Retail Revolution

Caitlin Forbes hosts Morgan Siskind as part of our special summer series, “Independent Thinkers: The Rise of Generation Z.” Caitlin is currently a MPS Fashion Management graduate student at Parsons School of Design. Morgan is an Agent Trainee at United Talent Agency.

Learn more about Caitlin: LinkedIn

Learn more about Morgan: LinkedIn

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

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Natalie Zfat advises fashion brands to be people-first and value-driven, especially on social media. She recommends that brands and influencers create content that is either funny, beautiful or valuable, as a means to authentically engage, rather than focusing too much on the analytics.

According to Mark Cuban, “Natalie Zfat doesn’t mess around.” After landing her dream job writing for Rolling Stone at the age of 21, Natalie recognized the growing demand for digital and started her social media consulting company in 2010, earning the praise of her former boss, Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers. Ten years later, Natalie has been hailed by the New York Times as a "social media expert" and has partnered with some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Samsung, American Express, Lyft and Facebook. Hosting video interviews, emceeing award shows and implementing full-scale social media takeovers, Natalie gains millions of impressions for the brands she advocates for. She loves sharing her thought leadership in her Forbes column, at conferences and universities, and on television, including CNBC, the TODAY Show, Carnegie Mellon, NYU Stern School of Business, SXSW and CES.

Natalie’s personal mantra is that success means never doing the same thing twice, unless it was really fun the first time. Her beloved social media community of 100K+ followers are dreamers, doers and entrepreneurs, from college students to CEOs. When she’s not engaging with them, you can find her and her laptop out and about around New York City, always with a smile and a soy chai latte.

Learn more: LinkedIn | Natalie Zfat

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

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John Matthews shares his journey in building AVRIO Footwear, a sustainable and transparent footwear brand that uses algae and other organic components. He discusses the need to build business communities that share ideas, technologies and innovations to build a more sustainable future.

John believes the future of sustainable fashion will depend upon cooperation and collaboration.  His team created the Avrio brand to showcase the entrepreneurs of our world who have a vision and a passion on how you can Make Tomorrow Beautiful.  

 If you would like a historical report of work & accomplishments, that’s a conversation you can have with John, but he did tell us this:

After serving in the military and graduating from college, he spent his professional career working within the manufacturing space, establishing factories and offices in the U.S. and around the globe.  Each country and culture brought their own challenges and opportunities, and all of them shared a similar desire to improve their operations. What John learned from these experiences is how improving operations could also result in broader positive social and eco-impacts.  John developed a passion for sustainability before it was considered cool. He believes that a company can improve its operations while it fulfills its responsibility to improve the workplace, the community and the environment.

After serving for several years in footwear manufacturing, John left his position as the Chief Operating Officer of an international company to start Avrio.  The question wasn’t whether the world needed another shoe company. The question was, how could Avrio make an impact and inspire the change we need.  In 2018, the concept of Avrio was born and built upon the following pillars:  Collaboration, Eco-Innovation & Transparency.

Learn more: LinkedIn | AVRIO Footwear | Kickstarter

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

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Miloni Kothari hosts Prachi Gor as part of our special summer series, “Independent Thinkers: The Rise of Generation Z.” Miloni is currently a MPS Fashion Management graduate student at Parsons School of Design. Prachi is also a MPS Fashion Management student and is a designer and social media content creator.

Learn more about Miloni: LinkedIn

Learn more about Prachi: LinkedIn

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Miloni Kothari hosts Megan Picurro as part of our special summer series, “Independent Thinkers: The Rise of Generation Z.” Miloni is currently a MPS Fashion Management graduate student at Parsons School of Design. Megan is also a MPS Fashion Management student and is the Product Development Manager for Londontown, Inc. a cosmetics company.

Learn more about Miloni: LinkedIn

Learn more about Megan: LinkedIn | Londontown

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Miloni Kothari hosts Mrudula Joshi as part of our special summer series, “Independent Thinkers: The Rise of Generation Z.” Miloni is currently a MPS Fashion Management graduate student at Parsons School of Design. Mrudula is the founder of Ullisu and is focused on living a zero-waste lifestyle.

Learn more about Miloni: LinkedIn

Learn more about Mrudula: LinkedIn | Ullisu

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cheryl Stallworth shares her vast experience on developing international brands. She challenges business leaders to “get out of their bubbles,” beyond their own communities, and strive to engage more benevolently and authentically with customers.

Cheryl focuses on strategic planning and market insights for ShedLight, bringing 25 years of global business experience as a co-founder and board member. Prior to ShedLight, she was CEO of Firefly, Kantar Millward Brown's North American qualitative research division for a decade, where she focused on championing innovation that changed the face of marketing research and strategy. This focus resulted in the creation of a culture that fueled collaboration, delivered excellent work to blue chip clients, and increased the value of their brands.

Cheryl’s business expertise, across consumer products, retail, financial services, health care, and technology—and proven ability to grow brands, make her uniquely suited to help companies, brands, and non-profits develop purpose-driven marketing strategies. As a hands-on leader, Cheryl helps ShedLight clients develop programs that drive growth as well as positive social change, and track their successes by measuring what matters.

Earlier in her career, Cheryl was a Managing Director at Firefly and worked for large multinationals. At Colgate-Palmolive, she served as VP, General Manager of Multicultural Marketing, General Manager of the Guatemala subsidiary, and Worldwide Brand Director of Palmolive Skin Cleansing. She also served as Marketing Director for The Coca-Cola Company’s Central America and Caribbean Division as well as the Sports and Entertainment Marketing Division.

Cheryl holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a past Advisory Board member of the Center for Brand & Product Management, Wisconsin School of Business. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Learn more: LinkedIn | ShedLight

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Valerie Mayén discusses her ongoing work to create a more sustainable fashion company that puts her employees, customers and the environment at the forefront of all her business decisions. She also shares her insights as a Latina entrepreneur.

Valerie is the owner and founder of YellowcakeShop Clothing (YC), the signature line of sustainable women’s clothing and accessories. Valerie's childhood passion for recreating her clothing led to success in designing and producing a curated offering of essential and versatile clothing and accessories for the everyday professional woman. Valerie is an alumna of Project Runway. Her garments are handmade in the United States with a keen attention to detail, superior construction, and timeless design. Every purchase made supports Yellowcake's larger mission to alleviate social issues and environmental challenges here and abroad.

Learn more: LinkedIn | FASHINNOVATION | YellowcakeShop

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

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Jordana Guimarães makes a second appearance on the podcast, this time focusing on the opportunity the fashion and retail industries have to build community. She advocates for cross-discipline collaboration to to find innovative ways to solve current social issues.

Jordana Guimaraes has over fifteen years experience as a Marketing, Sales & Public Relations Director in the lifestyle & fashion industries. Recently, she co-founded FASHINNOVATION, a platform showcasing innovations via technology that shapes the fashion industry. Much of her work includes a strong focus on issues of sustainability, women empowerment and inclusivity. Her most recent focus is on The Nylon Project, bring the fashion and entertainment industries together to give a “face” to homelessness. Her forthcoming book, “It Can Be You” serves as companion guide and resource to this project.

Learn more: LinkedIn | FASHINNOVATION | The Nylon Project

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Milton Springut shares his vast knowledge of intellectual property law and its intrinsic relationship with fashion. He provides advice for entrepreneurs to consider as they begin their businesses, and offers perspective on the legal situation, specifically leases, most retailers are facing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Milton is an intellectual property (what he calls Creativity Law® ) lawyer and founding partner of Springut Law PC. He helps businesses and individuals protect their creativity from the copying and commoditization of their patent, design patent, copyright, trademark, and trade dress rights, and develop strategies to defend these IP rights including through litigation. He was selected as a Super Lawyer in the field of intellectual property litigation and rated by Martindale-Hubbell as an AV Preeminent® lawyer, its highest rating.

More specifically, Milton prosecutes and litigates patents in the scientific disciplines, including electrical and electronic systems, computer hardware and software, and business systems, drawing on his great experience at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he developed computer hardware and software systems.

During Milton’s professional career, he has been counsel in numerous patent, trade secret, and computer law litigations. His experience encompasses a broad range of technologies including computer processors and related hardware and software, mobile payments, electronic commerce, telephony, security systems, video systems, medical devices, and financial services systems.

In over 25 years of practice, Milton has earned a reputation as one of the country’s most skilled litigators of trademark, counterfeiting, and gray goods cases, representing the world’s top luxury brands and international fashion houses.

Learn more: LinkedIn | Springut Law

Hosted by: Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Produced by: Joshua Williams, Assistant Professor, Parsons School of Design

Executive Producer: Fashion Consort

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @RetailRevolutionPodcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices