Bernadette Butler

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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:04] SPEAKER_01: I, this is Angela Barnard coming to you from Collision Conference in Toronto.
[00:09] SPEAKER_01: We Canada's podcast where we listen, discover and engage.
[00:13] SPEAKER_01: With me today is guest Bernadette from StoryTab.
[00:17] SPEAKER_01: So a little bit about Bernadette.
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: She has 20 years experience in advertising.
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: Working with some of the greatest brands of our time.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: Bit of a personal best is that she's got two ads on the world's 20th real,
[00:30] SPEAKER_01: which is a big deal in the advertising sector.
[00:34] SPEAKER_01: And Bernadette is the CEO and co-founder of StoryTab.com, a tech stars company.
[00:40] SPEAKER_01: A B2B SaaS company that works with global enterprise brands
[00:45] SPEAKER_01: to collect and distribute customer videos from anyone and anywhere.
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: Welcome Bernadette.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
[00:53] SPEAKER_01: So we're going to talk a little bit about who you are.
[00:56] SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey.
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: What you're doing now and a couple of things that defined you as an entrepreneur.
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: Okay, so a little bit about me.
[01:03] SPEAKER_00: So I live just outside of Vancouver, actually.
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: I live in Port-Cocuet, London, so I live in the Ferbs.
[01:10] SPEAKER_00: And I started StoryTab a few years back and I'm also a mother.
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: I started it foolishly when I had a four-month-old baby.
[01:19] SPEAKER_00: And a toddler.
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
[01:21] SPEAKER_00: From there, we've been growing StoryTab and plan to grow it in the tri-cities outside of Vancouver.
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: We're kind of trying to be the big fish small pond against the traffic, if you will.
[01:35] SPEAKER_00: And what defines as an entrepreneur?
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a good question.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: I think I'm a marketer.
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: I think in headlines, I can't help it.
[01:41] SPEAKER_00: I'm also a mom, so I'm incredibly nurturing.
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: But I come from corporate world, so I think I'm a bit of a aggressive,
[01:51] SPEAKER_00: badass and some respect.
[01:52] SPEAKER_00: So I'm like this melting pot of, I think I'm just like a bit of a character.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: Big personality.
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: I'm a big, I think so.
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: I'm a big, I think so.
[02:00] SPEAKER_00: But sometimes I feel like six feet because I like.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so can you give me a sound bite on what your company does?
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: We do video reviews, so we are really disrupting written reviews.
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: So when you're thinking of buying something online, all you have today to make a purchase decision
[02:14] SPEAKER_00: is usually a photo of that product, a description of that product, and some written reviews.
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: And let's face it, a lot of them are fake.
[02:23] SPEAKER_00: And what happens is you spend your hard earned money on that product only for it to arrive
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: and for you to go, this isn't what I wanted.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[02:32] SPEAKER_00: And you return it.
[02:33] SPEAKER_00: Or you stick with it, and then you just brew decidedly that you've made this bad purchase.
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: No, brooding, no brooding.
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: So story tap is disrupting the whole industry.
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: And we are working with enterprise-sized companies to collect amazing video reviews from their customers.
[02:47] SPEAKER_00: So now, their future customers when they're shopping, they can see real people with real products,
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: talking about what they like, what they didn't like, and all those sound bites, really helping that entire buyer's journey.
[02:57] SPEAKER_00: So what's been the biggest challenge so far in the business?
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: Every day?
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I'm an entrepreneur.
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: Everything's, every day is a challenge.
[03:05] SPEAKER_00: Every day, I look at challenges, problems, and I sell them.
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: So as much as I'm, you know, the CEO, all I do all day long is look at the entire business,
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: and you can segment it as like price product, distribution, and promotion.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: What's not working?
[03:21] SPEAKER_00: What's not working?
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: What's not working?
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: And of course, people, people is your number one resource, trying to extrapolate the best out of your team,
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: and grow your team, and we're in Vancouver trying to grow global business.
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: So time zones are my enemy at the moment, but we work with it.
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: And of course, time zones, plus being a mom is really challenging.
[03:43] SPEAKER_01: Well, and you also use the word disruptive already, but what is a disruptive trend that you see in your industry specifically?
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: We're all trying to be disruptive.
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: I think in the world of the space I'm playing in in terms of consumer behavior, I think it's right now,
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: it's just, we've been living with what we have, and everybody's been okay with it, and it's costing companies billions.
[04:02] SPEAKER_00: So I think there's lots of smart technology out there trying to solve this,
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: whether it's VR or AR, trying to give that consumer more of something to make a better buying decision.
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: So I think there's lots of us actively working to get the attention of these big companies to say,
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: you can do better, you're sucking the money out of our pockets, try to inform us better with authenticity.
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: And I think that goes through the whole marketing mix as well as what you see on their site.
[04:29] SPEAKER_01: Always hard to do one piece of advice, but I'm going to ask it.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: Is best piece of advice you ever received?
[04:35] SPEAKER_00: You know what? It was from my dad.
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: And my dad was a carpenter. He's like, you can only measure the wood so many times before you have to cut it.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: And so I think in my life, everything that went out in the door had to be perfect.
[04:48] SPEAKER_00: Proofread, perfect, best image, best video, best everything.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: When you're an entrepreneur, perfection will kill you.
[04:55] SPEAKER_00: And so you just got to run. You got to do the best you can do at the, you know, speed times accuracy.
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: Get out the door and, you know, measure it one shirt, measure it twice.
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: Okay, but get out that bloody door with it.
[05:06] SPEAKER_00: What are the top three things on your buckets or vision list right now?
[05:10] SPEAKER_00: So right now we're raising our seed. So that's not a big, hairy, aditious goal.
[05:15] SPEAKER_00: But it's my first seed and I'm super excited because we've already got an early commitment.
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: And if people have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay.
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: It's like the investor side of what I do.
[05:25] SPEAKER_00: We would love to open shops abroad.
[05:28] SPEAKER_00: We've got Toronto. We're growing Toronto. We've got Vancouver.
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: And now we want to eventually scale in those areas.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: Pick one to two words to describe yourself and why.
[05:39] SPEAKER_00: I would say real and hustle.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: I am not the person that post pretty pictures to my social feed.
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: Coming to this conference, I, I shared with the world why emotions of leaving my five-year-old daughter in tears
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: at five in the morning because I was leaving on yet another business trip.
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: This is my seventh, so far this year.
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: And she was having a really hard time.
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: And I was sharing that.
[06:04] SPEAKER_00: Being a mom and leaving your little babies at home and them not understanding is incredibly hard.
[06:09] SPEAKER_00: So I'd say, I don't want a sugar coat.
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: I live in authenticity and I think perfectionism is bullshit.
[06:15] SPEAKER_00: And I'm working hard both as a company as a person to disarm and speak the truth of what it's like to be a mom hustler.
[06:23] SPEAKER_01: Well, and that's a great segue into a little bit about how you work.
[06:26] SPEAKER_01: So can you give us an idea of what your typical workday routine is?
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: So my typical routine is up at five.
[06:32] SPEAKER_00: Actually, 10 to five to be exact. I don't get out of bed until five o'clock.
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: My alarm goes off then.
[06:36] SPEAKER_01: I'll get 10 minutes news.
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: I do. And I head downstairs and I actually do a bit of journaling, just on personal goals, professional goals.
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: And what mountains I need to move today to make that happen.
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[06:49] SPEAKER_00: And then I head to the office where again, I review my goals for the day.
[06:54] SPEAKER_00: I usually jump on a call with my co-founder, Sean Brax.
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: We reset what we have to achieve today.
[07:00] SPEAKER_00: And then I have probably about 10 Zoom calls that day and work through it.
[07:05] SPEAKER_00: And then end of day, I cut out around four.
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: Go pick up the kids.
[07:09] SPEAKER_00: My husband makes the dinner.
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness for men that cook.
[07:13] SPEAKER_00: And you know, do the kid thing then when they go to bed, get back online and have my husband say,
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: can you quit typing? I'm watching this movie.
[07:19] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I can't because it's my job.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: And then we go to bed.
[07:23] SPEAKER_00: How do you keep on track for that vision?
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: So you know, you talked about a little bit about wanting to open a couple of global offices, have a bit of a presence.
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: But how do you keep on track with that?
[07:33] SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing I've learned, like you're never going to get where you want to go if you don't know where the hell you're going.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: So I am obsessed with go boards.
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: My husband is literally in our bedroom.
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: And I make one every year.
[07:45] SPEAKER_00: And he's like, he knows exactly what our personal and my professional goals are.
[07:50] SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing.
[07:51] SPEAKER_00: It's hard to do what I'm doing.
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: And I know that.
[07:54] SPEAKER_00: But you're never going to get on base if you don't swing.
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: I don't do baseball.
[07:59] SPEAKER_00: But there's an analogy in there about sports.
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: You got it swing.
[08:02] SPEAKER_00: And so I cut myself some slack.
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: But I also get really excited at swinging.
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: And so I get on point by, I say, I want to achieve this by this date.
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: And here's my game plan to do it.
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: So I don't think you could never say, I want, you know, I want to have 10 million in revenue this year.
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: You have to work that back.
[08:20] SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
[08:20] SPEAKER_00: In order to get 10 million in revenue, how many sales people do we have?
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: How many people do they have to talk to?
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: How many are going to convert into demonstrations of the product?
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: How many of those are going to convert into a sale?
[08:30] SPEAKER_00: How are we going to service those sales?
[08:32] SPEAKER_00: And that's the plan.
[08:33] SPEAKER_00: So I think it's always about, here's the goal.
[08:35] SPEAKER_00: But how do we get there?
[08:36] SPEAKER_00: What are those KPI measurement pieces of the puzzle to actually make that happen?
[08:40] SPEAKER_00: And how much of a role does Sean play?
[08:43] SPEAKER_01: Your co-founders together?
[08:44] SPEAKER_01: Yes, you know, you tag team with each other a lot.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: Sean is my technical co-founder.
[08:49] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[08:50] SPEAKER_00: He is responsible for the product.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: So in our scenario, which is different than a lot of entrepreneurs, we've invented something.
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: We've built a product from scratch, a software, where, you know, well done the path for patent protection, all that jazz.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: But being, you know, Sean is also incredibly, like we look to our strengths.
[09:10] SPEAKER_00: So he's incredibly data-driven with metrics and data.
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: He's very skilled in fundraising.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: So we just look at what has to get done top up and divide it conquered according to our strengths.
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: So anything marketing, sales, like that's more me, this type of stuff, like he does it.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: That's not really his jam.
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so we just divide it according to our strengths and where we don't have the strengths, we find people that do and delegate.
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: What keeps you up at night?
[09:36] SPEAKER_00: Money.
[09:37] SPEAKER_00: Money.
[09:38] SPEAKER_00: Bad mom stuff.
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: Family.
[09:42] SPEAKER_00: And totally related to you.
[09:43] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[09:44] SPEAKER_00: My next business trip.
[09:45] SPEAKER_00: I always feel like I'm never quite as prepared as I need to be on that next business trip.
[09:50] SPEAKER_00: I like the prep time, the grow the business time.
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: There's never enough time.
[09:54] SPEAKER_00: That keeps me up at night.
[09:55] SPEAKER_01: So how do you recharge specifically in your community where you live?
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: Well, we're fortunate to have grass.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: Like at our where we live, we've got a quarter acre lot and I spend a lot of time in the backyard.
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: We've got my husband's a big gardener so I spend a lot of time out there with him at the end of the night.
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: I'm also a crazy movie buff and so I find I learn this in advertising.
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: If you can go to the movies, nobody can find you.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: So you can turn your phone off and you get to literally escape your world and have a two hour break.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: So that is my ultimate is if I'm really stressed, everybody in the team knows to find me at the local theater.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: That's where I am.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: If I'm looking for creativity, I'll have to Grandville Island.
[10:39] SPEAKER_00: I love Grandville Island.
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: I'll go to the Railtown coffee shop there and pen to paper and search or write and think and create and figure out how to problem solve from different angles.
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: What would be the benefits and the challenges of doing business either specifically in Port Coatland or just Vancouver, British Columbia in general?
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: When you're growing a company, there are kind of distractions.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: And I found when I was commuting to Vancouver, there was a lot of networking and meeting things that aren't as relevant to me like in terms of I have to be, I'm a mom.
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: I've got to be laser focused on what I have to do, which we work with enterprise-sized companies.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot in Vancouver, right?
[11:17] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: And so I have to be really laser focused on how I spend my time and where I spend my time.
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: Time zones really are the hard part, which is why I have to be close to home because I'm on the phone at 6 with Toronto.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: You guys wake up early.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: So I'm on point and that's important because I am running this right now.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: We're pretty small. We're at a huge team.
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: So the challenge is making myself available with the knowledge that you have now on sort of best networks, best resources for people to tap into that we're looking at.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: What would be the best resources for them to tap into? Can you name a couple that?
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I was starting out.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: The first thing I did was I joined some meet-up groups.
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: I thought they were really great. Just to talk to people that were in the same head space.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: I would do tons of coffees with professionals that I wanted to go to a tech company.
[12:08] SPEAKER_00: And I remember when somebody said, what code are you going to build it in?
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't know what do you mean?
[12:13] SPEAKER_00: And so, like, you're, with the minute you decide to be an entrepreneur, the game starts then and you are going to erase a race of knowledge because you don't know anything.
[12:24] SPEAKER_00: And you don't know because you learn by doing.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: And so I think for me it was the journey of meeting with developers and pitching my idea and having them say, like, at the end of the day, even with Storytap, I wanted to build this and I had developers that, no, I'm not doing that.
[12:39] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do this. I'm like, no, no, no, but I'm going to pay to do this.
[12:42] SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't want to do that. I want to do this.
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: And I learned developers are in high demand and they will pick what they want to work on.
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: So where do you find developers?
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: You're networking. You ask.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: You know, the thing is I find a lot of entrepreneurs have this awesome idea and then they hide it.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: And they say, oh, this is, I'm not going to tell you about that idea.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: And that is the one thing I learned from the opposite.
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: You have this awesome idea. Get on your podium and start talking about it.
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm really tech sector specific here because Vancouver has got a fantastic tech scene.
[13:13] SPEAKER_00: But I think with any business, it's important to join all those networking events because the number one thing you're going to get is feedback.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: And you need to listen to what people were saying.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: Like, honestly, I came to Web Summit Collision a couple of years back when they had it in Ireland and I brought my whole team there and we were running out of money.
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: It was crazy. And the one thing I got out of that, I had to pivot.
[13:34] SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the right business. So we had 40,000 people come through our booths.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: And they ask, I love what you're doing, but I think I would like it for this for my business.
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: And you know, I mean, you're not going to get 40,000 people in Vancouver by joining the Meetup group.
[13:48] SPEAKER_00: But you might get 10. You might start just to hear trends.
[13:50] SPEAKER_00: And then you might need to, I mean, I often sat at a Starbucks with a vision and said, hey, can I buy you a cup of coffee?
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: Can I get your paying on this? And they go, yeah, you're going to buy me a Starbucks?
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had my little sign and I'd take it to them and they would give me feedback.
[14:07] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's even my co-founder actively reaches out when you catch your business, especially in the event.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: You learn so fast about what people are thinking and if they're leaning in, just their physical expression about that idea.
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: You're going to learn if they're already trying to improve it. You'll see people's real turning go, yeah.
[14:28] SPEAKER_00: And you think about, and you're going to know whether you're on the path to the right set.
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: And really, so that's the power of a network too.
[14:34] SPEAKER_01: As soon as you start talking about your business, those people are thinking about you, whether or not.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: And everyone's got an angle whether you're talking to an investor.
[14:43] SPEAKER_00: I remember early days meeting when investors going, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
[14:47] SPEAKER_00: In hindsight, best advice ever.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Best advice ever.
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: I met this investor in Vancouver who said, you have to always look over your shoulder of what's going to kill you next.
[14:56] SPEAKER_00: And I went, that's great.
[14:59] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: That's great.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: But you know what? Awesome advice.
[15:02] SPEAKER_01: Some fun, rapid, far questions.
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: You're a movie girl. What was the most impactful movie you've seen in the last month?
[15:07] SPEAKER_01: You know what? I just saw one. The Rocks New One with family fighting.
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I really was.
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: You know what?
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: I love underdog story about a woman who changed wrestling from the model actress body type to a real person who's wrestling and a passionate.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: And how about a book? Is there anything that jumps out that you would love to recommend others?
[15:27] SPEAKER_00: Right now I'm reading Venture Deals by Brad Phelx and Jason Mandela and it is, it's about Venture Deals.
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: So if that's your jam, who's your most influential mentor?
[15:38] SPEAKER_00: I have about six mentors, but I'm going to go with my mom.
[15:42] SPEAKER_00: My mom's an amazing entrepreneur and she pushes me because she says she knows me better than I do and says, you apps, you can do that.
[15:49] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, all right, mom says I can.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: One skill you believe entrepreneurs of the future can just ditch and get rid of.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: I think filing your emails is a waste of time.
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: My whole team, I think.
[16:01] SPEAKER_00: I have about 7,000 emails in my inbox and there's search. I can find everything, but I get razzled a lot about that.
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: But I think stick with me, stick with this idea, you'll save some time on filing.
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: So other than Canada's podcast, obviously, is there one essential media business resource for you?
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: I don't have exactly one. I probably have a myriad of many and it's finding the time to read them all and keep up to date.
[16:24] SPEAKER_00: I get a lot of people sending me their favorite articles of things that they find impactful.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: We have an active Slack channel, so lots of folks are like, make sure you read this, check this out.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: So I think I probably react more than actively heightened and read myself.
[16:38] SPEAKER_01: Bit of a fun question. You're now on a deserted island without internet connectivity.
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: How long would you last on that island?
[16:45] SPEAKER_01: What would you do there? And then when you had to make that call, who would you call?
[16:49] SPEAKER_00: I would probably really enjoy it for a couple of days until probably like I had to go to the bathroom or something.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, this isn't working for me.
[16:57] SPEAKER_00: So post podcast, what's one way that people can get a hold of you?
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: Probably the best ways LinkedIn. Check me out, Bernadette Butler on LinkedIn.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: And you can message me there. It would be the best.
[17:07] SPEAKER_01: So Bernadette with Storytop. Thanks again for joining us today.
[17:10] SPEAKER_01: Back to pleasure.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: Once again, this was Angie Barnard from Canada's podcast, joining everyone in Toronto with a collision conference.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: So great place to listen, discover and engage. Thanks for joining us.