Podcasts about L Brands

Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, was deeply troubling and emblematic of the unchecked power wielded by wealthy elites. Wexner granted Epstein an extraordinary level of access to his personal and financial affairs, including control over hundreds of millions of dollars, a decision that has been widely criticized as reckless and inexplicable. This relationship allowed Epstein to use Wexner's influence and resources to build the facade of a legitimate financial advisory career while facilitating his predatory behavior. The transfer of Wexner's lavish Manhattan townhouse to Epstein under murky circumstances, allegedly for little to no payment, underscores the transactional and opaque nature of their connection. Wexner's apparent abdication of oversight raises serious questions about his judgment and the extent to which he enabled Epstein's crimes, even if inadvertently.Critics argue that Wexner's failure to fully account for his ties to Epstein reflects a broader culture of impunity among the ultra-wealthy. Wexner claimed to sever ties with Epstein in 2007 following his first conviction, yet the damage had already been done, with Epstein leveraging his connection to Wexner to gain legitimacy and expand his network of influence. Wexner's attempts to distance himself from Epstein have done little to satisfy public scrutiny, particularly given his refusal to address key inconsistencies and unanswered questions. This relationship epitomizes how power and wealth can shield individuals from accountability, with Wexner's role serving as a stark reminder of the ethical lapses and complicity that often enable systemic abuses.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/

Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, was deeply troubling and emblematic of the unchecked power wielded by wealthy elites. Wexner granted Epstein an extraordinary level of access to his personal and financial affairs, including control over hundreds of millions of dollars, a decision that has been widely criticized as reckless and inexplicable. This relationship allowed Epstein to use Wexner's influence and resources to build the facade of a legitimate financial advisory career while facilitating his predatory behavior. The transfer of Wexner's lavish Manhattan townhouse to Epstein under murky circumstances, allegedly for little to no payment, underscores the transactional and opaque nature of their connection. Wexner's apparent abdication of oversight raises serious questions about his judgment and the extent to which he enabled Epstein's crimes, even if inadvertently.Critics argue that Wexner's failure to fully account for his ties to Epstein reflects a broader culture of impunity among the ultra-wealthy. Wexner claimed to sever ties with Epstein in 2007 following his first conviction, yet the damage had already been done, with Epstein leveraging his connection to Wexner to gain legitimacy and expand his network of influence. Wexner's attempts to distance himself from Epstein have done little to satisfy public scrutiny, particularly given his refusal to address key inconsistencies and unanswered questions. This relationship epitomizes how power and wealth can shield individuals from accountability, with Wexner's role serving as a stark reminder of the ethical lapses and complicity that often enable systemic abuses.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/

Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, was deeply troubling and emblematic of the unchecked power wielded by wealthy elites. Wexner granted Epstein an extraordinary level of access to his personal and financial affairs, including control over hundreds of millions of dollars, a decision that has been widely criticized as reckless and inexplicable. This relationship allowed Epstein to use Wexner's influence and resources to build the facade of a legitimate financial advisory career while facilitating his predatory behavior. The transfer of Wexner's lavish Manhattan townhouse to Epstein under murky circumstances, allegedly for little to no payment, underscores the transactional and opaque nature of their connection. Wexner's apparent abdication of oversight raises serious questions about his judgment and the extent to which he enabled Epstein's crimes, even if inadvertently.Critics argue that Wexner's failure to fully account for his ties to Epstein reflects a broader culture of impunity among the ultra-wealthy. Wexner claimed to sever ties with Epstein in 2007 following his first conviction, yet the damage had already been done, with Epstein leveraging his connection to Wexner to gain legitimacy and expand his network of influence. Wexner's attempts to distance himself from Epstein have done little to satisfy public scrutiny, particularly given his refusal to address key inconsistencies and unanswered questions. This relationship epitomizes how power and wealth can shield individuals from accountability, with Wexner's role serving as a stark reminder of the ethical lapses and complicity that often enable systemic abuses.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, which includes Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, maintained a notably close and controversial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein from the late 1980s until 2007. Wexner granted Epstein extensive control over his financial affairs, including power of attorney, allowing Epstein to manage and make decisions regarding Wexner's assets. This unprecedented level of trust is perplexing, especially considering Epstein's lack of formal financial credentials. Their association extended beyond business; Epstein resided in properties owned by Wexner and was involved in personal aspects of Wexner's life.Critics argue that Wexner's delegation of such significant authority to Epstein enabled the latter's illicit activities. Epstein reportedly misrepresented himself as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret models, leveraging his connection to Wexner to exploit young women. Despite allegations and warnings about Epstein's behavior, Wexner's response appeared delayed and insufficient. In 2019, Wexner acknowledged that Epstein had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him, raising questions about his oversight and judgment. The depth of their relationship and Wexner's apparent inaction in the face of mounting evidence have led to scrutiny regarding his complicity or, at the very least, negligence in enabling Epstein's misconduct.(commercial at 13:40)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/

Les Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands, which includes Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, maintained a notably close and controversial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein from the late 1980s until 2007. Wexner granted Epstein extensive control over his financial affairs, including power of attorney, allowing Epstein to manage and make decisions regarding Wexner's assets. This unprecedented level of trust is perplexing, especially considering Epstein's lack of formal financial credentials. Their association extended beyond business; Epstein resided in properties owned by Wexner and was involved in personal aspects of Wexner's life.Critics argue that Wexner's delegation of such significant authority to Epstein enabled the latter's illicit activities. Epstein reportedly misrepresented himself as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret models, leveraging his connection to Wexner to exploit young women. Despite allegations and warnings about Epstein's behavior, Wexner's response appeared delayed and insufficient. In 2019, Wexner acknowledged that Epstein had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him, raising questions about his oversight and judgment. The depth of their relationship and Wexner's apparent inaction in the face of mounting evidence have led to scrutiny regarding his complicity or, at the very least, negligence in enabling Epstein's misconduct.(commercial at 13:40)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.columbusmonthly.com/story/lifestyle/features/2022/10/25/what-jeffrey-epstein-scandal-means-to-columbus-and-les-wexner/69589703007/

The Pre-Fixe is loaded with updates and scandal this week: Britney is mad at The Osbournes, Dominick bought The Heart of the Ocean, and Chris had a star-studded birthday party. Then, TV Producer Sean Hickey joins to fix The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. They discuss the allure of Victoria's Secret in the 2000's, the iconic power of the original VS Angels, parent company L Brands' dark connection to Jeffrey Epstein, and how the brand can recapture the attention of the public today.You can find Sean at @seanphickey or watch him on Today with Hoda and Jenna!You can find Dom at dommentary.com.You can find Chris at @thechrisderosa.Follow the show at @fixingfamouspeople.Subscribe to the Patreon Fixing Bonus People here.Write a review and let us know who you want us to fix!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Les Wexner is a billionaire businessman known for founding L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, has drawn attention due to their close association.Wexner and Epstein's relationship dates back to the 1980s, when Wexner entrusted Epstein with managing his finances. Epstein also served as Wexner's financial advisor and was given power of attorney over Wexner's affairs. Through this connection, Epstein gained significant influence and access to Wexner's wealth.Wexner reportedly granted Epstein control over his vast fortune, including properties and assets, which Epstein allegedly used to enhance his own wealth and lifestyle. Epstein's association with Wexner also provided him with credibility and connections within elite circles.Their relationship came under scrutiny after Epstein's arrest and subsequent conviction on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epstein reportedly used his association with Wexner to gain access to wealthy and influential individuals, which contributed to the controversy surrounding their connection.Wexner has since claimed that he severed ties with Epstein in the early 2000s and denounced him following Epstein's criminal charges. However, questions remain about the extent of their relationship and the nature of Wexner's involvement with Epstein's activities, namely the credible accusations leveled against him.In this episode we dive into the white washing of Wexners relationship and how many in the legacy media still continue to miss the bigger picture.(commercial at 10:02)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Will Ohio State cut ties with Les Wexner's over Jeffrey Epstein scandal? (dispatch.com)

Les Wexner is a billionaire businessman known for founding L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, has drawn attention due to their close association.Wexner and Epstein's relationship dates back to the 1980s, when Wexner entrusted Epstein with managing his finances. Epstein also served as Wexner's financial advisor and was given power of attorney over Wexner's affairs. Through this connection, Epstein gained significant influence and access to Wexner's wealth.Wexner reportedly granted Epstein control over his vast fortune, including properties and assets, which Epstein allegedly used to enhance his own wealth and lifestyle. Epstein's association with Wexner also provided him with credibility and connections within elite circles.Their relationship came under scrutiny after Epstein's arrest and subsequent conviction on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epstein reportedly used his association with Wexner to gain access to wealthy and influential individuals, which contributed to the controversy surrounding their connection.Wexner has since claimed that he severed ties with Epstein in the early 2000s and denounced him following Epstein's criminal charges. However, questions remain about the extent of their relationship and the nature of Wexner's involvement with Epstein's activities, namely the credible accusations leveled against him.In this episode we dive into the white washing of Wexners relationship and how many in the legacy media still continue to miss the bigger picture.(commercial at 10:02)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Will Ohio State cut ties with Les Wexner's over Jeffrey Epstein scandal? (dispatch.com)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Les Wexner is an American businessman and founder of the retail chain, L Brands. He was also one of the main clients of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in 2019.Wexner and Epstein had a long-standing relationship that dated back to the 1980s.In 1991, Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney, which gave him broad control over Wexner's finances. Epstein also served as a financial advisor to Wexner, managing his personal finances as well as those of his charitable foundation.However, their relationship became strained in the early 2000s when Wexner discovered that Epstein had allegedly misappropriated funds from his accounts. Wexner severed ties with Epstein and reportedly accused him of stealing millions of dollars. Epstein denied the allegations, and the matter was settled out of court.In this episode we get some more context surrounding the USVI warrant and what might happen next.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein Exposed: Les Wexner and Island Manager Who Says He Saw Pedophile With Underage Girl Subpoenaed | Inside Edition

Les Wexner is a billionaire businessman known for founding L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, has drawn attention due to their close association.Wexner and Epstein's relationship dates back to the 1980s, when Wexner entrusted Epstein with managing his finances. Epstein also served as Wexner's financial advisor and was given power of attorney over Wexner's affairs. Through this connection, Epstein gained significant influence and access to Wexner's wealth.Wexner reportedly granted Epstein control over his vast fortune, including properties and assets, which Epstein allegedly used to enhance his own wealth and lifestyle. Epstein's association with Wexner also provided him with credibility and connections within elite circles.Their relationship came under scrutiny after Epstein's arrest and subsequent conviction on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epstein reportedly used his association with Wexner to gain access to wealthy and influential individuals, which contributed to the controversy surrounding their connection.Wexner has since claimed that he severed ties with Epstein in the early 2000s and denounced him following Epstein's criminal charges. However, questions remain about the extent of their relationship and the nature of Wexner's involvement with Epstein's activities, namely the credible accusations leveled against him.In this episode we dive into the white washing of Wexners relationship and how many in the legacy media still continue to miss the bigger picture.(commercial at 10:02)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Will Ohio State cut ties with Les Wexner's over Jeffrey Epstein scandal? (dispatch.com)

Les Wexner is a billionaire businessman known for founding L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, has drawn attention due to their close association.Wexner and Epstein's relationship dates back to the 1980s, when Wexner entrusted Epstein with managing his finances. Epstein also served as Wexner's financial advisor and was given power of attorney over Wexner's affairs. Through this connection, Epstein gained significant influence and access to Wexner's wealth.Wexner reportedly granted Epstein control over his vast fortune, including properties and assets, which Epstein allegedly used to enhance his own wealth and lifestyle. Epstein's association with Wexner also provided him with credibility and connections within elite circles.Their relationship came under scrutiny after Epstein's arrest and subsequent conviction on charges of sex trafficking of minors. Epstein reportedly used his association with Wexner to gain access to wealthy and influential individuals, which contributed to the controversy surrounding their connection.Wexner has since claimed that he severed ties with Epstein in the early 2000s and denounced him following Epstein's criminal charges. However, questions remain about the extent of their relationship and the nature of Wexner's involvement with Epstein's activities, namely the credible accusations leveled against him.In this episode we dive into the white washing of Wexners relationship and how many in the legacy media still continue to miss the bigger picture.(commercial at 10:02)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Will Ohio State cut ties with Les Wexner's over Jeffrey Epstein scandal? (dispatch.com)

Investigators say 20-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl took video and photos of the assault; Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim says she had sex with L Brands founder and Central Ohio native Les Wexner; federal judge temporarily blocks Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification law; thanks to a warm December, Lake Erie has zero percent ice cover.

We're joined by Shannon McNamara of Fluenty Forward for today's profiling of Les Wexner: the billionaire businessman behind *all* the mall brands. Wexner is credited with mainstreaming fast fashion marketing techniques, and targeted consumers through his ownership and acquisition of brands like The Limited, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, and many, many more. Wexner also was the primary billionaire client of Jeffrey Epstein, with the Victoria's Secret brand playing a major role in Epstein's story. Wexner is the longest serving CEO of a Fortune 500 company, with 57 years upon his retirement. Today's conversation explores the advent of fast fashion marketing, as well as Wexner and L Brands' impact on the culture of the 1990s and early 2000s. Thanks to our sponsor! JustThriveHealth.com/ECOCHIC or use code ECOCHIC for 20% off your 90 day supply - try the probiotic and Just Calm!! Sign up for our biweekly newsletter here!! Sign up for our community spotlight here!! Let's connect - @ecochicpodcast on Instagram + @lauraediez on Tiktok. Email me at laura@lauraediez.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, I welcome back to the podcast  Sophie Abrahamsson, President of Americas @ Bambuser.  With Sophie is Julian Guevara, Senior Vice President of Direct to Consumer with What Goes Around Comes Around.  I had the opportunity to visit Julian's store in SoHo recently and was super impressed by the business, their live-streaming studio and the team behind this innovative retailer.  One quick note: I had a mic gremlin early in the interview with Shopie's mic, but I resolved it quickly for the majority of our time together. Let's listen in now!Thanks to Stream Commerce for their support in making this episode happen. About SophieEducation: Bachelors Degree in Media & Communications from Università degli Studi di Firenze.Experience:  +10yr of international experience from e-commerce and marketing within retail. Marketing manager for LUISAVIAROMA, Head of Digital for & Other Stories and various business development positions at H&M group. About KentI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance. Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and ExpressionAbout JimJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes.Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus  Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.    You can learn more about Michael   here  or on     LinkedIn. Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue,  his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!

Les Wexner is an American businessman and founder of the retail chain, L Brands. He was also one of the main clients of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in 2019.Wexner and Epstein had a long-standing relationship that dated back to the 1980s.In 1991, Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney, which gave him broad control over Wexner's finances. Epstein also served as a financial advisor to Wexner, managing his personal finances as well as those of his charitable foundation.However, their relationship became strained in the early 2000s when Wexner discovered that Epstein had allegedly misappropriated funds from his accounts. Wexner severed ties with Epstein and reportedly accused him of stealing millions of dollars. Epstein denied the allegations, and the matter was settled out of court.In this episode we get some more context surrounding the USVI warrant and what might happen next.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein Exposed: Les Wexner and Island Manager Who Says He Saw Pedophile With Underage Girl Subpoenaed | Inside EditionThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5003294/advertisement

Greetings and welcome to Season Three of the Global eCommerce Leaders #podcast, picking up from the New York edition of the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum, where I met and chatted with some of the most interesting global commerce leaders in the world live in person in the Stream Commerce podcast studio, gathered as part of the thriving GELF community.This season is brought to you by Stream Commerce, a full-service consultancy that ideates, strategizes, and executes growth marketing solutions for our clients. They partner with people and brands they believe in to create websites that are deeply committed to the user experience and drive omnichannel digital transformation. As the world changes, they listen, and they deliver world-class e-commerce websites on Shopify Plus.In this episode kicking us off for our third season, GELF co-founders Kent Allen and Jim Okamura take us through what they heard on the stage and in the hallways of GELF NYC 2023 and get us ready for GELF LA, February 22, 2024.  About KentI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance. Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and ExpressionAbout JimJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes.Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus  Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.    You can learn more about Michael   here  or on     LinkedIn. Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue,  his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!

As CEO of Radial North America, a bpost company, Laura Ritchey builds on her extensive experience and leadership, continuing her commitment to innovating and optimizing eCommerce solutions. Prior to this role, Laura served as Radial's COO from 2021 to 2023, where she directed omnichannel, fulfillment, transportation, and customer care solutions with a strategic mindset and client-centric focus. Laura has more than 25 years of experience leading retail, manufacturing, distribution, and business operations with a successful track record of steering transformational initiatives developing high-performing teams and improved financial results. She began her career in finance, worked at L Brands as EVP Operations for Victoria's Secret Beauty after multiple roles in senior leadership and then was Chief Operating Officer at FullBeauty Brands and Centric Brands. Laura holds a BA, MBA and JD from The Ohio State University and currently serves on the Board of Goodwill Manasota.SHOW SUMMARYIn this episode of eCom Logistics Podcast, hosts Ninaad and Nenad are joined by Laura Ritchie. Laura, who brings a wealth of experience from the retail industry, discusses her journey from working with renowned brands to leading a 3PL company and the challenges and opportunities in this transition.The conversation delves into the evolving landscape of e-commerce logistics, the changing dynamics of customer expectations, and the role of 3PL partners in meeting these demands. They explore the concept of omni-channel fulfillment, the impact of emerging marketplaces like TikTok, and the delicate balance between speed, sustainability, and brand experience in shipping.Laura also sheds light on the integration of AI and machine learning in logistics, with a focus on forecasting and labor planning. She emphasizes the importance of automation as an enabler rather than a replacement for human expertise and how it contributes to delivering an ideal customer experience.HIGHLIGHTS[00:00:16] Customer Experience and Packaging: Laura Ritchey emphasizes the importance of packaging and presentation in creating brand loyalty.[00:01:15] Laura Ritchey's Background: She's introduced as the CEO of Radial with extensive experience in leadership and retail.[00:02:49] Transition from Retail to 3PL: Laura discusses her transition and the importance of a branded experience in 3PL.[00:03:26] Importance of Customer Expectations: Meeting expectations is key to building brand loyalty in 3PL.[00:07:47] Challenges in 3PL: Addressing challenges collaboratively is vital for success.[00:13:47] Omni-Channel Experience: Providing a consistent brand experience across various channels is a challenge.[00:22:31] Sustainable Choices: Focus on eco-friendly shipping and sustainable options.[00:27:22] AI and Machine Learning: AI is used for labor forecasting, employee training, and multilingual support.[00:31:24] Efficient Picking: Laura stresses the need for efficient picking and gradual robotic integration to manage high volumes.[00:46:50] Peak Season 2023: Laura foresees a peak season similar to the previous year, with consumer anticipation for discounts.QUOTES[00:03:26] "The 3PL switch wasn't as difficult as you might think, because what you're doing is delivering that same branded experience for your partners."[00:05:48] "You have to view your 3PLs as strategic partners, as an extension of your business, and it can't be a procurement exercise."[00:15:47] "At the end of the day, it's about less friction and making it convenient and fast."[00:23:46] "It's not so easy if your transportation management system is set up a certain way and it basically puts packages, and then you say, 'I want to slow it down.'"Find out more about Laura Ritchey in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-ritchey-55836a8/Radial's Official Website: https://www.radial.com/?utm_campaign=2023-eCom-Logistics&utm_source=eComLogistics&utm_medium=Referral

LEN'S BIO Leonard (Len) Schlesinger is one of the few people in the world that has been at the top of the game in two worlds, academia and business. He is one of the most prolific business thinkers and doers at Harvard where he is in equal parts beloved and respected and has had a decades long career at the top echelons of where leadership and influence are taught and exerted. Len is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School's Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to 1985, 1988 to 1998 and from 2013 to the present. During his career at the School he has taught MBA and Executive Education courses in Organizational Behavior, Organization Design, Human Resources Management, General Management, Neighborhood Business, Entrepreneurial Management, Global Intelligence, Leadership and Service Management in MBA and Executive Education programs.   Throughout his career Professor Schlesinger has transitioned between academic and managerial roles in education and business settings.  He served as President of Babson College from 2008-2013, held a number of key executive and operating positions (ending as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer) at Limited Brands (later L Brands) from 1999-2007, was a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy and Senior Vice President and Counselor to the President at Brown University from 1998-1999, and was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain from 1985-1988. Len  currently serves on the board of directors of RH, Inc. (Chair of Compensation Committee) and DP Acquisition Corporation. He also serves as an advisory council member of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative, and as a member of both the Council on Competitiveness and the Council on Foreign Relations. “Teaching is my primary learning opportunity.” EPISODE OUTLINE (00:00) - Introduction (00:38) - Bio (01:40) - Brooklyn tough, holocaust survivor progeny (02:28) - In and out, seamless transitions; $19 (06:05) - Questions > answers; teaching = learning (08:54) - Running Babson; an ecosystem of stakeholders (11:10) - HBS & AI; growth mindsets for the win (13:47) - Lightning round (14:28) Outro LEN RELATED LINKS Len's HBS Profile Interview: Purpose and Happiness Books and Full CV, Publications Len's Last Lecture as Babson President Restoration Hardware (RH) Board Len's Wikipedia GENERAL INFO| TOP OF THE GAME: Official website: https://topofthegame-thepod.com/ RSS Feed: https://feed.podbean.com/topofthegame-thepod/feed.xml Hosting service show website: https://topofthegame-thepod.podbean.com/ Javier's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/javiersaade & Bio: https://tinyurl.com/36ufz6cs  SUPPORT & CONNECT: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/96934564 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551086203755 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOPOFGAMEpod Subscribe on Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/site/podcatcher/index/blog/vLKLE1SKjf6G Email us: info@topofthegame-thepod.com    THANK YOU FOR LISTENING – AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PLATFORMS   

Did you know Columbus has the third largest concentration of fashion designers in the country? Earlier this year, the website Livability.com called Columbus a “surprising hub of the fashion industry.” But it's no surprise at all to those in the industry, especially for the thousands of creative people behind the fashion giants that call Central Ohio home, including Justice, Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, DSW, L Brands, VS&Co., and other global leaders that pump millions into Ohio's economy. Hardly any aspect of the fashion industry isn't represented in Central Ohio, including product and store design, packaging, logistics, distribution, and every specialty in between. Central Ohio is both attracting fashion industry talent and growing its own, with The Ohio State University and Columbus College of Art and Design nurturing the next generation of fashion leaders and connecting them with career opportunities that don't come with New York or LA costs of living. Key local nonprofits, including the Columbus Fashion Council and the Columbus Fashion Alliance are also helping drive the industry's growth and fueling the movement to keep emerging fashion talent rooted in Ohio. Just ahead of Fashion Week Columbus, we host industry experts for an inside look at fashion's deep roots in Central Ohio and Columbus's prominence as global style leader. The speakers are: Lubna Najjar, Founder & CEO, IL Moda Brand Development, Creative Director, Her Denim, and Board President, Columbus Fashion Council Melanie Corn, Ed.D., President, Columbus College of Art & Design And Katherine DePizzo, President, Justice Design Lab The host is Maria Seguin, Board Member, Columbus Fashion Council, and Member, OSU Fashion & Retail Industry. This forum was sponsored by The Carol A. McGuire Legacy in Civic Engagement Fund Celebrating Arts & Culture. It was supported by The Ellis, L!VE, and King Business Interiors. The livestream was presented by The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation and The Columbus Dispatch. This forum was recorded before a live audience at The Ellis in Columbus, Ohio's historic Italian Village, on September 20, 2023.

In this week's episode, host Tom Butta sits down with Cindy Davis, an independent Board Member at Airship, to discuss how there is still time to prepare for the future of marketing channels if you start today. Otherwise, your brand might wake up in five years without any real way to engage your customers.Formerly an EVP at Walmart, Disney, L Brands and Chief Brand Officer at Bed Bath & Beyond, Cindy is she's an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of driving results across the retail, hospitality and entertainment industries by building strong brands and customer relationships. Tom asks why Cindy decided to join the Airship Board of Directors in September of 2022, and what advice she has for other women out there looking to serve on a board themselves one day. Additionally, you'll hear key data regarding mobile retention numbers (hint: the average might be lower than you expect), what opportunities we now have post-2020, and Cindy's thoughts on who internally should really be responsible for the mobile app. —Guest BioCindy Davis became an independent Board Member at Airship in 2022. Formerly an EVP at Walmart, Disney, L Brands and Chief Brand Officer at Bed Bath & Beyond, she's an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of driving results across the retail, hospitality and entertainment industries by building strong brands and customer relationships. Cindy has general management expertise with P&L responsibility, and is highly skilled in business strategy, brand management, eCommerce, digital marketing, customer engagement and more. She's an influential leader, creative thinker, and developer of high-performing teams. Cindy received her Masters in International Business Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor of Business Administration and Accounting from William & Mary.—Guest Quote"I do believe that one of the things we've all got to work hard on is being able to measure and demonstrate the incremental value that comes from having an engaged customer within the app. Honestly, from a analytics perspective, when you think abouth ow much work we do on ROAS for every single channel in the marketing equation. But really being able to demonstrate the short term and the long term value of a customer that's really engaged in the app, I think is something we've still gotta work on.” – Cindy Davis—Time Stamps *(01:23) Cindy's Background*(03:28) Why Cindy joined Airship as a Board Member*(05:42) The challenges brands face in going mobile*(08:57) A world without developers*(11:28) Shopping in a world after 2020*(14:45) Who should own the app from a brand perspective?*(18:18) What does the latest mobile retention data show?*(19:07) What Cindy would have done differently*(21:54) Advice from Cindy*(27:34) Advice for women who want to serve on boards*(29:27) Rapid Fire Questions—LinksConnect with Cindy Davis on LinkedInConnect with Tom Butta on LinkedInCheck out the Airship Website

On Thursday October 12th, the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum (GELF) community will be back in New York City live and in-person for another full day of learning, sharing and networking. Join global ecommerce leaders from leading DTC and retail brands for keynotes, breakout sessions, peer/executive discussions/meetups and networking as we return to Convene Midtown Westin October! In this episode, GELF co-founders Kent Allen and Jim Okamura give us an exclusive preview of the fantastic speakers and thought leadership that is part of the agenda for the GELF NYC 2023 forum.  I'll be there in the StreamCommerce podcasting studio chatting with the key industry players that bring this community alive!Are you a retail ecommerce leader interested in speaking at GELF NYC 2023 on Thursday, October 12th? If so, please contact the GELF producers by emailing speak@globalecommerce.coAs always, GELF NYC 2023 is a retailer/DTC brand-only, sponsor-only event. If you are a cross-border solution provider, an ecommerce platform or marketplace operator, software company, agency, data aggregator, logistics provider or other global ecommerce solution or service provider interested in sponsoring and attending GELF NYC '23, we would love to have you join us as a sponsor. Please contact sponsor@globalecommerce.co About KentI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance. Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and ExpressionAbout JimJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes.Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus  Global eCommerce Leaders podcast, and The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.    You can learn more about Michael   here  or on     LinkedIn. Be sure and check out Michael's latest venture for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue,  his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!

Les Wexner is an American businessman and founder of the retail chain, L Brands. He was also one of the main clients of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in 2019.Wexner and Epstein had a long-standing relationship that dated back to the 1980s.In 1991, Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney, which gave him broad control over Wexner's finances. Epstein also served as a financial advisor to Wexner, managing his personal finances as well as those of his charitable foundation.However, their relationship became strained in the early 2000s when Wexner discovered that Epstein had allegedly misappropriated funds from his accounts. Wexner severed ties with Epstein and reportedly accused him of stealing millions of dollars. Epstein denied the allegations, and the matter was settled out of court.In this episode we get some more context surrounding the USVI warrant and what might happen next.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein Exposed: Les Wexner and Island Manager Who Says He Saw Pedophile With Underage Girl Subpoenaed | Inside EditionThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5003294/advertisement

Join us on this special flight of the Retail Pilot as Ken sits down with Andrea Weiss, a trailblazing retail executive and philanthropist.Andrea is the founder of The O Alliance, a global consulting practice focused on the retail, e-commerce, and consumer sector. She has had a distinguished career in senior leadership roles with some of the world's foremost retailers, including Guess, L Brands, and Ann Taylor.Andrea is also a member of several public company boards, including Bed O'Reilly Auto Parts and Cracker Barrel Restaurant.As a philanthropist, she serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hampton University and Chair of Delivering Good, a 501(c)3 charity. In this episode, Andrea shares her inspiring journey and insights on leadership, diversity and inclusion, and the future of retail.Tune in now to learn from one of the most influential women in the retail industry! 

Les Wexner is an American businessman and founder of the retail chain, L Brands. He was also one of the main clients of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in 2019.Wexner and Epstein had a long-standing relationship that dated back to the 1980s.In 1991, Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney, which gave him broad control over Wexner's finances. Epstein also served as a financial advisor to Wexner, managing his personal finances as well as those of his charitable foundation.However, their relationship became strained in the early 2000s when Wexner discovered that Epstein had allegedly misappropriated funds from his accounts. Wexner severed ties with Epstein and reportedly accused him of stealing millions of dollars. Epstein denied the allegations, and the matter was settled out of court.In this episode we get some more context surrounding the USVI warrant and what might happen next. (commercial at 8:53)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein Exposed: Les Wexner and Island Manager Who Says He Saw Pedophile With Underage Girl Subpoenaed | Inside Edition

Les Wexner is an American businessman and founder of the retail chain, L Brands. He was also one of the main clients of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who was arrested and charged with sex trafficking in 2019.Wexner and Epstein had a long-standing relationship that dated back to the 1980s.In 1991, Wexner reportedly gave Epstein power of attorney, which gave him broad control over Wexner's finances. Epstein also served as a financial advisor to Wexner, managing his personal finances as well as those of his charitable foundation.However, their relationship became strained in the early 2000s when Wexner discovered that Epstein had allegedly misappropriated funds from his accounts. Wexner severed ties with Epstein and reportedly accused him of stealing millions of dollars. Epstein denied the allegations, and the matter was settled out of court.In this episode we get some more context surrounding the USVI warrant and what might happen next. to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Jeffrey Epstein Exposed: Les Wexner and Island Manager Who Says He Saw Pedophile With Underage Girl Subpoenaed | Inside Edition

In true Beyond Barriers fashion, we are here to explore the stories and insights of ambitious successful individuals who have overcome obstacles and achieved success in their careers. In this episode, we are thrilled to have Amanda Herson as our guest. Amanda grew up in a family of entrepreneurs in South Africa and witnessed injustices early in life, which inspired her to make a positive impact in the world. Though she initially wanted to go into politics, she found her calling in the world of venture capital, where she quickly discovered the glass ceiling for women in the industry. But instead of seeing it as a barrier, she has turned it into an opportunity to stand out. Amanda believes that pressure and challenge are privileges that allow her to grow and learn, and she is fascinated by how people think and make decisions. She values respecting other people's time and understands the importance of building a strong network of supporters and mentors. In this podcast, Amanda shares her experiences and wisdom, encouraging us all to have an opinion and use our voices. She emphasizes the importance of conviction in one's professional life and explains how using guardrails protects her personal life. Join us as we learn from Amanda's journey and gain valuable insights on how to navigate the challenges of a competitive industry. Visit gobeyondbarriers.com to find show notes and links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, including the best way to get in touch with Amanda. Highlights: [02:37] How Amanda grew up and arrived at career in venture capital [08:24] Moving forward despite uncertainty [12:03] Identifying your circle [16:06] Being a woman in venture capital [20:16] Getting started in the venture capital world [24:21] Integrating work and personal life [29:58] Lightning round questions Quotes: “One of the key things to being able to jump is really seeking out people who believe in you.” – Amanda Herson “Pressure is a privilege and being challenged is a privilege.” – Amanda Herson “Lean into your strengths and own your weaknesses.” – Amanda Herson Lightning Round Questions: What book has greatly influenced you? - “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela What is your favorite inspiring quote or saying? - “If I am not for me, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?” What is one word or moniker you would use to describe yourself? - Connector What is one change you've implanted that made your life better? - Health always has to come first. Sleep and exercise make you a better person. What power song would you want playing as you walk out onto a stage? - “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten About Amanda Herson: Amanda is a Partner at Founder Collective, a leading seed-stage venture capital firm with several Midas list appearances. Prior to returning to investing, she has spent the last several years building and growing one of the largest omni-channel retailers in South Africa, launching their e-commerce and expanding the footprint to over 300 stores and serves on the Board of Cape Union Mart. Amanda was Highland Consumer Fund investing in and growing retail and consumer goods companies. Previously, she was at L Brands in New York, launching new beauty brands and focusing on growth and innovation. She began her career at Boston Consulting Group in New York. Amanda has a passion for building strong cultures in growing companies and an operational background in building e-commerce companies from the ground-up and has become a trusted advisor to several entrepreneurs. Amanda completed her Undergraduate in Economics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and received her MBA from Harvard Business School. She currently resides in New York, is a mom of three + a sheepadoodle, a Central Park enthusiast, with a side passion for healthy cooking and living. Links: Website: https://www.foundercollective.com/index.html LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-herson-9616802/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Amanda_Herson

Free Speech: Can a police report be defamatory? - Argued: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:40:22 EDT

Hello, and welcome to the Voice of Retail podcast! My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. I believe in the power of storytelling to bring the retail industry to life. Each week, I'll bring insights, perspectives, and experiences from some of the retail industry's most innovative and influential voices.   This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, co-founders of the successful Global eCommerce Leaders Forums and community, are back on the podcast sharing their expertise and providing us with a timely update on the state of cross-border and global eCommerce, including a view to China, Europe, LATAM and where retailers and brands should focus when looking for international growth.More information about the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum in LA here About KentI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance. Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and ExpressionAbout JimJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes. About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.   Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row. Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world. Based in New York, Conversations with CommerceNext is a podcast focusing on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers with episodes talking with C-level executives operating in the U.S. and internationally. Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers. Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.

Les Wexner has unloaded all but 2% of his stock in L. Brands. What comes next for one of the men at the center of the Epstein story?Join me as I dive in!(commercial at 8:13)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/victoria-s-secret-billionaire-is-selling-745-million-of-stock

Les Wexner has unloaded all but 2% of his stock in L. Brands. What comes next for one of the men at the center of the Epstein story?Join me as I dive in!(commercial at 8:13)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/victoria-s-secret-billionaire-is-selling-745-million-of-stock

Michael Eisner is the latest older leader being asked to suit up and go back into the game. What exactly is this saying about the business environment and the political environment? It appears we will have two presidential candidates in their 80s, speakers of the house and senate in their 80s, and this list of Fortune 500 executives who left 65 behind, normal retirement, a long time ago. Are we finally shifting from age being a hard line, "It's been a good run" to performance and results mattering NOT age? Some examples of "Seasoned" successes:· Warren Buffett—CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, 85.-Michael Eisner - CEO of Disney, 80· Sheldon Adelson—CEO, Chairman, and Treasurer of Las Vegas Sands, 82. · Roger Penske—CEO and Chairman of Penske Automotive Group, 79.· Leslie Wexner—CEO and Chairman of L Brands, 78.So what is going on? Listen and learn and as always take away tools you can apply for yourself and within your organization no matter what age you are!

Kim Troy is the Founder and CEO of Civilis Consulting, a business advisory firm providing strategic sales, marketing, operations and HR guidance to fast-growth businesses. Civilis' seasoned consultants work alongside CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leadership teams to strategize and implement organization-wide transformations, and have deep expertise in advising companies with remote or geographically dispersed business units. Prior to Civilis, Kim founded Kimberly Troy Consulting, an organizational development consultancy. The firms' notable engagements include working with field-based wildlife conservation organizations – primarily in southern Africa – to improve the utilization of financial and human resources. She has also held executive-level positions in Human Resources, Operations, and Sales for some of the world's largest corporations, including L Brands. In this episode, she shares how best to deal with managing culture and how we can lead culture change to fuel growth. Insights she shares include: Why managing culture mattersHow to manage culture and the employee's work experienceHow to shape your work culture How best to go about managing culture and engagementSteps for managing culture changeHow to quantitatively measure your current cultural valuesHow to intentionally align culture, strategy, and structure in an organizationand much much more...

As the Money Maze Podcast seeks to understand both the business and investment worlds, especially against the backdrop of a tougher economic environment, we are delighted to speak to Martin Waters, CEO of Victoria's Secret & Co (VS&Co). Martin begins by explaining his retailing journey, Victoria's Secret's history and evolution, as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Spun off from L Brands in 2021, the Fortune 500 lingerie and beauty retailer is known for its high visibility marketing and annual fashion shows. They have over 1,350 stores globally and more than 30,000 employees. Martin explains how it is adapting both to the economic climate as well as the issues specific to managing a world leading fashion and beauty retailer. He discusses the vision for the company, its values, their multichannel distribution strategy, and the risks and rewards of brand extension. He then analyses this competitive market, the changes taking across retail, and how their board is composed. With 7/8 of their board being female, Martin explains how valuable women are in helping him think about strategy, and why he is so excited about the future. Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn The Money Maze Podcast is kindly sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches, LiveTrade and Mintus.    

Jon decided on HVAC because he felt there was an opportunity to use his technological background and create efficiencies in the industry. 00:00:00] Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I am your host Corey Berrier, and I am here with my man, Jon Jordan. What's up, Jon? Hey Corey, how's it going? Good, man. Good to see you. So Jon is gonna bring some pretty cool information to us today, and I tell you, I'm, I've been really excited about this and I would wish we could have done this earlier, but, things happen and here we are. [00:00:24] But, so Jon owns a couple of companies Comfort Monster is the one that we have had the most conversations about. And you've got locations here in Raleigh and then in Charlotte, which is an HVAC company. And then Atlantic bt, which is where you started, right? Yep, Absolutely. So tell us about, tell us a little bit about that journey, Jon, if you don't mind. [00:00:46] It's definitely a long journey. I'll try to keep it relatively short, but I was in college and the first entrepreneurial idea I had was essentially a way to send prescriptions from the doctor's office directly to the drug store. Came up with this idea where you put a kiosk, a mini ATM in the [00:01:00] doctor's office. [00:01:01] So back, this is way back in 98, you'd write a handwritten prescription, you'd have it, and at that point, you'd have to go wait at the pharmacy. This system actually allowed you to, in the waiting room, choose a pharmacy stick in your prescription. It would scan it and send it across town. So when you drove over there, it was already filled. [00:01:15] That was pretty unique at the time we were working with all the major pharmacies, including Walmart and some of these big guys, to build that system out. So that's where my technology background started. And then, we morphed into providing more custom solutions. [00:01:28] And we've continued to work with publicly traded companies, everything from governments to publicly traded companies to build. Technology solutions. So that's, that was my first company. And I still own that company. And at some point, it got to where there were other managers that were more wanted to have more responsibility, and I just stepped back and said, Hey you want to do that? [00:01:47] That's great. I'll take some time and relax a little bit. And I did that took a couple of years. I spent a lot of time in Turks and CAOs and doing other things that weren't terribly productive. And then at a certain point I really had the, just woke up. I was like, You know [00:02:00] what,  [00:02:00] you're wasting your talents and your time. And I felt like I needed to do something else. And so I looked around and a lot of people said why didn't you get into doing something, some kind of software? And I said I really, I've always grown up working on things and. And the technology business is very intangible. [00:02:16] You build things, but they're all nothing you can really touch. And I wanted to see my trucks driving around town and I wanted to I just wanted something that was a little more tangible. So looked at a number of different businesses and came up with the H V A C as being one that people practices that I'd learned working in the technology and the space where you really are competing highly for talent all the time. [00:02:36] And also how to apply technology and create efficiencies. I believe that H V A C was a prime opportunity to leverage those things that I had experience in. I did not realize that I, so I, of course, knew about the software company, but I don't know that I've ever asked you too many questions about it, and I really didn't know that the prescript, I had no idea that was part, that was something that you had a part of. [00:02:59] I, I just didn't [00:03:00] know that. That's fascinating. Which makes this next conversation even more fascinating because yeah, you knew nothing about H V A C, but you looked at this, as you just said, you looked at this as an opportunity to implement some sort of software into an industry maybe that is lacking. [00:03:18] Is that kind of what you were saying there? Yeah. Essentially what I, the common knowledge is, one of the things I read at the time was you should never enter a business that's essentially sat saturated or highly competitive unless you can I think it was something like, unless you can find some way something that's, 15, there's a 15% differentiator, some sort of an X factor that can create a 15% differentiator. [00:03:41] And I said I don't think I can come up with one thing that's 15%, but I believe I can do 15 things that are 1%. And so I identified things like the brand and if you're familiar with our brand, it's very unique. A lot of H V C and service companies are starting to come up with much more personable, unique brands. [00:03:55] But we were early in that process, let's just say that. And so that was a [00:04:00] differentiator. And things like having our number, being 9 1 9 Monster something memorable and friendly was unique where most people at that time were Joe's H V A C and the number could. As complicated as possible. [00:04:11] 9 1 9 7 3 5, 1, 8, 6 2 or something. You're like, that's gonna be hard to remember, So well, Jon, and I want, I just, we gotta, I have to highlight for a moment about your brand because in a couple of things, one, our friend, our mutual friend, Dan Antonelli, did your brand at Kick Charge. [00:04:31] Absolutely. And so, Dan does unique brands, and I think your brand stands out amongst anybody in this city because it's bright. It's probably not the most attractive thing necessarily that you would think of, but what it does is it makes you look at it, it doesn't matter if it's attractive, but what matters that the eyeballs stay on that van and it does, and you've captured. [00:04:56] A significant audience, I believe, with that. Now the [00:05:00] next thing I want you to tell and I hadn't actually planned to ask you this, but I'm really glad that I remembered the reason that you and I started talking and you and I had, I don't know, lunch or dinner about a year and a half ago and you told me a story about about a little girl or about kids that you, the story about the kids on the side of the road. [00:05:17] I want you to tell that story because it's unique in that it's a brand opportunity, not that you used that as a brand opportunity, cuz that wasn't the intention. The intention was to do something outta the goodness of your heart. But I would like for you to share that story because the result works pretty cool. [00:05:35] Yeah. So I'm gonna try to, there are so many different things I could say here. I'm gonna try to keep it somewhat concise. I. The brand. Of course, you are the expert on selling and how that happens and what the best way, to do that is. But one of my core beliefs is that you can't have a sale without having trust. [00:05:52] And one of the things that are important about our brand is it's a, it's somewhat a personification of trust. Our monster, I was laughing a [00:06:00] little bit when you said that the brand wasn't attractive. Our monster, we consider him, we talk about him as he's you as an actual, personified thing. [00:06:08] His name's comfy and Comfy doesn't like any sort of criticism like that. And he thinks he is very attractive. In fact, he thinks he's a model. And on our page is a meat comfy. And he, he's modeling with his hand up behind his, behind his head cuz he is so attractive and he takes special care of his fur and all this kind of stuff. [00:06:24] But the point of all that is to be. To be friendly when you're friendly and open and self dep deprecating, that's a bridge to building trust. And of course, trust is what's necessary when you're in people's homes and helping them to fix problems and sometimes explaining complex issues and or asking them for one, a gigantic amount of money to either fix or replace certain things. [00:06:46] I think all of those things are wrapped into the brand. And a friendly, trustworthy mascot is a big part of of a memorable brand, but also a brand that engenders trust to the audience you're trying to reach and you [00:07:00] use. And by the way, when I said it wasn't attractive, that was a complete misrepresentation because clearly, it's attractive to people. [00:07:05] Look at it, right? It's too late now. He's probably listening, and you probably are. And not his favorite. That's probably right at this point, but I'll try to straighten it out with him later. But you, but Jon, you used a piece of your brand to comfort. I remember you telling me a story, but you Oh, yeah. [00:07:21] Okay. So that's right. You did ask it, but I didn't, I never answered your question, so that's alright. Yeah. So here's what happened. I was driving in a neighborhood and we always carry the, I didn't mention this either. We carry little stuff monsters, little stuffed, comfy, and it says, on the tag, it says, Hi, my name is Comfy. [00:07:36] And, it has the website and all that kind doesn't say much about HVAC, but it just says, comfort monster.com. Anyway, so driving in the neighborhood and it had just rained and a guy and his two kids were splashing through the puddles or whatever. [00:07:50] And I was in an unmarked truck, a pickup truck, but didn't have our logo on. I drove. Past them. And I went up the street, and then I stopped and I was like, You know what? I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go back and talk to this guy. I [00:08:00] had to think about it. I was like, Is this gonna be super creepy or, so I back up and I rolled down the window, and I said, the guy said, Hey. [00:08:05] I said, I just had to come back. I said, you guys just look like you were having so much fun splashing around the puddle. And I've got this, this little monster here. I said it would be okay if I give it to you to your kids. [00:08:15] And he said, Oh, absolutely. And, we chatted for a minute or two and gave him the monster. And then I drove off. And before essentially I even got back to the office. We had a review, and the guy said something along the lines of, I, I've never used this company. [00:08:27] I didn't know them until today, but they, one of their employees took the time to stop and do this. And if they employ people like that, then they're gonna. B R H V C company from now on. And so we, we encourage that from all of our people, and they do that. [00:08:43] They, again, it's a, in this day and age, you gotta be a little bit careful when you're driving a van and giving away, toys, whatever. No. But again, the brand is very, friendly and they don't, they do it in a careful way, but they definitely, if they see somebody who might enjoy comfy or whatever, they've got [00:09:00] dozens of 'em on their trucks and they're encouraged to pass 'em out, whether they're customers or not. [00:09:04] That's one way that we share goodwill and share our, spread our brand. Without asking people, for business, we're just saying, Hey, here's who we are. Here's our, here's a comfy mascot and enjoy it a thing. It's kind, it's the law, reciprocity. [00:09:17] And I'm not saying that you do it intentionally for that, 'cause I believe your intention is completely pure with this. But the law reciprocity, that's, this is when it kicks in, right? Because you give right? You give the kid the toy, and the family is now they're a fan and they're gonna use your company, right? [00:09:34] Absolutely. Yeah. We, yeah, you don't, Reciprocity shouldn't be used as a tool, but it's still, but it's still a thing. When you give something for the right reasons and you don't expect anything back, then maybe you do get something back. That's, that's reciprocity as far as I'm concerned. [00:09:49] Wonderful. But yeah, you don't, it's not mercenary. It's not the little mercenary reciprocity. It's just reciprocity. Do something good, and you get something back maybe. Yeah, because if you do it with the intention of getting something, [00:10:00] Most likely you're not gonna get it back anyway Exactly. All right. So I want to dive into what you've been working on because this is, this is what I've been super excited for you to talk about because first before you talk about that, I want you to talk about how you got to this conversation, how you started thinking about, how you started the software that you're gonna tell us about. [00:10:20] Yeah. It's been a long process. I, when I first started the business, I definitely intended, this was, almost six years ago, and things have evolved since then. But the journey I was on, I said, All right, I don't, I've looked around. I don't think that I'm gonna be able to do what I wanna do uniquely, in the business. [00:10:36] I think the other part of this is if if your listeners haven't read or been exposed to Purple Cow Seth Go Goden I think the official name of the book is Purple Cow transform your business by being remarkable. Anyway, the idea is I knew I wanted to build a remarkable business and I didn't think I could do it with unremarkable software. [00:10:53] And having a technology background, I guess I wanted to build something. Anyway, so started out, spent a lot of [00:11:00] money, even though we were a technology business, we still gotta spend money and spent a lot of money developing something. It became overwhelming just in terms of how much further we had to go with it from the ground up. [00:11:12] And I was like, Look, this is, the business is starting to get expensive. The growth capital is starting to be expensive. And then the development on top of that is starting to get ridiculous. And so I started looking around and that's when Service Titan was really raising a bunch of money and there was a lot of press around them. [00:11:27] And I said, You know what? They're gonna have an open API and whether I, your listeners are familiar with that, but essentially the ability to connect into their database and do some custom things. Pull data out, push data in do things. I said You know what, we can take this core system, we can customize outside of it, and then we don't have to spend all the money on the core platform. [00:11:45] And we can focus on the things that make us unique and that'll be a better strategy. So we don't So you're telling Clear Jon, so basically at this point you're thinking of, I'm gonna build something on top of Server Titan. That's what you're saying, right? Correct. Yeah. Correct. So we dumped, I don't know, a million and a half dollars of [00:12:00] development we'd already spent. [00:12:01] We said, All right, forget that we're gonna, use the Service Titan. And so we, we did that. And I just don't think there it hasn't worked out exactly the way I had intended because we haven't been able to customize it. The core interface is still the core interface, and anything we do is hanging off of it, which means people are still using multiple. [00:12:18] Systems. And that hasn't doesn't fit exactly the way. It doesn't allow us to innovate the way we want to and so forth. And there have been some other frustrations I've had, with their technology. I'd be happy to share those things as well. But yeah, I'd I'm curious actually. [00:12:30] Yeah. What are things that you've experienced? My biggest frustration is I believe that H V A C, especially home services in general, but H V A C especially, is, needs to be a data-driven business. If you went to a major retailer L Brands, which is, Victoria's Secret, all that stuff, or Walmart or, any of these guys, they don't do anything without analyzing data. [00:12:51] Their retail data is everything because there are so many customers, and so many transactions, they can learn so much and customize their decision-making [00:13:00] process entirely around that data. H V C business, that's one of the things I love about it. You don't have my technology business. [00:13:06] We got you. Dozens of customers, but there are dozens of customers and the relationships exist for years and all this kind of stuff. You can't pull a lot of data out of those, just the basic customer engagement. But when you're h HPC company, you've got 10,000 customers. [00:13:21] You can start to make smart decisions about what solutions you present based on what's parked in the driveway because there's so much data that can help drive those decisions and everything. Our concept is you can take somebody who's a good technician and make 'em great with data. Take somebody who's great and make 'em excellent. [00:13:41] Same with sales. Take somebody who's, who's mediocre and make 'em good because you can make, you can drive when they hit, quote if it already interprets all the data that it has to interpret and makes those types of decisions, you can do some pretty cool things. . My biggest complaint about Service Titan is that just the core, [00:14:00] anytime I ask, and I've been very open about this, maybe we didn't implement it properly. [00:14:03] But anytime I ask a question that has a data component to it, every time I get back and answer, and I've got smart people that are running these things and pulling, pulling more data out and doing more stuff to it than I think anybody else is. And they're always like I don't know if this is really accurate but it should be and it drives me crazy. [00:14:22] I'm like, What? What do you mean? If the technician did this instead of this, then this isn't gonna be this way. And the data doesn't end up in a normal structure which means we can't, it, it makes it difficult for us to work with. And that's the point of data, right? [00:14:35] Is to have structure, to know exactly where the checks and balances are, to know exactly what to do next without that data in the right order. It, sounds useless to me, right? Yeah, that's, and again, I, that's my, been, my frustration is that I'll, and I'll be given data and I'll make decisions off of it. [00:14:53] And then it turns out that maybe that data wasn't so accurate, to begin with. And again I will take full responsibility that perhaps we haven't implemented [00:15:00] it to the letter the way that other companies have. I, I know there are a lot of people that use it. But that's my number one complaint. [00:15:06] Then there's synchronization. In, software, in technology, we say if it syncs, it stinks. So the concept, the core concept behind service type is you're syncing between the service type and platform and your accounting platform. Service Titan isn't an accounting platform. [00:15:22] It syncs with QuickBooks, it syncs with Sage, I believe maybe another one at this point. But anytime, So you're having to batch your invoices and other things out of service Titan into your accounting system. Now, if you have a change after the fact, somebody you have to, do a refund or, whatever happens now you're out of sync and you've gotta Reba and Resync and it's just, it's again, you're always, you're dealing with two different data sets. [00:15:42] And that's a problem. You mentioned ago six different, didn't you mention, I think when you said the example you just gave, I think you were saying a moment ago, like there were, there's multiple of those that you have to use, plugins, right? Yeah. Hundred [00:16:00] percent. [00:16:00] Yeah. Just as far as accounting goes, I think, they support QuickBooks and Sage. But again, those are batched processes. As far as, but there are tons of modules. That's one of the things they have developed a marketplace, and there are people that, that develop quoting systems and booking systems and other things that, you know, that, that connect with Service Titans, architecture over those they call it APIs is how that works. [00:16:20] But it's less functional than I think what you're about to say. Yeah. It's better. Pulling and pushing data out is better than a closed system, but a full system that's all integrated on the same backplane is better. And when we went out and we didn't want to develop something from the ground up, that's what we started doing, to begin with. [00:16:39] And that has its own challenges in terms of scale and also time to market and other stuff like that. So we looked at an e r P system and e r P is short for enterprise resource planning, which doesn't really mean anything to anybody. Really should, shouldn't even mean anything to me, I can't believe I still call it that. [00:16:55] But the concept is, it's a, it's an everything. The big companies, 50,000 people, [00:17:00] whatever, they've run on e r P systems for years, and the concept is that's their backplane. And it does everything from accounting to the help desk, to field service. It's even got a lunch order module. [00:17:11] So if you're gonna have a meeting, and everybody can put their lunch orders in there, and then you can, send that out to wherever you're gonna order from or whatever. So the concept is, it's all on one backplane. And you build modules that do that, do things. [00:17:21] And there's a difference between a module that lives on the backplane and one that lives outside of the system. Service Titan, you got the Service Titan Software. When you log into Service Titan, all you're ever gonna see is Service Titan. But you could have a quoting system. I'm trying to think of one of the ones that integrate with company Cam, maybe? [00:17:38] Yeah. Something yeah. Something like that. Yeah. So it can have, where it can share data, but it's still a separate browser window and it's not, doesn't live inside of Service Titan. A module and something that's an add-on in the marketplace is different things and I use the concept, the term backplane, it's not really a technical term, but the idea is essentially its actual software that's installed into [00:18:00] the core software system versus something that lives outside and just exchanges data. [00:18:04] But for the listeners, it sounds like that's probably, there's a greater chance of having miscommunication in a system like that, right? Because you've got multiple parts moving, Correct? Yeah. If it relies on I don't wanna get too technical cuz it just doesn't. But we call it a system of record. [00:18:22] Anytime you have a, you have data, you wanna have a clear system of record and you really can't answer the question, What's your system of record for the account for an invoice? Is it QuickBooks or is it Service Titan? At a certain point, the system of record of service Titan, cuz that's the only place the invoice exists. [00:18:39] After it gets batched and sent over to QuickBooks, then QuickBooks becomes the system of record. But your customer care people are not working inside QuickBooks. So now if you wanna send a copy of that invoice, even if it's been credited in QuickBooks somehow, cuz you wrote it off or something, it still exists in Service Titan. [00:18:54] So just the concept, it's not that there's, that they've done anything wrong, it's just if it sinks, it [00:19:00] stinks because there's, once you have two copies of an invoice and that's exactly what happens. You batch those invoices, you send 'em out to QuickBooks, and now you got two copies of 'em. So which one do you operate on? [00:19:07] And when you make a change in QuickBooks, it's not coming back, to service Titan. It's only one-way. It's a one-way batch process. And that has drawbacks. Certainly, they've got best practices for how to work around that, which is essential that, that if you make those changes, you need to make 'em in service tight, and then you Reba 'em out to the finance system. [00:19:23] But the same thing with employee time records. Okay? You're getting time records in Service Titan, but you're actually paying your payroll in QuickBooks, so you're having to, that data gotta be shared and stuff. Whereas one of the things, that drives me bonkers is that I can't get really accurate financials. [00:19:39] Again, maybe an internal issue, but it's delayed significantly from the end of the month waiting for the, we call it the tail, the paper tail, to come back. You have a post with a vendor and they deliver the product, but then they don't invoice. And so if you don't get the paper right in Service Titan until you [00:20:00] receive the invoice in QuickBooks, you don't technically have you know you've got a PO but you don't technically have an expense on your books. [00:20:07] And so it takes us a long time to have an officially closed month cuz we're waiting for that paper tail to come back. I want to know, my goal is to make it like a restaurant, which every night we close the restaurant. I wanna know, did we make money today or did we lose money today? Cause if we made money today and let's do it again tomorrow, if we didn't, then let's figure out why we didn't, and let's not do it again tomorrow. [00:20:31] If I've gotta wait a month and a half before I see a month of financials. And then I've gotta try to dig through that to figure out what the heck went wrong with our margin that we slipped 6% in our materials this month. I've already, the train's already down the tracks. A month and a half. [00:20:46] I'm gonna lose three months. From the day I could have made a correction to the time that I'm even informed enough to start to dig into it. I'm the aggregate time is potentially I, alright, maybe it's not quite three months, but from, if it's [00:21:00] day 1st of June and I don't get my financials accurate until July. [00:21:05] So one month and then probably really I'm looking at nearly the end of July to get my accurate numbers from June and then I gotta start making actions on that. So maybe I'm two months plus or in the neighborhood two months before I can make action that of something that happened back in, back on June one. [00:21:22] You can't run a business that way. You can get yourself in real trouble that way. That's. It's like an airplane, right? An airplane. If it gets off one degree, you are going nowhere near where you're supposed to be going. And that's what you're saying. You're able to catch that degree every single you're gonna tell us about that, right? [00:21:38] Yeah. You so let's just dive into how you're solving all these problems that, that you've come across. Yes. And so it comes down to the concept of the E R P, which is if I create that, if I create that PO then, then I can act on that, that, and that's integrated into my financial, it's not, hasn't become an invoice yet. [00:21:57] But I can still treat it as if it is an invoice [00:22:00] inside that system. But then I can pull everything together. We've built a daily p and l report that's a budget and a p and l all in one. And it starts with some of our top-of-the-funnel metrics. Things like How many service calls did I expect to get today? [00:22:14] How much did I budget for today? And how many did I actually get? Because I wanna be able to hold our sales team accountable. They say if you make the phone ring, we'll make the bank sing, right? So if I'm like, Hey, look, we said we all did this budget together. We said that we were looking for 40 diagnostic calls today. [00:22:30] We delivered 43, 43 calls got booked, and, our service revenue is not where it should have been. I'll use your words. And I had a guy that was president in one of my companies a long time ago, and he would, anytime he was talk, you were talking to him, he was like, writing something down like this, and you write it down. [00:22:46] And then later, sure enough, that notebook would come out, and he'd say, So now you make the phone ring. We'll make the bank sign. He's you said that, right? I didn't say that, and you're like, Yeah, no, I said that. I'd say We said we were gonna get, 43 service calls [00:23:00] and you thought that was right and you did your budget based on that. [00:23:02] Is that right? Yeah. Okay, then we made the phone ring, But you haven't made the bank thing. Is that correct? ? And it's just one of those accountability things. So starting at the top of our sort of p and l, it's not really a p and l it's an amalgamation of stuff. But the very top is your top line funnel metrics where you're like, okay, we expected to get 43 diagnostics. [00:23:18] We call 'em svc one internal code name, but service one calls is diagnostic. Then service two is a major repair that stems, from that diagnostic. Then service three is a recall, a service four is a warranty, so you have your top line metrics of how many things you expect at the book into all those categories. [00:23:33] And then you have your revenue numbers that come out of those categories. And then you got your sales leads, and then you got your actual sales, and then all that funnels down into your sectional p and ls. And this is on a daily basis, your service one. We expected to get $20,000 of revenue and service, today. [00:23:50] What did we actually get? Then we expected our labor costs to be this, and that's coming directly outta the ERP. So as they track time on that day, when they finish their day, we know what [00:24:00] their general, hourly rate's gonna be. We know how many ti, how many hours they track, and to which types of jobs they track them. [00:24:05] So now I can look at my daily gross profit on just that service one. So obviously you think your service one diagnostics are gonna be your most profitable calls and I hitting my, 50, 55%, or whatever, and these metrics are for that gross profit inside the service one. [00:24:21] My service two is hitting their gross profit metrics, and then on, So then you go all the way down, and then that gives you your gross profit. Then you've got your general administrative costs and your marketing and everything else. And then at the very bottom line. And those are somewhat Those aren't necessarily coming out of the e r p, you're projecting them because they don't they're lumpy. [00:24:39] They don't all come in, evenly but you're projecting what your monthly G costs are gonna be. And then at the very bottom line, you got your net, your net income, your projected net income for that day. But you shouldn't have to worry about the tail of the paper because everything's happening. [00:24:53], I consider residential H V A C to be a relatively retail business. You're not doing long-running projects. Your installs are [00:25:00] ours, at least ours are essentially one day. Our service calls are hours, not days. Repairs. Your hours not days. And so essentially we should be able to close the store every single day. [00:25:10] And then I can look at that, by 10 o'clock the next morning, I should be able to look at that and say, Okay, did we make money yesterday? Did we lose? And then look at the, did we lose it because we didn't get enough stuff at the top of the funnel? Did we lose it because we didn't make enough hay outta the stuff we had in the funnel? [00:25:23] Did we overspend on parts? What did we do wrong? Or what did we do right? And if you can look at it every single day, then you can get to the destination that you wanna get to a whole lot better than looking in the rearview mirror and being so pissed Man if I would've just known, I could've fixed this a month and a half ago. [00:25:40] And it actually takes energy from you because if you see something that was wrong yesterday and you can change it today, that creates energy when you're like, man. I found something recently I'll be honest about it. We found that we were paying sales tax on service parts and in North Carolina we pay you don't pay sales tax [00:26:00] on, you pay sales tax on the replacement stuff because the customer doesn't pay it. [00:26:04] It's considered a capital improvement, so we don't, so the customer doesn't pay it on replacing a system which means we do pay it the to the vendor for the equipment, but on service, they do pay tax. So we don't pay tax the on the service parts. We've been paying taxes on the service parts that we're buying from the vendors. [00:26:20] And the fact that it took us a significant amount of time to see that in the numbers when that when somebody made a change in the office to start doing that is a defeating sort of a process. You're like, Oh my gosh, we just paid, this six and a half, 7% on all these parts for this amount of time. [00:26:34] And it's taken so long to figure out that was what was going on. That doesn't create energy to fix things. It actually is. It takes your energy cuz you're a man, if I had known about this right away, I could've fixed it and saved a lot of money. [00:26:47] So you anticipate getting that energy every month because you're gonna be behind every month. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So whereas, one of the concepts I don't know if you promote, you've talked about it a lot on this show, but the Rockefeller Habits was, is, was a [00:27:00] really good approach to business. [00:27:01] And then it, it turned into traction eos entrepreneurial operating system. So Rockefeller became traction, eos. Anyway, one of the core concepts that came from Rockefeller that became traction, EOS is a daily huddle. And if you've got actual, broken down financials that you can use in your daily huddle and certainly your top-of-the-line metrics and stuff like that, then you say, Okay who's, marketing guys, Let's talk about the top of the funnel. [00:27:24] Okay, we, did we get enough diagnostics? Did we get enough? Sales opportunities. Do we do this? Do we do that? Yes, we're on, we're doing great, blah blah, what's our cost of leads? You cover that. And then, okay, now operational guys, did we sell, how do we do on our average tickets? How do we do on actually turning that stuff into results? [00:27:40] And it's all broken down for you, that way. But the only, that's not that unique. Everybody wants that. The problem is that if you don't have a back,  an E R P backplane, you can't get that kind of data outta your organization. And so that's the heart of what we're doing. [00:27:55] So let me I am curious, once you discovered the tax [00:28:00] state, all right, and that just, you don't have to give me obviously an exact number, but I'm just curious what that mistake cost you if you could have eliminated it in a 24 hour time period. Instead of how, You don't know, if you told us how long you actually were paying the tax on it? [00:28:16] Yeah, I'd be embarrassed to tell you that. So basically the number's staggering. Yeah, it's quite a lot. But we, there's a two-year statute I believe that we, so there's, we were within the amount of time that we could go and claim a what do you call it when you restate, basically restate your tax filings revised, amended we could amend our tax filings. [00:28:39] And so fortunately that's still, we haven't got the money back yet, but we're working on that. But yeah, it's certainly an issue. . The key thing though, Jon, is that, without you figuring this out, you wouldn't be having this conversation with me about getting that money back. You would, and anybody that's listening could be in this very same exact situation because look, a [00:29:00] lot of. [00:29:00] That I deal with. A lot of people that I know use, Service Titan, they use a lot, several different platforms, but a lot of people use Service Titan. Yeah. And so it's anyhow, so we won't, just to be fair, that's not there, That's our problem. That's not, that really can't be attributed to Service Titan other than the fact that not having everything, tight tightly enough, that's the only tie. [00:29:20] They, they're certainly not responsible. Yeah, for sure. I just mean, Yeah, exactly. I'm glad you clarify, but I should be able to look at my margin drift and analyze that margin better. And because the purchasing, inventory, invoicing, it's all it's not really tightly integrated. [00:29:36] And so that's where you have things like that can get by you, even if you're a decent business. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so the next thing I want you to talk about, which is to me it's the sort I think it's one of the more, more exciting things for me because I think it's one of the things that is just, it needs to be dialed in, which is the inventory. [00:29:57] I want you to dive into that for a moment. Tracking. Okay, what [00:30:00] I want, and let's go back to the daily, the concept of shutting this door down every single day. Inventory has been perfected by other companies for a long time. They mark things as a, B, and C-type inventory, representing the number of times it moves inside. [00:30:15] So A is your quick turn, your B is your medium turn. C is the stuff that sits a little bit longer. And then anything below a C is stuff you shouldn't even be carrying because it doesn't turn enough, right? Everything from inventory analysis to. Stocking restocks, all that stuff has been, has been done. [00:30:30] And what we want to be able to do is when somebody says complete on an SVC one, a diagnostic call, which doesn't involve any follow-up, I wanna know what our margin was on that job. And the only way I can actually know what a margin is on that job is by using a standard inventory price costing mechanism. [00:30:50] People use last in, first out, first in, first out average cost is all different types of methodologies you can use, but you have to use one of 'em. And [00:31:00] properly developed, designed inventory system will tell me when I pull that thing off the shelf, based on what I've chosen, what inventory costing model I've chosen to use, what that costs. [00:31:09] So if I know that my employee, my team member costs. Burdened 45 bucks an hour. And that this part, these parts that they used using a first in first out mechanism that these parts cost me $38 and I got this amount of revenue as soon as they hit complete on that job, I know what my margin was on that job. [00:31:29] And then that can all flow down into my, into that thing I was talking about earlier where I can see what the heck happened on an aggregate, basis. If I just, especially with raw costs changing rapidly, if I somehow vaguely think that this igniter or elbow, PVC elbow, or whatever we're using cost this amount of this amount, but it's because it never got updated in my system, then I could be, totally wrong. [00:31:53] But the whole constant between, these advanced inventory models are, there's a purchase order that's linked to that material. And when it gets used of the. Then [00:32:00] it decreases what I've got on the truck. So I know exactly what my balance sheet should say for how much I should have on the truck. [00:32:06] And then if I need to restock, it can decide whether to pull it from this warehouse or a different warehouse and what it costs, and how much I've got. So all these things are advanced things that nobody's gotta redevelop because they already exist. But service items are down to redevelop 'em because they didn't exist in Service Titan. [00:32:22] Their inventory model, and I haven't looked at it recently cuz we went in a different direction, but for the longest time, they had really no advanced inventory strategy. And then, finally, it's still this disjointed from the finance piece. So your balance sheet, even if service type knows how many three-quarter PVC, 90, 90-degree elbows you got in your, on all your stock, across all your stuff, it ain't gonna be reflected. [00:32:45] In your finances, so you're still having to try to back into a balance sheet somehow. On a daily basis, do I know how many, and how much my inventory's worth do I know how much is in trade and has been ordered but hasn't arrived yet? All these things are possible with a backplane that can support that level of [00:33:00] complexity. [00:33:01] So yeah, that I great answer. And I think this is; I think it's super needed. I want, one of the things I think that's pretty interesting is I want you to talk about, we're shifting between summer and fall right now, right? Yep. And you and I have talked about this several times about there's usually inventory that gets caught between seasons, right? [00:33:21] Yep. How have you figured out, have you figured out a way to eliminate that to a degree or lessen it? I think I've certainly come up with a way to maximize the use of capital as far as that goes. So we build four. We can build as many as we want to. We build four. For summer, winter, fall, and spring. [00:33:41] And the spring and the fall are transitional templates. And then those are also, and then they, there are sub-templates for each type of vehicle, whether it's a pickup truck or it's a van or whatever. And so what essentially happens is we've already predetermined that we need more furnace parts, in winter than we need summer parts. [00:33:58] Summer parts might [00:34:00] be capacitors, contactors drain parts, all that sort of stuff. Your winter parts are gonna be mortared furnace parts, your reversing valves, and things like that. So essentially, what we do is say, All right, this is our summer template. This is our winter template. [00:34:12] Somehow we gotta move from our summer template to our winter template, which means reducing certain things and stalking other things back up. So the transitional templates allow you to have some inventory numbers in the middle. So if I want to carry a. No, a thousand dollars worth of capacitors on my trucks in the summer, but I only want to carry $250 of them the in the winter. [00:34:34] The reason why that fall template is important is that you're gonna reduce your numbers. You might carry five of everything or three of everything in the summer, and I only want to carry one of everything in the win in the winter. If I bring that fall template in sometime in mid to late August, then it's gonna allow me to burn, to use my summer inventory down to that intermediate media level. [00:34:58] And then when I transition to the winter [00:35:00] template, sometime in late September, then I can, I'll get those numbers down even further. So what you're doing is you're bringing in winter inventory, maybe the fall template doesn't really bring in any winter inventory. We're not really gonna be using it, but it starts to sell down the summer inventory. [00:35:15] And then once I've sold down the summer inventory, I reduce it even further at the same time as I bring in that winter inventory. And it's as simple as just once you've built the templates and I hit a button that says we're gonna, let's start thinking about moving to, And everybody in the business, especially in North Carolina, knows it. [00:35:29] You're running strong July, the first week of August, the second week, August, she's Yeah, this is going great. And then it's Neil like the phone stops ringing like the third week of August because everything that has broken is gonna break, is broken. And it's still, it may still be 90 degrees, but it just, the wheel come off of the demand at that point. [00:35:47] And that's when you start making that transition. And it helps again, helps you to sell down that, that inventory. And you, on a large-scale operation, might be saving yourself parts that literally just gathered dust on the shelf. You [00:36:00] might save I don't know, 40, $50,000 worth of capital. [00:36:03] That that you don't need to have that can go into growth or something else. Or, I don't know. . No, that makes complete sense, I think. And I just think it, it's fascinating because I don't know anybody else that's come up with anything like this, that you're able to, it's able to essentially automate, the inventory or the seasons. [00:36:21] I think it, it's just, it's really cool. One other thing that I think is also great that we have not talked about, Actually, gimme a second. Cause I just lost what I was thinking. There was one more thing that I really wanted you to talk about, and I did. Was it related to recalls? Was that one of the things? [00:36:36] Yes. Yep. All right. Yes. So one of my frustrations, and again, I wanna be very clear that, so people don't be like, Oh, you're just using Service Titan wrong. Okay. I that's fine. I'll be more than happy to be we're not gonna go back to it, but I'll be more than happy to admit that we're not using it right Cuz I'm sure there are people that are doing it better than us. [00:36:54] But one of the problems that, that I've got with Service Titan is there's, [00:37:00] the way the recall process works is there's an, as, there's an assumption that it's clear enough that customer care can make a connection at the time the call is made. So a call comes in the service height model that somebody says I, you guys were just out here and I have another problem. [00:37:18] Okay. That by, by software. That's easy enough. I find that prior call, I say recall, and then I generate a new job that's based on that other job. And it, and it's, that's tagged as a recall. But I've got a real problem with that because I think psychologically we're setting ourselves up to give away money that we money and also goodwill or reputation that we don't necessarily have to give away. [00:37:40] So our approach is that everything is diagnostic. The only but your market is a diagnostic and a possible recall that makes the customer feel better. So the exact same scenario is Joe calls up, Hey, you guys screwed up. Yeah. You gotta come back out here right away. I want somebody this afternoon. [00:37:56] Immediately. You guys were just here, and we're like just here two months [00:38:00] ago. Yeah, but you were just here. Okay, Joe, we got you, buddy. We'll be there. We'll take a look at it. And he's I don't expect to pay anything for this. Okay, here's how we do this. [00:38:07] We're gonna mark this as a possible recall, but the first thing we do is always diagnose the issue. We diagnose it because if we go back on the assumption that we've made a mistake, then we're looking narrowly at the last thing we fixed. And what if there's a bigger problem and now you have another recall, and you still want to blame that on us, so Joe, what we're gonna do, we're gonna mark this as a possible recall. [00:38:29] The technician knows that if there's anything that we did wrong, that that there that you won't be charged for that within our, warranty policy. But all he's gonna do, when he gets there, he is gonna say, Joe, I'm here to diagnose the issue. And that's all you're gonna talk about in the begin with. [00:38:43] So now our technician is not when they get dispatched, and it says, recall in their mind, this is a $0 call, and they're not even prepared to defend the company or our prior work when they get there because they've already been told it's a recall. And then there's also a lot of complexity that [00:39:00] happens where, which, okay, it's a recall. [00:39:01] Was it the service guy that was there two weeks after it was installed, and now it's a recall on the service guy? Or is it a recall on the install? Or, is it something, is it a drain line or something that is draining into the side of their house into their wall that we never even touched? [00:39:18] As part of the re, we reconnected their drain line, but we, we didn't, we never re-piped it or anything like that, so anyway, so that's my point is that there's a much more complicated thing that has to happen with regards to recalls and we, we are building a process, and I say we're building cause we haven't completed this part of it, but we're building a process where we create a recall group and then we can evaluate to what percentage each. [00:39:43] Person who was involved contributed to the overall cost of the recall. So you have a recall group that says, Okay, there was an issue here. And we went back four times. Was Bill responsible for 20% because he should have called it originally? Was Jeff responsible for another [00:40:00] 20% because he didn't pick it up? [00:40:01] Pick this up the second time he was there. So what? And now, because we're getting this in real-time, we know what their drive time was, we know what their onsite time was, and we know what the parts used were. We can figure out the total real cost of what that recall was. But then we can also, in this recall group, we can assign a goodwill expense to it as well. [00:40:20] We can say this customer has now decided that they will, they had four systems, three of 'em were gonna go bad in the next two years, and they've decided they will never work with, with our company again. Of this debacle with this recall. So now we can assign a goodwill impairment to that recall group and say, Okay, this is what, this is our direct cost, This is our goodwill impairment, and this is what this overall recall cost us. [00:40:43] And so now when you're looking at your, you're looking at your financials at the end of the year and you're like, Hey, we did. We made 10% net; we're the greatest thing in the world. Hey, Jon, did you notice that our total cost of recalls, including impairments, was [00:41:00] $763,000? [00:41:01] Wouldn't you like to have half of that back? And we all deal with recalls. I'm not saying that I can take seven 63,000, and reduce it to zero but certainly, what comes out of that recall group is coaching. Because you can say, Okay, Joe, Bill was responsible for 20% of this. [00:41:16] And what were the skills that he missed? I can say it was low voltage; it was refrigeration, it was just sloppy work. What were the things? And now I can look at a scorecard for Bill at the end of the year, the quarter, or whatever, and say, Wow, Bill, you're doing great on, on sales, you're doing this, you're doing that. [00:41:31] But they, my God, we gotta get you some help in low voltage wiring because you're a train wreck, buddy. You're costing us $50,000 just because you don't know. The difference between the primary winding and secondary wiring winding. And I'll be honest, I'm thinking about taking your multi-meter because you don't even know how to use it. [00:41:48] And so if, but you don't know, unless you aggregate data, you don't know how to make it actionable. I see too much that people are like, Oh, Bill screwed this up. We gotta get rid of him or, [00:42:00] whatever because it was some lightning strike of a problem that Bill created. [00:42:03] But if you look at his record, isn't it, aren't there three other guys that are consistently losing you more money than Bill is? Even though this one was a big, big to-do. And that's where data, that's what I, you have to data; you've gotta be able to make decisions, you wanna be able to quickly get to insights. [00:42:18] Data's not important. Insights are important. And if you're properly managing data and properly reporting on data, then you can get insights. And when you get insights, you can make better decisions, and you can run a better, more profitable business. One thing I will be curious to find out, I don't know if it's been enough time yet for you to have the data, and I don't know when you changed your language pattern from TA saying it's a recall too, it's diagnostic, but I'd be interested to know what the, how that changed yours. [00:42:48] Closing rate or whatever metrics you measure by for those recalls or yeah, I guess you could measure it by the amount of money they collect because if normally it's a recall, it's gonna be free. So have you seen or got any data [00:43:00] on that? Do you know what the difference has been since you changed that language? [00:43:03] Yeah, as I said, this is being, this part of it's being built and hasn't been implemented yet. I'm just as curious as you are to see how this, how the recall. We call it our LR process roller [00:43:17] for short. Say it one more time, Jon. It doesn't matter whether the computer cut out our r l. Okay. R L R. We call it roller, Rlr roller, whatever, but the R is short for recall. And low revenue. So our process. Because it doesn't matter to us if a tech rolls up and doesn't hit, doesn't collect, it's not just collecting anything. [00:43:40] It's if the call when it's closed doesn't meet minimum gross profit standards, then they'll have, it'll enter the rlr process. And I don't, And again, the same way, we don't care on the front end, whether it's actually a recall or a diag, diagnostic. We're gonna treat everything as a diagnostic on the back end. [00:43:57] We're gonna treat everything as a low revenue, [00:44:00] or no revenue. I don't care, which either way, we didn't make money when we were out here. If it's low revenue, it goes into the RLR process. If it's a recall, it goes into the RLR process. And then somebody has to analyze that issue, and you do your first analysis and it never gets closed because we have unfortunately found that one recall, it's like coronavirus, you get one, you're gonna, you're gonna infect. [00:44:20] It just seems like that's how it goes. And so you create the recall group, and if you're lucky, it's one, but then, if you get a second one and then the third one, all of a sudden it's a, it is a runaway train. But that's the other thing that they can do for you, are you can recognize that pattern. [00:44:32] It's okay. When you hit your third recall, now all of a sudden, this is like general manager material. This is not something that just gets handled inside the company. It's okay, and we got three here. We're not getting a fourth. We need to go see what, see what's going on here. [00:44:44] Because that's, unfortunately, that's what happens is there's something that's not, that's hidden. And we battled some gas packs one time; it was before we realized that this was a common issue. But we, there was a low voltage short in a two-stage gas pack because one of the sensor wires on the, I think the high [00:45:00] pressure or whatever was rubbing against the. [00:45:01] The corner of the inside of the gas pack. And it only it was like, it was only when it would shift in a defrost that it would energize that sensor and short this thing out, or, Oh, sorry. Only when it went in the second stage when it would do this. And we were, we found other issues out there, and we were like, All right, we got this. [00:45:17] we found that some mice had chosen to chew the low-voltage wire. We're like, All right, that's gotta be it. Change that out, thermostat every time it, does this, it's, it's gotta be the thermostat, so you do this stuff, and you think that you're low v voltage is tricky anyway, and you think that you're solving problems, but turns into, three or four recalls before you know it. [00:45:35] And that's when you gotta say, Okay, let's stop. Know, send in our specialist, to deconstruct this so that we don't turn three or four into 10. And a customer that is calling the Better Business Bureau, and that's really what, and that's what you have to look forward to. [00:45:50] A bad review. If you go out there more than three times, you're probably not gonna get a great experience from that customer. And they will continue being a customer, not a chance. You might be pulling out that equipment [00:46:00] like over a wire rubbing on the cage. It takes a zip tie and a piece of electrical tape, and that customer's never gonna call you again. [00:46:06] But you gotta be able to, you gotta have a process to manage it, and then you gotta be able to interpret the data because things are happening. You can't be reactive in scale, a business. You gotta be system systematic. And that's where we're trying to go. [00:46:20] It's difficult. We've I thought I was gonna wave a wand at this thing. And oh, I'm successful in this business, this H V A C thing, it's gotta be easy. I'll figure this out in a couple of months, and I'll spend the rest of my life on the beach in Turks and Caicos. But it's been a humbling process. [00:46:34] There are so many moving pieces that you've got to have a system to manage them. And we've made mistakes and learned a lot from them. But we're pretty confident that this path we're on now is the right one. And we're seeing good results so far. [00:46:48] So I know that you probably know I was gonna ask you this would is this something that we talked about this? This is not something that you're pitching by any stretch. No. This is what you're using for your company, [00:47:00] but. But is this something that you could implement into a larger, say, $152 million, $200 million company? [00:47:07] Is that something you could possibly do once you get it completely done? Yeah, I think the thing about it is that there's gotta be a commitment to operations. It's not something it's because of its nature of it; it's complex. And so you'd have to be a certain size organization to benefit from it. [00:47:24] Cause when you start shaving pennies, it takes a lot of effort sometimes to get to where you can shave pennies. But at a large enough scale, those pennies out to a lot of money. And so it doesn't, I don't think it works for smaller companies. It's just too complicated. [00:47:36] And I don't mean complicated like you gotta be a, an MIT pH you know, a post-doc to run the thing. It's just that you've gotta be committed to certain operations. Because software and operations fit together. And I, we've certainly fought battles with our service technicians who are like this is too complicated. [00:47:55] I don't want to do all this. I hear you, but this is the right way to do things so that [00:48:00] we can have operational excellence. And if you're not interested in operational excellence, then I'll invite you to go to all of the mediocre companies that are out there. So you gotta have a certain operational approach and respect and ability within your team, to be able to do something like this. [00:48:15] But yeah, I haven't. You had, I had chatted briefly about it. I never set out to sell this because I want to build a world-class h a c company. And there's a difference between running software and building it for somebody else. You get into. Implementation teams and sales teams and all this other kind of stuff. [00:48:31] So I think where you and I landed was, I'm happy to discuss this with anybody who is interested in, like geeking out about software and technology and operational excellence. And we would consider my technology company has expertise in this, and we would consider working with anybody who sees the opportunity in something like this and sees the deficiencies and other approaches. [00:48:55] But we're certainly not actively looking to sell it because we're focused on operationalizing [00:49:00] it for ours. For sure. Dude, this has been such a great conversation, and people are gonna have to go back and listen to this probably because you've talked about so many different things that are super important. [00:49:11] And quite frankly, nobody's heard a lot of these things cuz it's the first time. I think you've talked about it publicly. I just made it all up so [00:49:21] how I do. Was that good? I think you did pretty well. Yeah, I think you did pretty well. You sounded smart. Exactly. No. Oh no, it's been fun. You get in the trenches of working on this stuff, and it's sometimes nice to talk about it. Because you get so deep into solving these problems and figuring 'em out. [00:49:36] It's nice to step back and have this conversation with you and talk about the potential and how exciting, it is. Cause it is, it is exciting, but it takes a lot of work to solve these problems in a way that, is scalable. And builds value enduring value in an operation that's got that process-driven approach to it. [00:49:55] Yeah. Somebody that, people that are listened to this that they hear this and they're like, Man, [00:50:00] that sounds like something I'd like that person's probably going to already be in. They're gonna be that 150 to 200. Because look, at the end of the day, as you said, this is not something for a smaller company because it's just too, probably too a little bit too technical, a little bit too sophisticated. [00:50:14] It Probably takes a lot of work for not a lot of gain potentially. Yeah, I think it's certainly a pathway to being If, if you're on your, if you're on a pathway to being that, that 50, 75, a hundred million dollar company, then you probably already got the same frustrations, and ideas. [00:50:30] If you don't recognize that there are deficiencies in what you may be doing now, then I don't think it's a fit. If you recognize the deficiency, you're frustrated. And, now, the issue there is that, there's a reason, there's an investment that has to happen. We've spent millions in, in, in our approach to it. [00:50:46] And that's because I didn't pull that outta my H V A C company; I pulled that out of our 20 years technology company. And I think that there's an investment that has to happen to make it operationalized it. And so that nexus of size and [00:51:00] and where you wanna take your company and all those different things have to come together in a way that's okay, yeah, that we can make this investment, we can make it in people, we can make it in technology. [00:51:09] And we have the management, manpower man or womanpower to implement this thing and make it successful. So all those things have to come together because you don't just implement a piece of software. You have to implement a business operation that runs on software. So if you don't fit those qualifications, there's no reason for you to reach out pretty much. [00:51:28] You just explained precisely the person that could use this. Yeah. No, I enjoy, I, I enjoy talking to anybody who's in the industry, and just, we can, like I said, I'm happy to talk to anybody. I don't wanna make some; We're definitely not. Our goal we haven't sold it to anybody. [00:51:42] We haven't; that's not our goal. Our goal is to build it for ourselves. But like you said we'd be, it'd be smart to have some conversations if other people are facing similar challenges and ha and are interested in having those conversations. Yeah, I think it's gonna, I think it, for sure. [00:51:56] Jon, this has been killer. Dude, I can't thank you enough. [00:52:00] If you would tell everybody where they can find you, Tell 'em the comfort monster wherever you want them to find you. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, if you wanna have some fun, go. If you go to comfort monster.com and then there's a, on one of the menus, it says Meet comfy. [00:52:12] It's a pretty funny page. It has his bio and what he likes, and some FAQs about him. It's just funny. But check that out. And but if you wanna get in touch with me, I'm easy to find Jon.Jordan@comfortmonster.com or Jon.Jordan@atlanticbt.com, short for Atlantic Business Technologies. [00:52:31] And if somebody's listening to this that wants to get in front in touch with comfort, what's the phone number there? Nine one nine Monster. Boom. That's right; you already said that. So appreciate you, Jon. This has been great. Thank you, man. All right, thanks, Corey. You got it.  

In this episode of How To Ride A Roller Coaster, I'm joined by Landon Ledford, founder of Double L Brands. Here, Landon talks about the tragic accident that reshaped his view on entrepreneurship, and life. This is definitely an episode that you won't want to miss. Follow Landon below: Web: https://doublelbrands.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landonledford/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/realdavidezell/message

Welcome to Reimagining Company Culture, a series discussing emerging trends and priorities shaping the future of workplace culture and employee wellbeing. We highlight thought leaders who are constantly evolving their strategy and can provide insight to folks about how to address new business challenges.  AllVoices is on a mission to create safe, happy, and healthy workplaces for all, and we're excited to learn from experts who share our mission. In this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, we're chatting with Nichole Barnes Marshall, Global Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Pinterest. Nichole has more than 20 years of experience in DE&I and recruitment at iconic brands like L Brands, Aon and IBM, and remains avidly active in the community on a variety of issues, including social justice, educational access and economic opportunity.Tune in to learn Nichole's thoughts on fully committing to DEI goals, setting up inclusion talks, philosophy around measuring success, and more!About AllVoices In today's workforce, people often don't feel empowered to speak up and voice their opinions about workplace issues, including harassment, bias, and other culture issues. This prevents company leadership from making necessary changes, and prevents people from feeling fulfilled, recognized, and included at work. At AllVoices, we want to change that by providing a completely safe, anonymous way for people to report issues directly to company leaders. This allows company leadership real transparency into what's happening in their companies—and the motivation to address issues quickly. Our goal is to help create safer, more inclusive companies.

Have you ever thought about volunteering at a local animal shelter in your community? Or how about doing so in the African Bush? Our guest today, Kim Troy, spent 10 years serving and learning life and leadership lessons while living in the African Bush. Kim Troy is the Founder and CEO of Civilis Consulting, a business advisory firm providing strategic sales, marketing, operations, and HR guidance to fast-growth businesses. She has also held executive-level positions in Human Resources, Operations, and Sales for some of the world's largest corporations, including L Brands. LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:LinkedIn (Kim individual): www.linkedin.com/in/kimtroyLinkedIn Civilis: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civilisconsulting/Facebook Civilis: @civilisconsulting, www.facebook.com/civilisconsultingShe also has a blog full of insightful articles, including posts to the various podcasts and webinars on which Kim is aguest speaker.https://www.civilisconsulting.com/insights/If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.ABOUT OUR GUEST:Kim Troy is the Founder and CEO of Civilis Consulting, a business advisory firm providing strategic sales, marketing, operations, and HR guidance to fast-growth businesses. Civilis' seasoned consultants work alongside CEO'sentrepreneurs and leadership teams to strategize and implement organization-wide transformations; and have deep expertise advising companies with remote or geographically dispersed business units.  Prior to Civilis, Kim founded Kimberly Troy Consulting, an organizational development consultancy. The firm's notable engagements include consulting field-based NGOs – primarily in southern Africa – to improve the utilization of financial and human resources. She has held executive-level positions in Human Resources, Operations, and Sales for some of the world's largest corporations, including L Brands.  She has a BA in Psychology and Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound and a Diversity &Inclusion certification from Cornell. She is a Prosci certified Change Management Practitioner, DDI Targeted Selection trainer, and certified Tilt coach.ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.

On today's episode Sean O'Shaughnessey explores the value of identifying your target audience when working through sales issues. Listen in as Deborah and Sean discuss the process of honing your pitch, why small and medium-sized businesses often struggle with sales, and how to “eliminate the competition” with integrity. Sean also shares how he is able to sustain a healthy passion for sales through recognition and rewards.   Sean O'Shaughnessey is a professional salesperson with over 35 years of experience in complex business-to-business sales. After accumulating enough airline miles and hotel points to travel the world, Sean decided to focus his skills at helping small and medium-sized businesses. Over his career, Sean has perfected his skill at bringing new products to market. Since most small businesses struggle at perfecting the sales process of their products, Sean's skills and expertise are in high demand. Sean has worked for some of the best sales organizations in the world. His resume includes Rockwell Automation, PTC, Oracle, IBM, SAP, TIBCO, Hitachi, Red Hat, and several startups. He has held positions as high as VP Worldwide Sales. Sean has sold to dozens of Fortune 500 companies including (but not limited to): Ally, Cardinal Health, Chrysler (FCA), Cummins, Eli Lilly, Fifth Third, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Honda, Jackson Insurance, Key, Kroger, Lear, LexisNexis, Lexmark, L Brands, Nationwide, Papa Johns, Procter & Gamble, Progressive, Sallie Mae, Sherwin-Williams, and Toyota. Sean has achieved or exceeded quota over 2 dozen times (many times over 200% of quota). Has been in the top producer category at least 10 times and has had a top 10 largest deal of the year at least 20 times. Sean lives with his high school sweetheart wife in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. They are the proud parents of three adult children.   You can connect with Sean via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soshaughnessey/   Create a personal career strategy that develops the leadership and communication skills you need to assess challenges, showcase your skills, and demonstrate your ability to be a C-Suite Leader. Learn more about the C-Suite Academy here: https://bit.ly/csawaitlist22 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by CommX. Now more than ever, retailers and brands face a relentless and unprecedented pace of change. Leaders are adapting to new workplace dynamics and processes that were initiated by the COVID era. Retailers see both the benefits and the downside to the distributed workplace; broader hiring choices, productivity gains, and in some cases, a happier workforce. But with those gains comes real challenges—how to foster innovation and build a cohesive culture that can take your organization to the next level.In our Seasons 3 debut episode, we sit down with Andrew Laudato, author of "Fostering Innovation: How To Build An Amazing IT Team" and COO of The Vitamin Shoppe, for a masterclass in building the modern competitive workplace. https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/lp/careers About AndrewAndrew Laudato currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Vitamin Shoppe. In this role, he leads operations across e-commerce, information technology, enterprise project management, supply chain, strategic sourcing, quality, and commercialization. He is a member of the executive leadership team.Mr. Laudato joined The Vitamin Shoppe in January 2019 as EVP, Chief Technology and Supply Chain Officer, and since that time has helped launched a new technology-driven retail format, introduced personalization initiatives, and oversaw process, speed, and efficiency gains across the supply chain.Mr. Laudato was previously Chief Information Officer at Brookdale Senior Living. Before Brookdale, he spent 16 years as CIO at Pier 1 Imports, where he directed technology transformation across all business areas. Like many retail veterans, he started his career at L Brands.Laudato is a member of the CNBC technology executive council, the New York City CIO executive council, and an executive board member of the George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation. In addition, he serves on the Board of Lideranca, a small business focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.https://andrewlaudato.com/ABOUT US: Veronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit. Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus        Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  and       The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       here  or on       LinkedIn. 

Welcome Kim Troy to the podcast this week! She is the Founder and CEO of Civilis Consulting, a fractional HR and culture consultancy that helps entrepreneur-led businesses reach new heights. Civilis' seasoned consultants work alongside CEOs and leadership teams to roll out organization-wide transformations; and have deep expertise consulting companies with remote or geographically dispersed business units. Civilis Consulting, a fractional HR and culture consultancy that helps entrepreneur-led businesses reach new heights. Civilis' seasoned consultants work alongside CEOs and leadership teams to roll out organization-wide transformations Prior to Civilis, Kim founded Kimberly Troy Consulting, working with field-based wildlife conservation organizations – primarily in southern Africa – to improve utilization of financial and human resources. She has also held executive level positions in Human Resources, Operations and Sales for some of the world's largest corporations, including L Brands. She has a BA in Psychology and Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound and a Diversity & Inclusion certification from Cornell. She is an expert facilitator, Prosci® certified Change Management practitioner, and certified DDI® Targeted Selection trainer. On this episode, Kim Troy talks about how she helps founders and entrepreneurs dissect their mission, vision, and values. She helps them get to the true core "why?" and not just the values or mission statement that perhaps their marketing agency created for them. This is what sets any company apart from another. It is what drives culture and defines your company. It's difficult to own and operate a business and Kim is giving us serious tips on how we can get to our core why, values and mission to set us apart. Follow Kim on LinkedIn Here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civilisconsulting Visit her Website for more information: https://www.civilisconsulting.com/ Thanks to our sponsor, https://www.findacohost.com/ visit them today and use VIP100 to try them out and find your perfect match for podcasting today! XXX Maya --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mayapinion/message

In this special episode GELF Co-Founders Kent Allen and Jim Okamura take us through a recap of the GELF event held recently in 2022. If you liked this podcast, you can follow us on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon music podcast channel or your favorite podcast platform, please rate and review with a five star rating and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross-borders commerce industry.I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on LinkedIn, and you can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online at https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com/Safe travels everyonePhoto by Jonathan Gonzalez on UnsplashAbout Us Kent AllenI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance.Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and Expression Jim OkamuraJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes. About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide.  Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail's prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers for a second year in  2022. Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast focussed on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms.   Michael is also the producer and host of the “Last Request Barbeque” channel on YouTube where he cooks meals to die for and influencer riches.

As the nuclear fallout from his relationship with Epstein became too much for the investors and board members to deal with, Les Wexner decided it was time for him to call it quits. The company and executives that remained knew that they had to do something to try and stoke earnings and bring in higher profits. Let's take a look at what they came up with in this look back episode. (commercial at 11:01)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.barrons.com/articles/l-brands-stock-victorias-secret-spinoff-51581437587

As the nuclear fallout from his relationship with Epstein became too much for the investors and board members to deal with, Les Wexner decided it was time for him to call it quits. The company and executives that remained knew that they had to do something to try and stoke earnings and bring in higher profits. Let's take a look at what they came up with in this look back episode. (commercial at 11:01)to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:https://www.barrons.com/articles/l-brands-stock-victorias-secret-spinoff-51581437587

We know that Jeffrey Epstein was born on January 20th, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York City. We also know he died on August 10th, 2019 (or late the evening of the 9th) in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. But what do we know about the sixty-six years in-between? We don't know as much as Epstein as we do many of our previous biographical subjects - he was a pretty mysterious guy - but we do know quite a bit. We know he managed the multi-billion dollar fortune of Lex Wexner, founder and CEO of L Brands - a retail conglomerate that owns Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, Victoria's Secret, and more. We know he flew around Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and many other celebrities and politicians on a plane dubbed the Lolita Express, and they hung out with many people of note at his private island in the US Virgin Islands, an island dubbed "pedophile island." He sexually assaulted women and girls there, at his massive Manhattan private residence, at his giant New Mexico ranch compound, in his Palm Beach Florida mansion, and elsewhere. In this first of a two-part episode, we examine his life as best we can, so we can best understand the conspiracies that sprung up in the wake of his very suspicious death. Who else was assaulting women and girls along with Epstein? How connected to the US government was this guy? We look into these questions and so much more today. Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation:  This month our donation will be going to Lifting Hands International whose mission statement is “We provide aid to refugees both at home and abroad. No politics. Simply humanitarian.”  If you are looking for a way to help those in crisis in Ukraine, please visit liftinghandsinternational.org and look for the Urgent Ukraine Banner at the top. We were able to donate $14,000 and also able to donate $1550 to our new scholarship fund! Thank you for allowing us to do this, Space Lizards!TICKETS FOR HOT WET BAD MAGIC SUMMER CAMP!  Go to www.badmagicmerch.comWatch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7CyMtlxSWeoMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits. 

In this look back episode, we revisit Les Wexner and the impact his relationship with Epstein is having on L. Brands.What did Wexner know? Will he ever go on the record the way Andrew did? Somehow we doubt it.A new accuser emerges who says Epstein abused her after she shortly arrived in the United States from an unnamed "war torn" country.She also mentions Epstein and Bill Clinton's relationship and that Epstein bragged (once again) about his close ties to the former President.We break all of this down and more!(commercial at 12:57)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Source:https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2019/11/20/epstein-boasted-to-teen-model-that-bill-clinton-was-his-best-friend-suit/amp/Source:https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/20/jeffrey-epstein-fallout-les-wexner-under-pressure-as-l-brands-reports-earnings.html

In this look back episode, we revisit Les Wexner and the impact his relationship with Epstein is having on L. Brands.What did Wexner know? Will he ever go on the record the way Andrew did? Somehow we doubt it.A new accuser emerges who says Epstein abused her after she shortly arrived in the United States from an unnamed "war torn" country.She also mentions Epstein and Bill Clinton's relationship and that Epstein bragged (once again) about his close ties to the former President.We break all of this down and more!(commercial at 12:38)To contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Source:https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2019/11/20/epstein-boasted-to-teen-model-that-bill-clinton-was-his-best-friend-suit/amp/Source:https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/11/20/jeffrey-epstein-fallout-les-wexner-under-pressure-as-l-brands-reports-earnings.html

Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by Bloomreach.With career origins in PR, Sara Tervo is now CMO of EXPRESS, where she is busy executing their  EXPRESSway Forward Strategy that includes a digital transformation goal of growing the digital channel to $1 billion in 2024.Sara shares how her career took her from PR to marketing leadership. She describes the four pillars of EXPRESS' digital strategy and how its digital team is organized. Finally, we also hear Sara's take on the evolution of PR from depending on running ads and articles in a few key publications to creating authentic connections with thousands of influencers and brand ambassadors. If you're enjoying this interview, you may want to join us for the CommerceNext Summit on June 21st & 22nd at the New York Hilton Midtown. Hear execs from companies like GoPuff, American Eagle Outfitters, Kate Spade, Ralph Lauren, Alo Yoga, Neiman Marcus, Olaplex and more. We'll be gathering our community of trailblazers and change-makers to talk about the future of digital commerce and share the latest strategies for ecommerce acceleration. The theme of the summit is Seizing the Next Wave of Growth and we'll be covering everything from how to set up shop in the Metaverse to scaling performance marketing strategies with 1st party data. We hope you will join us in June. Learn more and register at commercenext.com.Thanks for tuning into this episode of Conversations with CommerceNext.  Please follow us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or your favorite podcast platform where we'll be sharing career advice and marketing strategies from eCommerce and digital marketing leaders at retailers and direct-to-consumer brands each and every episode.   CommerceNext is a community, event series and conference for marketers at retail and direct-to-consumer brands. Through our online forums, interviews, webinars, summits and other in-person events, we harness the collective wisdom of our community to help marketers grow their businesses and advance their careers. Join CommerceNext events to meet other industry leaders and learn the latest ecommerce and marketing strategies. You can find upcoming events at CommerceNext.com About SaraSara Tervo has served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer since September 2019. Tervo joined Express from Justice, where she was executive vice president and chief marketing officer from 2016 to 2019. From 1998 to 2016, she held multiple leadership positions at L Brands across marketing, creative services and public relations, including executive vice president, marketing for Victoria's Secret and senior vice president, marketing for PINK. ABOUT US: Scott SilvermanAn ecommerce veteran, Scott Silverman has been active in the industry since 1999 and is passionate about digital retail and the innovation driving the industry. Scott Silverman is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. Previously, he spent 10 years as Executive Director of Shop.org where he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit. Scott co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for Shop.org's scholarship fund.Veronika SonsevVeronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit. Michael LeBlanc  is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice.   He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.  Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada's top retail industry podcast,       The Voice of Retail, plus        Global E-Commerce Tech Talks  and       The Food Professor  with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  You can learn more about Michael       here  or on       LinkedIn. 

Welcome to Global eCommerce Tech Talks,  I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. Live from my podcasting studio high above the Vegas sands during Shoptalk 2022, I sit down and talk about the latest news and developments in the global eCommerce industry with two of the sharpest minds in the space.Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, consultants, advisors, industry analysts and co-founders of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, are back as my special guests in-person together for an exclusive interview in my Las Vegas podcast studio.  We catch up and talk about the latest developments in global commerce, including the moves China is making internationally, the echo-boom of worldwide eCommerce and the upcoming GELF LA event on April 21, which is open to all retailers to apply to attend.If you liked this podcast you can follow us on Apple iTunes, Spotify,    Amazon music podcast channel or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review with a five star rating and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross-borders commerce industry.I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co, and you can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum  and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online at https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com/ Kent AllenI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance.Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and Expression Jim OkamuraJim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes. About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide.  Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail's prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers for a second year in  2022. Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast focussed on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms.   Michael is also the producer and host of the “Last Request Barbeque” channel on YouTube where he cooks meals to die for and influencer riches.

Welcome to The Voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. Live from my podcasting studio high above the Vegas sands during Shoptalk 2022, I sit down and talk about the latest news and developments in the global eCommerce industry with two of the sharpest minds in the space. Kent Allen and Jim Okamura, consultants, advisors, industry analysts and co-founders of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum, are back as my special guests in-person together for an exclusive interview in my Las Vegas podcast studio.   We catch up and talk about the latest developments in global commerce, including the moves China is making internationally, the echo-boom of worldwide eCommerce and the upcoming GELF LA event on April 21, which is open to all retailers to apply to attend.Thanks for tuning into this special episode of The Voice of Retail.  If you haven't already, be sure and click subscribe on your favourite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically twice a week, and check out my other retail industry media properties; the Remarkable Retail podcast, the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, and the Food Professor podcast.  Last but not least, if you are into BBQ, check out my all new YouTube barbecue show, Last Request Barbeque, with new episodes each and every week! I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company & Maven Media, and if you're looking for more content, or want to chat  follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!  Have a safe week everyone!Learn more and sign up for the GELF LA event here:https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com/la2022/Photo by NASA on UnsplashAbout KentI help innovative digital companies tell their story and build relationships with prospective and established clients and partners. I've spent the last twenty years providing market analysis, research & thought leadership, market development and consulting services within the ecommerce technology and digital marketing community.Current focus: Globalization via cross-border ecommerce, marketplaces and international retail expansion. Co-founded the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum to foster community among and provide education to digital professionals with international growth objectives.My 20+ years of experience in the digital commerce and marketing industry and strong personal connections have provided me with opportunities to stay ahead of the curve and explore "what's next" for my clients and our audiences.My research, content marketing & thought leadership skills coupled with my strong client interface skills allow me to define & execute next-generation marketing and commerce strategies & improve business performance. Specialties/Skills: Market Research, Communications, Strategy, Planning, Best Practices, Trend, Data and Competitive Analysis, Public Speaking, Writing and ExpressionAbout Jim Jim Okamura is Partner with McMillan Doolittle - The Retail Experts. Jim has more than 25 years of consulting experience focused on the retail industry, including 20+ years in digital transformation strategies for retailers, brands and retail-related companies. Specializations include cross-border & global ecommerce and organization design for digital transformations. Through our global alliance, Ebeltoft Group, we have deep retail expertise in more than 20 countries.Clients include Wahl Clipper, Gap, adidas, Hunter Fan, Bassett Furniture, Giant Eagle, Federated Coop, Harley-Davidson, Baccarat, DSW, Tractor Supply Co., MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, Neiman Marcus, Navy Exchange, Lands' End, Microsoft, The Body Shop International, L Brands, Timberland, Media Markt, Lowe's Companies, Pep Boys, Crate and Barrel, Loyalty One, VISA, and Cadillac Fairview.Jim is a Co-founder of the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, a community and conference series focused on global and cross-border ecommerce. Digital Retail Globalization, such as riding China's ecommerce growth wave, is important for brands, retailers and distribution partners of all sizes.About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated on thought leadership panels worldwide.  Michael was recently added to ReThink Retail's prestigious Top 100 Global Retail Influencers for a second year in  2022. Michael is also the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus the Remarkable Retail with author Steve Dennis, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.  Most recently, Michael launched Conversations with CommerceNext, a podcast focussed on retail eCommerce, digital marketing and retail careers - all available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and all major podcast platforms.   Michael is also the producer and host of the “Last Request Barbeque” channel on YouTube where he cooks meals to die for and influencer riches.

Well cigs, we're grieving. Art is dead. Love is dead. But our vision is Krystal Klear. We bid farewell to some of our favorite couples this week so please be compassionate while we heal. As the Lord shuts the door on Ye-lia, he opens a window... it's a conference room... a group of marketing executives are huddled *silently* at the head of a white lucite table. Their faces bear varying degrees of desperation and concern, discomfort and wild-eyed resolve, as they regard a neat selection of photographs on the table. The karmic force of L Brands still lingers in the air, invulnerable to the rebranding, restaffing, refurnishing, realignment, Reiki, Rapinoe, REBIRTH of Victoria's Secret, Inc.... at last, one of them is compelled to break reticence: "Look, I understand this is a sensitive decision. There's a lot of complicated feelings, it's a minefield out there! So I understand the desire to just play it safe, I really do. But I want you folks to take yourselves out of the equation for a moment and I want you to think about the promise we made when we freed ourselves from corporate toxicity, reconnected with our core mission, and became an empowered independent company again. Victoria's Secret is about making women, and erm, female presenting persons feel beautiful! I don't know about you, but I see a beautiful woman in those pictures. I see a woman that deserves to have her dream come true. I don't want to play it safe! Where's the heart? Where's the commitment to What Women Want™? We can't let our own fears get in the way of making  that      girl's       dream          come true. What do you say, team?Let's fucking make history."Also we talk about Botox and TV and hype India. xoxohttps://www.instagram.com/bigcigarette_pod/