This Commerce Life

Philly and Nicole laugh about how long they've known each other, they geek out about email marketing and how it can power a business' growth. The boys are amazed at Nicole's skills and how many pots she's had her hands in.  To find Nicole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemjmurphy/Check out Bell Curve here: https://www.bellcurve.com/ 

Shelby started working on Chickapea in 2015. Today, Chickapea is everywhere!  Check out Chickpea here: https://chickapea.ca/You can find Shelby here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorshelby/

Phil and Angie talk old J&J days and Philly relives some battle scars that left marks. Angie talks about putting her strategic skills to work with the Save the Children Organization, getting deployed to El Paso and helping children reunite with their families. To find Angie Baker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/angiembaker/

The boys talk about getting their businesses right, how they're thinking about the year. Philly struggles to help an owner become a CEO. Philly talks about how to think about client hours and how and when to work a little harder, when to balance versus family life. Philly's pro-tip for the month - last month was WIFI Mesh, and now Philly wants you to think about buying a budget gaming laptop. (sub-$1000, light weight gaming)   

We had lots of guest come and hang out for our last podcast of the year. This one is pretty fun - if you want to watch it, it'll put faces to voices. Head to https://youtu.be/QI4iS-GsrsoSome of our guests that came by:Tim Dumas, Jaks AlcoholStephen Sotto, Bed Bath & Beyond MexicoMark Stirling, Orion SalesCherry Yang, Air Ops Consulting https://www.airopsconsulting.org/Tazz Latifi, https://petropolisnyc.com/the-petropolist-podcast/Chloe Holyman, Brand Manager for https://www.tryenerc.com/April May Bellia, formerly of Granola Girl now The Optimystic Soul life coachBram Warshafsky, Shelfgram, https://www.shelfgram.com/Laurie Shopland, https://laurieshopland.com/Jim Shopland, https://shoplandhealth.ca/Richard Pollock, https://www.takeharmony.ca/, https://www.kihealthdefence.ca/  

Long time "rock" of the retail industry...Alan Bates comes up, we talk career progression and Philly drools (as usual) over Daiya's new lineup of products. You can find Chris here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-bailey-4130958/You can find Daiya here: https://daiyafoods.com/ Drool over Daiya's food lineup here: https://www.youtube.com/user/daiyafoods/videos

The Boss, Linda, talks about the pandemic from a manufacturer's perspective...A manufacturer that makes hand sanitizer. The boys and the Boss talk about concerns about the upcoming year, how to look at growth differently, and they talk growing up and ethnic backgrounds. Check out Linda's profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindambwebb/ find Prolab here: http://www.prolabhealth.com/

When businesses land funding and have a chance to grow, it's always exciting. It's even more exciting when it's a business that helps other businesses solve communication and operational issues.  On top of that, the business is a friend of the show - that's very exciting! CEO of Intelocate, Yulia Vasilyeva comes on to talk about her $1 million in funding from TCap Private Equity. To find Yulia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuliavas/Intelocate:  www.intelocate.comTCap Private Equity : https://www.tcapequity.com/Yulia's first episode with us is here: https://this-commerce-life-fb5a846c.simplecast.com/episodes/3f43fcd5  

Parachute Software rolls out a new menu ordering platform that's simple to use and cost effective. Calling all restaurants - a profitable way to do take out! To check out Parachute Software: https://www.parachutesoftware.com/Check out their ordering page here: https://order.parachutesoftware.com/order/You can find David here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlinton/

We talk to Shane Pounder, Vice President Operations and Interim Vice President Marketing at Flipp and we talk about consumer behaviour vis a vis digital shopping, the struggle of getting good content and some new channels Flipp is exploring.  To find Shane, click here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanepounder/To get Flipp, click here: https://flipp.com/

AnneMarie runs a great after school tutoring centre that was doing a steady business before Covid. Covid shut her down and she had to do things differently and bring her tutoring online. Word of mouth used to drive the business but she had to change how she did things, used Facebook ads, Google ads to drive traffic into her centre. To find AnneMarie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariebrosnan/To check out her Tuition Centre: https://premiertuition.ie  

Philly and  Winnie reminisce about the good old days, and  comes on the show to talk multicultural marketing. Winnie has serious experience marketing to the Canadian population, and we talk about the intricacies of cultural marketing. To find Winnie:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/winniebmittal/

The distributor discussion continues -  some real life examples on how companies approach this.  The knuckleheads talk innovation and what comes next in this pandemic era. We've had a lot of cool guests on talking about innovation and how to look at things differently. We had a chance to just sit and chat and talk about cool stuff that we think might be coming. At the end, we talk about WIFI Mesh networks and how this changes your WIFI game. This is a great article:https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-mesh-router,review-5191.htmlPhil has this router: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01NCZ2UBL/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_UpFQFbGYRYW8EOther good ones: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07WGJ9TY3/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_HrFQFbXJMNKKB https://store.google.com/ca/config/nest_wifi?hl=en-CA  

Canada’s leading distributor of natural health products. From dietary supplements, vitamins and natural body care to eco friendly household products and natural health food products, Purity Life supplies products to over 7,000 stores across Canada. To check out Purity Life click here: https://www.puritylife.com/You can find Mike at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mroberts6/

We were inspired enough to put this episode in the same week as another game changer. (see prior episode about Kelly Pigeon and Dresst) Green Planet Wholesale is the supplier of equipment, a new kind of garden store. We were inspired to here where they're going, and how they've approached this growing and emerging segment of the market.To find Green Planet Wholesale click here: https://www.mygreenplanet.com/To find Mark, his Linkedin is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-walman-082a6830/The Youtube channel we were talking about is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7no6ZJE1_PK756fpWy70lw 

Kelly Pigeon started with the big "WHY," founds two game changing platforms -Dresst, then Loopt.  We talk about how to reduce consumption and waste in durable goods, and change the way the industry builds clothing, and the way consumers see clothing. She doesn't stop there - she takes the platform she builds on Dresst and turns it into a model that other businesses can use to also run a rental business.  Check out Dresst: https://www.dresst.ca/Loopt is here: https://www.looptplatform.com/You can find Kelly here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-pigeon-6630607/

We talk about how business owners / solopreneurs need to embrace teams and let their people help them grow. The guys get into the weeds and talk about the planning process, how to make sure departments stitch plans together so they function as a cohesive unit.  The book we were talking about:https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-book

We head to Africa to learn from "Fats" Diamini, Founder of Maneli Foods. We get a crash course on building a brand in South Africa and the joys and challenges of running a global brand. To find Nhlanhla "Fats"https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhlanhla-dlamini-0671531/ Maneli Foods is here:  http://manelipets.com/

Wondering what a tradeshow online looks like? How do you get good conversations while you're virtually minding your virtual tradeshow booth? Joe Tarnowski. VP, Content at ECRM & Host of The ECRM Podcast comes on to talk about making conversations happen between vendors and retailers. BONUS content - Joe loves content (like Phil). To find Joe - you can find him here. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarnowskijoseph/ You can find ECRM here. https://ecrm.marketgate.com/

All hands on deck: Bed Bath and Beyond Mexico CEO Stephen Sotto talks about great retail during the pandemic. Bed Bath and and Beyond Mexico has found success catering to their consumer in new and innovative ways.  We talk to Steve about his career and his pandemic journey with Bed Bath and Beyond. To reach Steve, you can find him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-sotto-08b605b/