Growing your super by shopping | Pascale Helyar-Moray – founder & CEO of Super Rewards

Candice: [00:00:10] Hello and welcome to talk money to me. This is your need to know. Financial podcasts. I'm Candice Bourke. 

Felicity: [00:00:16] And I'm Felicity Thomas. Now, thank you for joining us today as we have a very interesting episode for our listeners. We're actually joined by Pascal Helyar-Moray the founder and CEO of Super Awards. Now, what is super awards, you might ask? Well, it's actually a way to grow your superannuation with every day spending. 

Candice: [00:00:37] And as we will hear with our interview with Pascal, it's a super easy platform, completely frictionless. Literally tap and go when you're in store to earn rewards towards your superannuation balance. There's over a thousand participating brands and retailers on offer. And it's a super easy way. Literally, as the name suggests, to increase your balance over time. 

Felicity: [00:00:59] That's it. We can't stop saying super. So it's free to join. And look, if any advisors are listening, it's a really great value add to your client base. And for everyone else, it's something that you can definitely look into, whether it's suitable for your current situation. Right. So it may be suitable. It may not be suitable, but for most in Australia it probably is. But again, look into it yourself. Do your own research. 

Candice: [00:01:23] 100% always do your own research. And what will hear from Pascale as she's got this brilliant marketing brain and you'll understand why? Because she's got over 25 years experience in the financial services and markets, mainly in the marketing and build branding experience. She's a seasoned entrepreneurs. She's currently CEO and founder of Super Awards, a platform where, like we just mentioned, you earn cashback rewards in your super for your everyday spending, both online and in-store. Before Super Wars, what was she doing? Well, she had senior marketing roles at Jp morgan, BT Financial and BNP Paribas, and she touches on it in our interview. She's also held advisory roles with Redman Ventures, New South Wales Investment and most importantly, I guess super topical with what she's trying to achieve. She's been involved with the Australian Gender Equality Council. 

Felicity: [00:02:16] That's it. So that's very impressive. Now again, our disclaimer this episode is not considered personal advice, and even though we're registered advisors at Shaw and Partners, please note that the podcast and the content discussed does not constitute financial advice, nor is it a financial product. Now we actually do have a referral code for super awards if you want to sign up today. The details are in the show notes, so make sure you have a look. Now, with that, we'd like to welcome the Lady of the Hour, Pascal, from Super Awards.

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:02:46] Lovely to be here. [00:02:47][0.7]

Felicity: [00:02:48] Now, we're really excited to be speaking with you today about super awards, your journey with the company, the superannuation industry in general, and of course how super awards works and who it will benefit. [00:02:59][10.9]

Candice: [00:02:59] And I guess to kick us off, Pascal, we want to, I guess, hear straight from your own opinion and, you know, win back the clock. How exactly did the super awards start? [00:03:09][9.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:03:09] Yes, well, it's a great question. So there's a shorter, long version. So the short version is I got really pissed off. [00:03:16][6.7]

Candice: [00:03:18] And then you met and then you jumped into action. [00:03:19][1.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:03:21] That's right. That's right. So remembering for your listeners that I had a couple of decades experience in financial services marketing, but I also had I was actually, I'd say, probably one of the lucky women who had literally written the brochures on Super why it's so important, the benefit of compound interest, etc., etc. And I'd been out of the country for almost a decade. I was living in London and when I came back I was out of the workforce and I was an entrepreneur and I started my own e-commerce business. And that particular entrepreneurial path led me to other advisory roles, one of which was the Australian Gender Equality Council, where at the time I was director of communications. And so at the council we were working directly with government, we were working with corporates, but we were also trying to educate the everyday person on the state of gender equality or inequality in Australia. And it was just fascinating to me because I was in charge of the comms at the time that, you know, one in five people did not actually believe the gender pay gap existed. So, you know, there's a huge amount of misinformation and so on there. And in my role with the council, we had access to fantastic research directly from University of Queensland. And so I was working in that capacity and I was saying how we had this terrible disconnect. We had this obviously this really big problem with superannuation and where the fossil. This growing demographic of homeless people in Australia is the older woman, right, because she has no super. So we have this increasingly huge problem and I think for personally, I think for 51% of the population who to be rewarded with a lifetime of service in care to others through homelessness is a very undignified and inelegant end to life. So I'm seeing these these statistics, which it seems to be like the tip of the iceberg. But I'm also seeing firsthand how government is doing and policies are shifting and how corporate is doing very little. And. And then the everyday person doesn't even believe the gender pay gap exists or seems to care much about the superannuation gap. And I feel this is just crazy. This is literally crazy. We have half the population retires set up through social structures destined to fail. Right. And and no one seems to be taking care of them because of the lack of super. And yet this segment of the population seems to be burdened. If we put a dollar value on all the unpaid work women did every year would add 2.2 trillion. That's trillion with a T to the economy every year. So what are women to do? You know, we know that 40% of women in that retirement phase of their accumulation, phase of their lives, they are not in the workforce. So riddle me this, Batman, if you're not in the workforce, how are you actually supposed to contribute to your super? And this is where the kind of the ongoing government message and the ongoing cynical message about, oh, women, you should just top up your super with what money? Show me the money tree and I will show you a liar. So I thought, you know, I thought this is just nuts. And what are we supposed to do? You know, do they ditch the kids? We sometimes would love to. Do we? Do we? Do we sometimes. Yeah, we'd love to do that. But sometimes we literally want to into this this talk. They start caring for other people. They can't get back into the workforce because, you know, inflexible structures and so on. How are they supposed to contribute to this when they're caring for the generations? Up, down, sideways. [00:07:27][246.7]

Felicity: [00:07:28] And I think actually here a point, right? Unless you have a financial adviser, you're not actually going to know about different strategies like super splitting where you can actually split some of your partner's superannuation. Right? Like it's not something that everyday Australians know about and know how to actually facilitate themselves. [00:07:46][17.9]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:07:47] Absolutely. And and that's also part of the challenge with super. It's just been made so complex, right. So complex. And the language concessional non-concessional like it's not accessible to the everyday person. I don't think so. I thought, well, this is nuts. Women are stuck and they're literally stuck at home and they're stuck in their roles and nothing is changing quickly. But yet we have this increasing wave of homelessness of old women. So how do we how do we do something about this with something quick and easy and and so on? And so I thought, well, what do women do? Well, remember, lots of responsibility and they're keeping the home fires burning. And, you know, they're looking after the people and they're buying the things and the buying the pet food and the washing nappies and all these sorts of things. How do we monetise that? How do we if we see nothing's going to change, how do we monetise that work? And so that really, thanks to my e-commerce background and my Start-Up background, that was the genesis of Super Awards. I knew about affiliate marketing and I thought, why don't we just apply the affiliate marketing concept to the superannuation space? And so Super Woods was born brilliant. [00:09:02][75.1]

Candice: [00:09:03] Love that, a love that you had a challenge and you were frustrated and you went, Let's just go change this and make it something. So that's I guess so super simple explanation of you are indeed rewarding the investor at the end of the day, super rewards. And we love that. It's not just for women, it's for for both women and men, but obviously it's tackling that issue that you've nailed on the head. Curious to know, Pascal, if you still know the ratio, you said 1 to 5 people didn't know of the gender pay gap issue. Has that number gone up, gone down? What do we know? The latest stat. [00:09:35][32.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:09:36] It's still fairly accurate. That number I quoted was only two years old. Okay. Maybe it shifted a couple of percentage point like a couple of basis points in between, but not dramatic. I mean, the frightening thing, though, is, you know, one in five don't believe the gender pay gap exists. But on a much broader note, because we're talking about superannuation, so few people generally that I speak to. And so this is not an actual figure. This is my this is Pascal's the figure. So few people I talk to don't aren't even aware of the super gap. But when you do talk to the four out of five people who are aware of the gender pay gap, they go, Oh, yeah, I've heard about this. Yes, yes. But they haven't actually extrapolated to what that means for super. [00:10:17][41.6]

Candice: [00:10:17] The depth of it. Yeah. [00:10:18][1.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:10:19] Correct. And so my, you know, my finger in the wind stat would be that for every let's say for every hundred people I speak to, 99 people aren't aware of the gender super gap. [00:10:29][10.4]

Felicity: [00:10:30] Well, because I guess the thing is right, if women are earning less than they're actually earning less superannuation because it's just a percentage of your salary. Correct. So it's kind of a lose lose scenario there for anyone listening. Right. That actually wants to use super award. Yes. Can you walk us through how it actually works? Like what is super? Well, it's how would you sign up and, you know, anything else that we need to know about it? [00:10:55][25.6]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:10:56] It's and here's the thing. It's super simple. Great. So well, and it had to be right, because part of the challenge here was trying to simplify super contributions. How do we do it? How do we do it in a way that's just set and forget? So that's what we set out to achieve and I think that's what we've done. So you come to super dashboards, dot com hit sign up and all you do is into your name, email, mobile date of birth and then you just in the beginning you just tell us which super fund you with. Now we are compatible with any super fund or any SMSF Right? So you sign up, it takes one minute and then you spend, you spend with any of our 500 online retailers and we have Australia's leading retailers and this is something I'm really proud of. So we have, we have Energyaustralia for example, on the platform, we have Big W, we have PET, we have the iconic, we have Cat, we have Apple. So we've got these amazing retailers. So you come to the platform or you download our browser extension, which is a really great tool, and every time you shop with any Super Woods retailers, they pay cash back into your super. [00:12:11][74.6]

Felicity: [00:12:11] As a non-concessional. [00:12:11][0.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:12:12] Contribution. As a non-concessional contribution. That's correct. And then in terms of the in-store piece, because we've just rolled out in-store and so this is really, really exciting. You register your existing credit or debit cards up to five on our platform. Then you go into the store and let's say it's Lawrence Dry Cleaners or Pablo and Rusty's coffee takeaway or the Mercantile Hotel or wherever it may be. And you just pay for your goods as you would normally with your registered credit and debit card. So it's seamless. It's frictionless. And that really is the point is to grow your super with your everyday spend in a completely frictionless manner. So you'll earn your rewards within a day. You'll see your earn rewards pop up in your super account. And then we pay into your into your super fund or it's massive on a monthly basis. [00:13:06][53.9]

Candice: [00:13:07] Okay, so let's break it down right on the we can just go on. I've gone to Big W and I purchased a whole bunch of things. So then let's say I've spent $1,000, right. Different. Different. Yeah. Big spender. Look, w love came out as well. Diamond love them all. Let's just say I've dropped that much. And we can see on your website that different retailers offer different reward incentives. Correct? So the mechanics that you just explained the happens on a Saturday. The rewards would come through by the retailer on the Monday and then you would have a bank reconciliation on your end from Super Woods paying my super fund on a monthly basis. [00:13:47][40.2]

Felicity: [00:13:48] So automatic dollar cost averaging as well, which is great. [00:13:51][2.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:13:52] That's that's correct. I think big W's 2% offering, let's say something 2%. Yeah. So if you'd spent $1,000, you could see a $20 reward. In Your Circle Woods account. And then when we have actually received the moneys through the reconciliation process from BW, then we pay in the mixed monthly cycle into your super fund. Right. To, to give us your super fund details. All you need to do is you've already told us which fund you with. You give us your funds and your customer reference number. That's two details done for. [00:14:24][32.5]

Felicity: [00:14:24] Non-Concessional and all super funds generally have that. So yes, it's quite easy to get those details. Now, I guess another question here. Would you be able to actually apply a notice of intent to claim right and convert some of that non-concessional or after tax contribution to a personal deductible contribution if it were suitable to you? Is that possible through super awards? [00:14:49][24.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:14:49] If you've reached your cap threshold for non-concessional. [00:14:52][3.0]

Felicity: [00:14:53] Which is 110th of 110,000. [00:14:55][1.5]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:14:56] So that's a huge amount of spending. So a lot of that's a lot of it. Let's say let's say that you had then so long as you tell your your super fund that you would like this treated as a concessional contribution. Right. Then they will be able to do that for you. But unless you specify otherwise, then they will or super funds will treat it as a non-concessional. [00:15:19][22.8]

Candice: [00:15:20] Okay. [00:15:20][0.0]

Felicity: [00:15:20] Yeah, yeah. Which is fine. Right. And then what you will do after 30 June, you would apply a notice of intent to claim, which is just a form that you can actually get from the ATO website. But you might need to check that with the financial adviser to see if that's suitable. But it makes sense, right? Because you can reduce your taxable income through this essentially free. [00:15:40][20.3]

Candice: [00:15:41] Or you shop. [00:15:41][0.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:15:42] Right? [00:15:42][0.0]

Candice: [00:15:42] Like you're saying you should. [00:15:43][0.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:15:43] And this is the thing. This is money you're going to spend anyway. We are all going to buy pet food. We're all going to buy spend money on utilities or buy clothes for the kids or. [00:15:53][9.6]

Candice: [00:15:53] Buying groceries. [00:15:53][0.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:15:54] Vacuum cleaner or whatever. It doesn't look like we all spend money. We have to. And that's that was partly where the genesis for Super Woods came from, because I thought, well, we've got women who are let's say they're looking after their age parents. Right? They're still buying food for the house. They're still buying pet food or organising a new home insurance or whatever it might be. They're still doing that activities for their parents. So why why should they be rewarded for the act of spending the time doing so? [00:16:20][25.8]

Felicity: [00:16:20] Now, in terms of the company growing right and gaining more traction market share, what are some recent milestones that you're able to talk to us about? And it'd be also interesting to actually delve a little bit deeper and find out how to super awards make money because, you know, on talk money to me, we're always interested in companies, you know, start ups, private companies and and how they actually work. [00:16:42][21.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:16:42] Yes. So our biggest milestone is the launch of in-store. Right now, in-store has been really difficult and that's why there are so few cashback companies actually offering an in-store service because it is so fragmented. It's a it's a very different space to the online, but it's so important because even pre-COVID, absolute pre-COVID, the proportion of online sales as a function of all retail sales in Australia only represents 15%, even at the very peak of we were all lockdown and you know, doing endless online shopping that was still only representing 15%. So for us to have been able to roll out in-store has been such a huge milestone and we're obviously we're trying to finesse it and get it as good as we can. But in the types of three times we've targeted with sort of phase one of these in-store, it's very deliberately very different. So what I mean by well, if I'm sick, if I'm sitting down at my computer and I'm thinking about buying a dress missing from the iconic, it's a very considered purchase. I'll think twice about spending $300 or, let's say, on a dress from the iconic event. However, if you catch me up at the shops with the children running around on a Saturday morning, I drop $300 without even blinking. You know, by the time I've picked up some some food for lunch, maybe we've sat down at a café, maybe I've picked up the dry cleaning and I've collected a script from the chemist. I've done an easy $300. And so this this first stage of Super Woods's door is very much about targeted at those sorts of retailers, where it's the incidental spend, you know, because you're just living life and running around and and so on. And with that, and this is also part of the reason it took the time it did to come to market. I was ruthless, absolutely ruthless, that it had to be frictionless. I was like, no, we cannot have forms. We cannot have special receipts. You have to upload. It just has to be as simple as possible because the act of contributing to super is already so hot. Yeah. And we can't have any more book. So that was the launch of these four programme has been a huge milestone for us. And what we're now in the process of doing is converting all our existing online retailers into in-store retailers as well. So we've already had groups like Budget Car Rentals, Rivers, Rockman, those sorts of clothing brands endorsed by Aspire has just said, yes, we'd like to participate in in-store. So we're in the process of getting all our phenomenal online line up into in-store retailers as well. [00:19:36][173.5]

Felicity: [00:19:36] Amazing. [00:19:36][0.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:19:37] In terms of to your question of growing and market share. So we've we've developed a what we call a sass strategy, right? So where we partner with super funds and it's myself type groups and wealth groups to offer effectively think of us as we've created a pipe and we're able to pipe synaptic via the pipe into that group's environment. So let's say you're with ABC Super. The idea is that you come to ABC super, you log in and in your ABCs through the dashboard, you see my rewards, my investments and my rewards is us, right? So it becomes the value proposition, whether there is a one stop shop for all things super or all things finance or all things wealth creation. Yeah. [00:20:27][50.5]

Candice: [00:20:28] So on that, just interested to know the take up. Now you've just launched the in-store feature, but the take out that you're seeing the other retailers move to that. And is there any difference that the retailers offer in terms of the rewards, like maybe higher in-store, for example, to try and get that foot traffic back? And then if I can, I'm going to add a third question to that, because you're looking at all these payments and this data and consumer spending patterns. Have you been seeing the consumer, you know, tilt towards a certain retailer, for example, that offers the same product if there's more rewards involved? Like are you changing the behaviour in that sense? [00:21:07][39.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:21:08] So across our online retailers, the average cashback offer is 5.4% cent. With our in-store retailers, the average offered is around 10% and that's exactly for the reason you've just highlighted because. [00:21:21][13.6]

Candice: [00:21:21] Double essentially. [00:21:22][0.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:21:23] Because they're trying to capture that foot traffic. So Joe's fish and chips is competing against pizza. Pizza and how are they going to lure the customer in through higher cashback? Yeah. So it is a there is more of a cashback on offer for sure. [00:21:38][14.7]

Felicity: [00:21:38] Now question in regards to how super rewards makes money, so how does it work from your end from a business perspective? [00:21:45][7.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:21:46] So the, the commission, the cashback that you see on the on our site is the net commission. We have arrangements with each retailer in the background and that's called the GROSS Commission. So effectively every time someone shops at a retailer, through us, we own the gross. That retailer is effectively paying us a clip for sending traffic and a sale to them, and we share that clip with the user. And the same works for for the in-store model as well. We're directing traffic to Joyce Fisher Tips or Pete's Pizza, so they pay us and then we share that commission with these. [00:22:23][37.1]

Candice: [00:22:23] I would really love to hear PESCO. If you've got any behavioural pattern kind of data. [00:22:29][5.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:22:30] It's too early days to see from our in-store dollar to see how we're driving different purchasing patterns and so on. Well, I. [00:22:36][6.5]

Candice: [00:22:36] Would love to come back to you in, let's say, three or four years because. [00:22:39][2.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:22:40] Yeah, exactly. [00:22:40][0.5]

Candice: [00:22:41] Because you're you're seeing a lot of interesting touchpoints with consumers in the Australian economy in market. Right. So I mean my, my thought process straight away was I can see people going on to the website and tilting towards people that have higher rewards to purchase something. [00:22:59][17.9]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:22:59] Yeah, well it's really interesting particularly I think online you make a more considerate purchase generally. Right. Like, you know, you go to websites like, oh, I really like that green dress from Country Road. But then you might go to another site to see if you can get it somewhere else cheaper. And then you might do some more research, some more product, maybe, you know, what did people say about this great dress from country? Right. So it's there's generally more thought process and research that goes into any online purchase price matching, benchmarking reviews, etc., compared to an in-store one. And so for that reason, with our online purchasing, there are a number of different ways you can purchase through super rewards online. So for example, of course, you can come to the platform and that's a great way to see who's offering highest cashback, who's a new retailer. Are there any specials? That sort of thing. But our browser extension, it's such a cool little gadget. Think of it like a an app for your desktop or tablet. All right. So. It's applicable in Chrome and Safari. The way that it works is that you just download it onto your laptop. Now let's say I went to Apple, right? And I went directly to the Apple website. I would get a notification from the server with a browser extension saying, Hey, don't forget to activate. Just click this button to earn super. [00:24:20][80.8]

Felicity: [00:24:21] Fantastic. [00:24:21][0.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:24:22] So-Called. Yes. So that's on a by brand basis, right? So I'm like, I'm not even thinking about super. I'm just distracted. It's been a busy morning, whatever. I just go straight to that website and I go, Oh, yeah, super. I can get super awesome. Yay. But then there's some even and this is my favourite feature of all with the browser extension. Let's say I'm brand agnostic, but I want a pair of, I don't know, black shorts, I just Google black shorts and I'll have a number of search results come back. Any super rewards retailer is highlighted in green, telling me how much I will earn in cashback. So do I choose cotton on with 4% Super Woods or do I choose shorts from general pants who are part of the programme? Well, I'm going to choose the cotton on shorts because I'm getting super and so that's influencing my purchase decision. [00:25:18][55.6]

Felicity: [00:25:18] Wow. That is like honestly fascinating. In a moment, we're going to hear more of Pascal's thoughts on the gender pay issue, why financial literacy for women is a passion of hers, and also her insights for other savvy business women or other savvy business women or men looking to sign up their own idea and business venture. But first, let's hear from our sponsors. [00:25:40][21.4]

Candice: [00:25:43] And we're back. All right. So before the break, you mentioned, you know, kind of growth. You've just rolled out the installer and you're looking to merge a lot of the online retailers onto your in-store offering. But aside from that, you know, talk to us about the next 3 to 5 years. What vision do you have for the company? Any other growth plans and things in the pipeline that you can speak of? [00:26:04][21.1]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:26:04] So the next 3 to 5 years are just full of tick, tick, tick in my head, right. Because it's you know, we've been around at almost three years now, but only now with in-store do I feel like we have a fully formed product. Mm hmm. So now it's about getting that product in the hands of as many people as possible. So I mentioned before, we've we've had this strategy where we where we work with the super funds and other corporates. Now, why do we do that? Because one of the learnings and this is fascinating. So Super Woods, as I mentioned, was originally designed for particularly women who, you know, confronted by the gender super gap and have no means of adding or contributing to this event. But one of the learnings from a marketing perspective has been that it is precisely these cohorts who care about super the least. So although designed for under single Mothers Australia or unpaid Carers Australia or whatever, maybe these groups care about super. What's the least? Full stop. [00:27:09][64.9]

Felicity: [00:27:10] Is that because they care about having cash in the bank rather than thinking long term? I mean, most people don't take that long term view. It's very much now, now, now, instant gratification. And what's going on now rather than the future? [00:27:25][14.9]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:27:26] Correct. And I understand that like I understand you can't sometimes take can't see past next week, next month, you know, let alone 25 years in the future. And this is one of the great challenges of super. It's so intangible. We can't visualise ourselves in 25 years or retirement. We can't touch a super, but we can touch the walls and the bricks and mortar of our house. It's incredibly complex. So there's all these mental barriers with regards to promoting it, which is why we started this strategy of working with super funds and other wealth groups. Because whilst it is true that people who need super rewards the most care for the least, the reverse is true. People who need super towards the least care about it the most because it's a total wealth hack, just a no brainer. But you have to have, I think, a certain amount of understanding of super and financial education and so on, to understand that this is a a no brainer and a wolfpack, and also to understand that a dollar now isn't just a dollar. So I was looking at my account and obviously I'm one of the big users, but guess what? I'm not actually the biggest user, so I'm super surprised. I've had 1200 dollars of rewards just to do what I was going to do anyway buying kids school shoes and booking travel and work and blah, blah, blah. But that is actually going to translate to a roughly about me making a $12,000 difference to my super balance by the time I retire. [00:29:09][103.3]

Felicity: [00:29:09] Which is huge. Which is. [00:29:10][0.8]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:29:10] Huge. And and what it's I mean, it's money for jam. Like, I was going to do this stuff anyway. I was going to spend this money. So all of this is a background and context to be able to say that like our marketing is now going to be far more focussed on moving away from trying to target single mothers in Australia, and much more on talking to the groups, the super funds and massive groups and wealth groups and the groups that genuinely understand that this is a no brainer of a solution. [00:29:43][33.2]

Felicity: [00:29:44] I also think financial advisors, right, and we do have a lot of advisors. [00:29:47][2.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:29:47] Listening to. [00:29:48][0.2]

Felicity: [00:29:48] Our podcast. So I think this is something that they can also really push from there. And I think it makes a lot of sense. And starting early and starting with younger clients, because, you know, you do have the opportunity to to help to educate these people. You know, I've signed up for it. So I'm excited. I'm also excited about the fact that not only will I get super contributions, but if I'm using my credit card that is already collecting, say, Qantas points, I'm actually getting double points for every dollar I spent. [00:30:19][30.6]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:30:19] That's exactly right. [00:30:19][0.5]

Felicity: [00:30:20] It's a no brainer. Yeah. [00:30:20][0.8]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:30:21] And even when you if you shop on, let's say, witchery through three super rewards at which you can still buy things on sale and then super ones, you can still be points to your witcher rewards points and and earn super rewards. So it's just a complete gimme. And I really don't understand why why people would. [00:30:42][21.3]

Felicity: [00:30:42] Do it. I know. I've also got another another thing here. Right. So a lot of people are using cashback, right? So I use cashback apps on my phone, but my cash just seems to sit there. I haven't actually cashed it out. So I think what's really different about Super Rewards is this sense that it actually just gets invested generally, you know, if you're an industry fund straight away. So your money is working harder for you. [00:31:07][24.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:31:07] That's right. And see, we don't want to hold your cash. We really don't want to know it. It's no good to us and it's far better with you. And so we have, you know, a number of different ways. So you, for example, really pleased to hear the Felicity's already signed up. So you can you can shop straight away with Super Woods. You don't have to give us your phone details in order to show you just shop. And then once we have money to pay out to you will be in contact or work. Deal. Felicity, please give us your fund details because we we don't want to sit on the money. So there are a number of different ways. We're really very proactive about trying to get you into your super details. As I say, it's just two pieces of information. But we we will contact you via email through a pop up messaging on the site, even text message. And, you know, even sometimes through phone calls, we'll. [00:32:01][53.4]

Candice: [00:32:01] Track you down. [00:32:01][0.5]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:32:02] What are your funding of? Because really, it's honestly, it's no good to us. We can't do anything with your money. [00:32:09][7.0]

Candice: [00:32:09] It's also not your business model. At the end of the. [00:32:12][2.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:32:12] Day, it's not our business model, but also because any of the rewards that come through from the retailers they held in a separate and I think of it like an escrow account, we can access that money. Our officio provider has oversight and management of that account. We we can't benefit from that money. We can only pay authorise them to pay it out to you. So we just try to always try to clear down the funds and that's part of a compliance thing that's, you know, as a as a failsafe to make sure that we're not either taking Qantas's $20 from BW that's owed to her and doing something irresponsible with it. So we we will work very hard to get help to get my details out to you because it's it's it's not earning trust with us. It's not doing anything. It's only best with you. [00:33:06][54.3]

Felicity: [00:33:06] That's it. And my cashback app hasn't actually contacted me saying you've got this much okay at your details. They've not contacted me at all, so maybe they're doing something with my money. [00:33:16][10.1]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:33:17] Oh, gosh. Oh, I'm going to do some research now. [00:33:21][4.5]

Felicity: [00:33:21] Yeah, I mean, I'm actually not sure. I'm sure they're not. But just kind of interesting that you flush the money every month through so that people get that dollar cost average and you know that that long term growth. [00:33:31][9.9]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:33:32] And one last thing, if if we have money waiting for you or any user and we have had it for a year and we've tried for different ways to contact you and still no joy, just as if why then with with that money, what we do is let's say there's $100 right from Felicity's money in Candace's money or whatever that we've not been able to find a home for. Say, what we do is we donate half of that to the Mercy Foundation, which is a shelter for homeless women. [00:34:04][32.2]

Candice: [00:34:04] Amazing. And so I guess in that same example, you're trying you're trying to really get the direct impact to the end consumer a.k.a investor, the super fast relief. So what else? And clearly talking to you, you're very passionate about financial literacy, in particular for women, which is a passion of ours as well. You know, are you also leaning into that, you know, talking to Felicity, for example, now she's given the bank details. Are you touching points with your consumers to to educate them, you know, to improve the financial literacy space? [00:34:35][30.7]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:34:36] Yes. Yes. So we we do a number of things throughout the course. But if I think about the the content in calendar, right, for super quotes through any year, it will always let people know. I send them regular reminders of other ways you can add to your super. We typically do something around Taxi ran, for example, like, did you know about spousal splitting, for example, or did you know about the low income super tax offset? Did you know about the government contribution? And the government contribution is just one of the greatest gifts. Okay. So, so and I'm sure that this audience does know what the government co-contribution is, but it's it's interesting to see, for example, the metrics on outcomes at this time of year and who's clicking what and just engagement rates. So generally, we'll have engaged open rates of over 40% for these sorts of emails, which is huge. And it just goes to show, I think that the people. [00:35:38][61.7]

Candice: [00:35:38] Where they're engaged with you. [00:35:39][0.9]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:35:40] Yeah, they're super engaged and. Of course everybody wants to know, like the latest Virgin Australia sale that they're doing and know how they can get more cash back on. But yeah, but also people want to hear from us in terms of how like more, more ways in which they can add to their super and the particularly with the government co-contribution. Let's say I've earned $500, right? So I'm below the threshold of 41,000, whatever it is, I then $500 in super rewards just by shopping, purchasing, organising life. Then the government can type up to another $500 into my super. Again, it's just it's money for jam and it's but it's one of these little known hacks we'll call it we'll track that is available. So we'd like to communicate this to to our base. [00:36:31][50.9]

Candice: [00:36:31] I'm not surprised your marketing brain has, you know, got all points of contact with your consumer because they're engaged. They're obviously loving the platform women and men as well, I would imagine. And just to kind of solidify to the final point of growth, what do your members do? You call them members, users rewards, what do you call them and what have you got a goal in mind already? [00:36:53][22.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:36:54] I do like rewards and we call them members. Yep. Yep. So we're they're a member of super was because I think there's misalignment there with sort of member of Superfund site. So so what are the goals for it? I mean, it's a very broad brush statement, but we just want to see people just just shop because it's not it's it's so funny, you know, someone just signing up to super wads. It doesn't look like thanks, but it doesn't. You know what? It doesn't earn you any super. [00:37:22][28.3]

Candice: [00:37:22] You need to be active. [00:37:23][0.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:37:23] And it doesn't mean we don't earn revenue from when you sign up, but it's the act of shopping that earns the super for you and earns revenue for us. So it's it's win win in that sector. So I mean, to be honest, we just want to see people shop as much as they can and just channel as much of their purchasing through our retailers as possible because it's building them a better future. [00:37:47][23.8]

Felicity: [00:37:47] Yeah, it definitely is. And it's just so, so important, right? So that everyone can ultimately be self-funded retirees because the age pension isn't much. And who knows if it's even going to be around in the next, you know, 30, 40, 50 years. Now, we did chat privately about, you know, SMSFs being one of your actually main superannuation funds, that clients are setting up some sets. You've got a lot of SMSF trustees and members setting themselves up with you. But can we look at this scenario, right? If you were the CEO of Australian Super or an Australian superannuation fund for one day and you were able to make changes that would be implemented and never taken away because, you know, super changes all the time. Or if you were a regulator, APRA, what would you change? And hopefully someone from the Government is listening to this and can use these points for you. [00:38:42][54.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:38:42] Okay, I'm CEO of a super fund for a day and my word is law. I would make super what's integrated into my my fund's member app because if I'm then we know a couple of the big name funds. I've got one 2 million members. Hello. I've just changed the retirement outcomes of my 2 million members. [00:39:05][22.6]

Candice: [00:39:05] Yeah. For the better. [00:39:06][1.0]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:39:07] For the better. And because it's, you know, in a way that these people are going to engage with, be, they're having to spend money in buying pet food or what know spending it. BW Or whatever. So I do that just like that. That would be the number one thing I would do. The number two thing I would do is I would actually go through my member base. Let's say I've got too many members. I would as a super fund CEO, I have a really good idea of who's, you know, who's in the workforce and who's not. And I would do a marketing campaign or segmentation looking at people who seem to not be earning. And I would say, okay, I'm going to send out a really targeted message saying that you're eligible for government co-contribution or, you know, you seem to be eligible for government co-contribution because again, just like that, I have changed, made a material outcome, material difference to the outcome of a really big portion of my base. And how do how do I know it's a big portion? Well, I can I can tell you this, you know, there's 40% of women aged 18 to 64 are not in the workforce and 24% of men, 24% of men. So if I look at my base of 2 million members, I've just impacted a really big number in very easy fashion. [00:40:32][85.6]

Felicity: [00:40:33] I think what's really interesting here right is, you know, the government's got the government co-contribution, which is quite minimal, but it's really been on corporate. And people like yourself starting sipper awards to try and fix this problem. You know, I think another point, if you were the CEO of this super fund or you could actually make change in government that anyone that potentially use super awards gets a contribution by the government of $1,000 a year or something like that, because it can't just be on corporate, it can't just be on individuals. I think it also needs to be, you know, on the government as well, like all parties working together to get a better outcome for Australians really. [00:41:11][38.1]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:41:12] Absolutely. And I have suggested this very thing to a number of different politicians and senators and so on. And I've said, look, if you think about people who are either on benefits or on carers pensions or are on parental leave. Guess what? They're all not earning an income and therefore they're not making super contributions. So why don't we come up with some arrangement, a government whereby anyone who is enrolled in any of these schemes. Right, is automatically has a super boards account created for them. [00:41:48][36.2]

Candice: [00:41:49] And what did they say? [00:41:49][0.5]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:41:50] I'm sorry. Can you not still hear the crickets? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No, they said. Oh, yes. I mean, it was like, oh, yes, it's a great idea. And then we went into anti hawking regulation and blah blah, blah, blah, blah, to which I said, Listen, guys, there's nobody else doing what we're doing. So how do you how do you work around that? You know, I'm I'm coming here. I've got a really good free hello free suggestion for you. We you know, he's all our security credentials and documentation dollar has about. Oh yeah I've got to take it away and syndicate with Florida so I'm still waiting for the loot back. [00:42:28][37.4]

Candice: [00:42:28] And look money talks right. So the more members you get on your platform and the more impact you can communicate and market that because you have a brilliant brain in doing that, I'm sure they will come to the party. And I guess I just want to pause for a moment and have a moment of reflection. You've achieved so much. So, you know, well done. And I guess anyone listening to your story that might feel inspired have the goose bumps going up and down their arms, whether they're woman or man, you know, and they're maybe thinking, I want to leave my 9 to 5 job. Have you got any parting words of wisdom that you would leave to your younger self or them as a listener to to follow on your entrepreneurial path? [00:43:08][39.5]

Felicity: [00:43:08] It's a hard question, but I'm sure you can answer it. [00:43:10][2.1]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:43:11] It is. But thank you for the kind words. But I am. Gosh, I think for me the question would be which which lesson to start first, I think something that I would say is try and find a corporate home for your start-up. So I think today's corporate world is becoming increasingly more receptive to this idea. So particularly, I mean, for us, I mean, we've we've done well, right? But we are working with the super funds who move at the pace of glacial. Yeah, I was. Yeah, I was going to say a snail that's asleep. Right. So that can be obviously very challenging as a, as a privately funded start-up trying to manage your cash flows and resources. And so. So I would say try and get corporate backing for your start-up because everything is going to take what somebody once said three times as long to me. And I would actually say it's probably eight times as long as you think it's going to take, depending when you're working with this particular kind of client. It just takes everything just takes a really, really, really long time. And so I think you'll best off with a house or a home around you that understands what you're trying to achieve. Basic what is the vision see is used to those timescales and D is deriving some other benefit from the business that you are rolling out. Whether that is Qantas's imagery data, whether it's a competitive advantage, whether it's payments and something to do with payments and being able to make contributions, etc.. I think all of these all of these are really strong indicators for trying to find a corporate roof above your head. [00:45:06][115.3]

Candice: [00:45:07] So team up strategically and be patient and be kind to yourself because yes, you come to life one day and if you do those things. [00:45:15][8.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:45:15] Quickly. [00:45:15][0.0]

Felicity: [00:45:16] And don't give up, that's it. Now, Pascal, we always ask our interviewees one final question. So coffee or tequila? [00:45:27][10.4]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:45:29] Coffee for sure. [00:45:30][1.0]

Felicity: [00:45:31] That seems to be the main answer. [00:45:32][1.1]

Candice: [00:45:33] So my favourite cafe that offers rewards. [00:45:35][1.6]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:45:36] Exactly. That's how I earn a dollar every time I go in there to find myself. That's right. [00:45:42][6.1]

Felicity: [00:45:42] Coffee and super contributions. How good is that? Well, thank you so much for joining us today. [00:45:48][5.3]

Pascal Helyar-Moray: [00:45:48] You're so welcome. Thank you for having me. I've really enjoyed. [00:45:50][1.9]

Candice: [00:45:50] It. Wow, that was a fantastic chat. I'm definitely on the back of this conversation, signing up to super awards a.S.A.P because I guess a scary statistic that Felicity and I are fully aware of. You know, despite the Australian superannuation industry being estimated to be worth over $3 trillion, like Parscale said, and she explained it, you know, with the gender pay gap issue. And then that trickles down to the super issue. You know, women on average compared to their male spouses, colleagues, friends and the list goes on. We on average retire with 42% less in our super balance at the end of the day. So that's a big impact. [00:46:28][37.5]

Felicity: [00:46:29] It really is. And I think it's also important to note that because it's a non-concessional contribution, you probably do need to check your balance and limit. So for example, if your balance is over $1.7 million, you won't be able to do the non-concessional contribution. So that's just something to think about, right? Because there is a lot of different legislation with regards to superannuation and it always changes, right? That's it. And Qantas and I are super excited. Get it? [00:46:57][28.7]

Candice: [00:46:58] Super world or a partner? [00:46:59][1.2]

Felicity: [00:46:59] Super Six, he was very excited. We actually have a referral code in the show notes of this episode. So everyone sign up for super awards because it's basically it is a no brainer. [00:47:10][10.6]

Candice: [00:47:10] To change your life. Now before we sign off, guys, please remember, although fellas, you and I are financial advisors at Shriram Partners. As always, the discussion today with the lovely Pascale from Super Rewards is not considered personal financial advice. Like Felicity said, lots of great tips and impact that this app can do, but just go out and check with your financial advisor if it's applicable. It's also based on the facts and details known at the time of recording, which is the 23rd of August 2022. [00:47:37][27.0]

Felicity: [00:47:38] Now make sure you follow us on at Talk Money to Me podcast for daily market updates. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts Spotify happy for any comments or feedback and remember any questions. TomTom at Equity Mates dot com. We will be back next week. Until next. [00:47:58][19.8]

Candice: [00:47:58] Time. Happy shopping. Go Super Woods. Thanks, guys. Bye.