Podcast appearances and mentions of Jason Goldberg

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1030: Today we're talking about the real hurdles to moving auto production stateside, catching up with Carlos Ghosn's new life as a leadership coach (and fugitive), and Amazon's surprising new experiment that lets shoppers stray beyond its walls.Show Notes with links:A quarter of U.S. automotive assembly capacity sat unused at the end of 2024, suggesting opportunity amid the backdrop of President Trump's tariffs. However, shifting production to underutilized plants is far more complicated than it sounds.Toyota, BMW, and Honda used over 80% of their U.S. production capacity, leaving little room for more output.Automakers like Stellantis, GM, Ford, and Nissan have more idle capacity but face logistical and investment hurdles.Stellantis' Warren Truck Plant has just 17% utilization but can't quickly absorb new models without major investment, despite being able to build related pickups and SUVs.Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant could theoretically take on new models like the Mustang Mach-E, but even the fastest transition would still take six months to a year to execute.Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions said: "The rhetoric that moving assembly of vehicles into open spaces is easy and quick is not accurate."Five years after his dramatic escape from Japan, former Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn is living a quieter life in Lebanon — but remains an international fugitive still shadowed by legal battles.Ghosn lives in a disputed $20M mansion, running executive bootcamps for midlevel managers at a Lebanese university.Despite legal threats from France and Japan, Lebanon's refusal to extradite its citizens keeps him out of reach.He still denies all accusations, blaming Nissan insiders for orchestrating his downfall to block a deeper Renault-Nissan alliance.Ghosn remains bullish on globalization, calling recent tariff tensions “a joke” against broader interconnected trends.He criticized the post-split struggles of Nissan and Renault: “Nissan is begging for some financial help, and Renault is back to what it was before 1999 — a small European company.”In a surprising pivot from its traditional walled-garden strategy, Amazon is testing a program that lets customers shop directly from third-party brand websites — without leaving its app.Shoppers can either be redirected to brand sites or complete purchases through Amazon's “Buy for Me” checkout feature.Amazon handles payment transfer securely, while shipping, returns, and customer service stay with the brand.The move allows Amazon to collect deeper shopper data, enhancing ad targeting and product recommendations.Industry experts suggest Amazon is trading short-term sales for long-term insights and stronger ad business.Jason Goldberg of Publicis said: “The bigger share of a custoJoin Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

“More Leaks,” the fourth compilation album by Baton Rouge rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again (Kentrell Gaulden), dropped on March 7, 2025, via Never Broke Again and Motown Records, serving as a gritty send-off before his anticipated prison release later that summer. Clocking in at 48 minutes across 16 tracks, this project arrived while YoungBoy was still incarcerated, serving a 23-month sentence for federal gun charges stemming from a 2020 arrest in Louisiana, with additional legal woes tied to prescription drug fraud in Utah. Billed by his team as his “last project” before freedom, “More Leaks” compiles previously teased snippets and unreleased cuts, offering fans a raw, unfiltered glimpse into his relentless creative output despite confinement.The album kicks off with “Trapped Out,” a menacing opener that sets the tone with booming 808s and YoungBoy's signature raspy aggression, reflecting the claustrophobia of his legal battles. Tracks like “Rich Junkie” and “Cut Throat” maintain this high-octane energy, driven by producers like D-Roc and Jason “Cheese” Goldberg, who amplify the trap-heavy sound YoungBoy's built his empire on. The lead single, “5 Night,” released February 28, 2025, pairs a hypnotic beat with visuals of YoungBoy dancing beside a G-Wagon, a stark contrast to his prison reality. Posts on X from fans like @YoungboySnippet highlight the vault's depth, with one noting, “Shows how crazy his vault is man, stuff [has] been getting leaked for months and still has songs which are very good.” Indeed, the title “More Leaks” nods to this chaotic rollout, embracing the flood of unofficial releases that have kept his name buzzing.While “More Leaks” lacks the polish of albums like “Sincerely, Kentrell” (2021), it compensates with raw intensity. Tracks like “Never Stopping” and “Meet the Reaper,” briefly available before being yanked from Spotify post-leak, resurface here, satisfying diehards who've tracked his every move. The production leans minimalist—think distorted bass and eerie synths—mirroring his isolated mindset, though some criticize its lack of variety. HotNewHipHop called it a “love-it-or-hate-it album,” noting its appeal to fans craving aggression over evolution. Features are sparse, with only a rumored Lil Baby verse on “Lost Soul” making the cut, keeping the focus squarely on YoungBoy's unapologetic delivery.Thematically, “More Leaks” wrestles with fame's weight and street loyalty, though introspection takes a backseat to bravado. Lines like “I'm still thuggin' ‘til I'm gone” from “Cut Throat” underscore his defiance, a sentiment echoed in his legal saga—pleading guilty yet dodging harsher penalties via a global settlement. Billboard reported its debut at #3 on the Top Rap Albums chart, a testament to his loyal fanbase, even as critics argue it's more a stopgap than a statement. Recorded partly before his December 2024 sentencing, the album's sound quality impressed peers like engineer Jason Goldberg, who lauded similar prison-recorded efforts on the “Ray Daniels Presents” show.As of March 27, 2025, with YoungBoy reportedly released early on March 24 from Talladega, Alabama, per HipHopDX, “More Leaks” bridges his incarceration and freedom. It's not his strongest work—lacking the cohesion of “Top” (2020)—but its chaotic energy mirrors his life, making it a fitting cap to a turbulent chapter.

In the latest episode of Remarkable Retail, hosts Michael LeBlanc and Steve Dennis kick off with a roundup of the week's most impactful retail news. They dive into the potential liquidation of Hudson's Bay Company, examining the challenges the iconic retailer faces amid financial turbulence. With speculation swirling around the sale of HBC's heritage Stripes brand and the struggle to find buyers for prime real estate, the hosts analyze the ripple effects on Canadian retail.They also discuss Forever 21's second bankruptcy filing and probable liquidation, attributing the fast-fashion giant's downfall to a combination of fierce competition from digital disruptors like Shein and Temu, as well as a reliance on traditional mall-based retailing. Another key story involves Wayfair's decision to expand its physical retail presence despite years of online focus. Opening its second large-format store in Atlanta, Wayfair seems to be testing the waters of omnichannel retail, blending digital convenience with tangible customer experiences. The episode also touches on earnings updates from Nike, Williams-Sonoma, and Five Below.After covering the latest retail news, the hosts continue their engaging conversation with Jason “Retail Geek” Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis. Goldberg dives into Amazon's ongoing challenges in breaking into the grocery market despite the tech giant's e-commerce dominance. Amazon Fresh stores, while improved, still lack a clear competitive differentiator against industry leaders like Walmart. Goldberg notes that despite Amazon's long-term strategy and willingness to experiment, their grocery ventures remain more experimental than groundbreaking.Goldberg also explores the evolution of social commerce, with a particular focus on TikTok Shops. Unlike past social selling failures on platforms like Facebook, TikTok Shops have managed to build momentum, but only for specific product categories. Goldberg argues that social commerce's real value lies not in direct sales but in product discovery. Brands need to adapt by creating content that fosters discovery rather than pushing for immediate transactions.The conversation also covers the rise of retail media networks, with Goldberg emphasizing Amazon's transformation into a high-margin ad powerhouse. By monetizing third-party seller ads, Amazon has outpaced traditional retail models in profitability. While Walmart and others are catching up, Amazon's ability to leverage its marketplace for advertising revenue puts it in a unique position. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Nosipho Radebe is in conversation with Jason Goldberg, Author of The Art of Scale and Edge Growth Co-FounderSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The latest Remarkable Retail podcast delivers a compelling mix of current market news and expert analysis from returning guest Jason "Retail Geek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis.Hosts Michael LeBlanc and Steve Dennis kick off with the week's headlines, spotlighting the chaos caused by shifting tariff policies. They note that consumer confidence has plummeted amid economic uncertainty, creating leadership challenges across the retail landscape. Steve reflects that while the COVID crisis taught resilience, today's volatility requires leaders to embrace agility as "the New Black" while avoiding recklessness.The retail news segment highlights several struggling players, most notably Kohl's with its disastrous twelfth consecutive quarter of sales decline. The hosts detail how new CEO Ashley Buchanan is pivoting back to private labels after previous leadership had emphasized national brands, while also apparently abandoning the once-touted Amazon returns program. Steve recounts visiting Kohl's stores filled with heavily discounted merchandise, describing them as "a train wreck" requiring both strategic and executional overhauls.The hosts continue with Ulta Beauty posting modest growth, signaling a slowdown in a category that had performed exceptionally well post-pandemic. Dick's Sporting Goods delivered strong quarterly results but projected significantly slower future growth, reflecting a broader trend of caution across retail.In what the hosts call the "wobbly unicorn corner," they examine former high-flyers facing existential challenges. Allbirds has lost nearly all its market value since IPO, with declining revenue despite shifting from direct-to-consumer to wholesale. Meanwhile, Stitch Fix shows modest signs of recovery under CEO Matt Baer's strategy of focusing on core customers rather than casting too wide a net.When Jason Goldberg joins the conversation, he identifies three dominant client concerns: retail media networks (which he views skeptically), artificial intelligence (both transformative and overhyped), and economic uncertainty creating both challenges and opportunities.Goldberg then provides illuminating analysis of retail market data, revealing that a small handful of giants—primarily Walmart, Amazon, Costco, and Chinese newcomers like Temu and  Shein—capture the vast majority of all growth. While e-commerce growth has slowed from pandemic highs, it still significantly outpaces brick-and-mortar retail.Most significantly, Goldberg explains retail's "bifurcation" between digital winners and losers, and between two successful business models: massive "everything stores" and highly curated specialty retailers. The traditional wholesale model caught in between—particularly department stores—is struggling regardless of execution quality or market position.The episode ends with a teaser for part two, promising Goldberg's insights on the future of wholesale, Amazon's grocery ambitions, social commerce, and TikTok Shops—compelling reasons for listeners to return for the continuation of this insightful conversation.Links:https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevendennis/2017/12/04/retail-reality-its-death-in-the-middle/ About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

Jason Goldberg is Founder and CEO of Airstack, which is responsible for developing the Moxie Protocol. Jason has been an entrepreneur for more than two decades, but his career started when he dropped out of college to work on Bill Clinton's campaign before going on to work at the White House for six years. Jason's first company, Social Median, created the first social media newsfeed. Today, his focus is on Moxie, which is a community-governed economic engine, with a mission to help creators and fans prosper.--Follow Jason on X: @betashopFollow Moxie on X: @moxie_xyz--  Follow us on the socials:  X: @showcryptoTikTok: @showmethecryptoInstagram: @showmethecryptopodcast--*While this is not a sponsored episode, the Moxie team may be adding $MOXIE as a reward incentive for those who choose to mint via pods.media.*Any financial compensation we directly receive will always be clearly identified as an advertisement or sponsored content. We don't accept payment to feature guests, and we don't accept payment to influence the coins/projects we discuss on Show Me The Crypto. Any ads will be clearly identified during the show, and information on our partners will be featured in the show notes.

In this episode, we analyze the retail trends from the 2024 holiday season, breaking down what worked, what didn't, and where the industry is headed in 2025. Inspired by Jason Goldberg's insightful article, Holiday 2024 Recap: Where Did the Growth Go?, we discuss the mixed results in holiday sales growth, the dominance of value-driven retailers, and the emergence of new players like Chinese platforms Temu and TikTok Shops. We also delve into the role of AI, trade-down behavior, and retail media networks in shaping the future of commerce. Tune in for a comprehensive look at the trends driving transformation in retail.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The Holiday Sales Landscape:Key takeaways from the National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts vs. actual results.Why 2024 fell short of being a blockbuster season for retail growth.Understanding the disparity in reported holiday sales figures (e.g., MasterCard SpendingPoll vs. NRF Monitor).Winners and Losers:How value-focused retailers like Aldi, Walmart, and Amazon thrived in uncertain economic times.The rise of Chinese platforms like Temu and TikTok Shops, and their impact on shopping behavior.Why department stores and consumer electronics chains struggled during the season.The Trade-Down Effect:Exploring how consumers sought affordable alternatives and its impact on mid-tier retailers.The strategic shifts required to compete in this new value-driven retail environment.NRF Big Show 2025 Themes:New Revenue Streams: Retailers tapping into services, retail media networks, and data monetization.AI Integration: How AI is transforming product design, supply chains, and customer experiences.Profitability Strategies: Leveraging technology to fine-tune pricing, optimize inventory, and cut costs.The Future of Retail:How retail is evolving to blend hyper-personalized AI-driven services with human touchpoints.The importance of staying innovative to remain competitive in an era of rapid change.Resources Mentioned:Article: Holiday 2024 Recap: Where Did the Growth Go?NRF Big Show (January 11-14, 2025)Examples of retail media networks from Walmart, Amazon, and Instacart.Case studies on AI in retail, including Shein's AI-powered product design.Call to Action:Join us in shaping the future of retail! Share your predictions for 2025 trends and let us know how these insights resonate with your shopping or business experiences. Subscribe to our podcast for more deep dives into the evolving world of commerce, and visit The Future of Commerce for additional resources.

Welcome to Season 5, Episode 1 of Today's the Day Changemakers! As we begin this new season, I (Jodi Grinwald), your host share a special message with our listeners.Four years ago, this podcast began with a mission to spotlight changemakers worldwide. Now, with 152 interviews across 133 episodes, representing 12 countries and downloads in 855 cities, we're embarking on an exciting new journey.This season, I am so thrilled to continue to highlight changemakers who have powerful stories and invaluable inspiration to share. These conversations are designed to keep you motivated, connected, and inspired to take action in your personal and professional life. We're also expanding in exciting ways: launching a global Today is the Day membership community to foster ongoing connections, create opportunities for professionals to work together, master classes for people to learn from each other and more. We will also be publishing a book - compilation from Changemakers around the globe. One of the programs we will be introducing is the Impact Framework for entrepreneurs, along with a programs for nonprofit professionals, leaders, a mentorship program, and more. As we begin this year, remember to stay present. Time moves quickly, and finding perspective can make all the difference. Celebrate these highs, seek support in the lows, and stay connected to what inspires you. Let's make an impact together!Please follow us on FB and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube Channel. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast and being open to the messages that it may provide to you. Join our mailing list to learn more about our programs and to connect with global changemakers. Have a great week!

Send us a textIt's been 5 years and 3 months, 283 episodes, and countless guests. All good things must come to an end though. I am honoring the show by taking it back to my very first guests Ken Ballin and Allen Lewis to see how we all have changed over the last 5 years. What's new, what's different, and how our goals have changed. Change is a necessary part of life and so is reflection. Enjoy this look back on the show, the industry, and our lives.Special thanks to all of our sponsors. I'll star with Jason Goldberg who was the first sponsor of the show with Retail Lead Management and Tralama. Without his belief in the concept, me and and seeing the long term vision, none of the past 5 years would have been possible. I would like to thankArdex, Better Tools, Flooring Domain, IQ Power Tools, Johns Manville, Kronus Soft, Laticrete, Nova Tile and Stone, Russo Trading Company, Schluter Systems, SnapTech, ThermoSoft, Tile Tools .com, Traffic Digital, Virtual Estimates Now, Uzin, and The International Surfaces Event.Check out our sponsorsThe International Surfaces EventUzinTileTools.comCheck out our website and storeSupport the show

Join DJ Toks, Jason Goldberg, Fish, Fly Ry and special guest AZ Victoria as the talk all things christmas and the holiday season. Come send off 2024 with the Token Hour! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a wonderful New Year!

Walmart, Target, Aldi and other grocers competed for a place on holiday tables with turkey dinner deals and other promotions to tempt Americans who haven't recovered from recent food price inflation. Walmart, the nation's largest food retailer, bundled the makings of a traditional turkey feast into a meal deal three years ago. This year, the 29-item offer, which included a frozen turkey and ingredients for side dishes, cost less than $55 (the exact total depends on the region) and was intended to serve eight. That calculates to less than $7 per person. Last year's two bundles had different items, but Walmart said the total price of this year's selected products was 3.5% lower than it was a year ago. “Some of the holiday's most special moments take place around the dinner table,” John Laney, executive vice president of food at Walmart U.S., said in a recent statement. “We are committed to offering customers even deeper savings.” Target's version for four people cost $20, $5 less than the company's 2023 Thanksgiving meal, and included a frozen turkey, stuffing mix and canned green beans and canned jellied cranberry sauce. Aldi offers a frozen Butterball turkey with gravy mix as well as pumpkin ingredients for pumpkin pie and ingredients for side dishes like sweet potato casserole. The German-owned supermarket chain priced it at $47 and said that was less than what it charged for the same items in 2019. Comparing the respective menus to determine which represented the best value is difficult since recommended serving sizes and contents vary. But the promotions, introduced earlier than ever and at a time when many households remained put off by higher prices, underscored the importance of Thanksgiving to grocers, analysts said. While consumer perceptions of grocery prices are based on the cost of staples like eggs and milk, “the Thanksgiving meal has become essentially a new benchmark,” Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, a global marketing and communications company. It's the occasion for the second-largest holiday meal for retailers behind the feasts that accompany the winter holidays. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg, Fish and MAYBE OTHERS as they discuss the trending topics, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss the trending topics, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Jason is the Founder & CEO of Airstack, a leading Farcaster development company, and the creator of Moxie, a community owned, community-governed Farcaster protocol on a mission to grow the Farcaster GDP. [0:42] - Jason's experience working at the White House during Bill Clinton's presidency [3:30] - Becoming a highly successful tech entrepreneur [12:18] - Making the decision to go all in on Farcaster [15:47] - Moving from Twitter to Farcaster after a decade [18:52] - Flipping traditional social economics with Farcaster [21:56] - Moxie's careful approach to monetizing Farcaster [34:48] - The Moxie airdrop and rewards structure [41:02] - Moxie 101 and how to get started Mint this episode for free onchain on Base at ⁠pods.media/pod-of-jake/180-jason-goldberg For more episodes, go to ⁠⁠podofjake.com⁠⁠. Previous guests include ⁠⁠Mark Cuban⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Brian Armstrong⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Keith⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rabois⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Ali Spagnola⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Raoul Pal⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Julia Galef⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Jack Butcher⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tim Draper⁠⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠⁠OpenAI⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Coinbase⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Solana⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Polygon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠AngelList⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Oura⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Replit⁠⁠, and investors from ⁠⁠Founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Fund⁠⁠, ⁠⁠a16z⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Union Square Ventures⁠⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to ⁠⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠⁠ for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠⁠jake@blogofjake.com⁠⁠. Thank you!

Jason Goldberg Discusses Recent Retail Boot Camp Event by Floor Focus Magazine

This week, Sabrina sits down with Jason Goldberg, a speaker, coach, and author, who emphasizes reframing negative thoughts and consistent action to challenge a fixed mindset, particularly in dating. He shares his experiences with anxiety and depression, advocating for grounding oneself in physical sensations before cognitive reframing. Jason and Sabrina share about loving oneself independently of others' validation, recognizing personal insecurities, and understanding that not being liked often reflects others' issues, not one's inadequacies. Jason highlights the importance of intentional communication and managing anxiety in relationships, sharing his own experience maintaining long-distance connections and handling uncomfortable conversations. Ultimately, he and Sabrina promote self-love and resilience as foundations for healthy relationships. Snag Sabrina's 8 week course HERE! Get Ad free and 2 Bonus episodes a month HERE! Want to work with Sabrina? HERE! Don't forget to follow Sabrina and Do the Work on Instagram and Sabrina on TikTok! Video now available on YOUTUBE! Please support our sponsors! Get 15% off Oneskin with code DOTHEWORK HERE! Get for FREE dessert for life from HelloFresh HERE! One dessert item per box while subscription is active. Get 10% off your first month of Betterhelp HERE! Save $10 on your first purchase at StoryWorth HERE!

Today we sit down with Jason Goldberg a award-winning entrepreneur, Ted-X speaker, and in demand key note speaker to dive into the world of accessible productivity and how to inject fun and creativity back into your business as we explore unconventional methods to discover your unique path to success. We'll also discuss the importance of trusting your intuition while backing it up with data. If you're tired of the serious approach most coaches and gurus offer, this is the episode for you.

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg, Fish and Fly Ry as they discuss the trending topics, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg, Fish and some special guests as they discuss the halftime show, NBA All Star weekend, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Michel Vermette & Jason Goldberg Discuss America's Floor Source's Acquisition of CS Flooring Group by Floor Focus Magazine

EP317 - Amazon Q4 Results  Episode Summary: In this episode, Jason Goldberg and Scot Wingo dive deep into Amazon's fourth-quarter results for 2023, analyzing the company's performance in various segments such as retail, offline and online sales, marketplace, AWS, and advertising. They also explore the impact of AI on Amazon's business and provide insights into the company's future guidance for Q1 2024. Amazon had a strong Q4 earnings report, beating analyst expectations for revenue and income. In fact, it was Amazon's most profitable quarter ever. Retail sales were up 6%, which imputes a 2023 GMV of $515B - $660B in the US for all of 2023. The bottom end of that estimate would be a 9% growth over 2023, versus all of Core Retail in the US (x Gas and Auto) which grew 3.6% in 2023. This impressive growth was achieved while Amazon improved delivery times (6B packages delivered next day, and 1B delivered same day, same day offered in 110 metros) and reduced cost to serve by $0.45/package in the US (the first reduction in cost to serve since 2018). AWS accelerated growth but slowly declined margins. Ad revenue was again the brightest spot, growing 27% to $14.7B, resulting in $47B in revenue the last 12 months, and a $58B run rate. The income generated from that ad revenue was likely more than $27B, far in excess of the $21B Amazon earned from AWS. Once again demonstrating that Ads are Amazons biggest income generator. Amazons total GMV in the US likely falls in-between Walmart's expected 2023 GMV of $442B and Walmart plus Sam's Club total US GMV of $519B. Walmart reports it's Q4 on Feb 20. Amazon probably represented 24% of ALL retail growth in the US in 2023. Amazon, Walmart, Temu, and Shein alone likely represented 49% of all 2023 Us retail growth (leaving mostly crumbs for the rest of retail). Amazon also announced Rufus, a new Gen AI based search amenity for the e-commerce site. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 317 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday, February 7th, 2024. 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 Scott Show. This is episode 317 being recorded on Wednesday, February 7th, 2024. I'm your host, Jason Retail Geek Goldberg, and as usual, I'm here with your co-host, Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey, Jason, and welcome back, Jason and Scott Show listeners. Jason, we've been talking about ARVR since before shop.org changed its name. And did you get a vision pro and how is it i. Jason: [0:57] Did not i feel like i've let you and our listeners down i desperately wanted to lie and say that we were recording this episode through our joint vision pros i did i did go do a demo and it it seems super cool i am sorting through my my highly poor vision to see what sort of corrective lenses i'll need to put into the thing, to pull the trigger. I heard yours has arrived though. Scot: [1:24] Yes, mine actually just came hours ago here to Jason and Scott, North Carolina headquarters. And it is sitting in a box staring at me. And I figured I would not get the show notes done if I started playing with that. So that's gonna be my weekend fun that I'm gonna work on. So I'll report back on that. Jason: [1:42] All of us that love you are slightly sad because we've seen your real eyes for probably the last time in a long while. Scot: [1:48] That is true yep yep these baby blues are going behind the goggles and i'm gonna drive the first thing i do is get in my car and drive that seems to be what everyone does on twitter so that'll be fun yeah. Jason: [1:59] That sounds wildly safe. Scot: [2:01] Yeah well you can see right through them so it's totally fun yeah. Jason: [2:05] No you can't. Scot: [2:09] Just kidding everyone do not do that at home and if you do blame jason Yeah. Jason: [2:13] But again, the Tesla is perfect self-driving anyway. So what, what would it even matter? It's like, I feel like you have multiple layers of AI overlords protecting you, Apple and Tesla. What could go wrong? Scot: [2:25] Yeah, it is not perfect by any means. Jason: [2:29] Yeah i'm glad we caught you i feel like there there's been a lot of travel and it's i know you you have kind of stepped away from the hustle bustle but i'm right in the middle of uh retail trade quarter trade yeah yeah. Scot: [2:41] How's that going you did so we haven't been able to catch up since you've done nrf i saw you were like posting like a wild man seems like you had a very active big show how was that. Jason: [2:51] Yeah it was pretty good i would big show is definitely back it was the largest attendance ever. There were over 40,000 people. So it was very robust. A lot of good, good conversations. I do have a lot of content out there. If anyone wants a deep dive recap, you can go find my recap on YouTube, but maybe we'll talk more about it later because we have such a meaty episode just talking about Amazon. But last week I got back from like, frankly, a more fun event then big show. Our friends at Commerce Next have a new show that they call their Digital Leader Conference. And it's kind of a small little gathering of like 50 digital leaders at a resort in Del Mar, California, exactly where I grew up. So I went and drank wine and talk shop with a bunch of folks and the Commerce Next team in San Diego and had a great time nice. Scot: [3:49] Did you have some say in where it was hosted you're okay i. Jason: [3:52] Did not um i think people were tired of hearing me say this but this is like a fairmont resort it's gorgeous but it was built on like what used to be like these trails behind my high school and i kept you know regaling everyone with how i probably thrown up all over this this facility from all the the runs our soccer coaches used to make us do there. Scot: [4:14] Nice that's a good pitch yeah. Jason: [4:16] Nice visual for all our good uh good podcast listeners uh and then i have two shows coming up so the end of this month is etail west which is usually a pretty good show in palm springs we'll probably be uh corralling a couple interesting podcast guests uh from that show and there's kind of a shop.org board reunion There was an actual shop.org board reunion that you and I missed that was last month, but there's like six former board members will be at ETL West. So we're going to get together and have a little catch up there. And then less than a month after that is our Shop Talk in Las Vegas. Scot: [4:59] Fun. Yeah. Have you had an opportunity to see the Sphere? Yeah, I have. Jason: [5:04] I have. I have not been in the Sphere, but I have gone by it. Hopefully, I'll be prominently featured on it for Shop Talk. Seems like that would be appropriate. Scot: [5:14] Yeah, yeah. That would be fun. Get a picture of you on this here and then go inside. Everyone says it's an amazing show inside of there. Jason: [5:20] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely want to check it out when time permits. Scot: [5:23] Cool. Are you speaking at either of those or just all of you? Oh, wow. Are you seems like a part of your your 2024 New Year's resolution is to talk about Sheehan and Timu. Are you going to be doing that that whole dog and pony over there? Jason: [5:39] Neither of my sessions are specifically on that. I'm sure I'm talking about it a lot in the hallways. It's coming up a lot. It's probably spoiler alert going to come up again in this Amazon earnings call. Scot: [5:52] Yeah and we've got the super bowl this is like we're annualizing the big timu reveal and so it'll be interesting to see if they i guess they've actually said i think it's an article that said they're coming back in a big way so yeah. Jason: [6:03] They bought a second ad so. Scot: [6:04] They will they will be back on a few have you seen like a super secret version, uh i cannot say oh okay oh okay oh all right exciting well it would not be a jason scott show without some Amazon news. And this whole episode is essentially Amazon news. We are going to do a Amazon fourth quarter earnings deep dive. That's right. On February 1st, Amazon announced their fourth quarter 2023 results. The setup coming into this one was we had Microsoft announce really solid cloud results that was largely driven by AI. People are moving their workloads to Azure and they are doing that to get their data over. And due to Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, that has been a really nice big draw for their cloud offering. Then we had Meta announced, the artist previously known as Facebook, and they had tremendous ad performance, largely driven by AI. Long-term listeners will remember Jason and I, I'm pretty sure we're some of the first to call the impact of this thing called ATT and IDFA, Am I remembering that? You nailed them. Jason: [7:24] Yeah. Scot: [7:25] Yep. And that just really, that was like, what, four years ago, three years ago? That walloped Facebook, Snap, and all these companies that their ad system relied on cookies and third-party data. data. Facebook slash Meta has kind of come back from that and they credit it to AI systems they've used that have really driven the optimization of their advertising products and made the targeting basically nearly as good as it was when they had more precise targeting. Then Google was kind of like had a bit of a rough patch there. I think it's hurting them. They don't really disclose much about youtube and it probably did okay but their ads were kind of flat and their cloud computing did not see the benefit that that microsoft did and there's a growing concern there's more and more folks and some data coming out that shows that people are starting to use ais for interesting searches versus google i do find we were talking about it before we got got on here, I am using it more and more. For example, I was telling Jason, I found OpenAI slash ChatGPT announced this little, it's not a store, but a... [8:39] Add-ons or like almost like an app store but it's called gpts and i found one that enables me to load a bunch of pdfs on a common topic and then just like ask chat gpt about it and yeah so so i found i'm using it more and more for informational queries just generally and then also for things like that like research for work and and for the pod and so i think i think there's a growing concern that google is watching this ai thing kind of like run away from them and there's There's growing talk that they're stuck in an innovator's dilemma. So that was the setup. And the market was kind of nervous coming into Amazon earnings because a big chunk of Amazon is the cloud, which is their AWS segment. And then folks, we really didn't have any great idea how their holiday sales were. And then last, that Google piece made people a little nervous about the ad business, which has become almost a third leg to the Amazon stool. tool. So, and then as you keep kind of pointing out, Timu and Sheehan are just like really on the rise and could they, you know, you also have said, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you've said, you know, you don't think they're being impacted by it too much. That is some other folks. But, you know, there's definitely overlap there. So people worried, are those up and rising stars going to be the Grinch? So we're going to walk you through that and peel the onion. [10:01] We're then we're going to go into how the retail offline and online did and then marketplaces cloud AWS. And that's where we'll talk about AI. You can't talk about anything now without talking about AI. So we'll hit that and then Amazon ads and then kind of finish up with how Amazon guided to next quarter, which will be Q2 Q1 of 2024. Anything you want to add in that setup before we jump in? Jason: [10:28] No, I think you've queued it up well. I'm eager to hear how Amazon did. Scot: [10:32] Yeah, well, it is what in the Wall Street world we would call a beat. So they, you know, back in Q3, they set some guidance and they beat that on the top and bottom line very handily. And then I would call it a raise. It was kind of a slight raise. They raised the range. Amazon has gotten very good, especially in the Jassy era of not getting too ahead of their skis on expectations. Expectations so but now that we're you know a fair amount into the Jassy area Wall Street's starting to get his number so now Wall Street's not really believing the guidance it's kind of interesting phenomena that we'll talk about when we get to that part but that's you know if we're going to characterize it it was a win and a win so it was a win on the pass quarter which is Q4 and it was a win going into Q1 and you know Amazon historically if you've been following it as long as jason i have they go through these periods of what i call invest and harvest so they'll invest and invest and invest everyone's like gosh and then people think all right there's no way this thing's going to be either profitable at all or as profitable as it once was or whatever it is they start to lose faith and then amazon goes into a harvest phase and then they just print money and it always surprises people and they're able to do that and that's what what But this quarter really is kind of the –. [11:49] Output of focusing on that a lot in 2023 where they kind of had this post-coveted hangover they had overbuilt a bunch of stuff and now it feels like they have righted that they've stopped a lot of the things that since jesse came in that maybe were investment areas that they shouldn't have been investing in and and they've got a lot of discipline on expenses and that has turned out really well so those numbers work is revenue came in at 170 billion and wall street had 166 billion So that's a beat of a mere $4 billion, which is very good. That represents 14% year-over-year growth. Operating income came in at 6.1%, which is the highest since 2019. So they're kind of back in pre-COVID shape, if you will, and doing better than pre-COVID. So that's good to see. Operating income came in at $13.2 billion, and Wall Street had $10.4. So this was a pretty big beat. it's only three billion ish but you know that's a 30 percent beat so that's a that's a nice win when you can deliver 30 more profit than wall street's looking for so all that was really good so jason how did you think that the retail and offline online parts of the business did. Jason: [13:03] Yeah well it was certainly a good part you know reminder amazon reports their online sales which which is a global number, and Amazon's in a different set of countries than anyone else. So you almost can't compare it to any other retailer because there's no retailer that does business in the same geographies as Amazon. And that online stores has their first party sales in it, and it has just the profit from their third party sales in it. So it's not a real GMV number, but that number was over 70 billion, like 70.5 billion versus 68.6 billion. So that was up 6%. That was a beat for Wall Street. Physical stores were 5.1 billion, which is slightly down. So that was one of the few misses in there. [13:52] What I suspect most of our listeners are more interested in is if you convert all those sales into a GMV number and you strip out just the U.S. So you can kind of compare it to other U.S. retailers. What does that look like? And there's a number of different estimates out there. One that we pulled was Citibank's. So the Citibank estimate for total GMV for the year was $904 billion. billion, the US portion of that would be like $659 billion. And that implies that the third party sales were particularly profitable. So I'll call that a optimistic estimate. And then Marketplace Pulse did an estimate using a much more conservative figure for how profitable third party sales that was largely based on the one year Amazon really really told us what the numbers were, which was 2018, right? And so based on those kind of 2018 ratios, Marketplace polls estimated that global GMV is about 700 billion, US GMV would be 510 billion. So that's up, if we take that conservative number, the 510 billion, that would be up 9% from the previous year. All of retail in the United States grew 3.6%. So 9% growth for one of the largest retailers in the market is terrific. [15:20] We'll talk a little bit more about what that might mean, but they also, they had some other interesting successes in the retail business. They talked about the, it was their fastest speed of service ever. So you know, we've talked in previous quarters about how they really shifted from a national fulfillment network to these regional fulfillment models so that packages would be staged closer to the consumers that bought them. And they said this quarter that 7 billion packages, or I'm sorry, for the whole year, 7 billion packages were delivered next day or same day. A billion packages were delivered same day. And there are now 110 metro areas in the United States that get same day delivery. So I still talk to other retailers all the time that talk about competing with Amazon's offer. And they always talk about two day delivery. And the reality is that's not the Amazon offer anymore. They're same day in 110 metros, and they delivered $7 billion packages in zero to one days. So speed of service, super impressive. And while they got faster, they also got more efficient. So for the first time since 2018, they actually reduced their cost to serve, the total cost to get a package to a customer. And so in the US, they said the cost to serve went down by 45 cents a package. package. So that's a pretty meaningful cost reduction. [16:45] Volume went up, which sometimes makes it easier to be cost efficient, but, you know, to actually get better service and lower your costs at the same time is an impressive feat and a big win for Amazon, which, you know, probably contributed a lot to that particularly high operating income, which I'm not sure if you mentioned, but I think that's the highest operating income they've ever announced. Scot: [17:06] Yeah. Yep. It's pretty good. They're actually profitable now. Just saying they've been profitable a long time. Jason: [17:12] Yeah. Yeah. So for all of our, our friends that don't think Amazon's profitable, the, so overall you have to call that, that a really good quarter on the retail sales side. Scott, did you kind of do a deeper dive in how much of that was the marketplace versus 1P? Scot: [17:30] Yeah. It was interesting. You read your GMV data and Scott Devitt, he's at Wedbush now. He's a longtime friend of the pod. He also put out his number and he came in around that market pulse side. So more like the 700 billion combined. Those numbers are 1P plus 3P? Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. And global. Yeah. So he was in the same zone. And what I found was interesting is because we're heading into 24, he pushed his forecast for GMV. He's the only one I've seen that forecast GMV. And it's obviously driven from like the revenue. So he kind of takes the revenue growth rate and uses that to kind of like get to the growth rate of GMV. [18:08] But he pushed it out to 2025. And then if I push it out one more year, just kind of using the same, what I think he's doing, it crosses a trillion dollars. If you could wrap your head around that. I remember you and I, one of the first discussions we ever had was about this frustration that people didn't understand this GMV thing and they were underestimating. You know, you'd see these charts that showed maybe Amazon never catches up to Walmart. And at that point, you know, Amazon was at a hundred billion and Walmart was at 400 loosely. Maybe that's the ex-grocery. I can't remember the specifics. This is going back like seven, eight years. And now we're at a point where not only have they crossed them from GMV perspective, but even revenue is crossing Walmart or very close to it. And there's a shot at a trillion dollars of transactional flow going through Amazon between 1P and 3P. That's pretty, that's crazy. Like, and it makes sense. You drive around anywhere. All you see is Amazon last mile delivery and long haul, you know, trucks. There's just like the economic impact of what they're doing is monumental. Jason: [19:13] Yeah, it's crazy. I remember when the first e-commerce sites sort of passed the billion dollar mark and how amazing that felt. Yeah, yeah. This thing could work. Scot: [19:22] Work this thing has legs exactly they thought we were crazy yeah. Jason: [19:29] Um so you know normally the narrative is all this retail stuff loses money but that's okay because aws is so profitable and if if there was like any sort of cautionary tale in this earnings call at all i would say it was aws the growth was decent right like what the i think the the estimates were 11 to 15 and they came in right in the middle of that like 13 but the operating income actually went down slightly. So like that, that is a mild concern for some folks. If you, if you kind of convert AWS to it, the last, the trailing 12 months of revenue at, at there, I want to say it's like 24% or 24.1% gross margins. You generate about 40, $21 billion in, in operating income from AWS. So that, you know, 20 billion here, 20 billion there, it starts to add up. But as, as I quickly checked that that's significantly less income than for example, the ads business probably generated for them. So it's a good business. They are growing slower because they are the biggest player. They are growing slower than their competitor, certainly than Microsoft. And it, And their profitability did slightly tick down. [20:51] But on the exciting side, they talked about a lot of the AI workloads that were moving to AWS and what a headwind that is. And one of the workloads they announced is Rufus, which is an e-commerce search engine that runs on Amazon. So, so that, that giant text box that we're all used to for finding our products and that's helping you find what, what SKU to buy amongst the 800 million SKUs available on Amazon is now rolling out a much smarter generative AI amenity that can help, help you find products with much more sophisticated searches. Scot: [21:33] Yeah. Yeah. I have not seen any screenshots of it or anything. Have you? Jason: [21:37] I saw a demo. though. I have not seen it in the wild yet. You know, they're not the first mover here, right? Like Instacart adopted a version of OpenAI pretty early. Walmart rolled it out in their iOS app at CES a few weeks before Amazon. And so it's funny, like, you know, Amazon, there are some rumors that some of the AI tools in Amazon aren't performing as well in internal tests as people would like. So there's some concerns about that. [22:11] What we'll probably have to do a deeper dive on another show is this whole interesting thing as all the text boxes that you can enter text in and e-commerce are moving from keyword searches to these ai engines customers have to re-learn how to use them and right now they're not right and so you know you go to the walmart app and you know it's a generative ai search engine but you still type the same same you know basic keywords in that you always have and so i'm kind of interested in the long run, is that really where the AI is going to live in these e-commerce sites? Or will we have, you know, sort of a different amenity for doing these more intent based searches than we do for the keyword searches? Or will people just learn how to use them different? I don't know. It's a TBD thing as the world evolves right now. [23:02] But you also alluded to the ads business. That was definitely another bright spot. They sold 14.7 billion dollars of ads which was above the wall street estimate it's a 27 growth year over year and so if you look at the trailing 12 months that's like 30 billion dollars 27 billion in ad sales if you look at a run rate if that fourth fourth quarter number were to go four consecutive quarters it's a 58 billion dollar run rate so they are they're like a clear third largest digital ad platform in the United States and rapidly gaining ground on the other two. And the most conservative estimate I've ever seen for this business is that it's 60% gross margin. At 60% gross margin over the trailing 12 months, the ads business contributed $28 billion billion in operating income to Amazon versus the 21 billion for AWS. So ads was $7 billion more profitable than AWS over the last 12 months. Scot: [24:08] Yeah. That would be net margin, I think you meant to say. Jason: [24:11] Yeah. Sorry. And in fun fact, they also announced this little thing called Prime Video Ads, which which, you know, is a huge new source of revenue for them. And that is expected to tack on another like six and a half billion over the next 12 months or 24 months. So like there's a lot of upside still in the ad business for Amazon. Scot: [24:37] Yeah it's gonna be crazy back on marketplaces i skipped a couple data points because i was so excited about the trillion dollars the as far as the quarter they they kind of have a couple of things that they report on you know the gmv we we we talked about analysts have to kind of back into and they use this one data point to kind of triangulate the things they do tell us is there's this piece called third-party seller services and that's basically you know where they make money from prime and other things of that nature and that grew 20 percent year-over-year beat estimates it was everyone was thinking 42 billion and it came in at 43 and change and then the other thing they tell us is units and that's tricky because you don't know the relevant price of a third-party unit in a first party so you can't just assume it's 61 of revenue that that's a little trick in there that that's that's why the analysts have to do some different math to get in there but third Third party was 61% of units in the fourth quarter. Last year, you have to look at year over year because of the seasonality. It was 59. So that's up 2%. So more and more products that they're selling are third party, which is, you know, just juices their margins that much more. Jason: [25:46] Yeah. Just looking at the Citibank model for that, Scott, it would be seven globally. It would be like 71% of total GMV is third party. Scot: [25:55] Yeah. Jason: [25:55] By revenue. Scot: [25:56] Yeah. Jason: [25:57] Yeah. Scot: [25:57] Yeah, because first party, back when I was modeling this, I've since abandoned that because the Wall Street guys do a better job than I ever could. Jason: [26:04] Their spreadsheets are a lot prettier, for sure. Scot: [26:07] Yes, it was similar. It would add about 10 points because the AOV on first party is relatively low compared to third party because of all the books and digital little things that they have that are a dollar here, a dollar there kind of things. Things okay so then we go into next year with the guidance and they guided the top line 138 to 143. This was Wall Street's consensus is in the middle but they really raised the top end of this and it gives it a growth band of eight to thirteen percent and what's happened in the jassy era is it either comes in right at the top or a notch or two above so Wall Street thinks that you know While the midpoint was aligned with what they're thinking, many of them have bumped up their, models to the 143. [26:58] And then also the similar kind of situation on operating income, Amazon raised it a fair amount more. And then what that did is it increased the price targets. And the stock has been on a really nice tear since earnings, thanks to this. And I think AWS wasn't what everyone wanted to see, but. [27:16] It reaccelerated growth, which folks want to see, and it doesn't feel like they're losing AI. I do think Microsoft's got more buzz, but at least they're in the game. Whereas I think people are starting to worry Google's not really. Google's talking a good game with Bard, but they're really slow to put stuff out. Like, you know, they announced this. What is it? Ultra version. Bard has three flavors, and, you know, they're way behind on each one they've announced. They're behind weeks or months on. And then the last one is, like, really taking a long time. So everyone's like really starting to worry about Google's ability to execute quickly. And, you know, so I would say the winners of this earnings season were definitely Meta, Amazon, Microsoft up in kind of a league of their own, and then Google and some of the others. I think Snapchat, I don't follow them this close, but I think they had a really rough quarter. So there's definitely an interesting AI has thrown a whole new mix into how these big, you know, either trillion dollar mega super mega caps are doing or meta is not in that discussion. It's a little bit smaller, but these big some people call them the significant seven. And they when they say that on CNBC, they're throwing NVIDIA in there and a couple others. But, you know, AI has just changed the game in the last year. It's been amazing. Jason: [28:30] Yeah, for sure. Sure. And they, you know, along those lines, they also announced a bunch of sort of AI-driven new inventions at Amazon. So we talked a little bit about Rufus. They, they have part of that reducing that cost of service. They have a lot of smarter robots in the fulfillment centers that are like interfacing with humans more and doing more stuff like that. And I saw they had one, one AI innovation right in your space, right? Like they're using AI to inspect respect all the Amazon vans and identify any service needs before the vans break down. Scot: [29:02] Yeah yeah yeah these these last mile vans are they get pretty beat up as you can imagine sure you know being in Chicago you see how they can that can be pretty bunged up and all kinds of things happen so, you know they it's interesting I've been to tour several of these because we work on them at my day job spiffy and it's pretty wild we don't have time to go into it maybe we can do a whole pot on on it. But anyway, they, they line them up and drive them through a single area. And they have this like arch of cameras that they put them through. And I imagine that's what that system is. It's, it's using this kind of 300, almost like a ring of cameras that the vans drive through, and they must be using the AI to detect what's going on there. Jason: [29:45] Yeah it's crazy um so anything else jump out at you on specific on the amazon earnings because i wanted to take a last minute to kind of put these amazon earnings in context for the rest of us retail but i want to make sure i didn't miss anything you wanted to. Scot: [30:00] Yeah one last thing in my little auto world that i live in now they kind of made a almost you know i haven't seen a lot of buzz about it i know you work a lot with the auto company so you're you're probably getting some feedback on it which is why i'm kind of curious but they announced hyundai is going going to start selling cars on Amazon. And for a long time, everyone's thought Amazon would maybe compete with Carvana or buy Carvana, some of Carvana's used cars. So it's like e-commerce for used cars. And a lot of Carvana's competitors, Vroom and Shift, have kind of hit the skids and actually are out of business now. And some people thought Amazon would buy them, but it looks like Like they're actually going to be maybe an ad unit or a showroom and then send, you could transact on Amazon or start your transaction on Amazon and then go to the dealer. So that has been, there's a lot of buzz in my world around that. And we keep hearing many more OEMs are coming and the dealers are, the Hyundai dealers I've talked to are very excited about this and expecting kind of a different customer than they're used to. And there's some prime tie-in there too, which is kind of interesting. So it's going to be interesting to see Amazon has their eyesight on this auto category and they're doing more and more in there. And it's going to be interesting to see what they do. Jason: [31:14] Oh, for sure. I have this giant deck of industries where the leaders in the industry would say like, oh man, e-commerce is amazing in these other industries, but here's why it will never be relevant in ours. And I think the car industry is the one that this is playing out in right now that, you know, they used to all say like, oh, there's never going to be e-commerce. People want to go to the dealers and drive it. And there's three tier distribution and all these things and it'll never happen. And you know, now it's certainly happening. Scot: [31:44] Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see that. Jason: [31:46] Fun times. So I just want to put all this in a little bit of context. So before the pandemic, retail in the United States of America grew very consistently. 4.1% a year with some very minor deviations, but that's kind of what you expected just from normal inflation and the growth in the population, 4.1% a year. So then the pandemic happens. We mail out a couple trillion dollars in economic stimulus. We lock everyone in the house so they can't spend as much money on services. And we had the three greatest years in the history of retail. We grew 7.7% in 2020. We grew 13.6% in 2021, that's the best year of all times, and we grew another 8% in 2022. So those were those three crazy outlier years. So the end of 2022 comes and everyone's like, what's 2023 going to look like? [32:37] We just had these three years that were more than double the industry average. The NREF came out early in the year and said, hey, we're forecasting 4% to 6% growth. So bottom end of their range would be average, 6% would be sort of halfway to those last three years. So we now know what actually happened and we came in at 3.6% growth. So missed the NREF estimate, missed the traditional average, it's a down year. And this is $5 trillion is the total sales. So missing by half a percent is pretty meaningful. So all of retail grew 3.6%. If you convert that into a number, that's $180 billion more stuff we sold in 2023 than we did in 2022. [33:25] And the numbers I'm using for all this are retail without auto or gas in it, just because that's what the nrf calls core retail and it's kind of amazon doesn't sell a lot of cars or gas yet right so so amazon grew nine percent if we use that conservative gmv number for the us. [33:42] That means amazon alone grew 43 percent last year 43 billion dollars last year so amazon alone was 24 of all retail growth in the united states of america and they're the first or second largest retailer in the country and they grew a quarter of all growth which is pretty phenomenal Walmart also wildly outperform the industry they grew and there they won't announce their q4 till for a couple more weeks but assuming they they have like hit the low side of all the estimates so only 4% growth in q4 though that that'll bring them in at 6% growth for the year that means they They grew by $29 billion, which is 16% of that total growth last year. Then I keep talking about Timu and Shein. Timu only grew 3,100% last year, which is a pretty good growth rate. So they contributed $9.3 billion in growth, 5% of the total. And Shein grew 30%. So they contributed another $7 billion in growth, 4% of the total. So you just take those four retailers, Amazon, Walmart, Timu, and Shein. That's half of all U.S. retail growth last year. So those four companies had a terrific year, but they essentially left crumbs, for the rest of the retail industry in what without those four companies is pretty much a Debbie Downer year. Scot: [35:09] Yeah yeah it's amazing share there it's kind of crazy. Jason: [35:13] Yeah and it's it's just so weird to see the biggest two retailers in the market amazon and walmart growing faster than like almost anyone else that that to me is a a very anomalous circumstance that you you don't normally see, there is this super interesting horse race who is the biggest retailer in the u.s and the the sort of unfortunate answer is it depends a little bit on how you count because you you've got Walmart's total US GMV which we also don't know by the way because the there now is a meaningful marketplace at Walmart not as meaningful as as Amazon but like you know Walmart doesn't disclose its actual GMV. [35:59] But Walmart also has Sam's Club. And so if you take just Walmart's GMV and shoot, I thought I had the number in front of me, but now that I'm talking about it, I of course don't. But from memory, it was about $442 billion last year would be my estimate for their GMV after they announced that's their Q4. And so that would be lower than even the conservative estimate for Amazon's US GMV. If you add Sam's GMV in the US to Walmart's GMV in the US, Walmart gets to about $520 billion. So that would be above Marketplace Pulse's estimate for Amazon and below Citibank's estimate for Amazon. So no matter how you count, these two companies are very close. A few years ago, you and I were talking about Amazon being close to Walmart if you take grocery out, which grocery is 60% of Walmart sales. But now we're in a year where Amazon may have passed Walmart, but however you count, it's very close. And they're obviously continuing to grow faster than Walmart. So if it wasn't 2023, it likely will be 2024. That's the year that Amazon actually takes the title as the largest retailer in the US. Scot: [37:18] Yeah, it's crazy. We knew the day would come and here we are. Jason: [37:22] Exactly. So Scott, I feel like we nailed it. We targeted to have a slightly shorter show to just keep the meat in there and we have succeeded. Scot: [37:33] Yeah. Yeah. Thanks everyone for joining us. Don't forget, if you have a second, leave us a review. We'd really appreciate that. And. Jason: [37:41] Until next time, happy commercing!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg, Jesse noWonder and Fish as they discuss some recent trending topics. From the Super Bowl, wrestling news to Drake and his "leak". It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Jason Goldberg is a Global Keynote Speaker on Future-Proof Leadership and is a Mental Performance and Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers, and CEOs.' Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Childhood 02:11 Impact of Father's Absence 03:08 Discovering Personal Growth 05:19 Shifting from External Validation to Self-Love 06:20 Helping Clients Get Ahead of the Curve 07:09 Challenging and Questioning Identity 08:51 The Role of Thought in Experience of Life 10:38 The Batman Analogy 12:19 Recognizing the Difference Between Who You Think You Are and 13:14 Who You Actually Are 16:13 Asking Powerful Questions 21:12 Taking Things Less Seriously 25:36 Balancing Intentionality and Playfulness 30:26 The Cycle of Remembering and Forgetting 31:40 The Power of Permission and Reminders 35:04 The Importance of Reminders 35:33 Lessons from Byron Katie 38:08 Shifting from the 'I Know' Mind to the 'I Don't Know' Mind 39:30 The Limitations of Cognitive Transformation 42:09 The Importance of Somatic Work 44:22 The Relationship Between Consciousness and Caution 45:19 The Downside of Judging Progress 48:48 The Upside of Comparison 52:03 Unlearning the Belief of Showing Up with High Energy Find Jason Here: https://thejasongoldberg.com/ Jason's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejasongoldberg My links: Free Clarity Call: https://calendly.com/jamesbrackin/1?month=2023-09

Jason Goldberg is a global keynote speaker on Future-Proof Leadership, a mental performance and leadership coach for celebrities, change makers, and CEO's, and the author of the #1 international bestseller on self-leadership called “Prison Break.” He explains why you need to shift your mindset from “accountability” to being “counted on.”If you enjoy this episode, please consider leaving a rating and a review. It makes a huge difference in helping us spread the word about the show.Thanks for listening! To join our #POSITIVITY community or to learn more about Moshe, visit https://linktr.ee/moshepopackTopics:1:45 – In his early days, Jason opened for Wu Tang Clan.5:00 – How Jason lost 130 pounds.7:30 – The mindset shift from accountability to being “counted on.”9:45 – Jason's focus as a mental performance coach. 13:00 – The shared core traits of successful people.18:00 – The “problem solver” mindset does NOT improve your mental health. 20:00 – Why it's so important to have a coach for self-growth.23:00 – The numerous business benefits of rest and sleep.28:00 – How to experience fascination with the world around us.32:00 – The key takeaway from his best-selling book “Prison Break.”

In this podcast episode, Sebastian Naum and Jason Goldberg, TEDx Speaker and award-winning entrepreneur, dive into a profound discussion on personal growth, self-leadership, and the entrepreneurial journey. They candidly share experiences on the mix of excitement and fear when launching new ventures, and stress the significance of embracing vulnerability. The conversation covers the impact of storytelling and metaphors in personal transformation, the commonality of imposter syndrome, and the value of authenticity in leadership. Jason underlines the potency of joy and play in daily life, along with exploring the potential of AI to complement human empathy.   Topics Discussed: Logic's perspective on last times New Year's resolutions discussion The etymology of "resolve" Overcoming weight loss challenges Potential versus capacity Self-leadership orientation Conscious leadership and business success Business Consciousness and Long-Term Success Conscious Business and Reputation Management Finding Your Mission and North Star Defining Personal Mission and Purpose Embracing Multifaceted Identity Simple and Transformative Wisdom Metaphor and analogy for transformation Dealing with stress using the snow globe analogy Imposter syndrome and vulnerability in leadership Collaboration with NASA and the lesson learned Intimacy Over Information Redefining Joy AI and Mindset Incorporating Play into Work Problem-solving Vision Traits of a Self-Leader Integrity and Courage Recognizing Integrity Conscious Leadership   Connect with Jason on Instagram Connect with Sebastian on Instagram SebastianNaum.com  

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss kick off the new year of 2024 with some recent, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Tuesdays Talks with Jason Goldberg, Jason shares his amazing journey and why he does what he does. We talked about Joy, Mindset, Schedules sacred calendar and his morning routine, perfectionism, identity, being a multi-passionate, and of course bacon.

Join DJ Toks, Jason Goldberg, Fish and Frank Nigrelli as the talk all things christmas and the holiday season. Come send off 2023 with the Token Hour boys! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a wonderful New Year!

On this week's episode, Ashley and award-winning entrepreneur, author, TEDx speaker, and former rapper, Jason Goldberg tackle the complex balance of having fun while achieving your dreams. In this fun and deep-diving interview, Ashley and Jason discuss how to be high-performing and highly productive without accruing stress and anxiety, how to take the seriousness out of being successful, and how to change your perspective from good vs bad to less effective vs more effective. You will learn how to use the thoughts that are serving you and challenge the thoughts that hinder your progress by taking radical personal responsibility, and ultimately be able to answer the question: how do I intend to use my life today? Check out Jason's Websites: Thejasongoldberg.com Playfulprosperity.com Jason's Book: Prison Break: Vanquish the Victim, Own Your Obstacles, and Lead Your Life Connect with Ash: https://www.instagram.com/ashleystahl/ Take a FREE Quiz to Discover Your Most Authentic Career Path: https://www.ashleystahl.com/freequiz/

The Jason & Scot Show.  Podcast about e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Editor note: We're trying some fun new AI features for this episode. The following show notes were written by ChatGPT. We're also let AI remove all the "stop words" in our audio, and we've switched from Google to OpenAI for our audio transcription. Let us know your feedback. In this episode of the Jason and Scot show, our special guest is Sean D. Nelson, the CEO and founder of Lovesac. He shares his inspiring journey of starting the company as a beanbag business in his basement and growing it into a successful public company. Sean highlights the key moments of his entrepreneurial journey, including winning a million dollars on Richard Branson's reality TV show and navigating the ups and downs of the business. Sean has upcoming book and podcast, both entitled "Let Me Save You 25 Years: Mistakes, Miracles, and Lessons from the Lovesac Story." Sean emphasizes the importance of being a direct-to-consumer brand and how Lovesac has found sustained success by focusing on customer acquisition costs and offering a high-quality product. He discusses the concept of direct-to-consumer and shares his thoughts on its significance. Sean believes that having a differentiated product that provides value to customers is crucial, rather than simply relying on an online sales strategy. The conversation also touches on the topic of innovation and how Lovesac has been able to push the boundaries of what a furniture company can offer. Sean discusses their Stealth Tech innovation, which incorporates surround sound into their couches, as well as their commitment to creating products that are built to last and designed to evolve. Sean acknowledges the challenges of operating in physical retail and highlights the importance of their showrooms in reducing customer acquisition costs and providing a hands-on experience for customers. He also mentions their partnerships with Best Buy and Costco to expand their reach. The discussion expands to the future of retail and e-commerce, with Sean mentioning the transformative role of AI but cautioning that it takes time for movements to fully evolve. He emphasizes the importance of being patient and keeping an eye on developments in the industry. The conversation concludes with Sean expressing his long-term commitment to Lovesac and his desire to build something meaningful rather than focusing solely on personal gain. Listeners are invited to check out Sean's podcast and website, as well as his upcoming book, which will be released in January. Overall, this episode provides insights into the journey and philosophy behind Lovesac's success and offers valuable perspectives on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of retail. Chapters 0:00:46 Introduction and Welcome to the Show 0:08:36 The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows 0:12:05 Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance 0:15:49 The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product 0:19:49 The Value and Overhype of Market Movements 0:23:18 Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve 0:25:56 Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism 0:31:36 Innovation and the Evolution of Lovesac's Product Line 0:37:07 The Strength of Lovesac's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape 0:40:03 Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop 0:41:52 AI's transformative role in the future of technology 0:50:08 Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit Episode 313 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show. This episode is being recorded on Thursday, November 9th, 2023. I'm your host, Jason "RetailGeek" Goldberg, and as usual, I'm here with your co-host, Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:37] Hey, Jason, and welcome back. Jason and Scot show listeners. Jason, we're very fortunate to have a entrepreneur on the show. I'm the entrepreneur side of our partnership. So I always really enjoy these. Introduction and Welcome to the Show [0:49] We have on the show, Sean D. Nelson. He is the CEO and founder of Lovesack. And a little birdie told me that he recently started a podcast himself. He started Love Sack as a beanbag company in his basement when he was around 18. And now it's a public company and doing relatively large revenues over 600 kind of run rate. If I look at the last quarter, I took a little glance at that. Sean, welcome to the show. Shawn : [1:13] Thank you. Thanks for having me. Great to be with you. Jason: [1:16] We are thrilled to have you, Sean. Listeners always like to kind of get the background. I'm imagining you don't have a deep background before you started Love Sack because you started it so young. But can you, like where were you in life when that brought you to start build your own product? Shawn : [1:34] Yeah, strangely, 25 years in and still running the same company I founded as my side hustle in college, which is exactly what Love Sack was. So 95, all the way back then, I made a giant not bean bag because I thought it would be funny. I literally, 10 days out of high school, got off the couch at my parents' house, having this dumb idea, like, how about a beanbag, like, me to the TV, like, the whole floor, like, huge. Drove down to the fabric store, bought some fabric, brought it home, cut it out, and then began sewing it up, broke my mom's sewing machine, neighbor finished it, took three or four weeks to try and stuff it, originally with beads, but couldn't possibly find enough, so looked around the house, I just found out my parents' camping mattresses chopped up yellow foam, you know, like those yellow slabs of foam you take camping, on a paper cutter in the basement. And eventually, I mean, foam, packing peanuts, old blankets, had this thing stuffed and started using it out and about through university, taking it camping, back of the truck, driving movies. Ended up putting it away for a couple years. And by the way, everywhere I took it, everybody wants one. Like everyone's always like, Oh my gosh, what is that thing? Where'd you get it? I was like, I'll never make another one. It was such a pain in the butt and put it away for a couple of years to go be a missionary for my church. [2:58] And came back to finish up university in 1998. And that's when I founded the company. Cause people kept bugging me to make them one. And it became my side hustle in college. And we tried to sell these things eventually beyond our friends and family and beer fest, May fest, October fest, car shows, boat shows, 10 by 10 booths, how we got started. Tried to sell them to furniture stores and they laughed at us and told us it was a dumb idea. [3:34] Eventually, at a trade show got discovered by the limited to this is like, you would not today as justice like in the malls, like little girls pink and purple fuzzy stuff for their bedrooms and, and clothing. Anyway, they ordered 12,000 little love sacks, not knowing it was me and a buddy and like a woodchipper shredding foam in the back of this furniture place. And, and that forced us to source over in Asia, which is, you know, where I had served my mission. So I speak Mandarin Chinese. There's a whole story there I won't get into it it was just kind of one thing led to another led to another week we built a factory to support that 12,000 sack order we then went out to the furniture stores who again laughed at us didn't want our $500,000. [4:19] Beanbags having completed that order wanting to keep the factory going so we finally opened our own store in a mall that didn't even want us there but finally capitulated let us in because they We had a space to fill for the holiday season, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it just exploded. We did a good job, carpet paint, neon sign, made it look like a proper mall chain store selling giant beanbags, and it just took off. Like, it worked. People came in, flopped down, music bumpin', big screen TV, playin' movies, had a great time. There was a couch in the corner to look pretty, be part of the decor. People kept asking about the couch, And that led us to eventually, many stores later, many states later, invent Saxionals, which is our modular sofa solution, which now drives almost 90% of our sales today. So we're more a couch company by far today than we are a beanbag company. And there was a whole, listen, I'm skipping over decades of time really, but there was a whole transition where we... We went through after we invented the sectionals and solved all these problems people have with couches not only can you ship it to your house via FedEx which was hyper relevant you know for. [5:32] E-commerce and digital marketing obviously but it's watchable and changeable, and movable and it can be with you the rest of your life that that led us to a whole design philosophy that now. [5:42] Drives are innovation we think is a really cool secret sauce called design for life but. 10, 20, 50, 100, 250 locations now. We came public in 2018 on about 100 million in sales. Right around the time there was just tons of fervor in this direct consumer movement. We had farted around, we'll call it as a furniture store, selling rugs and lamps and bowls and baskets and all the obvious things along the way. And it was really when we purged all that stuff around 2015, seeing the Caspers of the world emerge and Warby Parker's and even Tesla with their showrooms. Could we adopt a more e-commerce-led model with showrooms for people to kick the tires, so to speak? And that transition is really what unlocked the lovesack that you see today and where most of our growth has come since about 2015, 16, when we made that pivot, took the company public, wrapped around that direct consumer story. So we're not a digitally native brand originally, we were actually a retailer that pivoted and became digitally led. And now we don't even operate stores in the traditional sense. We don't, we don't stock things there. You know, you don't walk out of there with your product. They're all really online sales and those showrooms are extremely powerful mechanisms for helping people make up their mind around a five or 10, $15,000. [7:06] Purchase where they want to see the thing and sit on it and, and, and see if it's everything it's cracked, it's cracked up to be online. And so we, we, we believe that we really, uh, through that arc. And then by the way, since coming public, I don't know, six, seven X, the company this year, you know, we'll, we'll be on a run rate to the analysts were a public company. So the analysts show us around, you know, it's called 700 plus in revenue and profitable, very profitable and cash generative. So we think, you know, the direct consumer game, in a lot of respects, Love Sack is one of the unlikely winners of that entire movement. Because I think at that scale, there are very, very few, what I call successful direct to consumer brands. And so we're really proud of that. And it's been a long saga, and we continue to grow and change and adapt and evolve. Jason: [8:01] It's an amazing story. And we definitely want to unpack it. But I want to go all the way back to the beginning for one second. Did that neighbor who helped finish sewing the first prototype get any equity? Shawn : [8:13] No, it was my ex-girlfriend's, mom, so about the time she exited, you know. No, it was just a friendly favor, but the truth is a lot of people helped out along the way, and a lot of people had equity or have equity in Love Sack from along the way, but look, we've been through every high, every low. Somewhere in the middle there, I skipped over it just because of brevity. Not only did I win a million dollars on TV with Richard Branson, The Journey of Love Sack: From Highs to Lows [8:38] his reality TV show on Fox Network back in 2005, if you can believe that, the rebel billionaire. But I also guided the company through a complete chapter 11 reorganization back in 2006, spearheaded by Venture Capital, which was painful and ugly and embarrassing and humiliating. So we've been through every kind of thing over these better than two decades. Scot: [9:01] Yeah, my deep dive question is, when you rented or bought the wood chipper, did you tell them you'd be throwing foam in there, or did they think you were clearing up a tree? Shawn : [9:09] Oh, that's so the original story. Yeah, the original woodchipper actually, you know, if you've ever used one in your backyard or, you know, you shove sticks into these things, that's basically what the original shredder was. And it was in the back room of this furniture factory already. They had used it back in the seventies to shred foam, but it had an electric motor, right? Instead of like, okay. Scot: [9:30] So it's okay to be inside here. Shawn : [9:32] Well, yeah, but I had to rehab it because it hadn't been used in like a decade or two because shredded foam had fallen out of favor in furniture. And then later to do that bigger order, we couldn't afford like a proper German, shredder, so we ended up driving out to farm country to find more of those same kind of shredders and actually found a hay grinder called a hay buster can shred 2000 pounds at a whack. Scot: [9:57] And that's a lot of power. Shawn : [9:59] Yeah, it's powered by a tractor. So we, you know, agricultural loan for tractor and hay grinder. I mean, crazy, crazy story in the beginning. Scot: [10:07] Yeah, as a family, you gotta figure out how to get it done, right? Whatever it takes. Shawn : [10:12] Whatever it takes. Scot: [10:13] I didn't know the Richard Branson thing, so that was interesting. Did he like, was he an active investor, or that's like one of those things where his people kind of take over and you never hear from him again? Shawn : [10:22] No, I mean, it was a weird situation. He had a reality TV show, 2004-5, The Rebel Billionaire, you know, whatever, 16 contestants. It was like The Apprentice, but not for apprentices, for entrepreneurs. So my runner-up on the show was Sarah Blakely of Spanx, gives you an idea. Scot: [10:38] Oh, okay, cool, neat. Shawn : [10:39] Yeah, yeah, so we became great friends, she and I, Richard and I. I ended up also being named President of Virgin Worldwide for a minute as part of the prize, believe it or not. So, worked with Richard, worked with all of his CEOs. Totally weird outcome. And, you know, but huge, huge blessing and a huge piece of story. And he was involved in sort of our VC round that ensued on the tail of that. Scot: [11:06] Okay, and then I think I saw that you guys were on Shark Tank, right? You were like one of those that you know, kind of one of the big success stories. Was that the OG Shark Tank or? Shawn : [11:16] No, we weren't on Shark Tank. A lot of people thought that. There was a Love Sack copycat that's on Shark Tank. Okay, and so they got... Scot: [11:23] I was confused because like Google says you were and then I was like, but then I couldn't find the episode. Jason: [11:28] There's a whole TikTok channel dedicated to Love Sack and Shark Tank and it's super weird. Shawn : [11:36] That's super, yeah, people get confused. Scot: [11:42] Yeah, yeah, super weird. Yeah. And then when you did your IPO, was it a traditional IPO or did you guys get caught up in the SPAC craziness? Shawn : [11:51] No, we did a traditional IPO back in 2018 and you know, our stock has been really volatile for lots of different reasons that, you know, COVID was crazy, but the company performance has been really solid. So we're just trucking. Love Sack's Traditional IPO and Company Performance Scot: [12:06] He, I think, was at Graham that said in the short-term it's an emotional machine, in the long-term it weighs your financials. So you got to, it's very hard, you know, I took a company public, not to the level you have. And yeah, it is, I was like, I'm not going to look at the stock, it's not going to influence me. And then suddenly everyone's like, are we making the quarter? And it's like, okay. And then suddenly it's very hard to get out of that, that short-term mindset. So congrats to you for sticking to it for so long. Shawn : [12:29] Yeah, look, I'm actually a big advocate of it, having lived inside of it now for almost six years. Scot: [12:36] Yeah, the transparency is good, you know, and I like that part of it, I think that's good for, you know, to kind of have to put out everything that you're doing, you know, it's a, the ultimate, yeah, it's like, yeah, transparency tends to be a good thing. Shawn : [12:48] I think it's the right way for companies to be governed and ran. Anyway, we could get into that if you want. Scot: [12:56] Yeah, I like the, you know, and you talked about all the other, we call them digitally native vertical brands, like the Warby's and Bonobos and all that. And yeah, a lot of them have not made it past kind of like that hundred million dollar level. And you guys have obviously, you know, six, seven X that, which is awesome. And then, you know, the big knock on Casper for a long time was as we've actually had this guy, Dan on the show, people were able to pick apart the CAC LTV and they found the average selling price was like, Jason will know these numbers, but it was like 350 and their cost to acquire a customer was 400. And they were like, you know, that obviously wasn't sustainable. So it's pretty neat that you guys have figured that out. Shawn : [13:36] Yeah. I mean, that's at the root of why obviously we've had some sustained success. And I think it's also at the root of why there are almost no other direct consumer brands making any money. End of story, full stop. And it's pretty fascinating to watch the whole thing unfold, because it really has been a movement for almost a decade. Scot: [14:01] Yeah, and I don't want to dig into the information you don't divulge publicly, so this is not a trap or anything but is it because the selection or your products, you've kind of cracked the code on Kakao TV, like what do you, and I don't want to know any methods or anything. and what do you attribute it to? Shawn : [14:18] Look, I think, let's start at the root. I think that many companies, product companies, let's start there, overlook the fact that you need a really good product. I think they pick a category and they say, oh, it could be a direct consumer brand. And the truth is, what does that even mean? Do you mean, because here's the funny thing. When I hear analysts and industry people talk about direct consumer, it has become synonymous over the last decade as it's unfolded today with e-comm. Oh, you mean you're an e-comm company and in many cases you do half of your sales through wholesale. So what does it even mean? I mean, if you want to talk about a direct consumer brand, LoveSack may be the most direct. We don't have any wholesale. I'm talking zero, and we only sell through our own channels, whether it's our website or our showrooms. And we have these partnerships, for instance, where we operate our own showrooms inside of a Best Buy or a Costco. [15:26] But you know, so this whole phrase even, direct-to-consumer, I think is really kind of silly. You mean you're a company that sells stuff online and maybe in showrooms and maybe in wholesale? So you're a company that sells stuff. So let's start with stuff. And you have to make, I think, if you want to be successful in the world, it's not a new concept. You have to have... A great product or or you have to have some other really. Hiller efficiency The Importance of Having a Differentiated Product [15:52] and i think what most have discovered it was a list again over this long decade of direction sumer evolution is that without a really differentiated product. You're just another company with a clever name lots of funding and if you throw lots of money at anything it's gonna grow. But you need to be differentiated. So Love Sack, you know, start with the giant beanbags. They were unique, especially in their day. There's tons of copycats out there now. [16:24] Sactionals are extremely unique. The problem is they photograph just like any other sectional sofa. Like if you took an image of Sactionals and an image of one of, you know, out of any competitor that sells couches, ours looks a lot like theirs. But the difference, the differences are myriad in terms of their washability, changeability, quality, and modularity, and many of those aspects, especially on the modular side, are patented at LoveSac. And so once you dig into it, you find that that's the number one driving factor, is we have a product that's truly differentiated, truly gives more value to the customer, and therefore, we can extract more from the market. It's really that simple, right? And that's at the root of why our CLV to CAC ratio it was so high and sustainable and cash-generative and profitable. And then we could go down all kinds of other paths. We could talk about our website, execution and stuff like that. And all of it needs to be there. Look, running a business is multifaceted and difficult. But at the root of it is that. Jason: [17:27] For sure. One of the things I sort of admire about your company is the original premise was not to have a particular go-to-market strategy. It was to have this great product that people wanted to have in their lives, right? And it feels to me like that, the whole quote unquote D to C movement, like this notion that before you solve any other problem, you're just gonna put a flag in the ground, like this is how you're gonna go to market, that just, it just seems silly because that may not be how the customer wants to acquire your product. Shawn : [18:00] Yeah, I think you're right. And I think that, so I think that whole movement that we're a part of, so I don't mean to like bag on the movement. I'm just an observer as well. Like I've been living in it, right? And we put, and I'm being really transparent, we put on those clothes very intentionally. [18:16] Because people that planted those flags were getting funded. People that planted those flags were being understood at the time. And these movements come. Right now, I could hold up a flag that said AI on it and go out there and raise a bunch of money and do something. And in the end, 99 out of 100 of those, flags are going to fall by the wayside after having tons of money thrown at them and Probably 1% of them will go on to you know be the next Googlers or who knows what right? But these movements come and go and and and I'm and this is what I'm saying You gotta be careful. I'm not bagging on the movement because these movements are useful these movements drive economic activity these movements drive innovation But they're often way overhyped, not as, I think, not as, so, you know, I mean, we could get into AI, you guys are, I'm sure, tracking it just like I am. What does that even mean? Oh, you mean like software? You mean like software that, that does stuff in an automated fashion? Like is that, is that, is it really that new? But it doesn't matter. It's a story that's being heard. It's a story that's being understood and it's where the momentum is. And so if you're able to wield, take advantage of these movements in the marketplace to your end, that's what, and that's exactly what LoveSack did. We put on those clothes, we took a concept that had been around for a long time, our concept. [19:42] And look, in the end, the thinking and the development and even like, let's say the web services and all the things available to that movement that The Value and Overhype of Market Movements [19:49] were spun up because of that movement, we benefited from. The money raising pricing aside, momentum, going public, whatever, all these things aside. So that's why I'm saying I think that there is value in these movements, but fundamentally, you still need to have a great business, a great product, something that's truly differentiated, because anyone with some funding can go out, buy a logo, buy a name, and look like they know what they're doing. Jason: [20:20] And yeah, for sure. And to your point, there's a, there's a funny data by going around in, in our industry this week that like over a hundred million dollars or I'm sorry, Amazon's GMV is, I'm sorry, a hundred billion dollars of Amazon's GMV is from AI. And you hear that and you're like, oh my God, that's huge. And then you find out it's product recommendation tiles that they launched in 1997. Shawn : [20:45] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jason: [20:47] Which, yeah. Yeah, so I do just want to like kind of wrap up this section, but put it in context. When you open that first store in a mall, like the mall competition for furniture stores was like Expressions Furniture, right? Which no one on this call would even remember probably. And then like by the time you really, after your IPO and really caught fire, you were competing directly against all these D to C companies that were expanding in malls. You were probably competing for leases. Shawn : [21:18] Yeah. Jason: [21:19] It's quite the, quite the journey. Now, Scot mentioned at the beginning of the show that you had recently started a podcast and I'm two part question. How the heck did you have time to start a podcast and tell us what the premise behind the podcast is and what you're talking about? Shawn : [21:36] Sure. Yeah. Just to comment first on what you pointed out, there is this whole strip in the malls now out there right now. But by the way, in these shopping malls that I was told were dead, you know, I could read the headlines of shopping malls are dead back in 2001 when I was opening my first shopping mall and I was forwarded those kind of emails by friends and family who were concerned. And here we are in 2023 and while these things change, they take decades to change. Meanwhile, they've evolved and you have all of these direct consumer players now and it It just cycles through, you know? What the players inside of these shopping centers happen to rotate, and I've watched it all evolve, and by the way, they're rotating again, because a lot of those players are not viable. Some of the best ones, biggest ones, you know? Like, concepts like Peloton, who I think is amazing as a concept, you know? They have their struggles, and so we watch these things evolve. In terms of, the podcast is relevant to this. Let me explain why. We had the chicken, I'm going to go, given the nature of what your podcast is, I'll give you a much broader picture than just, hey, why am I recording a podcast on my own and writing a book? [22:55] It works like this. We had the chicken before the egg. Sactionals being the chicken, we discovered, as we observed and had success with it, we believe are so successful because they are are built to last a lifetime and designed to evolve. Like those two attributes in our product are quite unique. And those two attributes underpin what we call our designed for life philosophy. Sactionals: Built to Last, Designed to Evolve [23:21] I did not found Love Sack to make products that are super sustainable, sustain hyphenable. In other words, things that actually sustain. Who's talking about that? I was just trying to survive. I made a big beanbag, people liked it. Made a couch because people were asking about couches. who has solved all these problems, observed the success, and that success was rooted in the fact that things were built to last, designed to evolve. Now that's led us to this whole philosophy that will inform our innovation on every product going forward, and it's why I'm so confident that we can continue to succeed, is because of this design philosophy that I'm sharing with you openly. Because it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to execute to it. That's the hard part. It's the execution that's the hard part, you know? Now, that said... [24:08] I'm trying to drive a movement. I believe that there are many people that are sort of aware now that we have been conned into buying too much crap. New season, new collection, the merchandising hamster wheel, new iPhone, now it's got a titanium band. Really? Everyone knows. No, it's not even hidden. It's not even like a secret. it. This whole hamster wheel called planned obsolescence that was not an accident, it's absolutely an economic strategy to lift us out of the Great Depression and onward. And it has roots all the way back to Louis XIV. What's my point? The world has just, I guess, accidentally, not so accidentally, fallen into all kinds of rhythms that are unhealthy, unsustainable, and not good for anyone, not good for the environment, not good for people, you know, we're frenetically chasing out. Now my jeans are too tight, now they're too loose, now they're too long, now they're short, now I got, now they got to show my ankles, now they got to drape over my, like, this is not an accident. This is a self-propelling machine that we have created. What's my point? I believe we can drive a movement amongst people to reject that. And I believe factionals is one of the embodiments of that. Things built to last a lifetime are designed to evolve. So that movement is actually my long-term strategy. [25:33] In the near term, I need to... One of the ways that we will reach people besides buying advertising and using it to drive a strong CLV to CAC ratio is through... I don't know, even podcasts like this is through people finding our brand, finding out about me, finding out about the company through... Whether it be me, whether it be through the goodwill of our customers, sharing this or that, the other. And so I wrote a book called Let Me Save You 25 Years. It's our clever story Driving a Movement for Sustainable Consumerism [25:59] at Love Sack. It's really great. I think it launches in January. I spun up a podcast called Let Me Save You 25 Years where I share my own entrepreneurial mistakes, miracles, and lessons of the Love Sack story. That's the subtitle of the book. That's the spirit of the podcast. I talk to successful people, some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and successful people about these concepts. And it's not an interview podcast. We go really deep into some of these concepts. So my long-term goal ultimately, is to write another book that can help drive this consumer movement that I'm describing because I think if we can get a little bit of luck and get people thinking about these things and then eventually seeking out. Products that can do this, and just a lifestyle that is supported in the way that I'm describing. Buy better to buy less. Buy better stuff so you can buy less stuff. Well, obviously, LoveSack will benefit from that as a company that makes better stuff. And so, look, it's a long, long, long, long way around, but you asked the question, and I'm totally serious about that. Scot: [26:58] Yeah. So I'm gonna guess you're not a fan of fast fashion. Shawn : [27:03] No, I mean, that's obviously gonna be I made the topic of the book, you know? Scot: [27:06] And I'm not. Jason's a huge Xi'an fan, so you just really hurt his feelings. No, I'm just kidding. Jason: [27:11] Hey, I wore a Patagonia, a used Patagonia jacket in honor of tonight's show. What are you talking about? Shawn : [27:18] You are speaking my language, man. And look, it's not even about being a tree hugger. I think that people have a brain. And people, I think, are waking up to the idea after the iPhone 15, that holy crap, Apple probably should have been forced to innovate a long, long time ago. Biggest company on planet Earth because they sell us the same thing every year or two. Had we not allowed them to do that, they would have had to use their enormous treasure and enormous skill base to innovate into other categories and and change the world. Instead, we've allowed them to sell us the same thing every year. Scot: [28:06] That's an interesting ethos. Having built a company, about how many people are in your company at this point? Shawn : [28:12] Total about 1,500. It's about 400 at the headquarters and another 1,000 out in the field-ish. Scot: [28:19] Yeah, you're at that phase where there's people at the company that you've never really met before. And it's awkward because they always expect you to know their name and they all know your name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you get a company to that scale, how do you keep innovating? And, you know, one of the ones that I really love that you guys have done is the Stealth Tech. I think that's genius because I love AV and like having a really immersive experience. And I'll let you explain what it is, but, you know, my wife hates the big black speakers that I try to put all over the house. So I think it kind of solves like six problems in one. So A, maybe let listeners know a little bit more about what we're talking about. And then be I'd love to hear like how do you guys you know it's really hard to kind of you know ideas are easy and execution is hard on execution. It's really hard to like you know nail what you're doing and you have a lot going on and then like keep innovating. How do you how do you like get the org functional that way? Shawn : [29:16] Yeah. I mean, I think number one is you have to, you have to really want it, you know, not, not just like, Hey, I want to, I want to get, I want to get more business. I want to sell more stuff. Obviously there's that. But this ethos that I just kind of unpacked for you that, that we tripped stumbled into does the design for life ethos animates this organization. Like, it is a lot of, it is very motivating to think about, holy cow, now that we know our purpose, and it's been identified, right? Inspiring humankind to buy better so they can buy, you know, everyone's like, it was purpose, purpose, purpose, and hire some consultant, you know what I mean? But for real, if you have something that's truly unique, and it's meaningful, it's not just like words on the wall, it really is motivating, it's exciting. Scot: [30:11] And you bake baked in the products have to get better too, right? Like you, that's not well, so you have to support it. Shawn : [30:17] That's exactly right. Like, yeah, like we have to make stuff that's built to last a lifetime and design to evolve, which is really hard because if it was easy, everyone would do that. And here I am telling you openly about it. Like that's what we're going to do. And I'm not afraid to tell you because most companies won't do it because it's just freaking hard. Like it's a lot easier. Like why doesn't love sack? You know, you brought up stealth tech. So Stealth Tech is full Harman Kardon surround sound, no quality sound loss audio. Perfect audio emanating from your couch through the phone through the next layer of fabric and through the decorative layer of fabric that's washable, changeable, removable, tuned down to the color of that fabric so that the audio is perfect rear, front, center, subwoofer, invisible, beautiful, because you don't see it, it looks just like a couch, and it has all that packed in there, it's radically successful. It's been, it's now a huge piece of our business. And nobody saw that coming, because what would they expect a couch company to do next? A couch beanbag company. An end table, a coffee table, a rug, a lamp, you know, decorative accessories, get into the bedroom, who knows, right? Like the obvious stuff. Scot: [31:32] Meatballs. Shawn : [31:32] And what, yeah, right? Why did we do that? We anyway, we saw the opportunity and we also invented it. So one is, Innovation and the Evolution of LoveSack's Product Line [31:40] to answer your question, a lot of play. We are constantly at our innovation lab playing. So it's not just consumer-led insights, which is a big piece of what we do, but it's also a lot of inventions. You gotta have teams to invent. You gotta have engineers. You gotta have, so you gotta support that. So there's a cost structure there. And that's why LoveSack is quite profitable, but not as profitable as it could be in the future, because we are investing in innovation. And there's a lot of heads. there's a lot of engineers, there's a lot of designers doing things. Now they're not just all running around playing, they also have a very disciplined approach to executing on innovation, like launching Stealth Tech a couple years ago, and bringing that to market, which is a heavy lift because it's our invention, it's our patents, and it was not easy for this beanbag company to get into home electronics in a real way. [32:29] We've done, I think, more than 100 million in home electronic sales and making us a pretty, a pretty big player in that space, believe it or not. Already, and I don't think most people even, you know, would think that. But we're, you know, totally serious about it. So, innovation, wrapped around an inspiring path to innovation, I think is the key. Do you have an inspiring path, or are you just trying to make more stuff? Because if I wanted all those things I mentioned, like I'm over here in Asia right now, I'm in Hong Kong. And if I wanted a whole line of living room furniture with our logo on it to make myself feel good, I could have it in four weeks. The suppliers will do it for me. They've been doing it for 30 years over here for all the biggest brands you can think of, you know? And we could give them some designs and give them some ideas and let our, I mean, it's so easy to just source stuff. I'm talking about, you know, product land. Now we're talking fashion, talking furniture, talk any category you want, the same is true. But to truly invent stuff's a lot harder. And that's why I think we've had success, that's why I think we will continue to have success. Jason: [33:35] Yeah, you know, so I am interested, I mean, obviously the product has to be the lead in solving that real problem for a customer. But I do think another helpful aspect to your business is that in order for those products to be successful, like, they have to be demonstrated somehow. Like, per your point, the catalog for the StealthTech sectional looks just like the catalog for a generic sectional. And so I'm thinking you having your own showrooms was a big advantage for being able to tell the story. And ironically, I'm not sure you opened that first showroom because you recognize that problem. It sounds like you opened that first showroom because you had no other way to get distribution. Shawn : [34:21] Oh yeah, yeah. And that's why I'm not taking any claim as some kind of marketing genius. We just kind of tried to survive in the beginning. And opening a showroom was actually a reaction to being rejected by the big furniture guys, because they didn't, you know, want our product, they didn't believe in us, whatever. They couldn't see it. And so thankfully, it went that way. And by the way, they weren't showrooms, they were stores. We were a furniture store for a decade and a half. And we did all the furniture store things. And we sold merchandise, and you pulled your car around and we loaded you up, believe it or not, or we shipped to you. And it took us a long, long time to, after copycatting all those furniture stores and hiring merchandisers and window dressers and all those kinds of things from our competition to do that stuff in our stores. [35:14] To make that pivot to the direct consumer model that we operate on today that obviously looks very prescient in today's model. Now, the reason I think we've been so successful at it is because we had those 15, 20 years to get really good at operating now 250 locations across every state, almost in the United States of America, where people are fighting and bickering and hiring and firing and touching each other, whatever it takes. The point is operating physical showrooms is not something you get good at in a day or a week or a year just because that seems like the next thing to do. We have a website, now people need to see our stuff, to your point. And that's the approach I think a lot of the direct consumer brands have taken. And I don't think that they realize how hard it is to be profitable at retail and how many pitfalls there are. Where if I want to get a little better at digital marketing, which I think we're pretty good at now, but I can hire that. I can agency that, I can platform that. And so I think that the physical side of things is really underestimated. And so thankfully, our very long haphazard history has played out in our favor in that realm. And I think it's a huge strength of ours, because by the way, now that the economy's pulling back and this and that, we're 250 locations ahead of most that are just really coming around to the marriage of physical with digital and not realizing that, You know, it's not something you can just turn on and be good at. Jason: [36:44] Yeah. And I think it's you, you rightly pointed out that like the whole landscape of DTC hasn't been particularly successful. There's not a lot of wins, but the, the people that are outperforming the average, even one thing they all have in common is they all have some kind of physical footprint to, to reduce CAC, right? So they're either have their own stores or they, they are white selling through wholesale, or they're, they're in front of customers in some way, The Strength of LoveSack's Physical Showrooms in the DTC Landscape [37:09] other than, than Facebook ads. Yeah, I, I did. I think there's a super interesting new evolution. I thought I read about though. So like Amen stores and showrooms are super complicated. People wildly underestimate how many mistakes you can, you can make owning and operating a retail store. And now, now that you seem to have that clicking, you guys are bringing the retail store to the customer's driveways. Is that true? Like talk to us about the mobile concierge. Shawn : [37:37] Yeah, so just like we're innovating in product, we're also always innovating go to market. So whether it's mobile concierge, which is a lovesack trucks, where you can, you know, from the comfort of your home, have us pull up in the driveway and show you our products, which we've which we've dabbled in, and have tested into. And we'll see, you know, where that goes. I think that that has its own just like retail has its own complications, but also more, I think, more. I guess scalable already is Shop and Shop. So our showrooms right now in shopping malls, they're only like 800 square feet. So obviously the metrics are great, right? We're selling very big ticket items out of very tiny footprints with a small staff. There's just good metrics. And I don't hide from that. That's been a big part of our success, right? So we chose a good category in that way. We chose a terrible category in the sense is that the home category has all kinds of other issues. Jason: [38:38] Not the easiest category to deliver the product. Shawn : [38:41] Yeah, I mean, there's delivery, but there's also just the cyclical nature. You couple that with the idea that, look, we are selling you something that we are intending you to have for decades. My sectionals in my home are 16 years old, some of them, made with brand new pieces, made with Stealth Tech. That's pretty cool. On the other hand, unless we give you Stealth Tech and other reasons to come back, like, you know, you've got your satchels and you've made your investment. And so look, we deal with cover. So we're innovating on product, we're innovating on go to market, shop and shop. So these thousand square foot showrooms have been very useful for us. We have 200 square foot showrooms inside of Best Buy's or Costco's, where our people are basically checking you out and allowing you to kick the tires on the product. And then look, whether you buy there or whether you go back and buy online, we don't care. We built an agnostic platform where we just want you to be in the family. So I think these are things that have evolved over time and you've got to test and learn, whether it's mobile concierge, as you described, whether it's shop and shops. And these tests and learn activities can take years to play out and really take to scale and stuff like that. And so I think in this day and age of, hey, I'm gonna go raise a ton of money and build my company to X revenue and exit for X multiple, which is I think Testing and Learning: Mobile Concierge and Shop and Shop [40:05] what drives a lot of entrepreneurial activity. [40:09] That kind of mentality just doesn't have the staying power necessary. And that's why you see so many of these brands reach a point where they have to be retooled, like some of them are going through now. And look, they've made someone rich. Sometimes these founders find ways to squeeze a bunch of money out of it, or private equity tosses the hot potato to the next guy and they make a ton of money out of it. But in the end, what's left? a brand that is at scale, doesn't make money, and can't go anywhere. So my point is you gotta have the stomach to grind it out, to spend the time, to really slow cook some of these things, and to be flexible when they don't work, and shut them down and move on to the next. And so constantly innovating on go-to-market, constantly innovating on product, and really putting in the time and energy it takes to refine concepts, you know. Scot: [41:03] I know we're running up against time, and you've obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this. I know your goal is to bring this ethos out, but if you think about retail and e-commerce, what do you think the next five years hold? You talked about AI. There's a lot of this stuff that's temporal, but anything you think that you believe is going to change the way we shop and buy, either in-store or online? Shawn : [41:29] Yeah, look, I think that it will just continue to evolve, and so I think AI is real. I think it will play a transformative role, and I think everyone's trying to figure out exactly what that is, and nobody really knows yet. I wish I could just give you a clever answer, but I think I've witnessed, AI's transformative role in the future of technology [41:53] you know, that's What's the benefit of having a 25-year perspective is it's like I was saying about shopping malls. The mall is dead, headline from 2001. TV is dead, headline from 2008. Here we are with both of them still intact. By the way, TV advertising is still a big piece of our marketing spend. I know that's kind of mind-blowing because it seems like everybody's cut the cord or gone to this extreme. And I'm just telling you, these movements take decades. And so while it's great to be ahead of a movement, you don't, unless you are trying to drive that movement, like unless you are trying to take advantage of that AI, boom, to go raise money and wave that flag or whatever. [42:40] I've found it's okay to be a laggard. It's not always beneficial to, unless you're trying to build your concept around that and take advantage of that movement itself, let the movements evolve. So I can't give you a great prediction of exactly what's going to happen. AI is important. But how, where the winners will actually be and what the effects will actually be, I think it's way too early to tell. But I do think it's important to keep your finger and keep watching and eventually, you know, to find the connection and lean into that to affect your business. You have to be a little bit patient, I think. Jason: [43:27] Yeah, well, certainly 25 years in, I think you've earned your patience creds, by the way. Shawn : [43:35] Maybe too much. Jason: [43:37] Yeah, I mean, there's pros and cons to both. Urgency can be useful in certain circumstances, but short time horizons come with a lot of problems, as you have rightly pointed out. That did lead me to one sort of thought question. And you, you referenced some of your, your CAC economics and side note, we've, we've one of the, our favorite guests on the show is this professor Dan McCarthy. Who's, who's a huge advocate for cohort analysis and customer lifetime value based businesses. And so he would be thrilled that you're on, because I know you guys disclose some of your cohort metrics in, in your financial statements, which he loves. And to me, you're in a really interesting category to do that because although your product has invented a reason for customers to come back and you've sort of turned a product into a system, it's not like a fast cycle, right? Like, and so like when you're thinking about like a time horizon for LTV, and you guys have a very good return on your CAC, but compared to most companies, your CAC still is really high, right? Like, you sell a lot of product to compensate for that. Shawn : [44:57] Yeah. Jason: [44:58] So how, like, you know, you're spending five or six hundred bucks to acquire a customer and then you're earning thousands of dollars on each of those customers. Like, was it difficult to sort of have the financial discipline to have a long enough time horizon to see those sorts of high CLVs come back for that initial customer acquisition? Shawn : [45:23] Yeah, I mean, you could call it discipline. In our case, again, it was just survival, being really transparent. You know, we were just trying to find a way to make this business work, and we weren't profitable right out of the gate. It took us many years to get better at retail, to get better at e-commerce, to have a shopping cart experience that was commensurate to the product, because that's really hard with our product. Our product is really weird and complicated. And so that's something that's overlooked with Lovesack. And I think a lot of our copycats and competitors are realizing that. You can't just use a Shopify checkout if you're going to sell something as dynamic as, let's say, factionals where, you know, you can buy a bunch of these and a bunch of those and combine them in a million different ways. How do you, how do you shopping cart that? How do you Amazon that, you know? And so, and so these are superpowers that we've developed over a long time and thankfully given it enough time to become profitable. So to answer your question about, you know, patience, I think part of it is just been our lot in life to, to be, to have patience forced on us. But secondly, real discipline around. [46:32] Our CLV and CAC metrics. So we are, we are, and have been for a long time, carefully monitoring them, tracking them, constantly innovating and refining on the marketing side, these things that I mentioned, whether TV, you know, over the top, linear, nonlinear, digital marketing with its 500 heads, you know, like I'm talking about species of digital marketing, it's such a big word, right? I have to be constantly and tirelessly refined and risk taken and stuff tried and stuff failed and all rolled it and it all rolls up into that CLV to CAC ratio that you can hope you can keep moving and then couple that with innovation so that people can come back and buy more. And so thankfully, look, we chose a category with a high ticket and that drives the lion's share. That first purchase drives the lion's share of that CLV to CAC relationship. But our long-term point of view now is not only to find other ways that we can do more of that, maybe even in other categories and adjacencies. [47:32] But also give like StealthTack, give people a reason to come back and add on. And then by the way, when they do come back, then they face the consequence of, well, what do I do with some of these things that I need to, let's say, I get StealthTack and I got to swap out two of my sides. Well, okay, the obvious answer is I don't want to throw those in the trash. We don't want them throwing them in the trash and they may not need another couch in another room. So it's leading us to services, trade in, trade up, recycle, you know, all kinds of things that will again, give us more reasons to reach out and touch that customer. And so I think that if you relentlessly pursue. [48:13] A good concept with good intentions being driven by good philosophy and purpose like I've described, it's been my experience that the universe kind of unfolds for you, but it doesn't do it overnight. And you can't just have a, at least in my experience, you can't just have a master plan and be like, we're gonna do this and then that and that. You have to iterate to it. You have to observe, you have to live some, like when we launched Stealth Tech, we just, you know, it's easy now to look back in hindsight and be like, well, of course people are gonna want to or trade in their sides or do whatever. But some of those things aren't always so apparent. And you need to plunge yourself into the pool, see what comes of it, and then react to that. And some of those reactions can take years to unfold. Like some of these services that I just described and whatnot, they'll take us years to manifest. [48:59] But the nice thing is, the core business can generate profits that will carry us to that and we'll invest some of those profits in that innovation that I'm describing. But it's like, it's just relentless, man. It's tiring. It's like you have to have the stomach to go the distance. And that's where the time horizon, look, I'm a big advocate of it. Culturally, you know, like when my whole organization knows, like the theme of our manager fest a month ago, this is where we all get together once a year, was 25 and 25 more. And I'm not kidding. Like my personal point of view, if I'm allowed to be here as a public company CEO, if I do good enough to stay in the seat, which is inherent, and that's why I love the structure. It forces you to be awesome, you know? [49:45] If I can do that, but the fact that my organization knows that I'm in for another 25, you know how grounding that is and stabilizing that is, as opposed to, man, when's Sean's gonna sell his stock and bail and go start his next company? That's what I'm supposed to do, isn't it? That's how I become a bazillionaire, isn't it? I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in building something. And I think that that, I don't know, desire is actually kind of rare these days. Long-Term Vision vs Quick Profit [50:14] I think everyone just wants to be a bazillionaire as fast as they can. Jason: [50:17] Oh, for sure. Yeah. Everybody's assuming you're going to cash out and invest in your first rocket. Shawn : [50:24] Yeah, whatever. And I think it's sad. Look, I'd love to make a ton of money, whatever. That's all great. But whatever happened to the ambition of let's build something awesome, no matter how long it takes. And that's where I'm at. Jason: [50:41] Yeah. Well, Sean, it's been an amazing run so far. This is going to be a great spot to leave it because we have used up our allotted time, but I know listeners are going to appreciate you saving them the first 25 years, and we're going to be super excited to watch what happens in the next 25. Shawn : [50:57] Thank you. Thank you. Scot: [50:59] We really appreciate it, Sean. I know you're in Hong Kong, you're in the middle of your day there, and we appreciate you coming on the show. If folks want to check out your podcast, where would you point them to? Shawn : [51:09] Yeah, wherever you love listening to podcasts, Let Me Save You 25 Years is the name. LetMeSaveYou25Years.com. You can find me on social media, Sean of Lovesack. I'm all over that and love to be connected, slide into my DMs. I mean, I love talking to customers, friends, peers, being very accessible and looking forward to building the movement. Of course, Lovesack.com. We're easy to find. Scot: [51:33] Trey Lockerbie 41 Yep. And the book's coming out in January and I assume it's going to be in all the usual places. Shawn : [51:37] Sean O'Toole 41 All the usual places. Yeah. Let Awesome. Jason: [51:45] Thanks again and until next time, happy commercing!  

The Token Hour crew keeps the Halloween fun going this month with a horror films/scary movies DRAFT. Listen to DJ Toks along with Jesse noWonder, Jason Goldberg, Sammi Scary, Anthony Caputo and Mrs. Token aka Dimitria Santoro as that construct their lineups of scary movies for YOU the listeners to VOTE/choose on who has the best 4 movies combo. Stay tuned to our social media for voting posts! Happy Halloween!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Fly Ry, Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss Fall and some recent, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

he Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg, Frank Nigrelli and VPGD as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

In this Say Yes Anyway episode, with Jason Goldberg, we delve into the importance of self-leadership as the foundation for success, discuss various leadership approaches, emphasize the significance of play and levity, and underscore the importance of being healthy in one's leadership journey. At the heart of success lies self-leadership, the ability to take ownership of one's decisions, actions and mindset. Jason emphasizes that self-leadership serves as the cornerstone upon which all other leadership skills are built. By understanding and harnessing our internal power, we become more effective leaders in our businesses and personal relationships. He shares about his personal journey when he felt he was a prisoner to life, started a business with NASA, and went through healing and personal development himself to be where he is today! We also dive into how life doesn't have to be serious all the time. Jason shares the importance of playfulness and levity in our lives. Embracing a playful spirit can activate the best version of ourselves and bring joy to those around us. Humor can be a powerful coping mechanism for pain and trauma, as explored in this segment. We discuss how some comedians use humor to navigate through difficult situations. However, we must also be sincere in knowing when to use humor and when to address challenging situations with genuine attention and care. In conclusion, self-leadership is the foundation for success in all areas of life. Authenticity, playfulness, and a focus on personal well-being are key elements in becoming effective and fulfilled leaders. By embracing our unique leadership style, incorporating play and humor, and prioritizing self-care, mental & emotional health, we can create a positive and sustainable impact on ourselves and those around us. Thank you for joining us on this transformative journey. Remember to practice self-leadership, find joy in play, and always prioritize your well-being. Until next time, take care and lead with authenticity! Share this episode with a friend, or on socials and tag @jessdahl_ and @thejasongoldberg and we will reshare! Subscribe and leave a review! Follow Jason: Website: https://thejasongoldberg.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejasongoldberg/ If you're a woman who is ready to take your personal life to the next level and create a purposeful business or non-profit that aligns with you and your life while making an impact in the world, The Dreams to Reality Mastermind is for you! We start THIS NOVEMBER! You don't want to miss this! Set up a call here You can also check it all out at www.jessdahl.com If you're wanting the vitality upgrade and something to support your body's stress response and give you more energy, The Organifi Green juice is a DREAM! 20% off when you use CODE: JESSDAHL

"What we were denied in our childhood, which then got denied or suppressed in our teenage years because either we were told we were misunderstood or we were told we were too much or too loud or that we were unruly or reckless, it just drove more of those behaviors." - Dr. Neeta Bhushan   Are you ready to delve further into your emotional resilience?  I'm so excited to be your guide on this journey!   In this episode, I talk about…. The impact of childhood experiences on our emotional regulation. Unhealthy coping mechanisms and their adverse effect on well-being. The importance of creating a safe space to fully feel and release emotions.   In my work over the past fifteen years, I've meticulously crafted mindful practices to help thousands unleash the floodgates of unresolved emotions. I am so excited to share them now to aid you in your process of regulating and harmonizing your nervous system.   By creating a safe space within and engaging in these techniques, you'll empower yourself to cultivate emotional balance and resilience, releasing yourself from past traumas. Intrigued? Then, stay tuned and fully immerse yourself in today's episode! Connect with me: Find me on Instagram @neetabhushan.  Find The Brave Table on Instagram @thebravetable. Take the Emotional Type Quiz to find your emotional type. Learn more about Dharma Coaching Institute Embodiment Coaching Certification.    If you loved this episode... Episode 136: How to Heal & Connect with Your Inner Child with Dr. Neeta Bhushan is similar. Apple | Spotify Tune into Episode 132: Embracing the Magic of Renewal and Reconnection: Nurturing Your Inner Child with Dr. Neeta Bhushan.  Apple | Spotify Que up Episode 87: Navigating Relationships & Loss, Taking Personal Responsibility, and Channeling Your Pain to Heal Yourself & Others with Jason Goldberg.  Apple | Spotify   Question:  How have your childhood and teenage experiences influenced your emotional regulation as an adult? Join the conversation on Instagram @thebravetable!    Grab your limited edition MERCH while it's available here! Thatsuckednowwhat.com/shop   We love hearing your feedback! To express our gratitude we're giving away six That sucked, now what? companion affirmation or conversation decks. How do you enter? Send a screenshot of your juicy 5-star review to support@globalgrit.co.

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Fly Ry, Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. From a YouTube hacks and carnivals to stress relivers to whatever else is on their minds. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

On this episode of The Casey Adams Show, Jason Goldberg shares his journey of becoming a successful coach and speaker. He talks about the importance of mentors and how they have helped him to understand the way the mind works and to see the truth of how life actually works. He also shares his filter for picking a coach and how to listen to your gut when it comes to mentors. Follow Jason on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejasongoldberg/ Learn more about Jason: https://linktr.ee/thejasongoldberg [00:00:00] Celebrity Mental Performance Coach"Celebrity Mental Performance Coach [00:06:06] "Overcoming obesity, suicidal ideation, and depression." [00:11:13] "Achieving the impossible: one pound at a time." [00:18:08] "NASA tech commercialized: Utah Ironman proves impossible possible" [00:21:55] "Disadvantage is Differentiator: NASA License" [00:26:26] Differentiate with your disadvantage. [00:30:33] Break the Mental Prison" [00:36:46] Choose to Lighten Up to Level Up" [00:42:00] Success Despite Seriousness" [00:46:46] Challenge thoughts, find joy. Subscribe to The Casey Adams Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-casey-adams-show/id1328795944 Follow Casey on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casey Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CaseyAdams  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caseyadams YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CaseyAdams - Follow The Casey Adams Show on social media: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseyadamsshow Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CaseyAdamsShow TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caseyadamsshow YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CaseyAdamsShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Fly Ry, Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. From drinking at sporting events, to Warhead Pickles to whatever else is on their minds. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

What does an award-winning entrepreneur, a TEDx Speaker, a bacon-atarian (that's avegetarian who still eats bacon), a funky sock lover, a former rapper (who opened forthe Wu-Tang Clan - YES, really!) and a previously 332lb man (who has since lost over130lbs despite his affinity for bacon) have in common?They are all the same guy! Jason “JG” Goldberg is a Global Keynote Speaker on Future-Proof Leadership and is aMental Performance and Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers, and CEOs. He is also the author of the #1 International Best-Selling book on Self-Leadership entitled “Prison Break”.Jason has been a featured expert on media outlets, including ABC, CBS, and FOX, and teaching personal growth and business for Mindvalley, the world's largest online education platform for transformation, with over 10 million students worldwide.After spending 15 years in Technology Consulting and co-founding multiple start-ups(including one in partnership with NASA and the Space Shuttle program), he nowblends his signature mix of transformational wisdom, captivating storytelling,practical business mentorship, and belly-busting humor to make personal growth less“personal growth-y” and to leave everyone he meets with at least 5% more joy thanwhen he found them!Jason is a highly sought-after keynote speaker at conferences globally and has shared the stage with some of the world's greatest thought leaders in human potential and peak performance, including Jason Silva (Host of Nat Geo's “Brain Games”), Dr. SeanStephenson (The 3 Foot Giant), Don Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements), VishenLakhiani (CEO of Mindvalley), Steven Kotler (Stealing Fire), Marisa Peer (the UK'spsychotherapist to the stars) and so many others that he hopes will impress you ifthese other ones don't! ;)His mission is to guide you to LIGHTEN UP so you can LEVEL UP and, to help youdo that; you can get a free copy of Jason's books and listen to his podcast here:http://TheJasonGoldberg.com/Podcasthttp://GetPrisonBreak.com/dudeSupport the show

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg and Fish as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. From a huge stolen spoon and snacks to The Glue Fairy to whatever else is on their minds. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Averages closed negative today but ended the week in the green. Fundstrat's Tom Lee gave his case for why the bulls are currently in control. Barclays' Jason Goldberg breaks down the sharp move higher in JPMorgan shares while looking ahead to next week's earnings reports from the regional banks. It was a busy week of economic macro data and Fedspeak. Ned Davis Research's Alejandra Grindal on what it all means. Krispy Kreme CEO Michael Tattersfield on food and labor costs, plus the state of the consumer. Boeing shares slide after announcing a delivery slowdown and Cowen's Cai Von Rumohr rates the stock impact. Our Pippa Stevens on why California's solar boom may be ending and Meg Tirrell on Catalent's major stock slide. Plus, Jon on the growing importance of technology in education and Morgan on SpaceX's Starship. 

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin. Join DJ Toks along side Jason Goldberg and Frank Nigrelli as they discuss some recent, random topics and more. From vacations to chicken wing choices to whatever else is on their minds. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

The Token Hour Podcast is just chillin and chatin but this time it's a whole lot of sports. Join DJ Toks along side Fish and our special guests and hopefully new regs Frank Nigrelli and Jason Goldberg as they discuss some recent and random sports topics and more. It's good ol' fashion random fun, so check it out!!!

Spa owners are in the confidence business.   So naturally they must be confident people themselves, right?    Navigating confidence is a daily ebb and flow that starts with the mindset you choose at the start of your day.    As a Spa CEO, your relationship with your confidence and mindset in leadership sets the tone for your business and the environment you create for your clients/patients.   My guest on today's episode is Jason Goldberg, a Mental Performance and Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers and CEOs.    He spills all the details about showing up confidently, being vulnerable with your community, and the importance of rest and pause to recharge your mindset.   He is also the host of The Jason Goldberg is Ruining Podcasting Podcast, author of the #1 International Best-Seller on Self-Leadership entitled “Prison Break” and creator of the Playful Prosperity and Competition-Proof Business Immersion programs.   In this episode, we discuss:  Jason shares his “One Line Life + Business Plan” Spa owners leadership in an industry focused on building confidence The importance of word choice as its related to mindset The power in pause and how rest is still working on your business Jason's opinion on the word “community” and how he views it in his life Daniela shares her “Word of the Year” and its relation to her work/life balance To read the full show notes for this episode, visit: http://www.addoaesthetics.com/blog/321   Keep the conversation going inside the Spa Marketing Made Easy Community by clicking here.  

What if you could bring a more playful approach to your work and your life? Jason “JG” Goldberg, who claims that being serious is his default nature, shares with host Meredith Bell how he's learned to inject more fun into all aspects of his life.An important aspect of this way of being involves deep self-love. Jason describes questions and strategies that he's developed over the years to help him and his clients replace self-criticism and self-judgment with a deep caring and respect for who they are.As you listen, play with the ideas that Jason shares and explore how you can have fun as you look for ways to use them in all areas of your life.And you can get a free digital, audio, or paperback copy of his book, Prison Break, here: https://thejasongoldberg.com/tuc/ About the Guest:Jason “JG” Goldberg is a Mental Performance and Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers and CEOs. He is also the host of The Jason Goldberg is Ruining Podcasting Podcast, author of the #1 International Best-Seller on Self-Leadership entitled “Prison Break” and creator of the Playful Prosperity AND Competition-Proof Business Immersion programs.JG has been a featured expert on media outlets including ABC, CBS, and FOX as well as teaching on the MindValley and SoulPancake platforms and has founded multiple start ups including one in partnership with NASA and the space shuttle program.He now focuses on blending his signature mix of simple and transformational wisdom, captivating storytelling, practical business mentorship, and belly-busting humor to make personal growth less “personal growth-y” and to leave everyone he meets with at least 5% more joy than when he found them!https://thejasongoldberg.com/https://becompetitionproof.com/selfstudyAbout the Host: Meredith Bell is the Co-founder and President of Grow Strong Leaders. Her company publishes software tools and books that help people build strong relationships at work and at home.Meredith is an expert in leader and team communications, the author of three books, and the host of the Grow Strong Leaders Podcast. She co-authored her latest books, Connect with Your Team: Mastering the Top 10 Communication Skills, and Peer Coaching Made Simple, with her business partner, Dr. Dennis Coates. In them, Meredith and Denny provide how-to guides for improving communication skills and serving as a peer coach to someone else. Meredith is also The Heart-centered Connector. One of her favorite ways of BEING in the world is to introduce people who can benefit from knowing each other. https://growstrongleaders.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithmbellThe Ultimate Coach Resourceshttps://theultimatecoachbook.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theultimatecoachInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theultimatecoachbookLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14048056YouTube:

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

Are you ready to break free from your old habits & achieve your 2023 goals? Celebrity Mindset Coach, Jason Goldberg, shares how to tap into your unique gifts and make your resolutions come true this year. He tells his story of overcoming unworthiness and anxiety, and instead living life in alignment with his purpose. He shares his secret to releasing self-imposed pressure, and recognizing that we are not our identity. He also explains how to overcome perfectionism, and experience true freedom in life.     ___________ Timecodes: 0:00 Intro 3:08 Overcoming Unworthiness - Jason's story  10:59 You're Not Your Identity  23:58 Finding Your Unique Gifts  28:18 Strengthening Intuition 33:07 How to Break Bad Habits 37:34 Anxiety 44:30 Imposter Syndrome & Perfectionism  50:11 Experience Freedom in Life  52:10 Jason's Rap 54:13 Vision for the future  55:29 Conclusion ___________   Jason Goldberg:   Jason “JG” Goldberg is a Mindset Mentor and Self-Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers and CEOs.    He is also the host of The Jason Goldberg is Ruining Podcasting Podcast, author of the #1 International Best-Seller on Self-Leadership entitled “Prison Break” and creator of the Playful Prosperity AND Competition-Proof Business Immersion programs.      JG has been a featured expert on media outlets including ABC, CBS, and FOX as well as teaching on the MindValley and SoulPancake platforms and has founded multiple start-ups including one in partnership with NASA and the space shuttle program.   He now focuses on blending his signature mix of simple and transformational wisdom, captivating storytelling, practical business mentorship, and belly-busting humor to make personal growth less “personal growth-y” and to leave everyone he meets with at least 5% more joy than when he found them!   As a sought-after international speaker and host, JG has shared the stage with some of the world's greatest thought-leaders and innovators in human potential and performance including Jason Silva (Host of Nat Geo's “Brain Games”), Dr. Sean Stephenson (The 3 Foot Giant), Don Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements), Vishen Lakhiani (CEO of Mindvalley), Steven Kotler (Stealing Fire), Marisa Peer (the UK's psychotherapist to the stars) and many others.     Get a FREE copy of Jason's Book, "Prison Break": https://thejasongoldberg.com/knowthyself/ Website: https://thejasongoldberg.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejasongoldberg/   ___________   Know Thyself Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/ Website: https://www.knowthyself.one Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4wglCWTJeWQC0exBalgKg   Listen to all episodes on Audio:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4FSiemtvZrWesGtO2MqTZ4?si=d389c8dee8fa4026 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-thyself/id1633725927     André Duqum Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/   Meraki Media https://merakimedia.com https://www.instagram.com/merakimedia/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine this: one day, your partner of 12 years calls you up and tells you they want to leave you for another person. Until this point, you felt you two were making it work; it wasn't perfect, but your communication was open, and you were tackling your challenges as a team. You feel floored, confused, and lost. What do you do? Do you fall victim to your circumstance? Or, can you channel those gut-wrenching experiences into lightbulb moments that supercharge your healing and course-correct you onto the right path? Oh gosh, loves, I have a super juicy episode for you. You'll want to tune in to hear this story from my dear soul brother, Jason Goldberg, and all the drops of wisdom and strength he has to share, plus tips and advice on overcoming hard times that you can apply to your life today.  Jason (aka “JG”) Goldberg is a Mindset Mentor and Self-Leadership Coach for Celebrities, Change Makers, and CEOs. He is also the host of The Jason Goldberg is Ruining Podcasting Podcast, author of the #1 International Best-Seller on Self-Leadership entitled “Prison Break” and creator of the Playful Prosperity AND Competition-Proof Business Immersion programs.   JG has been a featured expert on media outlets including ABC, CBS, and FOX as well as teaching on the MindValley and SoulPancake platforms, and has founded multiple start-ups including one in partnership with NASA and the space shuttle program. He now focuses on blending his signature mix of simple and transformational wisdom, captivating storytelling, practical business mentorship, and belly-busting humor to make personal growth less “personal growth-y” and to leave everyone he meets with at least 5% more joy than when he found them! Here's a bit of what we get into… - How to be brave enough to ask others for help during tough moments - Owning your stories and taking responsibility for your healing journey  - How to manage your expectations of other people  - Reflecting on your childhood to understand your core essence - Having humility over arrogance - An exercise for learning to love yourself unconditionally - And so much more. If you loved this episode, make sure you also check out…  - Get a FREE copy of Jason's book, Prison Break:  http://GetPrisonBreak.com/bravetable  - Find Jason on Instagram @thejasongoldberg - Episode 81: Taking Ownership of Your Life, Your Sh*t, and Your Stories with Danielle Gertner - Episode 72: How to Build Resilience and Master Personal Growth Through Your Relationships  - Episode 66: How to Build Your Audacious Resilience When Things Don't Go As Planned P.S. Thanks for being here, love. Don't forget you can get your FREE That Sucked. Now What? Guidebook AND your 5-day Fly Forward Healing Practice when you order your copy of my new book here!

Jason Goldberg shares his experience with shifting his mindset & recognizing his true power. He talks about what it looks like to tap into a deeper layer of emotional awareness, and how you can do that today. He also shares the common pitfalls that most people find themself in, and how to liberate yourself from the inside out.  == 0:00 Intro 6:19 Jason's Story  15:39 Vanquish the Victim  18:58 An Identity Shift 28:05 Emotional awareness 32:06 Consciousness Exercise 38:43 Miracle after Miracle 42:05 Overcome Common Pitfalls 54:18 Power of thoughts 1:01:28 Conclusion == JASON GOLDBERG: https://www.instagram.com/thejasongoldberg/ == Follow me on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/nimai_delgado/?hl=en Fitness: https://veganfitness.com/ Nutrition: https://www.vedgenutrition.com/?rfsn=6052813.64c9798 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.