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July 18, 2024 15 mins

Kelly Schultz is the Founder and Director for knowable.me - a platform to share your thoughts about almost everything; take part in surveys; mystery shopping and product testing.  Find out more here: https://knowable.me/  

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Episode Transcript

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S1 (00:14):
On Vision Australia Radio, this is Vision Xtra with Peter Greco.

S2 (00:22):
Well, you may have heard the ads on this particular
radio station about Noble Me. Let's speak to the founder
and the director, Kelly Schultz. Kelly, great to catch up again.

S3 (00:31):
Great to talk to you again. Peter. Always is.

S2 (00:33):
Oh, you're too kind now for new listeners or people
that might not know about Noble Media, what is it
and how did you and why did you set it up?

S3 (00:41):
Well, noble mate, I should probably say, uh, you might
want to spell it first. So noble as in k
n o w a l e. So no, as in
getting to no knowledge, all of those sorts of things.
Noble me. Look, it came out of this need to
having to keep prove proving why people with disabilities voice

(01:03):
is worth listening to. There's always this thing where everyone
wants you to tell them about their products or their services,
and why it's good or why it's not. But they
don't listen. They don't listen. They want data, so they
want to prove that it's worthwhile. And so noble. Me
is a market research company, effectively, but we are solely
dedicated to the needs and the wants of people with

(01:25):
disabilities and their support networks. So people who support them
support workers, family and carers. And so we go out
and do some amazingly fun things to understand what people want,
what they want to buy, what their experience is like.
How does.

S2 (01:39):
It work? You've got a website. So I guess that's
kind of a starting point.

S3 (01:42):
Websites definitely the front door, but we try and be
as accessible as possible can ring us as well as
email and and those sorts of things. I don't know
that you can send you can probably send us a
letter if that's your thing. But, um, the websites, the
main way to find out about things noble me and
people effectively create an account, tell us a bit about

(02:03):
who they are and what they're interested in doing. And
you might be interested in only doing online surveys, but
you might also be interested in fun things like product
testing or being interviewed for research projects or even mystery shopping.
So where you go into a shop and they don't
know that you're there to assess them and you test

(02:25):
them out and give us a report, and we take
that back and, you know, tell them where they did
well and where they didn't do so well. And the
benefit is after at the end of the day, we
reward you for your contribution so you don't have to
do any of this for free. Okay.

S2 (02:40):
Bribery is alive and well. I'm getting more and more interested. Um,
just people with disabilities.

S3 (02:46):
So people with disabilities. I actually like to say people
with unique needs, because there are a lot out there
who don't necessarily think they have a disability, but they
are impacted by lots of different things. So they may
not consider themselves disabled. But we also want to hear
from support workers and family and carers because their perspective

(03:06):
is really important as well. Support workers in particular give
great data because they just observe and are witnesses to
so much that goes on. So yeah, family and support
workers are a big part of it too. But if
you have a need where you know something just doesn't
work for you, then we probably want to hear from you.

S2 (03:23):
Tastic. Now, as I said, uh, people can kind of
give you their ideas about what they're thinking about, but
do you kind of, uh, actively seek, uh, opinions about
a certain product or topic or event?

S3 (03:36):
So there are two ways happens. One is our own research.
So we do some of our own things based on
what we know is a big deal for the community.
So we've recently done a survey on accessible parking, which
is a really hot button topic at times. We did
that piece of research that was a paid survey, but

(03:57):
then we have clients who ask us to do that
research on their behalf. So it really does vary. That's um,
some of it's our own. And a big part of
it is, is people who want to know from and
hear from the community.

S2 (04:10):
Let's go back to your original point about people want data.
I guess in a sense, you can kind of understand
that because, you know, if I'm paying for, for, uh,
you know, someone to be doing something for me, I
kind of want to have the, the facts and figures
in front of me that, you know, this amount of
people may be impacted or this amount of people could
be coming through my door or coming to my website.
I guess that's their rationale for wanting, you know, the

(04:32):
hard data.

S4 (04:32):
I think it's pretty valid.

S3 (04:34):
Like they say, if you've spoken to one person with
a disability, you've spoken to one person with a disability.
We all have different experiences. We all have different life experience.
We all have our you can say some one person
is blind and the next person is blind, but they
can experience the world really differently. And so if you've
spoken to one person and a lot of the time

(04:54):
we use those sort of advisory groups which have a
at a great deal of value, but they're often single opinions.
And so if we can get the opinions of 50
people in a survey, that's gold, absolute gold.

S2 (05:07):
And obviously the, uh, the, uh, the people that you're
providing the information to are kind of valuing and saying, oh, well,
maybe we didn't think of that or that's a different
angle that we can look at. I mean, I guess
you're giving them, pardon the pun, but kind of food
for thought.

S4 (05:21):
Absolutely.

S3 (05:22):
And it's I also tell them that this is information
and insight you might get from people who don't have
a disability. So we recently did some product packaging testing
where we got people with all sorts of different disabilities
into the room, and we ripped things apart, and we
cut things up, and we worked our way into these packages.

(05:43):
And a lot of people, whether they have dexterity challenges
or upper limb disabilities or vision impairment, whatever they have,
are going to give the same feedback as non-disabled people.
But for people with a disability and these disabilities in particular,
it's a must have. You've got to make it accessible.
And it turns out that it's a nice to have

(06:03):
for everybody else. Because if you make it easier for
the person with a vision impairment, you make it easier
for everybody. And if you make it easier for someone
with arthritis, you probably make it easier for everybody. So
it's actually just one of the best places to start
If you want to update and change and really innovate
your products.

S2 (06:20):
There is such a powerful point, isn't it? Because, you know,
it's a bit like a website or an app being
accessible or indeed a building being accessible. It's not just
the person using the wheelchair that's going to benefit from it.
And and also, you know, tomorrow might be, uh, a
situation where it impacts you differently than it does today.

S4 (06:38):
Yeah, I.

S3 (06:38):
Think that's what they say, isn't it? If you have
an experienced disability, it's you have haven't experienced disability yet.

S4 (06:44):
Yeah.

S2 (06:47):
Just a bit more about you. Sorry. You're not you're
Barbara you're incentives I misspoke, you misspoke.

S3 (06:53):
Look, they are incentives. Rewards for for rewards. Yeah. And
we pay. I did a survey, I did I love
doing online surveys, but sometimes you only get $0.80 or
less for spending ten minutes of your time doing that.
We don't do that. Our minimum survey payment is $5
for a for a paid client survey. And that's only

(07:16):
if you spend, you know, 5 or 10 minutes doing it.
We believe that the incentives should match the effort put in.
And so if you have to come into a store
and do mystery shopping, the effort that's involved for someone
with a disability or some additional needs is going to
be greater than it is for a non-disabled person. So
our rates of payment are quite, quite reasonable. I think

(07:38):
for on that basis, we want to reward people for
for actually putting that extra effort in.

S2 (07:43):
Now you're expanding the mystery shopping or that's kind of
just taking off, if I can put it that way.

S3 (07:47):
It is just taking off. We've got some mystery shopping
jobs coming up. They are $30 each for to spend
ten minutes in a in a particular shop telling us
about what you think about it. But we also have
some interviews coming up that are in a retail store
as well. And there are $100 each payment because we
want to spend about half an hour or 45 minutes
with you talking about what you think about the furniture,

(08:10):
the lights, the signs, the noise, the atmosphere. Do you
like the curtains? I don't know any anything you like really.
And they pay $100. So, you know, like it's. I'd
like to think that that's actually fair for for what
we're asking people to do.

S2 (08:27):
And I mean, without sounding too touristic, I mean, you're
kind of maybe helping other people in the future. You're
getting a little bit of pocket money, but also maybe
your feedback could be helping others in the future.

S3 (08:37):
Exactly right. Our collective voices have the power to make
that change, and these are clients who want to hear it.
So they've come to us because they want to hear it.
So it's not just trying to be an advocate out
there and banging on people's doors going, hey, you really
got a problem, you need to fix it. These clients
actually want to hear from you. So it is making change.
It is about doing things better.

S2 (08:58):
Kelly, you founded the organization Noble me. We're talking about
that noble as in k n o w. How are
you kind of funded or how do you keep going?
How are you sustained.

S3 (09:09):
We are sustained by lots of goodwill. Being my own,
uh uh, but ultimately clients pay for the for the
work we're doing. So we also do consulting work as well.
So that helps people understand the recommendations we make. So
from product packaging testing that we've done, we then make
recommendations and provide advice and the ongoing development of how

(09:30):
they build that. Um, so yeah, clients are paying for
us to do this work for them, and hopefully we're
building that up and hopefully it will become bigger and better.

S2 (09:40):
Now, speaking about clients, you kind of, uh, shoot for
the stars as well because you kind of, uh, were
after the the top one 100 ASX listed companies as well.

S3 (09:49):
We did we did a piece of research last year
into the disability inclusion in the ASX 100. Nothing like
going for the top. These are our most well resourced
firms in Australia, so they also should be the leaders
in disability inclusion. And sadly you know it really rates
us 10%, have got some sort of decent action that

(10:12):
they're trying to take. And so that's not good enough
as far as I'm concerned. And we are aiming at
the we're aiming at the consumer market. So while we
do have some clients who are in the disability service provider,
or they might be doing assistive tech or some of
those sorts of things, our key clients and our biggest
are those who are in the consumer market making average

(10:33):
consumer goods that are for everybody. And we're trying to
make sure they are for everybody.

S2 (10:38):
Well, I guess at the end of the day, you know,
if I spend $100 a week on X, I mean, probably,
you know, 90% of that is going to go to
the big companies around town.

S3 (10:49):
It generally is that that's where most of our most
of our wealth goes, isn't it? To the to the
biggest companies. And they're the ones who are honestly at
the moment least likely to to care.

S2 (10:58):
And I know this gets repeated often on this program
and others. But, you know, it's 20% of the population
has got a disability. If you're ignoring 20% of your market. Well, uh,
more for you.

S4 (11:08):
Precisely.

S2 (11:09):
Uh, succinct. And, uh, I like it when you agree
with me. And, Kelly, what about as far as, uh,
getting in touch with you and kind of giving feedback
and stuff? Because, um, you talked about, you know, turning
up to, uh, fund fund events, if you like. Is
that just in Melbourne at this stage? How is that going?

S3 (11:24):
It really does vary on where our clients are and
where they need people to to join. A lot of
our online surveys are for anybody in Australia. We also
have some things like user testing coming up, which will
be testing a website, and you can do that from home.
So at the moment some of a lot of our
companies and clients are looking at Melbourne and Sydney as

(11:45):
where they want to do their testing because that's where
they're based. But there's a lot of online activities as well,
and definitely the online stuff. We all know that the
blindness and low vision community are disproportionately impacted by inaccessible
websites and those sorts of things. So I'd love people
to join from anywhere in Australia to to help us

(12:05):
out with that stuff along those lines.

S2 (12:08):
People can sign up for like, your newsletter so you
can be informed when the sort of opportunities come up.

S3 (12:14):
Absolutely. So if you join, may create an account or
sign up for our insights. You'll hear about when things
come up and what opportunities are available for you and
just generally engage in in what comes out of it.
The one, the most interesting one recently. And honestly, Peter,
this couldn't be a better job for me because I'm
curious about everything. And now I have a captive audience

(12:35):
who I can ask questions of. So any time I
feel like I want to know something or push my
own point, I can ask people. And so a couple
of weeks ago, I had a discussion with a good
friend of mine about whether the saying goes knife and
fork or fork and knife, and she was insisting that
it was fork and knife. Absolutely insisting. And I disagree

(12:58):
because I think it's knife and fork. So I put
that in a cutlery survey for our members to talk
about how they find cutlery, whether they like plastic forks
or bamboo forks. And I just added a question to
make sure that I was right, that it is knife
fork and 83% said it was knife and fork. So
I feel vindicated. But that's the kind of thing that

(13:20):
we get involved in and you'll get to hear about.

S4 (13:23):
There you go.

S2 (13:23):
Well, I'll make that 84% because that's what I would
have said as well. It's a bit it's a bit
like that's a Family Feud show. The survey said.

S4 (13:31):
Exactly.

S3 (13:31):
It's exactly what it is. I love that these survey said.
And it's just proving that people with disability one have
different experiences of the world, but also have the same
ones as everybody else.

S2 (13:41):
Kelly, how can we find.

S4 (13:42):
You, noble?

S3 (13:43):
Me so k n o w a b l e
m is the website address. You can also email research
at knowable me and unfortunately I can't remember the phone
number but I can probably find it.

S2 (13:57):
What we'll do is we'll grab it off you off
air and I'll put it up on our Facebook page
as well so people have it there. Kelly, great to
catch up. Congratulations on the initiative. I marvel at your, uh, well,
your determination, your resilience and your persistence. And I'm sure
this will be a great thing not just for you
or hopefully for you, but also for, uh, people from Hollywood.

(14:18):
So congratulations. And, uh, we'll speak again soon.

S3 (14:20):
Thank you. I'd love to come and share some more insights,
like knife and fork with you again soon.

S2 (14:24):
Okay. That's, uh, Kelly Schultz there, the founder and the
manager of the boss of me and me and all
that information up on our Facebook page.

S5 (14:37):
Thank you for listening to Vision Xtra with Peter Greco.
You can find this interview on the Focal Point podcast.
This show was produced in the Adelaide studios of Vision
Australia Radio.
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