TrulySignificant.com presents Tairan Zhang from Walmart Connect. Inside Walmart are leaders like Tairan who remind us that the real magic happens when systems serve people, not the other way around.
Tairan works with the world's largest retailer in their rapidly growing retail media arm- a place where technology, data and human behavior intersect in real time. His work helps brands speak more meaningfully to millions of shoppers. But what makes his story truly significant is not the scale of his influence, it's the intention behind it.
Enjoy hearing Tairan talk about the fast paced world of digital retail and advertising. Listen carefully to success beyond the metrics and performance dashboards.
Hear how to nurture a culture of curiosity and responsibility among teams who work with massive amounts of consumer data influencing millions of shoppers every day.
And if we meet Tairan 10 years from now, you will see his legacy of significance inside Walmart and beyond.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
Tairan works with the world's largest retailer in their rapidly growing retail media arm- a place where technology, data and human behavior intersect in real time. His work helps brands speak more meaningfully to millions of shoppers. But what makes his story truly significant is not the scale of his influence, it's the intention behind it.
Enjoy hearing Tairan talk about the fast paced world of digital retail and advertising. Listen carefully to success beyond the metrics and performance dashboards.
Hear how to nurture a culture of curiosity and responsibility among teams who work with massive amounts of consumer data influencing millions of shoppers every day.
And if we meet Tairan 10 years from now, you will see his legacy of significance inside Walmart and beyond.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
A welcome back to Truly Significant dot com presents. I'm
Rick Tokeini. We have a wonderful guest on today. I
met him recently at the NYU Lab for Transformative Leadership,
and so I want to thank our mutual friend now
Vince Gennaro for creating that connection. At Walmart, the world's
(00:33):
largest retailer, scale is the easy story to tell, but
inside the scale, there are leaders like Tarn Jang who
remind us, remind me that the real magic happens when
systems serve people, not the other way around. Tron works
within Walmart connect the company's rapidly growing retail media arm,
(00:57):
a place where technology, data and human behavior intersect in
real time. This is my understanding. Your work helps brand
speak more meaningfully to millions of shoppers. But what makes
his story truly significant is not the scale of his influence,
it's the intention behind it. He leads with a conviction
(01:21):
that transformation begins within, echoing the principles of the NYU
Lab for Transformative Leadership, that empathy is a strategy, that
self awareness is a business advantage, and that even the
largest corporations in the world, the most enduring change starts
with character. Welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thanks grit to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
It's good to see you again. So let's start with
this one in the we want to know about your backstory,
where you're from originally, and tell us a little bit
about your education.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Sure, So I come to the days roughly eight years
ago pursuing a master degree in marketing, which has been
my passion ever since. So finish my master degree in
NYU and then just join the advertising industry working in
an ad agency Ogilvy. There being an accounting executive help
(02:20):
our internal creative team social media team to talk to brands,
help craft their brand narrative and go to market materials
so they can improve their brand presence later. I've been
really fascinated by this data driven concept, which is more
thern marketing kind of has be found on kind of
data insights about your audience, about the channels. So I've
(02:43):
been pivot to Warmar Connect, which is a growing media
arm within Warmar Enterprise, the retail media space where we
really leverage this warmart dot com and warmart app at
inventory to help brands reach their customers in a meaningful.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Now excellent, I know so many people from Ogilvy. I've
got to ask this question, how did that time with
Ogilvy prepare you for Walmart connect.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Ah, that's a good question. So I think, really, well,
definitely we can talk about some technical right or technical
stuff right, but I want to start with the mindset.
It's really you know when the founder, David ogil we
has a philosophy to respect for individual, respect for creativity,
(03:34):
and I think that really feel the company's growth and
also shape my mindset, like respect for each individual that
transferred to Walmarts here, like we respect everyone, and then
we are always in service of our customers. So what
we say, who's number one? And then customer always? So
(03:54):
that's always my number one principle and I think that
has a profound influence in my career year later.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Indeed, indeed, thank you for that. That's well said. Let's
talk about significance, my favorite topic, and so I'm gonna go.
I'm going to dive off the deep from the very beginning.
In this fast paced world of digital retail and advertising,
what does significance mean to you personally? Beyond success metrics
(04:21):
and performance dash towards.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I think being truly significance means you you're trustworthy, Your
analysis is trustworthy by your stakeholders, so they can make
informed decision based on the right signal you gave them.
It also means like you are trustworthy brands to your customers,
whether we are building Warmarts as a trustworthy brand to
(04:48):
customers or helping the brands who are selling on Warmer's
platform to become a trustworthy brand, so that trust is
the gold.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, very much so the go in your leadership journey
thus far, when did you sense that profit and purpose
could coexist and even amplify each other.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Hmmm, I think you're really kind of nearly down. That's
how do we find the sweet spot between you know,
revenue and really kind of a serving the customer for
the greater social benefits. The play The vertical I've been
working on is Warmart's marketplace business. So think of think
(05:35):
of this as we have you know, thousands of thousand
and third party sellers who lease their products on Walmart
dot com, and by this you can potentially reach millions
of millions customers Warmarts already have. I think that's a
great way we're helping SMBs, small small medium brands, mom
and pop shops to really really sell and reach the
(05:58):
customers you know, beyond their local you know, be on
their local proximities. We can typically you can sell, you know,
in your own city, but right now you can sell
across the nation if you have a good product. So
that's how we really help these small brands to scale,
really match your brands, your products to the huge customer
based Walmart has already have. So I think that's a
(06:21):
great thing to do. That's always motivated me to to
really do my work every day because I'm doing this
for yeah, for the s mbs, which is also my
kind of my preference. Actually, I love to stand on
this side. It's good, you know, also stuffly also great.
I to work for big brands, right, but I kind
of tend to lean towards this site.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, Yeah, there's got to be something exhilarating about that.
I was telling you in the in the lab about
our company gracefully yours reading cards and in our biggest customer,
the e merging customers Walmart B two C. It's like,
how many other SMBA small medium brands are out there
(07:03):
that you guys are working with, and is there a
cap to it? Knowing that the system could allow this
sense of abundance the more the merrier exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, that's the key concept of the marketplace, or we
call it two sided marketplace. You want to countibate such
an ecosystem where the most cellar you have, the more
product assortment you got, so the more needs you can
satisfy customers. Whatever that could be a niche, whether are
greeting cars, you know, a dancing shoes, We have that
cover for you. Even if that's you know, sell sold
(07:38):
in store. Right, those big brands, they are sold in store,
but you can always find them online on warmer dot com.
There is a particular seller somewhere who are selling a
good product which can satisfy your need. And the most
sellar you have, the more assortment you got thereby the
more customer you will have. Right, So whatever needs you have, right,
you can find an eligible, good quality seller on the platform.
(07:59):
So we're grown the supply and demand side, uh simultaneously
and will be a flywheel.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, you better define what a flywheel is for our audience.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Sounds good. I think I have a decent understanding. I'll try.
So I think a flywheel. Think about a flywheel, like
different components, different gears, right, so there could be two
or three or multiple gears, they are connected to each other.
Once you turn one gears to drive it drive the
other gears and the other ones the other gears drive
(08:33):
it just drives it turned back to you know, work
reversely turn the initial drivers, so everything just drive faster.
One one components drive faster, drive the other one, and
the other one because of this also drive faster and
then work backwards to the initial drivers. So over time
you just you know, drive faster and faster. In the
(08:55):
business context, so if one components drive the other, the
other drive you backwards, it's mutually beneficial. So they each
benefit the other one and the coexists. Once existence you know,
makes the others existence more, you know, thrive thriving.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, well said, that's about that intercoonnectiveness. And with Walmart
attracting us the consumer to the store or to the website,
we become enthusiastic, almost evangelistic about what Walmart is doing
for us. It's like just a second, I can go
on Walmart and they can deliver it to me, and
(09:36):
it's oh, now I'm gonna tell another one hundred people,
and in the case of a podcast or I'm gonna
tell millions of people. So it's it's one of those
things that just kind of the gears keep working inside
and then popularity drives it and then maybe you'll have
you know, a billion items from around the world, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, we definitely have a lot of domestic sellers also
international sellers, so they were selling here also selling abroad.
So yeah, and I love your you mentioned in this
abundance mindset. Yeah, that's that's something I like to work
for and really see and growth that kind of business.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Exactly exactly. Okay, moving on in the laboratory, I picked
up this in the NYU lab that it was teaching
us that transformation begins from within. And I'm wondering what
enter transformation has been most essential for you to lead
effectively inside the global organization like Walmart.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
M The most prominent one would be really transfer from
being really obsessed with perfection to get it rolled out, test, learn,
reiter it. I think that mindset has been really stand
out to me in the past couple of years, ever
(11:05):
since I came to Warmer and working here. By that,
I mean, so this is always dynamic and fluid, right.
There could be there could be a new demand or
new initiative you want to implement, but sometimes you don't
have every resources for into the place to support you.
(11:26):
I'm working on data analytics. Take data for example, So
there's a business initiative. Everyone feels that's a good idea.
We want to launch that or probably launch a pilot
program to test the idea first, but you don't have
the data. Then then you have to really go talk
to the to your IT team to really figure out
how do we collect the data, store the data so
(11:47):
we can leverage the data to track the program's success.
So just doesn't just when you don't have the data
doesn't mean hey, we shouldn't do this. It's just you
figure out the way you've been scrappy, you know, to
free out of way to still make it happen. While
you may not have the perfect data in day one,
but you can just build it along the way, along
the journey, and then you have a seventy percent good
(12:09):
or eighty percent good of data and that's enough for
you to make a good decision and then you can
just go with that. You don't have to really be
too obsessed to get one hundred percent perfect data, and
then that costs you another six months or one year
to really reach that data quality. But by that time,
probably you are either missing the opportunity right to capitalize
(12:32):
on that initiative, or your initiative doesn't is not even
relative by the time like one years later, that's sure
you think in the current year, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You're looking for indicators or tendencies, which means that it's
not perfect marketing. And so there's tell me where intuition
and common sense overlaps data.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I think common sense overrides data mostly happen, especially when
you are in an early phase of a decision or
in the early phase a program. You really want to
get some directional guidance, right what may be a good idea,
what may works, may be effective. So you have brainstorming
with folks with especially teams from different perspectives, you know, operations, sales, marketing.
(13:32):
You may have some good ideas. Oh, and then you
probably figure out a like, if there's a fifty percent chance,
like people think this would be a good idea, then
let's probably test that out, you know. And then if
you really embrace this test mindset, you also have to
(13:53):
be really encouraging the test results because you're only fifty
percent sure maybe this will be a good idea and
if at the end of the day this turns out
to not really it doesn't work, well, let's embrace that one,
you know, because there's equally a fifty percent chance it's
will fail, right, so you would expect it to see
some idea fail. So that's okay. You just think about
(14:15):
what kind of learning we have right at least if
this prove this is a dead end, let's don't put
more resource on this, or we can do a pivot
or follow up to see if it's because the simple
size is not big enough so we don't see a
meaningful results, and then let's run a bigger test, you know,
those type of pivot you can do. But just keep
compierating and keep learning, and really make sure people have
(14:37):
that psychological safety to embrace the result so they don't
feel I'm going to be Josh, I'm going to be
my career will be sabotaged by a by experiment, by
experiment that doesn't turn out good result. That psychological safety
is very important to you as a leader. You have
to create for your team so people can voice, people
(14:57):
can really act, and people really get the learning instead
of being worried, Uh, do I still have a job here,
does it really influence my performance?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Reading that, my friend, is the nugget of the day,
maybe of the month. And it's about a culture where
it's okay to fail fast, learn from it and keep
moving and create a culture that says it's okay because
(15:27):
we're all growing and the business is growing. It's not
a three strikes are out?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Is it exactly? Exactly? And that actually speaks to the
transformative lab where this Gennaro actually talk about why we
would this mindset is because the underlying you know, the
foundation of the business has shifted. You know, there's a
lot of disruption happened, and they happened quickly. So once
(15:54):
your foundation because more, you know, fast changing, you couldn't
keep a static mind set to really match that foundations do.
You have to also be flexible, forward looking and keep learning.
One thing I realized recently is like there's so much
things like either I don't know or my previous assumption
was actually off the mark. You know, there's tons of
(16:16):
thing I realized recently, and I just have to wish
I could be more open minded, more embracing those type
of concept changing testing ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, indeed, okay, we're going to take a quick commercial break.
And for those listeners out there that are on the
verge of leaving their corporate jobs and wanting to hang
their own shingle out and in invent new products and
(16:47):
somehow get them into Walmart. What's the best way for
them to start that process.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
We all know that ritual operation is very heavy. As
the name suggests, very heavy on operation. We have a
whole workflow, you know, working with a we call partnership.
Right you work with Walmart, you are a Walmart partner,
regardless of your size. There has to be a strict
flow of trust and safety process making sure your products
(17:15):
of good quality, product specification are up to the standard,
and then you are using the right description to show
your product on the website. So there will be onboarding
phase where you try to list some products there and
then there's a trust and safety team make sure you're
listing of good quality, they are trustworthy. Then you run
(17:38):
that for certain let's say three or four months of period.
We don't see any major problems, your stock up, your
price is good, and there's no fraud or fraudulent activity
right during that period, and then you can do a
full launch after that onboarding phase and then but initially
that's the onboarding one, which is critical, which is very important.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, is there a website that individuals can go to
as they're planning their business going forward?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Totally? Yeah, there's a I think you can search Walmart
Marketplace all Walmart, Warmer, Marketplace seller. Those type of keywords
should give you a website hub where you can definitely
see the option to register as a third party seller
on warmar dot com. And then there will be a
team there to Yeah, you're in good hands from.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There, excellent, and we will be right back after this
quick commercial message, This.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
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Speaker 1 (20:18):
And we are back and we're talking with Toronte about
Walmart Connect. We're talking about the NYU Lab for Transformative
Leadership that we both attended. And what was your singular
biggest takeaway from the lab that you went? Aha, this
is just made my three days worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I know we talk about something while we were during
while we were in that session, right, we talk about
create optionality. But I just want to talk about another
thing which is rested of the maybe more recent days,
which is really something standing out to me from that
storm lab is really how do you talk to people
(21:04):
based on their listening habits or based on how humans
listen to new informations. That's something has been really struck me.
I was having that a Harb moment one hundred percent.
Let me first break it down what do I mean
by that listening structures. So people tend to listening to
new ideas in three phases. Number one, they want to
(21:27):
listen if there's something they're familiar with from your talk,
there's some information, some data, Oh, that's they're familiar with,
and then they feel comfortable to continue listen to you.
And then as you go along to talk about some
new data points, new insights, they begin to notice the difference,
the difference between what you just shared versus what they
have already known, they're familiar with, and then they will
(21:50):
become a little bit more emotionally engaged. That's the human nature.
They want to ask why there's a difference. You're talking
to me, why the difference happened? And then after that phase,
you want to talk about a little bit on why
to really cater to their curiosity. Right, human beings, we
are all curious. We want to understand why we will
notice some difference. So that's the third phase. You want
(22:13):
to talk to their curiosity, explain the why behind that
new data, that new insights you show to them, and
after that one hmmm, you let your audience feel that's something. Okay,
they feel comfortable. Now let's that's the finale. That the
grand finale will be what can we do with that
(22:34):
new information? Some actions, some recommendation, and then that's the takeaway.
You want them to feel, Oh, I got something new
and I can act upon this insight. I feel this
conversation has been productive enough of my rambling.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh that was so insightful. And I had a question
down for you today about when we leave as seminar
like that, how are we how can we go back
to our respective cultures and tailor them to become more
curious much less curious listeners, Because that's a lot of
(23:17):
people would say that's like moving a giant stone that's embedded,
and I walked away from that conference going, no, it's not.
If you work, if you work hard at it, and
you start to change your language and your spirit behind it,
you can influence people to become more curious.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Exactly exactly. That's the direction I've been trying to pushing for,
and I have some I can echo that in the
corporate world, right, a lot of time, a lot of
frustration for me before and for a lot of other
team member I can echo with they feel like, why,
I'm doing a great work, I have great data insights,
but the executive doesn't listen to me or doesn't capture
(24:02):
my point. That's always frustrated. A lot of you know,
a lot of employees, a lot of a lot of
you know workers. I think first the fund there's a
fundamental belief that if you really structure message smartly and
capture their attentions in the first thirty seconds, there's a
(24:23):
high likelihood you're going to have them keep listening to
another one or two minutes. So this two phases, what
is your really what what's the catch what's the catchphrase?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You know, first thirty seconds you can capture their attention
so that you can win that next one or two
minutes to talk the substantial contents. So yeah, it's it's
it's it's art, but it needs practice. Something I also
believing is everything is about practice. You need to increase
your baseline. So if you can keep the if you
(24:54):
can keep your baseline high so that when that time,
when that moment came be it. You know, you're in
the elevation her with the VP of your company. Then
you have that muscle already built so you can naturally,
you know, fire out the silverability to really capture that
moment in that during that twenty five minutes twenty five
(25:14):
seconds of elevator you know, going down, you can capture
that moment and then always have a storytelling mindset. This
is a cliche to say storytelling, but it's it's super effective.
Like the one I mentioned before, there's a story arc.
You want to start with something they're familiar with, Okay,
(25:34):
they're comfortable, and then throwing something, oh, something they are unexpected,
and then quickly talk about why. You know, people understand
why I understand? So what what's the implication? Why should
I matter that? Why should I you know, take this
into consideration giving giving my business schedule. After you talk
about that why and then you throw your recommendations and
(25:57):
then people feel okay, once you take me very hartgh
you actually help me land safely. You know, that's the
kind of emotion, emotion aspect of the human mind you
want to take care of. While you are talking about well,
you want to really talk your point into their mind.
There are two things really hard right in this world.
Number one, get the money out of other people's pockets.
Number two gets your idea into their mind.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Right, that's right. I have two other questions for you
and then we'll wrap it up. Sure you mentioned practice.
You make me wonder why in the marketing profession we
aren't put on an equal plane with physicians, veterinarians, psychologists,
(26:40):
or medical doctors who all say we're practicing. We practice medicine,
we practice law, well, we practice marketing principles every day,
but we don't talk about practice. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's it's easily, it's it's easy to be ignored, Rick,
And the reason is being ignored is because I think
it's it's there's a lot of suffering in practice, and
as a human being, we don't want to face suffering.
I want to talk about our victory moment, you know,
even though it takes a lot of suffering practice to
reach that to really when the Olympic go. But people
(27:24):
tend to talk about those shiny moments. But if you
really attribute to right, what great athletes do in their
day to day it's discipline, plining training. They have to
take care of their you know, they have therapy, you
have they have physical therapists, right, make sure you recovered,
you know from the match. Recovery is also a great one.
How do you keep the reasm between pushing forward and recovery.
(27:46):
You have to also take care of your nutrition, right,
what you eat has to be strictly controlled for if
you want to really achieve some great achievement. I think
that analogy from sports also can be applied business world.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And dat it can find a question for you if
we meet you ten years from now, what would you
hope your legacy of significance inside Walmart and beyond look like.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I would hope like in ten years, some SMBs they
grow their business really great, a warmer platform or even
they can build their own websites right for example Shopify
or somewhere else. They can really grow because of my
you know, teeny tiny help, which I probably there would
(28:43):
be some, I would believe, and then I would believe
anyone around me will be a little bit more, a
little bit more motivated because my my enthusiasm to grow
marketplace business, my my devotion really to being a person
(29:03):
with integrity. They can be more or lessing, but that's
something I couldn't control for but I hope people can
be affected by the principal. I stick to number one,
lead by example, Number two radical candor, but also be
mindful of your communication technique. Right. You know, I want
to offend someone, but I think that honesty is it
(29:27):
is important for me and for for any engagement I
have with other folks like we have today.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I just love that. Thank you so much. Just to
pay you a final compliment, I told Vince, I said,
there is a future CEO sitting in that second table
close to the front. His name is Tehran, and I
believe that I heard you speak. I was so touched
(29:57):
and inspired by what you said in class. Thank you,
Thank you so much for sharing your philosophy today, your
core values. We really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Thank you great to talk to you here and thanks
allowing me to be here. Yep.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Absolutely, And folks, as we always wrap up every show,
we wish you success but on your way to significance.
But as my friend said today, keep iterating, have a
great lead
A welcome back to Truly Significant dot com presents. I'm
Rick Tokeini. We have a wonderful guest on today. I
met him recently at the NYU Lab for Transformative Leadership,
and so I want to thank our mutual friend now
Vince Gennaro for creating that connection. At Walmart, the world's
(00:33):
largest retailer, scale is the easy story to tell, but
inside the scale, there are leaders like Tarn Jang who
remind us, remind me that the real magic happens when
systems serve people, not the other way around. Tron works
within Walmart connect the company's rapidly growing retail media arm,
(00:57):
a place where technology, data and human behavior intersect in
real time. This is my understanding. Your work helps brand
speak more meaningfully to millions of shoppers. But what makes
his story truly significant is not the scale of his influence,
it's the intention behind it. He leads with a conviction
(01:21):
that transformation begins within, echoing the principles of the NYU
Lab for Transformative Leadership, that empathy is a strategy, that
self awareness is a business advantage, and that even the
largest corporations in the world, the most enduring change starts
with character. Welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Thanks grit to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
It's good to see you again. So let's start with
this one in the we want to know about your backstory,
where you're from originally, and tell us a little bit
about your education.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Sure, So I come to the days roughly eight years
ago pursuing a master degree in marketing, which has been
my passion ever since. So finish my master degree in
NYU and then just join the advertising industry working in
an ad agency Ogilvy. There being an accounting executive help
(02:20):
our internal creative team social media team to talk to brands,
help craft their brand narrative and go to market materials
so they can improve their brand presence later. I've been
really fascinated by this data driven concept, which is more
thern marketing kind of has be found on kind of
data insights about your audience, about the channels. So I've
(02:43):
been pivot to Warmar Connect, which is a growing media
arm within Warmar Enterprise, the retail media space where we
really leverage this warmart dot com and warmart app at
inventory to help brands reach their customers in a meaningful.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Now excellent, I know so many people from Ogilvy. I've
got to ask this question, how did that time with
Ogilvy prepare you for Walmart connect.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Ah, that's a good question. So I think, really, well,
definitely we can talk about some technical right or technical
stuff right, but I want to start with the mindset.
It's really you know when the founder, David ogil we
has a philosophy to respect for individual, respect for creativity,
(03:34):
and I think that really feel the company's growth and
also shape my mindset, like respect for each individual that
transferred to Walmarts here, like we respect everyone, and then
we are always in service of our customers. So what
we say, who's number one? And then customer always? So
(03:54):
that's always my number one principle and I think that
has a profound influence in my career year later.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Indeed, indeed, thank you for that. That's well said. Let's
talk about significance, my favorite topic, and so I'm gonna go.
I'm going to dive off the deep from the very beginning.
In this fast paced world of digital retail and advertising,
what does significance mean to you personally? Beyond success metrics
(04:21):
and performance dash towards.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I think being truly significance means you you're trustworthy, Your
analysis is trustworthy by your stakeholders, so they can make
informed decision based on the right signal you gave them.
It also means like you are trustworthy brands to your customers,
whether we are building Warmarts as a trustworthy brand to
(04:48):
customers or helping the brands who are selling on Warmer's
platform to become a trustworthy brand, so that trust is
the gold.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, very much so the go in your leadership journey
thus far, when did you sense that profit and purpose
could coexist and even amplify each other.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Hmmm, I think you're really kind of nearly down. That's
how do we find the sweet spot between you know,
revenue and really kind of a serving the customer for
the greater social benefits. The play The vertical I've been
working on is Warmart's marketplace business. So think of think
(05:35):
of this as we have you know, thousands of thousand
and third party sellers who lease their products on Walmart
dot com, and by this you can potentially reach millions
of millions customers Warmarts already have. I think that's a
great way we're helping SMBs, small small medium brands, mom
and pop shops to really really sell and reach the
(05:58):
customers you know, beyond their local you know, be on
their local proximities. We can typically you can sell, you know,
in your own city, but right now you can sell
across the nation if you have a good product. So
that's how we really help these small brands to scale,
really match your brands, your products to the huge customer
based Walmart has already have. So I think that's a
(06:21):
great thing to do. That's always motivated me to to
really do my work every day because I'm doing this
for yeah, for the s mbs, which is also my
kind of my preference. Actually, I love to stand on
this side. It's good, you know, also stuffly also great.
I to work for big brands, right, but I kind
of tend to lean towards this site.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, Yeah, there's got to be something exhilarating about that.
I was telling you in the in the lab about
our company gracefully yours reading cards and in our biggest customer,
the e merging customers Walmart B two C. It's like,
how many other SMBA small medium brands are out there
(07:03):
that you guys are working with, and is there a
cap to it? Knowing that the system could allow this
sense of abundance the more the merrier exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, that's the key concept of the marketplace, or we
call it two sided marketplace. You want to countibate such
an ecosystem where the most cellar you have, the more
product assortment you got, so the more needs you can
satisfy customers. Whatever that could be a niche, whether are
greeting cars, you know, a dancing shoes, We have that
cover for you. Even if that's you know, sell sold
(07:38):
in store. Right, those big brands, they are sold in store,
but you can always find them online on warmer dot com.
There is a particular seller somewhere who are selling a
good product which can satisfy your need. And the most
sellar you have, the more assortment you got thereby the
more customer you will have. Right, So whatever needs you have, right,
you can find an eligible, good quality seller on the platform.
(07:59):
So we're grown the supply and demand side, uh simultaneously
and will be a flywheel.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, you better define what a flywheel is for our audience.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Sounds good. I think I have a decent understanding. I'll try.
So I think a flywheel. Think about a flywheel, like
different components, different gears, right, so there could be two
or three or multiple gears, they are connected to each other.
Once you turn one gears to drive it drive the
other gears and the other ones the other gears drive
(08:33):
it just drives it turned back to you know, work
reversely turn the initial drivers, so everything just drive faster.
One one components drive faster, drive the other one, and
the other one because of this also drive faster and
then work backwards to the initial drivers. So over time
you just you know, drive faster and faster. In the
(08:55):
business context, so if one components drive the other, the
other drive you backwards, it's mutually beneficial. So they each
benefit the other one and the coexists. Once existence you know,
makes the others existence more, you know, thrive thriving.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, well said, that's about that intercoonnectiveness. And with Walmart
attracting us the consumer to the store or to the website,
we become enthusiastic, almost evangelistic about what Walmart is doing
for us. It's like just a second, I can go
on Walmart and they can deliver it to me, and
(09:36):
it's oh, now I'm gonna tell another one hundred people,
and in the case of a podcast or I'm gonna
tell millions of people. So it's it's one of those
things that just kind of the gears keep working inside
and then popularity drives it and then maybe you'll have
you know, a billion items from around the world, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, we definitely have a lot of domestic sellers also
international sellers, so they were selling here also selling abroad.
So yeah, and I love your you mentioned in this
abundance mindset. Yeah, that's that's something I like to work
for and really see and growth that kind of business.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Exactly exactly. Okay, moving on in the laboratory, I picked
up this in the NYU lab that it was teaching
us that transformation begins from within. And I'm wondering what
enter transformation has been most essential for you to lead
effectively inside the global organization like Walmart.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
M The most prominent one would be really transfer from
being really obsessed with perfection to get it rolled out, test, learn,
reiter it. I think that mindset has been really stand
out to me in the past couple of years, ever
(11:05):
since I came to Warmer and working here. By that,
I mean, so this is always dynamic and fluid, right.
There could be there could be a new demand or
new initiative you want to implement, but sometimes you don't
have every resources for into the place to support you.
(11:26):
I'm working on data analytics. Take data for example, So
there's a business initiative. Everyone feels that's a good idea.
We want to launch that or probably launch a pilot
program to test the idea first, but you don't have
the data. Then then you have to really go talk
to the to your IT team to really figure out
how do we collect the data, store the data so
(11:47):
we can leverage the data to track the program's success.
So just doesn't just when you don't have the data
doesn't mean hey, we shouldn't do this. It's just you
figure out the way you've been scrappy, you know, to
free out of way to still make it happen. While
you may not have the perfect data in day one,
but you can just build it along the way, along
the journey, and then you have a seventy percent good
(12:09):
or eighty percent good of data and that's enough for
you to make a good decision and then you can
just go with that. You don't have to really be
too obsessed to get one hundred percent perfect data, and
then that costs you another six months or one year
to really reach that data quality. But by that time,
probably you are either missing the opportunity right to capitalize
(12:32):
on that initiative, or your initiative doesn't is not even
relative by the time like one years later, that's sure
you think in the current year, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You're looking for indicators or tendencies, which means that it's
not perfect marketing. And so there's tell me where intuition
and common sense overlaps data.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I think common sense overrides data mostly happen, especially when
you are in an early phase of a decision or
in the early phase a program. You really want to
get some directional guidance, right what may be a good idea,
what may works, may be effective. So you have brainstorming
with folks with especially teams from different perspectives, you know, operations, sales, marketing.
(13:32):
You may have some good ideas. Oh, and then you
probably figure out a like, if there's a fifty percent chance,
like people think this would be a good idea, then
let's probably test that out, you know. And then if
you really embrace this test mindset, you also have to
(13:53):
be really encouraging the test results because you're only fifty
percent sure maybe this will be a good idea and
if at the end of the day this turns out
to not really it doesn't work, well, let's embrace that one,
you know, because there's equally a fifty percent chance it's
will fail, right, so you would expect it to see
some idea fail. So that's okay. You just think about
(14:15):
what kind of learning we have right at least if
this prove this is a dead end, let's don't put
more resource on this, or we can do a pivot
or follow up to see if it's because the simple
size is not big enough so we don't see a
meaningful results, and then let's run a bigger test, you know,
those type of pivot you can do. But just keep
compierating and keep learning, and really make sure people have
(14:37):
that psychological safety to embrace the result so they don't
feel I'm going to be Josh, I'm going to be
my career will be sabotaged by a by experiment, by
experiment that doesn't turn out good result. That psychological safety
is very important to you as a leader. You have
to create for your team so people can voice, people
(14:57):
can really act, and people really get the learning instead
of being worried, Uh, do I still have a job here,
does it really influence my performance?
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Reading that, my friend, is the nugget of the day,
maybe of the month. And it's about a culture where
it's okay to fail fast, learn from it and keep
moving and create a culture that says it's okay because
(15:27):
we're all growing and the business is growing. It's not
a three strikes are out?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Is it exactly? Exactly? And that actually speaks to the
transformative lab where this Gennaro actually talk about why we
would this mindset is because the underlying you know, the
foundation of the business has shifted. You know, there's a
lot of disruption happened, and they happened quickly. So once
(15:54):
your foundation because more, you know, fast changing, you couldn't
keep a static mind set to really match that foundations do.
You have to also be flexible, forward looking and keep learning.
One thing I realized recently is like there's so much
things like either I don't know or my previous assumption
was actually off the mark. You know, there's tons of
(16:16):
thing I realized recently, and I just have to wish
I could be more open minded, more embracing those type
of concept changing testing ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, indeed, okay, we're going to take a quick commercial break.
And for those listeners out there that are on the
verge of leaving their corporate jobs and wanting to hang
their own shingle out and in invent new products and
(16:47):
somehow get them into Walmart. What's the best way for
them to start that process.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
We all know that ritual operation is very heavy. As
the name suggests, very heavy on operation. We have a
whole workflow, you know, working with a we call partnership.
Right you work with Walmart, you are a Walmart partner,
regardless of your size. There has to be a strict
flow of trust and safety process making sure your products
(17:15):
of good quality, product specification are up to the standard,
and then you are using the right description to show
your product on the website. So there will be onboarding
phase where you try to list some products there and
then there's a trust and safety team make sure you're
listing of good quality, they are trustworthy. Then you run
(17:38):
that for certain let's say three or four months of period.
We don't see any major problems, your stock up, your
price is good, and there's no fraud or fraudulent activity
right during that period, and then you can do a
full launch after that onboarding phase and then but initially
that's the onboarding one, which is critical, which is very important.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, is there a website that individuals can go to
as they're planning their business going forward?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Totally? Yeah, there's a I think you can search Walmart
Marketplace all Walmart, Warmer, Marketplace seller. Those type of keywords
should give you a website hub where you can definitely
see the option to register as a third party seller
on warmar dot com. And then there will be a
team there to Yeah, you're in good hands from.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There, excellent, and we will be right back after this
quick commercial message, This.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
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bold of you to make your next chapter matter and
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Speaker 1 (20:18):
And we are back and we're talking with Toronte about
Walmart Connect. We're talking about the NYU Lab for Transformative
Leadership that we both attended. And what was your singular
biggest takeaway from the lab that you went? Aha, this
is just made my three days worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I know we talk about something while we were during
while we were in that session, right, we talk about
create optionality. But I just want to talk about another
thing which is rested of the maybe more recent days,
which is really something standing out to me from that
storm lab is really how do you talk to people
(21:04):
based on their listening habits or based on how humans
listen to new informations. That's something has been really struck me.
I was having that a Harb moment one hundred percent.
Let me first break it down what do I mean
by that listening structures. So people tend to listening to
new ideas in three phases. Number one, they want to
(21:27):
listen if there's something they're familiar with from your talk,
there's some information, some data, Oh, that's they're familiar with,
and then they feel comfortable to continue listen to you.
And then as you go along to talk about some
new data points, new insights, they begin to notice the difference,
the difference between what you just shared versus what they
have already known, they're familiar with, and then they will
(21:50):
become a little bit more emotionally engaged. That's the human nature.
They want to ask why there's a difference. You're talking
to me, why the difference happened? And then after that phase,
you want to talk about a little bit on why
to really cater to their curiosity. Right, human beings, we
are all curious. We want to understand why we will
notice some difference. So that's the third phase. You want
(22:13):
to talk to their curiosity, explain the why behind that
new data, that new insights you show to them, and
after that one hmmm, you let your audience feel that's something. Okay,
they feel comfortable. Now let's that's the finale. That the
grand finale will be what can we do with that
(22:34):
new information? Some actions, some recommendation, and then that's the takeaway.
You want them to feel, Oh, I got something new
and I can act upon this insight. I feel this
conversation has been productive enough of my rambling.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Oh that was so insightful. And I had a question
down for you today about when we leave as seminar
like that, how are we how can we go back
to our respective cultures and tailor them to become more
curious much less curious listeners, Because that's a lot of
(23:17):
people would say that's like moving a giant stone that's embedded,
and I walked away from that conference going, no, it's not.
If you work, if you work hard at it, and
you start to change your language and your spirit behind it,
you can influence people to become more curious.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Exactly exactly. That's the direction I've been trying to pushing for,
and I have some I can echo that in the
corporate world, right, a lot of time, a lot of
frustration for me before and for a lot of other
team member I can echo with they feel like, why,
I'm doing a great work, I have great data insights,
but the executive doesn't listen to me or doesn't capture
(24:02):
my point. That's always frustrated. A lot of you know,
a lot of employees, a lot of a lot of
you know workers. I think first the fund there's a
fundamental belief that if you really structure message smartly and
capture their attentions in the first thirty seconds, there's a
(24:23):
high likelihood you're going to have them keep listening to
another one or two minutes. So this two phases, what
is your really what what's the catch what's the catchphrase?
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Right?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You know, first thirty seconds you can capture their attention
so that you can win that next one or two
minutes to talk the substantial contents. So yeah, it's it's
it's it's art, but it needs practice. Something I also
believing is everything is about practice. You need to increase
your baseline. So if you can keep the if you
(24:54):
can keep your baseline high so that when that time,
when that moment came be it. You know, you're in
the elevation her with the VP of your company. Then
you have that muscle already built so you can naturally,
you know, fire out the silverability to really capture that
moment in that during that twenty five minutes twenty five
(25:14):
seconds of elevator you know, going down, you can capture
that moment and then always have a storytelling mindset. This
is a cliche to say storytelling, but it's it's super effective.
Like the one I mentioned before, there's a story arc.
You want to start with something they're familiar with, Okay,
(25:34):
they're comfortable, and then throwing something, oh, something they are unexpected,
and then quickly talk about why. You know, people understand
why I understand? So what what's the implication? Why should
I matter that? Why should I you know, take this
into consideration giving giving my business schedule. After you talk
about that why and then you throw your recommendations and
(25:57):
then people feel okay, once you take me very hartgh
you actually help me land safely. You know, that's the
kind of emotion, emotion aspect of the human mind you
want to take care of. While you are talking about well,
you want to really talk your point into their mind.
There are two things really hard right in this world.
Number one, get the money out of other people's pockets.
Number two gets your idea into their mind.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Right, that's right. I have two other questions for you
and then we'll wrap it up. Sure you mentioned practice.
You make me wonder why in the marketing profession we
aren't put on an equal plane with physicians, veterinarians, psychologists,
(26:40):
or medical doctors who all say we're practicing. We practice medicine,
we practice law, well, we practice marketing principles every day,
but we don't talk about practice. Why is that?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's it's easily, it's it's easy to be ignored, Rick,
And the reason is being ignored is because I think
it's it's there's a lot of suffering in practice, and
as a human being, we don't want to face suffering.
I want to talk about our victory moment, you know,
even though it takes a lot of suffering practice to
reach that to really when the Olympic go. But people
(27:24):
tend to talk about those shiny moments. But if you
really attribute to right, what great athletes do in their
day to day it's discipline, plining training. They have to
take care of their you know, they have therapy, you
have they have physical therapists, right, make sure you recovered,
you know from the match. Recovery is also a great one.
How do you keep the reasm between pushing forward and recovery.
(27:46):
You have to also take care of your nutrition, right,
what you eat has to be strictly controlled for if
you want to really achieve some great achievement. I think
that analogy from sports also can be applied business world.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And dat it can find a question for you if
we meet you ten years from now, what would you
hope your legacy of significance inside Walmart and beyond look like.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I would hope like in ten years, some SMBs they
grow their business really great, a warmer platform or even
they can build their own websites right for example Shopify
or somewhere else. They can really grow because of my
you know, teeny tiny help, which I probably there would
(28:43):
be some, I would believe, and then I would believe
anyone around me will be a little bit more, a
little bit more motivated because my my enthusiasm to grow
marketplace business, my my devotion really to being a person
(29:03):
with integrity. They can be more or lessing, but that's
something I couldn't control for but I hope people can
be affected by the principal. I stick to number one,
lead by example, Number two radical candor, but also be
mindful of your communication technique. Right. You know, I want
to offend someone, but I think that honesty is it
(29:27):
is important for me and for for any engagement I
have with other folks like we have today.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
I just love that. Thank you so much. Just to
pay you a final compliment, I told Vince, I said,
there is a future CEO sitting in that second table
close to the front. His name is Tehran, and I
believe that I heard you speak. I was so touched
(29:57):
and inspired by what you said in class. Thank you,
Thank you so much for sharing your philosophy today, your
core values. We really appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Thank you great to talk to you here and thanks
allowing me to be here. Yep.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Absolutely, And folks, as we always wrap up every show,
we wish you success but on your way to significance.
But as my friend said today, keep iterating, have a
great lead
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