Connections Leadership Series Podcast

Today’s guest is a former Shark Tank competitor whose idea was rejected and business name was teased. He didn’t give up, though, seeing a real opportunity to disrupt the flower industry and has successfully done so – even having one of the Sharks return, invest in his company and have him do the floral arrangements for this Shark’s wedding.  He is John Tabis, the Founder & CEO of The Bouqs Company. John believes so strongly that in order for a consumer brand to get off the ground you have to have a great story and a lot of hustle – two things he has an abundance of. Starting the company with a co-founder half-way around the world – communicating by WhatsApp, Skype and email – John built a brand with consumers at the heart of it, simplifying the flower-buying process and telling a wonderful story of where each stem come from and who are the people cultivating them. John shares many of his personal tactics that have helped him scale the business to success, his passion for big picture ideas and much more.

Today’s guest started literally in his garage, fulfilling orders made on an app he developed himself with his partners. He is Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed, a membership-free wholesale retailer that offers direct-to-consumer delivery of bulk goods. Like every startup, Chieh had to be very selective of what areas to scale and when, eventually coming up with the idea to hire robotic engineers to innovate new and exciting ways to fulfill customer orders. Though highly automated, Chieh has always believed in giving the customer a personal touch and so he ensured every order was sent with a hand-written thank you note. Chieh shares insights into his management tactics – having a very strong opinion against micro-managing, speaking as a former micro-manager – and how he takes the time to be present for his team members from the bottom to the top. His energy is quite infectious and I hope you enjoy listening to Chieh as much as I enjoyed chatting with him. Please welcome, Chieh Huang. This podcast is brought to you by E

Today’s guest is in constant pursuit of helping other entrepreneurs reach their goals and for consumers to live healthier, happier lives. He is Gautam Gupta, Co-Founder of snack subscription service, NatureBox. Gautam set out to disrupt how people consumed snack food, by creating healthy options and delivering them in a simple way. Given trends towards healthier eating, he felt the business model was going to be an instant success but quickly discovered he first had to build a thorough understanding of how consumers purchase snacks, as well as the retailer buying journey in order to get placement on store shelves.   Since successfully growing NatureBox, Gautuam continues to advise other entrepreneurs on how to create a unique differentiated product and a compelling customer experience – both of which, he believes, are the biggest drivers to success today, over and above location and marketing. He shares his personal tactics on how to approach entrepreneurial problems and his love of teaching really shows. Ple

Today’s guest on the Podcast (brought to you by Exact Media) is an avid outdoorsman, entrepreneur and wine aficionado. His approach to business is very matter-of-fact, he doesn’t mince words when it comes to big pivots like rebranding and he’s quick to learn and adapt. He is Geoff McFarlane, Co-Founder and CEO of Winc. Geoff’s story definitely suggests entrepreneurship was woven into his DNA, with both his dad and older brother starting successful ventures, Geoff starting a mobile DJ company in high school that he later sold for a profit and realizing very early on that he was ‘unhireable’ and more passionate about paving his own path. He shares insights into some of other early ventures, including a real estate development company which he’d doubled-down on right before the economic crisis of 2008, forcing him to make some serious shifts in what came next. While searching for a wine gift for his friends, Geoff saw an opportunity ripe for the picking, finding many other wine clubs and subscription mod

Today’s guest is a real treat, who brings a real passion to what he does – that started from a very early age with a hilarious game of hide-and-seek – he is Kristian von Rickenbach, the Co-Founder of direct-to-consumer mattress company, Helix Sleep.  In a crowded marketplace, with several large competitors all launching around the same time, Kristian saw an opportunity to differentiate himself by not offering a one-size-fits all mattress, but rather a personalized experience for each customer based on their sleep preferences. He wasn’t always an entrepreneur – without a real plan after college he explored finance for a bit, before settling into a career in consulting for a variety of businesses. Ultimately, a chance encounter with one of his co-founders during a networking event sparked the idea to tackle an under-serviced, slow-moving industry.  Kristian shares his personal tactics that have helped him scale the business to success, including how many hours of sleep he gets each night. Please welcome, Kristi

Today’s guest has disrupted the home security industry through a unique D2C model that started by targeting the apartment rental market. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of SimpliSafe, Chad Laurans. Hailing from a long line of entrepreneurs including both grandfathers and his dad, it was always a high likelihood he’d become one as well. From a very early age Chad loved to tinker with things, take them apart and re-build them, like remote control car engines to make them faster, or teaching himself to code at the age of 12 in order to build one of the first online forums back in the days of dial-up internet. After college, he went into a career in finance that ultimately helped him build an understanding of what it takes to sustain a business, leading him to the decision to bootstrap SimpliSafe. As he got off the ground, he had many learnings as entrepreneurs do, including the discovery that he could scale the business even quicker, by including home owners as part of his target market – and now SimpliSafe is on t

Today’s guest is an incredible leader: the CEO of kids’ clothing subscription service, Kidbox. Her entrepreneurial hustle was carved out from a young age, where she took on a newspaper delivery route at just 9 years old. Since then she had a varied and successful career, getting her start by running eCommerce for Tween brands in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and, in spite of the internet bubble burst, she saw a that there would be a real shift in consumer purchasing decisions, from retail to eCommerce. She climbed the marketing and eCommerce ladder for luxury retail at Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch and then Chicos, eventually meeting the Founder of Kidbox, Haim Dabah, to whom it was clear she was the right fit to lead Kidbox's growth. Miki immediately bought into their social mission to impact the lives of 1 million children in need and learned over the course of her career to trust her gut and speak up for causes she believed in. We talk about her tools for success, including using data science and personalizati

This episode is brought to you by Exact Connections. Acquire customers by partnering with online retailers and placing an offer in their outgoing parcels. Visit www.exactconnections.com and click “Get Access” to launch your first customer acquisition campaign within 5 minutes.   Earlier this summer I had a chance to interview Bonin Bough and couldn't be happier to share his story as our first episode of our newest season of The Connections Leadership Series Podcast. Visit our website to find links to listen to it on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play or listen to it on SoundCloud below. A little bit about Bonin Bough... Bonin is a man of many titles, he's the Host of LeBron James' TV Show on CNBC, Cleveland Hustle, Author of Txt Me: Your Phone Has Changed Your Life. Let’s Talk about It and -- in partnership with Michael Loeb (Co-Founder of Priceline.com) -- has become a leading seed-stage investor in Messaging startups. Prior to all of this, Bonin was the Chief Media & eCommerce Officer (a Title and role h

It’s one thing to be the Chief Marketing Officer of a large business but another thing to be the CMO of the world’s largest advertiser, P&G. I really enjoyed my latest interview with Jim Stengel who is the founder of The Jim Stengel Company and prior to that had a very successful career as the Global Marketing Officer (GMO) of P&G. In his seven years as the GMO, the company doubled its revenue. In today’s terms, the revenue he brought in during his tenure is equivalent to the revenue of approximately 30 AirBnBs. He has received more awards and recognitions than one could ever dream of. From being named onto Fortune’s Executive Dream Team to being the number one power player in marketing by AdAge through 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. If there’s anyone who has reached the pinnacle of advertising and marketing, it’s Jim. What I took away from my interview with Jim was not all of the things that he accomplished professionally, but the importance of being a good human being. He’s incredibly humble and down to

Very excited to bring you our latest episode with Philip Krim, Co-Founder and CEO of Casper. Read the full Episode Summary at CNBC: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/14/casper-ceo-philip-krim-on-becoming-a-500-million-company.html This Podcast is brought to you by Exact Media. Learn more about how companies like Procter & Gamble, HelloFresh, Unilever and Coca-Cola have worked with Exact Media to drive revenue growth and customer acquisition by visiting www.exactmedia.io  

On our latest podcast, we interviewed Douwe Bergsma, CMO of Georgia-Pacific. He shared his unique background with us, including growing up in a low-income family in the Netherlands, and his journey from P&G to Georgia-Pacific. Listen to the interview now to hear his thoughts on being an agent of change, why continuing to climb is so important, and how he decided to move to Atlanta with his wife.

We interviewed Karen Flavelle, CEO of Purdy’s Chocolate, in our latest podcast. Listen now to hear her thoughts on managing a team and what she’d tell her younger self early in her career.

We interviewed Esi Eggleston Bracey, President of Coty Consumer Beauty Division, in our latest podcast. Bracy shared her amazing journey from engineering to brand management at P&G working on the Comet brand. Listen to our podcast to hear her thoughts on leadership, work-life balance, and finding time to disconnect.

We interviewed JuE Wong, President at Elizabeth Arden, in our latest podcast. Wong shared important tips on managing your team, handling personal tragedy, and insight into how she handled raising a family with a fast paced, international career. Here are our top four favorite highlights:   On good management advice When asking JuE Wong what advice she wished she received when she was a first time manager, Wong mentioned that the most important lesson she learned was to actively groom a #2 that can support and grow alongside her in an organization. She reinforces this lesson today be ensuring her 8 to 10 direct reports have a #2 that they feel confident can represent them in executive meetings, and can speak on behalf of that overall function. Wong also advocates for giving your team a lot of leeway to succeed or fail on their own, but in the case of bad outcomes, always ensuring that you’ve put in place a safety net so that the entire team can fall and bounce-back together. A memorable example for her was whe

We interviewed Michelle Peluso, Chief Marketing Officer at IBM, in our latest podcast. Peluso shared how to stay motivated as a leader, how to handle challenging discussions, and being CEO and mom. Here are our top three favorite highlights: On Staying Motivated as a Leader.   "I think a few things. First of all, surround yourself with awesome people, with friends, with partners, with people you work with, with colleagues, mentors, with bosses, because all of us are on this constant journey of improving. And so there's never a destination in leadership, you don't get there. You know, you can always be better, as a founder, as a mom, as a leader. And so, to have the sort of grace to accept that, that this is just...it's just a journey, and there's always tomorrow, to learn and to improve. And to be surrounded by people who will call a spade a spade and help you think strategically about decisions you're making or actions you want to take, or things you've done. I think that is really, really powerful. But then