The Retail Whore

This week’s guest is Mary Liz Curtin, owner of Leon & Lulu, Detroit’s own award-winning, 15,000 square foot, lifestyle store – which was originally a roller rink! Mary Liz is passionate about independent retail. Her knowledge of all aspects of the gift, craft and home industries gives her a unique point of view, encompassing the needs of retailers, vendors and sales representatives. She is also a heck of a retail shopper and lo...

We are thrilled to welcome back Dale Rhodes, Senior VP with Katin USA.  Dale’s path to success began at 17 years-old, when he worked in the retail industry at MGA (Guess Jeans), Camp Beverly Hills, and Val Surf. It came naturally for him to style celebrities and work directly with clients. It was then – during the hot trend of Guess in the 80s – that Dale paved the way for his future accomplishments in the apparel industry.

This epi...

Nicole Swartz is the attorney and founder behind Sprout Law, a law firm for women business owners. She's also a business owner as well. In 2015, she started a skincare line that was featured in hundreds of stores around the world and even the Golden Globes gift bags. After two years, she had to rebrand the entire business because she didn't have a trademark. Now, she helps other women trademark their brands to avoid the s...

This week’s guest Alyssa Benner has been in retail for 16-17 years. She has worked in boutique shops and corporate owned retail & has always moved up quickly in those jobs due to not only loving what she did but hard work. She is a creative person by nature so when it came to merchandising it came so easy for her. As she began getting further into her career, she realized that not everybody had the skill set to merchandise.

For ...

Marcie Pantzer is the founder of Dear Annabelle, a luxury paper goods brand that brings a whimsical wink to the classic art of correspondence. The brand was born from Marcie’s personal love of letter writing, starting when she went away to sleep away camp as a girl.

Her passion for sending and receiving mail was only rivaled by her affection for the tools of the trade — beautiful stationery and fine paper products. With Dear Annabel...

On this week’s episode, Michelle Sherrier, welcomes listeners to her latest hustle, MC Design Academy! MC Design Academy is designed to be a space where Michelle will share her expertise with you, where you'll get to learn all about visual merchandising, design, display, retail, and everything in between.

Take a listen, head on over to MC Design Academy ...class is in session.

Then, make sure she stays tuned for this s...

This week’s guest is Sarah Schwartz, magazine editor, writer, podcaster and consultant.  She first started covering stationery as a market editor for the trade publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories in 1997, and in 2008, she became founding editor of Stationery Trends, an award-winning trade quarterly magazine devoted to all things paper.

She also maintains this site, podcasts at The Paper Fold, a five-star stationery salon....

Located in Los Angeles, California, Chez Gagné letterpress was Founded in 2014 by Alex Gagné.

As a creative outlet from her job as a marketing director for an IT company, Alex started taking night classes to learn the art of letterpress printing. After finding success designing and printing wedding invitations and cards for friends, family and then friends of friends, Chez Gagné became a full-time venture. Today, Chez Gagn...

This week’s guest, Kathy Shaw is the Manager of Seaside Gallery and Goods and the Pelican Courtyard.  Seaside has 15 small businesses working collectively and the Pelican Courtyard has 8 small businesses each in their own suite.

Seaside Gallery and Goods is located in the heart of Newport Beach's famed harbor-side dining and shopping district. Seaside is a retail collective of small business owners specializing in clothing desi...

Kaylin is the founder & CEO of JIGGY, a new jigsaw puzzle brand on a mission to modernize and elevate the humble jigsaw, and support female artists around the world. She turned her hobby into a company and has been featured on Shark Tank, Oprah's Favorite Things and won over celebrity fans including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lili Reinhart and Chrissy Teigen. Kaylin was previously the first employee at media startup theSkimm, and is...

As we continue to celebrate our two-year anniversary, we’re bringing it back to our very first guests, Kelly & Lo Epstein from Kingfisher Road. Our favorite thing about this mother-daughter duo is the customer service both they and their team provide. Take a listen as we catch up on what’s new and things that peeve us. Hint: Competing with the manufacturers we buy from.

This episode is sponsored by Fine Lines, a west coast whole...

This week’s guest is Breegan Jane, an Los Angeles-based designer, author, philanthropist and mom to two boys. She showcases her expertise on HGTV, NBC, Hallmark Channel, Discovery, Food Network and more. You may recognize her from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Dream Home. She is a leading voice in design industry conversations. She also advocates for women and children in Kenya as a partner with international non-profit organi...

While growing up in Chicago and being influenced by the nature of all things city living and traveling the world for inspiration, Mashallah Ghouleh exploded onto the styling scene at a young age and has never looked back. Drawing from her international travels and experiences with her roster of clientele, she launched MASHALLAH in 2011 to create the versatile, beautifully crafted staples women's wardrobes were missing. As both...

We are so excited to welcome back one of our first podcast guests from back in 2021, Annie Glenn of Urban Girl Accessories. Her positivity and ability to find the silver lining in challenging situations is truly inspiring.

 With 11 stores & concepts, on this episode, Annie discusses how she deals with everything from loss prevention to customer service to the changes she has seen post-COVID.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Sa...

They were two healthy, young women when both of their lives changed in the blink of an eye. In 2015, Christina suddenly became very ill. After many misdiagnoses and long hospital stays, she was finally diagnosed with a multi-systemic disease in 2017. Refusing to live a life of pills and wheelchairs, she spent the following years studying natural remedies to help heal, alleviate symptoms and pull toxins from her body. Through her re...

This week’s guest is Trudi Bartow, Director of Sales & Marketing at the Unemployed Philosophers Guild. Trudi joined the gift world via the preeminent art book publisher Harry N. Abrams and created unique opportunities for sales at gift retailers like Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, Barneys and Sur La Table, including custom designer editions and exclusive bundles.

After 15 years working with various publishers, she joined the...

Erik & Courtney Legenhausen opened Lotus Jewelry Studio in 2007. Their vision was to create a line of handmade products that would reflect the latest trends, while upholding the quality that was fostered by their background as fine jewelers. They also had a dream of providing an avenue for other artists to come and earn a living under Lotus’ roof. Over the past 10 years, they turned their basement business into a thriving compa...

Raised in Carmel, in a family of retailers - it's in Wish Walnut Creek owner Sasha Varni’s blood! Sasha worked for her mom's candle store growing up and during college. Lived in Italy for a short time after college, then moved to San Francisco, working for Sephora corporate, and then bareMinerals corporate doing marketing and producing their video content and commercials. She then moved to Walnut Creek the week before hav...