Podcasts about shish

Nancy Pledges her passionate best for Mike.Based on a post by m storyman x, in 2 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.I sat on the sofa staring out the back window and across the yard, wondering what they were talking about. A few minutes turned into half an hour, which turned into almost an hour. My curiosity finally got the best of me and I snuck down the hall as quietly as I could. I stopped at the door and listened, hoping to hear their conversation. But conversation was not what I heard. What I heard was soft gentle moaning. Two different sounds of moaning. I shook my head in confusion and pushed the door open silently, moving it ever so slowly so that the hinge, which occasionally squeaks, wouldn't. I peeked around the door to the bed and stood there, staring.No wonder I didn't hear them talking. Linda was laying on the bed, as naked as she had been in the kitchen, with her feet on my pillow, her knees pushed wide. My wife on top, held herself on her hands and knees, equally naked, with her head between Linda's legs, licking her cunt, while moaning in pleasure at Linda's attentions to hers.I stepped into the room and neither seemed to notice me at all. I watched the two of them making out, licking each other, driving the other toward climax. Was this why Nancy wasn't interested in sex with me any longer? Was she getting it from Linda instead? I hadn't ever known her to be interested in other women, at least not in that way. But it was hard to deny what I was seeing. It didn't take my body long to respond to what I was seeing, my cock soon standing hard and rigid. Pointing up over the horizon, like an artillery cannon barrel.No, if she was getting it from Linda, I was damn well going to make sure she understood what she was giving up. I stepped to the end of the bed, looking at my wife's ass and cunt, held in the air by her knees, while Linda licked and played with her swollen clit. Linda saw me and smiled. She moved her hand from my wife's ass and reached for my cock. She pulled me in toward her, pulling my engorged head toward both her mouth and my wife's cunt. She aimed me right to my wife's sopping wet lips and then used her other hand to reach around my ass and coaxed me into the ‘docking portal'. She'd stopped licking my wife and rubbed my engorged head up and down Nancy's slit, wetting my mushroom with my wife's juices.I reached for my wife's hips, making her jump slightly as she felt my big firm hands on her. She stiffened, almost as if she were going to refuse me, and then her stiffness faded as Linda rubbed my head around her lips a little harder, working it between her lips and into the entrance of her depths. My wife wiggled her hips side to side, much like she used to when she was inviting me to fuck her hot hole. I pushed toward her, forcing my engorged head slowly into her, spreading her hot wet vagina as I slipped ever so slowly into her."Oh, fuck yes." Nancy moaned as I pushed my way deeper into her. "That's it honey. Fuck me. Make me come around your fat cock!" She lowered her head to Linda's cunt again and I heard her muffled moan as I started to stroke slowly in and out of her.Every stroke brought my balls across Linda's face, slapping her eyebrows slightly. In and out I started to thrust, my cock stroking its full length in and out of her. Linda wrapped her left hand around my ass cheek and  hooked her other hand around Nancy's thigh. Linda was now conducting the symphony movement of our love anthem. Linda's middle finger pressed my anus tightly and eventually entered just inside my sphincter.I felt Nancy's already excited cunt start to spasm when I'd barely started stroking, Linda having apparently gotten her already very close to climax. I knew I was still quite a ways from my own climax as I held her hips and kept thrusting, pushing in and out so that my cock teased her insides from the entrance all the way to the end of her tunnel.Nancy always said that my thick shaft felt so much bigger when I fucked her from behind. I wanted her to enjoy it. I wanted her to feel my cock making her climax. I wanted her to remember how good it felt that first time, that time laying on the picnic table, feeling a cock slide into her for the first time. I wanted her to enjoy it like she did then, coming so hard to my stroking cock that her body surprised both of us and pumped her juices out all over my stomach and crotch. I wanted her to climax that hard again."Oh fuck!" she squeaked as she pulled her face from Linda's cunt. "Oh fuck me, lover. God you feel so good. Come for me. Fill me up with your cum. Oh God! Yes! That's it. Fuck me!" She hadn't been all that vocal for years, and hearing her talk like a vulgar whore, begging me to fuck and fill her; pushed all the right buttons at the right time. While my mind was still imagining that it was that first time again, feeling her for the first time, I held her hips and drove harder into her, rocking the entire bed as I pumped in and out of her with abandon.My body raced toward climax as I thrust myself deep into my wife, a feeling of elation and desire all mixed together running through my body. I was so close, I wanted to come, I wanted to fill her cunt with my cum, I wanted her to keep climaxing as long as I could make her. I kept thrusting, trying to keep holding her climax at its peak as long as I could. I felt a hand on my ass, moving with me, coaxing me harder into my wife.I looked down past my thrusting cock at Linda's face, grinning up at me, waiting, coaxing. In a moment of clear realization I knew what she wanted."Oh Fuck!" I grunted loudly as my body spasmed. I could feel my cock pumping shot after shot of cum into my wife's spasming cunt, filling her, feeling her climax still squeezing and milking me, like I hadn't felt for oh so many years. I stood there, my knees leaning against the mattress, panting, listening to my wife moan and pant herself, my cum still leaking into her as my cock twitched occasionally."Oh God, yes. So good." She moaned softly, laying her head between Linda's legs again, but not to lick her any longer. Linda released her hold on my ass and instead hooked her index finger around the base of my cock. She coaxed me back, backing me out of my wife slowly. My now softening tallywhacker slipped from Nancy's reddened, swollen cunt lips, and dropped onto Linda's face.Linda tiled her head back and opened her mouth. I slid inside Linda's waiting mouth and she sucked my shrinking cock for only a few seconds before gently pushing me further back. I knew why, though I was surprised that she'd want to.I stood, my cock almost dripping the remaining cum in Linda's face, holding my wife's ass cheeks for balance. I watched Linda lick the cum oozing from my wife's gaping cunt, my white cream leaking from her and dripping down off her twat lips into Linda's mouth."Tastes just like that cookie." Linda moaned softly. "I swear that was cum flavored icing.""I kinda thought it tasted like Nancy's cunt." I panted as I moved onto the bed and flopped onto my back, momentarily exhausted.I lay there, trying to catch my breath, listening to Linda lick my wife, sending occasional shudders through her body. Nancy finally had all she could take and shifted off Linda and over onto me, laying down on me. She lay flat on me, her tits smashed to my chest, her face inches from mine. Without a word she lowered her lips to mine and kissed me. Hesitantly at first, and then with growing urgency. She held my face and kissed and sucked my lips, almost as if she were afraid I was going to not be there.Linda rolled onto her side, facing away from us, then resumed her own masterbations, stroking her cunt with two fingers, while her other hand fondled her aroused nipples. Linda was a moaner.Finally, after what had to be at least five minutes, both Nancy and I panting breathlessly, she softened and then stopped her kisses. "I'm sorry love." She whispered into my ear as she laid her cheek beside mine."For what?" I whispered back."For not realizing what I was doing to you. For almost losing you. I never meant for it to happen. I should have known. I should have heard you. You said it, I know you did. Even Linda heard you. But I was too busy with my own feelings that I didn't listen to you. I don't want to lose you. I don't want you to have to find it someplace else. I don't want you to walk out of my life. I don't want anyone but you, but I have to, I need to, I, I.""Shush." I whispered, pressing her chest into me, holding her face next to mine. "I don't want to lose you either. You're the love of my life. Why would I leave you?""Because I forgot. I forgot how it was. I laid here, crying, feeling sorry for myself that Linda could coax you into sex so easily. I thought that you didn't care anymore or want me anymore. But she told me. She said she's seen me reject your advances too many times, that you had to think that I didn't want you anymore. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's just, It's. I don't know how to explain. But I was wrong. I should have listened. I should have seen the signs. Please don't leave me." She practically begged me before she started crying, her tears running down her face and my cheek as well, where we were pressed together."I'm not leaving. Shish. I'm still here," I whispered back, stroking her back and ass."Promise?""Oh lover. You know I can't live without you.""I used to think that. I used to think that I never had to worry. I used to think you were mine forever, and, well, I watched you pleasuring her, right there, right in front of me, right in our own kitchen. I, I was scared. I was afraid that I was going to lose you. I was mad. I was mad at you, I was mad at Linda.”“I was actually mad at myself. Mostly now at myself. You did what I pushed you to. You did it because I ignore you. I don't do what we used to do.""I don't understand. What we used to do?""When we were first together. I worked so hard to give you everything you desired. I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to love me. I wanted you to want me, to desire to be with me. I knew that sexual contentment was a big part of that. I knew that if I didn't make you feel happy that way, that there'd be no chance of lasting love. Guys need that. They need sex. They need it to feel complete. I forgot that. I forgot because I had your love and I forgot that I needed to return it the way you needed it, not the way I felt like giving it. My empathy failed.”"I don't understand, Nancy. When we were first together, you were playful, you loved doing all those things, all those ways, all those places. You didn't like it? You were just, what, faking enjoying it?" I asked with concern and no small amount of hurt welling up in my heart. Had our whole relationship been based on a lie?She rolled off of me, onto her back, next to me. "I didn't not enjoy it, but I wouldn't have chosen to do it by myself if you hadn't asked me to.""Then why didn't you say no?" I rolled on my side to look at her face."I never wanted to say no. I thought it was what was expected. That guys had sex that way. I wanted to be wanted, so I focused on meeting your desires. But I lost that, over the years.""I'm confused. You had to know not all guys did all that. I mean, I loved what we did. I loved the variety and the newness of every time we did it someplace different, or in a different way, or whatever. But if you didn't want to, you had to know it wasn't required.""Wasn't it? What has been your complaint for the last twenty years? That we never do anything like that anymore. Kinda sounds required to me."I rolled facing Nancy; Linda still in her own world, at the foot of the big bed. Nancy rolled onto her side and rested her head so our noses nearly touched, stroking her fingers on my chest. "I'd have never made you do anything you didn't want to. Not if I knew. Now you're telling me everything that we did was faked?""Not faked. Just not, always my choice." She whispered. "The guy I was with, before you. He was, well, he didn't believe in sex before marriage, so we didn't. Not at all. He never even tried to take my bra off or pull down my pants or anything. So, when I started dating you, I did what you wanted, just like I did what he wanted.""Why did you leave him?""After two years, I needed more. I needed that physical relationship. I wanted intimacy, and he didn't seem any closer to asking me to marry him than when we started dating. So, I moved on, or at least I was planning on it. The day you spilled coke all over me? I was out with my best friends, they were trying to convince me that it was time to move on and find someone different. Someone that could make me feel completely different than Jerry did.""And me dumping a whole cup of soda pop down your shirt was definitely different.""It wasn't that. It was how incredibly cute you were, trying to apologize. Three times you almost rubbed your hand down my boobs to wipe the soda that was soaking in, off. I suddenly wanted to feel your hands on me. I wanted to see what it felt like to be physically loved.”“ If you hadn't asked me to get undressed for you in that park that one night, there wouldn't be another date. I wasn't going to go through that again. I could tell you were nervous. I was too. But I wanted to feel your hands on me, and once I did, I didn't want to stop. I wanted you to touch me and stroke me and make love to me as many times as you wanted. When I realized you liked being teased, liked seeing me in sexy little things, liked it when I played with you in public places, liked it when I let you play with me in those places, well, those are the things I did. I didn't not like them, but if I had been choosing, I wouldn't have done a lot of them. Doctor Ruth said a woman can only keep a man if she keeps him satisfied. So I was committed to keeping you satisfied. At least I used to" Nancy was starting to cry again."After the girls were born, you kinda stopped wanting sex. Why? What did I do wrong?" I wanted to know."You did nothing wrong. I just didn't feel like I could do those kinds of things anymore. I didn't want the girls to get the idea that doing that kind of thing was how you got a man. I know. That's how I got you. But after a few years I just stopped trying to please you that way. I convinced myself you didn't seem to need it any more, that you knew how I loved you, even if I didn't show it physically. I forgot that was how you felt loved. I forgot that all the things that you did that made me feel loved, weren't the things that made you feel loved. Linda reminded me of that. Seeing you kneeling in front of her, licking her, teasing her cunt, making her climax. It made me realize that I'd messed up. I'd failed to do what a wife should be doing, making her man feel loved and cared for. I suddenly realized that Linda had so easily taken over what had been only mine for so long. Linda hasn't had a man for years, but she wishes that she did.""If that's true, why the hell were you two women having sex?""That's easy." Linda said from where she was still laying, now listening to us. "We wanted to. While we were talking we had an overwhelming urge to kiss, which led to touching, which lead to, well you know." Then Linda added; “You're the one with the cookie, Mike. Like the serpent in Eden, you seduced both of us with one bite of that treat.”"I wouldn't have thought you were into girl stuff." I said softly to my wife."I haven't, well, before today, I never did. I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to feel her lips on me, on my nipples, on my cunny lips. I wanted to feel her making love to me. I don't know why, but I wanted it so bad.""Just like I needed to have your cock in my mouth.” Linda interjected. “Just like I want your cock in me so bad right now. I want to feel you pumping it into me until you fill me with your cum." Linda said, rolling over. "So how about it? Wanna let me ride you until we both come?""I think I better save it for Nancy," I answered her, getting a squeeze from Nancy in appreciation."Well, if you're not going to fuck me, I have a dildo at home that's just begging to feel my hot cunt around it." Linda said as she stood up. "You know, I might not even bother to get dressed. Just put my shoes on and run home naked and get it. Wanna watch me? Wanna see me pumping it in and out of myself?""It's sorta chilly out." I said, avoiding the answer she wanted to hear.She grinned. "Good. It'll make my nipples nice and hard. You sure you don't want to come watch me?""I better not." I answered quietly. She shrugged and got up. A few moments later we heard the back door open and close, leaving us alone in the house. "What now?""I don't know. I have an urge to fuck you under the Christmas tree." Nancy winked"So why don't we?" I encouraged her fantasy."Is that what you want?" Nancy giggled."That's the wrong question. The question you should ask, is that what We want?""Right now, I think it is." She whispered."Okay. I don't know if my cock is up to a third round, but I'm game to try.""Oh honey, I think I can handle that. You go out there and lay down on the carpet and I'll be out in a few minutes, and I guarantee that I'll get you hard." She said with a soft giggle.I nodded and got off the bed. I didn't know what she had in mind, but I was willing to let her try whatever she wanted. I grabbed a pillow off the sofa and lay down on the carpet to wait."I'm back!" Linda said as she walked in through the garage door again, this time holding a large purple translucent cock. "Oh. Waiting for me?" She asked, stepping over to me and squatting down over me. She rolled onto her knees and slid her wet cunt along my flaccid cock. "I'm not even going to need ‘Carlos', am I?" she asked setting the dildo aside."Linda. I'm waiting for Nancy. I don't think she's going to want to see you on my lap. Please don't make me choose!"She frowned. "I won't, but I can keep it warm, can't I?"I rolled my eyes. "If you promise to get right off when Nancy comes out.""I do." She answered with a wicked little grin. She began to rock her hips, grinding herself against my cock. She reached for my hands and pulled them up to her tits, cupping each one with my hands. "I know how you like natural tits." She whispered."How do you know how much I like tits?""Seriously? You think I haven't ever noticed how you look at my boobs when I'm wearing a skimpy shirt or a swim suit? God you can't keep your eyes off boobs.""Guilty as charged I guess." I answered, squeezing her soft tits. They weren't nearly as large as Nancy's but they were a nice comfortable handful."I didn't think I had to be that quick." Nancy said from the hallway.Linda looked back at her and then moved up off me. "I was just keeping him warm for you."

Nancy Pledges her passionate best for Mike.Based on a post by m storyman x, in 2 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.I sat on the sofa staring out the back window and across the yard, wondering what they were talking about. A few minutes turned into half an hour, which turned into almost an hour. My curiosity finally got the best of me and I snuck down the hall as quietly as I could. I stopped at the door and listened, hoping to hear their conversation. But conversation was not what I heard. What I heard was soft gentle moaning. Two different sounds of moaning. I shook my head in confusion and pushed the door open silently, moving it ever so slowly so that the hinge, which occasionally squeaks, wouldn't. I peeked around the door to the bed and stood there, staring.No wonder I didn't hear them talking. Linda was laying on the bed, as naked as she had been in the kitchen, with her feet on my pillow, her knees pushed wide. My wife on top, held herself on her hands and knees, equally naked, with her head between Linda's legs, licking her cunt, while moaning in pleasure at Linda's attentions to hers.I stepped into the room and neither seemed to notice me at all. I watched the two of them making out, licking each other, driving the other toward climax. Was this why Nancy wasn't interested in sex with me any longer? Was she getting it from Linda instead? I hadn't ever known her to be interested in other women, at least not in that way. But it was hard to deny what I was seeing. It didn't take my body long to respond to what I was seeing, my cock soon standing hard and rigid. Pointing up over the horizon, like an artillery cannon barrel.No, if she was getting it from Linda, I was damn well going to make sure she understood what she was giving up. I stepped to the end of the bed, looking at my wife's ass and cunt, held in the air by her knees, while Linda licked and played with her swollen clit. Linda saw me and smiled. She moved her hand from my wife's ass and reached for my cock. She pulled me in toward her, pulling my engorged head toward both her mouth and my wife's cunt. She aimed me right to my wife's sopping wet lips and then used her other hand to reach around my ass and coaxed me into the ‘docking portal'. She'd stopped licking my wife and rubbed my engorged head up and down Nancy's slit, wetting my mushroom with my wife's juices.I reached for my wife's hips, making her jump slightly as she felt my big firm hands on her. She stiffened, almost as if she were going to refuse me, and then her stiffness faded as Linda rubbed my head around her lips a little harder, working it between her lips and into the entrance of her depths. My wife wiggled her hips side to side, much like she used to when she was inviting me to fuck her hot hole. I pushed toward her, forcing my engorged head slowly into her, spreading her hot wet vagina as I slipped ever so slowly into her."Oh, fuck yes." Nancy moaned as I pushed my way deeper into her. "That's it honey. Fuck me. Make me come around your fat cock!" She lowered her head to Linda's cunt again and I heard her muffled moan as I started to stroke slowly in and out of her.Every stroke brought my balls across Linda's face, slapping her eyebrows slightly. In and out I started to thrust, my cock stroking its full length in and out of her. Linda wrapped her left hand around my ass cheek and  hooked her other hand around Nancy's thigh. Linda was now conducting the symphony movement of our love anthem. Linda's middle finger pressed my anus tightly and eventually entered just inside my sphincter.I felt Nancy's already excited cunt start to spasm when I'd barely started stroking, Linda having apparently gotten her already very close to climax. I knew I was still quite a ways from my own climax as I held her hips and kept thrusting, pushing in and out so that my cock teased her insides from the entrance all the way to the end of her tunnel.Nancy always said that my thick shaft felt so much bigger when I fucked her from behind. I wanted her to enjoy it. I wanted her to feel my cock making her climax. I wanted her to remember how good it felt that first time, that time laying on the picnic table, feeling a cock slide into her for the first time. I wanted her to enjoy it like she did then, coming so hard to my stroking cock that her body surprised both of us and pumped her juices out all over my stomach and crotch. I wanted her to climax that hard again."Oh fuck!" she squeaked as she pulled her face from Linda's cunt. "Oh fuck me, lover. God you feel so good. Come for me. Fill me up with your cum. Oh God! Yes! That's it. Fuck me!" She hadn't been all that vocal for years, and hearing her talk like a vulgar whore, begging me to fuck and fill her; pushed all the right buttons at the right time. While my mind was still imagining that it was that first time again, feeling her for the first time, I held her hips and drove harder into her, rocking the entire bed as I pumped in and out of her with abandon.My body raced toward climax as I thrust myself deep into my wife, a feeling of elation and desire all mixed together running through my body. I was so close, I wanted to come, I wanted to fill her cunt with my cum, I wanted her to keep climaxing as long as I could make her. I kept thrusting, trying to keep holding her climax at its peak as long as I could. I felt a hand on my ass, moving with me, coaxing me harder into my wife.I looked down past my thrusting cock at Linda's face, grinning up at me, waiting, coaxing. In a moment of clear realization I knew what she wanted."Oh Fuck!" I grunted loudly as my body spasmed. I could feel my cock pumping shot after shot of cum into my wife's spasming cunt, filling her, feeling her climax still squeezing and milking me, like I hadn't felt for oh so many years. I stood there, my knees leaning against the mattress, panting, listening to my wife moan and pant herself, my cum still leaking into her as my cock twitched occasionally."Oh God, yes. So good." She moaned softly, laying her head between Linda's legs again, but not to lick her any longer. Linda released her hold on my ass and instead hooked her index finger around the base of my cock. She coaxed me back, backing me out of my wife slowly. My now softening tallywhacker slipped from Nancy's reddened, swollen cunt lips, and dropped onto Linda's face.Linda tiled her head back and opened her mouth. I slid inside Linda's waiting mouth and she sucked my shrinking cock for only a few seconds before gently pushing me further back. I knew why, though I was surprised that she'd want to.I stood, my cock almost dripping the remaining cum in Linda's face, holding my wife's ass cheeks for balance. I watched Linda lick the cum oozing from my wife's gaping cunt, my white cream leaking from her and dripping down off her twat lips into Linda's mouth."Tastes just like that cookie." Linda moaned softly. "I swear that was cum flavored icing.""I kinda thought it tasted like Nancy's cunt." I panted as I moved onto the bed and flopped onto my back, momentarily exhausted.I lay there, trying to catch my breath, listening to Linda lick my wife, sending occasional shudders through her body. Nancy finally had all she could take and shifted off Linda and over onto me, laying down on me. She lay flat on me, her tits smashed to my chest, her face inches from mine. Without a word she lowered her lips to mine and kissed me. Hesitantly at first, and then with growing urgency. She held my face and kissed and sucked my lips, almost as if she were afraid I was going to not be there.Linda rolled onto her side, facing away from us, then resumed her own masterbations, stroking her cunt with two fingers, while her other hand fondled her aroused nipples. Linda was a moaner.Finally, after what had to be at least five minutes, both Nancy and I panting breathlessly, she softened and then stopped her kisses. "I'm sorry love." She whispered into my ear as she laid her cheek beside mine."For what?" I whispered back."For not realizing what I was doing to you. For almost losing you. I never meant for it to happen. I should have known. I should have heard you. You said it, I know you did. Even Linda heard you. But I was too busy with my own feelings that I didn't listen to you. I don't want to lose you. I don't want you to have to find it someplace else. I don't want you to walk out of my life. I don't want anyone but you, but I have to, I need to, I, I.""Shush." I whispered, pressing her chest into me, holding her face next to mine. "I don't want to lose you either. You're the love of my life. Why would I leave you?""Because I forgot. I forgot how it was. I laid here, crying, feeling sorry for myself that Linda could coax you into sex so easily. I thought that you didn't care anymore or want me anymore. But she told me. She said she's seen me reject your advances too many times, that you had to think that I didn't want you anymore. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's just, It's. I don't know how to explain. But I was wrong. I should have listened. I should have seen the signs. Please don't leave me." She practically begged me before she started crying, her tears running down her face and my cheek as well, where we were pressed together."I'm not leaving. Shish. I'm still here," I whispered back, stroking her back and ass."Promise?""Oh lover. You know I can't live without you.""I used to think that. I used to think that I never had to worry. I used to think you were mine forever, and, well, I watched you pleasuring her, right there, right in front of me, right in our own kitchen. I, I was scared. I was afraid that I was going to lose you. I was mad. I was mad at you, I was mad at Linda.”“I was actually mad at myself. Mostly now at myself. You did what I pushed you to. You did it because I ignore you. I don't do what we used to do.""I don't understand. What we used to do?""When we were first together. I worked so hard to give you everything you desired. I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to love me. I wanted you to want me, to desire to be with me. I knew that sexual contentment was a big part of that. I knew that if I didn't make you feel happy that way, that there'd be no chance of lasting love. Guys need that. They need sex. They need it to feel complete. I forgot that. I forgot because I had your love and I forgot that I needed to return it the way you needed it, not the way I felt like giving it. My empathy failed.”"I don't understand, Nancy. When we were first together, you were playful, you loved doing all those things, all those ways, all those places. You didn't like it? You were just, what, faking enjoying it?" I asked with concern and no small amount of hurt welling up in my heart. Had our whole relationship been based on a lie?She rolled off of me, onto her back, next to me. "I didn't not enjoy it, but I wouldn't have chosen to do it by myself if you hadn't asked me to.""Then why didn't you say no?" I rolled on my side to look at her face."I never wanted to say no. I thought it was what was expected. That guys had sex that way. I wanted to be wanted, so I focused on meeting your desires. But I lost that, over the years.""I'm confused. You had to know not all guys did all that. I mean, I loved what we did. I loved the variety and the newness of every time we did it someplace different, or in a different way, or whatever. But if you didn't want to, you had to know it wasn't required.""Wasn't it? What has been your complaint for the last twenty years? That we never do anything like that anymore. Kinda sounds required to me."I rolled facing Nancy; Linda still in her own world, at the foot of the big bed. Nancy rolled onto her side and rested her head so our noses nearly touched, stroking her fingers on my chest. "I'd have never made you do anything you didn't want to. Not if I knew. Now you're telling me everything that we did was faked?""Not faked. Just not, always my choice." She whispered. "The guy I was with, before you. He was, well, he didn't believe in sex before marriage, so we didn't. Not at all. He never even tried to take my bra off or pull down my pants or anything. So, when I started dating you, I did what you wanted, just like I did what he wanted.""Why did you leave him?""After two years, I needed more. I needed that physical relationship. I wanted intimacy, and he didn't seem any closer to asking me to marry him than when we started dating. So, I moved on, or at least I was planning on it. The day you spilled coke all over me? I was out with my best friends, they were trying to convince me that it was time to move on and find someone different. Someone that could make me feel completely different than Jerry did.""And me dumping a whole cup of soda pop down your shirt was definitely different.""It wasn't that. It was how incredibly cute you were, trying to apologize. Three times you almost rubbed your hand down my boobs to wipe the soda that was soaking in, off. I suddenly wanted to feel your hands on me. I wanted to see what it felt like to be physically loved.”“ If you hadn't asked me to get undressed for you in that park that one night, there wouldn't be another date. I wasn't going to go through that again. I could tell you were nervous. I was too. But I wanted to feel your hands on me, and once I did, I didn't want to stop. I wanted you to touch me and stroke me and make love to me as many times as you wanted. When I realized you liked being teased, liked seeing me in sexy little things, liked it when I played with you in public places, liked it when I let you play with me in those places, well, those are the things I did. I didn't not like them, but if I had been choosing, I wouldn't have done a lot of them. Doctor Ruth said a woman can only keep a man if she keeps him satisfied. So I was committed to keeping you satisfied. At least I used to" Nancy was starting to cry again."After the girls were born, you kinda stopped wanting sex. Why? What did I do wrong?" I wanted to know."You did nothing wrong. I just didn't feel like I could do those kinds of things anymore. I didn't want the girls to get the idea that doing that kind of thing was how you got a man. I know. That's how I got you. But after a few years I just stopped trying to please you that way. I convinced myself you didn't seem to need it any more, that you knew how I loved you, even if I didn't show it physically. I forgot that was how you felt loved. I forgot that all the things that you did that made me feel loved, weren't the things that made you feel loved. Linda reminded me of that. Seeing you kneeling in front of her, licking her, teasing her cunt, making her climax. It made me realize that I'd messed up. I'd failed to do what a wife should be doing, making her man feel loved and cared for. I suddenly realized that Linda had so easily taken over what had been only mine for so long. Linda hasn't had a man for years, but she wishes that she did.""If that's true, why the hell were you two women having sex?""That's easy." Linda said from where she was still laying, now listening to us. "We wanted to. While we were talking we had an overwhelming urge to kiss, which led to touching, which lead to, well you know." Then Linda added; “You're the one with the cookie, Mike. Like the serpent in Eden, you seduced both of us with one bite of that treat.”"I wouldn't have thought you were into girl stuff." I said softly to my wife."I haven't, well, before today, I never did. I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to feel her lips on me, on my nipples, on my cunny lips. I wanted to feel her making love to me. I don't know why, but I wanted it so bad.""Just like I needed to have your cock in my mouth.” Linda interjected. “Just like I want your cock in me so bad right now. I want to feel you pumping it into me until you fill me with your cum." Linda said, rolling over. "So how about it? Wanna let me ride you until we both come?""I think I better save it for Nancy," I answered her, getting a squeeze from Nancy in appreciation."Well, if you're not going to fuck me, I have a dildo at home that's just begging to feel my hot cunt around it." Linda said as she stood up. "You know, I might not even bother to get dressed. Just put my shoes on and run home naked and get it. Wanna watch me? Wanna see me pumping it in and out of myself?""It's sorta chilly out." I said, avoiding the answer she wanted to hear.She grinned. "Good. It'll make my nipples nice and hard. You sure you don't want to come watch me?""I better not." I answered quietly. She shrugged and got up. A few moments later we heard the back door open and close, leaving us alone in the house. "What now?""I don't know. I have an urge to fuck you under the Christmas tree." Nancy winked"So why don't we?" I encouraged her fantasy."Is that what you want?" Nancy giggled."That's the wrong question. The question you should ask, is that what We want?""Right now, I think it is." She whispered."Okay. I don't know if my cock is up to a third round, but I'm game to try.""Oh honey, I think I can handle that. You go out there and lay down on the carpet and I'll be out in a few minutes, and I guarantee that I'll get you hard." She said with a soft giggle.I nodded and got off the bed. I didn't know what she had in mind, but I was willing to let her try whatever she wanted. I grabbed a pillow off the sofa and lay down on the carpet to wait."I'm back!" Linda said as she walked in through the garage door again, this time holding a large purple translucent cock. "Oh. Waiting for me?" She asked, stepping over to me and squatting down over me. She rolled onto her knees and slid her wet cunt along my flaccid cock. "I'm not even going to need ‘Carlos', am I?" she asked setting the dildo aside."Linda. I'm waiting for Nancy. I don't think she's going to want to see you on my lap. Please don't make me choose!"She frowned. "I won't, but I can keep it warm, can't I?"I rolled my eyes. "If you promise to get right off when Nancy comes out.""I do." She answered with a wicked little grin. She began to rock her hips, grinding herself against my cock. She reached for my hands and pulled them up to her tits, cupping each one with my hands. "I know how you like natural tits." She whispered."How do you know how much I like tits?""Seriously? You think I haven't ever noticed how you look at my boobs when I'm wearing a skimpy shirt or a swim suit? God you can't keep your eyes off boobs.""Guilty as charged I guess." I answered, squeezing her soft tits. They weren't nearly as large as Nancy's but they were a nice comfortable handful."I didn't think I had to be that quick." Nancy said from the hallway.Linda looked back at her and then moved up off me. "I was just keeping him warm for you."

BHAJAN

Восставший из могилы подкаст Anifilias готов познакомить вас с удивительным миром японской нечисти. Порывшись в оплетённых паутиной дзёрогумо чертогах разума, Нави, Мисима, Лизкен и Магистр откопали пару десятков аниме, так или иначе связанных с ёкаями. От тех, кто не помнит -- для тех, кто не знает!00:00:00 - Начало00:02:36 - Приветствие00:03:58 - Ёкаи: что это такое классификация и представители00:29:05 - xxxHOLIC00:35:54 - Парад ста демонов и отсылки к нему00:37:23 - Nurarihyon no Mago00:38:25 - Mushishi00:40:43 - Natsume Yuujinchou00:43:46 - Bakeneko Anzu-chan00:54:23 - Momo e no Tegami00:59:06 - Gegege no Kitaro01:01:33 - Ёкаи сезона: Youkai Gakkou no Sensei Hajimemashita!/Fukigen na Mononokean/Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha/Tsukumogami Kashimasu01:07:02 - Tonari no Yōkai-san01:08:38 - Аниме с оммёдзи01:12:43 - Hotarubi no Mori e01:17:44 - Kamisama Hajimemashita01:21:21 - Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun01:25:43 - Kyokou Suiri01:27:01 - Bakemonogatari01:33:33 - Mononoke/Ayakashi01:39:37 - Блок про тануки:01:41:47 - Uchouten Kazoku01:50:48 - Uchi no Shishō wa Shippo ga Nai01:58:01 - Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko (Pom Poko)02:01:13 - Унесённые призраками02:04:54 - Touhou Project02:17:30 - ПрощаниеНаш твиттерНаш телеграмМузыка:BGM: Artius - This Time (With You)Purple cat - Day's endPanic Ace's - Chill & To Be Alone Lo-Fi BeatLazyasskid - stay in the nightPerderte Lo-Fi de Marcos MambrinThe Calling - LudenzLazyasskid - DreamyMr. stone - Summer RoadsLAZYASSKID - Thinking About YouDC JC - BradburyYme Fresh - Lift Me UpVitxer - AscensionPanic Ace's - Nature Beastchillin_wolf - How about a Goodnight Kiss?LAZYASSKID - Alone In This WorldSchematist - Saturday CartoonsMr.Stone - Rain DropsSchematist - Vintage MemoriesSittic Beatz - Sensation Prod. EcroDeronВ интро:Come Out And Play by Darren Curtis | https://www.darrencurtismusic.com/Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/Creative Commons CC BY 3.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The bald bad boys are back together! Colin Geddis is my guest on the pod this week and we're chatting boxing, Hasbullah, Garden Centres and family stress! Podcast Merch: https://visualanticsapparel.com/collections/sly-guy Video Pod: https://youtu.be/66oJvmtd_tY ROLEPLAY: 04/07/24 The Terrace Hotel, Magherafelt: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dave-elliott-roleplay-tickets-884794292547?aff=oddtdtcreator 05/07/24 Kiwi's, Portrush: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dave-elliot-roleplay-2024-tour-show-tickets-881311314867 Remaining Tour tickets: https://davidhullpromotions.com/event/45/dave-elliott Modest Beer: https://www.modestbeer.co.uk SLYPA15 @ check-out for 15% off your Modest purchase Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/slyguypodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daveelliottcomedy/

The 57th Annual Itoo Shish-Ka-Bob is Sunday, June 30th from 11 AM - 6 PM at the Itoo Hall! Kristen Williams-Reynolds joins Greg and Dan to preview this year's Itoo Shish-Ka-Bob and the fun entertainment, games, and of course, food! The first Itoo Shish-Ka-Bob festival happened in 1968 and has traditionally been held on the last Sunday of June. Visit itoosociety.org for more information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The highly anticipated countdown to Memorial Day Weekend! And nothing says "summer" like breaking out the grill, Chef Plum has a hack for shish kabobs that'll help you start your summer off right. Catch up with it in the podcast. Image Source: Getty Images

A friendly tennis game leads to a different kind of ball play. By Dansilver. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. New Year's resolutions weren't usually Martin's thing. He had enough experience to know that people's good intentions never amounted to much more than that. But he also knew that he had to do something. 2021 had been truly awful - not just because of Covid restrictions and plans getting continually cancelled but because in November, Jenny, his wife of 26 years had finally succumbed to cancer. At least he had been able to bury her, something which wouldn't have even been several months previously. But late fall and early winter seemed like one inexorable descent into an emotional void from which he feared he would never escape.At least Covid provided the excuse not to visit family at Christmas time. He couldn't have faced being with people who he had enjoyed with Jenny alongside him. Instead he sat alone in his emptiness over Christmas. But by New Year he knew he had to make some changes to try to escape the introspection and despondency which were quickly becoming too comforting a companion. Tennis was always something which Martin had enjoyed as a teenager. Nothing too competitive - just hitting a ball with friends in the park. So, on New Year's Day, when he saw that his local tennis center was running Cardio Tennis classes, he decided to sign up. Almost immediately, he regretted it and almost cancelled the booking. He felt nervous about venturing into a new social setting. But he knew the booking was non-refundable and, not being one to waste money, he instead tried to put it out of his mind until the date of the Monday evening class. When it came to it, he was glad he hadn't backed out. The evening was much more fun than he had imagined it would be. Dan, the tennis professional running the course, was good humoured and put everyone at ease, no matter what their skill level was. And the other seven people doing the course seemed ok too. The hour-long class consisted of a combination of tennis drills and cardio workouts, culminating in 20 minutes of playing King of the Court against each other with the ‘punishment' of star jumps or burpees for those losing the point. By the time the following Monday came around Martin was surprised how much he was looking forward to going. As the weeks passed, the Cardio Tennis classes quickly became the highlight of Martin's week. Dan kept things moving and mixed up the drills to keep things interesting. And the rapport between the others taking the class began to grow too. King of the Court was always the highlight of the evening and, although it never got too intense or competitive, there was an increasing level of good natured teasing and banter which took place between everyone. Martin found himself especially enjoying points against Lori, a slim attractive woman in her mid 40's with a sharp sense of humour and quite the competitive streak. Lori was clearly someone who had kept her fitness levels high which was some advantage in points against Martin, but he had always had good hand/eye coordination so the competition between them was fairly even. Lori would often playfully tease Martin when they faced each other saying 'Come on old man, let's see what you've got!' which might have offended him had others said it - especially as he was only 5 or 6 years older than she was. But coming from Lori it just had the effect of making him all the more determined to win the points. Each Monday Martin would look forward to the evening class, but increasingly he realized that he was looking forward to being around Lori as much as anything else. He enjoyed her company. She made him laugh and put him at ease. But he soon realized to his surprise that there was something else stirring in him. A physical attraction which was hardly noticeable at first, dulled by months of grief and solitude, but which was slowly awakening as Spring began to bud. Lori was certainly an attractive woman, although she wasn't what Martin would have previously called his type. Jenny had been a tall, fulsome woman, with a curvaceous figure and full rounded breasts which Martin used to delight in getting lost in when they made love. But Lori was tiny, slim and her breasts were barely noticeable in her tennis shirt. Yet it wasn't Lori's breasts which grabbed Martin's attention on the 5th week of class. Dan had asked everyone to get in line to play three tennis shots - one from the baseline, followed by a volley and an overhead. Then each person was to run around the court and get in line again. Martin found himself standing in line behind Lori, who this week was wearing tight black yoga pants. After he had played his shots and was running around the court his eyes fixed themselves on Lori's ass as she ran in front of him. It was surprisingly full for her slim frame and even though his heart was pounding from the cardio workout Martin felt it leap as he contemplated her figure. They got round the court and were soon playing their shots again before heading out on their second lap. Again Martin's eyes were drawn to Lori's seductive buttocks as they moved delightfully as she ran in front of him. Her yoga pants were smooth over her thighs and ass and there was no sign that she was wearing any kind of underwear which made Martin's heart race even more and he even felt a slight stirring lower down - something which he hadn't experienced in a long time. As the class went on Dan couldn't shake the image of Lori's ass from his mind. During the next exercise he tried to position himself behind her again but was frustrated when Judy, a silver haired lady in her 60's, slotted in between them, obscuring his view. He cursed his luck. Toward the end of the evening, during King of the Court, Martin again found that his mind wasn't on his usual banter with Lori, but had strayed elsewhere. Lori had always been pretty vocal when she had hit the tennis ball - something which wasn't uncommon with women tennis players who grunted through the exertion of playing a point. But Lori was more of a shrieker than a grunter, emitting a high pitched cry especially when stretching for a shot. Martin hadn't paid too much attention to it until this week, but now he found himself wondering whether Lori's shrieking was just for the court or whether she was vocal during sex too. Each vocal utterance took Martin's mind to Lori's bedroom as he imagined her in the throes of ecstasy with a lover. “What the hell is going on?” Martin thought to himself. “I'm thinking like an 18 year old teenage boy!” He was painfully aware that the stirring in his groin was also reminiscent of those teenage days and he knew that he would have to master his thoughts before he found himself in a very embarrassing situation in front of the others in the class. Fortunately, the evening was just about through and he was able to gain control of his imagination before things got out of hand. Soon the class came to a close and everyone began to filter out to their vehicles. “Hey old man - fancy a game later in the week?” The voice pierced Martin's thoughts and he turned round to see Lori standing behind him, a big grin on her face. Martin's thoughts raced. A one on one game with Lori? If the state of his mind was anything like it had been today it would be hard for him to keep any kind of control - of the ball or anything else for that matter! But he also knew he wanted to spend more time with her which made the risk worth taking. “Erm, sure. What day?” “How about Thursday? I have some time during the evening if that will work for you - say around 7p.m.?” “It's a date,” Martin said. “I mean…not a date…just er…well you know what I mean,” his face reddening. Lori flashed her smile and giggled. “Yeah I know what you mean. I should be so lucky.” And with that she turned toward her vehicle. “See you on Thursday!” she called as she walked away. Martin turned and walked to his car and sat there, the engine still turned off, hardly believing what had just happened. In one sense nothing at all had happened. Lori had just arranged a tennis game with him. But his mind was racing away from him. What did she mean by “I should be so lucky?” Was she attracted to him? Or was it another one of her jokes? Martin turned the key in the engine and began the 10 minute drive home. His mind replayed the conversation, and then the images of Lori's seductive ass mingled with her shrieks. As he finally allowed himself full rein to reimagine Lori's toned body, Martin's cock began to stir once again. This time there was no need for him to try to control it for the sake of decorum. Yet Martin's growing excitement was tempered by a nagging sense of guilt. Jenny, the only lover he had ever had, had only just passed and yet here he was - his mind and body yearning for another. Surely he shouldn't be having these thoughts. Yet they wouldn't disperse. Rather than reminiscing about tender times with his wife, instead he was picturing Lori pulling down her yoga pants at home right now, imagining her smooth firm white bottom emerging from the black material. By the time he was half way home Martin's cock was standing to full attention, his tennis shorts tented as it strained against them. And still he played out the scene in his mind. He imagined Lori laying down on her bed. Her feet clamped together. Her knees splayed apart forming a diamond shape. He pictured her hand move down to the crest of the jewel parting the lips of her pussy with her fingers. He saw the glistening of her juices on her fingers as she began to rub her clit - slowly at first but soon picking up speed as her urgency increased. And as her whole mind and body was overwhelmed by her orgasm he envisaged her convulsing with pleasure and screaming with joy. Martin realized that he was almost home, although he couldn't remember any of his journey. His left hand had strayed down to his cock and had been stroking and pulling on its head through his shorts. Martin's fingers felt the sticky wetness of his pleasure which had seeped through his light gray shorts and as he looked down he saw a dark patch of his pre-emission bleeding through the material. As his hand moved slowly up and down, desperate for these exquisite sensations to continue, Martin's foot increased the pressure on the accelerator in an attempt to make sure he made it home before his orgasm overtook him on the journey. Martin pulled into the driveway and quickly walked toward his front door - his tennis bag held close against his body lest anyone should see his lack of decorum. He opened the door, threw the bag on the floor, ignored the eager greeting of his golden retriever and dashed upstairs. His entire mind and body was now set on one thing only. He needed release - needed to feel the rush of pleasure coursing through his body. He needed to come. Martin threw himself on the bed and yanked his shorts down to his ankles, his hand eagerly grabbing his fully erect cock. Now was not the time for teasing - the journey had dealt with that. He dragged his hand across the head of his shaft, smearing the creamy bubbly juices which had seeped out during the journey all over the top portion of his cock. Then he began milking his hand quickly up and down - imagining he was pumping it deep into Lori's pussy. Feeling her velvet walls encase him. He immediately felt his orgasm begin to build at the base of his cock, his balls tightening as his breathing shortened. He needed to come. He wanted to come. He was going to come. It only took a few more seconds for the sensations to deepen and spread upward. His balls and anus tightened as he reached the point of no return. Guttural sounds of pleasure began to escape his throat as his whole being was consumed with the heightening sensations. The pleasure was so great that he almost wanted to stay there - to prolong the moment of release. Martin's hand slowed almost to a stop. His thumb and index finger lightly teased the tip of his cock. But even that could not hold back the huge tidal surge which had been building and now was about to break. He was coming. Martin's body convulsed and the first shot of cum flew through the air and landed on his forehead, the second quickly following and hitting his neck just under the chin. He gasped as each wave of pleasure washed over him - his body quaking with each convulsion. Chemicals raced through his brain - intense pleasure that almost verged on pain as he felt his head throb with each surge. Finally the intensity of the sensations began to subside. Martin lay there, completely spent, in his state of semi-undress trying to come to terms with what had overcome him. Every so often his cock twitched again as several aftershocks shook his body. Eventually he stood, walked into his en-suite and turned on the shower. Thursday couldn't come quick enough. As the evening of his game with Lori grew closer, Martin knew that it was going to take every fibre of his mental strength to stay focused on the game. When he arrived at the tennis center he headed straight for the court and pushing back the heavy vinyl backdrop curtain he saw that Lori had already arrived and was stretching at the side of the net. She was wearing a pure white top and a light blue silky tennis skirt which showed off her slender legs from just above the knees. As she stretched forward the skirt slowly dragged itself upwards showing off a few more inches of her tantalizing white thigh. Lori's long black hair was tied back in a ponytail which draped down her back topped by a white cap. As Martin came through the curtain onto the court she turned toward him and flashed him a smile. “Hey old man! I'm glad you made it. It wouldn't have been as much fun playing with myself.” Did she giggle slightly at the innuendo Martin wondered? Was it deliberate? Had she been planning her introduction? Or was he just being dirty minded? Martin chastised himself for his thoughts. She's probably saying it in complete innocence, he reasoned. His musings were broken into by Lori's perky voice… “Come on - let's play!” She handed him two tennis balls and tucked the third under the pleat of her tennis skirt into what Martin could only imagine were panties sewn into her skirt. Martin and Lori took their positions at either side of the net and began hitting the balls to each other as they warmed up. As they did so they chatted about how their week had been going. Just normal, everyday conversation. Martin began to convince himself that it was clearly only he who was reading anything more into this than a friendly game of tennis. By the time they began to play some competitive points Martin had fully persuaded himself that Lori's request to play him was purely for the sake of fitness and exercise. Now that they were playing seriously the conversation had petered out apart from when calling the balls out of court and keeping score. At one point in the game when Martin was serving, Lori asked “Do you have any balls?” Martin quickly replied “Yes, I've got two here in my shorts. Can't you tell?” He immediately felt embarrassed at his teenage humour, but Lori grinned and said, “Come on then - get them out. Don't keep me waiting.” Martin wondered whether she was playing along with the innuendo or simply responding to the conversation in a far more innocent way than he was. The game turned out to be pretty even and as the hour court time was coming to a close each of them seemed to be putting in more effort to try to win the match. Lori's shrieking grew in its loudness and frequency which only served to distract Martin from his game, his mind once again imagining an entirely different context. Whether it was this lapse in mental strength or simply her greater stamina, Lori closed the set out just as the hour came to a close. “Great game, and well played,” Martin congratulated Lori as they approached the bench at the side of the court where they had each left their bags. “Thanks, I enjoyed it a lot,” Lori smiled back. “I'd love to play with you again soon.” “I'd like that too,” Martin replied and as he spoke he felt his cock twitch as his mind immediately leapt to picturing her playing with his balls rather than tennis balls. “Got much else planned for this evening?” Lori asked. “We could go for a drink. Beats watching TV alone.” “Sure - I'd like that. But don't you have a husband or partner waiting for you…or a…someone?” Martin winced at his awkwardness. He realized that after over a quarter of a century of marriage he had no idea how to handle these sorts of situations. Lori chuckled. “Nope. No husband. Or wife. Or any other sort of lover. Well…not the human kind anyway!” Martin felt his face turning red but at the same time the stirring in his groin increased at Lori's sudden candour. Without any warning an image of Lori holding a vibrator against her pussy while spreadeagled on her bed popped up into his mind. Martin quickly tried to push back down - he wasn't in the privacy of his car now. Control yourself man, he thought as he felt his cock begin to engorge with blood. “Ok, well er, let's have a drink then. Where do you want to go?” Martin could feel his heart beginning to race with the anticipation of spending more of the evening with Lori, coupled with the lingering image which had entered his mind. “To be honest, I'm not really dressed for a bar. I came out like this ready for tennis,” Lori mused. Why don't you come back to my place? It's just 5 minutes away. I have a nice bottle of Toscana, if you like red wine.“ "Sure…I'd love to,” Martin said, his heart beating even faster now despite the game being over some time ago. “Great. Well just follow me. Won't take long.” As Martin followed Lori's white Subaru Impreza his whole body seemed on fire with excitement. He felt like he could hardly breathe. What was happening? He even wondered whether he was having some kind of heart attack. He tried to convince himself that he had only been invited back for a drink. But he couldn't shake the thought that there could be more. It was years since he had felt like this. Life with Jenny had been wonderful and their lovemaking had been tender, yet had long ago settled into a comfortable predictability. But this was altogether something new. Martin's hands were shaking on the wheel as his body shivered in anticipation. Suddenly they turned a corner and Lori pulled her car into the driveway of a detached house. In a semi-dazed state he pulled up beside hers, walked up to the door and followed her inside. Martin immediately noticed that Lori's home was immaculately presented - almost like it was staged for an impending sale. The furniture was sharp and clean. There was no clutter on any of the surfaces, only ornaments and beautifully designed wooden sculptures. It was very much controlled. Together. Just as Lori seemed to be. Martin wondered whether she was always like that. Was there a wilder, uncontrolled side to her? He longed to find out. “Sit down on the couch. Make yourself at home.” Lori pulled one of many bottles out of a wine rack built into the wall and took two long stemmed glasses from a cabinet. Martin sat nervously, positioning himself awkwardly on the front edge of the white leather couch. Lori sat next to him. He felt her knee rest against his leg and his stomach began to do somersaults. Martin felt beads of sweat begin to form on his brow and his jaw began to clench as adrenaline began to course through his body. “Come on old man - relax. You look like you're afraid I'm about to eat you!” Martin laughed nervously. “Sorry. I am a little on edge. It's so long since I've done this. I mean…having a drink with someone other than my wife. I feel like I don't know what to do.” “It's ok.” Lori said reassuringly. “I understand. How long has it been since your wife passed?” “Almost four months. I've been so lonely.” Martin was taken back by the emotion which suddenly came through as he spoke, as well as the honesty about his deep sadness which he had generally managed to suppress so well when speaking to others. “I know. I know. It must have been so difficult for you.” Lori's words were soothing as she moved her left arm round over his shoulder and pulled his head toward hers. He felt her hand begin to stroke his hair as his head rested on the top of her shoulder. Martin felt a surge of warmth and comfort rush through his body at her tender touch. But at the same time experienced a surge of excitement as his cock began to swell - not for the first time that day. A cocktail of emotions overwhelmed him. Comfort. Shame. Embarrassment. But more than anything else, excitement. The physical touch of a woman after so many months was warm and intoxicating and even in his vulnerable and awkward state he didn't want it to end. Martin's cock was now fully erect and he was sure Lori would notice it. How would she respond? He glanced sideways at her and sure enough her widening eyes were fixed on the stirrings in his shorts, even as she continued to stroke his head and neck. “I'm sorry…” he stuttered. “I'm not sure what's going on. I just… I don't mean to…” “Shish,” Lori whispered in his ear and as she did a tingle shot down through Martin's neck and spine. “It's ok. I'll take it as a compliment.” “I don't want you to feel uncomfortable though,” Martin stuttered. “Do I look uncomfortable?” Lori asked, pulling her body slightly away from his and looking him in directly in the eyes. Lori's left hand moved to Martin's face so that now it was cradled in her hands. Her fingers began to gently rake through Martin's hair sending shivers of excitement through him. Her nails sent myriads of neurons firing in his brain. And then she kissed him. Gently and tenderly at first. Her lips felt so warm and soft and Martin's mouth automatically moved in response and his right hand moved to the back of her head pulling her closer. All manner of emotions were racing through his mind and body but sheer physical pleasure quickly became the dominant one as their kissing became more firm and adventurous. Martin's tongue probed Lori's mouth and a deep moan came from her throat as his tongue began to explore her sweetness. He sensed Lori's control and composure was giving way to something much less restrained. More primal. Quickly and without any warning Lori pushed Martin's body so that he fell back on the couch. Before he had a chance to gain any control she swung her left leg over his body and straddled him. Martin felt his tented cock pressing up under Lori's clean tennis skirt against her panties. He immediately felt heat emanating from her pussy lips which were parting around his cock, through the thin material. She groaned loudly. Gutturally. All sense of decorum and tenderness had disappeared. Raw passion had taken over. Martin's shaft pressed hard against her as he lifted his ass off the couch to press against her delicious body. Lori pulled her mouth away from his and smiled. Yet behind her eyes Martin could see that a fire had been kindled and was growing stronger by the second. Lori ran the fingers of both hands down his shirt and then, in one motion tore it off his body. Martin's breathing deepened as he gazed up at her. He wanted to respond by removing Lori's top but before he could move she had ripped it off herself. Martin gasped as he saw her nipples for the first time - standing erect on her small but perfectly symmetrical breasts. Their deep rouge colour stood out in contrast to her pale skinned chest. He bent upward and engulfed her left nipple in his mouth, his mouth sucking as his tongue flicked over it. “Oh fuck! Fuck!” Lori gasped. Martin had never heard Lori swear before but it only served to fuel his desire for her. Jenny had never used dirty talk with him when they made love. But this wasn't making love. This was sex. This was fucking. And he was beginning to love it. As Martin pulled back his mouth, Lori's long firm nipple made a delightful popping sound as it emerged. Martin quickly moved to suckle her right breast and as he did he could feel Lori's thighs and ass begin to thrust urgently against his hard cock. At each thrust Lori's groans and moans increased in their pitch and loudness - her head arched back in ecstasy as she continued to dry hump him. Martin's hands moved to her ass and he pulled her harder against his cock. Lori's body began to move even faster and Martin felt the pleasure beginning to build and spread throughout his cock. At first he felt the sensation in his tight balls, but with each loud thrust against him he felt his cum building up his hard shaft. He wanted to express how he was feeling. He had a strong desire to talk dirty to Lori. But he still had some inhibitions remaining, even though he sensed they wouldn't stay for long. Lori however, had no such restraint now. She was wild with excitement and it showed in her entire being. “Oh fuck Martin. That feels so good. I love feeling your hard cock sliding against my pussy.” Martin's mouth opened and he began to groan and grunt - each emission seeming to enhance his pleasure. “Oh my fucking life. Fuck! I think I'm going to fucking cum!” Lori gasped. Suddenly Martin felt Lori's hands move down toward his cock. But instead of grabbing his manhood as he imagined, she sharply pulled the material of her panties to the side, revealing her glistening, open cunt lips. Lori's other hand rested against Martin's balls and the base of his cock. And then her fingers began to fly furiously across her protruding ruby clit. “Fuck!” Martin uttered as he was completely entranced and overwhelmed by the sight of her wantonness. Seconds later Martin felt Lori's body stiffen and then convulse as her orgasm overwhelmed her body. Lori's head arched back, her mouth open wide as high pitched squeals and shrieks pulsed out from her throat. Martin gazed into her eyes, transfixed by the sight as the waves of pleasure washed over her and wracked her entire body. Lori's once delicate and pristine body writhed and contorted. All sense of control had gone as she gave herself to her overwhelming pleasure. The sensations in Martin's own body had been inexorably building and he sensed that it would be only a matter of seconds before he came himself. But as the frenetic movements of Lori's body began to subside he felt his own eruption linger tantalizingly close yet just out of reach. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!” Lori gasped. “I don't think I've ever come so quickly before,” her breath still coming in pants as she spoke. “Or so hard!” She smiled captivatingly and Martin felt like his emotions would explode within him. Lori pulled herself upright and pressed her hands against Martin's chest, giving him a full view of her naked breasts and engorged nipples. But Martin's eyes were drawn downward, to her skirt which was twisted and pulled around her waist. The built-in panties were still pulled aside - barely covering one of her pussy lips and fully revealing the other which was still shimmering with Lori's juices. “Ugh…this is so hot!” Martin gasped. “I loved hearing you come.” “I fucking loved it too,” grinned Lori. “And I'm going to love it when you cum now.” Raising her slight body from his for a second, Lori swiftly pulled down Martin's shorts, freeing his cock for the first time as it sprang to attention. She ogled it lustfully for a few seconds, appraising it's length and girth. Then she lowered her head down and embraced it with her mouth. Martin groaned uncontrollably. He couldn't ever remember feeling like this before. Jenny's lovemaking was warm and tender but she had never liked giving oral sex and Martin had never wanted to pressure her. They had so much to enjoy in each other's bodies that he felt he could manage without that if she was uncomfortable. But the sensations that were now flowing through Martin's cock now made him realize what he had been missing for all of those years. Lori's mouth moved slowly up and down the length of his shaft, her tongue flicking over the sensitive head of his cock on each stroke and each time bolts of lightning shot through Martin's body. He had been close to cumming before knew he wouldn't last long. The sensation was building and moving up his cock with each passing second. “Lori…I'm not gonna last. If you want to move away…” “Fuck no!” Lori gulped. “I want to taste it all. I want you to cum in my mouth.” Lori's mouth and tongue picked up the pace, her long hair draping over his balls, sending him into more ecstasy as she bobbed her head up and down his shaft. It was enough to send Martin over the edge. His mouth opened and he grunted loudly as he felt the pleasure erupt through his cock and spread out through his legs, toes and up into his chest. His head felt like it was going to explode too as he felt surge after surge of cum shoot from his cock and hit the back of Lori's throat. She gurgled, gulped, gurgled again… but continued to suck and engulf his penis with her warm lips until, after 7 or 8 convulsions Martin's orgasm subsided. Lori slowly withdrew her lips from Martin's cock and he could see a thick string of his cum emerging and flowing from out of her mouth and drooling over his still twitching cock. Then in one sudden movement she moved her body and head forwards and kissed him hard on the lips - her tongue insistently pressing open his mouth. And for the first time in his life Martin could taste the salty thickness of his own pleasure. His senses were truly overwhelmed. Lori's body finally collapsed onto his. Their chests heaving against each other and small grunts of pleasure still coming from their mouths. Martin reached his hands down to Lori's ass and pushed them up inside her panties, feeling the warmth of their flesh for the first time. “I love your ass,” he whispered, in Lori's ear. “Say it again…but say it how you are really thinking it.” Martin paused. Shocked at her insightfulness. “I fucking love your ass,” Martin said, much louder this time. “That's more like it,” Lori grinned. “We'll find the animal in you yet.” “I've certainly discovered yours,” Martin laughed. “You don't leave your screaming on the court do you?” Lori laughed. “Fuck no! A girl's got to express herself!” “I had been wondering…,” Martin said, “…and imagining.” “Oh really! You've been thinking about me in that way then? Have you been jerking off to me?” Lori grinned. Even after all that had just happened Martin still felt a twinge of embarrassment. “I might have,” he said shyly. Then with more boldness said, “Have you thought of me in this way before?” Lori giggled. “Let's just say you might have come to mind when I've been playing with myself these last few weeks.” Martin's eyes widened. “I'd love to have been a fly on the wall.” “Well,” Lori smiled wickedly “there's no need for that. There's so much more of this evening yet to come…” By Dansilver for Literotica 

A friendly tennis game leads to a different kind of ball play. By Dansilver. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. New Year's resolutions weren't usually Martin's thing. He had enough experience to know that people's good intentions never amounted to much more than that. But he also knew that he had to do something. 2021 had been truly awful - not just because of Covid restrictions and plans getting continually cancelled but because in November, Jenny, his wife of 26 years had finally succumbed to cancer. At least he had been able to bury her, something which wouldn't have even been several months previously. But late fall and early winter seemed like one inexorable descent into an emotional void from which he feared he would never escape.At least Covid provided the excuse not to visit family at Christmas time. He couldn't have faced being with people who he had enjoyed with Jenny alongside him. Instead he sat alone in his emptiness over Christmas. But by New Year he knew he had to make some changes to try to escape the introspection and despondency which were quickly becoming too comforting a companion. Tennis was always something which Martin had enjoyed as a teenager. Nothing too competitive - just hitting a ball with friends in the park. So, on New Year's Day, when he saw that his local tennis center was running Cardio Tennis classes, he decided to sign up. Almost immediately, he regretted it and almost cancelled the booking. He felt nervous about venturing into a new social setting. But he knew the booking was non-refundable and, not being one to waste money, he instead tried to put it out of his mind until the date of the Monday evening class. When it came to it, he was glad he hadn't backed out. The evening was much more fun than he had imagined it would be. Dan, the tennis professional running the course, was good humoured and put everyone at ease, no matter what their skill level was. And the other seven people doing the course seemed ok too. The hour-long class consisted of a combination of tennis drills and cardio workouts, culminating in 20 minutes of playing King of the Court against each other with the ‘punishment' of star jumps or burpees for those losing the point. By the time the following Monday came around Martin was surprised how much he was looking forward to going. As the weeks passed, the Cardio Tennis classes quickly became the highlight of Martin's week. Dan kept things moving and mixed up the drills to keep things interesting. And the rapport between the others taking the class began to grow too. King of the Court was always the highlight of the evening and, although it never got too intense or competitive, there was an increasing level of good natured teasing and banter which took place between everyone. Martin found himself especially enjoying points against Lori, a slim attractive woman in her mid 40's with a sharp sense of humour and quite the competitive streak. Lori was clearly someone who had kept her fitness levels high which was some advantage in points against Martin, but he had always had good hand/eye coordination so the competition between them was fairly even. Lori would often playfully tease Martin when they faced each other saying 'Come on old man, let's see what you've got!' which might have offended him had others said it - especially as he was only 5 or 6 years older than she was. But coming from Lori it just had the effect of making him all the more determined to win the points. Each Monday Martin would look forward to the evening class, but increasingly he realized that he was looking forward to being around Lori as much as anything else. He enjoyed her company. She made him laugh and put him at ease. But he soon realized to his surprise that there was something else stirring in him. A physical attraction which was hardly noticeable at first, dulled by months of grief and solitude, but which was slowly awakening as Spring began to bud. Lori was certainly an attractive woman, although she wasn't what Martin would have previously called his type. Jenny had been a tall, fulsome woman, with a curvaceous figure and full rounded breasts which Martin used to delight in getting lost in when they made love. But Lori was tiny, slim and her breasts were barely noticeable in her tennis shirt. Yet it wasn't Lori's breasts which grabbed Martin's attention on the 5th week of class. Dan had asked everyone to get in line to play three tennis shots - one from the baseline, followed by a volley and an overhead. Then each person was to run around the court and get in line again. Martin found himself standing in line behind Lori, who this week was wearing tight black yoga pants. After he had played his shots and was running around the court his eyes fixed themselves on Lori's ass as she ran in front of him. It was surprisingly full for her slim frame and even though his heart was pounding from the cardio workout Martin felt it leap as he contemplated her figure. They got round the court and were soon playing their shots again before heading out on their second lap. Again Martin's eyes were drawn to Lori's seductive buttocks as they moved delightfully as she ran in front of him. Her yoga pants were smooth over her thighs and ass and there was no sign that she was wearing any kind of underwear which made Martin's heart race even more and he even felt a slight stirring lower down - something which he hadn't experienced in a long time. As the class went on Dan couldn't shake the image of Lori's ass from his mind. During the next exercise he tried to position himself behind her again but was frustrated when Judy, a silver haired lady in her 60's, slotted in between them, obscuring his view. He cursed his luck. Toward the end of the evening, during King of the Court, Martin again found that his mind wasn't on his usual banter with Lori, but had strayed elsewhere. Lori had always been pretty vocal when she had hit the tennis ball - something which wasn't uncommon with women tennis players who grunted through the exertion of playing a point. But Lori was more of a shrieker than a grunter, emitting a high pitched cry especially when stretching for a shot. Martin hadn't paid too much attention to it until this week, but now he found himself wondering whether Lori's shrieking was just for the court or whether she was vocal during sex too. Each vocal utterance took Martin's mind to Lori's bedroom as he imagined her in the throes of ecstasy with a lover. “What the hell is going on?” Martin thought to himself. “I'm thinking like an 18 year old teenage boy!” He was painfully aware that the stirring in his groin was also reminiscent of those teenage days and he knew that he would have to master his thoughts before he found himself in a very embarrassing situation in front of the others in the class. Fortunately, the evening was just about through and he was able to gain control of his imagination before things got out of hand. Soon the class came to a close and everyone began to filter out to their vehicles. “Hey old man - fancy a game later in the week?” The voice pierced Martin's thoughts and he turned round to see Lori standing behind him, a big grin on her face. Martin's thoughts raced. A one on one game with Lori? If the state of his mind was anything like it had been today it would be hard for him to keep any kind of control - of the ball or anything else for that matter! But he also knew he wanted to spend more time with her which made the risk worth taking. “Erm, sure. What day?” “How about Thursday? I have some time during the evening if that will work for you - say around 7p.m.?” “It's a date,” Martin said. “I mean…not a date…just er…well you know what I mean,” his face reddening. Lori flashed her smile and giggled. “Yeah I know what you mean. I should be so lucky.” And with that she turned toward her vehicle. “See you on Thursday!” she called as she walked away. Martin turned and walked to his car and sat there, the engine still turned off, hardly believing what had just happened. In one sense nothing at all had happened. Lori had just arranged a tennis game with him. But his mind was racing away from him. What did she mean by “I should be so lucky?” Was she attracted to him? Or was it another one of her jokes? Martin turned the key in the engine and began the 10 minute drive home. His mind replayed the conversation, and then the images of Lori's seductive ass mingled with her shrieks. As he finally allowed himself full rein to reimagine Lori's toned body, Martin's cock began to stir once again. This time there was no need for him to try to control it for the sake of decorum. Yet Martin's growing excitement was tempered by a nagging sense of guilt. Jenny, the only lover he had ever had, had only just passed and yet here he was - his mind and body yearning for another. Surely he shouldn't be having these thoughts. Yet they wouldn't disperse. Rather than reminiscing about tender times with his wife, instead he was picturing Lori pulling down her yoga pants at home right now, imagining her smooth firm white bottom emerging from the black material. By the time he was half way home Martin's cock was standing to full attention, his tennis shorts tented as it strained against them. And still he played out the scene in his mind. He imagined Lori laying down on her bed. Her feet clamped together. Her knees splayed apart forming a diamond shape. He pictured her hand move down to the crest of the jewel parting the lips of her pussy with her fingers. He saw the glistening of her juices on her fingers as she began to rub her clit - slowly at first but soon picking up speed as her urgency increased. And as her whole mind and body was overwhelmed by her orgasm he envisaged her convulsing with pleasure and screaming with joy. Martin realized that he was almost home, although he couldn't remember any of his journey. His left hand had strayed down to his cock and had been stroking and pulling on its head through his shorts. Martin's fingers felt the sticky wetness of his pleasure which had seeped through his light gray shorts and as he looked down he saw a dark patch of his pre-emission bleeding through the material. As his hand moved slowly up and down, desperate for these exquisite sensations to continue, Martin's foot increased the pressure on the accelerator in an attempt to make sure he made it home before his orgasm overtook him on the journey. Martin pulled into the driveway and quickly walked toward his front door - his tennis bag held close against his body lest anyone should see his lack of decorum. He opened the door, threw the bag on the floor, ignored the eager greeting of his golden retriever and dashed upstairs. His entire mind and body was now set on one thing only. He needed release - needed to feel the rush of pleasure coursing through his body. He needed to come. Martin threw himself on the bed and yanked his shorts down to his ankles, his hand eagerly grabbing his fully erect cock. Now was not the time for teasing - the journey had dealt with that. He dragged his hand across the head of his shaft, smearing the creamy bubbly juices which had seeped out during the journey all over the top portion of his cock. Then he began milking his hand quickly up and down - imagining he was pumping it deep into Lori's pussy. Feeling her velvet walls encase him. He immediately felt his orgasm begin to build at the base of his cock, his balls tightening as his breathing shortened. He needed to come. He wanted to come. He was going to come. It only took a few more seconds for the sensations to deepen and spread upward. His balls and anus tightened as he reached the point of no return. Guttural sounds of pleasure began to escape his throat as his whole being was consumed with the heightening sensations. The pleasure was so great that he almost wanted to stay there - to prolong the moment of release. Martin's hand slowed almost to a stop. His thumb and index finger lightly teased the tip of his cock. But even that could not hold back the huge tidal surge which had been building and now was about to break. He was coming. Martin's body convulsed and the first shot of cum flew through the air and landed on his forehead, the second quickly following and hitting his neck just under the chin. He gasped as each wave of pleasure washed over him - his body quaking with each convulsion. Chemicals raced through his brain - intense pleasure that almost verged on pain as he felt his head throb with each surge. Finally the intensity of the sensations began to subside. Martin lay there, completely spent, in his state of semi-undress trying to come to terms with what had overcome him. Every so often his cock twitched again as several aftershocks shook his body. Eventually he stood, walked into his en-suite and turned on the shower. Thursday couldn't come quick enough. As the evening of his game with Lori grew closer, Martin knew that it was going to take every fibre of his mental strength to stay focused on the game. When he arrived at the tennis center he headed straight for the court and pushing back the heavy vinyl backdrop curtain he saw that Lori had already arrived and was stretching at the side of the net. She was wearing a pure white top and a light blue silky tennis skirt which showed off her slender legs from just above the knees. As she stretched forward the skirt slowly dragged itself upwards showing off a few more inches of her tantalizing white thigh. Lori's long black hair was tied back in a ponytail which draped down her back topped by a white cap. As Martin came through the curtain onto the court she turned toward him and flashed him a smile. “Hey old man! I'm glad you made it. It wouldn't have been as much fun playing with myself.” Did she giggle slightly at the innuendo Martin wondered? Was it deliberate? Had she been planning her introduction? Or was he just being dirty minded? Martin chastised himself for his thoughts. She's probably saying it in complete innocence, he reasoned. His musings were broken into by Lori's perky voice… “Come on - let's play!” She handed him two tennis balls and tucked the third under the pleat of her tennis skirt into what Martin could only imagine were panties sewn into her skirt. Martin and Lori took their positions at either side of the net and began hitting the balls to each other as they warmed up. As they did so they chatted about how their week had been going. Just normal, everyday conversation. Martin began to convince himself that it was clearly only he who was reading anything more into this than a friendly game of tennis. By the time they began to play some competitive points Martin had fully persuaded himself that Lori's request to play him was purely for the sake of fitness and exercise. Now that they were playing seriously the conversation had petered out apart from when calling the balls out of court and keeping score. At one point in the game when Martin was serving, Lori asked “Do you have any balls?” Martin quickly replied “Yes, I've got two here in my shorts. Can't you tell?” He immediately felt embarrassed at his teenage humour, but Lori grinned and said, “Come on then - get them out. Don't keep me waiting.” Martin wondered whether she was playing along with the innuendo or simply responding to the conversation in a far more innocent way than he was. The game turned out to be pretty even and as the hour court time was coming to a close each of them seemed to be putting in more effort to try to win the match. Lori's shrieking grew in its loudness and frequency which only served to distract Martin from his game, his mind once again imagining an entirely different context. Whether it was this lapse in mental strength or simply her greater stamina, Lori closed the set out just as the hour came to a close. “Great game, and well played,” Martin congratulated Lori as they approached the bench at the side of the court where they had each left their bags. “Thanks, I enjoyed it a lot,” Lori smiled back. “I'd love to play with you again soon.” “I'd like that too,” Martin replied and as he spoke he felt his cock twitch as his mind immediately leapt to picturing her playing with his balls rather than tennis balls. “Got much else planned for this evening?” Lori asked. “We could go for a drink. Beats watching TV alone.” “Sure - I'd like that. But don't you have a husband or partner waiting for you…or a…someone?” Martin winced at his awkwardness. He realized that after over a quarter of a century of marriage he had no idea how to handle these sorts of situations. Lori chuckled. “Nope. No husband. Or wife. Or any other sort of lover. Well…not the human kind anyway!” Martin felt his face turning red but at the same time the stirring in his groin increased at Lori's sudden candour. Without any warning an image of Lori holding a vibrator against her pussy while spreadeagled on her bed popped up into his mind. Martin quickly tried to push back down - he wasn't in the privacy of his car now. Control yourself man, he thought as he felt his cock begin to engorge with blood. “Ok, well er, let's have a drink then. Where do you want to go?” Martin could feel his heart beginning to race with the anticipation of spending more of the evening with Lori, coupled with the lingering image which had entered his mind. “To be honest, I'm not really dressed for a bar. I came out like this ready for tennis,” Lori mused. Why don't you come back to my place? It's just 5 minutes away. I have a nice bottle of Toscana, if you like red wine.“ "Sure…I'd love to,” Martin said, his heart beating even faster now despite the game being over some time ago. “Great. Well just follow me. Won't take long.” As Martin followed Lori's white Subaru Impreza his whole body seemed on fire with excitement. He felt like he could hardly breathe. What was happening? He even wondered whether he was having some kind of heart attack. He tried to convince himself that he had only been invited back for a drink. But he couldn't shake the thought that there could be more. It was years since he had felt like this. Life with Jenny had been wonderful and their lovemaking had been tender, yet had long ago settled into a comfortable predictability. But this was altogether something new. Martin's hands were shaking on the wheel as his body shivered in anticipation. Suddenly they turned a corner and Lori pulled her car into the driveway of a detached house. In a semi-dazed state he pulled up beside hers, walked up to the door and followed her inside. Martin immediately noticed that Lori's home was immaculately presented - almost like it was staged for an impending sale. The furniture was sharp and clean. There was no clutter on any of the surfaces, only ornaments and beautifully designed wooden sculptures. It was very much controlled. Together. Just as Lori seemed to be. Martin wondered whether she was always like that. Was there a wilder, uncontrolled side to her? He longed to find out. “Sit down on the couch. Make yourself at home.” Lori pulled one of many bottles out of a wine rack built into the wall and took two long stemmed glasses from a cabinet. Martin sat nervously, positioning himself awkwardly on the front edge of the white leather couch. Lori sat next to him. He felt her knee rest against his leg and his stomach began to do somersaults. Martin felt beads of sweat begin to form on his brow and his jaw began to clench as adrenaline began to course through his body. “Come on old man - relax. You look like you're afraid I'm about to eat you!” Martin laughed nervously. “Sorry. I am a little on edge. It's so long since I've done this. I mean…having a drink with someone other than my wife. I feel like I don't know what to do.” “It's ok.” Lori said reassuringly. “I understand. How long has it been since your wife passed?” “Almost four months. I've been so lonely.” Martin was taken back by the emotion which suddenly came through as he spoke, as well as the honesty about his deep sadness which he had generally managed to suppress so well when speaking to others. “I know. I know. It must have been so difficult for you.” Lori's words were soothing as she moved her left arm round over his shoulder and pulled his head toward hers. He felt her hand begin to stroke his hair as his head rested on the top of her shoulder. Martin felt a surge of warmth and comfort rush through his body at her tender touch. But at the same time experienced a surge of excitement as his cock began to swell - not for the first time that day. A cocktail of emotions overwhelmed him. Comfort. Shame. Embarrassment. But more than anything else, excitement. The physical touch of a woman after so many months was warm and intoxicating and even in his vulnerable and awkward state he didn't want it to end. Martin's cock was now fully erect and he was sure Lori would notice it. How would she respond? He glanced sideways at her and sure enough her widening eyes were fixed on the stirrings in his shorts, even as she continued to stroke his head and neck. “I'm sorry…” he stuttered. “I'm not sure what's going on. I just… I don't mean to…” “Shish,” Lori whispered in his ear and as she did a tingle shot down through Martin's neck and spine. “It's ok. I'll take it as a compliment.” “I don't want you to feel uncomfortable though,” Martin stuttered. “Do I look uncomfortable?” Lori asked, pulling her body slightly away from his and looking him in directly in the eyes. Lori's left hand moved to Martin's face so that now it was cradled in her hands. Her fingers began to gently rake through Martin's hair sending shivers of excitement through him. Her nails sent myriads of neurons firing in his brain. And then she kissed him. Gently and tenderly at first. Her lips felt so warm and soft and Martin's mouth automatically moved in response and his right hand moved to the back of her head pulling her closer. All manner of emotions were racing through his mind and body but sheer physical pleasure quickly became the dominant one as their kissing became more firm and adventurous. Martin's tongue probed Lori's mouth and a deep moan came from her throat as his tongue began to explore her sweetness. He sensed Lori's control and composure was giving way to something much less restrained. More primal. Quickly and without any warning Lori pushed Martin's body so that he fell back on the couch. Before he had a chance to gain any control she swung her left leg over his body and straddled him. Martin felt his tented cock pressing up under Lori's clean tennis skirt against her panties. He immediately felt heat emanating from her pussy lips which were parting around his cock, through the thin material. She groaned loudly. Gutturally. All sense of decorum and tenderness had disappeared. Raw passion had taken over. Martin's shaft pressed hard against her as he lifted his ass off the couch to press against her delicious body. Lori pulled her mouth away from his and smiled. Yet behind her eyes Martin could see that a fire had been kindled and was growing stronger by the second. Lori ran the fingers of both hands down his shirt and then, in one motion tore it off his body. Martin's breathing deepened as he gazed up at her. He wanted to respond by removing Lori's top but before he could move she had ripped it off herself. Martin gasped as he saw her nipples for the first time - standing erect on her small but perfectly symmetrical breasts. Their deep rouge colour stood out in contrast to her pale skinned chest. He bent upward and engulfed her left nipple in his mouth, his mouth sucking as his tongue flicked over it. “Oh fuck! Fuck!” Lori gasped. Martin had never heard Lori swear before but it only served to fuel his desire for her. Jenny had never used dirty talk with him when they made love. But this wasn't making love. This was sex. This was fucking. And he was beginning to love it. As Martin pulled back his mouth, Lori's long firm nipple made a delightful popping sound as it emerged. Martin quickly moved to suckle her right breast and as he did he could feel Lori's thighs and ass begin to thrust urgently against his hard cock. At each thrust Lori's groans and moans increased in their pitch and loudness - her head arched back in ecstasy as she continued to dry hump him. Martin's hands moved to her ass and he pulled her harder against his cock. Lori's body began to move even faster and Martin felt the pleasure beginning to build and spread throughout his cock. At first he felt the sensation in his tight balls, but with each loud thrust against him he felt his cum building up his hard shaft. He wanted to express how he was feeling. He had a strong desire to talk dirty to Lori. But he still had some inhibitions remaining, even though he sensed they wouldn't stay for long. Lori however, had no such restraint now. She was wild with excitement and it showed in her entire being. “Oh fuck Martin. That feels so good. I love feeling your hard cock sliding against my pussy.” Martin's mouth opened and he began to groan and grunt - each emission seeming to enhance his pleasure. “Oh my fucking life. Fuck! I think I'm going to fucking cum!” Lori gasped. Suddenly Martin felt Lori's hands move down toward his cock. But instead of grabbing his manhood as he imagined, she sharply pulled the material of her panties to the side, revealing her glistening, open cunt lips. Lori's other hand rested against Martin's balls and the base of his cock. And then her fingers began to fly furiously across her protruding ruby clit. “Fuck!” Martin uttered as he was completely entranced and overwhelmed by the sight of her wantonness. Seconds later Martin felt Lori's body stiffen and then convulse as her orgasm overwhelmed her body. Lori's head arched back, her mouth open wide as high pitched squeals and shrieks pulsed out from her throat. Martin gazed into her eyes, transfixed by the sight as the waves of pleasure washed over her and wracked her entire body. Lori's once delicate and pristine body writhed and contorted. All sense of control had gone as she gave herself to her overwhelming pleasure. The sensations in Martin's own body had been inexorably building and he sensed that it would be only a matter of seconds before he came himself. But as the frenetic movements of Lori's body began to subside he felt his own eruption linger tantalizingly close yet just out of reach. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!” Lori gasped. “I don't think I've ever come so quickly before,” her breath still coming in pants as she spoke. “Or so hard!” She smiled captivatingly and Martin felt like his emotions would explode within him. Lori pulled herself upright and pressed her hands against Martin's chest, giving him a full view of her naked breasts and engorged nipples. But Martin's eyes were drawn downward, to her skirt which was twisted and pulled around her waist. The built-in panties were still pulled aside - barely covering one of her pussy lips and fully revealing the other which was still shimmering with Lori's juices. “Ugh…this is so hot!” Martin gasped. “I loved hearing you come.” “I fucking loved it too,” grinned Lori. “And I'm going to love it when you cum now.” Raising her slight body from his for a second, Lori swiftly pulled down Martin's shorts, freeing his cock for the first time as it sprang to attention. She ogled it lustfully for a few seconds, appraising it's length and girth. Then she lowered her head down and embraced it with her mouth. Martin groaned uncontrollably. He couldn't ever remember feeling like this before. Jenny's lovemaking was warm and tender but she had never liked giving oral sex and Martin had never wanted to pressure her. They had so much to enjoy in each other's bodies that he felt he could manage without that if she was uncomfortable. But the sensations that were now flowing through Martin's cock now made him realize what he had been missing for all of those years. Lori's mouth moved slowly up and down the length of his shaft, her tongue flicking over the sensitive head of his cock on each stroke and each time bolts of lightning shot through Martin's body. He had been close to cumming before knew he wouldn't last long. The sensation was building and moving up his cock with each passing second. “Lori…I'm not gonna last. If you want to move away…” “Fuck no!” Lori gulped. “I want to taste it all. I want you to cum in my mouth.” Lori's mouth and tongue picked up the pace, her long hair draping over his balls, sending him into more ecstasy as she bobbed her head up and down his shaft. It was enough to send Martin over the edge. His mouth opened and he grunted loudly as he felt the pleasure erupt through his cock and spread out through his legs, toes and up into his chest. His head felt like it was going to explode too as he felt surge after surge of cum shoot from his cock and hit the back of Lori's throat. She gurgled, gulped, gurgled again… but continued to suck and engulf his penis with her warm lips until, after 7 or 8 convulsions Martin's orgasm subsided. Lori slowly withdrew her lips from Martin's cock and he could see a thick string of his cum emerging and flowing from out of her mouth and drooling over his still twitching cock. Then in one sudden movement she moved her body and head forwards and kissed him hard on the lips - her tongue insistently pressing open his mouth. And for the first time in his life Martin could taste the salty thickness of his own pleasure. His senses were truly overwhelmed. Lori's body finally collapsed onto his. Their chests heaving against each other and small grunts of pleasure still coming from their mouths. Martin reached his hands down to Lori's ass and pushed them up inside her panties, feeling the warmth of their flesh for the first time. “I love your ass,” he whispered, in Lori's ear. “Say it again…but say it how you are really thinking it.” Martin paused. Shocked at her insightfulness. “I fucking love your ass,” Martin said, much louder this time. “That's more like it,” Lori grinned. “We'll find the animal in you yet.” “I've certainly discovered yours,” Martin laughed. “You don't leave your screaming on the court do you?” Lori laughed. “Fuck no! A girl's got to express herself!” “I had been wondering…,” Martin said, “…and imagining.” “Oh really! You've been thinking about me in that way then? Have you been jerking off to me?” Lori grinned. Even after all that had just happened Martin still felt a twinge of embarrassment. “I might have,” he said shyly. Then with more boldness said, “Have you thought of me in this way before?” Lori giggled. “Let's just say you might have come to mind when I've been playing with myself these last few weeks.” Martin's eyes widened. “I'd love to have been a fly on the wall.” “Well,” Lori smiled wickedly “there's no need for that. There's so much more of this evening yet to come…” By Dansilver for Literotica 

A friendly tennis game leads to a different kind of ball play. By Dansilver. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. New Year's resolutions weren't usually Martin's thing. He had enough experience to know that people's good intentions never amounted to much more than that. But he also knew that he had to do something. 2021 had been truly awful - not just because of Covid restrictions and plans getting continually cancelled but because in November, Jenny, his wife of 26 years had finally succumbed to cancer. At least he had been able to bury her, something which wouldn't have even been several months previously. But late fall and early winter seemed like one inexorable descent into an emotional void from which he feared he would never escape.At least Covid provided the excuse not to visit family at Christmas time. He couldn't have faced being with people who he had enjoyed with Jenny alongside him. Instead he sat alone in his emptiness over Christmas. But by New Year he knew he had to make some changes to try to escape the introspection and despondency which were quickly becoming too comforting a companion. Tennis was always something which Martin had enjoyed as a teenager. Nothing too competitive - just hitting a ball with friends in the park. So, on New Year's Day, when he saw that his local tennis center was running Cardio Tennis classes, he decided to sign up. Almost immediately, he regretted it and almost cancelled the booking. He felt nervous about venturing into a new social setting. But he knew the booking was non-refundable and, not being one to waste money, he instead tried to put it out of his mind until the date of the Monday evening class. When it came to it, he was glad he hadn't backed out. The evening was much more fun than he had imagined it would be. Dan, the tennis professional running the course, was good humoured and put everyone at ease, no matter what their skill level was. And the other seven people doing the course seemed ok too. The hour-long class consisted of a combination of tennis drills and cardio workouts, culminating in 20 minutes of playing King of the Court against each other with the ‘punishment' of star jumps or burpees for those losing the point. By the time the following Monday came around Martin was surprised how much he was looking forward to going. As the weeks passed, the Cardio Tennis classes quickly became the highlight of Martin's week. Dan kept things moving and mixed up the drills to keep things interesting. And the rapport between the others taking the class began to grow too. King of the Court was always the highlight of the evening and, although it never got too intense or competitive, there was an increasing level of good natured teasing and banter which took place between everyone. Martin found himself especially enjoying points against Lori, a slim attractive woman in her mid 40's with a sharp sense of humour and quite the competitive streak. Lori was clearly someone who had kept her fitness levels high which was some advantage in points against Martin, but he had always had good hand/eye coordination so the competition between them was fairly even. Lori would often playfully tease Martin when they faced each other saying 'Come on old man, let's see what you've got!' which might have offended him had others said it - especially as he was only 5 or 6 years older than she was. But coming from Lori it just had the effect of making him all the more determined to win the points. Each Monday Martin would look forward to the evening class, but increasingly he realized that he was looking forward to being around Lori as much as anything else. He enjoyed her company. She made him laugh and put him at ease. But he soon realized to his surprise that there was something else stirring in him. A physical attraction which was hardly noticeable at first, dulled by months of grief and solitude, but which was slowly awakening as Spring began to bud. Lori was certainly an attractive woman, although she wasn't what Martin would have previously called his type. Jenny had been a tall, fulsome woman, with a curvaceous figure and full rounded breasts which Martin used to delight in getting lost in when they made love. But Lori was tiny, slim and her breasts were barely noticeable in her tennis shirt. Yet it wasn't Lori's breasts which grabbed Martin's attention on the 5th week of class. Dan had asked everyone to get in line to play three tennis shots - one from the baseline, followed by a volley and an overhead. Then each person was to run around the court and get in line again. Martin found himself standing in line behind Lori, who this week was wearing tight black yoga pants. After he had played his shots and was running around the court his eyes fixed themselves on Lori's ass as she ran in front of him. It was surprisingly full for her slim frame and even though his heart was pounding from the cardio workout Martin felt it leap as he contemplated her figure. They got round the court and were soon playing their shots again before heading out on their second lap. Again Martin's eyes were drawn to Lori's seductive buttocks as they moved delightfully as she ran in front of him. Her yoga pants were smooth over her thighs and ass and there was no sign that she was wearing any kind of underwear which made Martin's heart race even more and he even felt a slight stirring lower down - something which he hadn't experienced in a long time. As the class went on Dan couldn't shake the image of Lori's ass from his mind. During the next exercise he tried to position himself behind her again but was frustrated when Judy, a silver haired lady in her 60's, slotted in between them, obscuring his view. He cursed his luck. Toward the end of the evening, during King of the Court, Martin again found that his mind wasn't on his usual banter with Lori, but had strayed elsewhere. Lori had always been pretty vocal when she had hit the tennis ball - something which wasn't uncommon with women tennis players who grunted through the exertion of playing a point. But Lori was more of a shrieker than a grunter, emitting a high pitched cry especially when stretching for a shot. Martin hadn't paid too much attention to it until this week, but now he found himself wondering whether Lori's shrieking was just for the court or whether she was vocal during sex too. Each vocal utterance took Martin's mind to Lori's bedroom as he imagined her in the throes of ecstasy with a lover. “What the hell is going on?” Martin thought to himself. “I'm thinking like an 18 year old teenage boy!” He was painfully aware that the stirring in his groin was also reminiscent of those teenage days and he knew that he would have to master his thoughts before he found himself in a very embarrassing situation in front of the others in the class. Fortunately, the evening was just about through and he was able to gain control of his imagination before things got out of hand. Soon the class came to a close and everyone began to filter out to their vehicles. “Hey old man - fancy a game later in the week?” The voice pierced Martin's thoughts and he turned round to see Lori standing behind him, a big grin on her face. Martin's thoughts raced. A one on one game with Lori? If the state of his mind was anything like it had been today it would be hard for him to keep any kind of control - of the ball or anything else for that matter! But he also knew he wanted to spend more time with her which made the risk worth taking. “Erm, sure. What day?” “How about Thursday? I have some time during the evening if that will work for you - say around 7p.m.?” “It's a date,” Martin said. “I mean…not a date…just er…well you know what I mean,” his face reddening. Lori flashed her smile and giggled. “Yeah I know what you mean. I should be so lucky.” And with that she turned toward her vehicle. “See you on Thursday!” she called as she walked away. Martin turned and walked to his car and sat there, the engine still turned off, hardly believing what had just happened. In one sense nothing at all had happened. Lori had just arranged a tennis game with him. But his mind was racing away from him. What did she mean by “I should be so lucky?” Was she attracted to him? Or was it another one of her jokes? Martin turned the key in the engine and began the 10 minute drive home. His mind replayed the conversation, and then the images of Lori's seductive ass mingled with her shrieks. As he finally allowed himself full rein to reimagine Lori's toned body, Martin's cock began to stir once again. This time there was no need for him to try to control it for the sake of decorum. Yet Martin's growing excitement was tempered by a nagging sense of guilt. Jenny, the only lover he had ever had, had only just passed and yet here he was - his mind and body yearning for another. Surely he shouldn't be having these thoughts. Yet they wouldn't disperse. Rather than reminiscing about tender times with his wife, instead he was picturing Lori pulling down her yoga pants at home right now, imagining her smooth firm white bottom emerging from the black material. By the time he was half way home Martin's cock was standing to full attention, his tennis shorts tented as it strained against them. And still he played out the scene in his mind. He imagined Lori laying down on her bed. Her feet clamped together. Her knees splayed apart forming a diamond shape. He pictured her hand move down to the crest of the jewel parting the lips of her pussy with her fingers. He saw the glistening of her juices on her fingers as she began to rub her clit - slowly at first but soon picking up speed as her urgency increased. And as her whole mind and body was overwhelmed by her orgasm he envisaged her convulsing with pleasure and screaming with joy. Martin realized that he was almost home, although he couldn't remember any of his journey. His left hand had strayed down to his cock and had been stroking and pulling on its head through his shorts. Martin's fingers felt the sticky wetness of his pleasure which had seeped through his light gray shorts and as he looked down he saw a dark patch of his pre-emission bleeding through the material. As his hand moved slowly up and down, desperate for these exquisite sensations to continue, Martin's foot increased the pressure on the accelerator in an attempt to make sure he made it home before his orgasm overtook him on the journey. Martin pulled into the driveway and quickly walked toward his front door - his tennis bag held close against his body lest anyone should see his lack of decorum. He opened the door, threw the bag on the floor, ignored the eager greeting of his golden retriever and dashed upstairs. His entire mind and body was now set on one thing only. He needed release - needed to feel the rush of pleasure coursing through his body. He needed to come. Martin threw himself on the bed and yanked his shorts down to his ankles, his hand eagerly grabbing his fully erect cock. Now was not the time for teasing - the journey had dealt with that. He dragged his hand across the head of his shaft, smearing the creamy bubbly juices which had seeped out during the journey all over the top portion of his cock. Then he began milking his hand quickly up and down - imagining he was pumping it deep into Lori's pussy. Feeling her velvet walls encase him. He immediately felt his orgasm begin to build at the base of his cock, his balls tightening as his breathing shortened. He needed to come. He wanted to come. He was going to come. It only took a few more seconds for the sensations to deepen and spread upward. His balls and anus tightened as he reached the point of no return. Guttural sounds of pleasure began to escape his throat as his whole being was consumed with the heightening sensations. The pleasure was so great that he almost wanted to stay there - to prolong the moment of release. Martin's hand slowed almost to a stop. His thumb and index finger lightly teased the tip of his cock. But even that could not hold back the huge tidal surge which had been building and now was about to break. He was coming. Martin's body convulsed and the first shot of cum flew through the air and landed on his forehead, the second quickly following and hitting his neck just under the chin. He gasped as each wave of pleasure washed over him - his body quaking with each convulsion. Chemicals raced through his brain - intense pleasure that almost verged on pain as he felt his head throb with each surge. Finally the intensity of the sensations began to subside. Martin lay there, completely spent, in his state of semi-undress trying to come to terms with what had overcome him. Every so often his cock twitched again as several aftershocks shook his body. Eventually he stood, walked into his en-suite and turned on the shower. Thursday couldn't come quick enough. As the evening of his game with Lori grew closer, Martin knew that it was going to take every fibre of his mental strength to stay focused on the game. When he arrived at the tennis center he headed straight for the court and pushing back the heavy vinyl backdrop curtain he saw that Lori had already arrived and was stretching at the side of the net. She was wearing a pure white top and a light blue silky tennis skirt which showed off her slender legs from just above the knees. As she stretched forward the skirt slowly dragged itself upwards showing off a few more inches of her tantalizing white thigh. Lori's long black hair was tied back in a ponytail which draped down her back topped by a white cap. As Martin came through the curtain onto the court she turned toward him and flashed him a smile. “Hey old man! I'm glad you made it. It wouldn't have been as much fun playing with myself.” Did she giggle slightly at the innuendo Martin wondered? Was it deliberate? Had she been planning her introduction? Or was he just being dirty minded? Martin chastised himself for his thoughts. She's probably saying it in complete innocence, he reasoned. His musings were broken into by Lori's perky voice… “Come on - let's play!” She handed him two tennis balls and tucked the third under the pleat of her tennis skirt into what Martin could only imagine were panties sewn into her skirt. Martin and Lori took their positions at either side of the net and began hitting the balls to each other as they warmed up. As they did so they chatted about how their week had been going. Just normal, everyday conversation. Martin began to convince himself that it was clearly only he who was reading anything more into this than a friendly game of tennis. By the time they began to play some competitive points Martin had fully persuaded himself that Lori's request to play him was purely for the sake of fitness and exercise. Now that they were playing seriously the conversation had petered out apart from when calling the balls out of court and keeping score. At one point in the game when Martin was serving, Lori asked “Do you have any balls?” Martin quickly replied “Yes, I've got two here in my shorts. Can't you tell?” He immediately felt embarrassed at his teenage humour, but Lori grinned and said, “Come on then - get them out. Don't keep me waiting.” Martin wondered whether she was playing along with the innuendo or simply responding to the conversation in a far more innocent way than he was. The game turned out to be pretty even and as the hour court time was coming to a close each of them seemed to be putting in more effort to try to win the match. Lori's shrieking grew in its loudness and frequency which only served to distract Martin from his game, his mind once again imagining an entirely different context. Whether it was this lapse in mental strength or simply her greater stamina, Lori closed the set out just as the hour came to a close. “Great game, and well played,” Martin congratulated Lori as they approached the bench at the side of the court where they had each left their bags. “Thanks, I enjoyed it a lot,” Lori smiled back. “I'd love to play with you again soon.” “I'd like that too,” Martin replied and as he spoke he felt his cock twitch as his mind immediately leapt to picturing her playing with his balls rather than tennis balls. “Got much else planned for this evening?” Lori asked. “We could go for a drink. Beats watching TV alone.” “Sure - I'd like that. But don't you have a husband or partner waiting for you…or a…someone?” Martin winced at his awkwardness. He realized that after over a quarter of a century of marriage he had no idea how to handle these sorts of situations. Lori chuckled. “Nope. No husband. Or wife. Or any other sort of lover. Well…not the human kind anyway!” Martin felt his face turning red but at the same time the stirring in his groin increased at Lori's sudden candour. Without any warning an image of Lori holding a vibrator against her pussy while spreadeagled on her bed popped up into his mind. Martin quickly tried to push back down - he wasn't in the privacy of his car now. Control yourself man, he thought as he felt his cock begin to engorge with blood. “Ok, well er, let's have a drink then. Where do you want to go?” Martin could feel his heart beginning to race with the anticipation of spending more of the evening with Lori, coupled with the lingering image which had entered his mind. “To be honest, I'm not really dressed for a bar. I came out like this ready for tennis,” Lori mused. Why don't you come back to my place? It's just 5 minutes away. I have a nice bottle of Toscana, if you like red wine.“ "Sure…I'd love to,” Martin said, his heart beating even faster now despite the game being over some time ago. “Great. Well just follow me. Won't take long.” As Martin followed Lori's white Subaru Impreza his whole body seemed on fire with excitement. He felt like he could hardly breathe. What was happening? He even wondered whether he was having some kind of heart attack. He tried to convince himself that he had only been invited back for a drink. But he couldn't shake the thought that there could be more. It was years since he had felt like this. Life with Jenny had been wonderful and their lovemaking had been tender, yet had long ago settled into a comfortable predictability. But this was altogether something new. Martin's hands were shaking on the wheel as his body shivered in anticipation. Suddenly they turned a corner and Lori pulled her car into the driveway of a detached house. In a semi-dazed state he pulled up beside hers, walked up to the door and followed her inside. Martin immediately noticed that Lori's home was immaculately presented - almost like it was staged for an impending sale. The furniture was sharp and clean. There was no clutter on any of the surfaces, only ornaments and beautifully designed wooden sculptures. It was very much controlled. Together. Just as Lori seemed to be. Martin wondered whether she was always like that. Was there a wilder, uncontrolled side to her? He longed to find out. “Sit down on the couch. Make yourself at home.” Lori pulled one of many bottles out of a wine rack built into the wall and took two long stemmed glasses from a cabinet. Martin sat nervously, positioning himself awkwardly on the front edge of the white leather couch. Lori sat next to him. He felt her knee rest against his leg and his stomach began to do somersaults. Martin felt beads of sweat begin to form on his brow and his jaw began to clench as adrenaline began to course through his body. “Come on old man - relax. You look like you're afraid I'm about to eat you!” Martin laughed nervously. “Sorry. I am a little on edge. It's so long since I've done this. I mean…having a drink with someone other than my wife. I feel like I don't know what to do.” “It's ok.” Lori said reassuringly. “I understand. How long has it been since your wife passed?” “Almost four months. I've been so lonely.” Martin was taken back by the emotion which suddenly came through as he spoke, as well as the honesty about his deep sadness which he had generally managed to suppress so well when speaking to others. “I know. I know. It must have been so difficult for you.” Lori's words were soothing as she moved her left arm round over his shoulder and pulled his head toward hers. He felt her hand begin to stroke his hair as his head rested on the top of her shoulder. Martin felt a surge of warmth and comfort rush through his body at her tender touch. But at the same time experienced a surge of excitement as his cock began to swell - not for the first time that day. A cocktail of emotions overwhelmed him. Comfort. Shame. Embarrassment. But more than anything else, excitement. The physical touch of a woman after so many months was warm and intoxicating and even in his vulnerable and awkward state he didn't want it to end. Martin's cock was now fully erect and he was sure Lori would notice it. How would she respond? He glanced sideways at her and sure enough her widening eyes were fixed on the stirrings in his shorts, even as she continued to stroke his head and neck. “I'm sorry…” he stuttered. “I'm not sure what's going on. I just… I don't mean to…” “Shish,” Lori whispered in his ear and as she did a tingle shot down through Martin's neck and spine. “It's ok. I'll take it as a compliment.” “I don't want you to feel uncomfortable though,” Martin stuttered. “Do I look uncomfortable?” Lori asked, pulling her body slightly away from his and looking him in directly in the eyes. Lori's left hand moved to Martin's face so that now it was cradled in her hands. Her fingers began to gently rake through Martin's hair sending shivers of excitement through him. Her nails sent myriads of neurons firing in his brain. And then she kissed him. Gently and tenderly at first. Her lips felt so warm and soft and Martin's mouth automatically moved in response and his right hand moved to the back of her head pulling her closer. All manner of emotions were racing through his mind and body but sheer physical pleasure quickly became the dominant one as their kissing became more firm and adventurous. Martin's tongue probed Lori's mouth and a deep moan came from her throat as his tongue began to explore her sweetness. He sensed Lori's control and composure was giving way to something much less restrained. More primal. Quickly and without any warning Lori pushed Martin's body so that he fell back on the couch. Before he had a chance to gain any control she swung her left leg over his body and straddled him. Martin felt his tented cock pressing up under Lori's clean tennis skirt against her panties. He immediately felt heat emanating from her pussy lips which were parting around his cock, through the thin material. She groaned loudly. Gutturally. All sense of decorum and tenderness had disappeared. Raw passion had taken over. Martin's shaft pressed hard against her as he lifted his ass off the couch to press against her delicious body. Lori pulled her mouth away from his and smiled. Yet behind her eyes Martin could see that a fire had been kindled and was growing stronger by the second. Lori ran the fingers of both hands down his shirt and then, in one motion tore it off his body. Martin's breathing deepened as he gazed up at her. He wanted to respond by removing Lori's top but before he could move she had ripped it off herself. Martin gasped as he saw her nipples for the first time - standing erect on her small but perfectly symmetrical breasts. Their deep rouge colour stood out in contrast to her pale skinned chest. He bent upward and engulfed her left nipple in his mouth, his mouth sucking as his tongue flicked over it. “Oh fuck! Fuck!” Lori gasped. Martin had never heard Lori swear before but it only served to fuel his desire for her. Jenny had never used dirty talk with him when they made love. But this wasn't making love. This was sex. This was fucking. And he was beginning to love it. As Martin pulled back his mouth, Lori's long firm nipple made a delightful popping sound as it emerged. Martin quickly moved to suckle her right breast and as he did he could feel Lori's thighs and ass begin to thrust urgently against his hard cock. At each thrust Lori's groans and moans increased in their pitch and loudness - her head arched back in ecstasy as she continued to dry hump him. Martin's hands moved to her ass and he pulled her harder against his cock. Lori's body began to move even faster and Martin felt the pleasure beginning to build and spread throughout his cock. At first he felt the sensation in his tight balls, but with each loud thrust against him he felt his cum building up his hard shaft. He wanted to express how he was feeling. He had a strong desire to talk dirty to Lori. But he still had some inhibitions remaining, even though he sensed they wouldn't stay for long. Lori however, had no such restraint now. She was wild with excitement and it showed in her entire being. “Oh fuck Martin. That feels so good. I love feeling your hard cock sliding against my pussy.” Martin's mouth opened and he began to groan and grunt - each emission seeming to enhance his pleasure. “Oh my fucking life. Fuck! I think I'm going to fucking cum!” Lori gasped. Suddenly Martin felt Lori's hands move down toward his cock. But instead of grabbing his manhood as he imagined, she sharply pulled the material of her panties to the side, revealing her glistening, open cunt lips. Lori's other hand rested against Martin's balls and the base of his cock. And then her fingers began to fly furiously across her protruding ruby clit. “Fuck!” Martin uttered as he was completely entranced and overwhelmed by the sight of her wantonness. Seconds later Martin felt Lori's body stiffen and then convulse as her orgasm overwhelmed her body. Lori's head arched back, her mouth open wide as high pitched squeals and shrieks pulsed out from her throat. Martin gazed into her eyes, transfixed by the sight as the waves of pleasure washed over her and wracked her entire body. Lori's once delicate and pristine body writhed and contorted. All sense of control had gone as she gave herself to her overwhelming pleasure. The sensations in Martin's own body had been inexorably building and he sensed that it would be only a matter of seconds before he came himself. But as the frenetic movements of Lori's body began to subside he felt his own eruption linger tantalizingly close yet just out of reach. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!” Lori gasped. “I don't think I've ever come so quickly before,” her breath still coming in pants as she spoke. “Or so hard!” She smiled captivatingly and Martin felt like his emotions would explode within him. Lori pulled herself upright and pressed her hands against Martin's chest, giving him a full view of her naked breasts and engorged nipples. But Martin's eyes were drawn downward, to her skirt which was twisted and pulled around her waist. The built-in panties were still pulled aside - barely covering one of her pussy lips and fully revealing the other which was still shimmering with Lori's juices. “Ugh…this is so hot!” Martin gasped. “I loved hearing you come.” “I fucking loved it too,” grinned Lori. “And I'm going to love it when you cum now.” Raising her slight body from his for a second, Lori swiftly pulled down Martin's shorts, freeing his cock for the first time as it sprang to attention. She ogled it lustfully for a few seconds, appraising it's length and girth. Then she lowered her head down and embraced it with her mouth. Martin groaned uncontrollably. He couldn't ever remember feeling like this before. Jenny's lovemaking was warm and tender but she had never liked giving oral sex and Martin had never wanted to pressure her. They had so much to enjoy in each other's bodies that he felt he could manage without that if she was uncomfortable. But the sensations that were now flowing through Martin's cock now made him realize what he had been missing for all of those years. Lori's mouth moved slowly up and down the length of his shaft, her tongue flicking over the sensitive head of his cock on each stroke and each time bolts of lightning shot through Martin's body. He had been close to cumming before knew he wouldn't last long. The sensation was building and moving up his cock with each passing second. “Lori…I'm not gonna last. If you want to move away…” “Fuck no!” Lori gulped. “I want to taste it all. I want you to cum in my mouth.” Lori's mouth and tongue picked up the pace, her long hair draping over his balls, sending him into more ecstasy as she bobbed her head up and down his shaft. It was enough to send Martin over the edge. His mouth opened and he grunted loudly as he felt the pleasure erupt through his cock and spread out through his legs, toes and up into his chest. His head felt like it was going to explode too as he felt surge after surge of cum shoot from his cock and hit the back of Lori's throat. She gurgled, gulped, gurgled again… but continued to suck and engulf his penis with her warm lips until, after 7 or 8 convulsions Martin's orgasm subsided. Lori slowly withdrew her lips from Martin's cock and he could see a thick string of his cum emerging and flowing from out of her mouth and drooling over his still twitching cock. Then in one sudden movement she moved her body and head forwards and kissed him hard on the lips - her tongue insistently pressing open his mouth. And for the first time in his life Martin could taste the salty thickness of his own pleasure. His senses were truly overwhelmed. Lori's body finally collapsed onto his. Their chests heaving against each other and small grunts of pleasure still coming from their mouths. Martin reached his hands down to Lori's ass and pushed them up inside her panties, feeling the warmth of their flesh for the first time. “I love your ass,” he whispered, in Lori's ear. “Say it again…but say it how you are really thinking it.” Martin paused. Shocked at her insightfulness. “I fucking love your ass,” Martin said, much louder this time. “That's more like it,” Lori grinned. “We'll find the animal in you yet.” “I've certainly discovered yours,” Martin laughed. “You don't leave your screaming on the court do you?” Lori laughed. “Fuck no! A girl's got to express herself!” “I had been wondering…,” Martin said, “…and imagining.” “Oh really! You've been thinking about me in that way then? Have you been jerking off to me?” Lori grinned. Even after all that had just happened Martin still felt a twinge of embarrassment. “I might have,” he said shyly. Then with more boldness said, “Have you thought of me in this way before?” Lori giggled. “Let's just say you might have come to mind when I've been playing with myself these last few weeks.” Martin's eyes widened. “I'd love to have been a fly on the wall.” “Well,” Lori smiled wickedly “there's no need for that. There's so much more of this evening yet to come…” By Dansilver for Literotica 

This week... The boys are finally proved right. Released in 2008 and directed by Matt Reeves, "Cloverfield" is a found-footage monster film that redefined the giant monster genre with its unique approach and intense storytelling. The film follows a group of young New Yorkers who find themselves caught in the midst of a colossal monster attack on the city. Shot entirely from the perspective of a handheld camcorder, the film immerses viewers in the chaos and terror of the unfolding catastrophe. As the group struggles to survive and make their way to safety, they encounter terrifying creatures spawned by the monstrous entity known as Cloverfield. The film's innovative use of the found-footage format, coupled with its relentless pacing and visceral action sequences, creates a sense of immediacy and realism that sets it apart from traditional monster movies. What sets "Cloverfield" apart is its emphasis on character-driven storytelling amidst the chaos of a catastrophic event. While the giant monster wreaks havoc on New York City, the film focuses on the relationships and personal struggles of its protagonists, adding depth and emotional resonance to the narrative. The found-footage style lends an air of authenticity to the film, allowing viewers to experience the terror and confusion of the characters firsthand. "Cloverfield" revitalized the monster movie genre with its fresh perspective and innovative approach, paving the way for a new wave of found-footage horror films and establishing itself as a modern classic in the genre. Instagram: @aahfterhorrorpodcastTwitter: @aahfterhorrorFacebook: aahfterhorrorpodcastEmail: aafterhorrorpod@outlook.com

Yikes, God must really care about our undivided loyalty! Almost like He knows we're only destroying ourselves by not being fully devoted to Him...?Check out outloudbible.com for helpful study resources, and learn how to join the Patreon community in support of Outloud Bible Project. Want to jump straight to the Patreon page? Check it out at https://www.patreon.com/outloudbible

What is the impact Takeaways have on our health? and if we have the occasional one what should we order? That's what Gregg wants to know from today's guest - Henry Dimbleby MBE. Henry is the original Co-Founder of the popular fast food chain Leon, and Co-Founder of ‘Chefs in Schools'. He's a regular speaker on how to create a better food system and is a Sunday Times Best Selling Author of the book ‘Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape” - a manifesto for revolutionising our food system. Sheesh! Or should we say ‘Shish!' this is a good episode. For podcast updates make sure to follow Gregg on Instagram @greggwallace, and make sure to follow Henry Dimbleby and his amazing work on X @henrydimbleby Produced by Emily Sandford, Photography by Jiksaw, Artwork by Bill Roberts & Hannah Sims, Video Footage by Samson Falodun. The Head of Comedy and Entertainment Podcasts at Global is Chris LanderThis episode contains material relating to weight loss, fitness and mental attitude to food and is for entertainment purposes only. Listeners should always seek health advice from a medical practitioner. Get £40 off your first year of Annual Membership at GreggWallace.Health with code PIECEOFCAKE.And for a free eBook, use code FREESLICE. Click here to redeem.Terms and conditions apply.

Ever had a spider trapped in the car with you on a country road and you needed a coffee-shit? No? What about 150 bugs in your nose? Or eaten a daddy long legs? Strap in, friends. There is a BIT on in this one.

Food Friday! Reina from Shish Kebab House, celebrating 30 years in business. Reina brings in hummus, moltabal, lamb shank, and their special chicken and rice dish with just the right amount of heat! Go to shishkebabhouseoftucson.com for hours and location. Movies with Mark Van Buren--Top Train Movies!

Abiding In Christ - Yordy, Betty & Shish by Ebenezer Endiryas

A lot of guys don't know the difference between a run of the mill shish test from a woman, which is designed not to be mean, but to make sure you are the dominant masculine man she things you are. It's a congruence test to see if she can knock you off your center. Some guys look at it as blatant disrespect. There can be a find line, but there is definitely a difference between a shish test and disrespectfully bad behavior. Let's talk about it today! // BOOKS // Pre-order my new book on Kindle - http://books.comeonmanpod.com // COURSES // Practical Law of Attraction course: http://loa.comeonmanpod.com The Conversation Conversion Blueprint Dating App Course By Performance Potential: https://www.performancepotential.co/a... - Coupon Code: COMEONMAN30 The Clarey School of Economic Philosophy: https://theclareyschoolofeconomicphil... Jon Fitch's Practical Self-Defense: https://gumroad.com/a/780330707/ubexvq RP Thor's Courses, Coaching and Group Membership: https://gumroad.com/a/505970387 // COACHING AND OTHER RESOURCES // Beer Club: http://beer.comeonmanpod.com Coaching: http://gumroad.comeonmanpod.com FREE PDF with 20 Dating App Openers! Join my email list: http://list.comeonmanpod.com MERCH: http://merch.comeonmanpod.com Recommended Reading: https://is.gd/COMPBooks Get free shipping from Duke Cannon on orders over $25: http://duke.comeonmanpod.com The CURE for male pattern baldness (Skull Shaver): https://bit.ly/428k9Xy Donate to the show: https://streamelements.com/se-847333/tip Join the 3% Brotherhood: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3perc... // SOCIAL MEDIA // Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bestmenspod Follow on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/comeonmanpo... Follow on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ComeOnManPOD Follow on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/comeonmanpod... // OTHER MEDIA // Watch on YouTube - http://youtube.com/comeonmanpodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comeonman/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comeonman/support

Update on the tragedies on Shishapangma and in Israel. The tragedy in Israel has affected the Israeli climbers Aviad Sido and Nadav Ben Yehuda. Today's episode is an opinion piece. Based on what has been happening over the last few years. it seems that those who are looking for records are putting themselves and others at risk because they are prioritizing records over safety. I give 2 examples, including last week's deaths on Shish of the American women Gina Rzucidlo and Anna Gutu. Want to get outside more? ⁠Check out my free 5-Day Get Outside More Challenge,⁠ enrolment opens the 1st of each month and the challenge starts the 2nd Monday of each month. Come and join the fun. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pauline-reynolds-nuttall/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pauline-reynolds-nuttall/support

We continue our series of recordings live and in-person at Groceryshop 2023 this episode with a fascinating exploration of trends in the world of startups with Microsoft for Startups global retail lead, Shish Shridhar. Part of our special cross-over event with guest host, Jeff Roster, host of This Week in Innovation podcast, Jeff and regular host Ricardo Belmar sat down with Shish to discuss 3 trends at Groceryshop in the context of the startup community – Generative AI, meal planning, and automation. Plus, the trio take a look at what we should expect in the broader retail tech community over the next 6 months going into 2024. It's a Retail Avengers reunion from back in our original Clubhouse days – get ready for a fun, raw and uncut, discussion with the potential to go in any direction with this trio!We also bring you the latest episode in our ‘Blade to Greatness' mini-series! In this segment, we invite a retail industry leader to offer one skill or trait that all retail executives need to become great leaders. Whether in stores or at corporate, we'll uncover valuable tips and advice that you can apply to your own retail career path. Jeffrey McNulty, Founder and CEO of New Retail Ethos Consultancy, author of The Ultimate Retail Manual, and creator of The Ultimate Retail Course: Become a Retail RockStarreturns to the show for this powerful new segment to discuss an incredibly important skill retail leaders need – fostering intrapreneurship!NEWS! We are pleased to announce that the Retail Razor Show is a Vendors In Partnership Awards nominee for The Retail Voice Award at the upcoming NRF Big Show 2024! We're asking all our listeners and YouTube viewers to help us win by showing your love for our show in the voting polls:Here's how you can help by voting:1. Visit https://bit.ly/3QlKr4X2. Register to vote.3. Vote for The Retail Razor Show in The Retail Voice Award category.WOW! As we hit our 2-year anniversary with the show, we're honored and humbled to reach the top of the charts on the Goodpods podcast platform!No. 1 in the Top Indie Management Podcasts of the week chartNo. 3 in the Top Indie Management Podcasts of the month chartNo. 7 in the Top Marketing Podcasts of the week chartWe can't thank our Goodpods listeners enough! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and send us your comments!UPDATE - We're currently at number 20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list – if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts & help us move our way up the Top 20! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag & Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/TRRSinstaFollow us on Threads: https://bit.ly/TRRSthreadsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

Visuals: https://getbehindthebillboard.com/episode-61-shish-patelPodcast episode #61 features one of the industry's good guys, Shish Patel. Talented, funny, charming, thoughtful and extremely humble, it was a great hour with Shish, who regaled us with brilliant stories behind brilliant billboards.The baby in the marmite poster is a cracker. A story that involved another DDB creative Pete Hayes and a photo of his child never intended for a Marmite billboard, but ended up being the actual shot in the ad.There's also the Comfort poster that appeared outside Shish's parents shop which helped them finally understand what it was that he did for a living.There's more Marmite involving The Love Party and The Hate Party. Iconic work for FT. And the ‘Night drive' campaign for VW where we discussed the entire campaign - TV print billboards - which was a seminal moment in the VW oeuvre.Shish thanks so much for coming on and talking art and commerce in equal measure. And sampling Hugh's madierra cake.

On this episode of Huntavore, Nick has been placed on injured reserve for a few days due to a procedure. While he's icing up, Rob Chippone joins the show to share some tricks or moves when frying fish and cooking whole piglets. Rob is a big fan of the sous vide and we brainstorm how using that can prepare all kinds of meat for an outdoor intactactive barbecue. Join us on an inspiring chat, on this episode of Huntavore. Nick is recovering from his vasectomy, which after an attack from kidney stones last fall, was a total cakewalk. Rob joins in from his new home is South Carolina, where the guys talk a bit about fishing. Rob likens being a sportsmen to jujitsu as in, the martial art has belts that show your progression, and how it's about understand over who you beat. Same goes for hunting and fish. You earn your stripes not for the particular size of deer, but for what you know. Conversation also jumps onto fried fish, and the many ways I can change up the same old same. Think about Coconut Perch, I know right. On top of that, the guys talk about how sous vide is not a one trick pony. And Nick dreams about a Shish kabob around a smokeless fire ring. Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content! Show Partners Tappecue Meat Probes Instagram: @tappecue Website: https://bit.ly/2NIr0Xj Coupon Code 10% off: HUNT10 Umai Dry Instagram: @umaidry Website: bit.ly/3WhfnnX Sign up for the newsletter for 10% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Huntavore, Nick has been placed on injured reserve for a few days due to a procedure.  While he's icing up, Rob Chippone joins the show to share some tricks or moves when frying fish and cooking whole piglets.  Rob is a big fan of the sous vide and we brainstorm how using that can prepare all kinds of meat for an outdoor intactactive barbecue.  Join us on an inspiring chat, on this episode of Huntavore.Nick is recovering from his vasectomy, which after an attack from kidney stones last fall, was a total cakewalk.  Rob joins in from his new home is South Carolina, where the guys talk a bit about fishing.  Rob likens being a sportsmen to jujitsu as in, the martial art has belts that show your progression, and how it's about understand over who you beat.  Same goes for hunting and fish.  You earn your stripes not for the particular size of deer, but for what you know.  Conversation also jumps onto fried fish, and the many ways I can change up the same old same.  Think about Coconut Perch, I know right.  On top of that, the guys talk about how sous vide is not a one trick pony.  And Nick dreams about a Shish kabob around a smokeless fire ring.Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content!Show PartnersTappecue Meat ProbesInstagram: @tappecueWebsite: https://bit.ly/2NIr0XjCoupon Code 10% off: HUNT10Umai DryInstagram: @umaidryWebsite: bit.ly/3WhfnnXSign up for the newsletter for 10% off

On this episode of Huntavore, Nick has been placed on injured reserve for a few days due to a procedure.  While he's icing up, Rob Chippone joins the show to share some tricks or moves when frying fish and cooking whole piglets.  Rob is a big fan of the sous vide and we brainstorm how using that can prepare all kinds of meat for an outdoor intactactive barbecue.  Join us on an inspiring chat, on this episode of Huntavore.Nick is recovering from his vasectomy, which after an attack from kidney stones last fall, was a total cakewalk.  Rob joins in from his new home is South Carolina, where the guys talk a bit about fishing.  Rob likens being a sportsmen to jujitsu as in, the martial art has belts that show your progression, and how it's about understand over who you beat.  Same goes for hunting and fish.  You earn your stripes not for the particular size of deer, but for what you know.  Conversation also jumps onto fried fish, and the many ways I can change up the same old same.  Think about Coconut Perch, I know right.  On top of that, the guys talk about how sous vide is not a one trick pony.  And Nick dreams about a Shish kabob around a smokeless fire ring.Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content!Show PartnersTappecue Meat ProbesInstagram: @tappecueWebsite: https://bit.ly/2NIr0XjCoupon Code 10% off: HUNT10Umai DryInstagram: @umaidryWebsite: bit.ly/3WhfnnXSign up for the newsletter for 10% off

On this episode of Huntavore, Nick has been placed on injured reserve for a few days due to a procedure.  While he's icing up, Rob Chippone joins the show to share some tricks or moves when frying fish and cooking whole piglets.  Rob is a big fan of the sous vide and we brainstorm how using that can prepare all kinds of meat for an outdoor intactactive barbecue.  Join us on an inspiring chat, on this episode of Huntavore.Nick is recovering from his vasectomy, which after an attack from kidney stones last fall, was a total cakewalk.  Rob joins in from his new home is South Carolina, where the guys talk a bit about fishing.  Rob likens being a sportsmen to jujitsu as in, the martial art has belts that show your progression, and how it's about understand over who you beat.  Same goes for hunting and fish.  You earn your stripes not for the particular size of deer, but for what you know.  Conversation also jumps onto fried fish, and the many ways I can change up the same old same.  Think about Coconut Perch, I know right.  On top of that, the guys talk about how sous vide is not a one trick pony.  And Nick dreams about a Shish kabob around a smokeless fire ring.Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant, outdoor content!Show PartnersTappecue Meat ProbesInstagram: @tappecueWebsite: https://bit.ly/2NIr0XjCoupon Code 10% off: HUNT10Umai DryInstagram: @umaidryWebsite: bit.ly/3WhfnnXSign up for the newsletter for 10% off

Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HEREJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAYConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTokJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAY: theglitter.meConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTok: theglitter.me#socialmediatips #socialmediamanagement #socialmediamanagement #socialmediamarketing #contentcreationGrab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HERECheck out all the CONTENT CREATION + SOCIAL MEDIA resources I have at THEGLITTER.ME

Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HEREJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAYConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTokWe'll dive into scheduling your content and using Instagram stories for maximum impact. Schedule your posts, no more drafts! Embrace the unpredictability of TikTok. Instagram stories are your shining star for building relationships and boosting sales. Share your personal side too! Let's make the next seven days count—promote your business and drop those links. Tomorrow, we'll simplify and provide a system to move forward. Go get your content shish together!Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HERECheck out all the CONTENT CREATION + SOCIAL MEDIA resources I have at THEGLITTER.ME

Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HEREJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAYConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTokHey Besties, welcome back to my five-part series: "Let's Get Your Content Shish Together." Today, it's day three, and we're talking about putting your content together. You'll need a project management system like Trello, Asana, or ClickUp. Gather all your graphics and videos, edit them, and organize them on your Trello board or scheduler. Add captions and hashtags, and save to TikTok drafts. It's easy. I do this for clients all the time. I know you can do it too. It just takes practice.Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HERECheck out all the CONTENT CREATION + SOCIAL MEDIA resources I have at THEGLITTER.ME

Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HEREJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAYConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTokLet me help you simplify content creation. Today, we're gonna gather your content. Whether you're filming videos, making graphics, or capturing specific content, you need a plan. I'll walk you through how I do it for my clients. You can create content even if you work alone using tools like a tripod or Canva. Stay tuned for day three, when I'll show you how it all comes together.Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HERECheck out all the CONTENT CREATION + SOCIAL MEDIA resources I have at THEGLITTER.ME

Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HEREJoin CRUSH YOUR CONTENT and learn how to exactly how to Make Money from Social Media, and create content that you are obsessed with! Join NOW and START CRUSHING CONTENT TODAYConnect with Sam on Instagram or TikTok"Let's Get Your Content Shish Together" is a five-part series to help you organize and streamline your content creation process. Being a busy boss, I understand the overwhelm of content creation. Part one is all about creating a seamless flow for your content. Start by outlining the topics you'd like to cover and what you're selling. Don't forget to jot down other aspects of your content. Plan your daily posts for the next seven days and make sure you include your profit and brand. We'll dig deeper into these strategies tomorrow.Grab your FREE Monthly THE STATE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Report HERECheck out all the CONTENT CREATION + SOCIAL MEDIA resources I have at THEGLITTER.ME

ShiSh is the Global Lead for Retail with Microsoft for Startups, leveraging his expertise to revolutionize the retail industry with cutting-edge innovations. At Microsoft, one of the things he has been invested into is the Industrial Metaverse and its applications. By working with the retail industry from an innovation perspective, he has been directly in touch with startups that are using the Metaverse to solve old and new problems in large scale manufacturing plants and industries in general. In this conversation, we talk about the Industrial Metaverse, Digital Twins, and examples of applications.

I often say that all women test men, either consciously and subconsciously. It's unavoidable. You can next every woman who tests you, but the next one will do it too. You might as well learn how to handle it. On top of that, men often test each other as well. We usually do this by busting on each other. Sometimes this is subconscious too, but either way men and women know that they can't trust a man that doesn't have a firm grip on his emotions. Today, we're going to learn how to handle all kinds of tests, so you know how to be UNSHAKABLE! Never let them see you sweat! // COURSES // Practical Law of Attraction course: http://loa.comeonmanpod.com The Conversation Conversion Blueprint Dating App Course By Performance Potential: https://www.performancepotential.co/a/2147499861/s5RamP7C - Coupon Code: COMEONMAN30 The Clarey School of Economic Philosophy: https://theclareyschoolofeconomicphilosophy.teachable.com/?affcode=636918_r5uujdh8 Jon Fitch's Practical Self-Defense: https://gumroad.com/a/780330707/ubexvq RP Thor's Courses, Coaching and Group Membership: https://gumroad.com/a/505970387 // COACHING AND OTHER RESOURCES // Join my Patreon (Coaching): http://patreon.com/comeonmanpod FREE STICKERS! Join my email list: http://list.comeonmanpod.com MERCH: http://merch.comeonmanpod.com Recommended Reading: https://is.gd/COMPBooks Get free shipping from Duke Cannon on orders over $25: http://duke.comeonmanpod.com The CURE for male pattern baldness (Skull Shaver): https://bit.ly/428k9Xy Donate to the show: https://streamelements.com/se-847333/tip Join the 3% Brotherhood: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3percentbrotherhood // SOCIAL MEDIA // Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@bestmenspod Follow on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/comeonmanpodcast/ Follow on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ComeOnManPOD Follow on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/comeonmanpodcast // OTHER MEDIA // Watch on YouTube: http://youtube.com/comeonmanpodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comeonman/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/comeonman/support

Join us this week as we walk through progressive discipline with Paula.... Please turn off the lights... We'll cover everything from coaching to termination and most importantly why progressive discipline is so important. FREE WEBINAR! May 24, 2023 10:00-11:00 am (MST)https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4981821645794637148FREE MNW/MSW Webinar Join us on May 24, 2023 10:00-11:00 am (MST) for this FREE Webinar! Employment law legal update!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Did you miss #NRF2023 in January this year? No worries, we've got you covered this episode with our special NRF Recap! It's all part of our special podcast cross-over series, #NRFLive, with the This Week In Innovation podcast. In Part 5, the final episode in the series, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Jeff Roster speak with the North America Lead for Retail & Consumer Goods at Avanade, Greg Jones. Join Greg, Jeff & Ricardo as they discuss the biggest trends and themes they saw at the show, from exhibitors, to startups, to what retailers told them were their main takeaways from the show. Regular cohost Casey Golden also joins Ricardo for a quick introduction and recap!You'll also find out why this episode was not recorded live and in-person at #NRF2023 in the fabulous Avanade lounge. Instead it was recorded post-NRF – and yes, there is a story behind that! As a bonus, you can watch the video of the entire conversation on our YouTube channel. A big thank you to Avanade for sponsoring this series and making the recordings possible!News alert! We've moved up to #18 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list - please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we'll move our way up the Top 20! Leave us a review & be mentioned in future episodes! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your regular hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E10e Avanade - Greg Jones[00:00:00] ​[00:00:00] Show Intro [00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hello and welcome to a special season two episode 10 part five of the Retail Razor Show. This is the fifth and final episode in our multi-part series recorded live and in person at the N R F 2023 Show in January. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:00:36] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden. Welcome to the Retail Razor Show, retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. And welcome N R F fans to our hottake, hashtag N R F Live the mini-series.[00:00:56] Ricardo Belmar: Well, Casey, we are at the last episode in our crossover [00:01:00] event with Jeff Roster and his This Week in Innovation podcast, and this is a, a special final episode to close out the series. Thanks to our sponsor, Avanade that graciously allowed us to record the whole series in their, in their fabulous lounge space overlooking the main expo floor.[00:01:15] For this final episode, Jeff and I were fortunate enough to sit down with Avanade's Greg Jones, their North America lead for Retail and Consumer Goods, and, and also a friend of ours, to recap what we saw at N R F, talk about the state of startups in retail which AAuD actually hosted three startup showcases during NRF with Microsoft for Startups team and our fellow Retail Avenger, Shish Shridhar.[00:01:36] And two of our podcast guests came from those showcases, the 1 M robotics and Z blocks. They're both part of that program. And of course I know it's always near and dear to your heart anytime we talk about retail startups.[00:01:47] Casey Golden: It is so a big shout out to Avanade for supporting and sponsoring this crossover and just, wow. I mean, this whole series has been a celebration of [00:02:00] retail and just showing us what N R F was all about this year.[00:02:04] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. And you know, this discussion with Greg really highlights what I think so many in the media have been missing about the retail industry. That is really a more positive outlook about what's to come in 2023. You know, we hear about all the, the negative things that get reported, but that wasn't really the mood.[00:02:22] At this N R F and, and we talk about that in this in this episode, you know, positive in the sense that even with all of those headwinds that are out there and global problems and everything, retail still finds a way to innovate and finds a way to deliver great customer and employee experiences.[00:02:35] Casey Golden: Yes, and, and the customer experiences always begin with the employee experience, and often that starts with what software they're using or lack thereof. So really enjoy this highlight.[00:02:50] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let's dive right in and listen to our conversation with Greg Jones from Avanade[00:03:01] Greg Jones Interview[00:03:01] Ricardo Belmar: Hello everybody. We are back to wrap up our N R F Live series that Jeff roster and I have been fortunate enough to speak to a number of fascinating folks during N R F Week and graciously as Avanade has sponsored us and gave us the space and facility to record. We're coming back after the show now with Greg Jones from Avanade to kind of talk through what stood out to us, what were some of the highlights of the show, and you know, see what where we think things are gonna go next. So, without any further delay, Jeff, what do you say? We just dive in.[00:03:36] Jeff Roster: Absolutely. Let's get, let's get it going.[00:03:38] Ricardo Belmar: All right. So please to welcome Greg Jones from Avanade. Greg, why don't you introduce yourself, kick us off and tell us a little bit about your background and what you're doing at Avanade.[00:03:47] Greg Jones: Yeah, absolutely. Ricardo. And, and look, thank, thank you both. Yeah, Ricardo and, and Jeff for the time and the opportunity. I think we're, we're. Yeah, really excited collectively on the, on nrf. You know, it was obviously great to be back in, back in person and, and [00:04:00] yeah, great to be able to have this conversation as well.[00:04:01] Cause there's a, a lot, a lot that got learnt and a lot that kind of excited the industry as well. So a bit of background. So Greg Jones run the, and look after the North America practice here at Avanade for retail and consumer goods. Avanade, you know, for, for those who don't know was a, a joint founded organization back in 2000 between Accenture and Microsoft.[00:04:20] We're a global system integrator, you know, over 60,000 people globally, but very focused around industry as a whole. And, and retail is one of the priority industries that we have. And that's what we definitely brought together as part of Avanade as and NRF was the opportunity to be able to showcase some of the capabilities that Avanade is delivering. [00:04:38] So bringing all of our expertise together. So I've been with Avanade for two years. Prior to that I was with Microsoft as part of the global retail team looking after everything from partner ecosystem and business strategy for quite a number of years. And again, pleased to be able to be here with yourself and, and Jeff.[00:04:54] Ricardo Belmar: Well, thanks very much for, for joining us, Greg. What, why don't you give us your sense of, [00:05:00] you know, obviously Avanade, you guys had a, a number of really great activities during N R F. You had the the breakfast session at the beginning of the week. You had some startup showcases happening with Microsoft for startups.[00:05:11] Why don't you, you know, give us what you think are some of the highlights from the various activities, and then maybe we can talk a little bit about what, things stood out to all of us from the overall, from N R F?[00:05:20] Greg Jones: Yeah, no, absolutely. I was gonna say, yeah, we, we did a, a lot to be able to, to really bring you know, the, the view of retail in the current climate as well. So we needed to make sure that, you know, we were coming to the event with capabilities. And some of the, the demos that we had that were very focused around helping organizations you know, get the value out of what they've got now as well.[00:05:40] And, and I would say that, you know, retailers as a whole yeah, I've never faced such a, a volume of, of, or a variety of challenges as well that that's facing them at the moment. And it's also facing and, and making some tough decisions. And that was part of the conversations that happened throughout NRF is that people are there.[00:05:55] To look at where they need to be able to pivot and how to be able to pivot their organizations, you know, during [00:06:00] the, the current climate at the moment as well. And I would say, yeah, through the discussions, there were two primary challenges that were, were being discussed, which is the, the need to control costs.[00:06:09] And also to, yeah, protect margins and there need to be a responsible retailer as, as well and around, you know, doing what matters in the current climate, being able to still ensure that delight experience for the customers. But there's also an element of the employee experience that really came through as part of the discussions that we had.[00:06:27] In particular a breakfast panel. That we did during nrf, where we had, you know, the Chief HR officer from Northern Tools and Equipment, very much talking about the importance of the employees and how through enabling those employees can continue that delight experience and, and be that, you know, continuation of that brand engagement with customers as well.[00:06:46] So, It was actually really interesting on, on some of the elements that that came together. The way that we really came, you know, to N R F was to be able to look at what we're calling yeah, we call it reignite Physical Retail, which is really bringing that [00:07:00] physical retail and, you know, obviously the online worlds together.[00:07:03] And how to be able to, you know, look at all aspects of that, that journey or, you know, what we're calling the, the customers. The only channel is how to be able to engage with that customer through all aspects of the channel of engagement, how we can help retailers and being able to do that. Yeah, it was great to be able to see the, the messaging landed very well with the, the client conversations.[00:07:20] You know, the discussions that we had with, uh, with customers was very on point in regards to, you know, the, the challenges that they're facing and how we can definitely help , but there are also some surprises out there as well that we could talk about a little bit later as well.[00:07:33] Ricardo Belmar: I'm, I'm curious in, in some of your client conversations, so some of the things I heard fairly consistently, and you, and you mentioned it at the beginning too, is this idea of you're trying to find and identify the things I need to do as a retailer to make my operations more efficient, to kind of lower that cost basis while still.[00:07:50] Doing it in a way that's not gonna impact my overall customer experience, particularly in store now, that I think we can all agree that we can put to bed all, all those worries about stores going away, that hadn't been [00:08:00] real narrative for so long that you know, we can now all safely point to and say, yeah, that's not happening.[00:08:04] Stores, stores are here to stay. But we're any, you know, was that a consistent theme that you heard as well?[00:08:09] Greg Jones: Yeah, it was, I mean, you know, obviously the, the stores aren't going away. At all. You know, we've all heard that the business models of stores have to change. You know, and that's, that's no secret. You know, you're looking at new store designs that are, are coming out across the globe of, of how to be able to provide more of a curated experience.[00:08:24] You know, and that, that in itself, I think is just part of the new business model that, you know, retailers are having to be able to make sure that the, the stores are, you know, the showroom. It's that way to be able to bridge , their online channels with the physical channels. And that pivot, I think definitely has been occurring more so post pandemic as well.[00:08:42] And I think that's where, where people are now starting to see we need best, best of both worlds. You know, we're seeing Nike as an example, that are, are very much looking at redefining their, their store environments you know, through that whole direct to consumer engagement and, and element that they're, they're driving for as well, which I think is, is super, super cool in regards to [00:09:00] what they're doing.[00:09:00] And. It almost like if I look at, you know, the Nike store in New York, it's a, it's a destination. You walk past there and people are there to do experience that, that whole engagement point. But I think it also came back to some of the, the fundamentals as well where retailers are, are sitting there going, we've invested in, in a lot of technology over the course of the last three years.[00:09:19] Are we getting the most out of that as well? And that's, again, that was a pivot of the discussion on kind of doing more with less or doing more with the investments that they've already made and, and looking at ways to be able to really squeeze the most out of those investments. Is there opportunities to be able to consolidate?[00:09:35] Absolutely. But it's also a way to be able to look at maximizing the investments that they've already put into place. So I'd be def definitely curious, like, you know, Jeff and, and Ricardo. I mean, you know, from discussions that you had with, with customers, did you look at that or hear in regards to getting more outta the investments that people have made to be able to, to reach the, the goals their wanting to achieve.[00:09:53] Jeff Roster: You wanna go first, Ricardo, or you want.[00:09:56] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, sure. I mean, from, from my perspective, I, I, I definitely heard [00:10:00] quite a bit of that, of, you know, what do I need to do to extract that benefit, right? From everything I've already invested in. I, I kind of, I tended to hear that coupled with, you know, this recognition that I, my goal isn't to cut a cost, right?[00:10:14] My goal was to gain efficiency. You know, strengthen some aspect of an operation that perhaps when we first created this new capability, the goal at the time was to just get that capability out there with, with not too much regard for how expensive was it gonna be to deliver it. And now was the time to figure out, well, now that I've delivered it and we have this cap, this customer facing capability, how can we do it in a more efficient way?[00:10:37] And if that means I have to invest in, in another, you know, supplemental capability on top of that to help facilitate the overall reduction of the operational cost long term, then that's okay. There was some recognition that that might be necessary, but I think I, I saw as a trend that You know, if there are a lot of really interesting new technologies out there, they were being viewed with the lens of how does that [00:11:00] make me more efficient?[00:11:01] Or how does that make my operation better? Versus where, you know, the last N R F I remember the, the, the thought would've been, wow, that's really neat. How, how, how well received is that gonna be? If my customer sees that, then therefore I need to have it,[00:11:13] Greg Jones: Yeah.[00:11:14] Ricardo Belmar: which is a very different lens.[00:11:15] Greg Jones: Yeah, exactly. I mean, yeah, one of the, as I said, you know, one of the surprises that, that I saw and certainly heard across, you know, the entire show, show floor was, you know, Leading into N R F. There was certainly, you know, there was you know, amplification, there was obviously the buzz that was happening about the metaverse.[00:11:32] How is that being applied? You know, retailers that are looking at that, brands that are, are definitely jumping in and, and, and exploring and engaging with the, the metaverse for their, for their particular brand. But I was actually quite surprised that, you know, I didn't see walking into, you know, walking into the Javits Center,[00:11:48] yeah, I remember the days where, you know, AI was the, the big topic and you'd have banners all over the place in regards to ai, this and, you know, AI empowered retail and you know, what AI can do for you and your customer experiences [00:12:00] or the, the wonderful world of big data. You know, it was kind of all over the, the place walking to the Javits Center didn't see anything in regards to metaverse.[00:12:09] Now and visually, just in regards to, it wasn't necessarily there as a, you know, welcome to, or the, you know, the metaverse is changing the world and enabling, and I think part of that is, is the fact of people are still on, not on the edge, but they're still looking at how that can be applied and what that is going to do for their engagement, but also from an operational standpoint, given the current climate as well, is around do we look at supply chain visibility in inventory, our employees, how do we gain control of our, our entire data estate? Do we do that or we do metaverse? It's kind of the, there's a, there's an interesting kind of like, almost like a, a, an internal debate that people like it's, it's there, understand it, it's kind of, there's a new way to engage, but there's other things that we need to be focusing on as well.[00:12:56] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that's such an interesting point. Is, in the first three quarters of my [00:13:00] career I was about adoption. You know, my Gartner in i h l days where, where are we in adoption. And it's interesting kind of even talking about the M word metaverse. You know, a lot of analysts that I'm friends with are going back and forth and are saying, well, I didn't see any Metaverse stuff there.[00:13:15] Well you should have went up to the innovation lab because there was plenty of that there. But it, but the thing was, and I agree with you a hundred percent, Greg, there was, I, I don't think I saw the word metaverse once, but there was all the components of it, which is why I'm really such a big fan. And I got this first from Microsoft, the term immersive commerce, because it's not right now, it's, I don't think anybody's looking to buy a metaverse solution, but boy, you sure can find some very interesting stuff around holograms.[00:13:41] You can definitely find a lot around 3D objects. You can definitely find some stuff around around augmented reality. Not so much on the, on the, on the, on the goggles yet. I, I kind of get that. I mean, you know, I, I don't know know they see that, but boy, When you start thinking about what Ulta's doing with Roblox, what [00:14:00] home, what see not Home Depot Walmart is doing with Roblox, you are in, you're really seeing that immersive commerce.[00:14:06] Pieces begin to pick up and it's almost like there's a maturation in how we message the, how the vendor community messages this stuff. And it really, I, I didn't see, I, it just felt like a very mature approach to, to the show. Just. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Like screamy there's a great example.[00:14:24] I'll use, it's one of your competitors. Like, I, I'll, I'll be nice and not use it, but there was one a few years ago, there was like a, a, a certain signage that was everywhere and it was like, you know, it. I don't know. It seemed kind of silly, so I thi I just felt like it was a really, really mature way of going about the business of not just adopt, you know, technology adoption, but also also the, the, the push towards innovation.[00:14:49] Definitely on the you know, in the, in the innovation lab and definitely it. You know, in the Microsoft for startup stuff, I mean, there was some crazy interesting technology. So I, I love that balance. You [00:15:00] know, I just, I, I'm not sure, I'm not sure my, my fellow analysts though, picked up on that, that nuance cuz they're not chasing innovation.[00:15:05] They shouldn't be, they should be worried about where, what, you know, where, where we are in adoption. And boy that's that's gonna be a fun thing for us, some of us to chase, I think in the next, next 18 months.[00:15:15] Ricardo Belmar: Well, and, and you know, there, there's some things I saw too, so, I mean, I agree too. Greg said that, you know, that you didn't see Metaverse being flashed around everywhere. Like, like we had, you know, in places last year. And, and I agree with what you said, Jeff, that there are a lot of components about it spread out and, and lots of different places because, and I kind of perceive it that, as, you know, some of these components have useful things you can do with them today. Whereas I think everyone is still kind of figuring out what's my truly useful revenue generating thing that I can do that's customer facing in the metaverse that I, I know is gonna work with the customers I have? Or what, what can I do that's gonna attract new customers for me?[00:15:52] And I think everyone's still kind of figuring that part out. But there's some things, you know, I, I, I saw people thinking and talking about digital twins, which I view [00:16:00] that as a metaverse use case.[00:16:01] Greg Jones: Yep.[00:16:02] Jeff Roster: I want to, you know, I want a digital twin. I want, I want me, so I can go in and have two or three people going around the show. That's what I[00:16:09] Ricardo Belmar: your own digital twin go and [00:16:10] Jeff Roster: I need my [00:16:11] Ricardo Belmar: right? and go go talk to some [00:16:12] Jeff Roster: still, I[00:16:13] Greg Jones: I was gonna say, I think we had a startup about that as [00:16:16] Jeff Roster: there you go. There you go. And I'm, I still haven't only covered about 15 or 20% of the show.[00:16:20] I mean, I, it was unbelievable how complex that show was to cover. I mean, it was[00:16:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:16:26] Jeff Roster: I, it just, so there was so much stuff and then we haven't even talked about, you know, the stuff that was happening offsite. Really, really that show is just absolutely maturing and, and exploding.[00:16:36] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Well, well let's, let's kind of drill into this theme a little bit on what some of those new things were that it may not have been metaverse, but, you know, I, I, for example, I mean, I still saw some things around web three that I think were pretty interesting, particularly connecting with loyalty programs.[00:16:51] Which I see as a trending, trending thing. And then also saw some things around micro fulfillment that I think continues to be, maybe isn't a, a new topic to [00:17:00] talk about, but still I, I would consider it new in terms of adoption. To your point, Jeff, you know, where are things in adoption and ways to apply it.[00:17:07] So I think a lot of interesting things in, in pockets and areas, and particularly with what different startups were showing.[00:17:12] Greg Jones: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I'll, I'll jump onto the, the startup side. So a as, as you both know, you know, throughout the course of nrf, every day we, we, , in partnership with Microsoft brought together a number of, of, you know, very interesting and unique startups to be able to, it was more of an opportunity to be able to just share, share what are some of the things and, and organizations that are out there, the problems that they're trying to solve.[00:17:33] and the way that we broke it up was, again, very intentional. So the first day that we had we focused around what we were calling the intelligent store. So really looking at the, you know, kind of what is happening around that physical store element. Yeah. And there was some interesting, interesting startups with a likes of Shopic, right?[00:17:48] So Shopic, you know, it was a more of a smart cart frictionless shopping approach where, you know, it's a. Yeah, it's a self, it's a unit that then mounts onto a shopping cart. You can then pick the product off to the shelf, put that into your basket, [00:18:00] transact on the, at the cart itself, bag your product go and put it into the car.[00:18:04] And then you just put the, you know, put the, yeah, the, the rack back onto the, the charging station. Again, a, a cost effective way to be able to provide that frictionless shopping experience. And then you had others with you know, if I look at the, likes of Pathr AI. Which is, you know, really starting to look at, not just around measuring traffic, but it's also looking at the analytics of that physical world.[00:18:26] Understanding the shopper behavior within the retail stores, but it's leveraging the infrastructure that's already in place as well. So being, again, cost conscious, but being able to drive and, and, and pull value out of what's in the, the store that was, there were, that was a couple that we had on, on day one.[00:18:40] Day two, again, we pivoted around what was happening in the, the current days. So it was around looking at unified commerce and supply chain. So, you know, we had, you know, organizations like Next Billion ai. Again, looking at, you know, scale and managing the mapping ecosystem as well, and, and, you know, tackling , complex location based problems and [00:19:00] how to be able to use AI as a means to be able to bring, you know, geography and scale together to be able to look what was happening.[00:19:06] You then start to, to look at the likes of, you know, pocket. You know, and Pocket themselves is, is really a sort of a, a checkout platform that helps businesses access and retain that, the digital native shoppers globally. And it's, it's really, it was quite interesting on the way that they were looking at merchant partners looking at shelf analytics and, and you know, being able to bridge the yeah, bridge that online and, and in-store experience. [00:19:30] But the Day three was the one that kind of, I think, blew people's minds a little bit. And yeah, Jeff it comes back onto what we were all saying about, about Metaverse. We did have a session on Metaverse, but it was to be able to bring different elements.[00:19:42] You know, you start to look at this, you know, this commerce approach, you start to look at how, how different types of capabilities are, are being enabled. And one of, one of the startups that we had there was, was phenomenal. I mean, it it, you could have had an an hour just with this particular startup called Deep Brain ai.[00:19:58] And they're, they're all about, you know, [00:20:00] conversational artificial intelligence. And they were talking about stories of, you know, in the Asia region where, there is a mainstream news program that instead of having a, a, a. and, you know, a physical host hosting the, the TV program. It's a conversational AI and a, it's an AI driven you know, en engagement that happens.[00:20:21] And then radio stations that are you know, we're on a podcast. But, you know, it was kind of scary when it's starting to talk about, you know, again, this, conversational, , AI and how that could become the voice of radio moving forward. And that was one where, . It was good to have it sort of on the last day because I think people were just like, oh, you know, last day we're sitting down.[00:20:39] That's all good. And then there was all of a sudden this, well, hang on a minute. What, what, what are you talking about? And it was actually, it was kind of, it, it created a lot of, lot of great follow on discussions as well. But it was kind of, again, it was an opportunity to be able to bring something new to, you know, customers and, and anybody that was able to, to come past our showcase.[00:20:58] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that was the one with the [00:21:00] the Howie Mandel avatar, correct.[00:21:02] Greg Jones: Yeah, that's correct. Yep. Jeff.[00:21:04] Jeff Roster: So they were up in the they were up in the innovation zone. That's actually real. I mean, Howie is sending his, I don't know, what do you call it? His AI out and you can license that and for a, a, a cheaper rate than having Howie come out personally, I, I, I, I was shocked by that.[00:21:20] I mean, not shocked. That's probably too strong. But you know, again, that innovation versus adoption. Wow. You, you can, you now can you can. Pounds, dollars Euro rupi and say, there, there is money being generated. And obviously it's just, I mean, that's such a crazy scenario. How that's gonna play itself out feels really super metaverse to me.[00:21:41] So.[00:21:42] Greg Jones: Yeah,[00:21:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:21:43] Jeff Roster: It's just, I, I just, [00:21:45] Greg Jones: just,[00:21:45] just say[00:21:46] Jeff Roster: adoption. The[00:21:47] Ricardo Belmar: Just saying.[00:21:48] Jeff Roster: The the, the, not the, not just the innovation, but the adoption. When you can start going in stuff that we really, I don't think that was even around what, three years ago or at least before Covid, and now you, you can say, [00:22:00] wow, there's money being generated here.[00:22:01] That is[00:22:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.[00:22:03] Jeff Roster: adoption. That rapid innovation followed by, I think, pretty significant adoption coming forward. So a lot of stuff happening there.[00:22:11] Greg Jones: And I think to be honest, Jeff, that that in itself is, is part of the challenge for the industry, right? So as you said, yeah, three years ago, you would, I don't think we would, any of us would've been having a conversation about, you know, you know, Howie, Howie out there with his, you know, with his ai and that is, and you can, you know, you can purchase that, get him out there speaking and, and create this kind of character.[00:22:33] you've also then sort of blend that within the, the conversations that really bubbled up on the last day of NRF around chat G p T, right? You and, and you start to look at, okay, as a retailer, how do we, how do we, what do we do with this? How do we consume it? How does it get applied? And I think collectively, if I look at, you know you know, the, the three of us, I think there's a, an element of how can we help retailers? Really start to look at how it could be applied in that, in that [00:23:00]conversation of like responsible retailing, I think there's an element of, of, of a good conversation to have around that as well.[00:23:05] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that, that one's not going away because every analyst I've talked to is, is both intrigued and sweating bolts about that. Um, since I'm on, I'm on the other side of my career, I'm like, yeah, this sounds great. You know, let me just, let me just have this, absorb all this in unbelievable amount of information and then and, you know, spit out some content and let me edit it.[00:23:27] And then, just you know, roster's, opinion edited, or, you know, created by chat G P T and, and edited by me. And it seems fine to me. As long as somebody's sort of validating that Basically. Basically it's just ghost writing. So what does that, what does that mean for retail? I mean, how.[00:23:41] How are they gonna process that? How are they gonna absorb that man? We're, we're, we're, we're really out on the edge when we're, we're talking about that. And just imagine if by next year where we've really now spent six months, eight months, nine months, really beginning to live with this and seeing and seen podcast.[00:23:59] I mean, [00:24:00] there's a podcast where it's already interviewed the ai I mean, you know, it's, and did live. I mean, it was crazy. And that's, we're only on the, the earliest edge. So, So when I look at that, when I look at what teams are gonna need to do what, uh, what retailers are gonna need to do, we've always been screaming about, you know, air of intentional innovation is upon us.[00:24:16] Boy oh boy, that's on, that's on steroids now. You, you live streaming. What are you gonna do with live streaming? Are you gonna be comfortable having your store associates out there presenting your brand out in all kinds of environments? Are we gonna over-engineer that live streaming like we probably would've done 10 years ago?[00:24:31] Hopefully not. You know, [00:24:32] Ricardo Belmar: now you'll also have the option that maybe if, for your best store associates that do that, right, you could have their digital avatar do to live streaming for them while they're still helping a customer in the store.[00:24:40] Jeff Roster: I mean that that[00:24:41] Ricardo Belmar: Think about it that[00:24:42] Jeff Roster: that's just a g. Yeah, that's [00:24:43] Greg Jones: now you've just taken it next level.[00:24:45] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. , I mean, just, just thinking out on some of the, I, you know, there, everyone likes to talk about the customer service use cases, right?[00:24:51] Where today it might be, you know, the what, what every consumer probably learns to hate the chatbot on ev on every retailer's site that tries to solve their support [00:25:00] questions when they come in, ask. But now, when you have something like a chat g p t trying to solve those, you might actually get meaningful responses. And the consumer won't even realize that they're talking to an ai, if you don't tell 'em they're, they're gonna get the answers they want and move on. , you know, you can think of it in, in like, call center applications. I can think of. You know, I, I think to me those demos that we saw from like the deep brain ai, there, there's gotta be an example there of, whether it's Howie or some other celebrity type, you know, pseudo endorsement, right?[00:25:25] Standing at the, in a store window, kind of waving to the people coming by offering to tell 'em about what great new thing is inside the store, ? And to get people inside when it's just, it's not really them, it's their digital avatar.[00:25:34] Greg Jones: Yeah, it's, it's, gonna, it's, it's gonna be really, it's, it's exciting. I think it is exciting in regards to how it gonna be applied. I mean, I, you know, talking to my, my 17 year old son about Chat GPT and he was just like, yeah. It's like, I've known about this for months. I'm like, okay, good.[00:25:47] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:25:48] Greg Jones: you might, you might wanna, you might have wanted to share that with me before I step foot at nrf, but that's, that's a different, different [00:25:53] Jeff Roster: the second question is how much of your homework has, has that done for you?[00:25:57] Ricardo Belmar: has it done for you.[00:25:59] Greg Jones: Yes, [00:26:00] there is, is that subliminal sort of. Okay, let me, let me, let me re-look at your grades and see if there was a spike in improvement. Now I know. Now I know why, but now he's, he's a.[00:26:10] Ricardo Belmar: So, so Greg, let me ask you this to kind of last thing here, to close this out with all these things we just talked about of, based on, on what we saw at N R F. You know, what, what's your take on where retailers go next this year coming out of n r f. [00:26:22] Greg Jones: Yeah, look, I think it's sort of coming, coming out on the, on the back of nrf. You know, I would say that, there's the consistent excitement that is still there in regards to, you know, the market opportunity. You know? Yes. P their discretionary spend is starting to, to definitely slow down and we, we see that in all the reports and, yeah.[00:26:39] Discussions that we're having with our customers. I think, yeah, really for, for me, it's, it's, kind of the, the challenge and the opportunity is really just that bridge, you know, how to be able to bridge that physical and digital world together. You know, really unleash that, that customer experience.[00:26:52] And the other part of it is, is really around the data estate. You know, the, the one thing, and certainly one of the, the key themes that came up [00:27:00] and, and through the discussions that we had is what to do with this vast amount of data that has, yeah, I would say significantly grown over the last three years, just given the, the new.[00:27:09] New market opportunities, new direction that retailers have had to go. And there's a, there's a need and a, and a desire to, to look at, you know, how do we try and get control of of what we have as part of the data estate? Is there the opportunity about to monetize that as well? So if I really look at sort of the, the three th three themes, you know, data, data monetization, how to be able to, to do that, enable and sort of that bridge that physical and digital worlds and, and drive the most out of the investments that that organizations have had.[00:27:35] But being, keeping that in a responsible way. And, and I think, you know, the employees you know, We're having a lot of discussions with with retailers in regards to their employee enablement and how to be able to do that you know, in a responsible way as well. We need, we want to make sure that, you know, the associates are being given access to the right information to make them more informed and to be able to deliver a better customer experience.[00:27:57] But we also wanna make sure that it doesn't open. You know, [00:28:00] kind of the other counter worms in regards to, you know, on the clock and off the clock and hourly employee discussions. And I know that, Microsoft, you know, is very focused on around that, on, you know, the, the whole enablement and controlling access.[00:28:12] You know, it's, I I would say it's still, it's, it's an exci, it's still an exciting time and, and you know, I just know that we're, we're all in this together to be able to help retailers through, you know, through where we are and how to be able to get on the, the other side as well. I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward to NRF 2024.[00:28:29] I think it's gonna be exciting but it's gonna be, it's gonna be a journey over the, the course of the next few months just on how, how people are pivoting over the, the course of the, of the economy as well.[00:28:38] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that makes a, a lot of sense and I, I'm gonna delve a little bit on one of the points you made that we didn't talk as much about earlier, but that I caught it in some key moments around the show may not necessarily always a, a big focus, but certainly lots of people talking about is, you know, what kinds of things can be done that focus on, supporting those store associates and, and [00:29:00] frontline workers in, in the store, you know, what's the technology doing to serve them? It, it's not a discussion I believe, anymore about a technology that's replacing people. It's what's the technology that's helping the people that are there? Partly knowing that, , in most cases, re retailers aren't expecting to hire more people.[00:29:16] In the stores, there's still an issue of, of, you know, where do I find enough labor to run the store? And so you, , there's that element of needing the technology, but I think there's, there's now a renewed I'll say, I don't know if I should say new or renewed, but there's an interest for sure now in leveraging the technology to make that store environment a better work environment overall. For the team that's there and you know, doing it in a way that causes people to want to do that job. I, I think that's a key differentiator from what I've seen in past years.[00:29:44] Jeff Roster: Yeah, I'd agree with that. Almost the point where it was noticeable I thought. Uh, where, I don't, I'm trying to think back over the years was the discussion around the employee as, as predominant and I, I just don't think it was, and I just wonder if that maybe is a kind of [00:30:00] a, a fallout from, from Covid where we really saw how, how critical our supply chains are.[00:30:05] We saw how important people in those supply chains are, how important it's to have, you know, a working store, physical store in our neighborhoods. When it came time to get, know, milk or eggs or whatever. I don't know. It just felt, it just felt like a really interesting, it just felt like a better show.[00:30:21] It just felt like a better experience. It just felt like everyone[00:30:24] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:30:25] Jeff Roster: I don't know. And if, if that, if we got that out of that mess, we've all been through the last three years, uh, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it was worth it, but, but at least it's something positive that came out of all that, all that train wreck[00:30:34] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Yeah.[00:30:36] Greg Jones: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I look at NRF as being, you know, it's, it's the big show. Absolutely. But this year was the big reunion, you know, it was really that opportunity for people to be able to get back together in person, catch up, Have a laugh, you know, get and, and just reconnect. And I think it was, it was absolutely, it was, you know, it was energizing to be able to be in that environment.[00:30:56] But as I said, I think it was very much the, the big, big industry [00:31:00] reunion is really what N R F was about this year.[00:31:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:31:02] Jeff Roster: a good phrase.[00:31:03] Ricardo Belmar: I, I, I even kind of think of it almost like a big reset moment in that, you know, everybody had been in sort of a mode the last few years because of Covid, and this was almost felt like finally it was the, the one industry moment that let everybody get past that mood and to move to now we're ready to move on to what we're gonna do to make this industry better.[00:31:22] And I, I, I might, I would probably sum it up as much more of a collaborative note. from an industry point of view on how we're gonna do this than in past years, even pre covid, where, , it wasn't about What am I gonna do? This was more about what are we going to do? [00:31:37] Greg Jones: Yeah.[00:31:38] very much so. That's[00:31:39] a good. [00:31:40] Jeff Roster: that.[00:31:40] Ricardo Belmar: All right, Jeff, any, any last, , thoughts?[00:31:43] Jeff Roster: Oh man. It just, it's so exciting. All that. You know, I, I was one of the 6,000 that was there last year, and it was just, it just broke my heart. , and I just thought, my gosh, are we watching the, the end of retail? You know? And of course, remember that was all the talk about, you know, [00:32:00] buy online, pick up the store.[00:32:01] Awesome, awesome thing. But then, you know, do we are, do we even need this? And all the last mile stuff? And I'm like, no, no, we're, we're people, we're humans. We, we want to, we want to gather. And when I walked in, well, starting with v i p awards on Friday night, and then all the way through, , getting on the plane Wednesday afternoon or yeah, Wednesday afternoon, it just was all about re you know, re-engagement, you know, return.[00:32:23] You know, the celebration of the human experience, which I think retail probably more so than any industry, really captures that. And I just, I haven't felt as good coming out of a, a trade show, probably, probably ever actually. I just, yeah, I'm, uh, it's, it, it's an exciting time ahead. There's tons of stuff for, for us analysts to talk about.[00:32:41] There's a bunch of stuff for us focusing on innovation to talk about, and then there's just this tremendous celebration of, of what we can do as a society and as a, as a group and an industry. I, I'm, I'm really, really excited about the, about 2023.[00:32:54] Greg Jones: Yeah,[00:32:55] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. Greg, any final thoughts?[00:32:57] Greg Jones: I was gonna say sim, similar to Jeff, like excited about [00:33:00] 2023. You know, the. NR NRF is, it's really kind of the, it's the Super bowl of, of the, the industry and it brings everybody together and there's the, you know, the excitement around it. What I am definitely, you know, looking forward to is again, just the continuation of the conversations.[00:33:14] And, you know, it's, The industry is small. We know it's a very small world. You know, and keen to be able to, learn as we're all going through this through this year, just in regards to where we need to be able to pivot and, and how we need to be able to partner. And, you know, really looking forward to, you know, looking forward to a successful 2023 together and and celebrating great successes in 2024 at nrf as well.[00:33:34] Ricardo Belmar: Oh, I agree with that. Fantastic. Well, Greg, thank you so much for, for joining us for this N R F recap. I know we, we, we all attempted to do this live and while we were still in person during the show and had, let's say, a few technical glitches that maybe prevented us from successfully completing[00:33:52] Jeff Roster: One slight one.[00:33:54] Ricardo Belmar: Just, just one slight [00:33:55] Jeff Roster: have an [00:33:56] Ricardo Belmar: uncooperative microphone that, that prevented us from capturing all that [00:34:00] gold commentary that we knew we were gonna get. But , but [00:34:03] Greg Jones: app, Apparently Apparently there's some technology that can help with that.[00:34:06] That's [00:34:06] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah.[00:34:07] Yeah. We'll, we'll, Jeff, we have to look into that for sure.[00:34:10] Jeff Roster: Oh man.[00:34:11] Ricardo Belmar: the next time.[00:34:12] Greg Jones: That all, all good![00:34:14] Ricardo Belmar: All good. All good. Well, well, thanks again, Greg for joining us and thanks to Avanade for having sponsored us and giving us the ability to, to. Take on this series during n r f by letting us use your, your space which was such a, a, a fabulous, fabulous spot for us to, to capture some, some golden moments w with a number of really interesting people, and that will everybody's been able to enjoy in this series.[00:34:35] Greg Jones: I was gonna say, you're, you're always welcome.[00:34:36] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks very much. All right, Jeff, I think that is a wrap for [00:34:39] Jeff Roster: this[00:34:39] Well, and thank you Ricardo, for letting me shadow you throughout this whole crazy week. I mean, you know, we've talked about doing this sort of a thing for a while and man, what a, what a crazy deal. What an awesome, crazy, fun way to cover N R F 2023. I think we captured some good memories and, and I cannot wait for what [00:35:00] you and I have planned for going forward.[00:35:02] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely, absolutely. Quick little hint your dropping there for you dropping for, for what's yet to come.[00:35:09] Jeff Roster: that's a, that the term is[00:35:10] Ricardo Belmar: listeners and viewers anxiously awaiting.[00:35:12] Jeff Roster: The term is foreshadowing[00:35:14] Ricardo Belmar: foreshadowing. There you go. There you go. All right, and with that we will sign off. Thanks everyone for joining us.[00:35:20] Jeff Roster: See ya.[00:35:20] Greg Jones: Thanks.[00:35:21] Show Recap[00:35:21] Casey Golden: Welcome back everyone. So Ricardo, you have to give us some more details. What happened to the original recording of this conversation? I, I, I understand there's a story.[00:35:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, there, there is. And as much as I'd like to find someone else to blame , I can honestly say I have no idea what happened. So, you know, Jeff and I set up all the mics all our equipment, just like we always did in the Avanade lounge for each of these sessions. But somehow despite, you know, all the, all the sound checks we did when we start before we hit that record button, When I went back to listen to that [00:36:00] recording that, that I got on my Zoom Podtrak recorder, it turned out that Greg's mic was somehow just not functioning at all, and we only had his voice spill over onto the other two mics, so he sounded totally faint and distant.[00:36:12] It just was not a useful recording at all. So Jeff and I had to go back to Greg after we all got back from N R F and we set up a remote recording session to wrap up the series. So of course that meant technically we didn't record this last one in the crossover series, live and in person at N R F, like the others in the series.[00:36:29] But in exchange, you know, we get to show off more video podcasts this season with this one.[00:36:33] Casey Golden: Yeah, and hopefully some of our listeners became viewers on YouTube for this one. I also really love how you guys wrapped it up by talking about the energy and emotion that everyone brought with them at N R F this year. I was there. I felt it, and I don't think I've ever seen that much at nrf. Have you?[00:36:55] Ricardo Belmar: No, no. I mean, that's a hundred percent of That's so true. This was a really unique N [00:37:00] R f I have to give a special shout out to Jeff Roster too for, for joining me on this little onsite recording adventure. We honestly didn't know if we'd be able to pull this off. For both of us it was our first true, legitimate attempt at some live onsite, in-person recording at an event like this.[00:37:17] I gotta say, we've all been so used to doing this remotely in, in our podcasts. and looking at each other like we are right now and a little square on our screens. It was just so amazing to have the chance to do this in person. It really brings a whole new feel to the podcast.[00:37:29] Casey Golden: Absolutely. I know. I really enjoyed listening and watching these. I hope our show listeners and viewers did too, and I just, I adore what Greg mentioned Avanade is doing with those startup showcases. It's just, I feel it's really important at nrf, so now I have to ask. , were you and Jeff hinting at the end there?[00:37:52] Are we able to say something here about what's to come?[00:37:56] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I think we're gonna have to keep listeners in suspense on [00:38:00] this one for a little bit longer, but let's just say this won't be the last time you see our two podcasts team up. In fact, we may be doing something even bigger next time, so just stay tuned, keep listening to the show you know, keep listening to our show.[00:38:11] Keep listening to Jeff's This Week in Innovation so you don't miss out.[00:38:14] Casey Golden: Fine. Keep everyone in suspense. I know it's worth it. And I'm going to give one last shout out to Avanade. We can't say enough about how grateful we are for you providing a space for you and Jeff and sponsoring this series for us. Thank you Avanade. And I do also wanna thank Jeff again. He's just absolutely awesome to work with.[00:38:40] And at this, I wish I could have joined you guys for those recordings. But as you know, N r F and Startup Life. Uh, soon we gotta divide and conquer[00:38:52] And one final thank you to Shish for helping us connect with 1MRobotics and Z [00:39:00]Blocks. They're doing incredible things.[00:39:02] Ricardo Belmar: I totally agree. And with that, Casey, this crossover event is a wrap.[00:39:07] Show Close [00:39:07] Casey Golden: If you enjoyed our show, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss a minute. Wanna know more about what we talked about today? Take a look at the show notes and handy links for more deets.[00:39:31] I'm your co-host Casey Golden.[00:39:34] Ricardo Belmar: And if you'd like to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at Casey c Golden and Ricardo underscore Belmar, or find us on LinkedIn. Be sure and follow the show on Twitter, at Retail Razor, on LinkedIn, and on our YouTube channel for the latest updates and content. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:39:50] Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us.[00:39:52] Ricardo Belmar: And remember, there's never been a better time to be in retail if you [00:40:00] cut through the clutter. Until next time. This is the Retail Razor Show.[00:40:03]

Happy Mardi Gras lifers!  We spent the last 4 days attached at the hip on a trip to the Northern Territory together! Are we sick of each other? Absolutely not. Do we have a lot to unpack about our new found closeness, yes. Yes we do. On today's episode we unpack just how good of a dad Matty J is, according to the media and why are the standards so different for mothers and fathers?!Then we are joined by the wonderful Ellie Cole! Ellie is Australia's most decorated female paralympian. She's also a laugh and a half. Ellie had her leg amputated when she was 3 after battling a rare form of cancer. With just one leg she has (literally) been making waves and has played a huge part in shifting the public's awareness of what living with a disability is like.In this chat we talk about our expectations of success and whether it brings true happiness, the toll her cancer and then living with a disability took on her family and Ellie not wanting to have to define her sexuality.You can find Ellie here: https://www.instagram.com/elliecoleswim/?hl=en Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because we love love! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you leverage micro-fulfillment capabilities as a retailer? What are the costs and capital investment necessary? Micro-fulfillment is a hot trend to bring retail products closer to the customer to meet rapid delivery schedules. But is there a better way, at a lower cost, without capital investment, that can deliver the customer experience you want? Enter 1MRobotics, a nano-fulfillment as a service provider that turns the concept into a cookie-cutter approach the size of a shipping container!This episode continues our special podcast cross-over series, #NRFLive, with the This Week In Innovation podcast. In Part 4, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Jeff Roster speak with the VP of Sales at 1MRobotics, Gonen Gershuni. 1MRobotics delivers a nano-fulfillment center as a service to retailers, designed especially for urban deployments at scale. Join Jeff & Ricardo as they learn how nano-fulfillment can revolutionize retail with new use cases. Regular cohost Casey Golden also joins Ricardo for a quick introduction and recapThis discussion was recorded live & in-person during #NRF2023, in the fabulous Avanade lounge. A big thank you to Avanade for sponsoring this series and making the recordings possible!News alert! We've moved up to #18 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list - please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts! With your help, we'll move our way up the Top 20! Leave us a review & be mentioned in future episodes! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your regular hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E10d Micro-fulfillment with 1MRobotics[00:00:00] ​[00:00:00] Show Intro [00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hello and welcome to a special season two episode 10 part four of the Retail Razor Show. This is the fourth in our multi-part series recorded live and in person at the N R F 2023 Show in January. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:00:33] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden. Welcome to the Retail Razor Show, retail's favorite podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everyone else in retail and retail tech alike. And once again, for this special bonus, welcome N R F fans to our hot take hashtag N R F Live mini-series.[00:00:54] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, we are here again with our podcast crossover event with [00:01:00] Jeff Foster and the This Week in Innovation podcast. And thanks to our sponsor, Avanade, we were able to record in this series live and in person at the N R F Show in Avanade's fabulous lounge space overlooking the main expo floor.[00:01:12] Casey Golden: A big shout out to our friends at Avanade for giving you and Jeff such a great space to record from. They know how to get things done![00:01:20] Ricardo Belmar: Absolutely. So let's dive right into this week's discussion. Casey, when I say micro fulfillment to you, what do you think of and what would you say if I said micro fulfillment specifically for dense urban locations?[00:01:32] Casey Golden: Hmm. Quick and smart fill-ins for your best sellers so you don't miss out on a sale?[00:01:37] Ricardo Belmar: Ah, well, I think you're gonna be fascinated by this discussion with our special guest, Gonen Gershuni, the VP of Sales at 1 M Robotics. Have to say, when Jeff and I sat down with him in the lounge to talk about how they're transforming micro fulfillment, especially for dense urban areas where, let's face it, you, you don't expect to find a lot of available space for really [00:02:00] large micro fulfillment centers.[00:02:01] And, and yeah, I know it sounds kind of odd to say large micro fulfillment centers, but that's the way, the way it goes. But 1 M Robotics, they're, they're talking about a fully automated, micro fulfillment center, that's basically the size of a shipping container. And did I mention they can easily convert it into a fully automated store that's customer facing.[00:02:18] We're, we're gonna hear about a lot of different possibilities and configurations of this technology.[00:02:23] Casey Golden: So the first thing I thought was, sounds expensive for a large micro fulfillment center. Now I'm intrigued when you said shipping container. So I'm ready for it. And you know how much I love powering the future of e-commerce, and this sounds like something really interesting to help those use cases.[00:02:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I, I a hundred percent agree. So let's jump right in and listen to Jeff and my discussion with Gonen from 1 M Robotics.[00:02:55] 1MRobotics Interview[00:02:55] Ricardo Belmar: Hey everyone. We are back at NRF 2023 [00:03:00] with another special bonus episode in our series here. I'm Ricardo Belmar, and I'm here with my special guest host Jeff Roster, host of This Week in Innovation.[00:03:09] Jeff Roster: Ricardo, how you doing today?[00:03:11] Ricardo Belmar: I am doing great. A little tired at this point after I lost track of how many days this is again, we start each of these sessions trying to remember where are we, , what are we doing?[00:03:22] How far into the event are we? And I guess that says it's kind of back to normal because in a normal NRF, I'd be lost by the time we get to the end,[00:03:30] Jeff Roster: I can see the finish line.[00:03:32] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, there you go. There you go. [00:03:33] Jeff Roster: I can feel it. We're running through the tape. And what a tape it is to run through.[00:03:38] What what an amazing week couldn't be prouder of, of N R F, the industry, the tech community. They showed up strong strong energy. Literally, literally at the end of the show. And they're still laughing. Some of your colleagues at Microsoft are toasting. I know. I noticed you've giving up the champagne toast, just so you know.[00:03:54] I'm not sure I would've done[00:03:55] Ricardo Belmar: I know. Yeah, I know.[00:03:56] Jeff Roster: know. So just a fantastic deal. Excellent. All around. Could not be [00:04:00]happier, could not be proud of the industry.[00:04:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. I agree. I agree. And to that end, we are fortunate enough to have another special guest. So we're joined here by Gonen Gershuni of 1M robotics and Gonen I think we're just gonna jump right in. First of all, I'm, I'm super excited that we've got some time with you here to record, but why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about your background how 1M Robotics came to be and what your solution is, how you're helping retailer is, and, and give us the, the scoop on [00:04:31] that.[00:04:32] Gonen Gershuni: Sure. So Ricardo, Jeff, thanks so much for this opportunity. Couldn't be more excited to be here with you today. What an amazing stage this is. I mean, NRF B Beck, B Beck larger, bigger than ever. And this is an amazing facility. Well done for the NRF crowd.[00:04:50] A bit about myself, Goen Gari, VP sales at one of robotics.[00:04:54] I joined the company a bit under a year and a half ago. Prior to that, I worked at another successful [00:05:00] Israeli startup called Bring. They're also here. Shout out to the Bring team. You guys are[00:05:03] Ricardo Belmar: know The Bring team. Yeah.[00:05:04] Jeff Roster: met them, I bumped into them.[00:05:05] Gonen Gershuni: Yeah. So[00:05:07] Jeff Roster: the[00:05:07] only company that actually had a bottle of wine that we toasted while we were, while, while we were talking.[00:05:14] That, that, that's a, that's a first now I've had, I've had people at, at happy hour bring, not in the middle of the day. So that was, that was a fun, fun interview.[00:05:22] Gonen Gershuni: It's yeah, it's always Happy Hour at Israeli Startups. And Israelis like the party, so it's a great it's a great company. I worked at Bring for about five years in various sales roles, from business development to global partnership sales, overseeing various strategic initiatives.[00:05:37] So this gave me, I would say, a very rich and deep understanding and background on e-commerce, last mile fulfillment and all that. Prior to that, I was about, I was in performance marketing for about three to four years, so for the better part of the last decade and a bit more, I wa I'm, I've been in various high-tech companies in very, at various lifecycle lifecycle stages and very proud to be at 1M robotics today.[00:05:59] In a [00:06:00] nutshell, one of robotics is a startup that's focused on automating hyper-local logistics infrastructure. It's a mouthful, but this pretty much means that we are creating urban facilities for last mile fulfillment that are leveraging automation and robotic technology to alleviate the main pain points of last mile.[00:06:19] Those two, those are being, those are mainly two challenges, unit economics and scale operating at scale while remaining ROI positive.[00:06:28] Ricardo Belmar: I think that was a mouthful, but I'm, I'm like it so far. So let me ask you this, give us a little more go down another layer and tell us how you're doing that.[00:06:36] Gonen Gershuni: Okay, great. So let's first start with a quick background story or the origin story, as I like to say in comics of 1M Robotics.[00:06:43] 1M Robotics was founded by co-founder and ceo, Eyal Yair, and co-founder and coo, Roee Tuval. Eyal is a seasoned entrepreneur having led various startups, this is his fourth, two were sold, one was less of a success story, but nonetheless, a great experience to be [00:07:00] had. And he brings a wealth of experience in sales, business development, and other related functions.[00:07:05] Roee Tuval co-founder and COO, brings a rich background in robotics, photonics and other related materials, material handling. The two collaborated as they got together to identify the main needs in last mile or fulfillment infrastructure, and they saw that micro fulfillment or just about any other large sized facility leveraged today, that's a hotly contested field, a red ocean as they, as it's typically called, meaning tons of competition, tons of players operating in the space, and they're all great formidable companies addressing some major pain points, but not last mile fulfillment, not rapid delivery. They are at best able to offer what's called same day order today, receive it later in the day toward the evening time at best. Again, most of the time it's next day, but really they saw a major gap when it came to rapid delivery.[00:07:54] And when we say rapid delivery, yes, it can be the quick commerce type of delivery increments of [00:08:00] 30 minutes and below, but it's just about anything below two hours.[00:08:04] And that was a, a really blue ocean with tremendous opportunity and a major need from just about any retailer and CPG brand looking to address or to reach their customers in a closer and faster, timely manner. So they saw that there was zero automation in that space, and that's how they decided to form this company to create urban facilities that are way smaller. So we're talking about facilities that are about the size of a standard store, convenience store, et cetera. So think some, think somewhere along the lines of hundreds to to thousands in the few of square feet.[00:08:40] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. So I, I take it then based on, on the size, right? When you, when, when I, when I think of micro fulfillment, I think of a larger format, large store, not the size of a distribution center, but, or fulfillment center, but something smaller than that.[00:08:54] So clearly larger form factor than you're talking about, which I guess makes it difficult to put that in an urban [00:09:00] environment cause it's hard to find that large space. So is the idea here then, that, by doing this in that smaller format, you're able to get a higher density in an urban environment for someone that wants to do this kind of rapid delivery.[00:09:12] Gonen Gershuni: It's twofold. First of all, spot on. Physically it's very challenging to place a micro fulfillment center in a dense, urban, metropolitan area, think downtown Manhattan.[00:09:22] It's impossible. Authorities wouldn't allow it. It's very costly and it would create lots of friction because those facilities are predominantly not 100% automated. Now, let's take a facility that's about the size of a standard seven 11 store Micro fulfillment operators would not take such a project on.[00:09:38] It's too small for them, and they also would have to adapt their technology solution to fit inside a way smaller form factor. And this is where we come in with our technology innovation. We're able to fit into very densely populated urban metropolitan areas and locate our, or deploy our facilities within a very small retail footprint. By introducing [00:10:00] automation, we're able to also do two things. For one, expedite workflows alleviate the pain of the human workforce, and in doing so, also completely eliminate shrinkage, human error and other related challenges.[00:10:12] Ricardo Belmar: So, so how automated are, are we talking about? Are, are you saying this is, this is a fully automated facility or is very light to no human touch required?[00:10:20] Gonen Gershuni: So we have two types of solutions, two types of installments or two types of systems, as we call them. One, an autonomous lights out facility. And that, as you said, Ricardo, is 100% lights out, an end-to-end automated facility. We've already got this deployed with various exciting customers around the world, such as Nespresso, such as AB InBev, et C.[00:10:41] And that is a, a facility that requires zero headcount. A customer places an order on an online channel, and then our system does everything picking, packing, and the pushes out an order for a delivery guide to collect or a customer pickup. In addition to that, this can also serve returns and [00:11:00] things are way faster and easier to do from one single, let's call it omnichannel presence.[00:11:04] Second option or the second infrastructure that we've created is what's called collaborative automation.[00:11:09] In cases where the, the human workforce is still required to operate some sort of function within the facility, we expedite and simplify workflows by introducing automation into the game, taking a fully manually relying operation and adopting it to this new reality.[00:11:30] Incorporating innovation into the story and automation makes things a lot faster. It's sort of like, think about the assembly line as it was first introduced in the days of. All the way to where it's at today with Tesla,[00:11:40] a lot more innovation, a lot less reliance on the human workforce while still having some workforce, some, some work tests done by the human operator.[00:11:48] Jeff Roster: Now you you showed the ne I can't even talk right now. My, my throat's so thrashed, the coffee example. How many SKUs was that in that automated footprint store?[00:11:58] Gonen Gershuni: So in that specific facility, because [00:12:00] we're talking about a rather limited product assortment to begin with, right? That's a few hundreds we can support all the way up to around 4,000 SKUs. And I would say another differentiating factor in our technologies is that we also support frozens.[00:12:13] That's unheard of in warehousing automation,[00:12:16] Jeff Roster: So 4,000 SKUs. What's a typical 7-Eleven. [00:12:19] Le less than 4,000 SKUs. Okay.[00:12:22] Gonen Gershuni: Aldi US for example, they're around, they're somewhere along the lines of 2000 [00:12:27] Average quick commerce players between 1,500 to 3000 ma max. We are, we are not trying to address a hypermarket.[00:12:36] I am less relevant for that Costco, that Walmart, but for the small format stores, for the convenience store chains, for consumer, electronic, small format stores like the Best, like Best Buy is trying to now launch. This is a great fit.[00:12:49] And this is where we play. We're playing in the fast moving goods line where we're talking about product assortment that you want to get out your customers as fast as possible, offer that brand new [00:13:00] iPhone as fast as possible.[00:13:02] As you are doing the npi,[00:13:04] Jeff Roster: There's also a almost a loss prevention component of that too, I would assume. I, I'm, I'm in California and we have loss prevention's, a major, major issue.[00:13:11] You sort of solve that by no one's inside the, the store. [00:13:15] Exactly. [00:13:15] Wow. Interesting.[00:13:16] Gonen Gershuni: Yes, we provide the software suite as well, so we've developed our own wms.[00:13:20] It's not a must, it's not a mandatory element to, for our customers, but we do have live visibility and true inventory tracking at any single point. And this also allows us to provide demand forecasting, restocking, and replenishment reporting, and other smart alerts to support our businesses with their mission critical operations.[00:13:37] I would also add that shrink is a major pain point because at the end of the day when we're talking about consumer electronics, we, we are operate, we are already working with some leading apple distributors globally. And in many markets, the product it's that is being sold might be more costly than the human workforce.[00:13:53] One single human employee. And in such case, if you lose one iPhone, this is a major [00:14:00] challenge for you as a business. And we're able to completely eliminate that by providing live visibility to each and every single skew that we.[00:14:06] Jeff Roster: That's so interesting. Wow. How many deployments do you have of that? That that example where it's literally, I mean, it's, it's automation, but I mean, it almost feels like a giant giant you know, kiosk.[00:14:19] Gonen Gershuni: Yeah. So we've touched on an important point. Our system go, comes shipped in a container sized form factor, meaning we use standard shipping containers to ship our systems globally by land or sea.[00:14:32] This allows us to operate very flexibly and to ship out our system super fast. In addition to that, we can deploy the system just about anywhere, either as is, as a standalone unit within the container, and then it's a great way to address smaller towns, rural areas and also deploy this next to a venue or where ever.[00:14:50] Second option is to remove it from the container shell and just re and place the system as is within a retail facility within a retail real estate in such [00:15:00] case takes us about under two hours to deploy inside of a facility. So it's an off-the-shelf solution with almost with near as the zero launch time.[00:15:09] So this for a business is a game changer.[00:15:11] Jeff Roster: Yeah. So, so you are in fact an automated store.[00:15:15] I didn't realize that.[00:15:16] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah,[00:15:16] Gonen Gershuni: but I think that that's also a[00:15:18] Jeff Roster: I mean, you're, you're a really automated, automated store. I mean, cuz you're not even, I guess the difference is, you know, some of the examples we look at I don't wanna say which, which vendors, but I mean, you walk into the store, you pick it up and you, you know, so shop and go, or however you wanna say it.[00:15:31] You're not, I'm obviously not getting into the store, which makes you a perfect loss prevention.[00:15:37] Gonen Gershuni: Correct.[00:15:37] But I would add though, that in some cases, for example, let's think of Walgreens. Okay? They work with Verizon. Verizon effectively develop, gives them a store within a store, right? A designated section that's purely the product assortment of a, that Verizon is selling.[00:15:52] At Walgreens, we can also incorporate our system directly into a retail facility. So for example, this we be, we can be talking to a [00:16:00] retailer. And he might be thinking, okay, how do I utilize this within my existing real estate network? They can just allocate or designate, designate a specific zone for us to add to automate, and then they can have one third store automated for e-commerce orders and deliveries and colle and customer pickups.[00:16:18] And the other part be experiential. Have the customers, the walk-in traffic roaming around the store doing their purchases. Not nothing is interrupted. And this allows me to avoid that friction of couriers coming in, flocking into the store, while also having walking traffic roaming around.[00:16:36] Ricardo Belmar: Hmm. Interesting. But then, and then, So you have lots of different ways and that you can help because I, I'm assuming because of the automation, you could also operate in a truly totally dark, you mentioned before a lights out mode right? Where completely standalone everything is, is, is packaged up. You just have whoever's doing the delivery basically picks it up.[00:16:53] Gonen Gershuni: Yes. [00:16:54] Ricardo Belmar: Right.[00:16:55] Gonen Gershuni: I would also add that because it's it's an automated robotic mechanism, we're able to also [00:17:00] leverage addition, I would say expansion dimensions. What I mean by that is that if, for example, the ceiling height within retail facility is around four meters. We're able to expand going higher, longer, or wider, accommodating the needs or the challenges and constraints of the actual retail facility.[00:17:17] So let's say it's an L-shaped facility, the system can be expandable to accommodate and to maximize on storage capacity. [00:17:24] And in doing so, we can cover more SKUs. We can reach higher, wider, longer, whatever. Some, some, some specific areas where a human operator simply put would not be able to. I'm not four meters tall.[00:17:37] I wish I was [00:17:38] Ricardo Belmar: right.[00:17:39] Gonen Gershuni: I'd have a promising NBA career.[00:17:41] Ricardo Belmar: Right. . Right, right. So there's so a lot of flexibility obviously in the, in the form factor you can take and how you support a given retailer. So and I guess that's the differentiator then for you versus other. You know, cause like you said at the beginning, there's so many other micro fulfillment players, but they're all geared around the much [00:18:00] larger form factor where almost each location is like, is like a custom build out.[00:18:04] Gonen Gershuni: Yeah. [00:18:04] Ricardo Belmar: And you've almost made this into almost a cookie cutter approach for the retailer [00:18:08] Gonen Gershuni: it's, exactly a cookie[00:18:09] Jeff Roster: I would a yeah.[00:18:10] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. [00:18:11] Gonen Gershuni: an off-the-shelf solution with zero [00:18:13] launch [00:18:13] Jeff Roster: shipping in the cart, the container that you would just drop at a stadium or at a [00:18:19] racetrack or something. You literally just drop it.[00:18:21] Gonen Gershuni: it. Indy 500, let's go.[00:18:23] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah,[00:18:23] Yeah [00:18:23] Gonen Gershuni: do[00:18:24] Jeff Roster: somebody, there's somebody already there though.[00:18:25] Gonen Gershuni: No problem. You're right. But I think it's three main differentiators. It's size, scale, and the fact that we're off the shelf size-wise. Again, we can work in a very impractically, a way smaller facility that's about the size of a standard convenience store scale because the system is off the shelf.[00:18:41] This means that it can be deployed in zero time and can easily be deployed in many, many more locations. It's practically, it's practically something that can easily be duplicated to address more crowds, reaching more customers. And third it's an off the shelf offering so that we are able to mass produce these systems [00:19:00] and be up and running faster.[00:19:02] The, just to give you some under general understanding on the micro fulfillment space, a traditional facility requires around a year to just launch one single site. It costs in the millions, and it requires a lot of onsite construction. Here we're talking about a plug and play offering that costs a fraction of the price at an OPEX commercial model, meaning we're only pay, the customer is only paying us one a monthly usage fee.[00:19:28] No installation fee, no hidden costs. Nada. It's way faster and easier to adopt. I think that it's pretty much an an adoption or an adaptation of a SaaS model. Mm-hmm. on a hardware and software base.[00:19:41] Ricardo Belmar: Hmm. Wow.[00:19:42] Gonen Gershuni: It's an adaptation.[00:19:43] Ricardo Belmar: that's an interesting model![00:19:44] Jeff Roster: That I know we're, we're, Ricardo and I both looked at each other and after five days of exhaustion, that, that, that perked me up[00:19:50] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, exactly.[00:19:51] Jeff Roster: And I, I didn't realize in the demonstration, you're literally an autonomous store.[00:19:55] I, yeah, I got the whole, the whole pick and pack or thing, but boy, that's a, that's a whole interesting [00:20:00] con scenario to say the least.[00:20:02] Gonen Gershuni: the retail. I think that the retail angle is clearly a very strong one for us in terms of product market fit, but we are also seeing high demand now also from coming from upstream, meaning taking this into a DC. A facility that still is very much manually operated and incorporating our systems directly into that to address a specific line of products within the DC or to take this into industrial use cases, auto parts.[00:20:26] Just think of an example. Let's say you're now about to board that plane taking you home, right? If right now there's a maintenance issue, they're putting out a, a real-time request, right? Calling the maintenance crew to bring that missing part, even a tiny. Every single, any single minute of delay is now costing millions to the airline.[00:20:44] Customers are now frustrated. They're, they're, they're annoyed. They're gone to demand compensation. So that's a lot of, that's millions of dollars in fines. We're able to address them with front, front frontline warehouse that is fully [00:21:00] automated with full visibility into inventory. This is also a game changer for the airline industry, and that's just off the top of my head. Yes, [00:21:07] Jeff Roster: that's, I [00:21:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, [00:21:08] that's a big deal. [00:21:08] Yeah.[00:21:09] Jeff Roster: Wow. [00:21:10] Ricardo Belmar: So, so then if we look out into 2023 and this year and, and beyond, obviously you, you, you've got a really positive outlook on, on the potential here. I, I'm just thinking this year in particular, how, how would you gauge the retailer interest?[00:21:24] Just based on what you've seen here at the show? Are you expecting to have. A really successful 2023. You think you expect to see a lot of engage new engagements with retailers because there's a lot of pent up demand for this.[00:21:36] Gonen Gershuni: So I, yes, there's definitely a huge demand for this, but being a startup, we need to be minded to the fact that we should also be focused on the markets where we are seeing the immediate the, where there's a clear line of site on the ROI we're bringing for our customers and the value to be had.[00:21:53] If it's a nice to have. Then we, we'll probably not dive into any such opportunity. We're mainly [00:22:00] addressing the businesses that have, that have an immediate need for this. Whether it's urgency driven in terms of their customers demanding faster service, whether it's because of the tight SLA that they're promising to customers and are failing to meet or various other parameters.[00:22:14] I would say that the immediate sectors that we are addressing are those in retail, where there is a urgency for the product to.[00:22:22] And also an understanding on the retail side that automation is their way to go forward, their future for the business. We're not trying to replace an existing warehousing automation technology stack.[00:22:34] Contrary. On the contrary, we are happy to work alongside an MFC because we are not replacing them. It's an additional node in their supply chain, and we see this as an ecosystem play. Where're partnering up with additional players such as Microsoft powering their tech stack such as SAP maybe, or any other player, is an additional part in this holistic approach.[00:22:57] Ricardo Belmar: wow. [00:22:57] Jeff Roster: Yeah.[00:22:58] Very[00:22:58] Ricardo Belmar: interesting. Very, yeah, [00:23:00] really fascinating. Wow. Looking forward to seeing how, how this plays out for you this year. Yeah. This is[00:23:05] Gonen Gershuni: When are you guys coming to either Israel or, or either dep, other deployments? [00:23:09] Jeff Roster: You gotta invite me. [00:23:10] I'd come in a heartbeat.[00:23:11] Gonen Gershuni: Okay. We need to check two things first, number one, that you that you are open to having lots of hummus. Number two, that you're open to drinking anytime of the day.[00:23:20] Ricardo Belmar: I, I, I think we've got those two covered. [00:23:21] So, yeah.[00:23:23] Jeff Roster: so funny story on that. I've never, ever, ever liked eggplant. And well, well, you'd have to see how Americans cook eggplant. And I got, I got to Israel and we're having, I mean, I've never seen more hummus in my entire life.[00:23:36] And I'm eating, there's, I'm eating this and I go, wow, what is this? And the, the waiter comes and says, well, that's baba ganoush. [00:23:42] Ahhh. I go, what's [00:23:43] Ricardo Belmar: yep. I love Baba ganoush.[00:23:44] Jeff Roster: It's eggplant. ah,[00:23:47] Gonen Gershuni: I'm with you Jeff. I'm not a fan of eggplant. Eggplant is my nemesis, archnemesis[00:23:52] Jeff Roster: But I'll [00:23:52] lead [00:23:53] Ricardo Belmar: that baba gsh all day[00:23:54] Jeff Roster: I like saying it, I like [00:23:55] eating it. So that is, that is a, that is an, an offer I will like gladly [00:24:00] accept.[00:24:00] Gonen Gershuni: Okay. Sounds good to me.[00:24:01] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. That'll work. All right. Well, Gonen, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been an, an another really special learning experience, I think for us to, to hear about what you're doing. And this is really fascinating. I'm looking forward to seeing how this grows.[00:24:16] Gonen Gershuni: Ricardo, Jeff, thank you so much for this opportunity.[00:24:18] I've been following your show for a long time now, and I love your work. Keep up your amazing energy and pretty much driving innovation across retail through your thought [00:24:26] Jeff Roster: It's, It's,[00:24:27] wilted, but we'll rally when we get home.[00:24:29] Ricardo Belmar: And, and.[00:24:30] right. After we recover and [00:24:31] Jeff Roster: me just say special thanks to Microsoft for Startups, Shish and, and Ricardo for what you've done up here. We're up in this beautiful suite overlooking NRF and there have been a per a parade of startups that have come through and, and I, you've just done a fantastic job.[00:24:46] So well done Microsoft and Shish. Looking forward to seeing more of what you do going forward.[00:24:50] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. And then I'll also add another special thank you to Avanade for having made this series that we did possible by graciously letting us use some of your space. And [00:25:00] helping us be, be quite flexible on the timing and our ability to react quickly to use this. So thanks to to both groups for, for helping us out on this series.[00:25:09] Gonen Gershuni: Just to chime in, thank you. Also, I'd also like to thank Microsoft, our close partners for their amazing work, Shish and the rest of the team. You guys are phenomenal. Keep driving the industry forward with your forward thinking, thought leadership, and amazing work.[00:25:22] And thank you Ricardo and Jeff.[00:25:23] Jeff Roster: Excellent. [00:25:24] Ricardo Belmar: excellent. Thank you. [00:25:25] Jeff Roster: Safe travels.[00:25:26] Show Recap[00:25:26] Casey Golden: Welcome back everyone. So, wow. Talk about endless possibilities with something that started out as just a small form factor micro fulfillment service. I mean, I can totally see this being integrated into other stores in urban geographies and maybe by e-commerce brands trying to offer rapid delivery.[00:25:54] So much opportunity here.[00:25:55] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, it's like I previewed at, at the start, Gonen goes through a number of use [00:26:00] cases that I just wouldn't have thought of as micro fulfillment as the solution for those.[00:26:04] Casey Golden: when you think about it. I can really see these guys taking off and being very successful.[00:26:11] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, a hundred percent. I, I certainly came away learning so much about new use cases for micro fulfillment with the way 1M Robotics can deliver it. Honestly, we, we may have to have Gonen or, or one of their founders come on the show next season just to give us an update on how they're doing.[00:26:25] Casey Golden: Absolutely. [00:26:27] Well, Ricardo, I think that is a wrap for part four of our N R F Live crossover series. Can't wait to see how you and Jeff wrap up this next episode.[00:26:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, Jeff and I saved a really great fun discussion with Greg Jones from Avanade to wrap us up with a discussion on trends we saw at NRF. Plus a few thoughts on the startups in retail. So tune in next time for part five.[00:26:49] Casey Golden: Oh, I love to hear that. So that means this episode is a wrap.[00:26:55] Show Closing[00:26:55] Casey Golden: [00:27:00] If you enjoyed our show, please consider giving us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Remember to smash that subscribe button in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss a minute. Wanna know more about what we talked about today. Take a look at the show notes for handy links and more deets.[00:27:18] I'm your co-host, Casey Golden.[00:27:20] Ricardo Belmar: If you'd like to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at Casey c Golden and Ricardo underscore Belmar, or find us on LinkedIn. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at Retail Razor on LinkedIn, and on our YouTube channel for the latest updates and content. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar.[00:27:36] Casey Golden: Thanks for joining us.[00:27:37] Ricardo Belmar: And remember, there has never been a better time to be in retail if you cut through the clutter. Until next time, this is the Retail Razor Show. 

Nick is joined by Daily Mirror's 'Newsboy' David Yates to cast an eye over the news and events from around the racing world today. Beginning with the UK action over the weekend, they reflect on Shishkin's dominant comeback at Ascot, talk to Jamie Shepperd - excited owner of I Like to Move It - and consider the importance of Cap du Nord's victory for Christian Williams. Also in this episode, Nick and Dave consider the key themes of the Asian Racing Conference, pay tribute to the career of pioneering French rider Nathalie Desoutter, who retired on Sunday, and wonder what the immediate future holds for star riders Frankie Dettori and Oisin Murphy. Dettori's US agent Ron Anderson joins the show off the back of Dettori's Santa Anita 4-timer on Saturday night, while Hugo Palmer reflects on his valuable success with the Murphy-ridden Flaming Rib in Doha the same day. Oliver St Lawrence drops in to talk about the huge auction of stallion nominations that goes online with Tattersalls today in aid of the DEC Turkey/Syria appeal and Giving for Ukraine.

Nick is joined by Daily Mirror's 'Newsboy' David Yates to cast an eye over the news and events from around the racing world today. Beginning with the UK action over the weekend, they reflect on Shishkin's dominant comeback at Ascot, talk to Jamie Shepperd - excited owner of I Like to Move It - and consider the importance of Cap du Nord's victory for Christian Williams. Also in this episode, Nick and Dave consider the key themes of the Asian Racing Conference, pay tribute to the career of pioneering French rider Nathalie Desoutter, who retired on Sunday, and wonder what the immediate future holds for star riders Frankie Dettori and Oisin Murphy. Dettori's US agent Ron Anderson joins the show off the back of Dettori's Santa Anita 4-timer on Saturday night, while Hugo Palmer reflects on his valuable success with the Murphy-ridden Flaming Rib in Doha the same day. Oliver St Lawrence drops in to talk about the huge auction of stallion nominations that goes online with Tattersalls today in aid of the DEC Turkey/Syria appeal and Giving for Ukraine.

This week, Ben & Greg share their past cooks. Show HighlightsShish KabobsSmash BurgersBrats/Hot Dogs/Chicken SausagesChicken Burrito SkilletUpcoming CooksRecipe: https://burnpitbbq.com/blogs/news/chicken-burrito-skilletBurn Pit BBQ Supplies: www.burnpitbbq.comFollow Burn Pit BBQ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnpitbbqguys/ Facebook: ​https://www.facebook.com/burnpitbbq TikTok: ​https://www.tiktok.com/@burnpitbbq About Burn Pit BBQ: Welcome to the official Burn Pit BBQ YouTube channel! Originally founded to make grilling less intimidating, this hobby turned passion turned business started out as a blog to connect grill enthusiasts across the country and provide a community among them. Launched in 2020, Marine Corps veteran Greg Fischer and Navy Sailor Ben Kreple realized that all the tips, tricks, and recipes out there focused on sauces and rubs that used a ton of artificial ingredients. Wanting something more wholesome without a lack of flavor, Greg & Ben set out to make the kind of products that barbecue enthusiasts everywhere would feel good about reaching for and be even more excited to chow down on. Proudly made in Wisconsin, Burn Pit BBQ sauces, rubs, and seasonings are made with all-natural ingredients without any cholesterol, MSG or corn syrup. The chefs and grill masters behind the recipes painstakingly selected every ingredient not only for better quality but also for the way it helps achieve the ultimate juicy grilled-to-perfection creations. But delicious sauces aren't the only things that make Burn Pit BBQ smoke the competition. #burnpitbbq

The Alan Cox Show

The Alan Cox Show

Episode 126 - The Shish Time - Ft Qoy In this episode, we talk about: Do you speak Yoruba? Solo trip to New York How do you want someone to react when you get them a gift? Love languages, showing love and care What were your vices? and much more Share your thoughts with us and lets keep the conversation going! Follow us on TikTok: @wyhapod Follow us on Instagram: @wyhapod Follow us on Twitter: @wyhapod Watch the full episode on YouTube: WYHA Podcast

It's witching season and Taylor and Riley have their three favorite spooky sisters to chat about on this week's episode! Grab your broomsticks (or rhumbas) and settle in for this Hocus Pocus double feature. Jean Jacket aka The Shish-ka-Baby: - 2 oz bourbon (or apple brandy) - 0.75 oz lemon juice - 0.25 oz simple syrup - Apple cider to top - apple slice to garnish Instructions: - Pour bourbon, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice - Shake until well chilled - Strain into a glass with ice - Top with apple cider - Garnish with apple slice

S2E1 – The Retail Avengers vs The Metaverse!Welcome back to The Retail Razor Show – It's Season 2, Episode 1!Back for season two of the show, we saved a BIG topic to open up with – The Metaverse!Yes, our Retail Avengers team has been jumping out of their seats to bring you this discussion, recently held in our Clubhouse room, to answer the biggest, burning questions retailers and brands have about the Metaverse. What exactly IS the Metaverse? What is it not? Why should you be interested and what can you do with the metaverse? How can you use the Metaverse? Is it about building brand loyalty? Commerce? And what about NFTs and web3? All of the above? The Retail Avengers team digs into these questions, and more, to cut through the clutter!Hosts, Ricardo and Casey then come back to recap the discussion and talk about a few key examples of brands that seem to know what they're doing in the Metaverse right now. Plus, they'll bring you an easy 5-step roadmap to getting started in the Metaverse. All that in the season 2 opener!Have you heard the news? We're up to #20 on the Feedspot Top 60 Retail podcasts list, so please keep those 5-star reviews in Apple Podcasts coming! With your loyal help, we'll move our way up the Top 20 in no time! Leave us a review and we'll mention you in a future episode! https://blog.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:I'm Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, a Top 12 ecommerce influencer, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft. And I'm Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. I've spent my career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business. Now I slay franken-stacks!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, including E-Motive, and Overclocked, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno.The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS2E1 The Retail Avengers vs The Metaverse[00:00:00] Pre-Intro[00:00:00] Ricardo Belmar: Hey, Casey, it's season two. Now maybe we should do something different for the show intro.[00:00:04] Casey Golden: Yeah, I've seen some podcasts play different clips from the main interview in the beginning of the show, kind of like a preview.[00:00:11] Ricardo Belmar: I don't know. That kind of seems like it's been done to death doesn't it? [00:00:14] Casey Golden: True. We can always just pick up. In the middle of a conversation and give the audience some FOMO. They wouldn't know whether or not they've missed something or arrived right on time.[00:00:23] Ricardo Belmar: Hmm, not a bad idea though. I don't know. I wonder if we might get some bad reviews for trying to trick our listeners that way. What if we just added some cool sound effects?[00:00:31] Casey Golden: That would be too simple. What would happen afterwards?[00:00:34] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. I guess you got me there. All right. All right. So, we could just start talking about our main topic and give listeners a preview that way of what's to come without really giving away our speaker.[00:00:44] Casey Golden: Sounds like plan. I think that's what we should do, but how much time do we have to do that? A minute. 30 seconds, two minutes, 15.[00:00:54] Ricardo Belmar: well, uh, let's see, how long have we already been talking about it? I don't know. We might not have much time to talk about the m... [00:01:00] Show Intro[00:01:00][00:01:20] Introduction[00:01:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello, and welcome to the first episode of season two of the retail razor show. I'm your host Ricardo Belmar.[00:01:26] Casey Golden: And I'm your cohost Casey Golden. Welcome retail razor show listeners to our unapologetically authentic retail podcast for product junkies, commerce technologists, and everybody else in retail and retail tech alike.[00:01:40] Ricardo Belmar: It's great to be back in front of the camera and on the mic.[00:01:43] Casey Golden: Yeah. And for those of you watching us on YouTube, how about that? , you're actually watching us on YouTube now, not just listening. This is a big step for us this season. And personally for me, I'm blow drying my hair again![00:01:58] Ricardo Belmar: totally, totally. And, for listeners or, or maybe I should say viewers, can expect to see us on video pretty much every episode now, apart from when we're bringing you our clubhouse sessions, because you know, obviously those are audio only.[00:02:11] Casey Golden: Well, Ricardo, this is our first season of the new season. So of course, we've got an amazing topic this week. One that have been asked about and asked for many times,[00:02:24] Ricardo Belmar: And one that our Retail Avengers crew had really been dying to cover for months and months.[00:02:30] Casey Golden: That's right. So with all of this anticipation, I am so bummed that I missed the clubhouse session.[00:02:37] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. Especially since the topic is, wait for it, retail and the metaverse. I mean, this one was just about tailor made for you, Casey.[00:02:44] Casey Golden: Yeah. So I know I'll save my commentary for our recap discussion after the clubhouse session.[00:02:51] Ricardo Belmar: It'll be worth the wait. So with that lead in, since this is a topic that doesn't really need an introduction, let's just dive right in and listen, sorry, youTube viewers, view , well I guess still listen because it's clubhouse, to the Retail Avengers versus the Metaverse. [00:03:11] Clubhouse Session[00:03:11] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Welcome everyone to the retail razor room. We have a really amazing topic for discussion today. I know the entire group here has been just itching to, come back and talk about the metaverse. And so we've got five folks up here on stage. I am sure there'll be some folks from the audience that are gonna join us later.[00:03:30] And I know we have one more of our retail Avengers team. It's gonna join us a little bit later in the hour. So without further ado, we'll do some introductions. Jeff, why don't you go first? [00:03:39] Jeff Roster: Hi, Jeff Roster former Gartner retail analyst now cohost of This Week In Innovation podcast.[00:03:44] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Jeff, Shish. [00:03:46] Shish Shridhar: Good afternoon. I'm Shish. I'm the global lead for retail with Microsoft for Startups. I've been in retail for over 20 years primarily focused on AI for retail and solutions around it. And currently just building out a portfolio of innovative startups. Thank you. [00:04:02] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you. Brandon [00:04:03] Brandon Rael: Brandon Rael, I've also been in and around the retail consumer industries over 20 years. And since our last discussion, I've joined Capgemini Invent team, they focus on innovation transformations and all the digital stuff we love to talk about here. So looking forward to this great conversation about the metaverse and all the potential.[00:04:19] Ricardo Belmar: And Trevor, [00:04:20] Trevor Sumner: Hey everybody. I'm Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO at of perch. We do interactive digital displays at retail that use computer vision to detect which products you touch. So. We're basically instrumenting the clicks at retail, opening up new intelligence, data streams, and really cool shopping experiences for customers like Johnson and Johnson, joe Malone, Purina, Unilever, many others. [00:04:44] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Great. And I'm Ricardo Belmar. I started the retail razor club room here in, in clubhouse last year. Also running the retail razor show podcast with my co-host Casey golden. So everybody in the audience who hasn't subscribed yet, do yourself a favor, hit your podcast player and hit the subscribe button there.[00:05:01] You'll find some of our past clubhouse sessions showing up in each new episode of the podcast. I'm currently the lead partner marketing advisor at Microsoft for retail and consumer goods. And we are just gonna jump right into the metaverse here. So probably makes sense to start with a few good definitions.[00:05:18] I think everybody has a definition that it's kinda like that joke about economist s where if you ask 50 different people, what the metaverse is, you get 60 different answers, something like that. But I'll throw this one out, I think this is a Wikipedia definition that defines metaverse as a collective virtual shared space created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality and the internet. And it's also defined as a network of 3d virtual worlds focused on social connection.[00:05:51] So just to kick things off, what does everyone think of that rather complex definition.[00:05:56] Brandon Rael: It's a bit overwhelming. Isn't it? , [00:05:58] Ricardo Belmar: it's a mouthful for sure.[00:05:59] Shish Shridhar: it is! [00:06:03] Jeff Roster: I'm gonna have to go back to my Catholic school days and and diagram that sentence. Cause I think that's about run on over, run on, over run on, but I, I mean, it's, it's, it's fine. I mean, we're gonna have about a hundred different definitions before this thing really gets up and running. I think though, intuitively we kind of understand what it is.[00:06:19] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that's, that's a, a fair, fair statement. I mean, there's gonna be lots of definitions. I think some of the keywords, maybe I pick out from that, whether it was implied or not, is this notion of seamlessly moving between virtual and physical worlds.[00:06:32] There's the notion of leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality. That's certainly part of it and how you actually go about interacting with that space. There was that last part of the sentence. I, I like where it just throws in' and the internet' into that, because we didn't wanna leave that out.[00:06:48] but you know, you could view the internet as sort of a, a connecting glue perhaps of the, the metaverse. But I think one question I see gets asked by a lot of people at least one of the early questions is, well, are we talking about a single virtual reality world? Are we talking about multiple virtual reality worlds or is it the combination of all of them?[00:07:06] And just this idea that I can do things in this virtual digital space that has an impact in the physical world. [00:07:12] Trevor Sumner: Well, to me, there is not a, the metaverse, there is many metaverses and many different environments, and I'm watching people, contort themselves to define what this thing is.[00:07:26] And I think one of the, the greatest contortions was this notion that we're already in the metaverse right, that, you know 10 years ago we spent an hour on our phones and now we spend six hours on our phones. And we interact, if you look at kind of what our digital consumption, looking at TV and looking at other kind of digital formats that, that has gone up and that we are actually already kind of working in these metaverses now I don't know that that's helpful.[00:07:54] So the question is like, what is the definition that makes it helpful? [00:07:58] Brandon Rael: And I think to Trevor's point it's ever evolving, it's ever pivoting. We can't just say that's a single metaverse, it's multiple metaverse with different customer types and different generations. So it's hard to nail down what, you know, what exactly it is.[00:08:12] And I think what companies like Facebook or meta are doing, or like establishing a metaverse, but there's ones that already exist already that are they're in flight, you know? So it's, it's a very complex undertaken to single it to one, one single metaverse. [00:08:24] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And, and I don't know that Microsoft is doing one metaverse either, right.[00:08:27] It could be blizzard is one metaverse that they're investing in as, as an environment. And then, another game world has another. And you know, HoloLens potentially, is a whole nother thing. [00:08:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think you could say that you can divide this into different areas, right?[00:08:43] There might be a, a metaverse for a work environment that you encounter there's might be a metaverse for gaming. There might be a metaverse that you go to for shopping. There might be a metaverse. You go to for fitness exercises, right? [00:08:58] Shish Shridhar: Yep. And, and I kind of think [00:09:00] I I've been playing around with a few of these environments, including Microsoft's acquisition from 2018 prior to blizzard something called Altspace VR.[00:09:09] So Altspace VR is an environment where you can set up virtual meetings. You can have a mall in there. You can have shopping experiences, all of those. And I've also played around with decentraland where, companies like Coors and Miller Coors and, and others have been creating environments.[00:09:26] And then there is still other ones, the popular ones being sandbox and, and a few others where some of them mimic the real world, because there's that spatial element to the metaphors where you can buy digital, digital, you can buy land and build your malls and build your spaces. And all of those things pretty much like buying domain names in the internet.[00:09:47] And I think because there's so many of these environments, I think a point will come where you can kind of port between one and the other. I kind of believe there probably will never be a, sort of a, a single place. There will be competing environments always, but I think the tipping point will be where you can create an avatar of yourself and objects that you could kind of port from one environment to the other, make it available in multiple environments as well as in the physical world through AR. And I think that would be the, the convergence that, that we are all looking for, where you don't have to completely rebuild everything in, in all these different environments and brands that are today.[00:10:29] I think fairly confused about which one should be, be on, should we go to the sandbox. It should we go to, to decentral land or, or one or the other platforms. [00:10:40] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that is maybe the tricky part in these early days of almost competing metaverses . Or competing metaverse worlds maybe is a better way to further refine that statement.[00:10:52] And how do you decide which one to go to? I, one of the things I've noticed that I've kind of scratched from my head at a little bit is when we see some brands deciding that their, their first experiment here in the metaverse is gonna be to just replicate exactly what they have in physical space and assume that that's gonna cause people to just flock to their location.[00:11:09] Shish Shridhar: Yeah. I strongly feel about that. [00:11:11] Sorry, go ahead. [00:11:13] Authenticity, Storytelling, Experiential[00:11:13] Brandon Rael: Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Shish, I, I think it's, it's all about authenticity and storytelling and, and that's what we're looking for with the emergence of TikTok and Instagram, and you expect something magical and experiential and not, not replicating your day to day life and not replicating a storefront or a grocery store.[00:11:29] We look for something different, unique and authentic, and that's what we're hoping for in terms of inspirational content, out of the metaverse. [00:11:35] Shish Shridhar: Yeah, I kind of think it is, you know, it's an opportunity for brands and retailers really to rethink because in the past, in the 3d environments, you know, retailers have tried to recreate stores in 3d.[00:11:47] So you could go and do the normal shopping that you do in the physical world. You could do it in the 3d world. And that has never really worked. I think it's an opportunity to, to reinvent and to really say, how can we create experiential shopping? How do we make shopable experiences in the metaverse where we create an experience, which enables us to shop for the things that we want to in that experience, rather than recreating an actual store with shelves and exactly the way it looks like in, in the real world.[00:12:20] That is certainly one of the aspects for combining the real world and the digital world. But I think in addition, the opportunity really lies in, in creating that experience because this is all about experiential shopping and going beyond the webpage and, and making it more real. [00:12:37] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. I, I find that I find this conversation so interesting cuz it just it's so parallels the conversations we had 10, 12 years ago with regards to social media, like which sites do you pick and oh, you just can't put your same website on Facebook.[00:12:51] You've gotta do something different and what you do on Twitter or Snapchat or, or TikTok. Right. And additionally, you do need to be thoughtful about what you pick, especially in the early days, because one of the interesting economics here is that the early adopters tend to get the spoils.[00:13:08] Right? So you look at like Ashton Kucher right. He was an early adopter of Twitter. He took on CNN on a race to a million followers. And, those early adopters, get the, get the spoils. And so, you have to lean in and say, what am I doing here that's differentiated, that's actually valuable? Where's the cool factor that people wanna talk about. Cuz otherwise I think most people do like, oh, I'll just port my website. [00:13:37] Ricardo Belmar: And there's also I think an element of how do you retain attention? Right? So it's one thing to say, oh, I'm gonna jump into the metaverse I'm gonna create my virtual storefront.[00:13:45] And you'll probably get a lot of people that will come to see it just for the sheer novelty that first time. But you really need to be thinking about, what's gonna get people to come back the second time and the third and the fourth and the fifth. Another kind of extension to this point that you just brought up.[00:14:00] The early days of social media, I'm gonna go even further back to the early days of eCommerce and who remembers when there were discussions of people saying, you know, someone should build a virtual mall on the internet and get all the retailers to come and build their eCommerce sites in that virtual mall.[00:14:15] And we know how that story went. how that played out. [00:14:17] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. [00:14:17] And, I think I, yeah, I still see the echos of that in VR shopping. Which is analogous to this VR side of the house. And so I think the questions like who's actually doing interesting things versus doing analogous things.[00:14:31] it's interesting Chris Dixon , talks about this as kind of like business skew morphism, it's just like X for Y , and you're just trying to recreate the, the same thing in the new environment, but the really interesting businesses that have exponential growth create something completely new.[00:14:48] Trillion dollar opportunity[00:14:48] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. That that's true. That's true. And I'm, I'm, I'll throw out another interesting data point I saw. So JP Morgan claims that there's a trillion dollar market opportunity in the metaverse and I'm curious what everyone thinks of that data point. I'm sure Jeff has. [00:15:03] Jeff Roster: I'll go last. Yeah. [00:15:05] Brandon Rael: Hear that sign. [00:15:06] Ricardo Belmar: Our analyst has to have an opinion on that.[00:15:09] Jeff Roster: I'll [00:15:09] go last. [00:15:10] Brandon Rael: That's a very bold stand. I don't know what they're substantiating that on, but it it's a bold one and let's see what, what emerges, I mean, First, you have to actually capture the attention, capture the imagination, inspire generations with all this amazing content and, and find a way to retain them.[00:15:26] Like you mentioned to even make this a commercialized opportunity for retailers and brands to want actually spend money and spend time and engage and build communities. So it potentially could be at that level, but it's certainly gonna take a lot of effort, content creation and imagination [00:15:45] Shish Shridhar: I agree with what Brandon's saying and I think potentially yes, but I think there's a lot of things that need to happen before that. And you know, my experiments with the metaverse the, the graphics right now is a little clunky and performance is a little sluggish.[00:15:59] So from a technology perspective, I think we are not fully there. And then the other aspect of it, I think we are still waiting in a way for AR and AR glasses to be ubiquitous cheap enough and performant enough to be used where I think that will be another tipping point we are waiting for.[00:16:17] So there are certain things that need to happen before we go, headlong into, the metaverse. But I think there is a lot of opportunity in creating those digital experiences and marrying it with the physical world where in the physical world you could experience when you're shopping digital media, digital experiences through AR that was created in the metaverse.[00:16:41] So you could experience either in the virtual world or the physical world through AR. Then there's so many other experiences like clothing, trying on clothing and, and that next evolution of, of streaming commerce in a way where today the streaming commerce is I would say the beginning, but in the metaverse, it kind of goes into a completely new level where you're experiencing things you're trying on things, and you are engaging with store associates in the metaverse. I've been working with companies that are also experimenting with AI assistance companies like Soul Machines and Deep Brain that are creating these avatars, which are deep fakes of people, but powered by AI engines that are very personal and relevant.[00:17:26] So when you engage with someone, it could be a real human you're engaging with, or an AI assistant that you're engaging with that is been trained with your data and is becoming very personal as a result. And so those are the kind of experiences I think are gonna evolve . And also, the evolution of streaming commerce is gonna be the other aspect of it. And the ability to actually create all the digital objects like furniture and all those things. Being able to create a digital twin of your home in the metaverse, furnish that home with digital goods that you buy, and then recreate that in the real world through commerce engines.[00:18:04] And I think the headless commerce engines will play a big part in, in the metaverse where you can buy things, things that you see. So it not necessarily in a store environment, but really making that experience shoppable through, through the commerce engines. [00:18:20] Trevor Sumner: So I'm gonna go and say yes to trillion dollars just, you know, without any qualifications, although obviously it depends on how you define this phase.[00:18:29] Jeff Roster: Well, neither did the writer of the article, so no one needs qualifications, apparently. [00:18:33] Trevor Sumner: Totally. And, and, and, oh, actually that's a little bit of my point, which, which is where I'm going with this, which is, you know, look, you, you could back into it and say, the real estate market for the metaverse is at 500 million and supposed to double this year.[00:18:46] So just the real estate market of the metaverse is a billion dollar market. And that's core metaverse, that's not like messing around and, deciding to like, I'm not picking on Shish here, but like social shopping. I, I don't count that as metaverse, but when it gets to that next stage, as Shish was talking about of being in the metaverse and, and going to the next level, it is, but without playing lines, like they're billion dollar markets and it's so early with like, who's been in decentral land?[00:19:11] Who's been in the sandbox, very few of us, right? Now at the same time. The question is, if you look at usage, it's younger people it's gen Z and like specifically, like take a look at the data in South Korea, it's astounding, they're spending more money on virtual goods for their avatars than actual physical apparel for themselves.[00:19:30] That is crazy. Right. I think, yeah. If, if you look at that trillion dollars? Sure. Trillion dollars I'm in, [00:19:38] Brandon Rael: I think to that point, the, the luxury sector we're seeing all these major companies are now investing in the metaverse space. They're betting big on it. So Gucci and other major global corporations are an investment in space because it, their brand has such value in it.[00:19:52] And they're exclusively extends to the metaverse. So if you can capture that audience and capture that imagination to, to where we had the right clothing to have the right accessories for your avatar, then it could be a, a winning proposition. I mean, it could be limitless, to be honest. [00:20:05] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I mean, if you just look at virtual goods and games, I think that's a hundred billion dollar market right there.[00:20:11] So if we're gonna include that then to Trevor's point, you can make this work, right. You can add your way up to a trillion dollars if you keep including these different things. And if you roll in you know, brand to your point with luxury brands, any NFTs that they're starting to release, and I'm, I'm jumping again a little bit to, to that part of the discussion, but you know, you roll that component into your, into the math here.[00:20:30] You can see yourself getting to a trillion dollars. If you just keep adding more and more components to it. [00:20:34] Trevor Sumner: And then the last, last point I wanted to make that that, that we hit to at earlier is I also don't believe anything that these guys say, right? Like it's JP Morgan chase. He like he's writing.[00:20:43] Jeff Roster: There you go. [00:20:44] Ricardo Belmar: I think you just told Jeff's comment. [00:20:46] Jeff Roster: Yeah. Thank you. You just stepped on my line [00:20:48] Trevor Sumner: as analysts you wanna predict things just so that you get clicks. I remember in 2001,[00:20:53] Jeff Roster: no, you don't. Analysts analysts want to make intelligent points. Hack writers wanna do that. So real analysts don't wanna do that.[00:21:02] Trevor Sumner: I like, I, I don't know. I think analysts wanna get attention too, cuz they wanna sell the research. I remember in 2001 Forrester predict, well, they're not, especially when you predicted out six to 10 years and there's no consequence, right? In 2001, I was at a wireless center company and Forrester was predicting mobile internet traffic would outpace, internet traffic in five years.[00:21:24] It took,[00:21:24] Ricardo Belmar: I remember that [00:21:25] Trevor Sumner: 15 and it's just like, it just wasn't even in five years it was nothing. It was less, it was less than 5%. [00:21:31] Brandon Rael: Well, they had the form factor, the iPhone wasn't invented in time for that [00:21:35] Trevor Sumner: well, the analyst should have known that. So my, my point is JP Morgan chase missed the boat on cryptocurrency. So they wanna throw out a big number and they did. [00:21:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. Jeff, you wanna add anything to that? [00:21:45] Jeff Roster: Yeah, I mean, just, I just hate these articles because one I think Trevor's really a hundred percent correct. It's it's just, you're throwing out to put out a, interesting number it's click bait to a certain degree.[00:21:55] I'd have to look at the methodology. Are we talking about IT spend to build the metaverse? Are we talking about revenue moving through the metaverse? Just, I, I don't see them. I don't see these articles being helpful as somebody that tries to understand how to forecast things. It just. It's silly.[00:22:07] I think it's a big number. I haven't actually put the numbers together. I, I don't see a reason to do that, but it they're big and they're huge and they're gonna grow. Yeah. And that's that that's all I need to do is, is somebody that comments on the space, but is it 1,000,000,000,002, Ricardo, what was the largest number we saw?[00:22:22] Cause we were kibitzing about that a while ago. I [00:22:24] mean, it was, I don't know how many was there? [00:22:26] Ricardo Belmar: Was there someone else that said it was more than a trillion? I, I can't remember now. [00:22:29] Jeff Roster: Oh yeah. [00:22:29] Ricardo Belmar: This is the one that stood out to me most recently. [00:22:31] Jeff Roster: Cause there's, there's an art and science to the game of forecasting.[00:22:34] There should be a methodology you should be publishing that you should be talking about what you're talking about. You should talk about definitions and none of that work has really been done that I've seen evidence by the, the conversation we had to start with, you know, sort, sort of wrestling around with what a definition is.[00:22:48] Ricardo Belmar: Right. [00:22:48] Jeff Roster: So to, you know, do these clickbait articles just it's just frustrating. [00:22:52] Brandon Rael: It's a coupling with the per Jeff's point. If you're adding in live events and advertising and keep expanding a definition of, of metaverse, it could be 800 billion to a trillion, but it's just a loose definition of it. You know, I understand gaming Roblox, et cetera.[00:23:06] And those, those , newer, authentic spaces that we're talking about. But if you're adding all those availments in there, it will get expanded.[00:23:12] Ricardo Belmar: Yep. That's a fair point. I see we've got some raised hands and Ananda, I just invited you up onto the stage. If you have a comment or a question for us.[00:23:20] No, Really, What IS the Metaverse?[00:23:20] Ananda Chakravarty: How's it going? [00:23:21] Ricardo Belmar: Hey, Ananda, how are you? [00:23:22] Ananda Chakravarty: I'm thanks for inviting me, Ricardo. I do have a couple of questions. I honestly, I'm, I'm kind of new at this whole metaverse concept. I'm you know, you guys have given me some explanations, but I think your first comment when you brought in that very ambiguous definition of metaverse really still gave me a lot of pause as to what we're really counting when we're talking about all these dollars, trillions of dollars that are potentially coming in from many different sources into a either a channel, a, a throughway, whatever you wanna call it.[00:23:52] Aren't these just dollars that are going into variations of the internet, or maybe even variations of social commerce. I'm just wondering what really defines the metaverse right now. And what, what is the real, I guess conceptually, what is it supposed to really be? Is it like that second life?[00:24:09] The only places I've seen the metaverse in real you know, from a realistic point of view has been in the gaming universe. You go to a Minecraft Mojang location. You can find tons of people playing, engaging, and effectively having their avatars in the universe. Right. But I've not seen that from a retail perspective.[00:24:26] I've not seen that from almost any other kind of context. Maybe Shish you have some, you had some thoughts of some examples that you shared, but I'd like to get a better definition of what it really means to be a metaverse and what that is from an overall perspective. [00:24:40] Ricardo Belmar: Well, I'll jump in on, on a couple thoughts there and then maybe Shish, I think you might have some things to add. I mean, for me, there has to be an element of this, you know, virtual world that is representing something in the digital space that you're interacting with. So whether we call that, a virtual world, you access through VR glasses or something like that, it, I think is sort of a secondary point.[00:25:00] I think you're right, that in the gaming space is probably where it's leading in this area. If my kids are an indication, then things like Roblox, is sort of an early version of, of what can happen in the metaverse. Although I'll, as a side note, make a point that I just read an article today about how Roblox, since they IPOed, I think their about their stock has dropped about 50%. So I don't know if that's sending a message or not, but I think gaming is definitely an area that maybe leads the way here.[00:25:23] I have seen some good examples of what I alluded to early on in the session about the metaverse at work, where companies would use a virtual space, for example, to facilitate onboarding new employees. So in a remote work era when you don't necessarily bring all of your new hires into a common physical location, you could bring them into that virtual space and have them interact with other employees and go through training exercises and such there.[00:25:48] I think there's definitely a use case there. And then I've seen in the manufacturing side and, and production environments. If you're building a product and you need to either do maintenance on something, or you're trying to figure out how things are connected in a assembly line. You know, there there's some value in using an augmented reality experience there, which I would, again, still label as part of a metaverse that allows you to virtually manipulate some of the physical items that you're working with in a way that might help you understand how you need to manipulate them in the physical space.[00:26:19] So it's the idea that Shish mentioned earlier about digital twins. I think that's an early use case that makes a lot of sense for metaverse applications. I think what we're all kind of getting to, and I'm curious, everybody else here will think about this comment, that when we start looking at the commerce application of it, which is really what, what retailers care about, what consumers might care about, where are those use cases coming from? And I'm gonna let everybody comment, but I think the next thing we should probably get to, because I think it's related, you know, we often hear the term metaverse not too many sentences removed from terms like web 3.0 and NFTs. And I think there's a reason for that association when it comes to evaluating the commerce implications, but I'm gonna leave that comment there for us to come back to and see what everybody else here has to has to say in response to Ananda's comment.[00:27:06] Jeff Roster: Well, so I love that. And you can tell Ananda was a analyst. Cause if you draw the circle big enough, you mean you could, you could drag everything into it. But I think what I would say is in that's just now, since I've spent so long talking to some of the folks that are building these pieces of metaverses. There's technology that that's at play right now.[00:27:23] If you look at some of the interviews I did Obsess is doing 3d objects and that will clearly be a key capability in a metaverse world. And that's available on websites today. AR I think, you know, certainly not here, but far more interesting to me than, than VR is because I can, you know, being a pilot I'm used to having a lot of data feeds come in and I want to be able to walk through a store and look for nutritional information the way I do when I'm flying. So there's big chunks that were in the very, very early stages of a buildout, which is why I hate those articles that say it's a two or 3 trillion or $1 trillion market, because we're the early stages of this build out.[00:27:56] I think Roblox is, is their market cap is phenomenal and that's a component of it. So there's, there's pieces that are there and there's, speculation and everyone wants to get their, you know, get their clicks in. But there's a lot of real true value that I'm seeing already in pieces.[00:28:11] Trevor Sumner: So can we shift the conversation about who's doing really cool stuff in, in the metaverse and like start defining the problem space less by abstract lines that and define a little bit more about like real world stuff that people can do in the metaverse things that are interesting or even successful at this point.[00:28:28] Ananda Chakravarty: Would love to hear that Trevor. I mean, just, you know, when I think of metaverse, I'm thinking second life I'm thinking we had islands and all sorts of cool, neat stuff there with big huge I guess advertising, if you will a huge banner for IBM in, in a, you know, a corner of this quote world.[00:28:45] But what did it really translate into in terms of dollars in terms of value in terms of productivity for the, the world? I mean, that's the question at the end of the day. [00:28:54] Where physical and virtual converge[00:28:54] Shish Shridhar: And I kind of think the, the second world and the virtual worlds that's been done in the past is sort of just leading up to where we are now, the metaverse, which is the convergence of physical worlds and virtual worlds and, and really having a multidimensional interface to, to that environment. So people can join into a metaverse right from the physical world, could be shopping in an area or in a physical space and become and interact with people in the virtual space and the other way around. And I think that convergence of real world and virtual world is one of the, I would say the bigger differentiators in addition to you also mentioned, you know, the ability to, to monetize engagements, to be able to create things in the metaverse and experience those things by those things in the physical world, as well as the, the virtual world.[00:29:44] And I think that's the other aspect, which second life didn't really have. It didn't really have that convergence of real world and, and physical world and the, the ability to experience it, you know, no matter what, where you are. And I think that's really the, one of the differentiators anyway. [00:30:00] Trevor Sumner: Yeah, I, I would agree with that.[00:30:01] And so let's talk about what, what some of that looks like. Right? So stock X, for example launch an NFT where you'd get a, a physical product as well as your virtual product. And so, you'd get your Nike air Jordan's and you get a virtual version as well. Now, that's kind of a cool way to think about, collectibles, the challenge came several weeks later when Nike sued them and said, whoa, you're violating our trademarks by selling a virtual Nike item. And right, so like this, some stuff that needs to be worked out there are other people who are treating this physical purchase as also this digital representation patron, you could buy a bottle patron, they get like a special, you know, commemorative patron, icebox, I think they called it. And you get also a physical bottle that's, a limited addition, et cetera. [00:30:47] So I, I think of it almost as like a lot of this as a membership club and NFTs as like a deed to something. And in this case, like either a loyalty club or a membership club that gives you access to the physical world.[00:30:58] I think when you, you start, if you think about loyalty as like points, if, if the points in your metaverse as a game. Start giving you access to the real world. If your interaction in the metaverse with Chanel gets you to the new Chanel fashion show or the, the new, line that comes out and you get to, to go to the store or some V I P this starts becoming really, really compelling.[00:31:24] And it's a way for brands to create engagement with their brands across all different properties and convert to real world commerce and, and virtual commerce too. And, and I think that's exciting. [00:31:35] Brandon Rael: Yeah. And, and add to all that we talked about luxury being the, the ultimate sandbox for, for the metaverse it's, it's already happening.[00:31:42] Gucci's has sold a digital the honest purse, but thousands more than it's worth in real life. So versus a physical product. Dulce Gabbana, sold a a 5.7 million nine piece NFT collection. Saying that their gems can't be found in real life, on earth and in the digital world, metaverse, world's more, more exclusive and more prestigious.[00:32:01] And then Nike lands on the Roblox platform. And they also acquired the virtual sneaker and collectables company or a star company called RT FK T studios. So Nike has been one of the leaders and luxury space has been on fire. [00:32:13] Trevor Sumner: Let let's talk about Nike land for a second.[00:32:15] I think that's a great example. Right? So how are retailers using it? So Nike land, you can buy shoes that don't exist in the real world. Well, okay. Who cares? Well, they can look at the popularity and say, oh, people really like this shoe. We're gonna use it as kind of data demand data to determine which products that they are going to create.[00:32:37] So they may launch a hundred virtual shoes. Just take their top 10% performers and actually create real versions of those shoes. If you think about that as part of your marketing funnel, as your brand engagement funnel that's pretty exciting. And then you can start thinking about, well, if you bought that shoe and we end up making it, you get 20% off or you get it engraved or you get, the special version of it with, you know, who knows, you know, like, [00:33:03] Ricardo Belmar: yeah, there there's like a loyalty implication that goes along with that, right.[00:33:06] Loyalty, a hundred that makes it much more appealing in, in both spaces, right? Digital [00:33:11] Trevor Sumner: Totally. And if, because of all of these benefits, you spend time in Nike land and you spend hours and hours interacting with Nikes, Nikes, Nikes, Nikes, Nikes. What are you gonna do in the real world?[00:33:22] Ricardo Belmar: You need buy more Nike. [00:33:23] Trevor Sumner: Right. You're gonna buy more. Nike, you're gonna talk about Nike. You're gonna wear more Nike. You're gonna talk about how the Nikes you're wearing matches your avatar in Fortnite and allows you to jump 20% higher. [00:33:35] Ricardo Belmar: You're gonna post pictures on Instagram. [00:33:36] Ananda Chakravarty: Trevor, have a strange feeling.[00:33:38] You actually own a pair of Nikes, just a guess [00:33:42] Brandon Rael: strong feel. [00:33:42] Trevor Sumner: Okay. All right. So just virtual ones, one, I, I do own Nikes. I'm sure. Somewhere in my collection, but they're, they're, they're not my basketball show choice. And I'm not actually all that loyal to Nike as a brand. It turns out, but I think what they're doing here is really.[00:33:56] Ananda Chakravarty: Yeah, I kind of like that example, but because that's the closest I've gotten from what I've seen out there and Jeff kind of hit on the, a couple of points on this as well, by the way. And that is when we start thinking about these different pieces that are, that are coming together, are they really big enough to be mainstream, right?[00:34:13] I mean, that's what metaverse, and this whole thing that meta itself and Facebook is trying to push is that this is really a mainstream function. That's, that's gonna be, you know kind of a, a, a combination of what's gonna happen in movies, like ready player one and and The other one, right?[00:34:28] I mean, that's, what's eventually going to be the world, as we know it, if you will, the physical and the blurring of, of this digital avatar state, I just don't know how much reality there is to that. If these are very, you know, focused on these very specialized cases, it has to be something that is really very popular before it becomes anything close to mainstream.[00:34:48] And I don't think we're close to that at this time. [00:34:50] Ricardo Belmar: it's definitely early. [00:34:51] Trevor Sumner: So the, yes, but you know, you're talking about concerts in the metaverse being attended by tens of millions of people. Like that's pretty size. I mean, like, I don't know what you talk about scale, but like that's, that's the biggest concert in the world.[00:35:05] Ricardo Belmar: It depends on the category. Right. And you know, we started out this, with the Nike example, talking about an apparel example, and, I could argue, for example, apparel overall, I think is actually in some ways could be defined as a shrinking market, right? Because what the same amount of money that used to take for you to buy apparel 20 years ago, you can buy a lot more now, putting the side, whether it's a luxury brand or an off price brand, you can get more for your money in apparel, which means that individual apparel brands, they've gotta find other ways to diversify a bit and find new sources to get revenue from what potentially is a shrinking share. So one area where they can do that of course, is in this metaverse digital space. You know, another example of thrown an addition to Nike, Ralph Lauren, right? Ralph Lauren created a space in Roblox and they've, they're selling digital Ralph Lauren collection to Roblox gamers.[00:35:51] So is, is that a significant revenue source for them? I'm not sure that it is now, but I think, from an experimenting point of view, it's a great idea to try it. I think that's where we'll see lots of interest from retailers is just trying different things. This is one of those areas where there's gonna have to be a lot of experimentation now, long term, is that a significant amount of revenue?[00:36:11] And I think it could be cuz Trevor to your point, if millions of people start getting interested, that's a potentially, much larger audience than you get from a physical space. [00:36:20] Trevor Sumner: Right. And, and also, do we measure this as marketing dollars? Right. Right. I got 10 million people to look at this thing.[00:36:27] Like they didn't buy the thing, but did that translate to some [00:36:30] Ricardo Belmar: yeah. What did it do to our brand awareness [00:36:32] Trevor Sumner: brand awareness and eventual sales, right, [00:36:34] Ricardo Belmar: exactly. Yes. It's one more touch point to track in that customer journey. [00:36:38] Trevor Sumner: Right. And, and so, there's a company called pretty little things that created a digital only model that they're now using in their advertising, right? Like what if we start thinking about, the ability to leverage metaverse in all other types of digital content channels and then to the point of, Hey, let's not do the analogous thing. Like, oh, I wonder what a werewolf would look like in Gucci.[00:37:01] Like how do you start doing stuff that's more creative and interesting and, and goes across all of that. And what's the value of that from a marketing return on investment. [00:37:09] Shish Shridhar: I think the, idea that Trevor kind of pointed out about new idea validation is a very powerful one for brands. So really testing out the digital products, the popularity of the digital products before going into production in the real world, and this could apply to apparel shoes, it could apply to furniture, furnishing the digital twin of your home with, with furniture and then getting, a sense of, is this a good design enough before actually going into the real world and potentially maybe car designs, all of those kind of things.[00:37:38] I think it's got a huge potential. [00:37:40] Ananda Chakravarty: I know Michael. Hasn't had a chance to talk, but he's on the stage. So maybe [00:37:43] Ricardo Belmar: welcome, michael . [00:37:45] Michael Zakkour: Hey guys, [00:37:46] Brandon Rael: rockstar. Michael, [00:37:47] Ricardo Belmar: how are you? [00:37:48] Michael Zakkour: So many loved and familiar faces. [00:37:51] The foundation is only a beginning for retail[00:37:51] Michael Zakkour: Okay. Just a couple things I think that need to be cleared up. There's a lot of confusion, nevermind with the average person and consumer within our industry, whether it's retail technology, development, whatever between the metaverse, web three, NFT, and blockchain.[00:38:08] And we've been talking clearly about the metaverse, but there's some underlying foundational with web three NFT, blockchain, and how it relates to retail. The first thing I wanna say is they're not the same thing. The thing that we see most often, or I see most often out in the marketplace is people confusing web three and metaverse meaning sort of the same thing.[00:38:32] They're not. The second thing I'd wanna say is there is no metaverse yet. It doesn't exist. Okay. And if you run into a company Zuckerberg who tells you they're building the metaverse runaway quickly, if you run into anybody who has a complete answer that says, I know what the metaverse is and will be run away.[00:38:57] right. It's just not possible at this point. We are with metaverse web three NFT and blockchain integration, basically where internet technologies and eCommerce were in 1997. Right. We're at the very, very early stages of it. What I can tell you is you do need to think about where the metaverse web three NFT and blockchain exist as separate entities and how they integrate to eventually come to occlusion on something that is something we can call a metaverse or a multiple of a metaverse.[00:39:35] Okay. As it relates to retail one of the most surprising and, and happiest things I've seen is that, you know, six years ago, I was still arguing with all of my luxury clients about whether they should even recognize that something called the internet exists. And a lot of these luxury companies have gone all in and are the leading edge on developing metaverse based web three NFT, blockchain offering. So interesting there.[00:40:05] And so this is really guys on the retail front. I can't emphasize this enough. Retail is the leading edge of what will become the metaverse. I can't define for you what it is right now, but we are building it. So I think, I don't know if it was Ananda,[00:40:22] it might have been Ananda who asked, are there some real life examples of where this is going? We can look at the Gucci platform. We can look at what LVMH is doing with digital avatars, but all of this is it's something beyond an add-on to the internet. As we know it, it's a complete redefinition of how we experience, right.[00:40:44] And you guys have heard me talk about ecosystems and the new retail model being the complete integration of online, offline technology, supply chain, entertainment, and media. This is the next step above it. How do you bring that to life in 3d? Whether it's use of devices or not. It doesn't matter, guys. We don't know what the metaverse is yet.[00:41:08] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. That's an interesting point. Certainly in the early phases of any new technological area, right though, that early phase, there's the novelty of it being new. That gets attention.[00:41:17] You can spend through any number of, of marketing outlets to drive traffic the first time. The real question is how do you keep them coming back. And I think there's a, a component there, you know, we've only touched or I realize we're coming up on the hour, so I'm gonna bring us to a closing point here.[00:41:31] With one last comment I'll throw out and you guys did a good job bringing this up and differentiating between web three NFTs and, and the metaverse. But it's the combination of these things, right? It's the combination of how brands are going to drive the usage of these elements to make that experience worth repeating and worth experiencing over and over and over again for those consumers.[00:41:52] And I think that's, what's going to be the, the key experiment area. We see happening at least over the next year. And in these, I'm gonna keep calling it the early phases. It may be here, but I think Michael, the way you put it was very nice that, you know, whatever it is, it's not well defined yet. And that's probably why we all struggled at the beginning of this hour to come up with a good definition that wasn't as clunky as the one that I read off from Wikipedia.[00:42:16] And that's because it really is still something that has to be figured out by everyone who's going to not just dip their toes in, but dive in and build something.[00:42:25] Especially when you have, what I would describe as the convergence of a number of different technologies that are making this possible at the same time that I guess opens the door for a lot of less interesting ,let's say, solutions and capabilities, but, we're essentially bringing together, I'm just gonna list out all the things that we've mentioned, there's blockchain, low code, VR, AR of course the internet, which was just thrown in, I love how that was thrown in that Wikipedia definition at the very end of the run on sentence.[00:42:50] And that's just to start right. There are a number of other technical capabilities and technologies, and all of these had to converge to get us to the point where we can start to build this out. So I think it's exciting to see where it's gonna go. It's exciting to see what retailers and brands are going to come up with.[00:43:03] And that's why we like to keep this discussion forum going. Cuz it gives us a way to, to speak to different things with our collection of speakers, everybody's got a different viewpoint, a different focus area that they've read about and we've all consumed different types of content and different pieces of articles and such.[00:43:20] So when we all get together and cover one topic, we can all bring a different angle to it. [00:43:24] And I think with that note, we're gonna wrap things up in the room today. The the fact is , this topic is so rich and so involved that we, we could have had just a short bullet point list of 10 other things to talk about and probably fill another 10 hours of this.[00:43:38] So I'm sure we will be scheduling more metaverse discussions in the future . And with that, I'm gonna thank everyone for joining us in the audience and thank our folks who came up here for some questions and all the other speakers, and we will close out the room from there. Thanks everybody. [00:43:54] Metaverse Recap[00:43:54] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome back retail, razor show listeners and viewers. We hope you enjoyed that Retail Avenger's clubhouse session on the metaverse.[00:44:07] Casey Golden: It was a great session. I love the focus on what the metaverse is and what it's not. And honestly, you guys just killed me with the debate on this trillion dollar opportunity. This is gonna, you know, grab your popcorn. Like this is gonna be fun.[00:44:21] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, that really got everybody jumping on that one. A good, good discussion on a few retail examples too, like Nike for one, I mean, what, what do you think about what Nike's doing, Casey?[00:44:30] Casey Golden: It was really smart for them to just acquire artifact. really early. And throw legal to round up and protect their brand. They're filing new trademarks and sending out cease and desist to companies trying to make money off their swoosh. And I think that this is something that a lot of brands are doing right now is getting ready, getting prepared and protecting their brand.[00:44:53] And they're gonna have to do that. Nike land, their Roblox micro metaverse has already attracted like over 7 million people in 224 countries. Like this is not a bad start. This, this space has such low expectations on the design side.[00:45:12] just play[00:45:13] Ricardo Belmar: Right. Yeah.[00:45:14] Casey Golden: it. Doesn't have to be perfect.[00:45:17] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I have to agree. Have to agree with that one that that's so true and, and pretty impressive, that they've got so many people attracted to it at these early stages. So, one of the topics I do think we covered a bit, but honestly we could do another entire show on it. Is this idea of digital twins.[00:45:33] Shish brought it up first. I think we touched on it with Nike specifically, and then Trevor highlighted it a bit more for me, the idea of brands using these digital twins to test new products, see what's popular, then use that knowledge and insight and to decide what products and features they wanna drive to scale maybe for a big product launch.[00:45:53] And I think that's a massive use case. It certainly shortens the time to market. In that whole process. So I, I have to believe we're gonna see more and more of that. And I suppose it's kind of right up your alley. Isn't it. Casey.[00:46:03] Casey Golden: Yes, but I mean, the conversations I'm having is, defining a digital twin it's it's, it's turning into an omnichannel debate of like, what is a digital twin? And I've seen brands using digital twining as an opportunity to pre-sell the physical item include an avatar wearable file. So that they are digital twin to their avatar providing a gift with purchase for like a flex on the item, by sharing that an NFT with an, an artistic version or a very photo realistic version of the item kind of with that proof of purchase and authenticity.[00:46:45] And then just to test a new product into the crypto community, right. This web three and crypto community is a different consumer group. They may have had this consumer group already serviced in their stores or online, but they didn't know that trait necessarily. They didn't know that the, that consumer is also part of a different community, then what they might be familiar with or the way that they would've seen their communities in general.[00:47:13] So there's a lot of different digital twins that are out in the market. And I think we really need to understand what is a use case for these digital twins and what do they do because it's consumer facing. And so just like omnichannel, this is gonna get very confusing.[00:47:31] If we can't decide what a digital twin is, and maybe there's a wearable twin or a meta twin, or I don't know, we need to start coming together and using words that mean something[00:47:45] Ricardo Belmar: Be before we have another Omni channel.[00:47:47] Casey Golden: before we have another Omni channel[00:47:51] Ricardo Belmar: You have to agree with that. And you bring up a, a good point too there about the, community building aspect of all of this, especially when you start to tie in web three and NFTs and in the metaverse, which admittedly, we, we didn't have a lot of time to get into that in the clubhouse session. I'm sure there'll be some future sessions for that kind of discussion.[00:48:10] But I, with, with all these kinds of examples, would you say apparel and luxury brands are kind of taking over the early metaverse right now? Are they really the early adopters? I mean, who would you say is missing out right now? That should be jumping in.[00:48:22] Casey Golden: Luxury is leading technology. Like I just said that luxury is leading [00:48:27] Ricardo Belmar: out there now. [00:48:28] Casey Golden: Is out there and I am so, like, I just got goosebumps. Like I am so proud of the luxury industry adopting tech. And being on board this innovation train, it makes so much sense for the luxury space because the crypto and web three, the crypto space is literally the NFT space was built off of rarity, exclusivity, and these are all the values that are shared, you know, VIP's, this is something that luxury space can really get behind because they have the same core values, unlike a self serve model or a Facebook advertising model. It's very hard for them to get on board because the core values at the end of the day are so separate.[00:49:12] So that's why I believe there is a future over here. Luxury's going to figure it out. I don't know what that means at gap, but, Balenciaga is doing a really great job. Gucci's killing it and they're building it into their business. And I think that it's wonderful. They are early adopters. And at the end of the day, we're in the business of selling products, selling physical products.[00:49:37] I haven't spoken to a single brand that has been excited about selling a digital good. they're like, so if I make this 3d asset or this digital good, or this NFT, like how much product can I move?[00:49:50] Ricardo Belmar: Right. Yeah. How does that help me sell the physical products I'm sell.[00:49:55] Casey Golden: They want to sell physical goods. Even though like, it could be a lot cheaper to sell digital goods. We are going to be figuring out what these digital twins are and how they're going to facilitate these real life purchases. And that's essentially how it's going to be defined, but the brands see I'm finding, they just wanna sell more product.[00:50:15] Ricardo Belmar: right. [00:50:15] I mean, at the end of the day, the digital goods they might sell, it's like in the, all the video game, virtual worlds where you see all of these digital assets sold, it's, it's real money. It's, meaningful money, but compared to what these luxury brands are selling and, and generating in sales, in physical goods, it's an incremental revenue at most. It's not gonna replace the physical goods revenue, but it helps motivate more physical sales.[00:50:40] Casey Golden: oh my goodness. I just have to share this there is narrative out here right now. That that there are companies that are creating digital clothing saying that this is the most sustainable way to shop, and this is how we're going to save the world. I'm like, I'm sorry, but what are we wearing me buying a digital t-shirt.[00:51:02] How is that[00:51:03] Ricardo Belmar: help you in the real[00:51:04] Casey Golden: shopping? [00:51:07] Ricardo Belmar: How are you, how are you, wearing that digital t-shirt Casey[00:51:10] Casey Golden: Right. Like, I'm sorry, but that's not going to work. I still need to go buy physical clothes, but just the narrative twist on this, that this is the most sustainable way to shop, and [00:51:20] Ricardo Belmar: That's one way to look at[00:51:21] Casey Golden: these resources.[00:51:22] Ricardo Belmar: That's one way to look at it.[00:51:24] Casey Golden: I just couldn't, I just couldn't.[00:51:26] I had to, just leave for a moment and I'm like, yeah, I don't even know how to have a conversation with this person right now, because , they do not believe that anybody should be physically manufacturing clothes. I'm like, this is kinda impossible here.[00:51:41] Ricardo Belmar: That's gonna go far in the, in the industry for sure.[00:51:43] Casey Golden: Yeah. I just like, okay, I'm confused, but okay. Continue.[00:51:49] So one thing that, that came up in the clubhouse discussion that is worth more attention is this idea of multiple metaverses. What'd you get, let's just keep confusing the consumer, but you have some thoughts on this and I'd love

The guys talk about their recent cooks of a not so normal meatloaf along with steak and chicken Shish Kabob.

The Alan Cox Shows

Marianne Murciano, Bob Sirott's wife and founder of Savvy-Planet, joined Bob this morning to talk about cooking cheap, yet delicious meals for your holiday party, focusing on shish kebabs. Marianne joins Bob for a weekly segment following the 8:30 am newscast. For more savvy tips, go to Savvy-Planet.Com. Share your own savvy tip: hello@savvy-planet.com. Follow Marianne on […]

We're back at it again with another episode of Haunted Places. We're hopping around the UK a bit in this episode, and let us tell you... Ireland is haunted af. Follow Amy and Liv on social @GirlsGoneSpooky for extra content and stay spooky! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/girls-gone-spooky/support

Story conceived by Ilana HunterWritten, Directed, and Produced by Ilana Hunter and Kurt BoucherAdditional writing by Jennifer Hunter and AJ LinCASTEgan: James Miron Zinnia: Clark Eileen AtkinsonLars: Matt Griffiths Moxie: Devon Richtmeyer Rhodan: Jason Kulas Town Crier: Humphry Rolleston Palanus: Kurt Boucher Narrator/Postwick Guard 1 “Galph”: J Timothy Quirk Belladonna: Christiane Olson Postwick Guard 4 “Gilliam”: JB Segal Postwick Guard 5 “Hank”: Thomas Rafferty Hobgoblin Hal: Andrew Usher Hobgoblin Debbie: Jandi Hanna Pixie 1 (Blossom): Jennifer Hunter Pixie 2 (Snazzberry): Ilana Hunter Pixie 3 (Brad): Melissa Gabehart Fredsel, Museum Curator: Jeff SavageStory conceived by Ilana HunterWritten, Directed, and Produced by Ilana Hunter and Kurt BoucherAdditional writing by Jennifer Hunter and AJ LinMusic by Ilana Hunter, Raymond Boucher, and Kurt BoucherAdditional music by Wendy Sheridan of Music for the Goddess

Bryan and Joshua welcome one of their biggest supporters on the show to discuss what Halo means to them. Kevin Benson's message to his friends: “Shout out to my boys from Ratatouille. Kienan, Kenyon, Sean, and Braydon. Much love, we from the crease, we shiesty."