble was a project leader and account manager, a coordinator. Almost like I felt like my job was to be really good at sending emails. So I’m still really good at doing that. So how do I bring the right people around, surround me on the Sunshine case that I can rely on to get some of the heavy lifting done for us to make sure we’re delivering great value for our clients.

And that was a piece that took time because I, you know, in Proctor and Gamble, again, the work’s been done for you. So I was working with amazing people that had already been vetted. So in the Sunshine case, there was a bit of work for me to get to a place of, I’ve got people around us that I can trust to get the work done. And that was one of the big surprises was a lot of people can say that they do certain things, but it takes a bit of time to look at, oh, this is the ones that are really good and these are the ones that are saying they’re really good. So that was a bit one of the early surprises. Yeah.

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So, I mean, you started your conversation here on the podcast with calling yourself a connector. And then you talked about the role that you played in Procter and Gamble is really just connecting opportunities, right? And then starting your business there, you still, it’s still about building that network and making those connections. So, um, why do you think that network around a business, whether it be a startup, small micro business, just kicking things off up to a

Procter and Gamble of the world, right? Yeah. Why is the network around a business so important? Yeah, one of the early piece of advice I got from one of the senior managers of Procter and Gamble, which is this idea of stay in touch. It’s very easy for us to get caught up in a bubble, very easy for us to kind of lose sight of why we do what we do and what’s the benefit we give to our customers. And for me, one of the, if I kind of break out networking as understanding, guidance and opportunity,

For that first one, understanding and kind of staying in touch, it’s I get to speak to business owners that will share their pain points. They’ll share using their words, you know, the challenges they have with growing their business, the challenges or frustrations they have with marketing, the challenges and frustrations they have with their own networks and their own support networks and, you know, the sense of feeling loneliness, whether it’s through disconnected from their peers, whether it’s, you know, moving to the Sunshine Coast.

they’re expressing those challenges. So for me as someone who is a connector and a community builder, listening them basically tell me what they need from their community allows me to start to design products and services that address that need. So when I came into the Coase, I thought, yeah, I’ll come in and provide consultation around marketing services. That’s evolved through the networking that I’ve done to understand what they actually need is a network of people to support them.

you know, referral partners, collaborators, as well as people to just share a drink with and share a bit of frustration with. So it’s changed my service as a result of staying in touch and listening to what businesses are saying. And then second with around, so that’s understanding of what that, what your customer’s looking for. The next is guidance. So for me myself, you know, as I’m entering this space, there’s a lot that I can learn from other marketers and other connectors on the coast. So I’m learning through them, whether it’s how we implement

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whether it’s how do we implement video and podcasts, how do we incorporate some of these new things that are coming through in the marketing space and the community space. I get to learn through others. And then the last one around opportunity, as you start to build your own professional identity and brand on the coast or with whatever your area is, your niche, your location, whatever it might be, as people start to understand who you are, why you do what you do, you’re

then they’re likely to come to you, and whether it’s through new work, new clients, new customers, new podcasts, whatever it might be, those opportunities start to present themselves because people wanna connect with other people that they rely on or trust. So those three, that’s key. And that’s the same for a small business as it is for a large business. Because the reason why I was so successful at Procter & Gamble was because I had great relationships within Coles, a great relationship within my own business. If we had an idea, I knew who to go to to help.

get it done and start to bring them into the conversation and make them feel like they’re part of the project. You know, rarely did I pitch one to one. Often it was rooms full of people that were sharing, collaborating and putting ideas forward. So I wanted to replicate that for small businesses so you feel good and part of something as you’re launching. Yeah, I think there’s a lot in that for people listening or watching to take away for their own business. Even if networking and collaboration doesn’t come naturally to someone.

You know, it doesn’t come naturally to everyone, right? Some people prefer to stay in their bubble. Yeah. And that’s just a personality thing as well. But, you know, I think if you take something from Luke here about the idea of, you know, establishing why you’re building a network around your business in the first place and a network of potential customers, of your ideal audience is a great way to learn, as you said, about other services and products that you can bring to them, like listen to them. And then…

introduce that as a service or opportunities that open up when you do just make those connections, opportunities that maybe weren’t available to you beforehand. So when you think about the community around the Sunshine Coast of so many micro businesses and small startup businesses and people moving to the coast and just starting things fresh where they don’t have a network around them, for those businesses…

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what would you say to them? Like how can they go out and find a network that’s gonna actually do something for their business and not just be somewhere to go and grab a drink and hand out a business card? Yeah, I think that’s key of being clear on why you’re networking. So I wouldn’t recommend focusing purely on the transactional. So if you’re going out purely about chasing clients, people will feel that from you, that you’re just out there to hand out business cards or just to lock in those transactions.

And particularly in the Sunshine Coast, I’m sure it’s shared across regions, people are looking to build more of a trusted relationship. I really like this line, the idea of seven cups of teas. Take seven interactions with someone for them to trust you. And it’s trust that then leads to doing business with you. So it can’t feel like it’s a one-to-one thing. You can’t just run around in a venue, hand out business cards and expect all of them to give you a call and start conducting business with you. So you wanna go in with the intent that it might take time for those opportunities to emerge.

but I’m gonna build meaningful relationships. And when you’re clear on the why, then you can be really selective on who it is that you’re gonna have those seven cups of teas with. So as you’re going through a network and you’re listening out for those who could be potential referral partners, those who could be mentors or advisors that can give you a little extra to help you understand, other connectors on the Sunshine case that might be able to introduce you to people that might be relevant to your industry. Those are the ones you wanna actually target.

and then have the intent to, I wanna take the time to build a meaningful relationship with this person. To the point we might organize 15 minute calls once a month, hey, let’s just check in and share what each other are up to and take it from there. So you have that intent and then in terms of finding an event, just jump on Meetup, jump on Eventbrite, jump on Facebook. There are plenty of business groups out there that are providing these events. So go in and just be selective. Is this the right fit for my intent? Can I have seven cups of teas with these people to?

to find a true collaborative partnership. Yeah, and I think the key thing that you mentioned there was, and it’s a philosophy that I kind of live by, which is lead with value, right? If you go into a networking event or a situation or any relationship and you’re seeking to add value to the person that you’re across the table from or standing next to in the event, if you’re seeking what value can I add to this person, then that value reciprocates, right? And it might not reciprocate immediately. They may just be like, that was a really…

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useful conversation I had with Luke at that event, I’m gonna keep him in my mind for when I need something. But sometimes it can be much more direct than that in my experience as well, where you can add value and then almost immediately after that event, first meeting that person, they can call you up and say, what we’re talking about, I wanna do that, or I need your help, or whatever that may be. But rather than pitching, you’re leading.

to you seeking to add value. Yeah, look, one of the things that I like to do is provide free training to business groups. So I’ve done, you know, how to get started with LinkedIn, recently, you know, providing tips around AI prompting and how to use that to update that LinkedIn profile. And just, you know, happy to give 30, 40 minutes of my time in a business group. And not to pitch, the last slide I have is just contact me if you’re interested in engaging further, but using the entire time to provide that high value advice.

And that’s another great way, particularly if you’re just entering the space, but you’ve got a lot of expertise to come with. Sometimes just having a conversation with the organizer of the event and say, hey, I’ve got this really great thing I think would be helpful for your audience. Can I present for 15, 20 minutes to share that value? And that’s where you start to be recognized within that potentially small community that you are a genuine expert in that space. And you can be helpful to that. So yeah, I’m a big fan of that as well, is to lead with value. Yeah.

Before we move on from networking events, I do want to, and I haven’t prepared you for this at all Luke, so I’m just going to throw you in the deep end. But I’m sure if any of us on business, in business of any sort on the Sunshine Coast or otherwise have been to networking events and we’ve had those experiences, you know, so I’d love to just quickly just hear from you. Well, have you had any nightmare experiences at a networking event or don’t name any names Luke, but you know, what are some typical kind of poor interactions?

that you’ve had in the past that you can share with us that maybe we resonate with. Yeah, I mean, I think the most common is when you feel like you’re getting caught in a conversation, you’re not quite sure how to get out of it. So you’re just a little bit locked in. So yeah, yeah. And where that conversation feels like you’re cycling through key topics, but it’s not adding value, I guess. But you don’t wanna be rude. So you don’t wanna just go, hey man, thanks, but I’m gonna go chat to that person. It’s just you’re trying to find a way to just sort of move through.

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And some events that I’ve been to where they’re very clicky. So you find it hard to move your way into to those conversations that are happening across that group. It kind of feels like, you know, with the members or with the representatives of this group and they’re not as welcoming to guests. It’s one of the things I picked up when I first started to go to events on the Sunshine Coast was I felt like an outsider that’s starting to come in.

and I’m trying to kind of make my way through talking to these people but then feel like I’m getting stuck at this, you know, 90 minute event where there’s not a lot of structural or activities planned where like, I don’t really know how to navigate my way through this event. So one of the reasons why we designed one of the events that I host, LinkedIn Local Sunshine Coast, was through those experiences of like, we wanna make sure that when you come in as a guest, you feel really welcomed, you’re meeting the host right from the start.

and you’ve been encouraged to then go and speak to people in the room. And I get that feedback a lot of like, oh wow, this, some people are coming to the LinkedIn Local, it’s the first time networking in years or first time networking ever. And they’re like, oh wow, this is a lot different than I thought. Because everyone’s thinking that, oh, I’m going to get stuck in chatting to someone. But on LinkedIn Local, we create movement in the event. So how do you do that? So we through structure, right? So we have casual networking, and then we go sit down on the tables, we have activities on the tables.

Some events we actually give it to move between the tables as well Yeah, for a secondary activity and then we have follow-up networking afterwards So it’s kind of four points of change So by creating movement in the room through just structured activities whether it’s just a presenter or actually working together on something It means people are actively networking and we give them topics to talk about so that way you’re not kind of stuck with someone trying To work out what do we talk about? I actually find the best way to get a sense of someone is when you’re

collaborating on a challenge. Because I think you’re getting a sense of who they are as a person and the personality comes out. So they’re very domineering and unable to listen. You can pick that up like, oh, there’s going to be a very difficult person to work with. Great, I’ve picked that up. Which you may not have picked up if they just did a standard pitch. So that kind of driving activities means I think it reveals more about the people in the room. And as a result, better collaborations come out of it. So I’ve had people at LinkedIn Locals that have started businesses together.

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That’s how deep the relationship has become as a result of meeting at one of these events. Yeah, it’s great. I’m not going to test as well to the structure of the events. LinkedIn Local is one of those, but you are a connector and an event organizer that really places a lot of value in that networking and facilitating that networking connection within the space. If people watching haven’t been along to one of the events that you run, then do that.

Look, here’s a beautiful segue into where I want to go next. And I want to tell you a little story about early in my business with, you know, I was exactly that. I was sitting in my home office, you know, the only employee of my business, the only one in my business doing anything. And, you know, did not have a network around me, did not have any, you know, business connections. And so I was like, I guess I’ve got to do this thing called networking. Right. And I was freaking out. I’m an introvert by nature.

or most of the time fairly introverted. And I initially went along to what was called Business Matters Magazine here on the Sunshine Coast. So those who have been in business for a while on the coast will have known Business Matters Magazine and the editor there, Vicky Magic, she was a connector. She, that was her role in the Sunshine Coast community and her events were my introduction to networking on the Sunshine Coast. And as a result, I…

advertised in the magazine and did some things and did a lot in my early stage in my business around Business Matters magazine and what is now Matters magazine. So I really feel that as you take on Matters magazine, which you can tell us about the story in a second, that it’s like you’re the natural fit. So tell us a little bit about that idea. So what did you know of Matters magazine prior to the journey that you’re on now of being a part owner in that?

Where are you going with this? What’s going on? Yeah, it’s funny, it’s my story, it’s one of yours. So, you know, as I just started entering into the business space on the Sunshine Coast, looking for networking events, I can’t remember who connected me with Vicky, but someone did, we caught up for a cup of coffee, and I really liked her energy, her vibe, and I was really interested about the events that she hosts. So I popped in and I enjoyed collaborating with the other advertisers at the magazine.

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That’s one of the reasons why I stayed. I’ve been advertising in Maddow’s magazine for five years. I think my first ad was in 2020, so four years. And yeah, and the reason why I stayed was because of the networking events. So I just really enjoyed collaborating with those businesses and creating opportunity from that as well. So when I heard that Vicky was retiring, she’d announced on Facebook that she was going to close the magazine down. It was almost like, oh no, like this institution that’s been on the coast for 17 years.

And one of the few magazines on the coast that still, you know, highlights and showcases business owners and their stories and just delivers great content. I just reached out to Vicky and I said, I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m just kind of curious on, I want to learn more about matters itself, the magazine, and start to think about is there a way to continue it? Because she had already announced that she was shutting it down. So she said, look, there’s actually someone else who reached out to me at the same time that’s also interested in finding a way to keep the magazine alive.

and that was Shari Haw who’s been a copywriter for the magazine for seven plus years but hasn’t had background in business. And I don’t have any background in copywriting or editing, so like, well, this could be a really good collaboration, good partnership. So Vicky, the connector, put us together. We met multiple times over coffee and talked about should we, you know, what does it look like if we work together? Where could we take this magazine based on what our own individual goals are? And

some great synergy there and we just felt like, yeah, this just feels right to find a way to, so we came back with Vicky, put a proposal together, she was supportive and within a couple of weeks we went from curious to let’s do this and sign the paperwork. So that conversation’s continued, we brought in a lot of the creators and contributors to the magazine as well to get their advice and suggestions on where we can go. We really wanna double down on the B2B space of it.

So sharing those stories and that advice of advertisers. So we made sure that every ad comes with an article. So you’re actively contributing content to the magazine. But we really want to position as like the local Forbes. So if you’re picking up a Matters magazine, you want to be inspired by just, wow, this came from the Sunshine Coast. This entrepreneur, this business, this brand, this thing. Cause there’s a lot on the coast that’s been innovated and created and shared.

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that I still get surprised by in terms of some of that, what’s being done here on the coast. It goes under the radar. Oh yeah. The more I kind of dive into it as well, I’m like, how long have you been going on the coast? They’re like, really? I’d never heard of you before. Yeah, big global brands. These aren’t small players. There’s some great global authors as well. And some people who are true leaders in the industry that have been operating your art for years, but just happen to be living on the Sunshine Coast.

So how would he capture that and share those stories? And Matters has already been known for that. So we’re doubling down on what made Matters magazine so interesting for its readers to pick up. And how do we get more of that great content, make it feel a bit more diverse, so we’re capturing more of the Sunshine Coast, sharing a more variety of stories, and then distribute it through the different interconnected communities. So I can now share it through.

our LinkedIn community through B2B Sunshine Coast. I can connect it through Facebook, through buy locals. So our advertisers are now getting a vast wide reach for their content that we can share across the Sunshine Coast and these different interconnected communities. So yeah, I’m really excited about the synergy between all the different projects that I’m working on and really Manus magazine becomes the, almost like the jewel of those brands of this high quality premium content that just shares the best the coast has to offer.

still primarily a print publication. Yes, yeah, yeah. But with a stronger digital presence around using all of your expertise and knowledge and the people around you as well. Correct, yeah, it’s all about sharing that content. So it’s all contribute to the magazine, and then we share those articles through social media and through newsletter and all sorts of stuff. So yeah, we do plan to make sure that appetite, like that content, keeps getting seen over and over again. I caught up with at an event,

our current cover girl for issue 104. And she said that her friends keep coming to her and saying, I’m being seen everywhere. Like they, almost like they’re complaining that I’m seeing too much of our cover girl because she is everywhere now in terms of digital and in print. Cause that magazine’s distributed to over 5,000 locations across the Sunshine Coast. So she keeps saying, our friends keep taking her photos and lots of stuff. It’s fun to see. So that’s what we want to, that sense of when you’re part of the magazine, you’re being seen in a way that’s very different

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on a post on Facebook. There’s a level of prestige and a level of, like almost like I’ve made it because I’ve been featured in a magazine. And that’s that feeling I really wanna double down on. So you feel like, yeah, I’ve contributed to this. I’m part of this. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Because I think some people, perhaps even me a little bit as well, would be like, well, print’s kinda dead, right? Yeah. You know, how often do you pick up a…

a physical newspaper, a physical magazine and things like that. But, you know, I think you’ve just kind of answered where I was going to go with this question is the idea of there is some, there’s prestige, there’s reality to it. You know, I even know as a, as an advertiser in matters magazine in the past is, or any kind of print advertising I’ve done when you get that physical copy, physical thing in your hand, it feels legit. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s more about, you know,

how people want to engage with content. So tell me about that, like, what’s the power in physical hard copy print today in a digital world? Yeah, so one is you get to touch it, so that kind of tactile, tangible, to your point, like I can smell it, I can feel it, I get to keep it. People might frame their articles or frame it if they’re on a cover. There’s ability to share it as well, so it feels more exclusive, like, oh, check this out, so they kind of flip through the magazine and.

and take them to their article in their picture so they can check it out. So there’s this high quality kind of share feeling to it, almost feels exclusive, because it’s very easy to share things on social media, but to share some on your magazine and your feature, there’s an extra level of quality to that. And then the other benefit to it now, in a bit of a digital space, we will know how to use QR codes. There’s ways now to take that printed experience and move them online so they can scan a code and listen to

a full video that talks about the topic that’s been introduced in the magazine. They can download a full ebook or guide that goes much deeper in terms of what was being shared in the magazine. Click through and listen to a podcast that explores some of the key opportunities that were raised in that discussion. So the magazine actually then becomes a portal to then start to engage with these longer form content through online. And that’s the stuff we’re really looking forward to explore as well. And how do we encourage our advertisers to think?

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not just what they’re contributing to the magazine, not just the ads, but also what do they do after? Like how do we start to get them to pick up their phone and engage with your content in more meaningful ways that brings them down your sales funnel? So there’s a lot of really interesting opportunities that we can explore. There’s a lot of innovation to be had in magazines and not to say that I’m gonna innovate myself, it’s just taking the great ideas that magazines like Forbes and these other players are doing to bring in great stories and then drive engagement through multimedia.

Yeah, and I think what I’ll add to that as well is that the consumer, I believe, is in a different consumption mode when they pick up a magazine, right? Typically you’re probably not sitting at your desk with your computer in front of you. You’re probably sitting on a couch or at a cafe or with a cup of coffee or a drink or whatever or at the beach, whatever. You’re taking physical copies of things with you in different places and engaging with them differently.

you might have picked up the magazine because of the cover issue, like the story on the cover, and you think, oh, that looks interesting, I’m going to read that. But then you flick through and suddenly you’re reading an article about something that you didn’t even know you wanted to read about, but you’re learning and you’re engaging with that business who presented that article. Yeah, it’s that idea of that immersive experience. So you’re not distracted by all the notifications on your phone, you’re not distracted by the TV. You’re right, most people are reading it either through…

at cafes, most of the magazines are distributed in waiting rooms, so whether it’s like the doctors or beauty spas, so those sort of places where you do want to just sit, you’re just waiting and a perfect time to pick up a magazine and start to read through articles, through transit as well. So it’s this time when people are actively looking to just relax and just to kind of tune into stories. So a magazine that delivers just great stories and aspiration and ideas for themselves, given this magazine is tailored to business owners.

We want them so they feel inspired, like, oh, that’s a great idea, or that’s a great tip, that these are really helpful things. And for those who are just visiting in the Sunshine Coast, they’re like, oh, wow, these are a lot of businesses I need to go, I’m gonna go check out this one, I’m gonna check out this one, I’m gonna buy some of that, and that’s a great gift idea. So they’ll also feel inspired to support the community that they’re visiting as well. So there’s a lot of that experience is unique to magazines, because it is creative content. So it has been created in such a way that provides an experience.

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that’s not distracted by what social media and the algorithms trying to get you to do. You’re just focused in on reading those articles and embracing the stories that have been told. Nice. Yeah. I love it. So, you know, I talked about my story with the previous iteration of Matters Magazine and Business Matters Magazine, so much of a being about community and networking. So what are we expecting to see from Matters Magazine into 2024 and beyond as far as like…

what happens with the community around the magazine as well, which I know is your sweet spot, Luke. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we’re launching our first event this month, so November 29th is when we’re going to do our announcement event, so we wanted to announce the issue, announce the theme of the issue as well, that way our advertisers and community have an idea of what to expect, that way we can inspire the types of content that’s being produced.

We’re also creating an online only membership as well. So we understand that not all businesses can afford to advertise in the magazine, but still want to be part of the community. So we’ve created a really very affordable online only where they can still contribute articles, so as many articles as they like, that’s shared online and then distributed through the online community and through the newsletter. Which is something that hasn’t been done before, is an email newsletter. So we’ve set that up. We’re already at two and a half thousand subscribers and we look to build that over time.

and then get another great avenue to share content. So yeah, so the key is more events. So I think in the past, it’s been two to three events a year. So we’re looking to do six events as a way of bringing the community together and giving early feedback. So because we can, we’re now launching the events prior to our first written article, we actually can get feedback from the community on, as we introduce the theme, here’s some ideas that can come in to help tell.

help to tap into that. So that’s what we’re really looking forward to is the creative contributions that we’ll get by being open and transparent with where we’re heading with each issue. I love it. Well, I’m excited to see where you take Matters Magazine, yourself and Shari of course as well into 2024 and how that community rallies around you guys and lifts their own businesses up as much as the magazine and the publication as well. Because I think…

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you know, it would have been such a shame that if it was to disappear, because it would have left a huge gap in the business community on the Sunshine Coast. So I’m glad you took the reins and carried it on. So just in closing here, Luke, you know, for people who might want to connect with you, the connector, what’s the best place? Where are people going to find you? And, you know, you can go to B2B Sunshine Coast, you can go to LinkedIn Local and check out the events there. You can obviously pick up Matters magazine and go and check out what they got going on there. All the other places that you’re at. Oh, and Marketing Broker Australia as well.

Did I get them all? Yeah, yeah, I pretty sure you got them all. The easiest way is just to send me an email. So given we’ll be speaking about Matters Magazine, just luke at matt And then from there, a lot of people do reach out and say, hey Luke, what networking events do you recommend? What business groups have you been part of? Or would you recommend based on these sort of objectives? So happy to be very open about, you know, how to engage with the Sunshine Coast business community.

and some of the upcoming events that are coming through in 2024. So there’s some really exciting stuff that the Sunshine Coast and the Sunshine Coast Council and those big sort of community groups are doing to help support business owners. So if you are curious and hear that stuff, reach out to us. But keep things simple. Even though I have a thousand email addresses, let’s just stick to the one. Luke at matt Awesome. Luke, thanks for joining me on the Coast and Commerce podcast. It’s been fun. Great. Thanks, Ben. Awesome. And for you guys watching or listening, make sure you subscribe to the Coast and Commerce podcast so you don’t miss another.

episode. We’ll be coming to you each and every week during season one and we’ve got some more great guests coming up real soon. So I’ll see you in the next episode.