Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Listeners of the Tron podcast, welcome back. This is your host, Rashad Woods. Today I have a very special guest today, entrepreneur, social media guru, and a very well rounded individual from our neighbors up north on the west coast in Vancouver, British Columbia, Daniela Granzano. Thank you very much.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: I really appreciate your time. You know, you're very accomplished and you do wonderful things, whether it's apps, whether it's what you do currently in your current position.
And you know, I see you're very active on social media as well too, and you've mastered a lot of different things. Marketing, event planning. How did you tell us about your background?
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Oh, well, thank you. That's very kind of you to say. I have a very untraditional career background, I would say. I am a theater school dropout, so I did not graduate college.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: And just started working quite early with an array of different jobs. Anything from just serving and bartending to I was a magician's assistant at one point.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Yep. Got caught up, did all that fun stuff.
And then eventually through a lot of discovering that I liked learning and I liked being able to change a lot of things while I was going through the learning process. Eventually got into wedding planning and event planning and then I spent most of my career at Shopify, where I had applied seven times before they let me get in. I got in and just worked my way up. Started as an executive assistant and then finished my eight year tenure there as the head of the IP working under the office of the president.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: I saw that. I wasn't sure if that was your current because I didn't see anything with an end date. So wonderful for you. Like, what was that experience like up there?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually just left because we are now building Wednesday waffles. And so that is my main focus now, which we'll get to in a second.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: I downloaded that, by the way, so.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Have you given it a shot try yet?
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I, you know, I went inside, I saw some of the postings and everything like that. I saw that I wasn't Wednesday. Right. So I was like, let me just do a Wednesday actual thing. So I was like, do Tuesday and then, you know, blow up the whole spot.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: No, you can, you can. We'll give you, if it's your first time, we give you a fresh waffle that day, even if it's not Wednesday.
Don't worry. But yeah, my time at Shopify was great. It was a great learning experience. I had reported to the President pretty much the entire time that I had, I'd worked there.
Started as an executive assistant, then went and transitioned into being the manager of his office and led his social and his social team, was his manager of. And head of communications. And then my last role there that I did for the final three years was the head of vip, where my team and I oversaw all of the biggest brands that utilized the Shopify platform.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Right, right. And so when you get a chance to see up close what companies are doing well online, what they're not doing well, and not doing so well, and you see everybody suddenly jumps into digital, I say this because companies have a tendency to chase the unicorn. Right. One company does something, then everybody has to start doing it, but they may not have the expertise, the people involved with it, or the market strategy to do so. Did you see a lot of that when people suddenly need to start getting into selling online and creating online presences and things like that?
[00:03:09] Speaker B: I mean, there was definitely a large learning curve and a huge uptick at the time of COVID Right. That was probably the biggest historical change maybe ever that shut down all physical stores and people had start selling online immediately, whether they had the infrastructure, whether they knew anything about it. So your local convenience store that was owned by mom and pop for the last 40 years had to get online.
And there was definitely a learning curve. But I think, I mean, I can only speak from my experience at Shopify.
We tried to make it as easy as possible. But I will say, being on the other side of that now, as an entrepreneur, nothing is as easy as you think it's going to be.
And I. It built a. I've built a lot of empathy for all other entrepreneurs who are going through that journey of trying to get something off the ground and start something, because it's not as easy as you think it's going to be. You're going to run into challenges that you never considered that's going to push back your timeline.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: And it's. It's challenging to stay motivated and stay positive and stay focused on the goal.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, you know, I know that when we talk about Wednesday waffles, it's funny because I was looking up, you know, what waffling meant when I listened to one of your previous podcasts, and actually a British Australian term for short conversations, which never. It never occurred to me that that was, you know, a terminology that uses, shows, you know, my cultural ignorance, so to speak. So how did that come to fruition? You know, I know it was because of people staying in Contact when they get older and grow apart.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah. So it actually just was started because one of our co founders, Zach, he's based out of Australia and he started doing this with his friends about three years ago and he actually just posted on TikTok, Hey, I've been doing this with my buddies. It's been super beneficial. I just recommend other people give it a try and do it. And I saw this TikTok. This TikTok went viral, had about 3 million views, and I just sent it to my girlfriends and I, knowing I was about to move across the country, said, hey, I think we should try this thing. And as we started trying, became quite clear we were just doing it in imessage. And although you can technically do it in iMessage or WhatsApp, it became quite clear that there was limitations to doing it. First of, it takes up so much of your phone storage, posting videos via chat.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Oh, for sure.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: When you're in a group chat and you post a video and then the chat keeps happening, you end up losing those videos right in the scroll.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: And there was just a lot of limitations to it. It would cut you off at some point. So as the sender, I thought the whole video went through, but on the receiving end, only half of it went through. And I saw the benefits of doing this, but I saw that it shouldn't be in imessage. This needed to be its own thing and it needed to be standalone and special. And so I reached out to Zach and I had a couple of friends here who are engineers, who I've had experience growing businesses with, and we basically got together and said, this should be an app. And I said, zach, are you in or out? Like, if we're building this thing, whether you're in or not. And he was in, thankfully.
And that's how we got started. And so we first launched in March, just beta. And as I said, everything is harder than you think it's going to be. So we built an entire app in three months, and it was buggy. There was lots of challenges with it, for sure. It was not perfect, but through that we received insane feedback, positive feedback of people wanting the app, people seeing the benefits from the app. And so we're just about getting ready to launch a B2 in September, which is a whole. Just a complete rebuild from scratch. And so we're excited to see the impact that it's have on people, I.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Think too, because, you know, obviously social media is a crowded space, but a lot of it is for pizzazz and jazz. So to Speak. Right. So now you're in the situation where. And there's, there's a space for that too, you know, like, hey, somebody dunked the basketballs. There's a football highlight, there's the kids soccer game, you know, but even your personal relationships, you're like, I just want to talk to just the people that are in my inner circle, so to speak.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Right, yeah. The concept of Wednesday waffles is every Wednesday you record a two to three minute video just sharing what's going on in your life. Your highlight reel, your lows with your intimate circle. It's really a friendship deepening tool and it's meant to deepen the relationships that you already have. It's not meant to be a social media highlight reel of like, look how great I'm doing, that's inauthentic, or only the shiny stuff out to a big broad audience. It's really meant to be deepen the intimate circle that you already have, whether that be with your siblings or your close friends or your family or maybe your close co workers at work. And so that's really the intention there. We want to bring it back to authentic connection. Despite being more technically connected than ever, 36% of Americans report being lonelier than ever.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: It's crazy, isn't it?
[00:08:06] Speaker B: And so we're just really trying to bridge that gap.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. I think that there's a certain level of I'm digitally connected, but I'm personally disconnected. That really actually, you know, exists. And it's worse than people think that it is. Particularly, I think, obviously I look at the generation that's, you know, the Generation born from 1995 to 2000, right? They went through the economic crisis, right. Then they go through covet, right? Their graduations were disrupted, their commencements were disrupted. You know, they've gone through economic downturns. So now they're in a situation where I'm lonely and I. All I know is Digital Online. I'm 42, so I know it's like to go to a blockbuster. I know what it's like to pick up a pizza and not order it through an app. Right. Those little small things add up to personal human interaction. And so when you don't have that over the course of your life, when you do reach out of high school, so to speak, your inner circle is gone.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: It's so true. And honestly, high school and university students, I think is really the perfect demographic to start using this. It's the first time in your life where you and your friends actually go Separate ways?
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Right up in, up until high school and in university, your group of friends is from the same maybe five block radius. You see each other every day, and suddenly you're all going to different schools or different careers. And how do you maintain those relationships and stay connected when you're not going to see each other every day? It now needs to become a ritual that you.
You own and you make sure that you do on the weekly basis.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: And I think that, you know, like I said, the name kind of tossed me off because I expected some sort of, like, with all due respect, something sort of food related. Right. But I think, you know, like, if you're. I could equate it to like, hey, it's breakfast time. I need to be with my click of people. Right? You're having your coffee, you're having whatever you're doing in that morning. And so how is, how has it grown? Where's. Where's the. What's the next evolution of beta 2? I know you guys have proprietary information that you can't share, but where did you see necessarily where you can kind of dive into that wasn't done in version one?
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah, great question. We're really looking to add the gamification element of waffling. And so having a waffle streak. Like, really what we've created is it's not meant to be something that you stay on and have endless doom scrolling. Right? Like, this is meant to be something that get on you use you, you share your updates, you get the updates of the people in your life and then you get off. There's a reason that you can only record on Wednesday.
Not meant to be something that takes up all of your time. However, it is designed to create authentic relationship, and we know that although technology can be a tool for that, it's super important that you take that those relationships outside of the app as well. And so we are implementing some gamification. Let's say everyone in your waffle group, you all waffle every Wednesday, and you all watch each other's waffles every Wednesday for a month straight. Then you'll get entered into a draw to win a $500 Airbnb gift card. And that way you can take your friend group on a weekend getaway and have a trip together in person and take the friendship out of the app as well.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: I thought, you know, and just a thought in my mind, you know, just briefly, and I have no idea if this was something to entertain your team, somebody who's looking for a friendship circle, who doesn't have waffle crew. Right, Right.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. We are currently, right now, we're a friendship deepening tool. I think once we've mastered that. I absolutely agree. I think there's an opportunity for us to be a friendship finding tool.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: But right now. And I also think people misunderstand a little bit when we say your waffle group. It does not need to be five, six, seven people. In fact, almost all of the waffle groups we see right now are between two and four people. And so you can waffle with just your best friend if that's one person you want to keep up to date with on a weekly basis. We don't want to feel like, oh, I don't have anyone to waffle with that like, you can't participate.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Right, right. You know, and so just to circle back to your beginning of your career, and I only asked this because I saw your social media presence. You do a lot of networking. How do people transition? How do people network? Because, you know, you're going to these events, you're posting it on Instagram. So what's the misconception about networking? Because a lot of people look at it as almost like a dread. Right. Like, you know, I got off of work, I got off of, you know, I got to go to this networking event and for lack of better term, flub it because that's what's required of me to be a business professional.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I'm one of those people that hate it too, transparently.
But I think, I think the, the real objective is like, don't anyone that you've done business with, if you really think about people who've supported you or have done business, it comes through relationship. And so if you go to these networking events or experiences with honestly, the only intention of just, I just want to meet three cool people. It does not matter what they do.
It doesn't matter if it relates to my industry.
It doesn't matter if I don't come out of it with a business lead. Like, I just want to get to know three different people who, if they're entrepreneurs, they're probably like minded with you in some capacity. Right. They have that little bit of delusion in their mind that it thinks that they can, they can make it on their own. And that's great, that's a great community to be a part of. And so I really, once I shifted my perspective of, okay, let's just go meet some cool people, and that's it. And that's a win on its own. You'd be surprised at a how much more that attracts because it does feel icky to go with the intention of, like, my app, for sure.
But you never know what's going to come out of those. It's always. It's almost always someone that knows someone that knows someone that gets referred to you rather than those direct people. And so just focus on being the best version of yourself and meeting great people and don't worry so much about the business side of it.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Well, you know, it's funny, you know, one of the reasons I created this app is because, you know, for lack of better term, I suck at networking, right? So, like, it's, you know, it's not because I don't like to talk. It's because, well, you always run that risk of what is somebody really interested in, because, you know, you could, you know, I watch sports that I don't get. I couldn't tell you the top five draft pick from, you know, Alabama right now. I just couldn't do that, right? So there's a lot of lost in the sauce. But I was like, one of the things that motivated me was I know random things off the top of my head. I can dive. I get very interested. I'm a reader, I watch documentaries, and I focus very deeply on things that a lot of people. I'm a Wikipedia, for lack of a better term, like, you know, how you can get the Wikipedia wormhole for an hour and a half or something like that. So it dawned on me that it was best to present myself in this fashion because I can be fluid with the things that I like, because I like various different things. We talked before the podcast about, you know, grunge and Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Sound Guard, and then we could talk about your wedding event planning. So I kind of am a sponge, and so this worked better for me than necessarily going to a coffee shop and network, so to speak. This is my different network.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: And I think it's also important to remember that everyone else at that event is equally as, like, anxious about being there as you are, for sure. Right? And everyone wants to put on a good face and show a good impression and. And if you can just show up and be your authentic self, which really is all that matters at the end of the day, then it's going to shine through, right? And then I think the last thing, I mean, I'm sure you know this and have experiences a lot, podcasting, but people love to talk about themselves, for sure. If you just ask questions, you're going to be the Most liked person in.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: The room for sure well too is that, you know, don't come in there thinking you're going to, like you said, push your business card or you know, have your phone out and you know, be the smartest guy in the room, so to speak, that it's all about, you know, listening, learning and taking away one or two really good contacts that can, you know, potentially, you know, change your life. And so the most important thing is to listen, observe, and like you said, don't come in there with, with an agenda, so to speak. Right.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: And if I may add one thing, I actually think the best way to enter any of those sort of environments is with the objective of is there any way that I can help other people here?
Once you've helped someone else achieve part of their goal or their dream, they, whenever it comes time for you to call in that favor and them to support you, they will always do it right. That's really the benefit is the more you can help others, the more that help will be returned to you tenfold.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's weird, you know, you know, people always ask, you know, about the secret sauces of success. Yet what's funny is, is that so many people like yourself are willing to share it, are willing to actually, you know, it's amazing, right? Like, people are like, oh, you know, I gotta, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. Like, they're, they're doing podcasts, they're doing YouTube videos, they're sitting down on, you know, CNBC or you know, business report new. They're telling people exactly what they're doing. So you just have to be willing to listen or flag, send that blind email and just say, hey, how'd you do it? You know, and it works.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. And if it's a cold email phrased correctly with well done research, you will get a response. Not always. Right. Don't let it discourage you if there's only one person on that list. But people want to help people. People want to help other people succeed and they love to see that happen. And so yeah, I think if you can find ways to help people in pursue their goals and dreams, it will come back to you tenfold.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: So can we talk briefly about your, your wedding planning career and what that was like at the beginning of your career? Was it kind of like fly by the seat, so to speak, and you're just figuring out along the way because that's something, that's one, that's the most memorable moment of some people's lives. And you know, that's got to be high pressure. That's got to be high pressure.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So I got into it a little bit, oddly, I would say. Like I'd mentioned, I was a theater school dropout, and one of the courses I had taken in theater school was special effects makeup. And so I learned how to do, like, burn victims or, like, scars and that sort of thing. And I wasn't getting any work as an actor, and so I started getting work as a makeup artist on set. And working set for me was the worst job ever. It was just hurry up and wait. You stand around for hours and hours and hours, and I just found it so boring. It just wasn't for me. Everyone, like, glamorizes the film and television industry, and I just did not like it.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: To each his own.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yes, to each his own. But because I had this background in makeup and was doing that on set, I actually just transitioned. I was like, hey, I can probably just do weekend makeup with weddings and proms, and I'll just transition over to that. And that's how I started. And then through that, I. In a previous, I didn't mention this, but previously, prior to that, I competed professionally in ballroom and Latin dancing, and I taught ballroom and Latin dancing as teenager and young adult. And so as I had started doing wedding makeup, I was like, oh, I can also teach wedding couples their first dance for their wedding. I can add that on as a service. And then at the same time, I had started as the executive assistant to who was the chief operating officer and was planning a lot of events, and through that, learned kind of the art of event planning.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: And it was through that journey that I was like, I can actually package all of these together. Why not one full bridal service for sure?
And then as the business grew, I ended up kind of leaving hair and makeup aside. It just wasn't as lucrative anymore as. As was the full event planning. I incorporated the first dance into the wedding planning package. I was like, if you're getting your wedding planning done, you are getting your first dance, and no questions asked.
I will not have you up there just, you know, swaying. And so that's really how it grew and changed. And then as I kept growing, I just kind of started moving away from day of planning. I moved away from a month of planning, and I just only ended up doing full service wedding and event planning at the end.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Well, you know, tell you one thing, it's. It's to be able to transition to multiple different careers. And I just. I'm speechless right now. So And I know that I just touched the surface of your accomplishments, so thank you. I ask everybody this on. On the show, not because they need me, but because you're the. You're the guest and you deserve all your adulation and continued success. Where can people find Daniela Granzado?
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I would love for people to look us up Wednesday Waffles app on TikTok and Instagram and our website, wwednesdaywaffles.com we are relaunching in September. We've got a lot of fun stuff. We are really bringing the audience along as we relaunch. So we're. We're rebranding, we're asking people to help vote on. On the new branding colors, the new logo, bringing the audience along for the journey because they've just been such a great part of it.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: And then obviously my own personal social as well. Acting Yellow Grims Auto. If anyone needs anything or wants any more advice, I'm always here.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: I was terrified of butchering your last name, so I said it several. That's one of the reasons I went on your Instagram, to make sure that I said it because. Correctly. Right. Because, you know, you're like, God forbid, I. I butchered it. And that's the intro. Right.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: And then it's like, you nailed it. It was good.
[00:21:03] Speaker A: You see the interview just going downhill. The face just changes and the person you talk to. Right.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: No, I mean, I'm not sensitive. It's a. It's a tricky one.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: So it's all good. Well, listen, I. I would love to have a part two, because I need to pick your brain much further in detail. And we could talk about the v, the version 2 launch of Waffle Wednesdays. But for right now on the. It was an absolute honor and pleasure to have you on the Tron podcast.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure and absolutely. I'd love to come back for a part 2 anytime.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Talk to you soon.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Take care.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Bye.
