Stories from David & Adam Blumenthal covering 144 years and five generations of an iconic yarn brand in the creative industry. From how it got its name to what keeps it strong and growing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Lion Brand has been around for 144 years
  
  
• Lion Brand was the sole supplier of yarn to Target for many years up until Target discontinued the category
  
  
• Lion Brand has been on the web longer than Google
  
  
• The key to keeping the business within the family and successful is that no family member is forced to be a part of the company. Every member of the Blumenthal family that has worked for Lion Brand did it because they wanted to
  
  
• Lion Brand is fueled by a passion for the business and a willingness to change and adapt
  
  
• Hiring people that have an interest in yarn and appreciate that Lion Brand is a family business has been the key to integrating non-family member employees into the company
  
  
• Lion Brand has been able to build a strong connection with its customer base and is very proud to continue to do that
  
  
• Partnering with Vanna White and others has been a huge boost for the visibility of the brand

SUGGESTED ACTIONS:

• Think long term
  
  
• Hire people that are a fit for your culture
  
  
• Stay passionate about your vision and adapt along the way as needed
  
  
• Find interesting ways to increase visibility of your brand!

𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗜𝗗 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗟, Chairman of the Board of Lion Brand Yarns.

Read the Inc article How I Did It: David Blumenthal

Earliest yarn memory?

Going to the office at 54 Canal Street, at the corner of Canal and Orchard Streets, where we had offices and a warehouse. It was the tallest building on the Lower East Side of New York. I was about 7 or 8 years old and I would sweep the floors and empty the wastebaskets. Going into the office with my father was a really big deal for me.

𝗔𝗗𝗔𝗠 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗟, VP Brand/Product Development and Digital at the Lion Brand Yarn Company.

You can reach Adam on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adblumenthal.

𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢'𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗥, president and owner of Creative Sales Consulting, has worked in the Retail industry since 2000. Clint and his team connect suppliers & retailers in the creative arts industries for stronger relationships and strategic sales growth, in order to bring joy to consumers through artistic creative and decorative products.

For more insightful conversations with leaders in the Arts & Crafts Retail industry visit CreativeRetailTalks.com.

If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, reach out to Clint O'Rear at Clint@CreativeRetailTalks.com.

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Music:

"Carpe Diem" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

When your company has a Dean of Leadership Development and twelve Character Commitments, you know they take servant leadership seriously. Jim Iyoob, Chief Customer Officer of Etech Global Services, shares the culture that began with a vision "to make a remarkable difference for each other" — clients, team members, and community.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Etech is an outsourced contact center that has organically grown from 400 to 3500 employees that focuses on making a remarkable difference for their customers
  
  
• Continuous growth and training are essential for all levels of employees
  
  
• Servant leadership comes down to treating your people, customers, and community well to produce a wonderful experience for them
  
  
• Etech has a Dean of Leadership, Melissa Wood, that helps design courses for all levels of the company to help with continuous learning and growth
  
  
• Jim started as a call center agent at Dunn and Bradstreet and has worked his way up to Chief Customer Officer at Etech with the help of Matt Rocco
  
  
• You have to be able to recognize areas you need improvement in and be able to learn from experiences as everything is a lesson
  
  
• Leaders develop leaders – You must focus on developing the next generation of leaders if you want sustained success
  
  
• More about Etech's Character Commitments
  
  

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

• Have a plan for continuous growth
  
  
• As a leader, be intentional about developing other leaders
  
  
• Read at least 1 article per day – LinkedIn is a great source

______________________

𝗝𝗜𝗠 𝗜𝗬𝗢𝗢𝗕, Chief Customer Officer of Etech Global Services, is a 33-year veteran of the call center/BPO industry.

Jim is a subject matter expert for call center solutions, with specialties including Strategy, CX, Chat, Operations, Training and Developing Leaders, Relationship Management, E-Commerce Strategy and Reporting, Quality Monitoring, AI, IT & Outsourcing and Social Media Strategies. He has helped develop, implement, and retain some of the most successful and award-winning programs.

Jim has co-authored three books with his lifelong friend, mentor, and coach, Matt Rocco (President & CEO of Etech Global Services).

• Quality Monitoring in a Contact Center
• The Future of Contact Centers
• Delivering Customer Experience That Matter

You can reach Jim at jim.iyoob@etechgs.com, on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimiyoob/, or at https://www.etechgs.com/

𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢'𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗥, president and owner of Creative Sales Consulting, has worked in the Retail industry since 2000. Clint and his team connect suppliers & retailers in the creative arts industries for stronger relationships and strategic sales growth, in order to bring joy to consumers through artistic creative and decorative products.

For more insightful conversations with leaders in the Arts & Crafts Retail industry visit CreativeRetailTalks.com.

If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, reach out to Clint O'Rear at Clint@CreativeRetailTalks.com.

______________________

Music:

"Carpe Diem" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Retail authority Michael Barker shares his philosophy on how Happy Customers + Happy Employees always leads to a Healthy Business [Podcast first published November 2021]

Happy Customers + Happy Employees = Healthy Business

• If you reduce employee turn 20% you increase profits by more than 20%
• Happy employees make Happy customers

AVID Insights creates a Health ID score to measure the level of satisfaction and engagement of both employees and customers.

Employee engagement is the #1 driver of customer satisfaction.

95% of products are developed with ZERO research - a huge mistake!

Key areas to research

• Product development
• Shopper satisfaction

Research data must be reviewed for quality to be accurate and useful.

AVID Insights creates a Health ID Score for both shoppers and employees to measure engagement and satisfaction.

If you can take a shopper's Health ID Score up by 10%, they will spend 37% more.

AVID Insights process

• Ask the questions — Right questions, in the right way, to the right people
• Analyze the data - critical
• Display the results - how you display is part of the analysis

AVID is a high value, low cost model for research and insights.

SUGGESTED ACTIONS

Measure employee engagement and create a culture that creates happy employees.

Measure customer satisfaction and listen to their feedback.

Do research and get consumer insights before launching products.

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𝗠𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗘𝗟 𝗕𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗥 Since starting a mail-order company while in college (before the Internet was a thing), Michael has spent his entire career in retail-related companies. Whether developing new CPG products, conducting consumer research for national chain stores or marketing ecommerce software, his goal is simple - empower retailers to differentiate themselves and drive measurable results.

While at Momenta, Michael built a consumer research team that drives the company's product innovation and provides shopper insights to national retailers. He now serves as CEO of AViD Insight, a web-based platform that enables retailers and suppliers to leverage real-time consumer and employee insights to drive growth and profitability.

You can reach Michael at mbarker@avidinsight.com or www.avidinsight.com.

𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗧 𝗢'𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗥, president and owner of Creative Sales Consulting, has worked in the Retail industry since 2000. Clint and his team connect suppliers & retailers in the creative arts industries for stronger relationships and strategic sales growth, in order to bring joy to consumers through artistic creative and decorative products.

For more insightful conversations with leaders in the Arts & Crafts Retail industry visit CreativeRetailTalks.com.

If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, reach out to Clint O'Rear at Clint@CreativeRetailTalks.com.

______________________

Music:

"Carpe Diem" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/