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Jennifer LaForge – You're Leaving Money on the Table Every Day. Here's Why. · Stacked with Jennifer Laforge

• 0:00
  Jen LaForge: Welcome to Stacked.
• 0:01
  Jen LaForge: I'm Jen LaForge.
• 0:02
  Jen LaForge: This is a show about how real people and real brands are stretching value in today's economy.
• 0:07
  Jen LaForge: Not theory, not generic money advice.
• 0:09
  Jen LaForge: We're getting into how rewards, loyalty, partnerships, and digital tools actually work and how they're being used in real life.
• 0:17
  Jen LaForge: Let's jump in.
• 0:18
  Jen LaForge: Welcome to Stacked.
• 0:20
  Jen LaForge: I'm Jen LaForge.
• 0:21
  Jen LaForge: I've spent the last decade building and scaling a business in the loyalty and e-commerce space, working with brands, partners, and millions of consumers trying to answer one simple question.
• 0:31
  Jen LaForge: How do you actually get more value out of what you're already spending?
• 0:35
  Jen LaForge: And the truth is, most of what's out there doesn't really answer that.
• 0:38
  Jen LaForge: It's either overly simplified advice or it's built for marketers and operators, not real people trying to navigate everyday situations.
• 0:46
  Jen LaForge: But if you look a little closer, something interesting is happening.
• 0:49
  Jen LaForge: People are becoming a lot more intentional.
• 0:51
  Jen LaForge: They're comparing more, they're stacking offers, they're using rewards, cashback memberships, and digital tools in ways that actually change how far their money goes.
• 1:00
  Jen LaForge: At the same time, brands are under pressure too.
• 1:03
  Jen LaForge: Margins are tighter, expectations are higher, and the systems behind loyalty partnerships and digital campaigns are getting more complex and more important.
• 1:12
  Jen LaForge: This is where the show comes in.
• 1:13
  Jen LaForge: Stack is about understanding how value is really created on both sides.
• 1:18
  Jen LaForge: We'll get into real stories of how people are stretching their dollars in practical ways.
• 1:22
  Jen LaForge: We'll go behind the scenes with the operators building these systems, what works, what breaks, and the trade-offs that no one's talking about.
• 1:30
  Jen LaForge: And we'll explore how digital and rewards are being used, not just for growth, but for real impact.
• 1:36
  Jen LaForge: This isn't about hacks.
• 1:37
  Jen LaForge: It's about understanding the system so you can make better decisions inside of it.
• 1:42
  Jen LaForge: If you care about getting more value out of what you're already doing, you're in the right place.
• 1:47
  Jen LaForge: Let's get into it.
• 1:48
  Matt McCoy: What brings us here today?
• 1:49
  Matt McCoy: What's the uh goal of what we're trying to achieve?
• 1:52
  Jen LaForge: Well, today's exciting.
• 1:53
  Jen LaForge: Today is the first official shoot for our podcast, Stacked.
• 1:57
  Jen LaForge: Today we're really here to examine the system behind loyalty and answer those questions that have persisted for over 14 years since I've been in the space and help our Canadian consumers at a time when holding every dollar in their pocket is uh more critical than ever.
• 2:14
  Jen LaForge: And we have all the secrets.
• 2:15
  Jen LaForge: So I'm done gatekeeping, I'm here to share, and uh and we're gonna put more money back in more Canadians' pockets.
• 2:21
  Matt McCoy: I like it.
• 2:22
  Matt McCoy: So most people think of loyalty programs as points and perks, not very clear.
• 2:28
  Matt McCoy: When did you first realize they actually impact life in a meaningful way?
• 2:33
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, so the runway, the time frame is not that long.
• 2:36
  Jen LaForge: If you think about 12 years ago, e-commerce in Canada was still so new and people were just trying it out.
• 2:43
  Jen LaForge: And now it's something we just do without syncing, and that's a short time frame.
• 2:47
  Jen LaForge: And over that 12 years, my perspective on value has changed quite a bit.
• 2:51
  Jen LaForge: You've seen loyalty programs who have kept up that speed of change with e-commerce and is now expected to work seamlessly with the overall experience.
• 3:01
  Jen LaForge: But what people, you said it right there, people think it's points and it's perks, but it's really to me more emotional and it's behavioral.
• 3:09
  Jen LaForge: Um, a lot of people want to have that one big bang value, and they got that best deal and that dopamine hip or a society of dopamine.
• 3:16
  Jen LaForge: But at the end of the day, it is about being smart, that behavior of looking for the right value at the right time and putting into practice so that it becomes as seamless as e-commerce and loyalty programs themselves really are.
• 3:29
  Jen LaForge: So at the end of the day, um, you know, value is about saving not just money, but time and effort and maximizing the money that you are spending in every purchase that you make.
• 3:42
  Matt McCoy: Makes sense.
• 3:43
  Matt McCoy: So, how do you personally think about getting value in your own life?
• 3:46
  Matt McCoy: Are you someone who, you know, sta stacks everything or keeps it simple?
• 3:51
  Jen LaForge: Well, so I'm a pro, but I'm also very intentional.
• 3:54
  Jen LaForge: As I was thinking through this question earlier, I I have to give you the example.
• 3:59
  Jen LaForge: I am not the person who is going to sit at a gas station in a lineup for 45 minutes because gas is two cents cheaper here than it is across the street.
• 4:08
  Jen LaForge: But I did purchase my gas gift card with cash back on it, and I will be using my credit card that earns me 2% on all of my gas purchases.
• 4:17
  Jen LaForge: So I'm not wasting time to get that value.
• 4:22
  Jen LaForge: I'm getting the same value in 45 minutes back.
• 4:25
  Jen LaForge: And so it's really intentional and understanding what value means.
• 4:29
  Jen LaForge: Value is not just cents or points or savings.
• 4:33
  Jen LaForge: Value is time is money, your effort is money.
• 4:37
  Jen LaForge: Um, all of these things make up value.
• 4:40
  Jen LaForge: And once you understand that and you see that, it helps with creating that everyday behavior.
• 4:44
  Jen LaForge: That makes sense.
• 4:46
  Matt McCoy: You've been with RacQ10 since the early days.
• 4:49
  Matt McCoy: What did it actually look like when the business was being built from scratch here in Canada?
• 4:54
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, those the good old days.
• 4:56
  Jen LaForge: Um it was it was so fun, Matt.
• 4:58
  Jen LaForge: So we weren't here creating something brand new.
• 5:01
  Jen LaForge: I mean, we were ebates at the time.
• 5:03
  Jen LaForge: Ebates had existed in the US for about 15 years.
• 5:07
  Jen LaForge: But what we were doing is we wanted to bring it to Canadians for Canadians.
• 5:11
  Jen LaForge: So um we were building, I think at the time, belief, not a playbook.
• 5:16
  Jen LaForge: We had the playbook, cashback worked, but how does it work in Canada and how can we get Canadians to really, really love cashback shopping?
• 5:24
  Jen LaForge: So it was about what mattered to Canadians.
• 5:26
  Jen LaForge: And so it was three people in the back corner of a shared office space with a lot of hopes and a lot of of elbow grease, kind of building out this engine.
• 5:35
  Jen LaForge: And, you know, 14 years later, we've been acquired by Rakutin.
• 5:39
  Jen LaForge: We became Raccutin uh to the consumer in 2019.
• 5:43
  Jen LaForge: There is still a large handful of individuals from 14 years ago that are still here with me today because we did build a belief and we turned that belief into something pretty remarkable.
• 5:54
  Jen LaForge: And we get to tell everyone in our personal lives that we spend every day putting money back in Canadians' pockets.
• 6:00
  Jen LaForge: And so startup scrappy, really small inside this largest machine, but really the uh the story is we built belief in the Canadian market.
• 6:10
  Matt McCoy: I love that.
• 6:11
  Matt McCoy: What was the hardest phase of growth to navigate getting where you are today?
• 6:16
  Jen LaForge: I think if you if you've ever worked in a startup environment, it's a very different world.
• 6:21
  Jen LaForge: And we were this startup within this established uh business, but then when we became Rakutin, um, you know, most people when they're scaling the challenges, how do you have that clean scale and growth and make sure that your expenses and your processes don't balloon with your membership and your revenue?
• 6:39
  Jen LaForge: But really the challenge was becoming a global company, part of Rakutin.
• 6:44
  Jen LaForge: And suddenly this small scrappy startup became part of this really big machine with a lot of processes.
• 6:52
  Jen LaForge: And so the challenge was how do we keep this beautiful culture, this fail fast, have fun, startup-y culture in this global organization and still be giving the best possible user experience for our members.
• 7:09
  Jen LaForge: So that that was a challenge.
• 7:10
  Jen LaForge: I'm happy to say I think that we we were able to maintain that that feel here in Canada, um, and we still have a lot of fun and we still really focus on failing fast so that we can we can get it right sooner.
• 7:22
  Matt McCoy: Yeah, speaking of failing fast, you talk a lot about scaling with discipline.
• 7:26
  Matt McCoy: Um what does that actually mean in practice for you?
• 7:29
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, you know, it's um it's really easy to throw money or throw hands uh at things as they're growing.
• 7:36
  Jen LaForge: You get really busy, and so a lot of people tend to, you know, we're growing really fast, we can afford all these things, let's throw it in there.
• 7:44
  Jen LaForge: Um there's there's part of it where there's shiny things and there's so many opportunities, you know, there's this sometimes appetite to try and grasp them all.
• 7:54
  Jen LaForge: But when you're talking about scaling cleanly, it is everything from that app operational aspect to me to the focus in what we're actually delivering to the market.
• 8:04
  Jen LaForge: And so you're not throwing money and hands at to find solutions, you're creating leaner processes, you're creating efficiencies, you're developing your team and their skill sets.
• 8:15
  Jen LaForge: And then at the same time, you're gonna make those hard choices in terms of these are the opportunities we need to focus on now, these we can do later, and these, you know what, by the time uh we get there, the moment has passed.
• 8:26
  Jen LaForge: And that takes a lot of discipline in a lot of different areas, but it's uh I it's a Rubik's Cube, it's fun.
• 8:33
  Matt McCoy: That sounds great.
• 8:33
  Matt McCoy: That sounds like a lot of fun.
• 8:34
  Matt McCoy: You've struck a good balance here.
• 8:36
  Matt McCoy: Um, so moving on to the core idea behind what we're doing here with stacked.
• 8:40
  Matt McCoy: When you hear value right now, what do you think most people misunderstand about it?
• 8:46
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, I think so.
• 8:47
  Jen LaForge: Value, we talked a little bit about this earlier.
• 8:50
  Jen LaForge: Most people think value means something cheap, or value is getting the best deal.
• 8:55
  Jen LaForge: Sometimes it means that it's a lesser product.
• 8:58
  Jen LaForge: But value is about, again, that the bigger picture built over time.
• 9:05
  Jen LaForge: Are you getting the best product for the best dollar with the best savings, not just money, but also the best savings of your time and your effort?
• 9:14
  Jen LaForge: And if you can build um that system in your day-to-day shopping habit, and it takes time, but once you get it, you get it.
• 9:22
  Jen LaForge: That's where value is.
• 9:24
  Jen LaForge: It's not in saying I need to go down a couple of brands or I need to compromise on the quality of this product.
• 9:32
  Jen LaForge: It's saying I still want this brand and this product, so how am I going to make sure that I can do it with the time, energy, and money that I have in my pocket?
• 9:41
  Matt McCoy: What does stacking look like when it's done right by both the consumer and the brand?
• 9:46
  Jen LaForge: Great question.
• 9:47
  Jen LaForge: Uh so for first, friction, frictionless.
• 9:50
  Jen LaForge: There's no friction, okay?
• 9:52
  Jen LaForge: If you're doing it right, it is not, there's no effort, you don't feel like you've gone out of your way, you're not waiting 45 minutes at the gas station, is frictionless.
• 10:01
  Jen LaForge: And that's both on the consumer side as well as on the business brand side.
• 10:07
  Jen LaForge: So on the brand side, it's about creating that efficiency without additional noise.
• 10:11
  Jen LaForge: And so you have that value and you're stacking those savings, you're retaining those customers, but it's not costing you in other areas of your business.
• 10:20
  Jen LaForge: Um, it's just happening, it's working, you've got a strong return.
• 10:24
  Jen LaForge: On the consumer side, the stacking without that friction is you have found the great deal, you have earned the cash back, you have earned the loyalty points at the rewards partner, and you've gotten the additional cashback or points on the credit card you used.
• 10:38
  Jen LaForge: And all of that happened at checkout, and you did absolutely nothing to make it except for an extra click and some smart decisions ahead of time.
• 10:49
  Matt McCoy: Do you have any real-world examples, whether it's in your own life or a client's life or a friend's life where they've successfully stacked and it's made a genuine difference in their lives?
• 10:58
  Jen LaForge: Yes.
• 10:58
  Jen LaForge: So I I mean here at Racquetin, I have an entire team who has stories galore.
• 11:04
  Jen LaForge: Um we compete sometimes in our lifetime cashback amount.
• 11:07
  Jen LaForge: So how much have you earned and how much have I earned?
• 11:09
  Jen LaForge: I think we see it the most in the holidays.
• 11:11
  Jen LaForge: That's where a lot of our shopping and cashback earning um happens.
• 11:15
  Jen LaForge: Um, but one real life example that I like to give is not necessarily cashback with Racqueton, but it's tied in.
• 11:22
  Jen LaForge: So you can purchase grocery gift cards through Rackuton and earn cashback on that.
• 11:27
  Jen LaForge: And then when you're using at checkout at the grocery store, you're using that gift card and you're getting your points, whether it's optimum or whatever those points are.
• 11:36
  Jen LaForge: I'm an individual, and every single point or reward or cashback dollar that I earn in a year, again, I'm building slowly in every behavior I make, and then at the end of the year, it essentially pays for all of Christmas.
• 11:50
  Jen LaForge: So I'm using my optimum points at the grocery store, I'm using my cashback from my credit card that comes in November.
• 11:57
  Jen LaForge: I've got my cashback from Raccuton that I get paid out quarterly, and my gifts are paid for, my dinner is paid for, and I go into the new year with a new email from Raccutin saying I just earned all this cash back on my Christmas shopping.
• 12:11
  Jen LaForge: It starts again, but I'm not in debt.
• 12:13
  Jen LaForge: I'm not sweating that credit card coming on Blue Monday.
• 12:16
  Jen LaForge: Um, it is again become a part of my DNA and how I bring Christmas magic to uh my family.
• 12:23
  Matt McCoy: What actually makes a loyalty program work versus just exist?
• 12:27
  Jen LaForge: That's a good question.
• 12:28
  Jen LaForge: I think it comes down to that friction.
• 12:30
  Jen LaForge: I think what makes Rack Chin uh work so well is that it is so easy.
• 12:36
  Jen LaForge: It is one click uh from our site to earn that cash back.
• 12:40
  Jen LaForge: We're doing all of the work in the background, um, and then we're gonna send you that payment.
• 12:45
  Jen LaForge: The fastest, easiest way is for Interact.
• 12:47
  Jen LaForge: If you have to think, if you have to keep track, if you have to be chasing those points or putting extra effort in order to get it, and I have to give my email, and then I have to give you my phone number, and then I have to give you my firstborn child, and then those are the things that make loyalty don't work.
• 13:06
  Jen LaForge: They're loyalty programs.
• 13:07
  Jen LaForge: There's a store I won't say, it's my absolute favorite store.
• 13:10
  Jen LaForge: I go there all the time.
• 13:11
  Jen LaForge: I will not join their loyalty program because it is too frustrating.
• 13:14
  Jen LaForge: I've tried twice to join it, and it was frustrating, and I walked away from it.
• 13:18
  Jen LaForge: I shop there all the time and I know I'm leaving money on the table, but that's a perfect example of how a loyalty program just won't work if you have friction.
• 13:28
  Matt McCoy: That makes sense.
• 13:29
  Matt McCoy: What trade-offs do people not see behind the scenes?
• 13:32
  Matt McCoy: The consumer often sees, you know, the loyalty program, the points they get.
• 13:35
  Matt McCoy: Um, I guess from an organization perspective, you obviously have to put that together.
• 13:40
  Matt McCoy: What are some of the things that you see, maybe not trade-offs, but just these discussions that happen behind the scenes that make these programs go into effect?
• 13:48
  Jen LaForge: I love talking about this from the Rack Chin perspective at least, and I'm sure it's the exact same in any loyalty partner I've worked with.
• 13:56
  Jen LaForge: The premise is simple, and we work very hard to create that very seamless experience.
• 14:03
  Jen LaForge: But at the end of the day, the machine behind it is very complex.
• 14:07
  Jen LaForge: The technology that runs it, the amount of tracking, the amount of partners and pixels, it's also hyper complex.
• 14:14
  Jen LaForge: And no one ever sees that, no one ever knows that.
• 14:16
  Jen LaForge: And you think, just give me my hashback on my new shoes.
• 14:20
  Jen LaForge: But to make that happen is a lot of people, a lot of analysis, a lot of technology, constant upgrades.
• 14:28
  Jen LaForge: I mean, look at how AI is changing the consumer experience.
• 14:32
  Jen LaForge: We have to keep up with that to make sure that we're seamless and and we're growing with loyalty, we're growing with the behavior, um, being driven by retailers.
• 14:42
  Jen LaForge: There's a lot going on behind it.
• 14:44
  Jen LaForge: So the more simple we make it look, the more you know we're doing in the background to make it all happen.
• 14:49
  Matt McCoy: Love it.
• 14:50
  Matt McCoy: And from uh your experience as a business operator, I'm sure there's some partnerships that look really good on paper, you know, make good for PR, and then some that really work well.
• 15:00
  Matt McCoy: Um, what do you think is the thing that separates that when you're looking at uh you know business relationships and programs that you've built out?
• 15:09
  Jen LaForge: I think um we take the word partnership very seriously in that it's winning together.
• 15:18
  Jen LaForge: And obviously you need to have value, your partner has to have value.
• 15:24
  Jen LaForge: They have they should be somewhat equal in terms of what that value is.
• 15:28
  Jen LaForge: And again, it could be revenue, it could be time, it could be effort.
• 15:32
  Jen LaForge: Um, but what makes that partnership truly, truly work is that third element, that third win, which is your customers.
• 15:41
  Jen LaForge: Are you both committed to the customer first and what you're doing together for them and what you're trying to bring to them?
• 15:50
  Jen LaForge: If you are just looking at your gains and trying to keep that balance between the partnership there and you're not thinking about your customer every second, that that partnership is gonna fail.
• 16:01
  Jen LaForge: Maybe not fail, but it's certainly not gonna hit any records or get any trophies.
• 16:06
  Matt McCoy: That makes sense.
• 16:07
  Matt McCoy: What will listeners start to understand about the value as they start to listen to the episodes of this show that they aren't seeing today?
• 16:15
  Jen LaForge: I think Canadians are leaving money on the table every time they spend.
• 16:20
  Jen LaForge: And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
• 16:24
  Jen LaForge: And I think part of why I wanted to come here and do this, Matt, was because I've been doing this for 14 years and I get asked the same questions today that I did in 2012 when we launched this business.
• 16:37
  Jen LaForge: The same questions about how it works, the same questions about what happens in the background.
• 16:42
  Jen LaForge: Everyone thinks it's a scam because nobody just gives you free money for doing the simplest things.
• 16:48
  Jen LaForge: And so what I'm hoping for is that we open up conversation and we really dive deep into how this system works.
• 16:55
  Jen LaForge: It's not just going to be me.
• 16:57
  Jen LaForge: We're gonna be bringing in industry leaders across the loyalty and e-commerce space to talk about that system so that we can show people where that money they're leaving behind is and help them go get it.
• 17:09
  Matt McCoy: Love that.
• 17:10
  Matt McCoy: So to close things off, what is one simple thing people could start doing today to get more value out of what they're already spending?
• 17:20
  Jen LaForge: So obviously subscribe to the podcast because we're gonna tell you how.
• 17:24
  Matt McCoy: Yep.
• 17:25
  Jen LaForge: Um, but I I I want everyone to uh not feel as though it's a switch that gets flipped, and suddenly you wake up and you are this value-seeking super shopper who captures every point and dollar.
• 17:41
  Jen LaForge: We're gonna start and we're gonna start small and we're gonna eat that elephant one bite at a time, and you're gonna pick one repeat category um in your life, whether it is your travel or your groceries.
• 17:52
  Jen LaForge: We're gonna hone in there and we're gonna learn how to save and earn in that space, and then we're going to continue to build from there.
• 17:59
  Jen LaForge: So by the end of uh, you know, episode 12, you're gonna be feeling like that uh that perfect shopper who's who's gotten every penny.
• 18:08
  Matt McCoy: I'm excited.
• 18:08
  Matt McCoy: Thanks for the conversation, say looking forward to seeing what we do here.
• 18:12
  Jen LaForge: Thank you.
• 18:12
  Jen LaForge: And that's it for this episode of SACT.
• 18:14
  Jen LaForge: If you found this useful, follow along as we interview leaders shaping the future of retail and learn how value really works behind the scenes.
• 18:22
  Jen LaForge: And if there's a topic you want us to unpack, I'd love to hear from you.
• 18:25
  Jen LaForge: See you next time.