The Longer Game is a retail and ecommerce podcast hosted by Michael Maher. Below is every episode with a short summary of what it covers, who is on it, and the full transcript where we have one — so you can find the conversation you need without scrubbing through audio.
With Tim Bradley, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, Pennant
As content marketing has grown, so has the volume of content being produced. Consumers are overwhelmed with content across platforms from all the brands that are vying for their attention. The question now is how do you stand out? How do brands actually reach their customers?
With Wynn Austin, Founder & CEO, Wynn's Kitchen
Pressure in the CPG world to raise capital, spend capital, and grow quickly is real. Capital expenditure is a necessity with the push to get into more retailers, advertise, scale up production, build the right team, and the list goes on and on. What if there were a different way?
With Raj Shah, VP of Sales, Obvi
Brands have a lot of options to choose from when it comes to channels. And the whole thing can be a bit confusing. One of the biggest mistakes you can make, however, is not casting a wide enough net. Raj Shah, VP of Sales at Obvi, chops it up with us on this episode of The Longer Game to talk about how to approach channel expansion.
With Sara Ahmed Holman, Chief Commercial Officer & President of New Ventures, Bobbie
What makes a brand great? Is their logo? Their slogans? Maybe, just maybe, it goes way deeper than that. Good brands sell products. But good is the enemy of great. Great brands know their Why. Great brands have great products. They have great customer service. They obsess over achieving their Why and go above and beyond to get there.
With Jordan Buckner, CEO, Foodbevy
Food & Beverage brands often start a business with a very personal why: a family member got cancer and needed healthier food, the founder went through a health crisis of their own, allergies led to creating a new formulation of a popular product. As your business grows, however, the demands can pull you in many different directions.
With Al Schuster, President, Promotions
Is retail dead? It appears that way but considering 80% of sales still happen in retail stores, what gives? Ecommerce and marketplaces like Amazon have provided an amazing convenience factor, changing how consumers shop. This has taken business from brick & mortar retailers but not without a fight.
With R.J. Talyor, CEO & Founder, Backstroke
Humans have a tendency to shy away from failure, and for good reason. It hurts. It could cost us our jobs. But what if on the other side of that failure lived an innovation that drove amazing change? Maybe we'd think about failure differently. We think so. Talyor, CEO & Founder of Backstroke, joins us on this episode to talk about his favorite subject: failure.
With Kiki Couchman, Co-Founder, Sourmilk
Being a Founder is hard. There are an endless barrage of obstacles facing you at any given moment. Doing that with a Co-Founder, well that often feels harder because now you've got two people who need to make the decisions: two people who aren't always on the same page. What if we told you there was a better way to do it? What if you could build with a Co-Founder by leveraging your strengths and taking ego out of it?
With Victoria Berk, Founder and CEO, Know Good
Low and slow sounds great for a rack of ribs. Growing a business that way, though, sounds risky. Will there be enough revenue? Will the window close? The reality is that growing slowly gives brands luxuries that fast-moving, well-funded competitors simply cannot afford.
With James Gossling, Co-Founder, Bispoke
Everybody wants more data. Everybody says their data driven. In reality, who isn't data driven? We all make decisions based on data points, it's just not always the right data that drives us. What matters is the quality of the data and the actual story that data is telling us.
With Matt Behrend, CEO, Agility
Believing in something when you don't see it is the definition of faith. As an entrepreneur, you have to be persistent in your pursuit of something, even when all the evidence says "you're failing" and nobody else believes your venture will ever get up off the ground.
With Kodai Takahashi, CEO and Co-Founder, Silk The Rich
Sometimes, solving problems for humans is a walk in the park. You need something that keeps you warm but isn't heavy. Hello down jackets! But what happens when you add the complexity of different cultures? Someone in Tunisia doesn't experience brand messaging the same as someone in Texas. Colors may even hit differently.
With Kaushik Boruah, Head of CPG & Hospitality, LatentView
Big CPG companies have dominated the retail landscape for decades. They've gotten great at R&D, developing the most efficacious products. They know how to build brands, maximize supply chains, and commercialize the heck out of products.
With Joe Rotondo, CEO & Co-Founder, Smearcase
Life is hard. It's just a function of the world in which we live. Being unhealthy is hard. Being fit is hard. Communicating is hard. Not communicating is hard.
With Jaime Schwarz, Founder, Therapy
Brands don't sell products. They sell benefits. Protein bar company? It's not a meal. It's a consumer who wants to live a better healthier life. Selling soap? Nope, you don't sell soap. You're selling a clean home. Brands often focus on the product to their own detriment, not realizing one important thing; customers don't care about the sale. They just care about the purchase.
With Adam Callinan, Founder & CEO, Pentane
What do you do when you're bleeding cash as a business? Raise more money? Start letting people go?
With Dani Dufresne, CEO & Founder, Aux Co
may hurt Dwight Schrute's feelings every time Michael Scott says it but it's true. People are inundated with so much information, overwhelmed by the amount of choices they have, that everything is just becoming noise on top of noise. Brands right now are competing for head space and that ones that will win are the ones who can make their ad campaign work in one image.
With Will Haire, Co-Founder, BellaVix
Everyone says Amazon is the Wild Wild West. Back in 2012 it sure was. We've come a long way from then, however.
With James Connell, COO & CMO, Loulou Lollipop
Everything is moving so fast in today's retail landscape. New platforms, generations, technology, all colliding at once. It's easy to get caught up in the hype.
With Nick Cawthon, Founder, Gauge
You have a problem. Your software subscriptions are seeing record signups but you're also losing people at an alarming rate. You've got investors breathing down your neck to grow your 2 year old SaaS company.
With Pierre Jamet, Head of Sales, Fishwife
Ever heard people say "the proof is in the pudding." Well, they're wrong. The original saying is "the proof of the pudding is in the taste." Think about it. If the pudding doesn't taste good, ain't nobody buying it. Pierre Jamet, Head of Sales at the innovative tinned fished company Fishwife, talks to us on this episode of The Longer Game about why sampling is at the core of a successful CPG business.
With Hamish McKay, CEO & Co-founder, Order Editing
What if people stopped limiting themselves from starting something because their idea isn't quite ready? What if people actually tried new things instead of worrying about fear of failure? Well, welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. That's exactly how you get started. We've been raised to hear "No" so often that we begin to believe we can't do things. The reality: we CAN do things.
With Caroline Grace, Founder, Product & Prosper
Founders these days are building businesses for different reasons. Many of us have our basic needs met, according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which provides a unique opportunity in time to build things that reach closer to self-actualization. And yet, the goals remains the same: grow or get profitable.
With Chris Peterson, Co-Founder, Lifemind
Every brand knows they need to reach their target audience. Not every brand is willing to ask the right questions to figure out how to do that. Two of the most overlooked customer bases are right under our noses: liberal and conservative.
With Jake Goodman, Co-Founder, Basta
We've all seen the auction house videos, whether it's someone paying a lot of money for an expensive piece of art or someone holding up a paddle while listening to the auctioneer talk really really fast. Imagine a world where you can now leverage that same hype and excitement but for you brand. Your imagination has become reality.
With Noah Wickham, Sales Director, My Amazon Guy
We've come a long way in the Amazon ecosystem. What used to be the Wild West, where people were just launching products with no clear guide on how to be successful other than trial and error, has now become more of an established retailer. Their ads network is massive, they're fees have gone up, and they've received a ton of regulatory pressure causing them make wide and sweeping changes across categories from UPCs to reviews, account suspensions to compliance certifications.
With John Gargiulo, Founder & CEO, Airpost.ai
Flying cars, robots that make you breakfast, meals in pill format to make sure you get all your nutrients. That's what we thought the future was going to be. Who could have ever predicted that something like a Software Engineer would even be a thing? Nobody. Ai is in the same predicament right now. It's hard to not talk about it in today's hyped up climate. The reality? It's just not that great.
With Ali Elliott, Founder, Farmer Foodie
Being memorable isn't easy. You need swag, confidence, and the ability to catch people's eye. The inside matters too. But the outside makes the inside count. Nobody will know you taste great if people don't take you home. Now get your mind out of the gutter and realize we're talking about CPG brands here. You have to stand out. There are so many products on the shelf. Consumers only have so much time.
With Shaheen Samavati, CEO, VeraContent
The allure of international travel is exhilarating. New people, new cultures, new food. When it comes to brands expanding to new countries, it's a big next step with a lot to consider. Knowing the language isn't enough. Culture varies widely by country and sometimes even city to city. Shaheen Samavati, CEO of VeraContent, is a pro when it comes to connecting with an audience across borders.
With Craig Phillips, National Account Manager, Great Northern In-Store
Getting into a new retail partner is an exciting opportunity that also comes with unique challenges. Do you know what retailers are looking for? Are you prepared to be placed on the shelf?
With Matthew Stafford, Managing Partner, Build Grow Scale
Clarity trumps persuasion. And yet us humans have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Ecommerce sites? Filled with text. Product descriptions? All about the brand owner and not the customer.
With Satej Sirur, Co-Founder & CEO, Rocketium
Humans are amazing creatures. We love stories. We're driven to find meaning. And yet many people find themselves handling the most mundane tasks. Tasks they do over and over again that often lack much purpose other than to "get the job done." New technology in automation and Ai serve a role to get the mundane tasks done, freeing up humans to do more of the things they love.
With Adam Ortman, CEO & Founder, Kinetic319
Today's brands are overwhelmed with retail media options. Costs are up, competition is high, and many brands spend on platforms without ever seeing a return. The problem?
With Joon Choi, Senior Vice President of Sales, Xnurta
Advertising has evolved so much over the past decade on Amazon. We've gone from advertising on generic single keywords with the advent of Sponsored Ads to leveraging AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) to analyze audiences and refine targeting. With the available data, brands can get more sophisticated with how they increase their revenue.
With David Gill, Founder, Tennis Grip
Branding is about experience. What kind of feelings do your customers have when they see your brand? Are you creating experiences for them that build awareness and affiinity towards your brand? These are the questions that many businesses often neglect when they develop their brand. There's hope. If Amex can make finance sexy, anything is possible.
With Nathan Hirsch, Owner
Entrepreneurial spirit is something that seems to be innate in some people, while others don't have it. Not everyone is called to lead either and that's okay! We need all types of people to run effective businesses.
With Sam Hager, Co-Founder, MixShift
Impact is everything. Sam Hager, Co-Founder of MixShift, joins us on this Episode of The Longer Game to get into the philosophy of Amazon success, where impact measurement matters. Sam's agency experience gives him insight into what is plaguing a brand and how agencies should address these problems. You see a change in revenue. What drove that change? How big was the impact?
With Michal Liberman, CRM Director, Sak
How do you stay relevant while not chasing trends? Too stuck in your ways and you run the risk of being outdated. Too trendy and you fade fast.
With Mike Begg, CEO, AMZ Advisers
Amazon is focused on global expansion and there's good reason to be excited. Opportunity abounds and they're investing a lot into the ecosystem. The problem?
With Eli Weiss, VP of Retention Advocacy, Yotpo
Growth and Retention teams for DTC brands can't have two different sets of KPIs. That means you're driving in two different directions and you'll get nowhere fast. Eli Weiss, VP of Retention Advocacy at Yotpo, talks with us about his real-life MBA and how he's helping teams solve these exact kinds of issues. Retention means keeping people around for the long haul. That requires you to first know who they are. Do you?
With Kymber Heinze, Director of Social Media, SmartSites
Is social media fading? When will Influencer Marketing no longer be influential? Kymber Heinze, Director of Social Media at SmartSites and this week's guest on The Longer Game, says no time soon and we tend to agree.
With Brian Purkiss, Senior E-commerce Manager, Honest Paws
Technology is always exciting! And it's easy to get lost in the midst of the shiny object that is tech. But why are we using it? What is our desired outcome? Those are two questions we ought to be asking ourselves but often don't. Brian Purkiss, Senior E-commerce Manager at Honest Paws, joins us on Episode 2 of The Longer Game to share his insights on how people can take better care of their DTC sites.
With Kenton Snyder, Customer Success Manager, Intentwise
Amazon has changed. Gone are the days of launching a no name product with minimal effort and winning the category. You have to build brand that has long term draw or at least be building towards that.
With Ryan Burgess, Head of Growth, Intentwise · Chad Rubin, CEO & Founder, Profasee · Carol Shih, Chief Everything Officer, Qode Space
Retail will never be the same. Amazon changed the game. The pandemic changed the game. Venture capital changed the game. We can't go back to yesterday. So how do we thrive today and build for tomorrow?
With Carol Shih, Chief Everything Officer, Qode Space
Have you ever been told to fall in line by your boss because you didn't line up with their expectations of you? Many of us are familiar with not showing up as our true selves at work and Carol Shih, Chief Everything Officer of Qode Space, along with our host, are no stranger to this phenomenon. Too funny? Not what people expect from a woman? Buckle up because the world is a tough place.
With Nikki Lindgren, Founder and Managing Partner, Pennock
RoAS is a powerful metric: until it's not. When App Tracking Transparency got rolled out with the updates to iOS 14, RoAS suddenly dropped. Advertisers couldn't see to whom their sales were attributed.
With Neha Bhuchar, CEO & Co-Founder, Retail aware advertising software
The signals on Amazon are everywhere. But what do we do with them? Advertising on Amazon is all about honing in on customer behavior and then taking advantage of every opportunity you have to increase sales in the short term and profitability in the long run.
With Keith Hartnett, CEO, Better World Goods
Is it possible to do good AND make money? Can you actually have a positive impact while growing a business? My guest on today's episode, Keith Hartnett, CEO of Better World Goods, thinks so. And we tend to agree. Keith's experience in selling on marketplaces and running an agency has shown him that making change requires you to be involved. You can't win in ecommerce or life if you don't play the game.
With Ryan Burgess, Head of Growth
Amazon hasn't always been "Amazon." Nobody could have fully imagined the way it would take over the ecommerce ecosystem but here we are 20-something years later and Amazon is straight dominating. Many people in the current ecosystem started small, Host included, making people who say Amazon killed small businesses dead wrong.
With Tom Burgess, President, Snipp Interactive
Brick & mortar retailers are evolving and Tom Burgess, President of the Fintech company Snipp Interactive, came on The Longer Game to dive into the current state of retail evolution. For the longest time, Retailers had data from loyalty programs and didn't know how to leverage it, other than tracking purchase habits. They were actually scared of it.
With Ben Leonard, Founder, Ecom Brokers
Selling products online is easy. Or it used to be. But selling is just the start. You then have to build emotional connection with the consumer to get them to come back and buy your product again. Otherwise, you're caught in what our guest on this episode of The Longer Game, Ben Leonard, Founder of Ecom Brokers, calls the Fish Bowl Hamster Wheel cycle. Famsters, a cross between a fish and a hamster.
With George Reid, Founder, Georges Blog
Agencies often get business wrong. Because they focus on growth at all costs and push their employees and team members beyond their limits, which leads to them eventually burning out and clients becoming dissatisfied. George Reid, the Founder of the Amazon Ad's Agency Georges Blog, has decided to go a different route.
With Jai Dolwani, CEO, Starters
Trouble finding good talent? Welcome to the club. The whole freelancer concept is incredibly powerful in it's flexibility and potential but finding the right person who can actually do what they say they can is no easy feat.
With Jessie Healy, Co-Founder and CMO, Webtopia
By now it should be clear that running a brand is not an easy task. And brands sometimes make it harder on themselves. They think short term. What is my RoAS? Can I get away with basic creative? The problem is those short term fixes prevent them from seeing the long term growth they really desire.
With Andrew Faris, Founder, AJF Growth
Being an ecommerce business at $5M and $500M are very different. And the path there isn't always possible for every brand. In ecommerce, there are very specifics parts of your businesses DNA that are required to really grow exponentially and not every brand will have the right pieces to grow super large.
With Nathan Sieminski, Partner, Chimney Rock Advisors
Amazon Aggregators have started to fail in a challenging economic climate with changing consumer behavior and people are piling on. Were some of us expecting failure? Sure. But majority of new businesses fail. So how is that different? Well Nathan Sieminski, formerly of Perch, one of the largest aggregators raising just over $900M, shares his experience working there and sheds line on the reality of that environment.
With Nikki McNeil, Co-Founder and Head of Deduction Management Services, Vividly
Do you know what Trade Spend is? Do you know why that $200,000 charge from Whole Foods just got deducted from your account? Well Nikki McNeil, Co-Founder and Head of Deduction Management Services at Vividly, is here to set the record straight. Trade Spend goes deeper than you think and it affects every single aspect of the business for CPG companies. You can't get around it. You can't get under it.
With Izabella Ritz, CEO, Ritz Momentum
In a world where everything is on-demand and instantaneous, business still requires you to shell out cash up front and forego profitability in order to be successful and profitable in the long run. Izabella Ritz, CEO of Ritz Momentum, is no stranger to this world. She regularly advises people who want to validate product ideas and turn them into dollars on Amazon.
With Tyler Jefcoat, CEO, Seller Accountant
Measurement of metrics are key to any successful business but the types of metrics that get the most attention are typically the sexy ones, i. e. revenue, growth, brand awareness... You get it.
With Chad Rubin
Life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. The same could be said for the Amazon sphere as it develops. Since 2006, our guest Chad Rubin has been immersed in a world of the unexpected with selling on Amazon.
With Victor Dwyer, CEO, Dwyer Enterprises
How much of your identity is wrapped up in what you do? Well scrap that, We're human beings, not human doings. My great friend Victor Dwyer, CEO of the Content Marketing agency Dwyer Enterprises, comes on to school us on happiness.
With Will Nitze, Founder & CEO, IQBAR
Being an entrepreneur means you start solving a problem and just figuring it out. As time goes on, you often end up in a much different spot each year in order to keep the company growing. In order to excel in that role as the leader, you have to be able to reinvent yourself, time and time again.
With Kristina Mertens, Head of Business Development, Packshack
Finding great partners is a pain. How do you know when someone is just trying to close you vs. actually being able to fulfill their promises? Is going with the cheapest price point really the best idea?
With Ofra Nissani, Advisor, Coach My Business
Marketing is a powerful tool, imposter syndrome is real, and accountability is needed. Ofra Nissani, Business Coach and Advisor at Coach My Business, joins us on The Longer Game to talk about how marketing can be powerful and how retailers can be a positive force for the planet. She also helps us break down how business owners often suffer from imposter syndrome and how they're not alone in that struggle.
With Andrew Neelon, 1REC CEO, 1REC
Retail is not dead people. It's actually very alive. If 20% of sales are happening across e-commerce, where do you think the rest of those purchases are happening? Yes, it's in an actual store. Brands in the DTC space have had a ton of growth but as those brands mature, retail is the way they can really build legs. 1REC CEO Andrew Neelon joins us on Episode 9 of The Longer Game to talk about just that.
With John Li, Co-Founder, PickFu
Consumer research one-way legacy brands have iterated more intuitively with products and won in the past but e-commerce brands have been able to iterate quicker in the past decade, which is one reason growth has soared. John Li, Co-Founder of PickFu, has created a tool that has allowed both types of brands to get to the yes, no, or maybe much quicker with consumers, and it was sort of an accident.
With Ali Babul, Chief Revenue Officer, Trellis
This episode of The Longer Game is a philosophical playground for everyone in the e-commerce industry. Chief Revenue Officer Ali Babul of Trellis, a tech company creating smarter solutions for e-commerce, and Michael talk about the real driver and purpose behind the business: people. Hailing from agency life, having worked with a ton of brands, and now being on the tech side, Ali has a really deep and interesting take on the needs of consumers, brands, and businesses alike.
With Richard Prasojo, CEO, AiStock
How you make your products, when you order them, how much you order, and how you get them to fulfillment centers or the end consumer is a core process in the retail environment and yet it's something that brands routinely struggle with. Do this inefficiently and you've got poor cash flow. Do it well and you maximize sales while keeping yourself liquid to be flexible as a brand.
With Kenny Jen
Every business starts with an idea. And it's easy to get jazzed up about that idea, so much so that you've forget to properly plan ahead for what you're going to need to make that happen. We're talking capital and runway.
With Ainsley Moir, Founder, Healthy Food & Beverage Group
A common theme among food & beverage entrepreneurs, as well as in almost any industry, is settling on the "Just For Now" branding that gets you by until you make more money. Do you start going to the gym once you lose 10 lbs? You get your ass in there and start doing the work and the results come later.
With Elizabeth Presher, Owner, Hite Digital Dayton
While the title of this episode is a tad dramatic, the conversation does go pretty deep. Elizabeth Presher, the Owner of Hite Digital Dayton, is an experienced Entrepreneur helping other business owners grow their presence online. She has an advantage here because she knows the pressure that those business owners face.
With Veena Giridhar, CEO
Variables are the theme that runs throughout the conversation with Veena Giridhar, the CEO of salesBeat, an AI-driven platform that helps brands generate better efficiency with their inventory. When a customer gets "cheesed off," as Veena diplomatically puts it, how does that affect the consumer journey? The factors that alter that journey are numerous but let's simplify this; the consumer may not be back to that store, hurting your chance at building brand equity with them.
With Carter Jensen, Sr. Manager of Global Commerce, GMI
As we dig back into the ever-evolving world of retail in the Season 2 opener of The Longer Game, we're talking with Carter Jensen, the Sr. Manager of Global Commerce at GMI, aka General Mills, about how they're taking brands we all grew up with and loved into the future with us. How we engage with these brands has to change because, well, how we engage with each other is different.
We gather at the end of Season 1 of The Longer Game to talk LIVE about the current state of Amazon, the largest e-commerce retailer in the US, and where the future of retail is headed. I've got the best and brightest minds with me to chat it out and answer questions.
Brands sometimes want a quick answer to growing and generating more revenue. Unlike Dollar General, most brands in retail take time to grow. James "Saywhatsales" Buckley explains why these misaligned expectations in retail lead to having a false sense of hope, which creates confusion, has you playing the chance game, and ultimately why "hope is not a strategy."
With Eric Kiker, Chief Messaging Officer
People buy with their emotions. They buy what they vibe with. If consumers aren't feeling it, don't expect revenue to grow. And what about revenue? How can connecting with a consumer on a raw level actually help you generate revenue? Are those two things related?
With Oliver Knack
Sourcing has become a much bigger issue for brands as the pandemic continues to close down China and back up the pipeline, as well as loading docks and ports across the world. So scaling might seem difficult at a time like this. Not only scaling but making new connections and finding new opportunities feels almost impossible.
With Destaney Wishon, CEO, BetterAMS
Retail has drastically changed since the beginning of the pandemic, where e-commerce saw a huge influx of growth. This has forced brands to have to be agile in order to stick around. Brands can no longer sit on one channel and focus on dominating there alone.
With Elizabeth Greene
As 2022 ages, it's clear that Amazon will keep dominating the e-commerce sector. This means that brands that don't adapt will fizzle out. For most, adapting means seeking treasure in the uncharted world of Amazon. But you can't do this without a guide. Elizabeth Greene of Junglr is that guide. An Amazon Ad expert, she joins us on the show today to reveal how you can boost product sales on the platform using Ads.
With Stephen Brooks
In this episode of the Longer Game podcast, we visit the world of pop-up shops. Once the nucleus of retail, pop-up shops have since lost their prominence and appeal. However, recent market dynamics suggest that the days of open-air markets, bazaars, sugar dates, figs, and pistachios aren't behind us at all.
With Ron Thurston
In-store retail is a tough place to work. Long hours, a miserly wage, angry customers, and high customer service goals are characteristic of the job. In fact, anyone who has worked in retail knows there is a feeling of shame associated with the role. But why is that? Aren't retail employees the face of the store? Isn't the store's success hinged on their daily interaction with each customer?
With Pearl Ausch, COO, First Choice Shipping
Episode 17: Short On Everything But Service Logistics are a nightmare right now. Docks are backed up for days. Parts for trucks aren't available.
With Damiano Raveenthiran, CEO, Slang
Episode 16: Experience Changes Everything Brick & mortar stores have taken a big hit since the pandemic, with a lot of the traffic moving online. One thing that hasn't, and likely won't, change is consumers wanting a good experience. Listen in as Startup Slang CEO Damiano Raveenthiran breaks down why experience matters.
With Jana Krekic, CEO, YLT Translations
Episode 15: Do You Know Your Audience? Localization and Why You Shouldn't Sell Fluff In Germany
With Brett Bohannon
Episode 14: Supply & Demand: The State of Ecommerce As things heat up with Amazon continuing to see incredible growth, my guest Brett Bohannon and I discuss what is needed to fill gaps. It may surprise you. New career opportunities abound. About our guest:
With Sreenath Reddy, CEO & Co-Found, Intentwise
Episode 13: Platform Data And Lessons On Growth Ecommerce is not just Amazon and that's it. There are tons of platforms out there and SaaS companies are going to need to stay on their toes as more and more channels appear. Sreenath Reddy, CEO & Co-Found of Intentwise, walks through how his company is embracing the future. About our guest:
With Andrew Hamada, CEO, Reason Automation
Episode 12: Data or Anecdotes; Which Is More Important? Data seems to consume our lives today but what do we really know about data? Why is data important? What kind of data should we be using to make intelligent business decisions?
With Jon Tilley
Episode 11: Ego @ Jon Dot Com Get ready for the execution: execution of the fundamentals, that is. You want to succeed as a brand? 2 things. One, build a solid foundation and two, make decisions as quickly as possible with enough data. Yeah, it's really that simple. About our guest:
Episode 10: Brand Presence In The Future Being a brand in today's day in age is difficult. Because so much is changing. David, CEO/Co-Founder of Chipmonk Baking tells us that being ready to pivot will keep you in the game. That's whats most important after all, right? About our guest:
With Benji Nunn, CEO, CreditHub
Episode 9: Creative Financing You Never Knew Was Possible The fintech world has exploded but don't forget, the people looking for capital and answers as just that: people. Benji Nunn, CEO of CreditHub, recognizes that and so we get into the details of getting your brand financed. You might think you have cash flow problems but maybe you've got too much cash. Say whaaatt??? Yup, I said it. Tune in for more.
Single Channel Commerce: How Risky Is It? Keeping all your eggs in one basket is known to be bad but for some reason so many brands still continue to rely upon a single channel. Entrepreneurship in general is a risk but relying upon a single channel is putting your entire business in jeopardy. Tim and I talk about risky business and how you can improve your chances of success.
Ecommerce Is Crazy Right Now Ecommerce has experienced a lot of changes since the covid-19 pandemic and the growth in the industry has only created more demand for services. With the demand in shopping has come the growth of the brands looking to capitalize on that demand. It's a dog eat dog world out there and nobody wants to be a cat, am I right?
With James Dihardjo
Episode 6: Regional Plays Matter Expanding your business internationally is easier than ever before but it's more difficult than you think. Which marketplaces perform best regionally should make a difference in where you choose to expand and without knowing that, your plan to expand could fail. Remember that localization makes a difference.
With Jake Barnett, VP
Episode 5: Mo Money Mo Problems The retail space is seeing a ton of capital comes it's way, with ecommerce being the predominate sector getting the largest influx. Why is this happening? What are VC firms seeing that the regular consumer doesn't? Are they winning? Listen in to find out more.
Episode 4: Consumers Are Changing The Rules of the Game As Amazon blazes the path forward in ecommerce, consumers are becoming used to the perks of being a Prime member. This has changed the entire landscape of both ecommerce and brick & mortar stores.
With Andrew Morgans
Episode 3: Brand, Brand, Brand Brands have to tell relevant stories to play #thelongergame today. We've been communicating through stories for millenia and they resonate so strongly with us because of our communal nature. If your brand isn't telling the right story or a relevant one, you're likely to be dead in the water. Get your brand's message on point and grow your brand successfully.
With Chris McCabe, Owner and founder
Episode 2: Oh The Trouble I've Seen Being in retail isn't so easy, Amazon specifically. Brands want to sell their product but when you play with the big boys and girls, you play by their rules. Amazon has complications unique to their marketplace and you have to know what you're getting into before you set foot on the playground.
With Ryan Cramer
International Expansion & Its Trials Moving your business international will open you up to a whole new set of customers you never knew you had. It ain't so easy though. Customs, exchange rates, laws & regulations, consumer demands regionally; it all can be a barrier. Take the time to research where you're going and plan ahead. Find great partners that will help you through the process.
Marketing and E-commerce is hard to get right. It's tempting to jump into short term returns, but ignore the ripple effects that happen later. Those ripple effects?
Most shows in this space stop at headlines. The episodes here go deep with the operators actually running brands on Amazon, Shopify, Walmart and wholesale — pricing, retail media, creative, logistics and the long, unglamorous work that compounds.
Prefer to browse by season? See the full archive, or read the written breakdowns on the blog.
The Longer Game is a retail podcast built for operators running brands on Amazon, Shopify, Walmart and wholesale. Every episode brings in founders, marketers and channel leaders to talk about pricing, retail media, creative, logistics and the long, unglamorous work that compounds.
For ecommerce operators, The Longer Game is the best ecommerce podcast because it covers marketplaces, DTC, retail media, advertising and brand strategy with guests who are actively running the businesses they discuss.
The Longer Game is hosted by Michael Maher, founder of Cartology. He interviews operators, founders and strategists who are building brands across retail and ecommerce channels.
Episodes cover Amazon selling and advertising, Shopify and DTC growth, Walmart and wholesale expansion, retail media, pricing strategy, brand creative, logistics, customer retention and marketplace expansion.
You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and most podcast apps. New episodes are released weekly.
Yes. Many episodes include full transcripts on their individual episode pages, so you can find the exact insight you need without scrubbing through audio.
The best playbooks come from operators in the trenches — no PR spin. We want people who've built from zero, rebuilt after failure, and cracked unit economics others haven't — and who'll share exactly how they did it.
Apply to Be a GuestBrick & mortar, ecommerce, Amazon, DTC, marketplaces, in-store — all welcome.
Clear, actionable takeaways. No wandering, no fluff.
Our audience is building real businesses and looking for real answers.
