This Commerce Life

Founder of Manitoba Harvest, Mike Fata comes on to talk about his remarkable journey to making hemp mainstream again. Mike talks about how he began looking at hemp, his incredible struggle to bring hemp back to mainstream, and how he's giving back now. To reach Mike, you can find him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manitoba-mikefata/  

Bram Warshafsky, marketer, entrepreneur and Founder of 5Crowd comes on talk about his latest venture, Shelfgram. [Think Nielsen meets Pinterest]Store checks now come to you digitally. Imagine being able to do store checks virtuallyCheck out Shelfgram here: https://www.shelfgram.com/To find Bram, hit this link. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bramw/

This one is all about us. Philly breaks his own rules, Kenny leans into less-than-40-hours...We talk trade shows - do the online versions work? If you've been to one that you like, please let us know.  We were also talking about  - https://ecrm.marketgate.com/  

The deadline is Sept 4th.  Apply here: https://www.intuit.com/ca/prosperity-accelerator/Highline Beta and Intuit Accelerator closing Sept 4th - This program focuses on solving the most pressing financial problems for Canadian small businesses and consumers in the wake of COVID-19. Work with Intuit experts and Highline Beta to bring your solutions to market and make a difference!  

Wondering what a good influencer / industry expert looks like? You'll like what Pindy has to say. Pindy talks a lot about how to work with brands, what an expert looks like. You can find Pindy at:https://censeopharm.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/pindy-janda-rph/

Daryna Kulya, Co-Founder at OpenPhone comes on to talk about changing the business phone for modern businesses. Kenny wants to be like Phil when he grows up and Phil has an aw-shucks moment.  We talk to Daryna about her past  - from founding Product Hunt in Toronto, and her time at Vidyard, to her current venture at OpenPhone.  Kenny gets super stoked and downloads Openphone, gets set up and running in less than the time it takes for us to talk about Openphone.  Check out OpenPhone here: https://www.openphone.co/Find Daryna on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynakulya/ 

We head to Singapore to meet Richard Loat who helped to create Five Hole for Food talks about his journey of learning. We also talk to Richard about what brands can learn about cultures overseas.  Richard's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardloat/Richard's book recommendation for brands wanting to head overseas https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22085568-the-culture-map

A great conversation with Simrit, founder of Treatsmarts. She made a treat in her kitchen, and 3 years later, it's Treatsmarts and listed at Whole Foods and 16 other retailers To find out more about Treatsmarts, head to https://www.treatsmarts.ca/Instagram: @TREATSMARTS You can find Simrit at https://www.linkedin.com/in/simrit-ollek-566b14168/

Kenny is STOKED. Arjan Stephens, President of Que Pasa Mexican Foods and EVP for Nature’s Path Foods comes on the show.  A great story...where to begin?A great look at one of the pioneers of organic products, and the struggle to take organic foods mainstream.  Nature's Path is now found in 55 countries. Find out about Que Pasa's unique story and Arjan's wedding present to his guests that became maybe one of the best cereals that Phil's ever tasted. Nature's Path website is here: https://www.naturespath.com/en-ca/Que Pasa can be found here: www.quepasafoods.comArjan's linkedin profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjan-stephens-4a84067a/ 

WWLD: _Laurie Shopland quotes Wonderman "I have super powers and I'll use it for good" She talks about how it feels to accomplish a goal, and how to find people who are ahead of you in the process to help guide you. Laurie was published in the print version of https://www.optimyz.com/  

Fardad Moayeri, Executive VP, Janitor & Chief Esthetics Officer at Parissa talks about making the world a smoother place and the effect of TikTok. An incredible story about Parissa's origins that includes the Iranian revolution, straight door to door selling and pandemic times.  Find out more about Parissa Wax here: https://parissa.comYou can reach Fardad at his Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fardadm/

From 0 to 18,000 locations supported since 2015. Intelocate founder, Yulia Vasilyeva comes on to explain how and why so many companies and locations use Intelocate. We jump into the world of solving retail issues and hear some crazy stats like retailers solving 50,000 issues per 100 locations every 10 months! (on average) You can find: Yulia at https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuliavas/ Intelocate at https://www.intelocate.com/ If you ever have questions, you can email us at thiscommercelife@gmail.com or find us at @thiscommercelife on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Special Episode. Cheryl Policastro from TPN Retail talks to the guys about 'The Future of the Buy' a Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) study done during Covid-19. The infographic can be found here: http://tpnweb.com/infographics/tpn_pandemic.pdf To find Cheryl on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-policastro-0622674/

The boys "plan" an episode. This episode is all about Kenny and Phil. The new "About Us Episode"

We talk to a long time fan, first time caller, Mark Stirling about a brand's perspective on COVID-19. We talk through things like allocating inventory, manfacturing as fast as possible, and how to manage customers that might be unhappy with out of stock situations. To find Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-stirling-a3038511/?originalSubdomain=ca

Cherry Yang, connector extraordinaire. Airtable expert, general smartie pants comes on. She talks connectors, analytics and making things automated. Cherry is a critical integrator to helping businesses build sales funnel tracking, CRM projects and lead attribution are a few of the things she can help with. Here's how to find Cherry: https://www.airopsconsulting.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherry-yang-12368141/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5qlky4Sf1pZJnTYJLj_gWQ

What is marketing to clients? Phil runs into a bunch of brands that are asking for marketing but maybe doesn't know what they're asking for. Tazz Latifi, owner of Petropolis comes on the show. They talk about her retail store, and her consulting business. To find Tazz, you can head to https://petropolisnyc.com/about-tazz-latifi/ The podcast: https://petropolisnyc.com/the-petropolist-podcast/ Her Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tazzlatifi/

WWLD! Philly talks about being out and on his own again - how it feels to leave Nymi, and work with clients that he loves. He's focused on shit that he loves, shit that he likes and none of the shit that's just shit, and trying not to do too much shit. Kenny wants to be like Phil.

600 doors to 20 000 in 3 years. Smart Sweets is the Queen of the #kicksugar movement. We talk to Koreann Webster about their sweet success https://smartsweets.ca/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/koreann-webster-42b43160/

Kenny gives Jake gas. We talk to Jake from Mid-Day-Squares about success and adjusting for Covid-19. These guys are the real deal...over a million bars sold. Mad magazine?? Spy vs Spy? Kenny shows his age, Philly admits he loves Spy vs Spy. To order some chocolate, head to https://www.middaysquares.com/ You can find Mid-Day-Squares on Instagram at @middaysquares