Tinggly - Give One of a Kind Experiences not Stuff with Migle Rakauskaite

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You are listening to innovators collapse with Eric Melcher where I dive into the interesting and fascinating stories that
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Let's dive it. Hi, everyone. My guest today is Migle Rakauskaite.
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CMO of tingly which makes it very easy to gift once in a lifetime experiences
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That are out of the ordinary imagine giving the experience of a helicopter ride in Las Vegas or
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Or bungee jumping in Victoria Falls tingly makes that happen hi Migley welcome to the show
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Okay, get. So, I like to get started with the audience getting to know a little bit about you. I've got some quirky questions for you. First one is,
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What was the last the last gift you gave someone okay so this is
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So, this is funny. You know, I think once you start to work in tingly, it's casual becomes like the best gift options for you.
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So literally like my last gifts are all actually associated with tingling. Okay, well where did you? Well, I guess the person chooses which which gift they want, right?
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Yes. Yeah. That's the whole actually idea. You know about England.
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Make and choose. Now, something specific he likes. So, you just give lots of options and lots of flexibility and freedom.
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So, what was something that they chose? What are these people that you gave a gift to? Oh, well, to be honest, the last gift I'm giving is actually happening
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This Saturday? Okay. So much really sure what we're gonna choose. But it's really depends where the people are located.
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You know I say I looked in Lucynia then which was something local but they say
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Most of the people are somewhere abroad. Let's say United States or you know Australia. So then you know it could be a horse riding somewhere like a really nice option or or you know.
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Balloon rides? Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time those ones. Very very cool. Very very cool. Okay. Next question.
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Imagine we finished this interview and you stepped outside the office and you find a lottery ticket
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That incep winning 10 million dollars what would you do that's a good one
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10 million dollars. Well, I don't know. You know,
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Probably if you know speaking personally I would help my family to get you know the most concert of life what we can do
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But if it's 10 million then I would say I would split it and would invest in tingler as well
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Can't answer. Okay. Okay. And last question here. If you were shipwrecked on a deserted island
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But all of your human needs such as food and water were taken care of what two items would you want to have with you
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I would say notebook and a pen.
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Okay eh what are you planning to write there Mika? You know I consider writing in general like a good
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Practice I would say and sometimes it's good to write your thoughts and sometimes some ideas, brainstorming ideas, so I find it
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Helpful and and use it everyday. So okay. Alright. Now tell us a little bit about your childhood.
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What were some of your hobbies or maybe sports that you played when you were growing up? Okay. Well,
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My childhood actually I didn't have much sports let's say I was actually so my my my parents had
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Lots of friends and you know they had kids as well so we were tend to grow together
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They had a summer house and we would spend summers in there but most of the kids were their boys actually.
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So, so I would play, you know, the games, what boys are playing, so you know, football, or basketball, or something, you know, related to this.
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But me, myself, I used to go to music school.
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So, I was, I would say more into that creative side. Some music school actually took quite some part in my child's face. Yes.
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Actually singer and so singing in her what's like
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My thing and then playing the piano as well. Wow, okay. What's your favorite song that you have memorized that you can sing that you like singing all the time?
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Bohemian Rhapsody actually.
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So, Fred, if we're at the karaoke bar, that's your that's the song that you choose. Okay. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay.
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Now, you went to school, you got a degree in international business, and your career is in marketing. Now, when you were a kid though, did you wanna be a singer or was there something else? Another profession that you wanted to be?
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Now to be honest I always fart that I will have my own business
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Because my parents had a business of their own so I was growing in very
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Ambitious and business related you know family background that would say so yeah so that was my plan you know I studied international business
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Due to this fact. I used to work at my father for a while.
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Then I was younger and then you know this is how it it turned out basically this is where I started
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Okay, okay. And while you were in university, you were a mentor. Can you tell us more about that experience?
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Yes. Well, being a mentor, you know, so I used to have kids where basically they needed
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Learn English and because I was studying in LCC like international you know kind of American
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American University we were learning everything in English and that was part of our I would say daily job
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It's so cold you know. So, we were mentoring kids. We were mentoring them, you know, to learn English and also some other that loose and
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You know, important, important stuff basically. So, that was
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Really nice feeling you know eh it's really good to share some knowledge and know how the someone who needs it.
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Cake, kid. Okay. Now, after graduation, you started your career with Google. As a sales manager, now, what was some of the most valuable things that you learn from working in that organization?
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I would say, you know, not specifically.
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Working in bad organization that I would say more related to that kind of a job it's really important to
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Don't let the life knock you down basically because you know we once you start this sales manager you have to do a lot of calls but
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Basically and then at that time in Lafayette especially not many people knew what Google ads are.
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So, you know, once you called to them and you say, hey, hello. My name is Miguel. I have a solution for your company and they say like, what? I'm gonna be on Google, you know, they even don't relate.
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Kind of solution it is. So many many times people tend to say for you you know that's really nice stuff.
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So it's like persistency and and you know being
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Just optimistic that everything will turn out alright? Yeah. It's a very important fact that I would say. Did you come up with a pitch?
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That that worked really good for you. Do you remember what it was? Yes, I remember after some time, I developed a day.
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A different strategy instead of you know calling a random you know companies in Lafayette I would find the companies which already are doing Google ads
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And then I would find what they are doing wrong and then I would call them and say hey you know I see you at
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Do you Google ads? That's fantastic that I see, you know, there's some improvement here. That could be done. So,
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Why don't you give me some time of yours and I will explain it how to do it. And then and that's it. This is how you know I turned them to be my clients man.
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Now after Google you take a roll with Laurie Ashley in the UK what motivated you to to move abroad take that role
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At that time I would say in Lafayette we didn't have you know that much for opportunities like we have now like
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Literally now is any one of the best places to be you know related to let's say
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Attack you know companies or you know innovations and so on and so forth but at that time it was not not that many.
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And I always felt like you know I wanna try a big city life I would say so this is how I
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You know I I decided that I'm gonna go to to London I actually spend one of my
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First summers in university in London but of course working as bartender not as a you know specialist or something.
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So, that is why it was already kind of you know, known for me and and I decided, okay, so I'm gonna try London again and just gonna do, you know,
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A job according to my to my profession. Yeah. Now, while you were there, what would you consider?
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Or what was like a perfect day for you when you were in London? Describe that day.
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Yes. Well, you know, in general, like living in a big city, it has a lot of good things and and bad things.
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But one of the good things, it was all the time, you know, once in the morning, queue, start to go, you know, to take your ride, to job,
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And yeah you're going into the tube and you're surrounded by many people all of them are very ambitious and very you know
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Focused on what they are doing. They all fashionable and you know, bringing their cup of coffee. So I would say that
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Being there gave me the same feeling. So I was like you know all the time. Very motivated. It's very
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You know ambitious and just working really hard so that was that was
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Good stuff. From all of that experience. Okay, and from your boarding experience like what is your signature drink that you can make? Really, really cool.
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Well, to be honest, it's nothing outstanding. It's gin and dining because everyone in in London, we loved in Antonic. That's like you know,
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Their favorite drinks. Yeah. Specific brand that most people choose.
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Oh, actually a Hendrix is really really good one. They like to mix it up with pieces of cucumber. So, it gives a feeling of freshness. That one is nice. Yes.
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Okay let's jump to tingly where you took on the row as CMO beginning in January 2020 now what surprised you most
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About this role when you first take it on
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Well, we had quite some challenges. Once I took it on, you know, tingly is
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Kind of a small company still we still consider ourselves as a startup and we had a pretty little team and you know I need to make
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Strategies and make sure that you know that we deliver so
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The main challenge was probably, you know, how to use your resources efficiently and how to do the best having
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Let's say not that pick up a budget. So that was my beginning and then
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Corona hit the world. So that was challenging for for us as well. So you know tingling is very related. It's travelling. Exactly. Yeah.
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And quarantine everywhere in the world. Oh my god. That was like really scary to be honest. That was very very challenging. But
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Now, you know, even during the corona, we we were able to do profits.
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So, I would say we did very well. That's outstanding. I mean, even during this time, most people can't travel. Most people like you said are quarantine and so
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Still people realize that hey there's an experience that I can give to somebody else in their town and when the
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And when the time comes that they can get out and do something you know maybe they'll do it that's fascinating okay
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Now when people first discover tingly what is it that they really really get excited about?
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Yes well that's a very good question and actually that's a really nice thing about once people discover everything like they sometimes had a hard time to understand how does it work
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Because not so many products give you so many options to choose from and
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And actually once we tried out themselves they always says oh my god I love it this is amazing you know it helps me to connect with other people who are living abroad
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It gives them freedom and you know it's so much stuff you can do it so they not only bitingly as a gift
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Started to consider oh this is a gift I want to give it to myself as well you know so yeah yeah
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That's good feeling. Are there options for also kids? Let's say I waited to give like my debut. He's 10 years old. Do you think I could find something on there as well?
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Well, we have experiences, you know, which are waters for family.
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So you can definitely find some options but we don't consider ourselves as you know
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Let's say putting focus on on options for for the kids is mainly for you know growing up but
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We are planning to do it at some point. Yeah, okay. And what I've been some of the best methods you and your team have implemented for getting new customers
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I would say, you know, the the whole idea of
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Developing the business is first of all make sure that everything is right inside the business
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So we we did quite some changes in the team we we did quite some changes in the processes of the daily work we do
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And and this is where we started to be efficient and
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You know, different sales channels. We have different strategies. You know, starting from on
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On board Lincoln Flancers and getting some ambassadors to representingly you know as a product especially in a new market and then you know continuing on top of the digital
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Go ads and then you know talking on one to one if someone who could
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Go to help us you know to get into the market. So it's really complex. There is no one answer but I would say you know
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Cleaning of the bees inside of her business is very important. Okay and since you've been there have been have there been any campaigns that
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Just didn't work. You know, maybe strategies that you've tried. Yeah. Yeah. You share like Twitter too? Yeah.
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We had one once the corona started and and actually the whole world was in the lockdown.
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Most of the world plus in the lockdown but it was the end of the lockdown and it seemed like you know everything soon will open up and you know people will
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On that. Travels again. You know. And we get an offer from this year.
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This year actually to do a campaign with them and we thought oh you know this is
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A best audience for us to to show them tingly and what is it? And it was actually very very pricey for us. But
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You know, this will be the best strategy and that didn't work out at all. I think, you know, people where I'm concerned
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A concern about the current situation. You know, instead of
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Trying to find something new and discovering something new. So basically, that campaign was a total fail for us.
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Okay, are there any online tools that you use? That are some of your favorites. You know, that continue to work and and and get new customers for you
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Oh, definitely. So, you know,
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I come from digital specialist background. Myself, some very much into the numbers and you know, data, that's really important for me. So, every day, I'm using like, you know, all our
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Add you know platforms no one's we are using for fourteenly and it really gives a lot of insights
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So I'm not even you know saying Google analytics which is like
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Really probably in everyone's who is working in the business everyday too but we we take and look into different angles of a data
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A lot of us I love that sound to be honest. Okay. Yeah.
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Yeah and for anyone listening who would like to be a CMO for an innovative startup what's one piece of advice you would like to share
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I would share probably the strategy I did and I think it worked.
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Really well for me. So I would say if you want to be a CMO or you know
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Anyone basically managing their teams. First of all you need to start from the base. So you need to start from something very small.
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So for me that was Google ads so was you know for Kings of Google ads and then I moved into the client's site that's Laura Ashley so was inside that the company
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Company to see the round and then I move to act form which was like full like even like bigger scope so you know it's like
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One step at a time you start from something small and then you kind of gather 360
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Perspective of what is happening in marketing in you know in digital world in companies how they make decisions and
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It really helps. Okay, great. Last question for you, can you share maybe your top book recommendations
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When it comes to marketing or business in general for the audience. Right.
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To be honest I'm really bad with the names and remembering I like I have a huge collection of books in my room but then you know I most of it I don't remember the names of it
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But the idea here I used to you know gather that information while especially while studying Galad reading
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Reading a lot you know and every single day but still the best experience in what you do in real life.
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So definitely go and you know find some good strategies or ideas or marketing.
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You know ideas in the books but then again just simply start doing it and and you will see very different
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Thank you so much for being on innovators can laugh and how do you say goodbye look the way you
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Just like that. Okay. When she said, alright, everybody who's listening, see you next week as we continue to interview
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Let the innovators for season two thank you very much and I just I just say ciao.
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Bye. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed it, I'd really appreciate it. If you could give me