Podcasts about Birchbox

Jesse (@jspujji) is an entrepreneur, investor, and executive whose passion is helping people learn and grow through the power of entrepreneurship. He currently serves as Founder & CEO of Gateway and as Executive Chairman of Ampush and MySubscriptionAddiction.comPrior to Gateway, Jesse co-founded and was CEO of Ampush. During his tenure, Ampush grew to over 100 Ampushers, managed over $1BN in media spend, and partnered with brands such as Dollar Shave Club, Uber, Birchbox, and Hulu. He also led efforts in two strategic acquisitions, one divestiture and raising $15M from Red Ventures.Prior to Ampush, Jesse started his career with short stints at both Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. In 2006, Jesse graduated from The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School with a dual concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship, and a second degree in Political Science.He lives in St. Louis, MO with his wife and two kids. Outside of work, you can find traveling, playing tennis, watching Pixar movies, and indulging in dark chocolate.Don't forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel, @travismakesfriendsFollow Travis on:IG

Si vous aimez mon univers, sachez que je propose des réflexions personnelles sur les sujets abordés ici (à savoir l'amour, la nourriture, la sexualité…) dans une newsletter qui s'intitule La vie gourmande.Aujourd'hui, j'ai le plaisir de recevoir Mathilde Lacombe.Passionnée de beauté depuis toujours, Mathilde a d'abord co-fondé Joliebox – devenue Birchbox puis Blissim – qui fut la première marque de box beauté du marché français, tout en tenant le blog à succès « La vie en blonde ». Il y a 5 ans, elle a co-fondé Aime, une marque qui a pour ambition de réinventer le soin de la peau en proposant des compléments alimentaires et des produits cosmétiques enrichis de soins.Dans cet épisode, Mathilde raconte les problèmes de peau qui l'ont amenée à découvrir que l'aspect extérieur de notre corps est intrinsèquement lié à notre santé intérieure, et ce qu'elle déploie, dans sa vie personnelle et chez Aime, au profit de cette santé.Elle explique aussi la manière dont elle a réconcilié son profil créatif et l'appréhension des chiffres, le rôle du beau dans sa vie et les clés de son équilibre, qu'elle tient par-dessus tout à préserver.Mais avec Mathilde, nous avons aussi parlé d'introversion, de management et de floraline.Je vous propose à présent de Ressentir avec la douceur de Mathilde.

This week's uninterrupted bonus episode is brought to you in partnership with First Aid Beauty. Barrier-boosting szn is here and the sensitive skin girlies are gathering to share our secrets for maintaining peak skin barrier health all winter long. Joining us is First Aid Beauty Global Brand Educator, Jenna Haley, who struggled with rosacea and eczema since childhood before learning to manage her routine successfully as a beauty insider at Estée Lauder and Birchbox before landing at sensitive skin authority, FAB.You'll hear about:How to transition to a winter skincare routine that will protect your skin barrier all season long What “colloidal” oatmeal is exactly, and why this humble soothing ingredient has stood the test of timeWhy Jenna has us re-thinking silicone as an effective soothing ingredientHow to treat acne, hyperpigmentation and signs of aging effectively, while keeping sensitivity at bayThe skincare habits that really make a difference, beyond creams and lotions For any products or links mentioned in this episode, check out our website: https://breakingbeautypodcast.com/episode-recaps/ Housekeeping note: You're invited to join us in New York City on Monday December 9th for a live podcast recording featuring the Founder of Jenny Bird Jewellery, Jenny Bird, and the founder of Saie Beauty, Laney Crowell. Hear an inspiring conversation - and take home a gift bag of beauty and style goodies worth $150! Click here for more details and to RSVP (space is extremely limited!) Related episodes like this: The Sensitive Skin Must-Have Products We Use OurselvesWatch on Youtube! The Skincare Products to Save and Splurge on According to Celebrity Esthetician Candace Marino Derm Terms Decoded: “Peau D'Orange,” “Microdosing” Accutane and “Demodex”?! Dermatologist Dr. Samantha Ellis Shares What You Need to Know Before Your Next Appointment PROMO CODES: When you support our sponsors, you support the creation of Breaking Beauty Podcast! First Aid BeautyUpgrade your moisturizer with First Aid Beauty's iconic Ultra Repair Cream – shop online and learn more about all of their products made for sensitive skin! Visit FirstAidBeauty.com/BEAUTY and use our promo code BEAUTY to get 20% off. Get social with us and let us know what you think of the episode! Find us on Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter. Join our private Facebook group, or give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 1-844-227-0302. *Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, all products reviewed are gratis media samples submitted for editorial consideration.* Hosts: Carlene Higgins and Jill Dunn Theme song, used with permission: Cherry Bomb by Saya
 Produced by Dear Media Studio See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kevin Tighe is the Founder & CEO of San Diego based Beachly Brands (acquired) which is the leading subscription retailer of beach apparel and accessories. Under Kevin's leadership, Beachly has been twice selected to the INC 500 – INC Magazine's annual list of the fastest growing private companies in America. Kevin recently joined Retention Brands where he serves as COO of the portfolio which includes Birchbox, Beachly and Alltrue. Kevin is a passionate entrepreneur, startup mentor and non-profit volunteer. Born in Washington DC, Kevin migrated to the West Coast to attend the University of Southern California. While at USC, he started his first business and has been a serial entrepreneur ever since. He has over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, eCommerce, subscription commerce, and entrepreneurship. Kevin is among the select few who qualify as both a visionary and integrator. This quality gives him the unique ability to dream big and then distill his vision into an actionable and achievable plan.Kevin serves on the Board of Directors of Sustainable Surf, a non-profit focused on promoting and restoring ocean ecosystems. He also serves on the Board of Directors of San Diego Sports Innovators. During his free time, you will likely find Kevin at the beach with his family or in the ocean; surfing, paddle boarding or racing outrigger canoes.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:42] Intro[01:35] Building on past ventures and learning[02:16] Finding business inspiration back from the ocean[03:44] Testing concepts with real-world validation[04:52] Assessing margins for sustainable ventures[06:00] The allure of recurring revenue in business[08:31] Leveraging Facebook ads to grow audience[10:28] Pivoting to women's market after strong demand[11:57] Referrals from women's online engagement[13:10] Episode sponsors: StoreTester and Intelligems[16:23] testing market feedback before acquisition[18:09] Stepping into a new role post-acquisition[19:47] Handling distressed acquisitions[21:35] Building repeatable processes across brands[22:45] Focusing on key growth channels for maximum impact[24:25] Embracing the itch to constantly build and innovate[26:07] Learning and growing in new market opportunities[27:04]  BUBS Naturals for supplements and wellnessResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeBeach lifestyle subscription boxes beachly.com/A customizable box of premium beauty products birchbox.com/Curated collection of ethical and eco-friendly products alltrue.com/A capital partner that understands your business retentionbrands.com/Supplements for overall wellness bubsnaturals.com/Follow Kevin Tighe linkedin.com/in/kevinptighe/Book a demo today at intelligems.io/Done-for-you conversion rate optimization service storetester.com/If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

“On fournit des prestations de communication hyper fortes aux marques. On est capable de mettre leur hero product dans la main d'une cliente qui aura toute son attention dessus”.Laurent Kretz rencontre Quentin Reygrobellet, cofondateur et président de Blissim (anciennement JolieBox et BirchBox). Il nous partage les coulisses de cette aventure entrepreneuriale qui s'étale sur 13 années (rachats, LBO, rebranding). Quentin nous explique aussi comment il s'est imposé comme la première offre de beauty discovery par abonnement en France et en Europe. Avec lui, on décrypte aussi la force de sa plateforme dans le retail media pour aider les marques à gagner en notoriété, lancer de nouveaux produits et collecter des avis qualifiés.Dans ce nouvel épisode du Panier, vous trouverez des clés pour :00:00:00 - Intro00:07:00 - Collecter des avis qualifiés de ses abonnés et aider les marques à capitaliser dessus ; 00:12:15 - Nouer un partenariat avec le leader américain pour toucher plus facilement les US ;00:20:15 - Racheter et rebrander sa propre marque ; 00:34:55 - Se transformer en retail media pour aider les marques partenaires à gagner en notoriété ; 00:46:40 - Expériencialiser la découverte de chaque box pour générer du contenu sur les réseaux sociaux ; 00:57:00 - Offrir le meilleur ROI de tous les médias confondus pour les marques beauté ; 01:01:20 - Travailler sa base de clients pour réactiver ceux qui se sont désabonnés ; 01:10:00 - Ouvrir sa propre boutique pour pouvoir travailler avec de grandes marques en s'adaptant à leurs exigences de distribution. Pour en savoir plus sur les références abordées dans l'épisode :La page produit du mascara Clarins sur SephoraEkimetrixJeremy UzanParlons Beauté, la communauté de BlissimEt quelques dernières infos à vous partager : Suivez Le Panier sur Instagram lepanier.podcast !Inscrivez- vous à la newsletter sur leanier.io pour cartonner en e-comm ! Écoutez les épisodes sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify ou encore Podcast AddictLe Panier est un podcast produit par CosaVostra, du label Orso Media.

Sarah Hamilton joins The Founder Tapes to discuss how she founded, built, and advised multiple successful beauty brands in Australia - namely Bellabox, Sand & Sky, Mermade Hair and now the scalp care brand STRAAND.  Bellabox, a beauty subscription box inspired by Birchbox in the U.S., was Sarah's first venture - and one she co-founded with her twin sister Emily. Following Bellabox's success, the two of them really embraced the eCommerce opportunities that were becoming apparent in the 2010s, founding their other brands like the popular Sand & Sky - which took social media by storm. This is a time when Facebook and Instagram were in this sweet spot of engagement, YouTubers were becoming celebrities, influencers would feature products for free and organic reach was at its prime.  In this episode, Sarah will talk about whether there is a certain formula she adopted to grow each of her successful beauty brands; what it really takes to get your product in customers' hands; and whether or not she personally believes it's worth starting an online business in 2024.  We'll also chat about her strategy when pitching and asking investors for money; what she learnt from doing it 10s of times; and the exact things she would focus on when pitching today.  It's a jam-packed one, so let's get into the show!  — Find Sarah Hamilton on LinkedIn Find STRAAND on Instagram & LinkedIn  — Find video snippets from this episode on Instagram and TikTok  Thank you for listening

Join us on this enlightening episode of our podcast as we dive into the world of Adesse New York with Suzanne Roberta. Discover how Adesse blends luxury, sustainability, and cutting-edge technology to create exceptional beauty products that today's consumers love. Learn about their extensive range of nail care treatments, anti-aging serums, and skincare solutions, all formulated with natural ingredients and advanced scientific techniques. Suzanne shares insights on how Adesse utilizes AI and machine learning to predict trends and consumer preferences, ensuring their products are not only effective but also highly desired. With a commitment to clean, sustainable manufacturing processes, Adesse offers beauty solutions that are kind to both you and the planet. Find out how their customer-centric approach involves users in the product development process, creating items that resonate with real needs. Discover the partnerships with beauty subscription giants like Ipsy, Birchbox, FabFitFun, and BoxyCharm that have helped Adesse scale rapidly, delivering millions of units to satisfied customers worldwide. Don't miss this exciting conversation about the future of beauty and skincare. Tune in to hear about the latest products, industry insights, and innovative strategies that set Adesse New York apart. Visit [adesse. com](https://www.adesse.com) to explore their collections and follow them on social media @adesseNY for updates, exclusive offers, and beauty tips. Join the Adesse New York community and transform your beauty routine with products where luxury meets innovation.

In May, Live Tinted turned five years old. The brand was founded by Deepica Mutyala, a veteran of both the corporate beauty space, as a one-time manager at Birchbox, and the creator space — Mutyala has 502,000 followers on Instagram. Live Tinted launched in 2018, four years after Mutyala went viral on YouTube (333,000 followers) for a video about correcting dark circles with red lipstick. That video, which has 10 million views, landed her a segment on "The Today Show," and led to her quitting her full-time job and focusing full-time on the beauty brand. Today, Live Tinted sells the Huestick All-Over Color Corrector, which is inspired by Mutyala's viral hack. The brand also doubling down on complexion products. Live Tinted's Hueguard Skin Tint SPF 50 Mineral Sunscreen Broad Spectrum, which has become a best-seller, was an inflection point for the brand, Mutyala said. She now believes Live Tinted can become known for its complexion category. On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Mutyala discusses how she always knew she'd start a beauty brand and what progress has been made since the BLM movement in 2020. She also talks about why the complexion category has been, and will continue to be, a game changer for Live Tinted. 

As a child, Nidhi Kapur constantly repainted and redecorated her bedroom, but she never thought that she would actually pursue a career in the design industry. In fact, after graduating college, Nidhi worked at major companies such as McKinsey & Company and Google before landing a role as the director of business development at the beauty subscription-box company Birchbox. But when she bought her first apartment and began the interior design process, she quickly recognized a lack of accessible and convenient custom furniture companies in the market. Soon after, she combined her longtime love of design with her deep knowledge and experience in business development to create industry disruptor Maiden Home. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Crafting the Perfect Smoke: Inside the World of Cannabis Accessories with Brian GerberKarson Humiston welcomes Bryan Gerber, co-founder and CEO, of Hemper and Hara Supply, also known as the "King of Cones." The nickname stems from a Forbes article that highlighted Bryan's success in building a $75 million pre-roll empire. Both Karson and Bryan reminisce about their college days and the realization that they are no longer the young entrepreneurs they once were, with Bryan approaching his 33rd birthday.Brian recounts the early days of his business, which started when he was 23 years old, shortly after graduating from George Washington University. He shares the story of how he convinced his roommates to start a subscription box for smoking accessories, despite being called crazy at the time. The business, launched on May 1st, 2015, was inspired by the subscription economy trend, with companies like Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club making waves. Hemper's initial concept was akin to a "Birchbox for stoners."The subscription box took off when they introduced a guest-curated concept, where celebrities would select items for the box, allowing subscribers to "smoke like Snoop Dogg" for a month. This concept rapidly increased their revenue, and within six months, they were processing six figures monthly. From just a couple of hundred subscribers in the first four months, Hemper grew to over 30,000 subscribers.As the business evolved, Hemper faced the challenge of keeping the subscription boxes fresh and interesting. They decided to develop their own products, becoming an authority in enhancing the smoking ritual. Brian mentions the Jolly Pop, a water pipe that resembles a lollipop, as an example of their innovative products.The conversation shifts to Hemper's expansion into retail stores. Brian explains their strategy of leveraging the brand's power to drive traffic to retailers by announcing the availability of Hemper products in specific locations. They positioned themselves as a partner to retailers, not just a supplier, and emphasized their strong online presence, including a significant Instagram following, to support retail partners.Bryan also discusses the company's foray into manufacturing pre-roll cones. Initially, they were approached by Kush Bottles (now KushCo Holdings) to fill a market shortage. Brian's business partner, RJ, went to India to learn the cone-making process, as all cones are handmade due to the fragility of the paper. They now run 15 manufacturing sites in India with about 4,000 employees, producing around 100 million cones a month, primarily for the North American market.Despite the challenges, such as the vape crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Bryan notes that these events positively impacted their business by driving consumers back to pre-rolls and increasing sales.Looking to the future, Bryan envisions moving into automation for cone production and continuing to innovate with product development. He also plans to expand into Europe, with Germany's recent legalization being a significant opportunity.Bryan concludes by offering advice to his younger self and to aspiring entrepreneurs: avoid shiny object syndrome, stay focused, and be willing to reinvent the business model as needed. He encourages listeners to reach out via email or LinkedIn if they're interested in joining the Hemper team, emphasizing the value of taking initiative.https://www.hemper.co/https://harasupply.com/TIMESTAMP:00:00:00 - Introduction to Brian Gerber00:00:39 - Brian's Age and Feeling Old00:01:02 - College Graduation Years00:01:18 - Starting Hemper at 2300:01:34 - The Idea Behind Subscription Boxes00:02:38 - Celebrity Curated Boxes and Growth00:03:11 - Transition to Creating Own Products00:03:35 - The Jolly Pop Product Discussion00:04:22 - Moving to Retail and Distribution Strategy00:07:03 - Funding and Financial Growth00:08:10 - Decision to Focus on Profitability00:08:37 - Expanding into Retail Stores00:11:00 - The Shift to Pre-Roll Cones Production00:13:42 - The Handmade Process of Cone Production00:14:44 - Domestic Operations in Las Vegas00:17:03 - Future Plans and Expanding into Europe00:20:20 - Hiring the Right People00:23:35 - Impact of Vape Crisis and COVID on Business00:25:13 - Brian's Vision for the Next Decade00:26:14 - Advice to Younger Self00:27:30 - The Importance of Reinventing the Business00:28:12 - How to Get in Touch and Join the Team Produce By PodConxWatch Video - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZI8qZy0lKxLO4OTk6P-twKarson Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karson-humiston-64572b97/Vangst - https://vangst.com/Recorded on SquadcastSound Design by Jamie Humiston

Rachel Liverman, the founder of Glowbar, brings a wealth of experience in the skincare industry, stemming from her roots as a third-generation esthetician and her tenure at Birchbox. Her innovative approach to skincare, with a focus on delivering effective results and personalized experiences, has propelled Glowbar to remarkable success. With a recent $10 million growth investment, Rachel shares what it's like to go from concept to multiple locations—and the very real determination and resilience it required.    In this episode, we discuss: 00:04:14 - The Birth of Glowbar  00:10:11 - Overcoming VC Funding Challenges 00:12:15 - The Struggle of Finding the Right Investor 00:19:26 - Financial Discipline as a Leader 00:27:05 - Advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders Connect with Rachel Liverman Website: glowbar.com Instagram: @Rachelista Instagram: @glowbar   Connect with Amina AlTai Website: aminaaltai.com Instagram: @aminaaltai TikTok: @theaminaaltai Linkedin:   linkedin/in/aminaaltai

Je suis Jessica Troisfontaine et vous écoutez le podcast Ressentir. Aujourd'hui, j'ai le plaisir de recevoir Mathilde Lacombe. Passionnée de beauté depuis toujours, Mathilde a d'abord co-fondé Joliebox – devenue Birchbox puis Blissim – qui fut la première marque de box beauté du marché français, tout en tenant le blog à succès « La vie en blonde ». Il y a 5 ans, elle a co-fondé Aime, une marque qui a pour ambition de réinventer le soin de la peau en proposant des compléments alimentaires et des produits cosmétiques enrichis de soins. Dans cet épisode, Mathilde raconte les problèmes de peau qui l'ont amenée à découvrir que l'aspect extérieur de notre corps est intrinsèquement lié à notre santé intérieure, et ce qu'elle déploie, dans sa vie personnelle et chez Aime, au profit de cette santé. Elle explique aussi la manière dont elle a réconcilié son profil créatif et l'appréhension des chiffres, le rôle du beau dans sa vie et les clés de son équilibre, qu'elle tient par-dessus tout à préserver. Mais avec Mathilde, nous avons aussi parlé d'introversion, de management et de floraline. Je vous propose à présent de Ressentir avec la douceur de Mathilde. Cet épisode est soutenu par la Maison Veuve Clicquot, qui a créé le prix Bold Woman Award pour récompenser chaque année une femme exceptionnelle, et ce depuis 1972. Dans le podcast Bold Voices, dont la saison 2 vient d'être lancée, la journaliste et auteure Lisa Vignoli reçoit à son micro des fondatrices, créatrices et cheffes d'entreprise qui se sont vu décerner ce prix prestigieux. La musique et l'illustration sonore sont de Pandore. Le montage a été réalisé par Touch Prod. Et si vous vous posez d'autres questions ou si vous avez des suggestions, n'hésitez pas à m'écrire un message via mon compte Instagram @jessica_troisfontaine.

This is episode #320 and today's guest is Mike Duda, Managing Partner at Bullish. Peloton, Harry's, Warby Parker, Casper, Birchbox… these are all iconic direct-to-consumer brands that have all disrupted various categories that were ripe for disruption. Take Warby Parker, the eyewear company that disrupted Luxottica's business which pretty much owned the whole market from eyewear brands to storefronts. Or Casper, the company that made the process of purchasing a mattress much more enjoyable. A common thread for all of these companies is Bullish. One-part consumer investment firm, one-part strategic agency, Bullish blends capital, consulting and creation to design the most remarkable businesses in the world. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * A discussion on the state of the state of the consumer market and a dive into Function of Beauty, a personalized shampoo DTC company. * Mike's background story and initial career through the ranks in the agency world. * A sincere nod of appreciation to First Round Capital for starting office hours for startups and how they were helpful to both of us starting our own businesses. * The story of Bullish and how they set out to build a different firm through its project based work and investments. * What it's like building a Super Bowl commercial for a brand. * The investment criteria for Bullish and what he means by a “chip on the shoulder” entrepreneur. * And so much more.

Bienvenue sur INFLUENCE CORNER, le podcast à la croisée des chemins entre marques et influenceurs. Aujourd'hui je vous emmène dans les coulisses de la marque Blissim anciennement Birchbox créée en 2011 par Mathilde Lacombe. Blissim a réinventer la manière de vendre les cosmétiques ! Avec la création des boxes mensuelles, Blissim permet à ses abonnés de découvrir une sélection de marque incontournables pour un prix identique chaque mois. L'entreprise joue un vrai rôle de prescripteur. Vous allez écouter dans cet épisode Marilou et Théa qui travaillent en binôme sur l'influence. Marilou sur la vision stratégique de l'influence et Théa davantage sur l'opérationnel en tant que chef de projet influence. J'ai rencontré ce binôme de choc à l'IMK, Influencer Marketing KLUB créé par Kolsquare, le réseau de professionnels dédié à l'influence en France.Dans cette conversation, en plus de comprendre comment l'influence joue un rôle important pour Blissim, j'ai voulu aborder la manière de co-construire les boxes en édition limitée avec des créatrices de contenu. Un dispositif très peu exploité par les marques et qui pourtant permet de réinventer les relations avec les créateurs de contenu/influenceurs et d'aller chercher une nouvelle audience. Avant de vous laisser découvrir notre conversation, n'oubliez de laisser votre avis sur Apple podcast et Spotify, ça me permet de savoir ce qui vous plaît et de continuer à vous proposer du contenu de qualité. Pour toutes suggestions : hello@influencecorner.frBonne écoute,Myriam Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Episode brought to you by More StaffingSam Lessin is a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist who is currently GP at Slow Ventures, a venture fund that boasts five funds and nearly a billion dollars of capital. Previously, he served as the VP of Product Management at Facebook. As a contrarian investor, he's been an early supporter of multiple high-profile startups, from household consumer brands like Allbirds, Casper, Birchbox, Barkbox, to fintech/blockchain bets like Robinhood, Solana, and popular SaaS companies like Airtable, Front, and Slack to name a few.Join 15k founders and marketers & get our pod highlights delivered directly to your inbox with the DTC Pod Newsletter!On this episode of DTC pod we cover:1. Sam's Views on Platform Dependence2. Investment Philosophy and Strategies3. Entrepreneurial Realism in Pitching Businesses4. The Potential of the Franchise Model5. Constellation Software Angle in Business6. Reach and Engagement7. Investing in Niche Creator Markets8. Creator Business Investment Approaches9. Understanding Unique Communities10. Good Business Opportunities11. The Role of Audience and Community in Startup Success12. The Impact of AI on the Creator Sphere13. National Security and Business Concerns14. Sam Lessin's Background and Contributions15. The Evolution of Distribution Strategies and Creator Monetization16. Social Media Evolution and Attention ShiftingTimestamps00:00 Facebook, my college acquaintance, became revolutionary network.05:30 Decade of product development in online identity.09:04 Meta monetizes attention, success in brand deals.12:29 Social media evolved from entertainment to connection.17:06 Investing in creators with strong financial potential.18:41 Investing in diverse, niche expertise for impact.23:20 Starting things requires passion and trustworthiness.24:15 Consider audience building over operator expertise long-term.27:49 AI enhances entertainment, not human influence efficiency.32:33 Email remains crucial, platform choice is subjective.34:33 Invest in contrary, undervalued market ideas.38:43 AI companies are trendy, but often misleading.43:09 Venture capital experience leads to success.44:28 Studio models stack cash flows, creating constellations.Shownotes powered by CastmagicPast guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter here  and our brand directory hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTok Sam Lessin - Partner at Slow VenturesRamon Berrios - Co-Founder of CastmagicBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Castmagic

Jonathan Beskin is the Founder and CEO of SinglesSwag, a subscription service designed to empower single women. In less than five years, Jonathan's startup has accumulated $60 million in revenue. He has been featured twice in the Inc. 5000 list.Jonathan Beskin began his career in banking, but quickly realized that it wasn't his true passion. Despite always wanting to be an entrepreneur, Jonathan struggled with self-doubt and anxiety. His entrepreneurial journey started while he was a business school student at FAU, where he enrolled in an executive program designed for working professionals.During this program, Jonathan studied real-life case studies of businesses with recurring revenue models, such as Netflix and Birchbox. Inspired by these discussions, he made the decision to focus on starting his own recurring revenue model business instead of solely advancing his career. Jonathan chose to keep his current job and devoted his efforts to building his own business in this field.Jonathan shares his experiences, challenges, and successes as an entrepreneur, providing valuable insights for aspiring business leaders. Here are three key takeaways from this inspiring episode:

Jump into this episode with my special guest, Casey Crowe Taylor! I like to think of Casey as my "marketing mother", Casey has lent her expertise to brands like Victoria's Secret, Birchbox, and multi-million dollar personal brands. Beyond her professional achievements, Casey shares her experiences as a mother, a postpartum depression survivor, a multi-passionate creative, and a beacon of wisdom and vulnerability. Her story is one of resilience and creativity.

Jesse (@jspujji) is an entrepreneur, investor, and executive whose passion is helping people learn and grow through the power of entrepreneurship. He currently serves as Founder & CEO of Gateway and as Executive Chairman of Ampush and MySubscriptionAddiction.com.Prior to Gateway, Jesse co-founded and was CEO of Ampush. During his tenure, Ampush grew to over 100 Ampushers, managed over $1BN in media spend, and partnered with brands such as Dollar Shave Club, Uber, Birchbox, and Hulu. He also led efforts in two strategic acquisitions, one divestiture and raising $15M from Red Ventures. Prior to Ampush, Jesse started his career with short stints at both Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. In 2006, Jesse graduated from The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School with a dual concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship, and a second degree in Political Science. He lives in St. Louis, MO with his wife and two kids. Outside of work, you can find traveling, playing tennis, watching Pixar movies, and indulging in dark chocolate.Special Offer for Travis Makes Friends Listeners:Get 16 free meals with the Hello Fresh discount code hellofresh.com/travis16Don't forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel, @travismakesfriendsFollow Travis on:IG

Matt Hertz and Joe Lynch discuss 3PL Selection 101 - A Step by Step Guide. Matt is the Co-founder of Second Marathon, a logistics consulting firm that helps brands find outsourced fulfillment providers tailored to their business needs. About Matt Hertz Matt Hertz, the Co-Founder of Second Marathon, established the ecommerce logistics consulting firm after a successful career building and scaling intricate supply chain operations. With experience as an early employee at Rent the Runway, Birchbox, and Shyp, Matt's journey began as the 5th employee at Rent the Runway, where he spearheaded warehouse operations. Subsequently, at Birchbox, as the 1st employee, he played a pivotal role in scaling the company's supply chain, facilitating growth from 500 to 1 million monthly orders across 5 countries. Matt then relocated to San Francisco to lead Business Development at Shyp. Initially starting his career at a hedge fund in New York, Matt now resides in Nashville and holds a bachelor's degree in commerce and finance from McGill University. About Second Marathon Second Marathon, founded by operators Matt Hertz (Ex-Birchbox, Rent the Runway, Shyp) and Ryan Belanger (Ex-Everlane, Venmo), leverages over 25 years of experience in supporting brands with supply chain operations. Frustrated by the lack of suitable external assistance in navigating the complex landscape of 3PLs, they established Second Marathon as a dedicated resource. Their mission is to guide brands in finding the ideal partner to build, scale, and manage their supply chains. With a deep understanding of the industry, Second Marathon aims to provide the necessary support to ensure brands discover the right solutions and optimize their operations. Key Takeaways: 3PL Selection 101 - A Step by Step Guide Matt Hertz is the Co-founder of Second Marathon, a logistics consulting firm that helps brands find outsourced fulfillment providers tailored to their business needs. In the podcast interview, Matt and Joe discuss 3PL Selection 101 - A Step by Step Guide. Second Marathon helps brands find outsourced fulfillment providers tailored to their business needs. The company has a vast network of ecommerce-focused 3PLs and uses a refined search process to match growing ecommerce brands with the right provider. Second Marathon was founded by two ecommerce leaders who experienced challenges in finding suitable outside support, leading to the company's mission of finding tailored solutions for brands. The company assists businesses in navigating their options and securing proposals to find the ideal 3PL partner, whether it's their first or next provider. Second Marathon understands the challenges faced by brands in supply chain and logistics and aims to be a resource, providing solutions that meet their standards and enable scalability. The company offers to handle the heavy lifting of finding the right 3PL provider, which can be a challenging, frustrating, and time-consuming process. Second Marathon follows a comprehensive process designed to understand a brand's unique needs and identify the right 3PL partner to meet their business goals. The process includes thorough preparation, curation, outreach to potential 3PLs, evaluation of pricing proposals, decision-making support, and assistance during the transition phase. During the preparation stage, Second Marathon conducts meetings with stakeholders, gathers key information about the brand's operations, and determines criteria for a successful 3PL partnership. Second Marathon manages the screening process, communicates with selected 3PL providers, evaluates pricing proposals, guides the decision-making process, and supports brands in transitioning their operations smoothly to the chosen 3PL provider. Learn More About 3PL Selection 101 - A Step by Step Guide Matt on LinkedIn Second Marathon on LinkedIn Second Marathon on Twitter Second Marathon homepage Second Marathon: Sent Items Episode Sponsor: TMSA TMSA: 2023 ELEVATE Conference The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube

On this episode, we talk with John Haji, Co-Founder of the Subscription Trade Association (SUBTA), an organization that helps connect and grow the global subscription commerce economy through valuable resources, data and events.John and his team are gearing up for their annual SubSummit, a subscription industry trade show that runs from May 31 to June 2, 2023, in Dallas, Texas. The gathering will feature speakers from brands like the NBA, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and the Honest Company.John's first foray into the subscription industry dates back to starting a subscription box service called Gentleman's Box in 2014, during the time when physical subscription box companies were booming with companies like Dollar Shave Club and Birchbox.John and his team wanted to network with people from established subscription companies like those, and the idea for SubSummit was born.John breaks down subscription businesses into six categories: Subscription Box, Subscribe & Save, Membership, Media and Publication, Digital Software and Streaming. All categories are well represented at SubSummit.John gives his thoughts and ideas about customer experience, retention strategy, and partnerships with influencers, which is something that has changed recently.John Haji | LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-haji/Subscription Trade Association  (SUBTA) | LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/subta/SubSummit | Website - https://subsummit.com/ Ready to get started with Rebar?Head to  rebartechnology.com  or email info@rebartechnology.com  to schedule a call today.#Saas #subscriptions #subscriptionbusiness #subscriptionservice

Chris is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully invested in and launched eight businesses, two of which have been acquired. As one of the creators of the wildly popular and recently acquired Gentleman's Box, a high-end subscription box for men, Chris has spoken to aspiring entrepreneurs and established industry professionals at events like Digital Summit, SubSummit and several academic institutions such as Columbia Business School and George Washington University. His strong business acumen and understanding of the role of marketing and branding solidify him as a leading force in the realm of entrepreneurs. Propelled by the notion that you can always give back, Chris regularly supports emerging brands by investing in and mentoring individuals and companies that lead with purpose over profit.In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:00] Intro[00:51] What is SubSummit?[01:22] The start of Chris's entrepreneurial journey[02:32] The tech they used for Gentleman's Box[03:10] Launching own brand vs launching on a marketplace[04:20] Relationships and experiences before platforms[05:19] Amazon is always your competitor online[06:19] 3 things you should provide as a subscription[06:44] Finding the initial customers for Gentleman's Box[07:45] Identifying the customer most likely to purchase[08:27] Figuring out where your customers attention is[09:17] Being “obsessed “ at your customer[09:47] Entrepreneurs should ask what the customers want[10:38] The point where you let the customers decide[11:51] How to implement a recurring revenue model[13:21] Example: subscription for a streetwear brand[13:53] An example from the customer's perspective[14:39] Things to look forward to SubSummit 2023[15:50] SubSummit's Hosted Buyer Program[17:05] Learn all about subscription models in SubSummit[17:54] There are so many resources to help you grow[18:19] Sometimes, the only barrier you have is yourselfResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeThe world's largest meetup of subscription, membership, & recurring revenue brands subsummit.comGet your Tickets to SubSummit subsummit.com/ticketsConnect with Chris linkedin.com/in/chrisgcertifiedIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

In this episode, Alan and Amanda discuss Amanda's path to WeightWatchers, how she's working to revitalize a well-known heritage brand by tapping into the roots of the founder, Jean Nidetch, and what she is doing to bring new marketing ideas to life. Amanda tells us her three big focuses at WeightWatchers are rethinking the organizational structure and culture, making data-driven decisions to increase performance, and honing in on their new brand strategy. Amanda also talks about the depth of understanding WeightWatchers has of their target demographic, and Alan learns that he is a Life Craver. Amanda Tolleson is the Chief Marketing Officer of WeightWatchers, where she is responsible for leading the company's global marketing strategy across performance marketing, branding, and creative. Amanda has over 20 years of experience building customer-centric, purpose-driven brands focused on creating unique value for the consumer. She used to say she never wanted to be a CMO because she loved being able to focus exclusively on brand and market strategy, but as she tells us, she thrives most when she is 10 steps outside of her comfort zone, so she threw her name in the ring for CMO at Birtchbox, landed the job, found out she loved the position, and then went on to be CMO of Maisonette before she ended up at WeightWatchers. Now, she is using her experience and love of risks and big changes to shepherd a 60-year-old brand through a startup-paced transformation. In this episode, you'll learn: Why your target audience has to be realistic How Amanda is taking risks to refresh a 60-year-old brand What WeightWatchers is planning for the future Key Highlights  [01:40] Remembering a runaway racehorse ride [04:45] Climbing the career ladder jungle gym [11:30] Amanda's three main focuses at WeightWatchers [15:20] Who are the Weight Watchers? [16:30] Jean Nidetch created a movement that became a company  [17:30] Who is the Life Craver? [21:00] Your target demo needs to be a real type of person we all know [22:45] Connecting through counterintuitive messaging, partnerships, and content creators AG [29:10] The costs and benefits of being a well-known brand [31:00] The benefits of staying in your lane and focusing on a narrow target audience  [33:20] What's next for WeightWatchers? [37:00] The Duck ComposureTM Amanda gained from an early cancer diagnosis [39:00] Stick with the journaling [40:00] the challenge of fostering creativity within the flat hierarchy of ideas in the digital world [41:15] Brands to watch  [42:30] Marketing leaders should work to establish the value of independent board members  Resources Mentioned:  Amanda Tolleson  WeightWatchers  Sima Sistani, CEO at WeightWatchers  Jean Nidetch, founder of WeightWatchers  Deena Bahri, former CMO at Birchbox now CMO at StockX  Denna Bahri on Marketing Today  Prior stops: Maisonette, Birchbox  Baked by Melissa and WeightWatchers  Tanisha Godfrey Chicken Salad and WeightWatchers  TikTok filter and WeightWatchers  TikTok creator class with WeightWatchers  Kim Whitler on Marketing Today  Follow the podcast:  Listen on iTunes (link: http://apple.co/2dbdAhV)  Listen on Google Podcasts (link: http://bit.ly/2Rc2kVa)  Listen on Spotify (Link: http://spoti.fi/2mCUGnC)  Connect with the Guest:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-tolleson/  https://twitter.com/ww_us  https://www.instagram.com/ww/   Connect with Marketing Today and Alan Hart:  Twitter Alan B Hart - http://twitter.com/abhart  LinkedIn Alan  - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanhart  Twitter Marketing Today - http://twitter.com/themktgtoday  Facebook Marketing Today - https://www.facebook.com/themktgtoday/  LinkedIn Marketing Today - https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-today-with-alan-hart/  Post-Production Credits: Sam Robertson Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/marketingtodaySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Offering customers a peek at their upcoming subscription box may backfire: A new Journal of Marketing study shows that when customers preview their upcoming boxes, they end up skipping more boxes and buying less in the long run. Read an in-depth recap of this research here: https://www.ama.org/2023/02/07/the-problem-with-offering-a-subscription-box-and-how-companies-should-or-shouldnt-involve-customers-in-the-process/ Read the full Journal of Marketing article here: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429221148978 Reference: Nita Umashankar, Kihyun Hannah Kim, and Thomas Reutterer, “Understanding Customer Participation Dynamics: The Case of the Subscription Box,” Journal of Marketing. Narrator: Josephine Stein Acknowledgments: Aman Soni Topics: subscription boxes, customer preferences, subscriptions, Birch Box, Stitch Fix, retail, consumer behavior The JM Buzz is a production of the Journal of Marketing and is produced by University FM.

Janis Thomas is the Ecommerce & Marketing Director at Look Fabulous Forever. She is a commercially driven senior B2C marketing and e-commerce leader balancing strategic vision with excellent execution and has worked for brands from Birchbox to Playboy. In this episode... Janis' Background Why Older Consumers are a Goldmine in the DTC Market Unlocking the Secret to Reaching 50+ Women: The Best Marketing Channels Thriving in Tough Times: How to Build a Resilient Brand During a Recession Overcoming the Hurdles of a Long Sales Journey Unlocking Your Business's Potential: The Power of a Culture of Continuous Improvement

She's an advisor, an investor, and a veteran of the startup world....and she was one of my first EVER clients. This week I'm introducing you to the one and only Mollie Chen!Mollie and I cover so much in this very special episode:Working together at a very unique moment in life of a startup.Making big career shifts.The biggest mistakes founders make (and what makes the good ones stand out).Balance work and parenting (spoiler - it's hard).And of course, Mollie's experience working with me in the very early days of my business!Whether or not you're a working Mom, this is one you'll find fun, relatable, and don't want to miss.Interested in more of Mollie's tips for life optimization? Be sure to subscribe to her newsletter, Mollie Says and follow Mollie Chen on Instagram!------------------------------------------------------------------------Attention Working Moms! A special event just for you is coming next week!Join me for a LIVE happy hour to tackle returning to work after having a baby.Wednesday, February 15th at 12 PM Pacific/3 PM EasternTICKETS HEREWhat we'll cover:Preparing For Leave & Managing Your Time AwayYour Baby's Pre-Return Sleep & Eating Checklist Hiring A Nanny 101Selecting A Daycare 101Pumping On The Go & Baby Meal PrepTime Management Between Home & Office Setting Expectations With Your Boss Communicating Boundaries With Your TeamDividing & Conquering Responsibilities With Your PartnerManaging Overwhelm & Avoiding Burnout ....and I'll be answering YOUR questions! On demand recording will be available to those who register and cannot attend live (or if you just want to watch again!).TICKETS HERE------------------------------------------------------------------------Loving The Snooze Button and interested in working with me to solve your sleep issues once and for all? Check out my one on one services, and for the DIY types, my Common Sense Sleep Courses. Be sure to follow along on Instagram too!

This week on the KORE Women podcast, Dr. Summer Watson welcomes Lisa Nicole Rosado, Founder, Creative Director, and Big Idea Generator of We Are Women Owned. Her greatest passion is creating opportunities for women-owned businesses to gain visibility while also making it easy for values-driven shoppers to discover and support them! After a decade as a retail buyer in New York City, Lisa founded a lifestyle blog and online boutique where she partnered with brands like Birchbox, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Spanx. Then, when she couldn't find a welcoming, supportive community for emerging business owners like her, she decided to create one: We Are Women Owned (WAWO).  Lisa is an NYC-born Latina, winged liner lover, and proud neurodiverse entrepreneur. Follow her on Instagram for a glimpse into her everyday life (including cute dogs in her neighborhood), the latest on women-owned small businesses you NEED to know about, and, of course, the magic that happens when women gather to support one another in sisterhood. You can follow Lisa Nicole Rosado on: LinkedIn, Instagram @lisanicolerosado and @wearewomenowned and at the WAWO Website: wearewomenowned.com / Thank you for taking the time to listen to the KORE Women podcast and being a part of the KORE Women experience. You can listen to The KORE Women podcast on your favorite podcast directory - Pandora, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Stitcher, Podbean, JioSaavn, Amazon and at: www.KOREWomen.com/podcast. Please leave your comments and reviews about the podcast and check out KORE Women on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also learn more about the host, Dr. Summer Watson and KORE Women at: www.korewomen.com

If you're anything like the one thousand Americans surveyed by BirchBox in the study below, You need to listen to episode #226 of The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach Podcast.  This study found that:  Gen Zers are most likely to feel burnt out (73%), followed by Millennials (57%) and Gen Xers (54%), while Boomers and up are less likely to feel burnt out (39%).  Just over one in five (21%) have let guilt get in the way of taking time for themselves.  Single people are more likely to regularly make time for self-care than people who are married or in a relationship (42% vs. 30%).  Nearly half (45%) of city dwellers say that they rarely have time to care for themselves. Fewer people in small towns and rural areas say the same (39%).  Sadly, I can confidently say that from my experience coaching breast cancer survivors, point number two is often exacerbated when women are caring for themselves after a diagnosis.  They put so much pressure on themselves to keep things normal, and not be a burden to anyone else. Of course, they're kidding themselves because no one goes through breast cancer while everything in life stays normal.  We have to change the way we think about taking time to care for ourselves if we want to create lives that are better than before breast cancer.  My hope is that this week's episode will support you in taking time to do nothing, and loving it. 

Learn how to find your key differentiator with 26 differentiation strategy examples to inspire your positioning strategy.

EP301 - Annual Predictions, NRF Big Show, Year End Recap This ended up being a slightly longer than usual episode, sorry! If we had more time, we'd make a shorter podcast (to paraphrase Mark Twain). So here are some timecodes if you want to jump ahead: Recap of the NRF Big Show 1:27 Recap of 2022 Holiday and Full Year Results 22:43 2022 Predictions Scoring 30:34 2023 Predictions 54:51 2022 Predictions Recap Jason: NFTs, Web 3, Metaverse, and Ultrafast delivery services are all overhyped and don't deliver meaningful commerce revenue in 2022. Yes Shein exceeds $30B in annual sales, disrupting apparel industry Yes Adoption of BNPL services slows down to less than 15% CAGR in 2022. Yes Amazon opens more than 100 Amazon Fresh grocery stores No Last Mile evolves Veho, X-Delivery, shipium, or Instacart gets aquired No Jason Total Score: 3 of 5 Scot: Amazon launches a competitor to Shopify webstore, possibly via a headless solution on AWS No Amazon wins ultra-fast delivery. Gopuff, Gorilla, or  Jokr goes out of business in 2022 Yes Metaverse gets lots of buzz but no revenue Yes Livestream commerce goes mainstream in the US No Fabric gets acquired No Scot Total Score: 2 of 5 Jason pulls out the rare win! 2023 Predictions Jason: At least 2 retail bankruptcies (besides Party City) BNPL Consolidation (Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay. Sezzle) – at least one merges/exits US or BNPL. Shopify launches an ad product such as a retail media network Meta/Google/TikTok lose ad share to new social media platforms and retail media networks. Live Streaming Commerce Still not meaningful in US in 2023 (less than 5% of social commerce in US) Scot: Amazon uses this 2022 setback/slowdown/reversion to the mean for a public resetting of expectations, but behind the scenes they take share and raise the bar on shipping Shopify is acquired An innovation in e-commerce powered by ai (gpt4) surprises us by how fast it's adopted and how cool it is E-commerce accelerates back to the mean in 2H after a mean regression in 1H. E-com returns 10-15% growth rates. Sephora and/or Ulta move to a subscription model for new product discovery ChatGPT “based on trends and current developments in e-commerce, it is likely that we will see continued growth and expansion in the industry, with an emphasis on mobile commerce, personalize shopping experiences, and increased use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Additionally, there may be an increased focus on issues such as sustainability and social responsibility in e-commerce” Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 301 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, January 19th, 2023. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 301 being recorded on Thursday January 19th I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott showed listeners Jason I was looking in our in my podcast app I'm an iPhone user says looking in the Apple podcast app, we had a review in six months so I thought of the top of the show here we would ask folks if you enjoy the show we sure would appreciate a review if you are in that player you go into the app you find our podcast scroll down a fair amount because we have so many episodes about four Scrolls I would estimate and then right there you'll see the Low Five Stars we would love a five star review or any review that you'd like to leave that would be most appreciated, we do this for the reviews so we appreciate it. Jason: [1:21] Yeah I would just add that makes a great New Year's resolution because you can literally accomplish it 5 minutes after you met. Scot: [1:27] Yeah and you get a dopamine hit and feel feel better about yourself sand Jason and I will be very happy, Jason today we are going to talk about two of my favorite topics so number one you just got back from the NRF Big Show and then we are belated with our predictions and recap for last year's predictions so we're going to sneak that in here we're still in January so I still think we're kind of in the new year a little little close here recording on the 19th but I think we're still in that window, so how I was not able to make it at in our F this year but you did and I look forward to hearing what you saw there. Jason: [2:07] Yeah yeah it was a good time obviously the biggest efficiency was your absence. But for any newer listeners that haven't been there before National Retail federation's in Trade Organization represents the retail industry and and this is their big event every year this is a hundred year old show, that is always at the Jacobs Javits Center in Manhattan in mid-January usually in the middle of a blizzard. Um so so a bunch of things worked in our favor this year during the last couple covid years the Javits Center got remodeled and so. The main areas where they do Keynotes and a lot of the big presentations and content are now like a new very nice facility that's very comfortable. And it was unseasonable e nice weather so it was kind of like 30s and 40s and clear no no snow no no blizzard to have to fly home in. Scot: [3:05] That's good. Jason: [3:07] So that got things kicked off on the right foot and then to me the most exciting thing was just the vibrancy, I don't think they've published the final attendance number but I'm pretty confident it's going to be just a smidge north of their 2020 attendance so, that you know given all the things that went on in the last couple of years being positive against your last pre coded year seems pretty good definitely felt like there was a lot of energy people were really happy to be there, and I was particularly pleased because. Last year was not a great year they tried to have the show last year there was just a big pain demick spike in New York right before the show so a lot of exhibitors. Publicly pulled out other exhibitors quietly pulled out and just didn't show and so you know it was kind of this weird thing where they had. Um you know a somewhat empty Spartan giant trade Joe for where they you know they frankly made a bunch of exhibitors still come in spite of the fact that there weren't very many, attendees for them to talk to, several of the Keynotes didn't show up and came via Zoom so it was it was not a good event last year and I was a little worried that that you know people that were forced to participate last year would be resentful and less interested in coming back. But it appears like we're back to normal. Scot: [4:33] This retail thing is catching on. Jason: [4:35] Yeah yeah it's not going away. So a couple of the big trends and we won't go into depth in any of these but you know maybe some of these will come up as topics in subsequent podcast. [4:49] They're the last couple shows there's there there have always been what I'll call digital shelves like electronic fact tags everybody knows I always like to talk about video displays on shelf Edge smart shelf so that know, um what inventory they have on them and. They get incrementally better every year so there were a lot more of them this year they were all better and cheaper. For a variety of reasons I still don't think 20:23 is going to be the year that they become. Super common in the wild but the tech is getting better a related Tech that seems like it has a lot of new vendors in this space is what I call in-store analytics so that's using cameras and computer vision too, measure Shoppers in the store and kind of like Google analytics for your your store again I'm not expecting huge deployments this year but it's, the computer vision technology is just getting more and more amazing and so that the insights that these things can get from relatively few cheap cameras keeps getting better. Um there's a lot of automation at this show so you know there's the usual. Auto store and perfect pick which are two of the big automated Warehouse Systems but there are a lot of other. [6:08] Startup automation things that could bring automated picking to store fulfillment or small fulfillment centers or. Pick to light systems and gloves like a lot of. Get more efficient about fulfilling omni-channel order stuff so automation was a big theme. Another thing that got a lot of space and signage at the show was what all broadly call headless Commerce, so Shopify made a big announcement right before the show that they were releasing a new offering called Shopify Commerce components and so this is kind of a. Upmarket headless version of Shopify Shopify has always been kind of a monolithic web app that you know was a super good fit for very small start-up companies, um and you know some of which have grown to be quite large on the platform, and they've always had a second offering called Shopify plus which was. Intended to be more Enterprise features but the plus mostly meant more Enterprise sales features not necessarily a lot more Enterprise, features in the in the platform and so this new offering seems like. [7:27] You know a pretty evolved set of apis and as a we've talked about in a previous episode of this show, fine but they sometimes called the mock principles, so they had a big booth that was mostly focused on this Shopify Commerce components, Salesforce has a very similar offering they already are kind of more enterprise-e and so they were there and then there's a, I want to call my startup they've been around for a while now so I'm not sure it's fair to call it a start-up but newer more modern Commerce platform. It's called Commerce tools in the chief strategy officer, from from from Commerce tools Kelly has been on our show before they had a huge presence a big booth and sponsored a bunch of stuff so there were between Shopify Salesforce and commerce tools, you definitely got a strong headless vibe in the show and then for old timers, the trade show floor is divided into three sections there's an innovation Center which is all new startups there we had a great Innovation Center this year was mostly International companies so I companies from Israel companies from France, there were very small startup showing some pretty cool Tech there's the upstairs trade show for which is all the. [8:56] Kind of incumbent Legacy vendors the Microsoft's the oracles the ncr's, all the big players with a really big boost and then the more digital players that you know they might exhibit it shop talk or would have exhibited it at shop dot org in the past, they're in the downstairs exhibit hall and it all this is not true but it felt like this year one of the rules that was in place to exhibit at the downstairs exhibit hall is you had to rename your url to end in dot AI. [9:30] Every every single vendor downstairs. Was you know some some execution of AI and some of them were super interesting and, I think we'll talk about this later but I'm very optimistic will be a big part of the Commerce ecosystem this year and some of them are, you know pretty speculative and far-fetched so so you know a good breath of everything and then I'll sum all that up that's what the floor look like the content you know is mostly, some some decent key notes from from Big retailers and the problem with key notes from the CEOs of big retards is they're not necessarily going to share anything. [10:14] Proprietary or new insightful like it's kind of interesting to hear their their philosophies but like I don't tend to learn a lot that I'm going to use, um in my day-to-day gig from the content sessions and in our f, um but what I do love is talking to all the people in the halls and aisles and by far you know kind of trying to take everyone's temperature that I could I could get time with the overwhelming consensus was, this is 2023 is going to be a really uncertain year for retail that there's a lot of, economic challenges that people are going to be really focused on profitability and a lot of the Retailer's talked about how, um their budgets are getting reduced significantly that the focus is really going to be deploying that Capital against things that can have a short term. Benefit to their cost structure and help them get their profitability up and so I kind of interpret that as. We're going to see a lot more a lot fewer investments in customer acquisition and front end systems and a lot more investment in back-end systems and optimizations. Scot: [11:23] Pickle I got a million questions on Automation in you know kind of the state of Art and my mind is still the key the system is there something out there you think at least on the you kind of mentioned in store but I'm thinking more Warehouse side anything there that's kind of. Jason: [11:41] Yeah so there's two big vendor like so Kiva is Amazon's proprietary system and to my knowledge they don't sell it to others yet do they. Scot: [11:49] No but it's still kind of the state of Missouri. Jason: [11:52] Yeah yeah they certainly could have some point so so you know there's kind of two philosophies of these like big fulfillment center automation. [12:02] Go go get bring the goods to a picker or you know you know so you actually move Isles which is what the key this system does it moves bins, um to a human picker that then pulls them out so the picture gets to stand still or these fully automated systems that like you don't bring things in on conveyor belts and so there's two big vendors, um there's a store a vendor called Auto store which is like a, very dense set of bins that are stacked quite high and they're shuttled around on conveyor belts so it's a 3D delivery system of these these bins, and there's a bunch of big retailers if you've highly automated your your fulfillment center in the u.s. like you're probably using Auto store or their competitor perfect, and so both of those had full live demos at the show that where you know are super mesmerizing to watch because they have all these. [13:01] These bins flying around but then went there were was a lot of startups that were more Kevo like, so instead of like a conveyor belt that ends with your exact products you know in a bin ready to package, um these are things that are like lifting shelves and moving the Shelf to a to a picker so even in that Innovation Center there were several Israeli companies that you know we're in a tiny little 10 by 10 booth, with the little robot that could you know lift up a gondola full of products and bring and move it around a warehouse. Scot: [13:34] Merkel and then from afar I saw Shopify really hitting the we're headless to kind of train which I thought was interesting because they kind of have, you just kind of dip their toe in that water I read it as they must be hitting some headwinds maybe at Shopify plus maybe some churn and realize they had to go into that market pretty hard so I wonder if our friends at Fabric and some of these other places were starting to take some share from. Jason: [14:02] Yeah so I don't know if it's as explicit as taking share I think there's this notion new companies are highly likely to start life on Shopify and it's a. If a family member calls me and says I want to start a business and sell something online I'm sending him to Shopify it's the easiest safest best best way to do it, so there's a notion that those companies ought to grow up and you know either by something else or spend a lot more money with Shopify, and so I think a lot of people looked at Shopify plus and they said oh yeah that's that's for the startup companies to evolve into, and then I think a lot of people are looking at the these Shopify Commerce components in that same way I actually suspect that's not the case, the overwhelming majority of startups that start on Shopify are are going to go out of business, right I just the attrition rate is super high and so most companies aren't getting bigger and need a bigger platform, um the I think what they're trying to do by having a mid-tier kind of mid-market offering is not so much help their existing customer base to grow its to acquire, um a new customer base that you know frankly has a little more proven business model and a little more stability to kind of help them with their Journey a little bit right and so, um I think that was the intent but far behind Shopify Plus. [15:23] Shopify plus never got a ton of traction and they actually had a pretty big staff reduction in Shopify plus earlier last year so. E-commerce components does feel like a restart like they're tackling I think the right problem this time like before they were tackling, the Professional Services that they thought you know an Enterprise client would want in order to use Shopify this time they're there they're tackling the. The functionality and the flexibility that a mid-market or Enterprise client might want so I think this is going to be, an interesting play but I don't think it's so much that Bigcommerce or Fabric or Commerce tools, um stoled customers from Shopify I think it's more Shopify want some of those customers in its ecosystem as well and obviously they have a lot of resources to go after them so that's kind of how. How I interpreted it. Scot: [16:20] We will agree to disagree on the a. Jason: [16:26] As we're about to find out from the predictions I am occasionally wrong. Scot: [16:29] Yeah we all are this is the The Humbling part of this program is trying to make predictions and this current world we live in AI everything was one of the things you have to have a DOT AI anything that blew your mind, you and I had chatted about you know we're starting to see a eyes for example that'll create product detail Pages where you anything getting some traction or is it all just. Jason: [16:54] Yeah so so I so a I think there's a trend that's super annoying to me I'm old and curmudgeonly is everyone knows but like, there are a bunch of companies that are decided to AI is cool and then they're just desperately looking for a problem to solve with AI and so and sometimes they don't understand the space very well or the problems or the economics of the problem very well and so there are a bunch of, AI companies, the I don't find particularly interesting right like there's probably 30 AI companies that are like we're personalization engine to do better product recommendations with a i. [17:29] And personalized product recommendations is super important there are, 15 Enterprise products that have been using AI for 15 years and are the is the AI getting much better. [17:43] Yes but. Like the you're not necessarily like bringing anything new to the party when you're you know a small start-up in that space, um so there are you know some things I don't get super excited about. The AI for inventory management is super interesting like these models that are doing demand forecasting that are doing kind of. You know most retailers kind of have a pretty simplistic model for for inventory balancing like you know what what inventory do I put in what fulfillment center how much extra inventory do put in a store for store fulfillment, things like that and now they're using AI to make that much more robust, um AI promotion engines so you know instead of kind of a one-size-fits-all promotion where hey we're going to do 30% off this product across the whole country, um we're going to you know throw some business rules to an AI engine that's going to decide like when and where to offer a promotion and it's going to, factor in a lot more localized factors and personalization factors and so you know there might be deeper discounts and, in some stores and other some circumstances and others are even in someday Parts than others so so I think all of. AI to improve these existing business processes is super interesting and then the the new use cases. [19:12] I'm very convinced that the majority of e-commerce content the majority of product descriptions we read attributes we read are going to be written by AI in the future like it's gotten really good there's a bunch of benefits to having it read it. I'm about in the old days Channel advisor at a bunch of clients they created product content for and then they syndicated that content to a bunch of different retailers and one problem was that content was the same at all those retailers so from an SEO standpoint it didn't look very unique, and one of the things that a I can do trivially is take your master product content and make 10 variants that are. [19:48] Equally human readable but are unique so that you could Syndicate different content to eBay Amazon and Walmart for example which is. Pretty cool and as we talked with mad about last week, you know Goodwill finds is using AI to onboard all their new skews pretty efficiently so I think it's really good for that and then the last thing I'll say is there's a lot of super interesting stuff around computer vision so both, pulling product attributes out of pictures, um using the security cameras in the store to to do inventory checks and to do merchandise and compliance checks and pricing checks, um and stuff like that and using that that inventory to understand customer using those security cameras to understand customer Behavior better even using computer vision to do better loss prevention which loss prevention, is a really big issue with this show and there's an explosion in organized crime this year and so that you know kind of, predicting crime events is kind of an interesting thing the days a eyes doing so like plugging a i into a camera is yielding I think a lot of pretty interesting use cases for retailgeek. Scot: [20:57] Yeah very cool did you get to see some of our favorite folks. Jason: [21:04] I did I did I saw a lot of past guests I think I made a joke on Twitter which we're going to have to do a separate show about how sad I am about everything that's happening on Twitter, but the. The most common thing that happens to me now is I have a loud obnoxious voice that everyone at this trade show can recognize yrg from this podcast and so everyone is super excited and I get tons of compliments I feel bad that you weren't there because it's kind of, it feels nice to have all these people recognized us and talk about how we're you know an important part of their, there we can help them in their job so I really appreciate that and I want to say hi to everyone I, I did cross paths with at NRF it was awesome to meet you and thanks for for stopping and saying hello but then the next word out of their mouth is where is Scott because I'm way more interested in meeting Scott than I was in meeting you. And I have to say that you're you're too much of a big deal the coming in or out. Scot: [22:04] No just I'm allergic to the cold and had a little bit of work to do on my side the auto industry's on a different cycle than the retail industry sadly. Jason: [22:15] Yeah but they are they are colliding have you like Auto Commerce is going to be a big thing. Scot: [22:19] Yes yes was almost all Automotive companies which is kind of out of never did not have that on my bingo card. Jason: [22:27] Yeah they're going to have to rename it AES or something Auto Electronics Show. [22:43] Yeah as everyone knows my pandemic hobby is trenching US Department of Commerce retail data in Tableau and kind of annoying that in our F ended on Tuesday night, so try to get up Wednesday morning and fly home but I had to wait to leave my hotel room because the 8:30 in the morning Eastern Time on Wednesday the US Department of Commerce published, their monthly retail sales data and this month is particularly exciting to me because it's the December data so that lets us do two things. Look at November and December together and kind of understand what happened in holiday and then it also obviously lets us Wicked January through December and start talking about, 20:22 as a whole year which lets me retire all my 2021 talking points so so that was exciting. Scot: [23:36] Recap of what what did we learn. Jason: [23:37] Yeah so that's about a four-hour show but I'm gonna recap the two top lines in under 30 seconds so we'll start with a holiday so if you add November and December sales which I would argue the best view of holiday is November December January, generate data is not available in a lot of people think of holidays November and December so if we just talked about November and December, and I'm going to take a narrow definition of retail for purposes of holiday I'm going to pull cars out, I'm going to pull restaurants out and I'm going to put gas stations out because it's a super volatile thing that's not very tied to Holiday behaviors so November and December sales were up, 5.2% versus last year so from 2021 which was a monster year we went up another 5.2%, now most people were disappointed when they saw that number, big for a couple reasons last year we were up 13.4 percent using the same definition of retail so. [24:38] You know a much lower rate of growth in last year and most people you know are having to comp against last year and they set their financial goals based on last year, and also in the middle of holiday like especially around Black Friday a lot of, third-party analyst publish a prediction they say we have Secret inside data we have credit card data and we think retail sales are going to be 9% or 12% or you know there were all these estimates, there were optimistic, all the digital guys came out and said digital sales are up significantly from the previous year and the inner F came out with these vague statements and said like more people are going to be shopping on Black Friday than ever before so you heard all this good news around Black Friday which made you think. [25:20] This is going to be a big holiday season and then and so you 5.2 sounds like a huge disappointment compared to some of that over exuberant, but to put that in perspective. [25:34] The historical average growth is four point four percent so 5.2% is meaningfully above the historical average, and I don't want to say I told you so but all of you that attended my webinars about holiday performance, I heard that that I was predicting in that five to five and a half percent even even back then so so there's a rare occasion of me getting it right. Here's the piece of bad news about that whole thing that 5.2% was all inflation so if if you adjust those two months for inflation we were actually down 1.8% from last, so the big takeaway from holiday is. [26:12] It was disappointing it was much more difficult to make a profit on this holiday than it has the last several Prophets, so a lot of retailers came in a holiday with pretty robust inventory levels they didn't sell through their inventory what they sold they didn't sell it particular High margins, um and so that's setting us up for a uneasy first half of 2023, retailers have too much inventory and and not enough recent profit so we're likely going to see a lot of discounting and you know more pressure on on income as they kind of work through all that in. [26:47] So that's the holiday Debbie Downer the full year is I think a better story the full year we sold seven point one trillion dollars worth of stuff which that's the first time we passed the seven trillion dollar mark, that's up 8.2 percent from last year again last year was a monster year, the best year in my my career of retail so, being up 8.2% versus that you know again is a really good story it's a bad news is you pull inflation out of that and we were basically flat we were up 0.2. Um so through that lens 2022 was not a fabulous year but the one thing I would say is, what's really interesting is where is retail compared to before the pandemic and cumulatively, retails up 31% from 2019 so so the full year of 2022 is 31 percent higher than 20, um an average year over the last 20 years in retail for a full year would be up 4.7% so. 31% is still almost twice what we would expect over a three-year kakkar so you know not a, knock it out of the park year but still you know very healthy industry on the backside of this pandemic. Scot: [28:09] So if we kind of you know there's that famous chart you hate and then we reverted to the mean does this mean we're kind of back on the meat. Jason: [28:19] Because it's wrong and I get to make fun of it. Scot: [28:21] Do you love to hate how about that are you hate to love I don't know and the so we reverted kind of back to the mean do you think that this kind of resets and we get back to that kind of traditional growth. Jason: [28:35] I still think there's some factors yet to play out so I'm not sure we're going to get completely back to normal for 2023 I think we're going to, we are still seeing some residual pandemic effects and the main residual pandemic effect we're seeing is. The spending is still skewing to experiences more than Goods so there was pent up demand for experiences, so we're you know we're we're possible we're seeing people invest more in experiences and less than Goods, but we're also starting to see a lot more economic uncertainty especially in the bottom two quartiles and so you know you're starting to see even kind of lower middle class people, change their purchase Behavior you know you're hearing in Macy's earnings that they're saying their consumers start starting to make some, you know economic trades in their purchase behaviors and so a lot of that's going to be. Kind of cooked into this 2023 so I don't think we're quite back to kind of perfectly the mean but I do think the, the ratio of store sales to e-commerce is likely to look a lot more normal this year than it has the last couple of years. Scot: [29:47] Pretty cool and this is the one that doesn't really give us e-commerce data. Jason: [29:51] Yeah there's some loose e-commerce data in there which is why I didn't quote it but next month they will publish the queue for e-commerce data so that will give us. A full year of e-commerce, you know we're starting to use these T numbers instead of B numbers in e-commerce. Scot: [30:21] Got it cool we'll have to do a big show on that one and you can just have a two hours a day spewing data. Jason: [30:28] Why I can describe my charts it's soup there's no more fascinating podcast than listening to a dude drone on about a chart. Scot: [30:34] Yeah that he can't see alright world will put a put a pin in that one and come back to it, on the all right so let's talk about predictions so I had to go back and one of our many interns research this it was back on episode 284 where we did our predictions and as is our custom we like to rate and review the prior Year's predictions and then lay down a stake for the next year so if we go I guess you'll kick it off so you'll go through my predictions and I'll say how I did and you'll kind of chimed in and then we'll flip. Jason: [31:10] Awesome and are we going to do off of yours and then all five of mine is that the easiest way to do okay. So we'll start with your first prediction Amazon is going to start getting serious about a Shopify competitor in potentially double down on headless. Scot: [31:27] Yet this was a Miss as far as I know you know what I didn't see coming was Amazon has had a bit of a rough year in and especially the back half of 22 you know they've done some layoffs they've, shuddered a lot of their physical stores they stopped their plans for big grocery expansion. I'll get that get that out on the record here early and yeah they've even started shedding warehouses so I think you know what what's happened is in this post there's been some really fascinating articles where, turns out they had this automated inventory system and its name is Scott ironically with one t and it. They trusted this thing so wholesale lie that it just went kind of Rogue and did not see the downturn you know this. Track attacking back to the mean and it kind of went Bonkers and so it's a little bit of an interesting case study of AI gone wrong and that has them having their hands very busy with their Core Business and they have not had a chance to punch Shopify in the nose and in some ways they may not have to because Shopify also had a lot of wind come out of it sales. Jason: [32:41] Yeah yeah I agree and I'm inclined to give you a note that too but if I were making an argument that you got it partially right the argument would be that they rolled out a really interesting feature called by with. And we talked about on the show we had a beta tester on the show that was super bullish on it and it's kind of a trojan horse that creates them interesting. Problems for Shopify that like frankly I'm still not sure shopify's figured out what they're going to do about but that went from a pilot program to full deployment. The week before in our F and it was a major feature of Amazon's booth and it's weird they branded the booth AWS but like. The booth was talking more about by with prime than it was a WS and and you know they're not they're not in the same divisions Within. [33:31] Um so you could argue by with prime is partly a Shopify competitor, but in the interest of me staying competitive in the predictions I'm not gonna not giving it to you and I will say, of your Amazon commentary is certainly true, but be a little careful like you know people tend to look at some of that and go oh man Amazon's really flailing like they're really feeling you know it's a huge thing for them to cut back on their fulfillment capacity and you know cancel some leases and just remember, they bought more fulfillment capacity than anyone else in the world has in a single year. The year before so it's it's not like they're getting out of retail. Scot: [34:15] You're spoiling one of my. Jason: [34:16] Find that people over over read into the you know that accurate – news but they think it's it's a more material part of Amazon's business than it is. Scot: [34:27] Yeah I integrated that into one of my future predictions. Jason: [34:31] All right so so we're going over one I like it so far I'm winning that your second prediction is Amazon puts a hurting on go puff and others go puff gorilla and Joker. Don't get out of 2022. Scot: [34:48] Yeah I'm going to score this one a win I don't I think somebody's out our business and I think go Puffs on its last legs if it's did it do a Down Round and layoffs and I don't. I certainly haven't even used it I don't know if it's I'm sure it's still around but I feel like it is on its last legs and I'm increasingly here in North Carolina like in Chicago you've had this for a while I'm increasingly getting offers that say Hey if you if you throw a little bit more in the cart you can get this thing overnight which has been kind of you know I feel like Amazon is really starting to shorten that delivery window in this post covid world. Jason: [35:26] Yeah so I'll give you a yes for that I do think a lot of the instant delivery companies like pulled out of markets or flat went out of business or left the US in 2020 so I think that's fair. I'm not sure go puff is publicly position themselves as quite as dire, as you did I could be wrong but they you know they're the biggest player left standing and and I think they have some some positive and negative indicators. The one thing I would quibble with is it's not clear to me if they are if all this instant Commerce not working is because Amazon put a hurt on them or whether, it just wasn't a good business model than enough customers were willing to pay for. Anyway right so I'm not sure if Amazon was the direct cause of all that pain or not but I do secretly think, Amazon has much better service levels than a lot of people realize you live in a wonderful place but it's. It's probably not a tier-one market for Amazon I talk to a lot of people in cities that The the vast majority of their orders are delivered same day and certainly the vast majority of stuff I ordered from Amazon, I get that order in by noon and it's it my doorstep before 10:00 that night and so that still is different than this instant delivery but. [36:49] I think Amazon's service level is darn impressive and I think you know that certainly you didn't want to be an investor in instant delivery in 2022. So I'll give you a yes. Scot: [37:01] Yes Pooh okay. Jason: [37:06] So your third one is metaverse lots of demo videos no Revenue. Scot: [37:13] Yeah think I nailed this one the Facebook has had a lot of Pi interface for spending an inordinate billions and billions of dollars on the Oculus the sales have dramatically underperformed even you know even moderate to light expectations there's no real use case that's popped out of here and then just generally and then certainly if we look at our e-commerce world there's really not much going on here so this one's been kind of a dud I'm a little bummed because I love AR and VR I just don't think we've kind of come up with the use case I think the wild card on this technology is there's increasingly detailed rumors of Apple having a device and if anyone can figure this out I think applicant but until they do, I think we're not going to see a lot of metaverse updates. Jason: [38:01] Yeah yeah I think this is a category that to me like if people are familiar with the Gartner hype cycle it fits it perfectly like. There definitely is a chance that there will be a version of The Meta verse that's very meaningful at some point but right now it's wildly overhyped. One could quibble with your in precise language like you say no revenue and of course there are some, some novel examples where there's a little bit of Revenue and the one that has meaningful revenue is for the kids is real box where you know it's. Game Revenue it gets its you know ingame credit it's not like you know people are shopping for real world of goods in the environment so there's a few things but I certainly think the spirit of your things exactly right that it's, it's wildly over-hyped and not. A financial driver in the in the near future and I would even argue nobody can even agree on a definition of what the metaverse is a it sounds singular to fight this pack that it's it's quite poor rural. You know a lot of people think the metaverse has to be on web 3 which means it's open and, Roblox is the example most people use the meta verse which is not on web three and you know a lot everybody thinks of the metaverse is VR and a lot of definitions of metaverse so Ike. Do not require VR so I don't know I'm cynical in the short term for sure so I'll give you a yes. Scot: [39:27] Okay. Jason: [39:29] For live streaming goes mainstream in 2022. Scot: [39:36] Yeah, here I was hoping to kind of weasel out with the mainstream so I will point to some successes so what not is a very collectible oriented Marketplace that is all live stream and I think they're gnd is north of a billion it may be closing in on two or three so that's pretty mainstream and then I've read probably 20 articles in the last 10 days about Tick Tock e-commerce and every time I dig into it there's no data it sounds like it's just new so I was hoping to take credit for that in some way but don't think I can so I'm going to probably score myself a no on this one. Jason: [40:18] Yeah so tricky like I think there's some use cases where a live streaming has become a thing and collectibles, is certainly one and it does I guess toy depend on what you meant by mainstream here's the thing the most generous definition of social commerce all social commerce in the US last year was about. 60 billion in total sales and live streaming was likely less than 1% of that 60 billion so I. [40:48] Social commerce isn't that big a piece of Commerce and live streaming is in a very big piece of social commerce so I through that lens, I feel like it's not a big thing and fun fact none of the Commerce on Tick Tock is wives. It's so people do I think confused short form video with live streaming, um and so I tend to think live streaming is overhyped in the US it does work in China but what people don't understand is, that live streaming in China is, flash deal-sales like all of them come with a significant price offer and the reason that you you want to watch that stream when it's alive is because, that offer has scarcity attached to it and that offer is not going to be available two hours after the video plays so you have to watch it while it's being broadcast in order to get that deal, um and you know none of the u.s. versions have really been that that deal oriented and without that deal why have live streaming when you could just record a short form video and, you know 100 times more people watch it over the subsequent two weeks or three weeks or whatever so so for all those reasons, I feel like live streaming has been a little overhyped in the US and I agree with you why I probably didn't go mainstream this year. Scot: [42:09] Yeah I don't know Tick Tock could be live stream it's kind of there's a stream. Jason: [42:16] But it's yep are you watching it when the person talks I mean that's what it boils down to or is it recorded on a server and you watched it days later. Scot: [42:23] I don't Tick Tock I don't want I don't want my get brainwashed. Jason: [42:26] Yeah spoiler alert it's not last. Scot: [42:29] Okay. Jason: [42:33] There is a live flavor on Tik-Tok but it's been quite small. Scot: [42:37] Yeah I'm two for two so I'm Batman 50. Jason: [42:40] So you're to noes to yeses and then your final prediction, is that fabric which is a an e-commerce platform / Marketplace and and the CEO Fazal has been on a show a couple times and you were predicting that they would. What says fabric acquisition so that could mean either that they made a big acquisition or they got acquired. Scot: [43:04] Yeah it was being acquired. Jason: [43:07] Yeah that's what I said. Yes and I met him at the show and I can confirm that he's still at fabric. Scot: [43:14] How are they doing. Jason: [43:15] Really well well I think they feel like, there are well positioned and benefiting from some of these headless trends that we talked about and we had a good chat Faso as a longtime veteran of the industry and ran e-commerce at Staples and and some other places so he's always fun to talk to. Scot: [43:33] Here's a head-scratcher so facile likes to be called Faisal and then we have a guy at 50 that wants to be Fazal so so and you know you know how it is like I know it's I cannot get it right because I always it's 50/50 coin toss but it always lands the wrong way so it's. Jason: [43:52] Yes I'm familiar with those dilemmas I also really struggle with fabric because his company is called Fabric and then there's another company called fabric that make micro fulfillment centers for grocery e-commerce. If you like you can have two companies with the same name in roughly the same space. Scot: [44:08] I give him. Entrepreneur credit because he raised a boatload of money when valuations were super high which was smart if it's enough to get through to the from the peak through the valley to the next week so we'll see how it goes for. Jason: [44:25] I'm knocking on wood you just can't hear it because I'm such a good audio editor. [44:39] It's kind of your historical average right now I don't know I'm. Scot: [44:42] Usually do better than half yeah it. Jason: [44:43] You've done better actually I think that's a down year for you I think it's up here for me and a down here for you. Scot: [44:48] Post covid it's hard to predict what the what's going on in the world. Jason: [44:53] And and as we have learned doing five years of these as hard as it is to predict something happens it's also timing is so tricky like very often we predicted something just in the wrong year. Scot: [45:04] Yeah I gave up on Amazon competes with the other shippers and that one still I still think it's coming. Jason: [45:10] Hundred percent there's a weird cognitive bias where like after you've been wrong once or twice you hate to predict it again even though it probably would be smart the. Scot: [45:18] Yeah yep. Jason: [45:20] I'm with you all right well let's see if I can hang with you at all. Scot: [45:21] Alright let's see how you did yeah so your first prediction was you love web 3 you're going to mortgage your house put all your money in FTS and this token that you were super excited about that was going to the mood called FTX how'd that work out for you. Jason: [45:40] It worked out better for Michael investor Tom Brady than it did for me. Scot: [45:44] Well I don't know he's in pretty rough rough time right now. Jason: [45:49] Neither of us are having our best years. Scot: [45:50] Butts. Jason: [45:53] I'll be different reasons but I feel like you might have slightly misstated the spirit of my prediction. Scot: [45:59] Oh yeah I misread this so it says in FTS web 3 meta 15-minute delivery will be Duds less and ft dollar transactions will happen in 21 verses 22. Jason: [46:12] Yeah so I was down I didn't think any of those things would be a big deal this year I guess one of those kind of overlap with you because you also didn't think instant delivery would be a big deal. And I don't think any of them were a big deal we've covered them pretty exhausted lie but in order to make this a fair prediction I tried to put something that was more measurable and so I said in Ft transactions will be down in 2022 from 2021 and. I got to be honest I looked it up before the show and so the good news is I'm right. In Ft transactions gmv for an ftes and in the u.s. in 2021 was 25 billion 25 Point 1 billion and this year it was twenty four point seven billion so just barely down and I have to be honest, I feel like I dodged a bullet because. The way you buy an mft is with a cryptocurrency and the two main cryptocurrencies are each less than half their value. From the beginning of the year and so you would think like, in Ft transaction should be way down just because the value of the underlying currencies is way down but you know apparently like despite the fact that it's not a mainstream thing it grew enough that I was I almost ended up being. Wrong on my on my number but that's a long-winded way of saying I feel like that's a yes. Scot: [47:32] Got it cool so we'll give you a yes prediction to here in North Carolina we call it Sheen you fancy City people call it she in your prediction was that they would do over 30 billion more than double the previous year so since we're a year off so you predicted in 2022 they would double a guest from 2020 1.15 billion you check this close and I do so I'm gonna have you self-regulate this one. Jason: [48:00] Yes I nailed it like almost to the penny except that you know they're not a public company so we don't we don't really know the revenue but that estimates for for 20 21 where 15 billion so I predicted 30 billion in 2022 they did a raise in March or may of May of 2022 and they disclosed during that raised that halfway less than halfway through the year they were already at 16 billion in Revenue, year to date, so I was tracking really well and they're doing another raised right now as we speak and their side note taking a ginormous haircut on that race so the, the May raise was that a hundred billion dollar valuation the razor trying to do right now is it 64 billion, um but they disclosed in the in the deal docks for this raise that they finished the year at 30 billion which is, means that their sales significantly decelerated in the second half of the year but it means my prediction was exactly right. Scot: [49:04] Very good congrats on that one. Jason: [49:06] Yeah and we could be out of time and not do the other other predictions if you want. Scot: [49:10] Well there's one country showing let's jump into this one so your third prediction was buy now pay later which we call B and P L is going to lose momentum it had 29 percent growth and 21 and you said it would slow to sub 15 and 22. Jason: [49:28] Yeah and so it depends on exactly what math you're using but the actual growth rate in 2022 is 48.6% so is that is that more or less than 15. Scot: [49:39] I find that hard to believe. Jason: [49:41] I do too I was surprised. Scot: [49:44] Yeah no I think I'm gonna give you this one because you know the stocks on all these are down clar NE is on life support and I don't know I feel like these guys the the largest, kind of tie up was Peloton and buy now pay later and you know Peloton is had a really rough go of that in 22 and took all you know down the biggest buy now pay later operator with a firm so I feel like he just was a yes. Jason: [50:17] Okay well I'm not gonna argue with you I feel like they got a lot of, negative momentum for a variety of reasons in in 2022 and right now we're seeing their valuations go way down because their default rates are starting to go up and what I'm noticing is, they're all trying to Pivot out of buy now pay later into other, other retail services but like depending on how much of a stickler you might be like they still apparently sold a lot of stuff on buy now pay later last. I'll take the yes or at least I'll take a half a yes. Scot: [50:48] I'll give you the win but I'll scold you for bad predicting like never get specific with percentages. Jason: [50:53] I know I know well I was I feel like so many people make these like lame predictions that I was trying to be super specific but I agree that was that was dumb alright thanks man you should great all my stuff. Scot: [51:02] Now this next one is kind of a Whopper so this is this is kind of my favorite so you predicted Amazon would open 100 grocery stores how's that one going. Jason: [51:15] It's great they opened one store and that store opened 365 times. But if you're doing store count. I missed it pretty substantially that I think they have 44 stores in the US and 17 stores in the UK so well short of 100, the end and I'm way less optimistic that they're going to invest in that that concept, now than I was a year ago when I made this prediction so that's definitely a no the only fun fact is compared to any other retail Concept in Amazon this one did pretty well because they literally closed every other one, and they're they're laying off a ton of the retail people like right now as we speak unfortunately so. So I think that's a clear no it does not seem like the immediate future for Amazon is in brick and mortar. Scot: [52:07] Yeah yeah they've really pulled in the horns on that one. Jason: [52:11] Fun fact then this means nothing no one should interpret this but Amazon close their bookstores in 2022 and Barnes and Noble was opening new book store some joint too so I think there was a time when we would have said that could never happen. Scot: [52:25] Yeah one of these is not going to be going well okay your last prediction was that last you there would be a last mile delivery acquisition of some kind you mentioned instacart v0x delivery and ship iam. Jason: [52:41] Yeah and none of them were acquiring so I think, I miss this I mean if you go deep cut enough I found there's a couple like four million dollar transactions that happen but none of the name ones did anything there they did some fundraising the the premise behind this, this prediction last year was, that one of the ways that a lot of e-commerce sites deliver packages is not exclusively through FedEx UPS in u.s. post office, that increasingly they're using a Federation of a bunch of small last-mile companies and that often there's a middle man that's helping aggregate all those small a smile companies that make it easier to ship with them, and so my thought was that's becoming a more important. [53:27] Part of the e-commerce echo system that somebody's going to try to make a big play there and kind of roll some of them up or acquire some of them and and you know kind of add them together and make something more valuable, um and it didn't happen last year and what's interesting is, Fedex rates and UPS rates are going way up this year like one of the conversations I had with a lot of e-commerce sites, last year was that their last mile costs are going up at an untenable rate so this. This methodology is becoming more important and more popular so this is a classic example, if I were smart I should probably take this this prediction and double down again on it for this year but spoiler alert I did not do that I just took the no and I moved on. Scot: [54:12] All right so out of your five you had sixty percent so you had three correct and to wrong so you you win the year so congratulations you get the virtual trophy you get an mft, ironically you get the nft the Jason Scott exclusive one of one in Ft. Jason: [54:38] I'm super excited about that for all our listeners I only accept in ft's that are minted on proof of stake blockchains I don't accept proof-of-work blockchains because they're an ecologically. Scot: [54:51] So it's Solana for you all right I know we're Up Against Time the shows always go a little long so I'm going to kind of lightning round my predictions for 2023. [55:15] All right so number one Amazon uses the this 2022, perceived setback that I think's way overblown you kind of mentioned it at the top and, I think what's going to happen is sure e-commerce is going to revert to the mean but under the hood I feel like they're going to be taking share at a really aggressive clip, the reason to borrow on shipping the selection of things that are near you is going up, I have through my day job I can see that they are making a lot of good changes with last mile delivery they're still putting a lot of effort into that and improving it and making it better all the time so so basically I think they're going to you know if I have to, get a little more specific I think they're going to take a fair amount of share in 2023 from the rest of e-commerce so they already are like more than half of e-commerce and I think they grab a chunk so that's kind of how I would measure this is what percentage of e-commerce Amazon has and I think they're going to take, pretty good chunk. Jason: [56:19] I like it cool. Scot: [56:20] That's my first one number two is I think Shopify is going to be acquired you know so I think they're doing this headless thing the first party piece hurts them and a lot of you know Facebook so that's a natural Binding Together they're there we're going to talk about it in a future show but they're kind of they have never really executed on this idea of a Marketplace they've had a lot of weird cultural things where they talked about getting rid of meanings and then like their hole. Admin interface was down for days it feels like something's going on they've had a lot of people a lot of turnover they've gone totally virtual I'm not a fan of that I think it's hard to be super Innovative and have to whatever the world changes have to hop on a DSM calls to figure out what everyone's thinking so I think I think they're they definitely we've hit Peak Shopify probably you know in 2021 and this is when it starts to be time maybe some people say hey this wouldn't be a bad time to to tap out here, we'll see. Jason: [57:24] Wow that's awesome one just quick curiosity one problem is the valuation like while it's gone down a lot is still pretty high like so the pool of acquirers is pretty small or are you thinking the valuations going to keep going down low enough that there's. That more people might take a shot at it. Scot: [57:42] Yeah I think I think even at this valuation there's probably three or four acquirers and I think the valuation could go down further. Jason: [57:48] All right cool I like I love the big bold ones. Scot: [57:51] Yeah you're going to hate this next one so this one is where everyone thinks AI is hype I'm thinking there's going to be a big innovation we don't see it from these new AI engines specifically right now the state of the artist G PT 3, I know people have seen GPT for and they all can't express enough how game-changing it's going to be so I think there's going to be something in the e-commerce world not this is like so it has to be kind of a big idea so I can't be just like a chatbot or like another recommendation engine but I think there's gonna be something kind of, big here that's hard, it's so different that it could be hard to I can't tell what it's going to be but I think something big is going to happen here that kind of makes our heads explode so that's my prediction that we actually see a really, disruptive piece of technology kind of AI that impacts the e-commerce world. Jason: [58:47] Okay I like it I don't have a other than it's going to be higher so you hard to measure but I guess we'll know it when we see it. Scot: [58:56] Yeah. Yeah and then since we've got great each other gives you a lot of fodder to push against ich number for e-commerce is going to accelerate back so I think and the first half will have these recessionary wins I'm a eternal optimist you're typically on the pessimist I think we'll have a soft Landing maybe we don't have much of a recession and then in the back half will be kind of through this post covid Hayes hopefully I think part of this prediction in Furs that inflation will will kind of get under control and we'll see e-commerce go back to kind of its average growth rate which has been historically 15 percentage so that's my prediction there. Jason: [59:38] Okay yeah I think they're a bunch of people that are like kind of e-commerce growth is tapped out which is I think they're wildly wrong so I certainly take the bullish side of that one for you. Scot: [59:50] Yeah and then this one I have to give props to my daughter I was she was looking over my shoulder and I was doing these and she said I have one and I said you don't understand the stakes I've got to be Jason because I did bad this year and she said I don't care I'm 16 and I spend a lot of time at Sephora and Ulta this is her speaking not me I also do because I'm with her but now she can drive so I'm spending less time there and I think they're going to come out with some kind of a subscription model so, there you go I don't know any specifics but that is her hot take. Jason: [1:00:21] Okay and and by that you don't mean they're going to transition their whole business to a subscription you mean they're going to add some kind of subscription offering okay. Scot: [1:00:28] Yeah yeah and you know I was thinking you know what was that one there was a box that was Beauty used Beauty Box every over the name of that. Jason: [1:00:38] Yeah there. Scot: [1:00:39] I don't think I made it yeah and I said you mean like that. Jason: [1:00:43] Box is that what. Scot: [1:00:44] Birchbox well very good man yeah old school way to pull that one out and she said no it'll be more like I can go to the store and they'll I can I can pick up kind of like they'll pull stuff for me that comes in and I could just go to the store and it'll be already there for you. To understand. Jason: [1:01:05] Clarifying question because far be it for me like I want to learn to like and your daughter certainly have the future behavior that neither of us understand yet. Is she thinking like that in the same way that Birchbox was kind of a discovery thing she's thinking this is some kind of. Discovery thing of new products because I actually think Sephora already has a like you know if you use this amount of moisturizer will automatically send you a new thing a moisturizer every three months. Scot: [1:01:35] This was tied more to influence your site so I think there's these influencers and they each have kind of staked out you know there each store has a set of influencers and I think she's starting to see them come out with seasonal products kind of like a yeah and I think that it'll be a subscription to that kind of thing. Jason: [1:01:52] That makes total sense that would be new and I. Could seem cool a lot of the traditional subscriptions lately have not done as well as some of us might have expected but so yeah this this will be interesting kind of like the next gen of those Discovery boxes. Scot: [1:02:09] One thing I did notice in my last six I think this is for they have a end cap that says inspired by Tick-Tock and it's always empty. And as estimate I was like are they she's like oh every time they put something there so I was up and I was like wow that's pretty amazing. Jason: [1:02:28] The Tik Tok made me buy it in cap. [1:02:38] I'm 100% with you social commerce is a thing and it's mostly not about people ordering stuff on Tick Tock it's about people discovering stuff on Tick Tock and then buying it from Sephora. Scot: [1:02:47] I know I was trying to get some partial credit. Jason: [1:02:51] Yeah I like it though all right I think those are great. Scot: [1:02:54] And then in the spirit of my third prediction which was a I will change the world I actually asked chatgpt to make a prediction and it said. Chatgpt: [1:03:04] Based on Trends and current developments in e-commerce it is likely that we will see continued growth and expansion in the industry with an emphasis on mobile Commerce. Personalized shopping experiences and increased use of Technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Additionally there may be an increased focus on issues such as sustainability and social responsibility in e-commerce. Scot: [1:03:30] And when it said that I was thought I thought you were punking me I thought you were on the other side of the chat because I was like that's exactly what someone at publicist would say. Someone with a really long title like eight words that's the exact kind of synergistic linguistic word salad that they would they would throw out. Jason: [1:03:52] Yeah there's nothing super tangible in there but it sounds really good That's a classic chatgpt answer. Scot: [1:03:58] So one way my my one prediction could come true as if you're replaced by an AI so I'll just I'm not that's not a prediction is just one way I could cheat my prediction. Jason: [1:04:08] So fun fact is some people know I have a Forbes column and my my most recent Forbes article was about the demise of e-commerce being overhyped. Often I read those articles from scratch myself sometimes I write an outline or a first draft and I send it to a pupusas copywriter and they send me back a first draft and then I edit it and. When I do that I have to do a lot of work because of the copywriters are really talented writers and use proper English and I'm really. Less sophisticated so to put it in my. In my voice I have to change it a lot so this most recent Forbes article I had chatgpt writer and I said write a Forbes article in the voice of Jason Goldberg that has this title and makes these Five Points. Um and so it didn't really do any research for me it didn't like pick any of the answers because I gave it all the answers in my prompt and the data I wanted to support it. It was kind of like I handed it my outline and had it right the first draft in my voice and it was way closer to exactly what I wanted then the ones I get from the copywriter so I probably will never write a first draft from scratch again. Scot: [1:05:25] Does that mean that copywriters going to lose their job. Jason: [1:05:28] No she's gonna move to higher value stuff from now the actual smart people to do some good with proper English. Scot: [1:05:36] Unrelated we going to have a new new podcast host. Jason: [1:05:42] The yeah that we're way over on time but like the the really scary one is these awesome avatars that can make, I can learn your voice and then sound perfectly like your voice are now out in the wild from several companies including Adobe and, and I conveniently have 3:00 of my own voice and your voice on wreck so I think I can make the two of us say anything we. Scot: [1:06:07] Yep I think again. Jason: [1:06:09] Awesome all right well those all seem like good predictions that seems like you have a very viable chance of coming back and getting your nft trophy back for me, I will whip through mine, I suffered greatly because we are recording this late I wrote my predictions of the beginning of the year and I said Party City and Bed Bath and Beyond are going to declare bankruptcy, and unfortunately pretty soon declared bankruptcy yesterday in Bed Bath and Beyond hasn't cleared yet but they've announced publicly that there, they're likely to so I can't really use that prediction but I'm going to say that there are going to be at least two other retail bankruptcies besides Party City in the in the space this year, um you know I think Bed Bath and Beyond is likely to declare bankruptcy but I also think we might see some of the kind of model-based apparel retailers or. There's a few other other retards I have my eye on so I do think we're

Casey Brown shares vulnerably about the realities of self-care as a trans person, from being misgendered to the struggle of public bathrooms, as well as some of the unique learnings about skincare, shaving, and more as they began hormone therapy last year. We learned a lot from Casey and hope you will give a listen to understand more about the realities of trans people and how to be an ally. In this episode we talked about: Birch Box for Men Sprezza Box MeUndies Self-harm rates among trans people George Red: A Crayon Story

MLOps Coffee Sessions #131 {Podcast BTS} with Ethan Rosenthal, Let's Continue Bundling into the Database co-hosted by Mike Del Balso. // Abstract The relationship between ML Engineers and Product Managers is something that we don't talk about enough. We've got to get this right. If we don't get this right, either you're not focusing on the business problems in the right way or the Product Managers are not going to understand the tech appropriately to help make the right decisions. // Bio Ethan works on the Conversations Team at Square leading a team of Artificial Intelligence Engineers. Ethan's team builds applied AI solutions for Square Messages, a messaging hub for Square merchants to communicate with their customers. Prior to Square, Ethan spent time as a freelance data science consultant building machine learning products for a range of companies, from pre-seed startups to Fortune 100 enterprises. Ethan got his start in data science working at two different e-commerce startups, Birchbox and Dia&Co. Before data science, Ethan was an actual scientist and got his Ph.D. in experimental physics from Columbia University. // MLOps Jobs board https://mlops.pallet.xyz/jobs // MLOps Swag/Merch https://mlops-community.myshopify.com/ // Related Links https://www.ethanrosenthal.com/ Relevant blog posts: https://www.ethanrosenthal.com/2022/05/10/database-bundling/ https://www.ethanrosenthal.com/2022/07/19/materialize-ml-monitoring/ https://www.ethanrosenthal.com/2022/01/18/autoretraining-is-easy/ --------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ------------- Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Catch all episodes, blogs, newsletters, and more: https://mlops.community/ Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldelbalso/ Connect with Ethan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanrosenthal/ Timestamps: [00:00] Ethan's preferred coffee [00:10] Introduction to co-host Mike Del Balso [00:43] Takeaways [04:10] Sign up for our newsletter! [04:47] Ethan's team [06:49] Ethan's team improvement [08:40] Product manager role at Square [10:39] Large Language Models [12:22] Big questions to figure out [15:45] Cost of false-positive [18:20] Company Vocabulary [20:11] MLOps concerns and challenges around Large Language Models [23:42] Data learning management [27:36] Leveling trade-offs [30:25] Ethan's Database Bundling blog [34:32] Feature Stores [38:24] Streaming databases [41:57] Best of both worlds trade-off highlight [43:51] Rosenthal data [46:40] Ethan's freelancing [47:46] Risk-reward trade-off [49:17] Ethan as a professor [51:14] Wrap up

Hiiii! :) Today let's discover some of the triggers from previous videos requested by you ♥ It's a very easy going and laid back video, I hope that's ok! 00:00 Glass Honey Bowl 04:24 Remote (not requested, lol) 05:23 Glass Bottles with Oil (chimes like sound) 08:23 Crinkly Towel 11:40 Train Wheels (beads like sound) 14:21 Birch Box 15:41 Sparkle Tubes 18:18 Box tapping 19:37 Pink Comb in Plastic (the legendary) :D Thank you! #ASMR #GentleWhispering #relax 5/18/20 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/maria-gentlewhispering/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/maria-gentlewhispering/support

Janis Thomas is ex-Birchbox and the eCommerce and Marketing Director at Look Fabulous Forever, the innovative cosmetics and skincare brand designed to meet the needs of older women. They're a UK DTC brand selling globally to customer base often ignored by the DTC world, who they're serving via a Magento site. Founded in 2013, Janis has been driving the growth strategy for just over 2 years, they're currently doing millions a year, and working towards double figure millions. We talk through her 5 part Growth Strategy, including tips on getting the team culture right, growing Life Time Value, You Tube marketing, listening to your customers effectively AND CRO! Get all the links and resources we mention at https://ecommercemasterplan.com/podcast/?utm_source=captivate&utm_medium=episodenotes (eCommerceMasterPlan.com) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

In this episode of the Decoding Excellence Show, I'm discussing some of the new things we're doing around University of Colorado Boulder. It's been some time since I've been behind the microphone and I'm just dusting off the thing. We talk about some of the new technologies we're utilizing within our athletic department, some of the new pre-participation athlete benchmarking we're conducting, and a general run-down of our summer staff. It was a fun show where I break out the microphone and headphones and get rapping about what's on my mind. If your a fan of sports performance technologies, it's usage within high performance sport organizations, I think you'll get A LOT out of this show. As a reminder, our Random Shows shows are a quick 15-25 minute episode where I typically discuss current industry trends, research reads, current events, and occasionally offer my insights into the training process that we're undertaking each week. I believe with conviction, you'll take away something interesting from this show and I hope it delivers you a little bit of value in your day. As always, thank you for supporting The Decoding Excellence Show! In addition to those social mediums, you can head over to AdamRingler.com/Newsletter and sign-up for my weekly newsletter. This is a newsletter for the curious. It's chalked full of interesting articles I've read through the week, things I'm exploring and finding fascinating through my week, and a collections of thought experiences and resources I've cultivated. It's essentially a Birchbox for performance-related articles and musings. If you are looking to help grow and support the Decoding Excellence show, navigate over to Buy Me a Coffee. Buy Me A Coffee is a an easy & fun way to support the show. For the price of a Grande Latte ☕ you can support the show and help us maintain the quality of the content. One hundred percent of the contributions go directly to supporting the hosting fees associated with operating this podcast. If any of the material resonates with you, I'd love for you engage with me at @AdamRingler Thanks again for listening to the Decoding Excellence Show! I appreciate all the support growing this Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning, and High-Performance Coaching resource. If you have taken anything away from the show, please login to iTunes and navigate to Decoding Excellence page and leave us a review.

Hair and skincare entrepreneur talks honoring the authentic middle-aged woman Angel Cornelius was 57 when she left her lifelong career in healthcare management to start her own premium beauty products company. Here, the founder and CEO of Maison 276 discusses how she built her business as a middle-age Black woman—and shares her dream that soon all women will come to appreciate the benefits of midlife rather than feel pressured to re-capture their youth.  Angel tells Women on the Move host Sam Saperstein that she wasn't looking to become an entrepreneur when she started inventing beauty products—she was just looking for something that would work better for her than the commercial products she kept cycling through. “Honestly, I was solving for personal pain points,” she says. When her hair turned grey early she soon got fed up with moving between “purple” products to make her hair more “vibrant” and other products to tone down that vibrancy.  She started mixing her own hair products at home in her sink. “What I wanted was just one system, one set of products to just wash my hair, adding no unwanted color and also solving for the fact that our hair is just like our skin,” she recalls. “It changes as we mature and women often think there's something wrong and no, there's absolutely nothing wrong. It's just different hair.” Before long she was using her leftover haircare ingredients to make similar skincare products. And not too long after that she started sharing her products with friends and family and soon had to open an Etsy store to keep up with demand. Big breaks in the beauty biz Angel tells Sam that her first big break came when she was discovered by ESSENCE through one of her son's friends, an original employee of the beauty subscription company Birchbox; they wanted to include one of her homemade beauty butters in a package. Angel said yes before she realized that they would need at least 10,000 units to start. “I tell people all the time, it's a good thing we didn't have zoom back then because the words coming out of my mouth did not match the look on my face because I knew that was not going to happen in my kitchen,” she jokes. Before she knew it, she was exploring the world of manufacturers (and learning that they “won't turn their machines on for less than 50,000 units”). Angel learned on the fly about formulations, white label products, boutique manufactures, and other ins and outs of the industry. Before long, Angel had branched out from skincare and was scaling up her original innovation: haircare products. That led to her next big break when a home shopping network called TJC invited her to showcase her three-step system for silver and blonde hair. The appearance was so successful, she was asked to appear again six hours later. Angel parlayed that success into winning a competition on QVC and suddenly her brand—Maison 276, an homage to her New Orleans roots—was erupting. A focus on authenticity for middle-aged women Angel says she's always kept the needs of middle-aged women at the forefront of what she does at Maison 276. When she first started going to trade shows, she realized she was often the only older face behind a booth. “And so women would crowd around my table and yes, they loved the skincare moisturizers, but they were asking me questions all across the spectrum about beauty. They wanted to know about my hair. How did I keep it so white? How did I keep it so healthy?” she recalls. Today, she says, she's focused on building the leading beauty brand for a diverse group of middle-aged women who want to embrace the naturally occurring changes that take place in their bodies with clean and innovative products while also celebrating the beauty and vibrancy of their lives. “The middle-aged woman is the most powerful consumer group in this country and in fact in the world, but she's also the most ignored, misunderstood, and the most misrepresented,” Angel says. “And when they do pay attention to us, it's often from a point of age correction, anti-aging wrinkle reduction, medications like incontinence products, like it's their mission to fix everything that they think is wrong with us. And I reject that as a woman and as an entrepreneur. Maison 276 really has been built by the power of community because we represent middle-aged women in a way that is beautiful, vibrant, energetic, and that's authentic to how she lives her life. She is super excited about this stage and really believes that she's in the prime of her life. And that is what we reflect, not only in our innovative products, but also in our messaging, in our representation.”   Full transcript here 

FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/creatingthe4pod/Don't forget to rate & review the podcast on spotify and apple podcasts! It helps us so much when you do! All links mentioned in episode are below:USE CODE: 4PERCENT for 15% off a pair of Swoverallshttps://swoveralls.com/Follow Swoveralls and Kyle on instagram:https://www.instagram.com/swoveralls_/https://www.instagram.com/coachbergy/Watch Swoveralls on Shark Tank episode:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4D31xgTi0oCheck out the buzzfeed article that sparked Kyle's idea:https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliegerstein/these-sweatpants-overalls-are-making-me-have-so-many-feelingHe is a self described idea guy with execution skills. Kyle Bergman, is a bit of a renaissance man and he is the Founder and Chief Swoveralls Officer at Swoveralls, a company which was featured on Shark Tank. A degree in Psychology, a World championship competition with the Israeli Lacrosse Team, A job as a Buyer & Planner for Bloomingdales & Birch Box & Adjunct Professor @ NYU, teaching an undergraduate intro to supply chain course. And he also teaches a foundations of technology management course all while being a Fit Pro Part Time. He is currently Coaching at Mile High Run Club, Orange Theory  & Throwback Fitness in NYC. He is Training for an Iron Man Triathlon, He is a husband, A boss and a colleague all while helping people live healthier lives through Fitness.Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. But Kyle Bergman isn't getting through it. He IS LIVING IT HONEY, out here doing THE MOST and living life to the fullest. A concept his mom often referred to as THE GREAT FANTASTIC.I am honored to welcome Kyle Bergman to the creating the 4% Podcast. Kyle Welcome!

Deepica Mutyala knew she wanted to start a beauty brand at 16 years old. After a viral video gave her the opportunity, she went on to do just that. Mutyala is the founder and CEO of Live Tinted, a makeup company on a mission to champion beauty for all skin tones. Her products work on addressing skin concerns such as hyperpigmentation and dark spots, with a focus on making products for all shades. The brand is also known for its best-selling Huestick, which is an eye, lip, and cheek product that balances skin tone. At one point, it had a 10,000-person waiting list. Before founding Live Tinted, Mutyala worked at Victoria's Secret as an inventory analyst and Birchbox, where she managed brand development and strategy. On this episode, hear how Mutyala treated every day like business school and then took advantage of a unique opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Show note links: Join Lauren's Subscription Box challenge bit.ly/subsboxchallenge  Join The Positive Pants Toolkit App & Community https://franexcell.com/positive-pants-toolkit-app Join The Mentorship https://beyondthedawnblog.com/the-mentorship/ Freebies: Grab your FREE ‘Stressed To Success' meditation: https://bit.ly/stressedtosuccess  Book in a free discovery call: https://calendly.com/franexcell/20min Ways to work with me: 1:1: https://franexcell.com/work-with-me SOS! (Success Over Stress) Group Programme (Coming back Spring 2022!) Join The Positive Pants Toolkit App & Community https://franexcell.com/positive-pants-toolkit-app The Mentorship 6 month programme: https://beyondthedawnblog.com/the-mentorship/ (Next Cohort June 2022) Products: Grab Your 365 day Gratitude Journal on Amazon:https://bit.ly/365daygratitude  Grab Your Positive Pants Firmly On Notebook:https://bit.ly/positivepantsonbook  To sign up for The Positive Pants Planner Waitlist: https://bit.ly/pppimwaiting  Contact: Make sure you're following me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/imfranexcell/ and tag me into your key takeaways! Email me at hello@franexcell.com with any questions or take aways! For more, head over to: www.franexcell.com/   How To Bring Some Fun Into Your Business   When you're hearing this (if you're a dedicated through and through listener and listening in the first week of release ha!) I shall be on the part of my business I find the MOST fun.  Our Mentorship retreat.   We work hard and we really get stuff done, our sessions are hugely practical, you leave with tangible things like all your content planned out, your product suite mapped for the next 6-12 months, complete clarity over where your focus lies and you'll be DOING things while you're still there.  BUT, we play hard too on these retreats and I absolutely love them.  We have a 3 course meal every evening, relax over a glass or two of vino and then hop in the hot tub en masse where all the best chats happen whilst looking up at the stars.    Maybe a little karaoke thrown in for good measure too.   Business doesn't have to be serious all the time.  It's something that's been plonked into our psyche by society, hustle and grind culture and what we may have seen via our parents growing up.   Things are so serious in the business world but they really don't have to be.     Nothing changes until something changes, right?   Just take working from home as an example.  Things can change!    You can change them.  It's YOUR business.    So let's see how we can inject a little lightness and fun back into business shall we?   Here's the thing, when you follow your joy everything feels easier. Lighter. You can bring that into so many areas too.  Allowing yourself to experiment with your own launches. Making sure that it's going to be something fun for you to run rather than feeling like it's a massive chore.  What might that look like for you?   Same with social media.  I LOVE reels and stories on Instagram AND I've just joined the darkside (Tiktok) and actually i'm having fun. I love stickers on Instagram stories to inject a little Fran style silliness in.  I love reels for their creativity and how you can really show your personality and humour.   What could work for you?  How could you make it more fun for you AND your audience?   Something else I'd love for you to think about.  What if you allowed yourself the belief that business can be fun. Allow yourself to go there. Maybe do this as a little visualisation and see what comes up for you.  What does it look like to have fun in your business? What would you love to do but haven't allowed yourself to see the possibilities?  Do you want to add products perhaps?   Think about how launches could be fun for you. What would you really enjoy doing? Maybe you love a challenge style launch?  Maybe you really want to allow yourself to experiment and mix it up and just see what happens.     How can you get your audience involved and have fun WITH them?     Bring your personality out more.  What makes you YOU is what people will love about you.  So bring out your quirks!  If you're obsessed with dogs, bring that in.  If you have an obsession with Disney, bring that in. What are your quirks and how could you allow them to let your audience in on your fun side whilst having fun yourself?   Take the time to do something fun or to make your inner child happy, every day.    On the subject of bringing fun into your business, think about your business model too.  How much of it ‘sparks joy' so to speak?   What business model might feel the most fun for you?  Is it all about people and the connection you can have with them?  Is it about in person?  Is it about luxury?  Is it about a product?   A business model I personally always look at and think would be super fun is subscription boxes. You basically get to spend time shopping for awesome things to send to your customers to spark joy for them on a monthly basis.   Think of it as happy post.   Most of the things we get through the post these days are bills, or things we know are coming.  Subscription boxes are a surprise each month.   The first one I subscribed to was Birchbox where I'd get a load of beauty products to try each month and I was obsessed with the box designs too.    I subscribed to that for years (I only stopped when I really didn't have any more room for more lipsticks or mini mascaras.)   So much joy clearly went into creating each box and I got the joy of opening it every month too.    Also, as a business model it's great if you hate things like going live because the box can be a brand in its own right so you don't have to be the ‘face' of it. Which also means it will eventually become a sellable asset too.   My friend Lauren Prentice started The Business Box in lockdown and also runs Nutritional Ninjas, a baking box for kiddos.  She is the absolute Queen of subscription boxes owning several different businesses, and adding a couple more shortly.    I've watched her launch these from scratch and the growth has been bonkers.   She only launched them 18 months ago and has already grown them to over 1000 subscribers and multi-six figure businesses.    She's hosting a free 4-day challenge "Subscription Boxes Unboxed " from the 27th of June 2022 to show you step by step how to launch your own subscription box so if this sounds like it might be a great way for you to inject a little fun into your business then get involved. You can head to https://bit.ly/subsboxchallenge and get yourself signed up.   I'm thinking of launching one with a friend of mine so I'll be keeping my eye on it too.   Thinking of doing something fun is also why I want to do it with my friend. And also why I love working with Dawni and Abi in The Mentorship.    It's an added layer of fun so that's an extra bonus way to add fun to your business to think about.   So. It's time to let go of the archaic idea that business should be hard and you're not meant to enjoy it and it's not fun.  You get to change the game. It's your business.  It gets to be fun and playful.   Fx

How many times have I heard “my website just doesn't represent ME”…(silly questions! You'd never know the answer!)A LOTSo I invited Caley Adams, the Founder & Creative Director of Wildes District, an NYC-based design studio that specializes in emerging women's and e-commerce brands to talk to us all about launching a brand.Her company, Wildes District, works closely with founders to build meaningful experiences that span multiple touchpoints — including brand, web, app, print, packaging, and more. Caley has over a decade of design experience working for some of the world's most celebrated brands, including Chanel, The Row, Rolex, Warby Parker, Birchbox, Ralph Lauren, and ALDO.After spending years building larger brands, she turned her focus toward working with early-stage companies to help them navigate the many phases and challenges of brand development, from pre-launch to post-launch life and created Wildes District in 2017. Today, she leads the Wildes District team and partners with founders to help build their brands from the ground up, with visually compelling but scalable design.Their clients include some of the most of the moment names today including Andie Swim, Aurate, Kin Euphorics, Chief, Coterie, Elix Healing, and Margaux.www.wildesdistrict.comJoin us as we talk about:– The future of marketing (and why what worked in 2017 won't cut it any more)– Why she focuses on working with female entrepreneurs– Why is it important for new brands to have strong branding and websites– Website best practices for using your site as a lead generating tool Be sure to subscribe to this show for weekly episodes with other “go-getters” and inspiring leaders, coaches, and entrepreneurs.You can find out more about Hanna at dreamlifeisreallife.com/show and connect with her on Instagram @hannahermanson_ABOUT HANNA HERMANSONHanna Hermanson, Certified Coach, International Speaker, Author, & Founder of Dream Life is Real Life Copywriting Agency, who has helped 100s of coaches build, scale, and enjoy their online businesses– essentially make their dream life their real life!You can find out more about Hanna at dreamlifeisreallife.com/show and connect with her on Instagram @hannahermanson_Join our network of entrepreneurs, business owners, and online coaches right here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/millennialslivingthedream/// J O I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahermanson_/ – Web https://www.dreamlifeisreallife.com – Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahermanson/ – Twitter: https://twitter.com/HannaHermanson/ – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamlifeisreallife/– Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.mx/HannaHermansonCoaching/Dream Life is Real Lifehttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dream-life-is-real-life/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-147-launching-your-brands-website-with-caley-adams-and-hanna-hermanson

How many times have I heard “my website just doesn't represent ME”…(silly questions! You'd never know the answer!)A LOTSo I invited Caley Adams, the Founder & Creative Director of Wildes District, an NYC-based design studio that specializes in emerging women's and e-commerce brands to talk to us all about launching a brand.Her company, Wildes District, works closely with founders to build meaningful experiences that span multiple touchpoints — including brand, web, app, print, packaging, and more. Caley has over a decade of design experience working for some of the world's most celebrated brands, including Chanel, The Row, Rolex, Warby Parker, Birchbox, Ralph Lauren, and ALDO.After spending years building larger brands, she turned her focus toward working with early-stage companies to help them navigate the many phases and challenges of brand development, from pre-launch to post-launch life and created Wildes District in 2017. Today, she leads the Wildes District team and partners with founders to help build their brands from the ground up, with visually compelling but scalable design.Their clients include some of the most of the moment names today including Andie Swim, Aurate, Kin Euphorics, Chief, Coterie, Elix Healing, and Margaux.www.wildesdistrict.comJoin us as we talk about:– The future of marketing (and why what worked in 2017 won't cut it any more)– Why she focuses on working with female entrepreneurs– Why is it important for new brands to have strong branding and websites– Website best practices for using your site as a lead generating tool Be sure to subscribe to this show for weekly episodes with other “go-getters” and inspiring leaders, coaches, and entrepreneurs.You can find out more about Hanna at dreamlifeisreallife.com/show and connect with her on Instagram @hannahermanson_ABOUT HANNA HERMANSONHanna Hermanson, Certified Coach, International Speaker, Author, & Founder of Dream Life is Real Life Copywriting Agency, who has helped 100s of coaches build, scale, and enjoy their online businesses– essentially make their dream life their real life!You can find out more about Hanna at dreamlifeisreallife.com/show and connect with her on Instagram @hannahermanson_Join our network of entrepreneurs, business owners, and online coaches right here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/millennialslivingthedream/// J O I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahermanson_/ – Web https://www.dreamlifeisreallife.com – Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahermanson/ – Twitter: https://twitter.com/HannaHermanson/ – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreamlifeisreallife/– Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.mx/HannaHermansonCoaching/Dream Life is Real Lifehttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dream-life-is-real-life/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-147-launching-your-brands-website-with-caley-adams-and-hanna-hermanson

Jenn Foster and Melanie Johnson co-owners of Elite Online Publishing, interview Called Adams about the inside secrets and scoop of what's trending, looking fresh, and making your brand be optimal for you.  Caley Adams is the Founder & Creative Director of Wildes District, an NYC-based design studio that specializes in emerging women's and e-commerce brands. Wildes District works closely with founders to build meaningful experiences that span multiple touchpoints — including brand, web, app, print, packaging, and more. Caley has over a decade of design experience working for some of the world's most celebrated brands, including Chanel, The Row, Rolex, Warby Parker, Birchbox, Ralph Lauren, and Barkbox. Today, she leads the Wildes District team and partners with founders to help build their brands from the ground up, with visually compelling but scalable design. Their clients include some of the most of the moment names today including Andie Swim, Aurate, Chief, Clare Paint, Coterie, Elix Healing, Kin Euphorics, and Margaux. Learn More Here

Kyle Bergman doesn't like to sit still. On an average day for the founder of Swoveralls, Kyle goes for a 6 mile run in the morning, teaches a class at NYU, leads a few fitness classes at his local gym, and manages his company. Yet, despite this hectic schedule, Kyle keeps his cool. He's used to this. While working as an Associate Buyer at Bloomingdale's, he applied for an MBA and joined the Israeli National Lacrosse Team. During his stint at Birchbox, Kyle started his own company and made an appearance on Shark Tank. Even during the height of the pandemic, a time when laying low felt inevitable, Kyle managed to create a virtual fitness company to continue sharing his love for athletics. Tune into this episode to learn how Kyle avoids burnout and how his work-life balance has evolved over the years. https://swoveralls.com/ Subscribe to our Newsletter! https://findingfounders.co/subscribe Website: findingfounders.co Follow Sam: https://www.instagram.com/samueldonner/ Follow Finding Founders IG: https://www.instagram.com/findingfounderspodcast/

Allison is joined by Katia Beauchamp to discuss how her company Birchbox broke into the beauty industry and acquired 2.5 million subscription customers. They discuss how birchbox started as a simple idea, the resistance she faced from skeptics, and what she did to push her idea through to success. Topics Include: - The connection between branding and culture - How Birchbox disrupted the beauty industry with their subscription model - The gift of naivety as an entrepreneur - Pros and cons of raising funds - The only way to get real engagement from your team - Setting and maintaining clear priorities - The only marketing secret you need to close sales - Finding product-market fit - Navigating entrepreneurship as a mother of four - And other topics… Katia Beauchamp is the co-founder of Birchbox. Birchbox is best known for redefining the way people discover and shop for beauty and grooming by pairing a monthly subscription of handpicked, customized samples with relevant content and a curated e-commerce shop and spearheading the DTC subscription boom, serving millions of customers, over 300 beauty and grooming brand partners, operations in four countries.  Katia holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in International Studies & Economics from Vassar College. She has been honored with accolades including Advertising Age Women to Watch, CEW Achievers Award, Fortune 40 Under 40, Inc. 30 Under 30, Marie Claire's New Guard, WWD Digital Innovator of the Year, and YMA Fashion's Entrepreneur of the Year, among others. She is currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, where she meets with students and faculty as an official advisor on campus. PINNACLE GLOBAL NETWORK If you're a CEO or Founder and you're ready to build a scalable company that can thrive without you, join Allison for a FREE masterclass to learn the 5 Critical Phases You MUST Know in order to scale to 8-Figures and beyond. Head over to https://www.scalemasterclass.com/podcast to secure your seat today.

Bokksu, which connects U.S. customers with Japanese snacks, is still bullish on subscription boxes, according to its founder and CEO Danny Taing. The company, which first launched in 2016, began by offering a subscription box that featured Japanese snacks that were never before available in the U.S. Growth for the first few years was on the slower side, as the company remained mostly bootstrapped. Two years after launching, the company really started to hit its stride. And is now expanding beyond subscription boxes and launching its own marketplace. "In early 2018, we had about 1,000 subscribers, and in just one month, we grew that to over 3,000," Taing said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "It was because of this viral Facebook kind of campaign." With that growth, however, came some struggles. "The warehouse in Japan was not equipped to deal with triple the amount of orders," Taing said. "And that was way before I had a logistics team or director." But Bokksu was able to roll with the punches and still grow. The company has doubled its revenue and customer base every year since 2018. This came as other subscription box brands like Birchbox faced major headwinds. But, according to Taing, Bokksu never experienced subscription fatigue. "I think what helped was that we have a very strong underlying product that changes every month that a lot of people get a lot of value from," said Taing. "It's not faddy." Earlier this year, Bokksu closed a $22 million Series A round of funding, giving it a $100 million valuation. That happened after years of receiving nos from VCs. For Taing, it was validation that his company had staying power. With this cash infusion, Bokksu is focusing on its marketplace expansion. Still, Bokksu remains focused on its hero product. "Subscriptions are still the majority," said Taing. "That's our core thing."

Struggling with Sales is one of the things that keeps leaders and owners of business up at night. Changes in process, changes in staff or even changes in marketing.  What is the right mix of process, talent and training? Dan Englander, owenr of Sales Schema shares his thoughts on how companies often miss. He shares strategies on what he does to help businesses improve performance and become more consistent.  Tactical advice. If you find value, please review, share and subscribe.  Dan Englander Dan started his career out doing grunt work at an agency in New York, but after observing the downfall of the traditional agency model, he founded Sales Schema where he now helps digital agencies customize their sales and marketing processes so they can win big fish clients. Currently, Dan and his team have executed over 7,000 campaigns, won millions in lifetime revenue, and have generated 3,000+ agency/brand meetings for clients with companies like Birchbox, Stripe, and Venmo. https://www.linkedin.com/in/danenglander/  Dan's book recommendation War of Art: https://amzn.to/3JkMmRT Road Less Stupid: https://amzn.to/3jiWmR0 About Glenn Pasch: "Everyone finds themselves in charge at some point in their lives. Yet many of us lack the skills to generate consistent results. My goal is to help you learn the skills to adapt and grow in your personal and business life.” Glenn Pasch is CEO of PCG Digital, a full service digital marketing agency that specializes in helping businesses create and deliver customers raving, recommending & returning for more. He is author of 2 books including "The Power of Connected Marketing" and has spoken and educated audiences throughout the US and internationally. Let's Connect: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennpasch/​ Personal Website http://glennpasch.com/​ Company website: https://pcgdigital.com/ 

In this episode of Shawna and LaLa, Shawna updates everyone on her mom, LaLa tells us all about the UVCeed Mobile Sanitizer, and the girls let you know some of their favorite Makeup products from Too Faced, women owned jewelry brand Kendra Scott and women owned subscription box Birch Box. For more visit www.shawnaandlala.com

Sarah Marince's dynamic voice can be heard all over the world. Whether she's hosting on-camera events for globally recognized brands, recording voiceover work for international clients, or climbing up the Billboard charts with a country single, her versatile talent, passion, and professionalism put her in a class of her own. A career in the entertainment world was Sarah's single focus from a very young age. One of her family's favorite memories is Sarah… at age 3… with a headset and a microphone belting out country songs in the garage. That microphone stayed firmly in her hand throughout her teen years as she evolved into a hometown celebrity… regularly singing the National Anthem for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pirates and Penguins…and later branching out across the country to perform for the LA Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York teams the Mets and Knicks. Sarah was also a constant presence on Pittsburgh television and radio as the commercial host, jingle singer and voice actor for Eat n Park restaurant…a multi-state restaurant chain. During Sarah's senior year of high school, the allure of country music beckoned and she found herself traveling between Nashville and Pittsburgh…recording her first professional album. She quickly found success in the music city opening for Taylor Swift, Kenny Chesney, Sarah Evans, Martina McBride and other established artists…as well as charting her own hit single, “In The Meantime” on Billboard. With an inborn drive to expand all areas of her career, Sarah packed her bags and moved to Orlando when the Walt Disney World Entertainment group came calling. Her captivating voice can be heard in Disney Parks around the world, whether it is in song or voiceover. Sarah's uniquely engaging voice can also be heard on spots for CocaCola, Cracker Barrel, Birchbox, Chick-Fil-A, Kwikset Locks and many other corporate clients. Sarah specializes in Commercial, eLearning, Explainer and Corporate Narration genres as well as Telephony and jingle singing…all done from her state of the art home studio equipped with Source Connect. One of her current fun projects is hosting a biweekly webcast with Blare Media called “Crew Talk” which consists of Sarah…in her friendly, conversational style… interviewing a panel of experts in the entertainment field…following up with a question and answer session. Sarah also continues to hone her skills in front of the camera with hosting appearances for ESPN, WalMart, Royal Caribbean and the Marriott Corporation. As a passionate voice over professional, Sarah was thrilled to be nominated for the 2019 One Voice Award in the “Best International Voiceover Performance” category for her spot for CES (Consumer Electronics Show) entitled “What If.” Acknowledging Sarah's authentic professionalism in the Voice Actor community, international voiceover management, ACM, signed her to their talent roster in April 2020. Sarah's voice embodies so many attributes of her personality…her genuineness, her approachable demeanor, her determination to find the positives in her life, but most importantly, her voice projects the fun she has everyday creating her career. Sarah faces everyday with open arms…ready to embrace the challenges and grow out of her comfort zone both personally and professionally. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/grayson-mask/support

Listen now | Episode 75 Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This week I’m so excited to bring you my conversation with Eurie Kim of Forerunner Ventures, which without a doubt is one of the world's top VC firms formed over the last decade. Forerunner invests in entrepreneurs who are redefining culture and consumer experiences in today’s digital world and has invested in companies such as Jet, Birchbox, Warby Parker, and Curology. It currently has $1.2B in AUM.This was such a treat for me as I’ve known the Forerunner team since the early days, and it was so fun to go back through the evolution and growth of the firm. Subscribe at ventureunlocked.substack.com

Deena Bahri is the Chief Marketing Officer at StockX, which is an online marketplace with a unique bid-ask model. StockX's special formula has rocketed the company to a recent multibillion-dollar valuation. Before joining StockX, Deena held marketing positions at Reebok, The Ladders.com, Gilt Groupe, Birchbox, Juicero, and Helix.In this episode, Deena discusses how StockX stays customer-centric and all the ways they listen to their consumers, fans, and employees on all levels. Deena also talks about StockX's roadmap from growing the business to growing the brand. This is a great episode about how brands can successfully scale while connecting with their users. Support our sponsor Deloitte and experience their guidance on resilience for brands in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more at Deloitte.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week's episode is a solo ode to Britney Spears. After seeing Hulu's 'New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears', Taylor get's on her Brit Brit soapbox to declare her love and apologies to the pop princess.    Visit www.Birchbox.com/Taylor and use promo code Taylor to get 50% off your first box, when you subscribe for at least three months! Produced by Dear Media