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Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast—your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade.
Whether you're a seasoned member or just getting started, we're here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries, and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of the Bartercard ecosystem.
Bartercard_Suzie
Jen: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast, your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade. We are here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of barter cart. Welcome to another episode of the Barter Edge, where we talk all things barter and business.
I'm your host, Jen, and today I have a very special guest, who a lot of people would know on the Gold Coast. I'm here with Susie Dent, hairdresser and makeup artist. She has been with Bartercard for around 20 years now. Uh, and she's here to share. Some things with us today about how Barde Card has helped her, but also some other tips and things in her journey.
So, Susie, would you like to introduce yourself to everyone?
Suzie: Thank you, Jen. Hi everyone. I'm Susie Dent. I am, uh, a film and television, hair and makeup artist with 42 years [00:01:00] experience. I'm, uh, an author and a public speaker and a presenter. So I'm really at home to see you here today, and I'm so excited to share all I know about barter with, uh, everyone at home and with Jen.
Jen: Yeah, it's great having you here. How has Bartercard impacted your business as a. Like hairdresser, makeup artist for
Suzie: movies and things like that. How has it worked for you? Oh, barcode was amazing. When I first moved here with my husband, I also used to manufacture cosmetics. So I made these little, um, uh, lipstick palettes and lip glosses, and I moved into body scrubs and, um, all aromatherapy body care products and working with Bartercard.
When we met Bartercard, being able to sell based cosmetics, it was called People Will, people will remember us, uh, through Bartercard was amazing. Having. A whole world of different people who all had their own businesses to be able to interact with and, and kind of trade with and do swaps with and sell to and vice versa, [00:02:00] was amazing.
It opened up this amazing world of people on the Gold Coast to us coming from Sydney. It was, um, Johnny Bartercard was the best thing me and my ex-husband ever did.
Jen: Amazing. Such a great, uh, result for you. My first career I was a hairdresser and makeup artist, so we get along great here, Susie. And what I used to do was.
In like after hours, I would service some clients 'cause I had everything that I needed to be able to do some extra work. And I did it in exchange for like a house cleaner. She couldn't afford to take $140 back then out of her cash flow to pay me. And I couldn't justify taking $140 outta my bank account to pay for my cleaning.
So I literally. Exchanged her cleaning for her, getting her hair done, and I was paying maybe $20 in product. So it's a great industry for Bartercard,
Suzie: isn't it? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Look, I do [00:03:00] swaps with, um, my bookkeeper, uh, with, um, the guy who did the lawn. Um, I did, uh, his wife's, uh, hair and makeup. He would swap me, he'd do the lawns on, you know, and he'd also do the lawns on trade.
So, uh, I've, I would always, and I still do. When I'm looking for someone that I wanna work with, regardless of whether it's, uh, getting, um, I just, I just had a banner made for my, my tattoo business, which was great. Beautifully done as actual showstopper, uh, and flyers. I had them done as well. I'll always reach for butter bar people and bar companies because we're a group, you know, we're a team.
It's, uh, and I, I like, I love. I love everyone in the head office and I love Renee. Love Andrew, and I've been with Bartercard for such a long time and it's been such a, a joy to be with them and be part of the Bartercard family actually.
Jen: Yeah, it really is a family, isn't it? You'll be able
Suzie: to quite literally barter, you know, I'll, I'll do your hair and makeup if you can do this for me.
Jen: Yeah, it's great. But it like [00:04:00] trade deals like that in business don't come up very often and it's not always fair. So it's like having that third party bookkeeper to make sure that you are getting your value for what you are worth as well. And that opportunity doesn't really happen overly often in business, does it?
Oh, no,
Suzie: and it makes it so easy. It does. It's so easy to do business, you know, and now having a card and a really good app that work really well. It does, it makes it so easy, so easy to find people. You know, I've, I look, I've done everything on butter. I've sold clothes, bought and sold cars, uh, bought and sold real estate.
So if everything from selling little bottles of essential oil to a house. Uh, it's, uh, you know, totally utilized Bartercard over the decades. Um, it's just, yeah, just, it does, it opens up a whole new world, a whole new financial world to you if you really understand what bartering is really about.
Jen: Yeah.
Yeah.
Suzie: Isn't it? Yeah. It's
Jen: the oldest form of [00:05:00] currency. Yes. Yes. So we are just bringing it back into 20, 25 and beyond. Yeah. So, yeah. Amazing. So you've got quite an incredible story. Susie, tell us about your time as an ambassador for Bartercard.
Suzie: My time as an ambassador. Look, I, um, I had the most amazing life adventure at 55.
Right. Um, one of those sliding door moments when something is brought to you. And, um, I was asked to be in this pageant, a beauty pageant at the ripe young age of nearly 55. I called Mrs. Earth, Australia, Ross, and, and I said to this woman, look, that's really nice of you. Um, I don't wear dresses. I hadn't worn dresses for 30 years.
I had no high heel shoes. Uh. But I was at this place in my life that I really needed to change, and in my marriage, to be quite honest, and I looked up what they did and they collected new and new shoes, was the charity they supported, called Souls for Souls. And all of a sudden, all this flashed into my mind about being able to support the [00:06:00] charity and being able to support the charity with Bartercard.
And I had this great. Marketing idea. And I said yes to this, to this opportunity to bear a beauty queen. And I trotted along to see Andrew Feki in, in my pull on Tajay skirt and my boots, which were flat, not healed. And I said, so I said to Andrew, I said, so Andrew, oh, and I had a little tiara by that time and a sash.
So I wore my ta, my diara, and my sash, and I said, Andrew. Bartercard supports men that drive fast, hit fast, and run fast. How about a middle-aged woman? Um, beauty queen collecting shoes, uh, new and new shoes for charity? And he loved it. And he said yes. And we came up with this amazing idea and, um, that the doors of Bartercard officers were thrown open for people to, um, drop their shoes off so they could drop their shoes off.
Um. My ex-husband, he had a transport business so we could pick them up and, and move them around where they needed to go. For soles. For soles. Um, then when people would come into Bartercard, you've got Bartercard, uh, [00:07:00] staff there. They, when they go, what's this? They can talk to them all about Bartercard. So such, it was the most amazing win-win situation I had.
Um, like a special badge put on my sash. I won, by the way, Mrs. Earth, Australia, congratulations, 2017. You. So much. Uh, yes, I competed against women who I could have given birth to, uh, proving that age is just a number and, uh, never let your age hold you back. I, I am a proud pro agent because there is nothing anti about aging.
So I represented Australia with my, with my Bartercard logo. Came third in the world out of 36 women from around the world. It was the most amazing ride Bartercard. Um. As their ambassador, I had, um, PR work. I had my own PR agent. I had gowns provided for me. I had, um, physical fitness. Like I had an amazing trainer in Grant Wood, um, who was still with Bartercard.
I had photography. I had so much everybody I used with Bartercard, I had jewelry, I had everything I needed. All from Bartercard, [00:08:00] um, uh, businesses supporting me in my journey to be Mrs. Earth Australia. And in return, of course, I would give, they got, they got a lot of PR and a lot of, um, um, everything I could do for them, uh, to support them.
I did, you know, so it was the most amazing ride and a great, um. Uh, Bartercard to bring it all together. And I was, I was so proud to represent Bartercard as their ambassador. Uh, and we, but between us, we did a great job of raising shoes and awareness for an amazing charity that has since closed, unfortunately.
Uh, but it opened up so many doors and I met so many people through Bartercard and through being an ambassador for Bar Card.
Jen: That's such an amazing story. I love when you told me about that. I was just like, we need to get you onto the podcast to talk about that because you never know where Bartercard can help you go or what it can actually help you do.
And I first got involved with Bartercard with my community involvement with a [00:09:00] charity and fundraising is challenging and. It can really transform an organization like that. But Bartercard members, and I don't know how many times I've said this on the podcast, I know it's a little bit of a repeat, repeat, but.
Bartercard opens so many doors, so many opportunities. It is so much more than a transaction platform or an additional bank account with an alternate currency. It's a community of people. And Bartercard members love supporting Bartercard members.
Suzie: Yeah, they do. They do. We do. It is, it's just like that. It's like being part of a family.
You know, and you're this like inner circle that knows a way to do business and finance that other people, uh, can sometimes be more shut off against 'cause they just don't wanna do anything different. Opened up so many doors to us back in, um, back in the day, uh, Bartercard, um, had I cut some amazing Gold Coast restaurants and when my child was a toddler, he got so [00:10:00] spoiled.
We had, we'd have seafood, seafood platters and stuff quite regularly and fabulous Japanese food and. Um, Bartercard has all sorts of people joining, you know, jewelers fashion builders. I had an amazing fence built. I had, uh, around my house. I used Bartercard for my house for renovations, bamboo flooring, um, uh, all sorts of things.
Anything like, uh, my electricians came through Bartercard. Plumbing Bartercard, everything I did, I always looked for Bartercard first, and I would always, and I still do, I'm in such a habit of doing it. I will always go for a Bartercard person before I will go for someone who's not with Bartercard. I think it's, if you get into that mindset, there's a lot of people out there and, and don't just, um, lock yourself into the one state you're in.
We can bring stuff in from New South Wales quite easily. We're pretty close. You know, we have amazing courier, you know, we have couriers on Bartercard as [00:11:00] well that can move stuff internationally for you. You know, they also, there are so many things, whatever, whatever your, whatever you need. You will more than likely find on bar cart.
Jen: And if you are in a business that doesn't have geographical bounds, like obviously if you are. Doing hair and makeup or a service provider like that, you need to be physically with someone. But we've got printers in Tasmania who are promoting themselves in the Bartercard marketplace, and they're promoting themselves to business decision makers.
They're not promoting themselves to the receptionist at an organization, and they're tapping into a national market. They're getting. Clients right across the country, and we know that if you are getting business cards, you probably are gonna need a pull up banner, maybe some tablecloths, maybe some other things.
And there's this big flow on effect of how you can do business better.
Suzie: Would you agree with that? Oh, absolutely. Well, I got my banner from Victoria, from Melbourne, from a [00:12:00] Melbourne company. They gave me a much better quote than the full cash quote that I was given, uh, that was local. Um, the service was much better and I, so, you know, they coed it to me and got it the next day.
It was fantastic. Uh, I think that it's, um. When you are, when you, when you are working with Bartercard, because it's like barter dollars, I think sometimes people will spend more on their business or on themselves. Like you can pay yourself with Bartercard. That can be part of your wage. Uh, you can go, you can buy some amazing clothes on Bartercard.
That could be like, you know, we used to have a staff card, uh, for our assistant. So every time, every year there was this big expos, the be heaps of Bartercard people there, including ourselves, selling cosmetics and all sorts of stuff. Pretty much everybody, everybody's Christmas present came from that expo and our staff member, she just went round and she would buy all the Christmas presents.
That was her Christmas bonus. You know, we would load her card up.
Jen: That's [00:13:00] such a great idea. I was speaking to a waitress on the Sunshine Coast a few months ago, and I just said, have you heard of Bartercard? One of our clients has told us that, um, we need to get in contact with you. And she goes, I loved Bartercard because the previous restaurant that I worked in, um, had it.
Bartercard paid for a third of my wedding, and she goes, I got all of the things that I wouldn't have been able to afford without it, and I got so excited for her that it wasn't just the business owners getting the benefits of being a member. They've shared that with their staff and it's had an impact on their life as well.
Suzie: Oh, totally. Absolutely. Yeah. And, and then your staff really understand when they understand what bartering really is, the true nature of bartering. Uh, like our assistant, she used to love the expos. She made sure she knew exactly when they were on, she'd buy her whole family that was all sorted. She'd get all her Christmas presents 'cause so much, so many things you can [00:14:00] buy.
And that's just like one example. Um, she, she got a dog. She wanted, you know, she wanted doggy. Doggy, uh, daycare kind of things and, and shampoos and stuff. And you can get people who come to your house with their fabulous little, um, those little dog things and they do, and they wash and, and groom your dog.
Anything that you can possibly think about. Uh, you can get, so when you have staff, you can pay your staff, especially when you know them and what their interests are. You can pay them in a per, you know, a percentage of Bartercard. Um, the jobs I'd do as a hair and makeup artist, when I would take my assistant, I would make sure, you know, and this was the same one actually, that she was getting traded.
She was like, that's fine. She just save it up for the end of the year. I love that year. It was actually not quite the end of the year, but, you know, so she, she was perfectly fine, uh, with getting paid in butter cut 'cause she knew where she could spend it. There's always specials as well. You, you know, you go online, there's always specials coming in or the, the monthly newsletter, or sorry, the newsletter that comes out.
Read your emails. You never know what you might find. [00:15:00] You know, there's always all sorts of specials going on. Holidays. We went to Hamilton Island several times on full Bartercard, this is a few years ago, which is somewhere with, as a family to have a family holiday. The most amazing place. All on Bartercard, a beautiful house, all trade.
It's fantastic. So, you know. There's so many uses for Bartercard and it's now it's building up again, which I'm so excited about. I'm very pleased about that. 'cause I really, uh, it's, it's, um, it's important that people understand there's a diff there's an alternate, alternate way to do business that's really positive in that it has community attached to it.
Jen: I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Susie, what would you say to someone if they were considering joining?
Suzie: Just do it. Um, no. Look, if you, if you're thinking about joining, it's, um, it's. It's win-win. You're not, you can't lose anything. Joining Bartercard. There's always things to purchase.
[00:16:00] There's always things to buy. Think of Bartercard. Once upon a time. Bartercard used to have this huge big phone book, just like the yellow Pages now, and you could literally scroll through the phone book and find plumbers or like whatever, whatever. You wanted for your business or your life, you could find, and there are still so many members in the Bartercard family that are just itching to do business with you.
Uh, and so we can build Bartercard back up again to the strong. Organization that, that, that it was a couple of years ago. That would be amazing.
Jen: Yeah, it's definitely happening. Uh, we are growing every day, which is amazing. And we've got more and more people trading across the country. It's just, it's, you don't wanna miss out.
Oh, absolutely. Getting, and it's
Suzie: international as well. You just reminded me when I went to England in, um, 2014, I got accommodation on Bartercard. When I was in England, in the uk I got, I got places to stay for me and my girlfriend, um, with [00:17:00] food. Uh, so there's all sorts. You know, don't, don't just keep to your state.
There's New Zealand, you can travel to New Zealand, you can, there's lots of things you can do and places you can go. You just have to ask.
Jen: Yeah. Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Now, Susie, you've got a special, uh, thing you wanted to share for our members. I do. What is your offer?
Suzie: My offer. So as a hair and makeup artist, I sometimes acquire things and I've acquired these beautiful.
Makeup packs by Ally Hamilton, who I think close to business. I also have their, these are great. There's like 1, 2, 3, there's five lipsticks, all different colors. There's a sponge, there's a foundation, there's a lip gloss Over this side, we've got 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, assorted eye and lip pencils. We've got a little alcohol, um, cleanser here in this beautiful little zip up case with, uh, $200 full trade.
I'll pop them on the website and I have 12 of them for sale.
Jen: Perfect. Well, you're gonna have to [00:18:00] get in quick everyone, because they will not stay on the platform very long. Once again, Susie, thank you so much for being here with us on the Barter Edge.
Suzie: Thank you so much for having me, Jen. It's been absolute pleasure.
Jen: Thank you for being with us today and sharing your. Stories and expertise. If you wanna find out how Bartercard can help your business, or if you wanna be a guest on our future podcast, contact our team at hello@bartercard.com. Make sure you tune in for our next episode of the Barter Edge.