An Interview With HamishMax caught up with young entrepreneur Hamish Donker about his journey into the e-commerce world!
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I have always been reluctant to emphasise tertiary education as a necessity to further, or even start, a career. We live in a world where information is more accessible than ever before. You can run a business from your bedroom. We no longer need physical dictionaries, and I’m sure most of us can’t remember the last time we held a map without holding our phone. There’s over 2,000,000 different podcast shows and over 200,000 books on audible.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I guarantee that any tertiary education is held in a higher regard by employers than “I listen to Joe Rogan”, I just wonder if we can really value knowledge learned more than wisdom acquired.
On Monday I spoke to Hamish Donkers, who, within two years of graduating from University, has abandoned the career he studied for five years to pursue. I very much valued the knowledge and wisdom he shared with me. In his words, also dashed with a bit of humour, he told me how his funny idea has become his career.
Hamish finished his five year Bachelor of Physiotherapy, which he studied at Otago University, in 2018, and by 2019 was working full-time as Physiotherapist. The next year he began buying percussion massage tools to use on his clients. Amazed at the instant benefit on neuromuscular, and physiological aspects of tissues, he began to explore the market of similar products. Noticing a space in the market, he subsequently started Myomend. Myomend sells percussion massage guns which maximise recovery, and unlock potential, for all types of athleticism. In the early days of Myomend he was still working his full-time job as a Physiotherapist whilst getting his new business off the ground. It wasn’t until he began his second e-commerce endeavour, Smoov, that he stepped away from a full-time job he’d worked so hard to pursue.
Smoov was born as a “fun wee project” over the lockdown period. Like many others - during the lockdown “grooming habits had gone out the window” for Hamish and his flatmates. Smoov sells trimmers and shavers for all areas; balls and all. Through experimenting with marketing to find what works, Hamish has found humour to be most engaging with his audience and customers. “It’s quite a novelty product -being a trimmer for your downstairs - so it needs novelty marketing...stupid one-liners and that sort of thing”. The ads are niche and recognisable. Hamish has even been referred to as “The Smoov Guy” for being the prominent face in videos. As a bit of goodwill for the business, Smoov donates 10% of its sales to Testicular Cancer NZ. Hamish sees it as a “good deed” that closely aligns with the business, and they are now an official sponsor.
Although Hamish has become more comfortable and familiar with e-commerce, it was not always smoov sailing. He literally started from scratch, and had to source and teach himself the information he now knows. Whilst he says it can be fun and rewarding, he retrospectively admits that he could have made the journey to where he is now a lot easier by not allowing himself to overwork and therefore reduce stress. He has, however, been able to learn a lot from his time - good and bad - in e-commerce that influences how he approaches business now. As many business owners will admit, it can feel mandatory to take on as much of the workload and do everything yourself. Hamish is learning to offload work that he knows he doesn’t
have to do and knows someone else could do better. In the next five years he hopes to build a great team of great people, and be able to facilitate the opportunity for others to start their own business. He also hopes to get his product in retail, where customers can buy his products off the shelf in a store. Outside of business, his goal is to keep playing sport, maintain good relationships, travel, and to keep “having fun everyday”.
Whilst Hamish is only young, he has already had a career that both supports and opposes tertiary education. What he does now has little to do with what he studied, and although he would agree there’s an over emphasis on tertiary education, he feels fail-safe because of his qualification.
He understands there is always going to be pressure to go to University, or the like, from parents and high school, and knows that it is very right for so many. He does, however, think there’s more to be said for simply “spend[ing] your quality time making your time in the future easier” through learning, up-skilling and taking care of yourself. Hamish supports that wherever someone may be, whether in study or profession, does not need to dictate their future and would encourage anyone to try different things till they find what they enjoy most, and consequently makes them most happy. He says those pondering on deep desires who are conflicted by the reality that it may not work out should “take a calculated risk...don’t take risk to the point that if it fails it’s going to ruin your life, but if it’s a ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ sort of risk; just do
it.”
Above all, what I took away from my conversation with Hamish is the necessity for communication. He did not shy away from telling me that he’s encountered tough times, usually as a result of high stress, and that reaching out is key. Communication can be a remedy for more than just personal struggles though, and as alluded to earlier, for young business owners it may be a case of connecting with people who can do a better job than you. However, communication is not always an act of alleviating negativity and more often a way to spread something positive. By simply asking “how’s your day going?” to the guy at the gas station, you may just learn something about the area you’re in; or by asking the same question of the lady at the supermarket, you can get a heads up about some products going on special next week. Education is a powerful thing and we should not overlook just what an education we can get from simply talking.
We live in a digital age where communication should be easier than ever. “Social media was built to have a positive change”, says Hamish; why not use it for what it was made for? Hamish, it was a pleasure to catch up on all the amazing work you’re doing. I look forward to seeing what great things you’ll
accomplish in the future, near and distant.
Stay Smoov,
Max Anderson (Christchurch Youth Council)
https://smoov.co.nz
https://myomend.co.nz
Now, don’t get me wrong, I guarantee that any tertiary education is held in a higher regard by employers than “I listen to Joe Rogan”, I just wonder if we can really value knowledge learned more than wisdom acquired.
On Monday I spoke to Hamish Donkers, who, within two years of graduating from University, has abandoned the career he studied for five years to pursue. I very much valued the knowledge and wisdom he shared with me. In his words, also dashed with a bit of humour, he told me how his funny idea has become his career.
Hamish finished his five year Bachelor of Physiotherapy, which he studied at Otago University, in 2018, and by 2019 was working full-time as Physiotherapist. The next year he began buying percussion massage tools to use on his clients. Amazed at the instant benefit on neuromuscular, and physiological aspects of tissues, he began to explore the market of similar products. Noticing a space in the market, he subsequently started Myomend. Myomend sells percussion massage guns which maximise recovery, and unlock potential, for all types of athleticism. In the early days of Myomend he was still working his full-time job as a Physiotherapist whilst getting his new business off the ground. It wasn’t until he began his second e-commerce endeavour, Smoov, that he stepped away from a full-time job he’d worked so hard to pursue.
Smoov was born as a “fun wee project” over the lockdown period. Like many others - during the lockdown “grooming habits had gone out the window” for Hamish and his flatmates. Smoov sells trimmers and shavers for all areas; balls and all. Through experimenting with marketing to find what works, Hamish has found humour to be most engaging with his audience and customers. “It’s quite a novelty product -being a trimmer for your downstairs - so it needs novelty marketing...stupid one-liners and that sort of thing”. The ads are niche and recognisable. Hamish has even been referred to as “The Smoov Guy” for being the prominent face in videos. As a bit of goodwill for the business, Smoov donates 10% of its sales to Testicular Cancer NZ. Hamish sees it as a “good deed” that closely aligns with the business, and they are now an official sponsor.
Although Hamish has become more comfortable and familiar with e-commerce, it was not always smoov sailing. He literally started from scratch, and had to source and teach himself the information he now knows. Whilst he says it can be fun and rewarding, he retrospectively admits that he could have made the journey to where he is now a lot easier by not allowing himself to overwork and therefore reduce stress. He has, however, been able to learn a lot from his time - good and bad - in e-commerce that influences how he approaches business now. As many business owners will admit, it can feel mandatory to take on as much of the workload and do everything yourself. Hamish is learning to offload work that he knows he doesn’t
have to do and knows someone else could do better. In the next five years he hopes to build a great team of great people, and be able to facilitate the opportunity for others to start their own business. He also hopes to get his product in retail, where customers can buy his products off the shelf in a store. Outside of business, his goal is to keep playing sport, maintain good relationships, travel, and to keep “having fun everyday”.
Whilst Hamish is only young, he has already had a career that both supports and opposes tertiary education. What he does now has little to do with what he studied, and although he would agree there’s an over emphasis on tertiary education, he feels fail-safe because of his qualification.
He understands there is always going to be pressure to go to University, or the like, from parents and high school, and knows that it is very right for so many. He does, however, think there’s more to be said for simply “spend[ing] your quality time making your time in the future easier” through learning, up-skilling and taking care of yourself. Hamish supports that wherever someone may be, whether in study or profession, does not need to dictate their future and would encourage anyone to try different things till they find what they enjoy most, and consequently makes them most happy. He says those pondering on deep desires who are conflicted by the reality that it may not work out should “take a calculated risk...don’t take risk to the point that if it fails it’s going to ruin your life, but if it’s a ‘what’s the worst that can happen’ sort of risk; just do
it.”
Above all, what I took away from my conversation with Hamish is the necessity for communication. He did not shy away from telling me that he’s encountered tough times, usually as a result of high stress, and that reaching out is key. Communication can be a remedy for more than just personal struggles though, and as alluded to earlier, for young business owners it may be a case of connecting with people who can do a better job than you. However, communication is not always an act of alleviating negativity and more often a way to spread something positive. By simply asking “how’s your day going?” to the guy at the gas station, you may just learn something about the area you’re in; or by asking the same question of the lady at the supermarket, you can get a heads up about some products going on special next week. Education is a powerful thing and we should not overlook just what an education we can get from simply talking.
We live in a digital age where communication should be easier than ever. “Social media was built to have a positive change”, says Hamish; why not use it for what it was made for? Hamish, it was a pleasure to catch up on all the amazing work you’re doing. I look forward to seeing what great things you’ll
accomplish in the future, near and distant.
Stay Smoov,
Max Anderson (Christchurch Youth Council)
https://smoov.co.nz
https://myomend.co.nz