The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote
Welcome to The Promo Playbook, your backstage pass to the world of promotional marketing. Brought to you by Cubic Promote (https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/) Australia’s award-winning supplier of branded merchandise, this podcast is your go-to guide for making marketing and promo products work harder for your business. In each episode, we unpack real campaigns, talk to industry insiders, and share practical strategies to help you boost brand visibility, engage customers, and stand out. From trade shows to onboarding kits, we cover it all — with no fluff, just real insights that convert.
The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote
Trust builds in conversations, not behind counters. Raymond Seeto's Journey in Community Banking
Raymond Seeto's career reads like a journey through the major technological and economic transformations of our time. From introducing direct selling in China immediately after Tiananmen Square to teaching factory workers how to use their first computers, Raymond has consistently positioned himself at the intersection of innovation and human connection.
Our conversation takes us from his early days with Avon and Danone in late-1980s China to his work with cutting-edge medical devices that treated brain tumors using radiofrequency technology. Raymond draws fascinating parallels between the PC revolution he witnessed firsthand and today's AI transformation – both representing not just incremental improvements but fundamental shifts in how we process information and solve problems.
Most revealing is Raymond's passion for community banking at Bendigo Bank's Darling Square branch in Sydney. He shares how their innovative model sends profits back into local community projects while creating a banking experience that feels more like a five-star hotel than a traditional branch. There are no counters or barriers – just conversations in a space designed to build trust. This human-centered approach explains why Bendigo consistently ranks among Australia's most trusted brands while major banks continue closing branches.
Raymond's career wisdom comes from decades of giving "100% to whatever I do" – something he acknowledges as both strength and weakness. His advice to younger professionals is refreshingly direct: "Whoever you work for will only look after themselves. You need to look after yourself as well." Listen now to discover how one man's remarkable career journey demonstrates that even in finance and technology, authentic human connection remains our most valuable currency.
Find out more and visit our website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/
Connect with Raymond Seeto:
🌐 Website: https://www.bendigobank.com.au/branch/nsw/community-bank-darling-square/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-seeto-703a9b2/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seetoraymond/
Find out more and visit our website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/
Welcome to the next episode of the promo playbook by Cubic Promote. Today I've got a special guest with me. His name is Raymond Seto and Raymond Seto has had, and continues to have, an incredible career. Currently he's working as a director in Bendable Bank, haymarket, sydney. Raymond, welcome to the show and thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Charles, Despite the very wet weather we're experiencing here in a moment. Yeah, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Well, raymond, you've had an incredible boardroom. Sorry, you've had an incredible career. You continue to have an incredible career. I want to find out a bit about the person behind yourself. If you could share and we could talk about stories of risk, resilience and purpose, just to find out what it takes to have such an incredible career, that'd be amazing. So I've got a set of questions for you. So, are you ready? Sure, brilliant. So I see that on your LinkedIn. It's incredible. I'm reading through finance director of Avon. Finance director in a biscuit factory. Maybe let's start there. How did you come from background in Avon into a biscuit factory there?
Speaker 2:are similarities in the business, simply because in Avon we're a fast-moving consumer item and biscuit factories are similar because they're making millions of these things, and so you know, at the end of the day, the numbers are numbers and so there are. You know, you're looking at numbers and making sure that everything is fine in that respect, so yeah, you get to taste.
Speaker 1:Test the biscuits.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it was funny because when I was going through those career stages I was living as an expatriate in China at the time in Guangzhou, and I was part of the very early team going into China, where it was in the late 1980s. That was when Tiananmen Square had just happened in 1989. Straight after that. So Tiananmen Square was June, and then I started going into China somewhere around October, november of that year and there was really exciting times then because you know of all of those political machinations of China going on.
Speaker 2:A lot of the Western companies were looking to well, are there opportunities to go in there? Of course that incident scared a lot of companies. It would have, yeah, but with Avon being a large US company, well, they had certain plans they had implemented and nothing was going to stop that implementation. But it did. It did kind of like put wrinkles in it and and so you know people had to to reassess what was going on. But ultimately we moved forward on it and we started a very small factory in Guangzhou making, you know, enough items for us for our sales force to to get. And it was such a radical business model for China at the time and that we were looked upon as very much as pioneers, because at the time most US companies, or most foreign companies, were looking to China as more manufacturing and the low cost of human labor, and so that was their primary aim. We looked at it differently and together with other direct selling companies such as amway, we introduced a new way of retailing, a new way of of reaching out to consumers.
Speaker 1:So that was very exciting times in that period that was, that was the type of biscuits. Are these chocolate biscuits? Are they? What types of well?
Speaker 2:I had moved from avon to a french company called denone, that's a yogurt company, yogurt company, absolutely, and they were one of the world's largest food groups. And they own a number of other brands that people probably wouldn't know the brands but wouldn't know the owners behind it.
Speaker 2:And they were an expansion drive as well. And they had started a yogurt company in Guangzhou. They had purchased a small water company called Wahaha which if you're from China you probably know who that is and that ultimately became a huge company, but that's a totally different story. But coming back to biscuits, they also expanded into purchasing down in our biscuit companies or other food companies around around china. And then I was recruited to be the cfo there and it was really to bring the chinese systems to somewhat close to the 20th century, because they were back in in the 50s. Everything was done by hand. So when I walked in there, my staff barely knew what a computer was at the TC. So I literally had to bring a PC out and say turn on the PC and say this is what it's all about, this is the spreadsheet, this is what you can do. And in fact I took a very large sheet of paper and I had to explain to them what a spreadsheet, what it could do, this is the cell. You add this to this Boom.
Speaker 1:So this is incredible because what you've experienced a couple of decades ago fast forward a couple of decades later. It's literally the same conversation that we're having, but no longer PCs, but with AI. So AI is kids' leaps and bounds. The amount of exponential I'm not talking about incremental, or maybe it's a new software, maybe an extra key on a keyboard that makes things a little bit quicker.
Speaker 2:I think you would say here is back in 30 years ago, on the dawn of the PC age and the dawn of internet. Ai is now at that same level it is at that same stage At that same stage. It should, yes, though at a much higher technology step and a much higher intellectual step.
Speaker 1:It's frightening we were just talking about this a second ago this clip that we're recording right now. When it comes to editing, what would it take an editor maybe a few hours to edit some ums and ahs out of this clip? I could do within under three seconds. It's exponential. Yes, absolutely Amazing, amazing. So, going through the rest of your career, you then had a 90s at Mediforce Technology as a director yeah, and that was we many.
Speaker 2:Force was set up to try and target the chinese market for medical devices, and we got into devices that looked at brain cancer as well as liver cancer. Scanning devices no, not scanning devices. These are actually devices where we used radiofrequency to ablate tumors within the brain and also to cure different types of conditions such as neuralgia, and it's something to do with the face brain cancers, brain tumors, liver tumors.
Speaker 1:Cutting-edge stuff Even today, back in the day even more so.
Speaker 2:And now, of course, with AI and medical technology just going in leaps and bounds, they're fine-tuning it and things are even better these days, so yeah, Corporate Director AFT Corporation.
Speaker 1:Accredited Greens. Known Successor. Federal Government Sydney Partner Lambda.
Speaker 2:Chase Lambda, chase Lambda.
Speaker 1:Chase. Corporate Director, michael Kulius Medical Limited. Government sydney partner. Lambada lambda, chase, lambda, chase. Corporate director, michael culius medical limited. This is incredible. I could go on and a few other ones, culminating in where you're currently at, which is at zikintax yeah, as well as bendigo bank zykin is my own thing.
Speaker 2:I specialize in helping companies who are who are doing research and development, and I help them do their research and development claims from the ATO. It's a really exciting area because I get to talk to people who are at the top of their game and looking at developing products to get into the market. For example, I have a client that uses AI and develops software for a range of different things for their own clients, such as doing games and doing a range of other things, and, as well, I've got clients doing development for travel. You know really, really good stuff as well as clients who do very, I would say, 20th century stuff like manufacturing. Manufacturing is not dead.
Speaker 2:It's not dead, it's still alive, but it's, yeah, needs a bit of hair clearly so so, yeah, I I love talking with you know, those people who have, you know, ideas in which to improve their products and and to come up with new products and bendigo bank um your role there, if you share with us.
Speaker 1:How did you get involved and what were the aspirations for the Bendigo Bank brand?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been a director of our community bank at Darling Square for nearly coming up to 10 years slightly less than 10 years about eight, nine years.
Speaker 1:So Darling Square for the audience out there is in Sydney, new South Wales, the heart of Kmart in the middle of Sydney, cbd, yes.
Speaker 2:And we're a franchise of Bendigo Bank, so shareholders own the branch, but we use the Bendigo Bank platform to provide banking to our customers. And what the beauty of it is as I mentioned the word community bank is that the community bank concept is actually that people within the area come together and create this service provider called the community bank, where it provides banking services, but the profits that's generated from that is then, to a greater or lesser extent, sent back into the communities to support community projects. We help local land care, we help men's shed, we help, within our area, the museum, the Maritime Museum. We help charities like Impact 100 Sydney. I could go on. We help who is it? The Children's Tumor Foundation. So we're a very large supporter of that particular charity. So, yeah, I could go on. So our profits go back into the communities.
Speaker 1:So the Bendigo Bank, so we call it the community bank, and so the identity really matters.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, Community banks are very specific to Bendigo Bank. So when you go into Bendigo Bank branch, if it says the word community bank, then it means that they are community owned. If you don't see the word, then it's a corporate owned and run branch.
Speaker 1:So that's how the words symbolize. It Symbolizes the meaning yes, Incredible. So trust is fragile in banking because it's so easy and there's so much help in banking for connections, for clientele. How do you keep the human connection alive in an industry that is frankly quite cold and transactional?
Speaker 2:Yes, it is, and we can see that in the industry today in terms of the way the big four are closing branches. Community Bank and Bendigo Bank look at it differently. We have a very human touch associated with our brand. I think you'll see the latest brand trust surveys in that Bendigo Bank is right up top one or two most trusted brands in Australia. It reflects the way that the bank sees people and the way the bank wants to conduct and communicate with people, and so that I mean I like to call it banking for everyone, where if you come in, you will get someone, a human being, talking to you. If you have more complex issues to sort out, we will sit you down, we'll make you a cup of coffee and we'll make sure that you are looked after in the best possible sense.
Speaker 1:It's an experience. I think it's very possibly more common in Asian countries my sister, for example. She's a teacher in in hong kong and when she goes to do banking she gets the private bank treatment. Yeah, normally is reserved for the more wealthier people in sydney, and so it's interesting that the community bank would give that experience to everyday australians as well that's what our point of difference is, especially at darling Darling Square, we have a restaurant.
Speaker 1:It doesn't look like a bank. Well, I've been there. It doesn't look like a bank. There's no counters, there's no areas of orders. You walk in and it's immediately just a conversation. Yes, it's not about business or bank. It's literally stepping into a conversation.
Speaker 2:It was set up that way as well, yes, we designed it that way so that we wanted the feel of, when someone walks in, that there's a sense of trust in there, this sense of comfort. So we looked at emulating a five-star hotel is what I would call it but obviously with an institutional touch to it.
Speaker 1:And I must add a lot of small little details, such as branded uniforms, branded pens, branded notebooks, that are just littered throughout just to remind the customers as casual and as powerful of a conversation. We want to be subtle. This is a professionally subtly well-run organization that's going to look after people's financial assets, yes, yes, and having cubic promoters are merchandise providers certainly adds to that aura.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you. If you were to sum up Pinnacle Bank's story in the next 10 years into a single sentence, how would you summarize that? Is it business as usual or do you see something changing in the way people interact In terms?
Speaker 2:of our own community bank. We're very, very ambitious. We want to bring the same experience that people experience within our Darling Square branch to as many branches as possible. So we would certainly look to expand and look to drive our business further.
Speaker 1:Let's change the tactic. Away from your career in the banking, a bit more about Raymond the person. If you were to be stuck in an elevator with any three people dead or alive, who would you choose, and why oh?
Speaker 2:who could I choose? I'm thinking of some of my heroes. I'd probably choose a politician and a musician. A politician.
Speaker 1:That's controversial. Well, it's got to be a bloody good one.
Speaker 2:Well being of the age I am. I'm thinking of JFK, but maybe not. It's hard, isn't it? I mean, most people would go for a Mandela-type conversation.
Speaker 1:That would be a very interesting conversation.
Speaker 2:I mean the fact that he was stuck in prison for so long 20-plus years, I think and then be able to walk out and still show the humanity that he has. He has that dignity. Dignity was just you go. How does that happen? So, probably he would be one person I'd love to just be in an elevator. With the seconds it takes to go up an elevator Hope it takes longer. Who else would I love to? I think someone. He's someone that has leadership and he led from a position of dignity and a position of where he didn't play the politics so much, and that's what I loved about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, look, because I'm a baby boomer, I tend to like singer-songwriters I don't know. I can list off any number of singer-songwriters. James Taylor is probably one of my ultimate musical heroes. Third person probably someone sporting, I think Maybe, and you know what? He's modern Tata Pagaccia, who's a cyclist, and he won the last couple of editions of Tour de France and, in fact, I did meet him back in 2022. Young chap at the time spoken, but obviously Not a disciplined, not a quick.
Speaker 1:Really Went to Tour de France a couple of times.
Speaker 2:Well, he's now won a four-time, but what I like about him is that when he was young, he was very, very aggressive. He just thought about going. He didn't think about the consequences. Now he's more strategic. He thinks about things now and he doesn't do anything. That is not going to come out without something positive. So, yeah, that would be probably my choices in an elevator.
Speaker 1:Very well-considered choices, very strategic conversations. I would have had between the individuals as well. What's one of the most useless talent that you secretly have?
Speaker 2:I'm secretly. I'm full of useless bits of information. There's a detritus and I'll tell people something and they'll really Okay let's move on.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it. Final question looking back at your career and I mean that almost as if you're done, but clearly you're not done. Clearly, but if you were to give yourself younger self an advice when you just started out, what would it be.
Speaker 2:I think one of my strengths and weakness, if I could call it that, is that when I get into any particular situation, work or otherwise, I give it 100, and that is strength and weakness. Okay, because what I don't do is think about myself and that possibly a burnout number one, and then possibly of what my own future can look like, because I tend to look up, I'm trying to give the best for whoever I'm doing work with or for. I don't try and look after myself. So that's probably what I would say to myself Step back and think more strategically. Love yourself, yes. Think the long term and really and I would give this advice for any young person now whoever you work for will only look after themselves. You need to look after yourself as well. Great advice, great advice, great advice.
Speaker 1:Well, Raymond, thank you so much for your time. It's been a brilliant conversation.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Charles.
Speaker 1:Have a good one to the rear and continue to do so.
Speaker 2:No, thank you. I've enjoyed my career and hope to keep on contributing to the bank and keep on contributing to friendships like yourself, likewise Fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening in on.
