Podcasts about Walmart

On this episode of Have a Seat, Chris Hansen is joined by Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd to discuss a recent arrest that will shock you! It involves a Wal-Mart, a man with a lengthy criminal history of sexual deviancy and his brother, who is known for playing the local Santa Claus. You're not going to believe what you hear! Footage Courtesy of : Takedown with Chris Hansen Www.watchtrublu.com Polk County Sheriff's Office https://www.polksheriff.org SPONSORS: Home Title Lock: Go to https://hometitlelock.com/chrishansen and use promo code HANSEN to get a FREE title history report and a FREE TRIAL of their Triple Lock Protection! For details visit https://hometitlelock.com/warranty Mars Men For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, AND 3 Free Gifts at Mars Men at https://Mengotomars.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're bringing San Diego Comic-Con International to you, our beautiful listeners. Writer Christopher Cantwellreturns to the show for a boisterous Star Trek celebration. On September 23rd, IDW Publishing is relaunching its Star Trek line. Cantwell spearheads the main ongoing series alongside his artist collaborator, Dennis Menheere. We've been given a sneak peek, and consider their phasers set to stun cuz - We. Are. Stunned. Years after the Star Trek: Picard finale, Seven of Nine now captains the Enterprise-G. Her crew includes several legacy characters. Picard's kid. LaForge's kid. Worf's kid. Not to forget some characters familiar to those who've been reading the IDW comics and several new folks, too. This book is more forward-looking than backward-looking, as all good Trek should be. Most excitingly, Cantwell and Menheere are free to make COMICS within the Star Trek franchise. In the past, likeness has been the predominant factor when crafting brand comics. Dennis Menheere lets loose with his cartooning, embracing shapes and lines that communicate emotion and thought. They're not just assembled to please entertainment lawyers. These characters look like who they should look like, but more importantly, they feel like they should. Cantwell, Menheere, and the whole IDW crew seemingly have learned all the right lessons from Absolute Batman's success. Let's tell stories that only comics can tell. Let's engage with this medium's tools. This episode is the first of five episodes coming at ya this weekend. Be on the lookout for one new Comic Book Couples Counseling episode for every day of San Diego Comic-Con International. It's a lot, but you're gonna have fun whether you're here in California or not. As we said, Star Trek #1 arrives in comic shops on September 23rd. Final Order Cutoff (FOC) is August 17th. It's written by Christopher Cantwell, illustrated and colored by Dennis Menheere, and lettered by Jodie Troutman. Make sure you're following Christopher Cantwell on Bluesky. Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook on Out of Alcatraz Previously on CBCC: Christian Ward on The Forever Home Comic Book Club: Spider-Man: Brand New Day at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 8/2 at 3:30 PM Comic Book Film Club: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia on 8/9 at 5:00 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it'll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That's 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe' now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! What happens when the love of your life is buried on the other side of the country, and you're a ghost who can't leave your grave? That's the beautifully haunting setup of Till Death, a new romantic horror-comedy from Michael Schwartz, Rachael Schaefer, and artist Gaia Cardinali now on Kickstarter from Clover Press! Vivian has waited decades for her husband to join her in the afterlife. But when she discovers he's been buried across the country, she makes a deal with Mack, a man whose near-death experience allows him to see ghosts. We've read Till Death, and we absolutely loved it. It's a bold, original four-color romance, fitting snugly inside comics' most unsung genre. Till Death is on Kickstarter now. Visit the campaign and make your pledge today! Third Eye Comics is opening its biggest store ever: Third Eye 97, a 10,000-square-foot comic, game, and collectibles mega-store inside a former Walmart in Glen Burnie, Maryland, with the doors opening July 25th. Grand opening month goes huge with a Rob Liefeld signing at the new flagship on July 31st, the legend behind Youngblood, Deadpool, and Cable, live and in person. Can't make it to Maryland? The entire Third Eye world ships to your door at thirdeyecomics.com: new releases, back issues, games, and exclusives, sent anywhere with Third Eye Ships. See Third Eye's massive inventory while watching THE STACKS and then order those same books your favorite creators talk about online! Use codeword: STACKSORDIE for 15% off your order! The Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Va is not only unlike any theater in America; it's unlike any Alamo Drafthouse. It's a franchise. In fact, it's the first Alamo Drafthouse location outside of Texas. On July 5th, their Film Club is celebrating America's 250th with the 85th Anniversary of the Greatest Movie Ever Made, Citizen Kane! They'll have an encore screening of Kane on Wednesday, July 8th, too. Film Club is great, but so is their Psycho Cinema series hosted by Faye. On July 14th, they're screening truly one of the best bad movies of all time, Samurai Cop. Golly, have you even lived until you've seen Samurai Cop on the big screen? I think not. Get your tickets today!

Some marketing ideas capture attention for a moment. The very best ones become part of culture. And you could say...that's priceless.Recorded live at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Jim sits down with Jill Kramer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard, to discuss what it's like to lead one of the world's most iconic brands. Mastercard, known globally for its “Priceless” platform and its role at the center of everyday commerce, has spent decades building trust, emotional connection, and cultural relevance across markets. After nearly a decade as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Accenture, where she led the company's "Let There Be Change" brand transformation, and earlier leadership roles at BBDO and DDB, Jill stepped into one of marketing's most influential positions with the responsibility of guiding Mastercard's next chapter.In this wide-ranging conversation, Jill shares her approach to earning trust as a new leader, building creative cultures where ideas can thrive, and why her philosophy of "early, ugly, often" has helped teams create better work. She also discusses how Mastercard is evolving its brand beyond payments, leaning into experiences, partnerships, and technology, and how the company is approaching AI, creator collaborations, and innovation while staying true to the timeless principles that have made it one of the most respected brands in the world.Whether you're leading a global organization or a small team, Jill offers thoughtful lessons on curiosity, creativity, change, and why the best leaders never stop learning.—This week's episode is brought to you by Infillion.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We think of Walmart as ultra-American, but its business relationship with China has fundamentally changed how American retail operates. In this episode, how one retailer helped turn China into the world's factory, eventually becoming the single largest U.S. importer of Chinese consumer goods. Guest:Eileen Otis, Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University and author of Walmart: Made in China Support shows like Throughline with NPR+. Sign up today at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Send us Fan MailChris Hobson, CEO of Rare Beauty Brands, home to Patchology and Kate Somerville, breaks down the business of beauty: the insight that turned Old Spice around, what it now costs to build a brand, how to handle dupes, and the metrics founders should track.Who is Chris Hobson?He started a clothing brand in college in Canada, then joined Procter & Gamble in brand management, running Scope, Folgers Canada, Old Spice, and Secret before an MBA and a career building brands. "As a brand manager, you get trained as sort of the mini general manager of your brand."How did he turn around Old Spice?By finding an insight instead of denying the brand's age. Research showed a woman would borrow her partner's deodorant from almost any brand except Old Spice. "We came up with this funny tongue in cheek positioning of Old Spice as the last bastion of masculinity." The brand went from a distant fifth to third in Canada, and the positioning went global.What makes consumers loyal to a beauty brand?Product quality first, emotional connection second. "When you get that magic of the consumer insight married to really high quality product, that's the foundation of a brand."What insight drives Patchology and Kate Somerville?Two very different ones. "The insight for a Patchology consumer is I want a moment of joy... the act of putting on the mask slows me down from my crazy day." The Kate Somerville consumer is buying certainty from a clinic with 20 years and 250,000 facials behind it.Should beauty brands chase trends?Only in ways authentic to the brand, though Hobson is candid about the pull. "The science is sort of suspect, but hey, it's a $10 million opportunity. How do we not do it?" Brands lose themselves when they go wholesale trend focused.Why did Patchology stop marketing its science?Because consumers buy results, not mechanisms. Hobson watched women's eyes glaze over at talk of ten times more ingredient delivery, then light up when the patches came off. "Turns out all she cares about is the better results."How long does it take to build a beauty brand?Longer than founders expect, now that ad costs have erased the cheap growth era. "You've got to be prepared to raise 10 to 20 million dollars at least, and spend 10 to 20 years on it. That's the new reality."Why is it harder for indie brands to scale now?The economics of attention changed. "The advertising prices have come up and the ROI has come down, and so it's harder for young brands to make that leap."How should a brand respond to dupes?By owning the category so copies feed demand back to the original. "When a brand copies us, a rising tide lifts all boats." Patchology is up over 20 percent this year.Do dupes steal customers from the original?Within limits set by price and psychology. "They're wearing it and they're knowing in their mind, I'm not really wearing Chanel." Hobson argues most of those consumers come back.Does getting into Target or Walmart grow a beauty brand?Not without demand behind it. "If you don't have the demand generation capability in place to move that product off the shelf... you're out." Accessibility is a high stakes strategy, not a shortcut.What metrics should new beauty founders track?Repeat purchase above all, measured by cohort rather than revenue share. "The way we make money as brands is repeat purchase... if I had to go out and acquire a customer every single time, I'd go out of business."What is the biggest business lesson of his career?People. "You want to hire the A level person, even if they're a little threatening to you, because they're gonna do the job way better than you would ever do it."Listen to the full episode with Chris Hobson of Rare Beauty Brands on Skin Anarchy, available wherever you get your podcasts.Shop Kate Sommerville and PatchologyDon't forget to subscribe to Skin Anarchy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.Reach out to us through email with any questions.Sign up for our newsletter!Shop all our episodes and products mentioned through our ShopMy Shelf!Support the show

Marcia Brown, food and agriculture reporter for POLITICO, breaks down the latest news regarding the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak, including why The Food and Drug Administration walked back cyclosporiasis test tied to Taylor Farms, a major lettuce distributor to Taco Bell and Walmart. Photo: SALINAS, CALIFORNIA - JULY 17: A Taylor Farms sign is displayed at one of their facilities on July 17, 2026 in Salinas, California. Taylor Farms, a global fresh produce supplier, is allegedly connected to the recent cyclosporiasis outbreak. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

​Will Ferrell is back in his element with sports-comedy, trading in the race tracks and ice rinks for the PGA fairway in Netflix's 10-episode series, The Hawk. In this episode, we break down Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins' chaotic quest to conquer the U.S. Open, complete the Career Grand Slam, and repair his thoroughly derailed personal life. ​We're diving straight into the deep end of Ferrell's unhinged man-child performance, the Walmart-parking-lot origin story of his iconic caddy Sam (Fortune Feimster), and whether this series actually delivers on the links or lands straight in the sandtrap. Plus, we weigh in on that wildly debated final putt, the family dynamics with Jimmy Tatro's Lance, and how Molly Shannon steals scenes as the estranged ex-wife. ​Did Ferrell pull off a championship comeback, or did this series hook way out of bounds? Tune in for our unfiltered live breakdown, instant reactions, and favorite Easter eggs from the season!

Retail media has evolved incredibly quickly over the last few years, but the conversation has also become far more financially scrutinized. From your perspective, what phase is the industry actually entering now?A lot of retailers rushed to launch retail media networks, but many are now discovering that building ad inventory is very different from building a scalable media business. What are the biggest structural mistakes you see retailers making today?Brands continue shifting budget into retail media, but many executives are starting to question incrementality, duplication, and measurement consistency across networks. What are brands asking for now that they were not asking for even 18 months ago?One of the biggest tensions in retail media right now is the relationship between trade spend and media spend. How do you think CFOs and commercial leaders should be reevaluating the role retail media plays inside the broader P&L?As Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart continue to scale, what does the future look like for mid-sized and regional retail media networks? Do you see consolidation coming, or are there areas where smaller RMNs can still build defensible advantages?

Today's Headlines: Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Miami by US Marshals at the UK's request, facing 59 total charges including rape, sex trafficking, assault, and charges related to indecent images of a child — their attorney says they're innocent, they'll fight extradition. On the corruption beat, Trump is now selling hedge funds early access to his Truth Social posts for $100,000 a month through a service called Truth API, which is institutionalized insider trading dressed up as a subscription service — and he owns 41% of the company selling it, so that's clean. Meanwhile, Trump's primetime election fraud document dump turned out to contain zero evidence of Chinese meddling or a deep state coverup, but did confirm that Russia was pushing the exact same Biden corruption narratives Trump was pushing in 2020 — which is not the smoking gun he was looking for. In other news, The State Department hosted a global left-wing terrorism summit led by Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller, with 60+ countries invited on short notice to discuss a threat that far-right extremists — responsible for over 75% of domestic terrorism deaths since 2001 — were not mentioned at, not even once. In war news, four US service members were killed after Iran struck Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan with ballistic missiles and drones, bringing the total American death toll to 17 since the war started, and Trump's response was to order the military to "open the gates of hell" on Iran. After the mystery explosive diarrhea culprit was discovered, Taylor Farms recalled all of its central Mexico iceberg lettuce across 27 states, with Walmart, Sysco, and Taco Bell pulling products, and the same lettuce supplies Chipotle, McDonald's, Costco, and Trader Joe's, so America's salad situation is complicated. And finally, Spain won the World Cup defeating Argentina 1-0 in overtime, Trump attended, got booed multiple times, and photobombed Spain's trophy photos by overstaying his welcome on stage. . Resources/Articles mentioned: AP News: Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate arrested in Miami, US Marshals Service tells AP CNN: Iceberg lettuce recalled in 27 states due to potential cyclospora contamination Time: Trump Media to Sell Traders ‘the Fastest' Access to Truth Social Posts PBS: Trump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. Here's what they really say NBC News: At global gathering, Rubio and Miller urge world to defend against ‘radical leftism' AP News: US announces another troop death as Israel warns Tehran's attacks are coming close AP News: Highlights: Spain beats Argentina 1-0 to win its second World Cup title Subscribe to the Betches News Room and join the Morning Announcements group chat. Go to: betchesnews.substack.com Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Godfrey is joined by Dante Nero, Akeem Woods, and Vishnu Vaka to talk about Turkey and Egypt turning away a gay cruise ship at the border, Argentina opening up a "Big Nigga Burger" restaurant after wiping out their Afro-Argentine population, why racist white dudes only pick fights with Black people at gas stations and Walmarts, Godfrey getting called a "tether" by FBAs and not caring, Vishnu getting called the N-word by another Indian cab driver, FedEx losing an entire box of Godfrey's merch on the way to Orlando, and old white dudes at the gym blow-drying their balls in the locker room. Legendary Comedian Godfrey is LIVE from New York, and joins some of his best friends in stand up comedy, Hip-Hop and Hollywood to talk current events, pop culture, race issues, movies, music, TV and Kung Fu. We got endless impressions, a white producer, random videos Godfrey found on the internet and so much more! We're not reinventing the wheel, we're just talking 'ish every week... with GODFREY on In Godfrey We Trust. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Patino didn't build Ales Grey overnight. After spending more than three decades in the footwear industry—working with global brands, designing for celebrities, learning manufacturing in China, and leading billion-dollar growth—he realized he wanted to build something bigger than a successful company. He wanted to build a legacy. In this episode, Steve shares how his childhood love of sneakers became his greatest superpower, why he quit his executive job while his wife was pregnant to launch Ales Grey, and how staying committed to a purpose-driven mission ultimately helped the brand land on Walmart.com. If you've ever wondered whether your passion could become your career, this conversation will inspire you to think bigger, trust your expertise, and build something only you can create. What You'll Learn Why your biggest passion may actually be your greatest competitive advantage How Steve predicted footwear trends decades before they became mainstream What he learned from helping scale billion-dollar brands The importance of finding your unique superpower How storytelling helped Ales Grey stand out What retailers like Walmart look for in emerging brands Why purpose is the key to sustaining long-term success How to build resilience through uncertainty The importance of mastering your craft before launching your own business Why "Don't be the best. Be the only." is Steve's guiding philosophy Connect with Steve Instagram: @sneakersteve @alesgrey Shop Ales Grey at Walmart  Resources + Links: Subscribe to Dreams In Drive wherever you get your podcasts Follow @rainshineluv on Instagram for behind-the-scenes updates Share this episode with a friend who's questioning what's next Sign up for our weekly newsletter www.dreamsindrive.com/join

Key TakeawaysBig anchors (Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out, Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, Bass Pro, etc.) spend millions on site selection; small investors can “ride their wave” by buying/ building nearby instead of guessing.Don't rely only on listed deals (Krexie, LoopNet), gut feel, or trailing comps; look forward to where development, permits, rooftops, and city plans (like Nashville Next) are headed.Anchors study traffic counts and speed, AM/PM side of the road, daytime population, growth trajectory, access (right-in/right-out, signals), and co‑tenancy—these same factors should guide your decisions.Case studies (Dickerson Pike, Rivergate Mall) show how land near future anchors can double in value within a few years once major campuses, stadiums, or redevelopments are announced.There is typically an 18–24 month opportunity window between anchor announcement and opening where pricing hasn't fully caught up—ideal time for most investors to buy nearby.Four main anchor types: QSR scouts, value big box, destination anchors, and redevelopment anchors; all can “make” a corridor and create demand for surrounding strip centers, pads, flex, and services.Watch for hard signals: actual closings and public incentives (TIFs, grants, PILOTs) that confirm big capital is committed to an area.Core principle: anchors don't just find good corners anymore; they create them—your job is to own real estate next door when they do.

Episode web page: https://bit.ly/4fjSOKR Episode summary: In this episode of Insights Unlocked, Mike Mace chats with Chase Keaten, senior research manager at Walmart, about the tension shaping how researchers, designers, and builders are learning to work with AI. Chase shares why he thinks the sharpest divide in tech right now isn't about tools—it's about two competing mindsets: an "always push forward" view of AI and a more cautious, human-centered one. He explains why holding both views at once, rather than picking a side, tends to lead to better decisions. The conversation also digs into the much-hyped "builder model," where one person plus a stack of AI agents is expected to replace a whole product team. Chase makes the case for why healthy conflict between humans—not simulated conflict from AI—is often what actually makes products better. He and Mike also explore why trust, not usability, may be the real currency of agentic AI, and Chase closes with practical advice for researchers and designers under pressure to "do something with AI" right now. You'll learn: Why two opposing views of AI—full-speed-ahead and human-centered caution—can coexist productively Why the "builder model" struggles to replicate the healthy conflict that makes products better How AI is reshaping design work, and why speed often comes at the cost of context and novelty Why trust, not usability, is becoming the key metric for agentic AI How a "personalization butler" could change the relationship between retailers and customers Practical advice for researchers and designers who feel pressure to use AI without a clear plan Resources & links Chase Keaton on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasekeaten/) Mike Mace on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemace/) Nathan Isaacs on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanisaacs/) Learn more about Insights Unlocked: https://www.usertesting.com/podcast

WTF News The Morning Shag with Shags and Trevor 5:30am to 10:00am on 96.7 KCMQ Classic Rock in Mid-Missouri

Part 2 is here! Allison picks up right where she left off - getting the epidural, laboring through the night with Isaac, a scary moment mid-epidural, and finally pushing (yes, TMI and all) to meet baby Pepper Jo. She wraps up with the full birth story, plus a heads-up that a Q&A episode is coming next. Go send your questions to the Sunday Sports Club Instagram.Sponsors:Plan B: Find Plan B at a retailer near you or order online or through your delivery app today. Visit PlanBOneStep.com for more. Mabel's Labels: Visit mabelslabels.com and use code SUNDAY at checkout for 20% offJust Ingredients: Visit https://justingredients.com/SSC and use code SSC for 20% off your first full-price order.Honest: Shop Honest on Amazon, Walmart and Target.Warby Parker: Eyewear that's made to move with you. Right now, buy one pair of glasses and get 20% off any additional pairs at WarbyParker.com/SUNDAY. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

#997 Ever wondered what it really takes to get your product off a folding table and onto the shelves of Walmart, Costco, or Target? In this episode, host Brien Gearin sits down with retail expert Jay Yung, founder of Evergreen Retail Solutions, to break down the real path from farmer's market tables to national store shelves. Jay shares how he went from running a surf shop in Hawaii to managing hundreds of millions in inventory at Walmart, and now uses that experience to help brands scale through smart pricing, packaging, supply chain strategy, and retail partnerships. From navigating buyer expectations to avoiding costly mistakes in inventory and margins, Jay explains what separates products that land big-box deals from those that quietly disappear. Whether you have a product in early development or you're already selling online, this episode is a masterclass in getting retail-ready and scaling responsibly! (Original Air Date - 11/13/25) What we discuss with Jay: + From surf shop to Walmart + Inside Walmart's toy department + What retailers look for in products + Packaging as a sales driver + Avoiding costly inventory mistakes + How to spot a winning product + When to pursue big-box retailers + Why local markets matter first + Importance of margins and terms + Staying on-brand to scale Thank you, Jay! Check out Evergreen Retail Solutions at ⁠Evergreen-RS.com⁠. Follow Jay on ⁠LinkedIn⁠. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/training⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles Payne is joined by Danielle Shay, Vice President of Options at Simpler Trading, to discuss why current market conditions present unique technical opportunities, from a retail rotation into names like Costco and Walmart to strategically trading the pre-earnings rally in Nvidia, while also looking at potential shorting opportunities in downward-trending stocks like Netflix, IBM, and ServiceNow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The grownups killed the world. To escape destruction, Henry built The Forever Home. Inside, his family enjoys existence, protected by the poisonous elements outside. One catch: their time is compressed. For every twenty minutes they live, one hour outside passes. Nothing should ever cross the threshold. Writer Christian Ward is having a moment. He's about to launch his new artworld horror, The Patron. Event Horizon: Inferno currently rages on the stands, with the previous Event Horizon: Dark Descent premiering as a trade paperback next week at San Diego Comic-Con International. And, this fall, courtesy of Oni Press, he launches maybe his most personal and mature work yet, The Forever Home. The Forever Home is his Cocaine Bear. The premise alone should hook you, and once you crack its pages, the comic delivers on its promise. It's always a joy to have Christian Ward on the podcast. He's a theme-forward storyteller, and as such, the perfect Comic Book Couples Counseling guest. We get into it! First, we discuss why this year's San Diego Comic-Con is such a critical moment in his career. We look at the road behind him and the road ahead. We talk about The Forever Home's dystopian present, the family tragedy bubbling within, and how it confronts tribalism. The Forever Home #1 arrives in shops on September 9th. It's written by Christian Ward, illustrated by Sammi Kivelä, colored by Jason Wordie, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Continue this conversation with Christian Ward by visiting his Website and following him on Blue Sky and Instagram. Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: Dan Schkade on Lavender Jack Previously on CBCC: Christian Ward on Event Horizon: Inferno Comic Book Club: Spider-Man: Brand New Day at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 8/2 at 3:30 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it'll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That's 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe' now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! What happens when the love of your life is buried on the other side of the country, and you're a ghost who can't leave your grave? That's the beautifully haunting setup of Till Death, a new romantic horror-comedy from Michael Schwartz, Rachael Schaefer, and artist Gaia Cardinali now on Kickstarter from Clover Press! Vivian has waited decades for her husband to join her in the afterlife. But when she discovers he's been buried across the country, she makes a deal with Mack, a man whose near-death experience allows him to see ghosts. We've read Till Death, and we absolutely loved it. It's a bold, original four-color romance, fitting snugly inside comics' most unsung genre. Till Death is on Kickstarter now. Visit the campaign and make your pledge today! Third Eye Comics is opening its biggest store ever: Third Eye 97, a 10,000-square-foot comic, game, and collectibles mega-store inside a former Walmart in Glen Burnie, Maryland, with the doors opening July 25th. Grand opening month goes huge with a Rob Liefeld signing at the new flagship on July 31st, the legend behind Youngblood, Deadpool, and Cable, live and in person. Can't make it to Maryland? The entire Third Eye world ships to your door at thirdeyecomics.com: new releases, back issues, games, and exclusives, sent anywhere with Third Eye Ships. See Third Eye's massive inventory while watching THE STACKS and then order those same books your favorite creators talk about online! Use codeword: STACKSORDIE for 15% off your order! The Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Va is not only unlike any theater in America; it's unlike any Alamo Drafthouse. It's a franchise. In fact, it's the first Alamo Drafthouse location outside of Texas. On July 5th, their Film Club is celebrating America's 250th with the 85th Anniversary of the Greatest Movie Ever Made, Citizen Kane! They'll have an encore screening of Kane on Wednesday, July 8th, too. Film Club is great, but so is their Psycho Cinema series hosted by Faye. On July 14th, they're screening truly one of the best bad movies of all time, Samurai Cop. Golly, have you even lived until you've seen Samurai Cop on the big screen? I think not. Get your tickets today!

How do you reinvent one of the world's most iconic brands without losing what made it iconic in the first place?Recorded live on the Tubi Stage at Cannes Lions, Jim sits down with Fabiola Torres, Chief Marketing Officer of Gap, to unpack one of the most compelling brand turnarounds in retail. Drawing on leadership experience at Nike, Apple, PepsiCo, and now Gap, Fabiola shares how the team rebuilt the brand by focusing on marketing fundamentals, embracing creativity, investing in culture, and reconnecting with consumers across generations.They discuss why every brand should be treated like a living persona, how partnerships with talent are built on trust rather than transactions, and why the best marketing doesn't chase relevance—it earns it.—In partnership with Tubi. Brought to you by Infillion.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Plus: Walmart has a new leader at the top of its U.S. business. And consumer sentiment climbed in July. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This week on Two Parents & A Podcast, happy Friday!!! We recorded this episode the night before heading out to DC and instead of our usual, we decided to do a little game: we picked a bunch of parenting hot takes & "would you rather" questions to answer rapid-fire, and yes we were all a little slap happy LOL. PSA UPFRONT: we talk about Santa in this episode around 20 minutes in… please do not listen in front of your kids!!! OK let's get into it: A few we cannot stop thinking about: is it ever OK to lie to your kids?! (Santa, tooth fairy, "the iPad only exists on the airplane" lies…), are iPads the modern day cigarette?! (YES), should schools ban birthday treats?! (no), should toddlers actually be expected to share?! (yes!!!), and the great household debate: shoes on or shoes off in the house?! (Harrison is CANADIAN and yet still on Team Shoes On somehow??). Plus, we get into some wild parenting advice from the 1930s-1960s (mothers were told don't breastfeed if you're angry?! Doctors recommended cigarettes during pregnancy?! Don't hug your baby too much or you'll create a tyrant??) that made us wonder what advice we're getting today that we'll think is crazy in 100 years. Plus, pacifiers after age 2 (yes or no?), and the true or false round: is the second kid actually rules-free? Was parenting easier before Instagram? Do parents secretly love when plans get canceled? And of course, Harrison walks us through 100 years of stock market data to kick things off (cliffhanger from last ep!! lol)… 30,000 stocks analyzed over 100 years, and only 27.6% outperformed the market. His case for index funds continues!!

Walmart has expanded drone delivery across Greater Houston, bringing ultra fast delivery to more than one million consumers and paving the way for hundreds of additional drone locations. Chris Walton, Shelley Huff, and Chris Niesen discuss why this is much bigger than a drone story. They explain how it represents the next evolution of fulfillment, changing customer expectations, and the growing race to deliver products faster than ever before. ▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/-F7f2EFXG9k

Last week Christian called Vista's rumored bid for Criteo "cheap" and left it at a throwaway line: three to four times.. what? A few people texted him afterward and said he could have done better; he agreed.So this week, solo from an undisclosed location while Ayelet celebrates her 30th in LA, Christian goes deep. A full side-by-side of Criteo and LiveRamp, a walkthrough of why the multiple gap between them makes almost no sense on the financials, and a concrete bull case: pay $58 a share, a 200%+ premium, then run an M&A play to build the agentic commerce OS for brands and retail.The thesis isn't buy it cheap. It's buy it decisively.What we cover: Who actually leaked the Vista story (and why Criteo's repeated phantom-deal leaks are a comms problem), the Criteo vs. LiveRamp side-by-side on revenue growth, revenue mix, EBITDA, and free cash flow, why LiveRamp's 107% net retention is at real risk once Publicis owns it, why Criteo's transactional model might be the safer bet in an agentic era where subscription pricing is under fire, the AI option value nobody's pricing in, and three specific M&A targets that would fix Criteo's biggest gap: no Amazon, no Walmart.Plus two deals worth flagging: Podean's fifth acquisition (Social Commerce Club) and Brunner buying AdSkate.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:26 — Solo episode, life changes, and happy 30th to Ayelet 0:50 — Why we're revisiting Criteo/Vista: "you really could have done better" 1:30 — The backstory: Bloomberg, Reuters, and a 50% premium at ~$3.7B implied 2:00 — Who leaked it? Why back channels point at Criteo, not Vista 2:30 — Criteo's leak engine: Microsoft, Walmart, Skai — deals that never materialized 3:00 — The headline thesis: pay 2.5x revenue ex-TAC, then run an M&A play 4:00 — Side-by-side setup: Criteo vs. LiveRamp 4:30 — Revenue growth: LiveRamp at 9%, Criteo at 1% (and why that's misleading) 5:15 — Growth quality: the Roundel and Uber Eats churn, and 16% underlying retail media growth 5:45 — Why LiveRamp's 107% net retention is at risk under Publicis ownership 6:30 — Revenue type: true SaaS vs. transactional media economics 7:00 — Why subscription models are under fire in the agentic era 7:45 — EBITDA: Criteo at $407M vs. LiveRamp at $185M, at a quarter of the multiple 8:30 — Free cash flow: both are cash compounders with clean balance sheets 9:15 — Strategic buyers pay up, financial buyers don't — but Vista usually pays 10-20x 9:45 — The AI option value nobody's pricing: OpenAI's ChatGPT ads pilot, 2x AI-referred conversions 10:30 — The real asset: 4,100 brands, 225 retail media networks, $1B in quarterly activated spend 11:15 — The bull case: $58/share, $2.9B equity value, a 203% premium 12:00 — Why no board can responsibly ignore an offer like this 12:30 — M&A target #1: Skai — solves Amazon and Walmart, and they already know each other 13:30 — M&A target #2: Pacvue (Advent) — Amazon, Walmart, Instacart muscle (and the Helium 10 problem) 14:15 — Why The Trade Desk's April integrations create urgency 14:45 — M&A target #3: digital shelf analytics — and the Profitero/Publicis precedent 16:00 — The Christian math, summarized 17:00 — Deal hit: Podean acquires Social Commerce Club (deal #5) 17:45 — Deal hit: Brunner acquires AdScape — creative intelligence as an AI play 18:30 — Why more deals are moving to our Substack, and what's coming next

Welcome back to The Viall Files: Reality Recap!  Anna Peele, author of Enter The Villa, IS BACK to put a final bow on Love Island Season 8, from the online backlash against Zach and Kayda, to Melanie and Sincere's post-villa future, Brinity's best shot at lasting, and how fame changes everything once islanders get their phones back. Plus, Anna gives behind-the-scenes insight into Love Island production, Beyond the Villa, the pressures of reality TV fame, and who could actually make sense as the next Bachelor. You won't want to miss it :)   "The one thing they can't control is who the audience responds to." Nick is on Substack! Subscribe here: https://nickviall.substack.com/subscribe HEY! YOU! DO YOU NEED DATING AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE?  Email asknick@theviallfiles.com and be a part of future Ask Nick episodes! Want ad free episodes and incredible bonus content?  Start your 7 Day Free Trial of Viall Files + here: https://viallfiles.supportingcast.fm/   Subscribe to The ENVY Media Newsletter Today: https://www.viallfiles.com/newsletter   To Order Nick's Book and/or learn more about the show, go to: https://viallfiles.com  THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Helix Sleep: Go to https://helixsleep.com/viall for 27% Off Sitewide, exclusive for listeners of the show. Jones Road Beauty: For a limited time our listeners are getting a FREE full sized Mascara on their first purchase when they go to https://jonesroadbeauty.com and use code VIALL at checkout.  Ollie: Head to https://ollie.com/viall, tell them all about your dog, and use code VIALL to get 70% off your Welcome Kit when you subscribe today! David Protein: Head to Walmart today to try a bar or stock up on 4CTs of your favorite flavors, like Blueberry Pie and Salted Peanut Butter. Check out https://walmart.com to find a store near you! 3 Day Blinds: Head to https://3dayblinds.com/viall for their buy one get one 50% off deal on custom blinds, shades, and drapery.  To advertise on this podcast please email: ad-sales@libsyn.com or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/theviallfiles Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 03:07 - Anna Joins 01:33:08 - Outro Episode Socials:  @viallfiles  @nickviall  @susiecevans     @peelebanana @the_mare_bare @justinkaphillips @baybaeee

The White House has proposed new tariffs on 60 countries that allegedly aren't doing enough to ban forced labor. Domestic businesses, already burned from last year's trade war, are bracing for more hurt. In this episode, companies weigh early orders against rising costs. Plus: Recent positive inflation data could convince the Fed to hold interest rates steady, Kroger buys Giant Eagle in ongoing effort to unseat Walmart as the supermarket market-share king, and parents sacrifice to put their kids through youth sports.Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.Read the stories from today's episode: Retailers map out tariff strategiesThe Fed digests an optimistic week for economic dataTraditional supermarkets are struggling. Kroger hopes its Giant Eagle merger will helpBusiness Botox: What it takes to sell a luxury homeYouth sports have turned into a five-figure-a-year commitment for many parents

The White House has proposed new tariffs on 60 countries that allegedly aren't doing enough to ban forced labor. Domestic businesses, already burned from last year's trade war, are bracing for more hurt. In this episode, companies weigh early orders against rising costs. Plus: Recent positive inflation data could convince the Fed to hold interest rates steady, Kroger buys Giant Eagle in ongoing effort to unseat Walmart as the supermarket market-share king, and parents sacrifice to put their kids through youth sports.Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.Read the stories from today's episode: Retailers map out tariff strategiesThe Fed digests an optimistic week for economic dataTraditional supermarkets are struggling. Kroger hopes its Giant Eagle merger will helpBusiness Botox: What it takes to sell a luxury homeYouth sports have turned into a five-figure-a-year commitment for many parents

Helium 10 releases a super-powerful MCP that will revolutionize the way you manage your Amazon accounts. New data shows that AI and Alexa for shopping have not decreased the number of people using the Amazon search bar to enter keywords.   We're back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10's VP of Education and Strategy, Bradley Sutton. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10's newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level. Helium 10's new MCP is changing the way Amazon sellers research, analyze, and take action on marketplace data by connecting Helium 10 directly with AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT. Now available to Diamond and above users, the Helium 10 MCP lets sellers ask natural-language questions and instantly pull insights from tools like Black Box, Cerebro, Brand Analytics, Keyword Tracker, and Helium 10 Ads, without manually downloading reports or switching between multiple dashboards. In this episode, Bradley Sutton shows how sellers can uncover product opportunities, analyze competitor keyword rankings, review historical Brand Analytics and Cerebro data, and build smarter advertising strategies in minutes instead of hours. For more Helium 10 MCP strategies, skills, and advanced seller workflows, follow Bradley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast/ and follow Bradley Sutton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/h10bradley/   TikTok Shop Bans AI Voices From Live Commerce Streams: Violations Now Dent Account Health Score https://www.techtimes.com/articles/320624/20260715/tiktok-shop-bans-ai-voices-live-commerce-streams-violations-now-dent-account-health-score.htm New Data Proves Amazon Keyword Searches Have NOT Been Replaced by Alexa! Bradley Sutton breaks down a new Helium 10 research study analyzing whether Rufus, now Alexa for shopping, has significantly changed how shoppers search for products on Amazon. Despite the growing conversation around AI replacing traditional keyword search, the data shows that Amazon search volume, clicks, and conversion behavior have remained largely consistent from 2024 through 2026, with no major shift away from keyword-based shopping. While Alexa for shopping may be useful for product discovery when shoppers are unsure what they want, Bradley explains that most buyers still use the search bar when they already know what they are looking for, making keyword research and listing optimization just as important as ever. The key takeaway: sellers should not ignore Rufus/Alexa for Shopping optimization, especially for listing questions and product-page interactions, but traditional keywords are far from dead. To see the full breakdown and data behind this study, read Bradley's full blog here: https://www.helium10.com/blog/breaking-news-amazon-keyword-search-is-alive-well/ Amazon Seller Central News: Use new pallet delivery ship option for your business customers https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-news/articles/QVRWUERLSUtYMERFUiNHRDhCQUg1UlkyV1hGQkE1 New Feature Alert! Helium 10 now shows Keyword Tracker data directly on Amazon product pages via the Chrome extension. View search volume, organic and sponsored ranks, and track products or competitors instantly without leaving the page.   Amazon has released the session lineup for Amazon Accelerate 2026, happening this September in Seattle, and Helium 10 will be there with Bradley Sutton speaking on stage, Carrie attending, and a booth for sellers to visit. Sellers can register at h10.me/accelerate using their Seller Central account and use discount code heliumsellercomp to save on the regular ticket price. If you're attending, make sure to stop by the Helium 10 booth and take advantage of Amazon's Seller Cafe for help with account or support issues that have been difficult to resolve.   In episode 537 of the AM/PM Podcast and Weekly Buzz, Bradley covers: 00:00 - Introduction 00:46 - Helium 10's MCP Is Now Live! 10:28 - TikTok Shop Bans AI Voices 12:14 - New Data Proves Amazon Keyword Searches Have NOT Been Replaced by Alexa! 20:46 - You Can Now Ship Pallets To Customers! 21:48 - New Way To Track Keywords On Amazon Listings 23:59 - Amazon Accelerate Discount Code

In this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast, host Josh Hadley shares his predictions for the future of e-commerce over the next decade. Drawing from his experience scaling a brand to eight figures, he analyzes Amazon, TikTok Shop, Shopify, and AI-driven commerce. Josh advises entrepreneurs to master one platform before expanding, build creator relationships through TikTok Shop, leverage Shopify for brand ownership, and prepare for AI-powered shopping experiences. He emphasizes that rising competition, increasing ad costs, and the growing importance of brand trust will define the future landscape of e-commerce.Bullet Points:Current landscape and future predictions of e-commerce platformsDominance and evolving competition on AmazonChallenges and opportunities presented by TikTok ShopGrowth and significance of Shopify for independent e-commerceImpact of AI and agent commerce on shopping experiencesImportance of building a strong foundation on one platform before expandingStrategies for managing Amazon operations and team buildingRole of creator partnerships in driving sales and brand loyaltySequential approach to scaling e-commerce businessesEmphasis on content distribution for brand visibility and engagementTimestamps:00:00:00 Introduction to E-commerce PlatformsThe speaker introduces the main topics of the episode: Amazon, TikTok Shop, Shopify, and the future of AI in e-commerce.00:00:55 The Current Noisy E-commerce LandscapeA discussion on how the e-commerce world has become noisier, with Amazon's dominance being challenged by new platforms and strategies.00:02:56 Amazon's Future: Dominance and ChallengesPrediction that Amazon will maintain its dominance with faster shipping but will see increased ad costs and competition from overseas sellers.00:05:03 The Evolution of Amazon's AlgorithmThe speaker predicts Amazon's keyword-driven ranking algorithm will be replaced by a more conversational, AI-driven search, eliminating traditional page rankings.00:06:00 Predictions for TikTok ShopTikTok Shop is predicted to be a challenging platform for profitability, with rising fees and a shift towards paid reach.00:08:17 The Enduring Importance of CreatorsWorking with content creators will become even more crucial for building brand trust in an increasingly AI-driven world.00:08:17 Shopify's Continued DominanceShopify is expected to become the undisputed king for independent e-commerce websites, integrating with AI and social commerce platforms.00:11:17 The Future of AI and Agent E-commerceAI will transform shopping with personal assistants, making brand integrity and trust more important than ever for consumer purchasing decisions.00:14:08 Where to Focus Your EffortsThe speaker outlines his business strategy, recommending entrepreneurs master one platform, like Amazon, before expanding to others.00:16:01 The Sequential Approach to GrowthA step-by-step guide: master a platform, build a team, then focus on TikTok Shop to build creator relationships.00:18:02 Unlocking Shopify and Driving TrafficAfter mastering creator relationships, entrepreneurs can effectively unlock Shopify's potential by knowing how to drive traffic through affiliates and paid ads.00:20:04 Integrating Agent Commerce and ContentAgent commerce is the final step, focusing on content distribution and building brand trust to rank in large language models.00:22:25 A Roadmap for EntrepreneursAdvice for entrepreneurs to focus on one sales channel until reaching $5 million, build a team, and then expand sequentially.00:24:19 Conclusion: Focus and Proper SequencingFinal advice to avoid distractions by focusing on one initiative at a time to achieve faster and more sustainable growth.Links and Mentions:Tools and Platforms  "Amazon": "00:00:00"  "TikTok Shop": "00:00:00"  "Shopify": "00:00:00"  "AI and Agent eCommerce": "00:00:00"  Key Predictions and Insights  "Amazon's Future": "00:02:56"  "TikTok Shop's Profitability Challenges": "00:07:20"  "Shopify's Dominance": "00:09:17"  "AI's Impact on Shopping": "00:11:17"  Recommendations  "Focus on Amazon until you have a solid team": "00:15:08"  "Building relationships with creators": "00:16:57"  "Unlocking Shopify after establishing creator relationships": "00:19:04"  "Engaging with consumers through content distribution": "00:21:13"  Additional Notes  "Creator Gold Rush": "00:16:57"  "Affiliate Management": "00:19:04"  "Content Distribution and Engagement": "00:22:25"Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00  Amazon, TikTok shop, Shopify, and even AI and agent eCommerce. These are all of the many topics that are surfacing to the top right now in all of the mastermind groups that I'm a part of. So if you're listening to this, which of these platforms should you actually be investing the majority of your time into? Which of these platforms actually deserve your attention? In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing my perspective, the platforms that I am actively focused on and why, and what my predictions are for e-commerce over the next decade. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband to a beautiful wife, and I'm also the father of four children.Josh Hadley 00:00:55  I've been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, doing over $20 million annually and doing multi millions in revenue on TikTok. Shop, Shopify and Amazon. And I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, Ecomm Breakthrough. There is so much noise going on right now in the world of e-commerce, and frankly speaking, I feel like it's noisier over the last couple of years than it ever has been in the past. To be honest with you, from about 2015 to maybe about 2023, the only thing you would hear from people is Amazon and Amazon. Amazon. And then we would always wish that Walmart would actually be a serious player in the e-commerce space. But frankly speaking, Walmart never really got their act together. There are some people that are doing well on Walmart. But you know, from my perspective, in any test that we've continued to run, is that like the market just simply is not worth the time investment over there. So with that being said, right now, we are living in just like an extremely noisy period of time for e-commerce.Josh Hadley 00:01:54  And what we heard was many people succeeding on Amazon from about 2015 to about 2023. But then like there has been a massive shift and I believe that it started around the year 2023. This is where the Amazon algorithm really started to break down. For a lot of the brands that were early adopters to Amazon, and it's not that Amazon magically changed their algorithm or things like that, but Amazon has been heavily recruiting overseas sellers ...

Send us Fan MailGuests: Dr. Amy Nunn, CEO, Rhode Island Public Health InstituteChris Buchanan Director of Public Affairs and State and Local Government Relations with Walmart Stores, IncIn this episode, we explore the innovative Eat Well, Be Well program in Rhode Island, which successfully leverages public-private partnerships to promote healthy eating among SNAP recipients. Discover how automating incentives at checkout can increase fruit and vegetable consumption, and the potential for these strategies to scale into other areas of health and wellbeing.Main Topics:The origin and goals of the Eat Well, Be Well initiativeHow the program doubles the value of SNAP benefits for produce in retail locationsThe seamless, no-signup approach that simplifies access to healthy foodsThe role of technology in efficient program administrationData and impact: how the program benefits thousands of Rhode IslandersStrategies for scaling similar incentive models to broader health behaviorsFuture expansion possibilities beyond produce, including active lifestylesThe importance of cross-sector collaboration in shaping healthier communitiesTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction to the episode and guests00:16 - Guest introductions: Chris Buchanan and Dr. Amy Nunn01:04 - The purpose and history of the Eat Well, Be Well program01:33 - How the program supports affordability of healthy foods for SNAP recipients02:10 - Program funding sources and extension through COVID relief dollars02:55 - Walmart's involvement: why they joined the pilot program03:27 - Making healthy shopping affordable and practical03:57 - Seamless incentive application at checkout05:11 - Behind the scenes logistics of integrating the program into retailer systems06:52 - Advice for retailers interested in adopting similar models09:00 - Evaluation results and program impact on Rhode Island households09:36 - Reaching vulnerable populations: children and the elderly11:43 - The potential for expanding incentives to other health behaviors and products12:19 - The concept of behavioral economics in promoting healthy choices13:21 - The possibility of broader incentive programs across health and activity sectors15:00 - Creative ideas for encouraging physical activity through retail and community efforts16:18 - The importance of partnership among government, private sector, and public health16:35 - The scalability of incentive programs and future opportunities17:21 - Final thoughts on collaborative efforts driving community health improvements18:07 - Closing remarksSupport the showFollow Bill on Instagram and YouTube

**Podcast Description for Episode #1255 of The Clay Edwards Show** Clay shares a rough start to his morning (nausea, hot flashes, and energy drink regrets), then dives into responding to haters after a wild email from "Cooley" labeling him a "sad, pathetic Trump supporter." He reads his recent post "Why I Respond to the Hate" and explains why ignoring lies, slander, and potential deepfakes isn't an option anymore in the AI era. He spotlights a powerful text from listener Keith (law enforcement) exposing racial double standards in the Nolan Wells investigation — no-snitch culture in Black-on-Black crime vs. demands for total transparency from others. Clay also breaks down a Flowood police chase where a Walmart shoplifting suspect in a Kia Soul wrecked and faced charges. The highlight: Andrew Gasser joins Clay in studio for a high-T discussion on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's new policy mandating annual testosterone screenings for all U.S. military service members 30 and older. They break down the benefits for warfighters (and civilians), TRT's impact on energy, mindset, and performance, the decline in men's testosterone, and the need to bring back real physical fitness standards like the old Presidential Physical Fitness Test (phased out under Obama, now returning in MS). Plus unfiltered talk on self-inflicted oppression, media ads, app frustration, and more. Strap in for raw, no-sugar-added reality radio — fighting cancel culture and shining light on the issues nobody else will touch in Jackson and beyond. #ClayEdwardsShow #FAFO #Testosterone #NolanWells #Mississippi #RankinCounty #WYAB

We are the choices we make. Good guy? Bad guy? We decide that every day until our last day. On this week's podcast, we're exploring how heroism and villainism mingle in Lavender Jack, the pulp adventure from cartoonist Dan Schkade. We're considering when to swim with society and when to swim against it, and how comic book vigilante justice too often forgets its own messaging. Lavender Jack, originally published on Webtoon, is where Schkade cracked the comic strip medium, preparing him to take over Flash Gordon, where he now lives daily. We discuss why these pulp adventurers appeal so profoundly to him, and how their tales can be told with a contemporary bite. It's the perfect discussion to prepare us for next week's plunge into San Diego Comic-Con, where we'll be moderating three panels and attempting to interview all the comic book celebrity guests. We're in plug-goblin-mode during the intro, barely containing our excitement for the year's biggest comic book event. If you thought our July 2026 coverage was already intense, oh boy, strap in. Lavender Jack is written, illustrated, and lettered by Dan Schkade. It's colored by Jenn Manley Lee. Volume One is currently available from Dark Horse Comics, and you can expect Volume 2 on September 29th. Make sure you're following Dan Schkade on Instagram and Bluesky. Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: Dan Schkade on Flash Gordon Comic Book Club: Spider-Man: Brand New Day at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 8/2 at 3:30 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it'll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That's 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe' now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! What happens when the love of your life is buried on the other side of the country, and you're a ghost who can't leave your grave? That's the beautifully haunting setup of Till Death, a new romantic horror-comedy from Michael Schwartz, Rachael Schaefer, and artist Gaia Cardinali now on Kickstarter from Clover Press! Vivian has waited decades for her husband to join her in the afterlife. But when she discovers he's been buried across the country, she makes a deal with Mack, a man whose near-death experience allows him to see ghosts. We've read Till Death, and we absolutely loved it. It's a bold, original four-color romance, fitting snugly inside comics' most unsung genre. Till Death is on Kickstarter now. Visit the campaign and make your pledge today! Third Eye Comics is opening its biggest store ever: Third Eye 97, a 10,000-square-foot comic, game, and collectibles mega-store inside a former Walmart in Glen Burnie, Maryland, with the doors opening July 25th. Grand opening month goes huge with a Rob Liefeld signing at the new flagship on July 31st, the legend behind Youngblood, Deadpool, and Cable, live and in person. Can't make it to Maryland? The entire Third Eye world ships to your door at thirdeyecomics.com: new releases, back issues, games, and exclusives, sent anywhere with Third Eye Ships. See Third Eye's massive inventory while watching THE STACKS and then order those same books your favorite creators talk about online! Use codeword: STACKSORDIE for 15% off your order! The Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Va is not only unlike any theater in America; it's unlike any Alamo Drafthouse. It's a franchise. In fact, it's the first Alamo Drafthouse location outside of Texas. On July 5th, their Film Club is celebrating America's 250th with the 85th Anniversary of the Greatest Movie Ever Made, Citizen Kane! They'll have an encore screening of Kane on Wednesday, July 8th, too. Film Club is great, but so is their Psycho Cinema series hosted by Faye. On July 14th, they're screening truly one of the best bad movies of all time, Samurai Cop. Golly, have you even lived until you've seen Samurai Cop on the big screen? I think not. Get your tickets today!

Great brands do more than meet a need. They transform that need into desire. But in an increasingly crowded and fragmented media landscape, how can brands earn attention, turn that attention into affection, and ultimately inspire people to act?Recorded live at the Havas Café during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, this special roundtable is the first in a three-part series exploring the many dimensions of desire. Jim is joined by three marketing leaders approaching that challenge from very different industries: Manu Orssaud, Chief Marketing Officer at Duolingo;Benoit Vatere, Chief Media and Digital Commerce Officer at Liquid Death; and Oliver Walker-Jones, who leads Marketing, Communications and Brand at Joby Aviation.Together, they explore how modern brands use media to create lasting desire. Manu shares how Duolingo combines planned cultural moments with the flexibility to build stories alongside its community. The conversation explores why fun is an underrated business advantage, how brands can move quickly without chasing every cultural moment, and where AI can strengthen a company without replacing the human creativity behind great marketing. —This week's episode is brought to you by Havas and Infillion.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Tim Conway Jr Show Hour 3 (7.14) Tim dives into the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, discussing the Dodgers, the Mets, and why the Midsummer Classic isn't what it used to be—while sharing his ideas for making the game exciting again. The Conway Crew also takes on a Whip Around, guessing just how much money retail giant Walmart loses to theft each year. Plus, the crew reminisces about tanning trends from back in the day while debating today's "tanmaxxing" craze, covers the shocking Molotov cocktail attack on a man in a wheelchair in Oklahoma, and explores how one legendary Hollywood prop shop is adapting to the entertainment industry's production slowdown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan sits down with Lo Bosworth, former star of MTV's "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills," who is now the founder and CEO of Love Wellness, a women's health brand she launched in 2016 that sells millions of products across major retailers like Target, Walmart, Ulta, CVS and Amazon. Lo shares how a frustrating 18‑month search for answers about her own depression, anxiety, and women's health issues led her to discover the “care gap” that inspired Love Wellness. Lo also opens up about life as a first-time mom, why she launched her brutally candid podcast “Tell Me I'm a Good Mom” just weeks postpartum, and her hot takes on supplements, authenticity in business and why she wishes social media would go extinct.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Deepak Maini, SVP and GM of Walmart +, Walmart's membership program helping members save more time & money with exclusive benefits. Follow Deepak on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-maini-49b9089/Follow Walmart+ online at: https://www.walmart.com/plusDeepak answers these questions:Walmart+ has grown from 3 benefits at launch to 12 today — still at $98 a year. How does that expanding benefit stack change the behavior of the Walmart+ member in ways that matter to CPG brand partners — in terms of basket size, purchase frequency, and category loyalty?Walmart reaches 150 million shoppers every week across ecommerce and 4,600 stores, with data mapped to the SKU level. How does Walmart+ membership amplify the quality and fidelity of that first-party data signal — and how should CPG brands be thinking about activating against it differently than they do with non-member data?Before running Walmart+, you led the VP/GM role for Customer Digital Identity and Data Platform at Walmart. How does a logged-in, identified Walmart+ member change the economics of the digital shelf for CPG brands, particularly as agentic commerce and AI-powered discovery reshape how shoppers find products?The honest question your CPG audience wants answered: when brand partners think about their joint value creation with Walmart, how should they be weighting Walmart+ member households versus non-member households in their investment strategies? Is the gap in lifetime value as dramatic as what your major online competition has seen with their loyalty subscription program?The addition of Peacock to Walmart+‘s streaming choices drove a record number of sign-ups in Q3. What does entertainment engagement tell you about a member's overall relationship with the Walmart ecosystem — and does streaming behavior surface any insights that CPG partners can act on?Walmart Connect grew 33% in the U.S. last quarter, representing, along with membership fees, about a third of Walmart's operating income . How tight is the integration between Walmart+ membership data and the Walmart Connect advertising platform — and what does that mean for a CPG brand trying to close the loop from impression to in-store purchase?Walmart tested its first advertising formats tied to the Sparky AI shopping agent in fall 2025, with 81% of surveyed Walmart customers saying they'd used Sparky to check product availability and review specs before buying . How do you think about Walmart+ membership as a foundation for agentic shopping — and what does that mean for how CPG brands show up in those AI-mediated discovery moments?Walmart has publicly highlighted share gains with upper-income households as a strategic priority. Does Walmart+ skew toward those households — and if so, what does that mean for premium CPG brands that may have historically underinvested at Walmart?You ran Fire TV, Alexa Skills, and Amazon Music — all businesses that lived at the intersection of media, identity, and commerce. What's the most important thing you brought from that Amazon experience that directly shaped how you're building Walmart+?Walmart+ is five years old. If you fast-forward five more years, what does the relationship between Walmart+ membership and CPG brand investment look like — and what should brand and agency leaders be doing right now to position themselves for that future?CPG Guys Website: http://CPGguys.comFMCG Guys Website: http://FMCGguys.comSheCOMMERCE Website: https://shecommercepodcast.com/Rhea Raj's Website: http://rhearaj.comLara Raj in Katseye: https://www.katseye.world/DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGGUYS, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGGUYS, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.CPGGUYS LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we presented in this podcast.

In this week's Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Quorso and Veloq, Chris Walton was joined by Shelley Huff, CEO + Co-Founder of The Interval, and Chris Niesen, Founder of Peloton One Consulting and author of the Retail in Real Time Substack, to discuss: • Ocado CEO Tim Steiner's planned departure after nearly three decades, and what the leadership transition says about the future of automated grocery fulfillment and the economics of robotics at scale: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/06/ocado-founder-to-step-down-as-chief-executive-in-2028 • Albertsons' AI-powered merchandise intelligence platform, and whether AI can truly transform merchandising without first solving the people, process, and adoption challenges behind it: https://www.grocerydive.com/news/albertsons-scale-merchandising-intelligence-platform/824110/ • Walmart's continued expansion of drone delivery across Greater Houston, and why ultra-fast fulfillment is becoming a key competitive advantage in modern retail: https://chainstoreage.com/walmart-builds-drone-delivery-capability-greater-houston • Taco Bell scaling AI-powered voice ordering to nearly 900 drive-thrus, and whether voice AI has officially crossed from experimentation to everyday operations: https://chainstoreage.com/taco-bell-scales-voice-ai-drive-thru-ordering-almost-900-stores • Wayfair's continued investment in large-format physical stores, and why a measured omnichannel strategy could strengthen its position in the home furnishings market: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-09/wayfair-is-building-more-stores-in-big-bet-on-in-person-shopping Plus, in this week's Lightning Round, Chris Walton, Shelley Huff, and Chris Niesen discuss adult Play-Doh, late-night Amazon impulse buys, produce recalls, America's favorite ballpark foods, and much more. P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/ P.P.S. Also be sure to check out our podcast rankings on Feedspot: https://podcasts.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/ Music by hooksounds.com.

Retailers quietly deduct three to five percent of a brand's invoice for compliance mistakes that have nothing to do with the product itself: a label an inch out of place, a carton that breaks the routing guide, a shipping notice the retailer's scanner can't read. Across the US that's roughly $40 billion a year, and it comes off the top line, not the cost line. You made the product, you shipped it, and you simply don't get paid for part of it.Rick Watson sits down with Elle Smyth, cofounder and CEO of RetailReady, and Art Nimbley, IT Director at Pierre Fabre USA, to work the chargeback problem from both sides. Ellie built an AI-native compliance platform that ingests the 399-page Walmart routing guide so warehouse operators don't have to memorize it. Art rolled it out during a 3PL switch and watched technical chargebacks fall to near zero on the very first order.They get into what a routing guide actually is, why an ASN transmitted at 12:55 and 55 seconds still isn't always enough, how one Pierre Fabre employee was losing 40 hours a month building shipping notices by hand, and why Art keeps challenging billion-dollar retailers when he's convinced they're wrong. He's three for three so far. If you sell into retail and you've been writing off chargebacks as the cost of doing business, this conversation is worth your time.The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Radial and Avalara.

Apparently, the people who break into Walmarts are "dressed" just as crazily as the shoppers who show up when they're open… like in this Setting the Bar story! Source: https://www.wsmv.com/2026/07/10/man-breaks-into-tn-walmart-found-naked-pallet-dog-food-police-say/

Tune in the latest Suite Spot episode as special guests, Dave Jacoby, Founder/Owner of Hotel Lucine and Kaleigh Wiese, Founder and CEO of Ode Places, take a moment to discuss the independent and boutique hotel landscape and the 2026 Independent Hotel Show Miami in this episode for the Suite Spot Independent Hotel Show Series. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Suite Spot podcast. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here with another episode of our Independent Hotel Show series. This is season two. We’ve done quite a number of these independent hotel show series episodes, but this is the first one where we’ve got multiple guests. So I’m excited to bring them both in today. First with me, Dave Jacoby, founder and owner of Hotel Lucine, and Kaleigh Weise, founder and CEO of Ode Places. Dave, Kaleigh, thank you so much for being with me today. Dave Jacoby: So excited. Thanks for having us. Kaleigh Weise: What a way to kick off the independent hotel show. Dave and I got to share the stage last year. Dave Jacoby: We did. Kaleigh Weise: And I feel like we could have talked for a million more hours. And we’re friends, but also we’ve worked together, so I feel like I’m excited to be on together. Ryan Embree: Alright, well this is awesome. I’m excited. We’ll, we won’t be able to speak for a million hours, but we’ll definitely have some time today. And I’m excited, but as tradition here in the Suite Spot, one of the wonderful things about our industry and hospitality is people come from all different walks of life to get into our industry. Sometimes you fall into it with a summer job, sometimes you start as a bellman. Like myself, we love to hear these stories. We live and breathe these stories in hospitality and share them with others. So let’s start by just a proper introduction and maybe your hospitality journeys that led you to your respective positions. Kaleigh, let’s start with you. Kaleigh Weise: Yeah. Well, there’s a lot to unpack here. So if you see me at the show, come find me. I have been self-employed by whole entire career, and I have always been obsessed with the form and function of business. Like, how do you have a brand that really resonates despite, you know, I see your brand is like a lighthouse, right? Like, how are you attracting the right people? But also at the end of the day, like that business has to be incredibly healthy. And then you layer on a hotel, which is a 24/7 breathing company. And so how do you make sure that you have the longevity with systems and processes and you have a brand that continues to resonate as the years develop. And so I got my start serving in essentially helping brand and position and help with coaching for hospitality and service-based businesses. And then that naturally led into places where people slept, right? So I actually was working with event venues for a long time and when we got into the lodging conversation, I was like, now this is fascinating, a one time event versus like, keeping this up 24/7, what does that look like? And so we, I started out places essentially in 2018 after being in Northern California in the Santa Cruz Redwoods, we got to support a property out there. And I was like, the resonance that I got to feel to plant seeds of purpose into the land there of those 80 acres and understanding the choices we made would affect short-term and long-term generations really put me on a trajectory where that’s where I’ve committed my work so far. Ryan Embree: Really cool origin story there. And a lot of parallels from the event industry to hospitality and lodging. So, Dave, what about you? Dave Jacoby: Yeah, thanks. So I’m born and raised in Philadelphia, but somehow I ended up in Galveston, Texas, so I did not have that on my bingo card growing up. But here I am, out of college, worked in some finance and kind of hotel development related positions. First in New York City, then went to graduate school, then moved to Las Vegas and actually was in the casino space. But throughout that whole kind of portion of my journey was developing projects that were other people’s ideas and kind of on behalf of others, even though, you know, in Vegas, for example, I led development and opening up a resort there, moved to Galveston, where my wife is from. And my family’s now based in 2016. And just felt like I fell in love with Galveston, but felt like Galveston needed a slightly different hospitality experience here. Something with a little more soul that matched the soul that this whole town has. But the hospitality offerings that I didn’t feel like harnessed that soul really well, yet found an old kind of out of favor motel on the beach and figured out a way to acquire it and came up with a brand and a design and a team that we put together. And it’s been a labor of love and, you know, blood, sweat and tears sometimes, but a lot of smiles and happiness too. And we’re going on three years open, so, okay, that’s kind of how I got here. Ryan Embree: That’s like the America, the hotel American dream, what you’re doing right now. And listen, I went to school for hospitality and I think just this conversation already between the event management, hospitality, the gaming that you’ve included. I mean, this is like hospitality management 101 through the experiences, but certainly a familiar one where you’re bouncing around. But it sounds like you found your home there in Galveston. I was really excited about this conversation because it’s very rare I get to talk to two guests that have kind of built their brands from the ground up, right? And I think this is a challenge and a task that especially independent hoteliers have to kind of face and building their story and building a brand that resonates with travelers, especially today. So how important is branding and storytelling to connect with guests? Because I think that is what independent hotels strive to do is create this connection that might be missing right now and, you know, really hopefully leads to loyalty in the future. And what maybe advice would you share from your own personal kind of branding journeys? Dave, we’ll start with you and then go to Kaleigh. Dave Jacoby: The brand is so central to what we’re doing. We sort of started with that brand identity, and I use the term identity not as like a business jargon term, but it really is an identity. We personified our brand and there are still decisions that we’ll make where we have this fictitious Aunt Lucine that we will use as a muse for decisions we make around property. And it’s sort of a guiding light for us. But, I think the concept of kind of personifying your brand really helps make it make sense, at least for me. So, I look at how do we connect with our guests? I really look at how we connect with our local community and use that as the window in to our guests with the kind of overriding assumption that if our whole town and local surrounding population considers us part of the fabric of that neighborhood, that the outsiders will, that authenticity will come through. Outsiders will see that that’s where they’ll want to stay. So then, back to the personification of it, just like in your personal life, if you are friends with a group of people, you need to add something to that group and you need to then take something back from that group. So I sort of look at Galveston as the environment here is like a play. And instead of us coming in and saying, well, what is everyone else doing, we’ll do that too. So that we fit in saying, well, how do we add a new main character to the cast here? And I sort of look at it that way. And so what are we adding that’s different, but how does it fit into and, and be complimentary with everything around it? And that’s, that’s kind of how we, we looked at how we fit in and what we offer to our guests both, as, you know, overnight hotel guests and local community that might eat, drink, hang out with us. Ryan Embree: Kaleigh? Kaleigh Weise: Well, I wanna also compliment Dave and Keith have done such a phenomenal job at Hotel Lucine that they have a brand bible, if you will. And I think that it is a testament to how the vision casting of Aunt Lucine infiltrates, the purchases that they make for design, the plants, the employees, the uniforms, how they want them to talk and walk, and all of that alignment I think resonates really well with attracting the right talent, but also attracting the right guests. And so I think having intentionality, I always say, your brand is what other people say it is. So we have to remember that we have control over how we position our brands and what we want. So I think intentionality is first, which I think Hotel Stein does. On the flip side of that, I think we have to be realistic about who is traveling and who is coming to the hotel or who is also the consumer. Obviously on the B2B side, I usually like to pick three to five different personas, and I think that that helps shape making decisions. We have a property we’re working with right now that is on 12 acres. There’s 43 cabins. It’s primarily outside, right? It’s like, okay, who is the ideal person who’s looking for a property like this? And I think the clearer that you can get with that, it helps you understand where your revenue programming is gonna come for, like, come from. It helps you understand like where you should put costs. Like do they care about the amenities? Do they care about the soap? Do they want a robe in the room? And I think sometimes we make decisions that are too close to maybe how we would like to travel or what we think is best, and we forget what our guests might be looking for, which then leads to greater revenue opportunities and better residents that leads to people wanting to come back because they feel like they belong there, right? Like that was created for them. So that’s kind of the flip side of I think knowing who you are, but knowing who your guest is is equally as important. Ryan Embree: Yeah, a hundred percent. And there’s, I mean, guests are leaving us clues constantly on who they are based on online feedback, social media posts, reviews, there’s so many things. Even just a day-to-day conversations, you would be surprised, a tip that everyone gets, you know, you wanna know, you wanna learn about what guests think about you, just hang out in your lobby for a couple minutes during breakfast and just hear the conversations about what people are saying about their stay. But Dave, I loved your point there about talking about being embedded in the local community because you think about people that really prioritize a unique experience in the independent hotel space, which they’re independent hotels are so positioned to do, if you don’t become a part of your community, they’re looking for that unique kind of experience that only an independent hotel can provide them. If you’re really embracing your local community and sharing those same kind of aspects of it’s gonna hopefully resonate with that traveler. And then hopefully they amplify that story a little bit in some of the ways that I was talking about. But one of the things we’re gonna talk about the independent hotel show in a second in September, very excited about that. But one of the things that I love about that show is sometimes as independent hotels, you might feel a little bit like you’re on an island because you don’t have that big brand behind you, right? So getting a bunch of independent hoteliers together, you hear about some of the challenges that are going on right now. And unfortunately right now there’s a lot of noise in our industry. Economic shift, geopolitical factors, rising operational costs and margins are very thin, can be challenging for independent hoteliers. Where do you guys see opportunity right now? Because independent hotels are always looking for that little bit of edge. Where do you see opportunity right now in the state of this industry and maybe where do you see some shared challenges that we have to kind of battle as an industry for independent hotelilers? Kaleigh, let’s start with you and then maybe Dave you could zoom in maybe a little bit more on your property and market. Kaleigh Weise: I think the biggest thing that I’m seeing is, I talk about all these revenue drivers as like little dials. We get to tweak and twist, right? And I think that through some of the impacts that we’re having that are things that are outside of our control, right? There’s only so much we can do with some of these things. There are a few things that you actually can kind of take control over. And I think that investing more in the community and finding opportunities to drive revenue with the people who are in your local area who maybe aren’t traveling for the summer or fall or Christmas or whatever that might be through that event programming, it is not uncommon for us to go into a independent hotel and they haven’t really ever thought about events, especially if they’re under, let’s say 60 keys. Even 20 to 40 or 80 is a great number because you have an opportunity to having a full buyout, or you can have 40th birthday parties or a wedding or something like that. And that can be a huge revenue driver. And so I think as we look at shifts that are happening with, you know, the average event or wedding right now is booking a hundred or event is booking 120 days out. I think the average wedding is booking somewhere between nine and and 14 months out. You can start forecasting revenue a little bit more in control and then focusing on your rooms and your distribution in shorter term pickup opportunities. And so I think understanding where are all of your revenue drivers? What do you have control over? What do you not have control over? And where are, maybe there are opportunities that will be very low lift to you to be able to fill dates and have revenue coming in ways that haven’t been the pickup that you anticipated. Ryan Embree: yeah, and food and beverage, huge opportunity and doesn’t, you’re absolutely right, Kaleigh. It doesn’t necessarily need to be travelers from outside of your market all the time. The hotel restaurant, I feel like has got a bad rap for the last decade or so, but it is turning around, right? And it’s a place where people want to be. It’s a social setting where when people come, you might be hosting people and for the holidays or what have you, and you might find yourself at a hotel restaurant even if they’re not staying there. So it’s certainly a shift in what’s happening right now, but especially for independent hotels. Dave, what about you? What have you kind of seen in your market and maybe any creative solutions for some of these challenges right now? Dave Jacoby: I mean, I’ll sort of piggyback off of what Kaleigh said a little bit there, but it’s events and Kaleigh has sort of focused on booking events from, you know, outside groups. I’ll sort of look at it more as your internal event programming I think is also really important. And, and that’s, and it’s our kind of best way that we use to connect with our local community. And what that event programming is can be so many different things. It sort of depends who you are, who is in your community, and how do you fit into your community, what do you offer? So kind of when I talked about earlier, need to offer something back to your community that you’re in, for us that means a lot of live music. We’re very plugged into the local live music scene and we have a great curated music program every weekend night, all year long. And then in the summer we have a series called Sunset and Sounds, which is sort of larger bands that are touring. Some are touring the U.S. Some are based in Austin or elsewhere in Texas, and they come down to hotel scene and we put on free shows for hotel guests, the community, whoever wants to go. We do wellness events and that might be cold plunges or sound baths. We’ll partner with local organizations that wanna do fundraisers or other events. And it’s just a way to activate the space. It’s a way for people that are not from your town to have a experience where they feel like they’re integrated into what’s happening in that community. It’s a little more interesting for them as a visitor. And if you’re staying at a large chain hotel down the street or in another market, they just can’t deliver that. They don’t have the people, enough people with decision making power that are in the community that are focused on that. It’s just not the way they’re built. So that’s really the advantage I think independents do have over the larger chain hotels. We might not have the distribution systems and some of the other marketing spend, but we do have the ability to deliver on a day-to-day basis and experience that’s just different than what those larger hotels can. Kaleigh Weise: And I would like to comment that, you know, we’re seeing data around three hour drives being really hot, right? So I think sometimes you think you’re marketing to the next nearest city or, you know, looking for that destination destination visitor. I think really thinking about who are those markets that are within a three hour drive that are easy pickup for you once they know that you exist and you’ve again pointed your lighthouse of your marketing and branding in their direction, I think that’s a wonderful way to pick up opportunities for guests and community and events and things like that. Ryan Embree: Hey, I am the father of a 5 and a 3-year-old. And let me tell you, I’m a huge proponent of the three hour trip because that’s about as far as I can get before all of us go a little crazy. So you, you can bet I’m definitely looking for those opportunities to get out there and have that type of experience that Dave, you know, it’s around this time of year when we’re I’m talking to independent hotels that I get so inspired because the freedom of having an independent hotel and the activations and programming that you can put on, I think sometimes independent hotels, because they see some of these big branded hotels not doing some of this programming. They think should I be doing it? And it’s maybe because they have so much red tape in their branding, they have to get approval from, legal or their brand to actually run these things that they’re just not doing it. So it’s such an opportunity, and again, I get so inspired to kind of see that because the way the ingenuity that these independent hoteliers have is just, it’s second to none in our industry. It’s really creating a very cool experience, which is now being showcased and highlighted easier than ever via social media and reviews. So as we talk about industry trends, I wanna see, Kaleigh, you were talking about the three hour trip, right? Wellness is a big one, f &b, what are some of these maybe traveler trends that you’re starting to see bubble up and emerge right now? And how can independent hotels capitalize on these trends and over maybe branded competitors? Dave, you want to start maybe any trends that you’re noticing in your market in Galveston? Dave Jacoby: I’d say one might be the, and to use a buzzword here, the bleisure trends or the business leisure trends. So we will find, sometimes we’ll get small groups, maybe it’s a board or a small creative agency or something like that, that will come and have an offsite with us. And it’s partially meant to be used as a brainstorming session or some obvious business function to their meeting. But it’s also a time to hang out. Some of these groups might bring spouses with them or there might be a business component and then they’ll stay for the weekend and then it’s a little more freeform or social at that point. Or I’ll sort of see this bleisure happen from the other direction where someone will say, Hey, I want to come for a weekend and be at the beach, but why not come on Wednesday night and I’ll stay and I’ll just, I work from home anyway. That’s become so much more acceptable for all or part of the week for so many people. What does it matter if I work from home, from home home or from a hotel or a hotel lobby where I’ve got coffee? And it can be tended to. So we sort of see leisure trips happen in both those directions where the, the work kind of lends a little more leisure and the leisure lends a little more work. Kaleigh Weise: We also have a great living room for people to work and hang out and stay and enjoy beachside. Dave Jacoby: We do, we do. I sit in there often and you’re, and you’re right that it is when I overhear what people are saying about the hotel, I do my work, but I also eave drop and pop in on people and help out with things. Ryan Embree: It’s funny ’cause you know, modern day design for hotels now are accommodating for that. They know that the flexible workspace and they’re building lobby common areas a little bit larger or maybe even not so siloed so that people can mingle, interact, but also have some spaces to work from. So certainly a trend there. Kaylee, what are you seeing maybe from, as you zoom out? Kaleigh Weise: I mean I think experiences and add-ons are something that I continue to be surprised by. So if I’m the North American Ambassador for Muse, so I of course love Muse, but also cloud beds and stay in touch and all of, like, they all offer these add-on options where a guest during checkout or pre-arrival, they can add that early check-in. I’m blown away by the amount of people who opt into that $35 pre-check in or wanna add a bottle of wine to the room. Like those little details, it’s so helpful when they’re coming to have that reminder that we can make this a more customized stay for you. And so I think the sweet spot is no more than seven upsell opportunities. But I think that that even bleeds into, I know when we were helping with Hotel Lucine I’d ideate on some of these things, it’s like they ended up doing pop-up dinners on the balconies of their rooms and adding, I forget, a couple hundred dollars right? Or picnic baskets that people could take offsite. And I think people are hungry for having that almost like travel agent like experience where if the property can customize an itinerary for them or enhancements for their stay, I think they’re very excited and eager to be able to take advantage of that. So I think that’s a trend that’s happening and desirable, but something that I see a lot of independent hoteliers are stuck in the day to day and maybe not adding the attention that they could that will see the revenue that really is low hanging fruit out there. Dave Jacoby: Kaleigh’s so good at that. I mean she helped us with that as she mentioned, but she’s got this ability to kind of come in and just see what’s going on every day and she’s not seeing anything you don’t see immediately. But then she also sees these other opportunities of ways to personalize the guest experience in a way that you’re happy to do and isn’t a heavy lift for you and the guest is happy to pay for. And it’s just such a win-win. It’s almost like you get the surprise and delight moment right outta the gates and the guest pays for it too. It’s a great, it’s a great combo. Kaleigh Weise: Just a matter of training the staff and getting in on the website. Ryan Embree: That’s right. Very important. Get the buy-in from the staff. But you mentioned that word personalized. I mean that’s what we’ve been striving for in this industry for a long time. Personalization and with the rise of technology and AI like I put here, it’s not a podcast in 2026 if we don’t use those words. I don’t think I anybody would listen if we don’t talk about that or that buzzword. But I do wanna talk about it because I think especially with independent hotels, they might be more excited than most because it could figure out a way they could use AI and technology to maybe shrink the difference or find that edge against a branded competitor and maybe not feel so, you know, just David versus Goliath in that sense. So Kaleigh, have you kind of seen any competitive or creative uses of technology and AI in the industry, especially with independent hotels? And then maybe Dave you could share a little bit of your thoughts as well. Kaleigh Weise: I definitely see us being in a bit of a purgatory and as I’m talking about this, I’m thinking fast forward a year from now and I think agentic agents are at our fingertips for having access to supportive administrative help. And I see what Muse is working on behind the scenes and it’s like we’re gonna be living in a very different operational world. In I think all the best ways. And when I think about the future of an org chart at a small independent property where you have to get stuck in the day-to-day right now planning and preparing for guests and double checking things like being able to be synced in when Uber’s about to when Uber’s about to drop off your guest. And being able to be prepared with that timing. I think we’re gonna see our front desk admin become hosts for the first time and really have the time and empowerment to be able to greet them with the level of detail and customization. I also think the automations, I think we’re gonna snap that into being just such a helpful tool to ask the right questions or personalize the spaces. So I think currently it’s very challenging, let’s say for an independent hotel to offer a pillow menu, if you will, for the right pillows that that guest is gonna want. But I think in the future we’re gonna be able to have the opportunity for putting a time and attention into creating experiences that guest deserves that’s customized based on various preferences or interactions. And so I think it’s a really exciting time for actually hospitality to take back the spotlight. And that’s why people join this industry, right? Is they love hosting people and giving people experiences. And I think sometimes the admin takes away from that, you know? And I think that it’s gonna allow us to be more competitive when it comes to distribution. All of us didn’t go to school to be revenue managers, right? And I think that is a, that is a calculated game that to be able to have tools that can help support us and making sure that we’re optimizing the proper ADR and and pickup cost to be able to book our occupancy moving forward. I think it’s a really exciting time. I think we’re just in the purgatory of it right now. It’s like at our fingertips, but we’re not quite there. But I think about a year from now, things are gonna feel like it’s restabilizing in a really exciting way. Ryan Embree: So Dave, from an owner’s per perspective, you’ve, you just talked about how carefully you’ve kind of curated and built this incredible experience at Hotel Lucine. What is your thoughts on when you think about implementing technology or, or some sort of new AI initiative into the guest experience and how you make sure that doesn’t impact your brand too much? Dave Jacoby: I like the term Kaleigh used about purgatory. I don’t think we’re quite there yet. If you look at the amount of, certainly in the independent space, useful applications of AI in the day-to-day life versus the amount of words in print publications about AI, it’s a massive imbalance there. To me, the right ways that AI can be implemented are ways that are invisible to the guests. So the example Kaleigh was using is one that we’re, I’m rolling out actually now in kind of bits and pieces is how do you use AI to improve your day-to-day workflow? And for me, if it’s, I can unleash it on my Google drive and have it pull a bunch of information and synthesize it and put report together for that I can then give to our team. We’ve got better data and that would’ve taken me three hours, but I let it run in the background for 10 minutes and it’s done. You know, things like that to get better insights on your business, that can be done. Now, to the extent we can use AI to free up front desk agents, I’m working through a specific protocol on that now, just to get all the, what’s your pet policy, what time is check? And we just get so many emails that are repetitive in nature to answer. And the front desk agent isn’t always on top of it. Sometimes they’re doing other things, and I’d rather they be eyeball to eyeball with a guest acting as a host or hostess to the people that come in and providing person to person hospitality and not in the computer. We can free that up. You can do that now. So it’s a matter of just setting the systems up and taking the time to do it. And you can set it up with as much automation or oversight as you want to do, but it’s a matter of taking the time to actually do it so that you can free up those personal interactions. Because that’s where we as independent hotels, I think are, that’s what we people come to us for, is for that personalized touch and feeling like they’re having a human interaction and they’re not at a big corporate commoditized hotel. So we wanna give them that as much as we can. Kaleigh Weise: And I mean, I think human-centric is so important. I think we can, we can still remain to have a human-centric business with these tools. I hear all the time people feel like they’re so behind with using AI. And I guess even for those listeners today, I think you can relinquish the shame because the speed in which AI is gonna continue to grow is gonna continue to grow. And I think the application of that, depending on what market you’re in, what tools you’re using, I think if you can focus on one implementation thing that’s gonna actually help you serve your guests better, you’re not behind. It’s really just pacing that is right for your team, for your guests, and what’s gonna be right for you. But also don’t be afraid of it. Like, I think that there’s a lot of exciting things and tools that are only gonna be able to support us as an industry. Ryan Embree: My big bold prediction is that I think the GM of the next couple years is actually gonna look a lot more like maybe the GM of 20, 30 years ago before all of that kind of work that what we traditionally thought a GM had to do with reports and all of these things that actually some of those desk jockeying kind of tasks, AI can, agentic AI could potentially take care of for you. And then you get back to kind of doing what both of you described as, you know, that face-to-face human interaction. So what I’m hoping is that, you know, a lot of this technology actually kind of causes more of our service driven people and hospitality professionals to kind of rise to the top and create some really cool, memorable experiences and maybe just get that service back to where it was. Because it just feels like there’s some aspects of it in some hotels where it just, we completely missed the mark. So that’s my, maybe that’s me being a litte too, but that’s, that’s my 2 cents and what I hope happens. Dave Jacoby: No, no, I think that makes a lot of sense. And I thought of one other great application for independent hoteliers for AI. We don’t have an in-house IT guy. We don’t have an in-house like maintenance tech. We’re just not big enough to carry those positions. But you can go to your, claude, chatGPT, whatever it is, and say, why did my TV turn on three times in the middle of the night by itself in room 212 last night? True story, this happened and the guest was upset. And then I explained what my systems are and how they work and what they can, you give it a little bit of input information, it’ll help you diagnose. I haven’t yet tried the recommendation ’cause I’m on here talking to you guys. But there are all kinds of solutions you can ask for help for and they might not be right, but before you’re spending money to call out an HVAC technician, find somebody who can handle whatever this one specific system you have is and can service that you can troubleshoot a lot of these things and 60, 70% of these things you can fix on your own because it’ll walk you through it. It’s really a helpful way to save money. And that also helps guests experience, right? Because now if that TV’s not turning on three times middle of the night for that guest tomorrow night, she’ll be happy. Ryan Embree: Love it. Yeah. There we go. Just claude gonna be employee of the, of the week over there at Hotel Lucine every week If we get that figured out. But I do wanna shift our attention to the reason we, you know, started this series, the Independent Hotel Show this year happening September 16th and 17th in Miami Beach. We could not be more excited. And for our Suite Spot listeners, don’t forget to use promo code Ryan26 for a complimentary registration. Dave, you’re on the advisory board and Kaleigh, you’re a brand ambassador like myself. We were on a call talking about the show just the other day. I wanna get your thoughts on what inspired you to get involved with this event and maybe some of your personal favorite aspects of the show. So Kaleigh, let’s start with you and then Dave, you can answer. Kaleigh Weise: I have been an active conference goer my whole career, right? Like a little bit of hustling, a little bit of gorilla marketing. And when I look back at the growth and success in my career, it really comes down to the thin threads and the people that I meet. And I think to have an opportunity to pull up a seat at the table for independent hoteliers who do feel very isolated most of the time, right? They don’t have any other friends who have independent hotels to call. They feel like they’re stuck in the day to day. This will be the fourth year. And I’ve been able to be a part all four years. And I think it’s really exciting to even meet back up every year and hear about the growth that each person is experiencing, but also what’s working in their market and not, and just because you’re in Boston or you’re in Galveston or you’re in Monterey, California, you’re gonna find that you have more the same than different when it comes to the day-to-day challenges of operating a business or being able to get in front of the right guests that you know that you deserve, that are paying the price point that you want. And so to have an opportunity to hear what’s relevant in terms of content, but also talk with other people is just invaluable. And so I continue to be really excited about the niche of, you know, the subsegment. The industry is so large in lodging and we really haven’t had a place until the Independent Hotel Show that gathers this segment of people who are doing it. Owner operated and small with a passion. Ryan Embree: Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. Passion is is a word we hear a lot at that show. Because you can just see, I mean these are, you guys are both founders like I mentioned before. I mean the passion behind your brand, the storytelling makes such a huge difference. And to have that much energy and a place Miami Beach of all places, right? One of the independent hotel capital of the world, to see and hear all of that is a truly a memorable experience. Dave what about yourself? Dave Jacoby: Yeah, so unlike Kaleigh, I do not go to a lot of conferences. It’s not generally my thing, but I’ve been into this show and really loved it. I loved how we mentioned earlier how a lot of independent hoteliers haven’t really had a lot of places to congregate and kind of coalesce their thoughts together. I found the panels awesome, even the ones that I was like, well that’s doesn’t really touch what I do in my day to day, but I’m here so I’ll listen. All of them. I found really interesting. More than that, it was just the people that were there, these other independent hotel helped hoteliers who had done gone on their own journeys to get wherever they got. And they had all figured it out. Ghere was not a lot of resources in front of them telling them how to do what they needed to do. They just, they needed to pay their mortgage, they just did the next right thing and got there. So hearing the stories of how people solved whatever the issues were that were in front of them and sharing my own stories and finding the commonalities of maybe the setting was different or the problem was different, but really the approach was very the same. Or getting inspiration from people who have figured out things I hadn’t figured out yet and learning from them. So I really like just the being able to learn so much kind of one-on-one from people and in and in some of the sessions. Kaleigh Weise: I also think they do a great job of pulling together vendors and resources. It is not uncommon for an independent hotelier to go to Costco for some of their… Or order on, you know, Walmart.com or Amazon. And I feel like there really are great resources out there that are made for independent hoteliers and to bring them into the room to have a conversation around cost savings or ability to be able to elevate the amenities that they have on site. I’m really excited ’cause I think of the show floor this year is gonna be bigger and better than ever from what we were hearing in preparation. And so I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that people should allow time to walk the floor in addition to hearing the sessions because those vendors can really change their bottom line quite significantly with implementation. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s so cool to see the eclecticness of the independent hoteliers there from, Dave, you’re a great example coming from Galveston, Texas. You could be coast to coast anywhere from like a little five room air bnb rather to a giant independent hotel in a major market. So just everything in between, all different shapes and sizes when it comes to independent hotels, independent hotels. That’s why we love them so much. That’s why we like hearing the stories and why it’s such a unique space and hospitality. And to be able to spend those couple days putting the spotlight on sometimes, this really, really unique segment, it’s such a privilege. We’ve had the opportunity to cover the show for four years as well. So we’re very excited and hope our Suite Spot listeners will join us in Miami Beach this September. So as we wrap up, I do like to just kind of give the opportunity for any final thoughts as we wrap up today. I want to thank both of you for taking the time to join me today. Kaleigh, any final thoughts before we wrap up? Kaleigh Weise: Yeah, I feel like the, the topic I wanna touch on is a lot of hoteliers in the making are interested in the show and I feel like there’s a little bit of intimidation showing up, not really having background or knowledge or even knowing what they’re getting themselves into. And so I guess from an affirmation perspective, this is a wonderful show if this is an industry that you’re curious about or you wanna learn more about or you wanna have the conversations around. And so we look forward to hopefully welcoming you in September. Dave Jacoby: Yeah, I will echo that. And kind of say there are a lot of people at this show that are interested in the space and maybe are there to learn and they’ll find that people are there like myself or other people who have kind of gone through the process and developed their hotel. I would just say to all of them here, what I’ll say to you at the show is, I didn’t know what I was doing either when I started and a lot of us don’t. And there’s no playbook. There’s not gonna be a playbook. You’re not gonna find one that’s gonna tell you what to do at all steps. You just surround yourself with smart people. You need to know what you can and cannot do and where your limits are and kind of take the plunge and figure it out as you go. And your decision making in the moment is really gonna be what’s gonna drive the process. And if you’re always waiting to have the full roadmap, you’re never gonna have that roadmap. Ryan Embree: Maybe that’ll be our next endeavor as the independent hoteliers playbook and we can publish that as a couple authors. Dave Jacoby: Yeah, a long book. Ryan Embree: Yes. Take a lot I’m sure. Kaleigh Weise: Variation A, B, C, D. Ryan Embree: Exactly. Ryan Embree: Well, Kaleigh, Dave, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time, sharing your stories today. We cannot wait for September at the Independent Hotel Show. And thank you all for listening to the Suite Spot. We will talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

There's a lot of noise about what AI will do to jobs. What will it do to one of the most important jobs in the world: parenting?  Dr. Dana Suskind is a pediatric cochlear implant surgeon and neuroscientist who has spent her career on how young brains get built. In this conversation, she and Dr. Becky start with a piece of bait — can a parent be replaced by a machine? — and spend the next half hour on the science of why the answer is no. They get into attachment and why the messy, inconvenient, friction-filled version of connection is the version that actually wires a child's brain. Why a frictionless AI that always agrees with you might be the real risk. A rubric (DETECT) for judging any piece of kid-facing tech before it comes in the house. And the idea Dana calls the most freeing thing she learned writing her new book: good-enough parenting isn't a nice thing to say, it's a biological necessity. Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible: Ole Henriksen: Use the code DRBECKY30 for 30% off the Banana Bright+ Eye Crème Airbnb: Host your home or book your next stay on Airbnb SmartyPants: Shop SmartyPants Vitamins at Target, Walmart, or Amazon today Little Spoon: Get 50% off your first order at littlespoon.com/rattled with code RATTLED Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Katy Milkman is an expert on changing yourself. She is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab's popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and the former president of the international Society for Judgment and Decision Making. Katy has worked with organizations such as Google, the White House, Walmart and the U.S. Department of Defense, where she's helped leaders affect meaningful change. She is also the bestselling author of How to Change. Katy's work has been featured in the Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN and The Economist. On this classic episode, Katy joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss how to make changes in your own personal and professional life, and how leaders can make effective organizational changes. Thank you to the sponsors of The Elevate Podcast Shopify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shopify.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Masterclass: ⁠⁠masterclass.com/elevate⁠⁠ Framer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠framer.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Indeed: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠indeed.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Northwest Registered Agent: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Whatnot: Search "Whatnot" in the app store to download Fanvue: ⁠⁠⁠⁠fanvue.com⁠⁠⁠ Wealthfront: ⁠wealthfront.com/elevate⁠ More about Wealthfront This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. Elevate with Robert Glazer podcast (collectively "Media Partner") are not clients of Wealthfront. The Media Partner receives cash compensation from Wealthfront Brokerage for this paid endorsement placed in their podcast, creating a conflict of interest. More details available via the referral link. The Direct Deposit Plus Investing Program from Wealthfront Advisers LLC and Wealthfront Brokerage LLC provides eligible clients a 0.25% APY increase above the base APY on eligible Cash Account balances (up to an overall boosted rate of 4.30% for a limited time when including the three month 0.75% APY boost for new clients) when you direct deposit $1,000 a month, plus open, fund, and maintain an investing account. Wealthfront may change or end the program at any time and determine eligibility at its discretion. Terms apply. Full details at wealthfront.com/promo-terms. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.30% on cash deposits as of January 30, 2026, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. Same-day withdrawal or instant payment transfers may be limited by destination institutions, daily transaction caps, and by participating entities such as Wells Fargo, the RTP® Network, and FedNow® Service. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Securities investments are not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This episode comes to you live from our pop-up studio at the CommerceNext Growth Show in New York City. Our guest: Jason LaRose, CEO of Bombas — the brand that turned socks, underwear, and tees into a mission-powered growth machine, with more than 200 million essential clothing items donated to people experiencing homelessness. But first, the news — and in our summer biweekly format, there's plenty. Steve breaks down Nike's unimpressive quarter: revenues down, China off 12%, and an operating profit boost driven almost entirely by a nearly billion-dollar one-time tariff refund. The contrast with Levi's couldn't be sharper — under Michelle Gass, the brand posted 8% sales growth, expanding margins, and momentum across women's and tops. The winners keep winning elsewhere too. Aritzia's remarkable run continues with comps up an eye-popping 35% and digital up nearly 60%. Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing delivers 22% revenue growth from its 2,500-store global fleet. And Costco's monthly numbers offer fresh evidence of retail's Great Concentration. Then there's Kroger, acquiring regional grocery powerhouse Giant Eagle — a $9 billion revenue business bought at a strikingly low multiple. Michael and Steve debate the real question: does acquiring-to-compete solve Kroger's relevance problem, or just buy cost leverage against Walmart, Costco, and Amazon? Then it's on to Jason LaRose, who joined Bombas after leadership roles at Under Armour and Equinox. What drew him in: a genuine mission wrapped around outstanding economics — profitable essentially since day one. He traces the brand's arc from Indiegogo campaign and Shark Tank's most successful company ever to nearly $2 billion in cumulative sales, now expanding into underwear, tees, footwear, and slippers — the very items most requested in homeless shelters. LaRose also delivers a masterclass in disciplined distribution: highly curated wholesale partnerships with Target, Dick's, Nordstrom, and Scheels, each with distinct assortments for distinct customers, alongside the brand's first stores and expansion into Canada. His mantra — quality, comfort, mission, in that order — explains why repeat rates keep the funnel from leaking where so many DTC peers sprang holes. Wrapping up, on Steve's radar: a Dallas-area tour of the newly merged Container Store and Bed Bath & Beyond format (who exactly is this store for?), plus his provocative new Substack essay, "Convenience is Boring." On Michael's radar: the soon-to-open Gordie Howe Bridge, his conversation with U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, and why USMCA review limbo keeps piling uncertainty — and cost — onto businesses and consumers across North America. About UsSteve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling author of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the NRF as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2026 and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.

According to the Economic Research Service at the Department of Agriculture, prices across all food categories are expected to rise 3.2 percent in 2026. Today, Jessica Cheung, a senior audio producer for “The Daily,” talks with the general manager of a food co-op in Pittsburgh about how the store is being affected by the quickly increasing costs. Guest:  Jessica Cheung, a senior audio producer on “The Daily” for The New York Times. Tyler Kulp, general manager of the East End Food Co-op Background reading:  Walmart said last week that it would lower some prices. While shoppers there and at other grocery stores may get better deals on some items, their overall grocery bill is unlikely to fall. In a survey, roughly 35 percent of Americans identified food as the single biggest source of financial pressure. A U.S.D.A. official called grocery chains to lower the price of beef. Photo: Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, Cy's at the cabin and it might be haunted. Sign up for Chad's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠texting list here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Or, text the word CHAD to 208-379-6947! Sign up for Cy's ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠texting list here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Or⁠, text the word SHOW to 202-771-5171! This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠ and Chime! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Chad Daniels (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@ThatChadDaniels⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) is a Dad, Comedian, and pancake lover. With over 750 million streams of his 5 albums to date, his audio plays are in the 99th percentile in comedy and music on Pandora alone, averaging over 1MM per week. Chad's previous album, Footprints on the Moon was the most streamed comedy album of 2017, and he has 6 late-night appearances and a Comedy Central Half Hour under his belt. Cy Amundson (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CyAmundson⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) With appearances on Conan, Adam Devine's House Party, and Comedy Central's This is Not Happening, Cy Amundson is fast-proving himself in the world of standup comedy. After cutting his teeth at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis, has since appeared on Family Guy and American Dad and as a host on ESPN's SportsCenter on Snapchat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A third-grade teacher once warned that he'd grow up to be either a gangster or someone who did a lot of good. He chose to build better systems. In this episode of DarrenDaily On-Demand, Darren Hardy tells the story of Sol Price, the visionary behind Price Club and the warehouse model that inspired Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, and even a young Jeff Bezos. Price ran on radical honesty and paid his people double what others did. Everyone said he'd go broke; instead, he earned loyalty that money couldn't buy. Darren pulls three lessons from his story for your own business and legacy. Get more personal mentoring from Darren each day. Go to DarrenDaily at http://darrendaily.com/join to learn more.

Godfrey is joined by Dante Nero, Akeem Woods, and Vishnu Vaka to talk about iShowSpeed traveling the world and getting an Argentinian woman yelling "Negro, go home" at him, the Paraguayan senator calling Mbappe a monkey after France beat them, FIFA looking corrupt for letting Argentina come back on Cape Verde and Egypt, why Argentina still has a Nazi problem after trying to bleach out its Afro-Argentine population, Vishnu wearing fake Timbs from Walmart called Brahmas, Dante admitting he took testosterone back in the day, Ozempic blood clots filling up morgues, Godfrey auditioning for The Music Man and stinking it up, Mateo Lane killing it on Broadway in Chicago, and a long back-and-forth call with a Haitian listener about FBAs and why Black folks worldwide need to stop shitting on each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iron Mountain, Michigan. The Upper Peninsula. Postcard country: pine trees, quiet streets, the kind of place where nothing bad is supposed to happen. But in three days, seven men came knocking at one unassuming sting house. This is the story of one of them.  Kelsey Burbank is 29. He coordinates online orders at the local Walmart. By day, he's just another face in a small town. By night, he's "Two Googly Eyes" on Grindr, and he's been messaging someone he believes is a 15-year-old boy. He knows the age. He says he wishes he didn't. He keeps typing anyway. On the other end of his explicit two-hour chat? An undersheriff. What follows is a raw confrontation with Chris: the excuses, the deflection, the claim he was "just looking for friends." From first message to handcuffs to an 18-month sentence, this is the predatornext door - exposed. Sponsored by: Home Title Lock: Go to https://hometitlelock.com/chrishansen  and use promo code HANSEN to get a FREE title history report and a FREE TRIAL of their Triple Lock Protection! For details visit https://hometitlelock.com/warranty   OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code HANSEN at https://www.oneskin.co/HANSEN #oneskinpod   TruthFinder.com. To get the answers you're looking for about the new people in your life, and to discover information on potential predators, go to www.TruthFinder.com/predators Have A Seat merchandise at https://haveaseat.dashery.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices