Retail War Games

Scaling a consumer product brand in today's volatile market requires far more than basic logistics—it demands total supply chain agility, strategic marketplace placement, and an unwavering commitment to the customer experience.

Live from the Retail Collective Summit, this expert panel unpacks the critical decisions every brand faces when expanding into new channels, navigating international tariffs, and balancing automation with authentic human connection.Discover how leading operators determine what to keep in-house versus outsource, how to protect brand equity during rapid growth, and why building a resilient, diversified supply chain is the ultimate competitive advantage in modern retail.

Moderators: Mitch Park (Spreetail) & Sharon Gregory (Baker Tilly)

Panelists: Alex Burdge (Shyft), Shane Feller (BGZ Brands), Brad Bacigalupi (Red Wolf Technology), Ryan Moss (Little Giant), and Clark Barlow (Buttermints).

Recorded live, this episode features Bruce Martin, former Sr. Vice President of Account Development at NielsenIQ, who shares insights from a career that spans every angle of the retail ecosystem—from an apprentice meat cutter at Kroger to the head of category management at Kellogg and managing director for Nielsen Chile.

Bruce breaks down why consumer packaged goods (CPG) represent the absolute highest standard for high-intensity, repeat-transaction data analytics. He dives into the modern retail paradigm shift, detailing how direct-to-manufacturer data sales and media networks pose an existential threat to third-party data companies. Bruce also pulls back the curtain on how AI is accelerating historical quarterly projections into rapid weekly cycles, the massive challenge of managing omnichannel metadata on platforms like Amazon, and how up-and-coming brands can leverage fact-based selling to secure category leadership.

How do you transform a simple consumer product into an indispensable daily habit? Live from the Retail Collective Summit, this executive panel dives deep into the psychology of habit formation, product-to-identity fit, and long-term customer retention. The conversation explores how modern brands transition customers from being sold to organically sharing their experiences, how emotional hooks outperform traditional statistics, and the shifting dynamics of community and authenticity across marketing channels. Whether leveraging data analytics to build supportive consumer journeys or engineering massive shifts in customer loyalty, the strategies shared in this session serve as a blueprint for any growth-minded founder or operator looking to own a piece of the consumer's daily routine. Moderator: Tim Holladay (Spacestation)

Panelists: Natalie Roberts (Easy Healthcare), Ryan Napierski (Nu Skin), Sean Kennedy (Ultradent), Brynn MacLennan (Slate Flosser), Reyn Soffe (Young Living), and Nettie Frank (Citreve).

Recorded live, this episode features Jeff Beck, President and CEO of Stabila, sharing insights from his 25-year career at DeWalt—where he managed a $930 million division—to leading a premier German-engineered hand tool brand. Jeff delivers a masterclass in premium brand positioning, detailing exactly why Stabila completely rejects big-box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's to protect its price points and avoid business-ruining volume burdens.

He breaks down the realities of managing international trade, navigating recent tariff challenges through tactical price increases, and engineering an impressive April price rollback on products sourced out of China. Jeff also pulls back the curtain on Stabila's highly anticipated "Patriot Series" level set, revealing how his team collaborated with German manufacturing to move a major U.S. 250th anniversary product from concept to first production in just six weeks.

Recorded live at the Retail Collective Summit, this episode features Ryan Napierski, CEO of Nu Skin, as he outlines his 30-year journey from working in the call center to steering a global corporate empire spanning 50 countries. Ryan delivers an unvarnished masterclass in corporate survival, detailing how a sudden industry-wide ban in China forced the company to completely shift its direct-selling model toward technology investments and integrated brand building. He also shares how a near-fatal backcountry snowboarding accident shattered three vertebrae in his neck and profoundly redefined his leadership lens.

The discussion maps out his framework for navigating the rapidly growing $6.8 trillion global wellness economy. Ryan breaks down "Unit Economics 2.0," explaining how AI-driven ad spend is causing a massive inflation in customer acquisition costs (CAC) for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. He pulls back the curtain on Nu Skin's strategic $275 million exit of the platform Mavely, proving why nano-influencers with sub-1,000 followers deliver vastly higher conversion rates than expensive macro-influencers. Finally, Ryan addresses the challenge of managing channel conflict as a legacy MLM entity scales into a highly integrated, modern omnichannel strategy.

Recorded live on the podcast, this episode features Danielle Sabrina, founder of Society 22 PR, outlining her journey from a teenage mother and high school dropout to a corporate trader and agency founder. Danielle delivers an unvarnished lesson in resilience, detailing how hit rock bottom forced her to rebuild her career after a severe corporate burnout and bankruptcy. She reveals the organic origins of her firm, which began after she launched a viral media campaign from a basic phone blog that eventually led to presenting an anti-bullying law to the Supreme Court.

The conversation maps out her framework for advanced brand building, urging founders to elevate their public narratives rather than chasing entry-level press features. Danielle breaks down why brands must transition from standard product marketing into unorthodox consumer experiences, emphasizing that removing friction points is the only way to insulate and protect your core cult following in a tense economic market.

Recorded live at the Retail Collective Summit, this keynote features Crystal Maggelet outlining her journey from a childhood trailer in Willard, Utah, to managing a multi-billion dollar diversified retail empire. Crystal delivers a masterclass in corporate survival, detailing her sudden appointment as CEO of FJM just three weeks into a massive, free-fall bankruptcy in 2008. She breaks down the strict operational discipline and strategic restructurings required to fully repay the company's massive obligations and successfully exit the crisis.

The discussion maps out her subsequent focus on expanding Maverick, transforming it from a traditional fuel station into an experiential quick-service restaurant (QSR) powerhouse. She details how organic cash flow fueled their aggressive multi-state growth, culminating in the massive acquisition and total rebranding of 400 Kum & Go locations. Managing a diverse corporate portfolio spanning energy refineries, banking, hotels, and med spas, Crystal delivers the ultimate blueprint on decentralized executive leadership, corporate board structuring, and building a legacy rooted in employee profit-sharing and social impact.

In this episode, iFIT CMO Raquel Rozas shares her journey from working as an electrical engineer to managing Procter & Gamble's $4 billion Tide North American business, before ultimately transitioning to West Coast tech. Raquel delivers an elite marketing masterclass on the delicate balance of brand heritage, explaining how to protect a brand's core "hard points" while taking calculated risks on its "soft points" to stay modern. She shares wild, behind-the-scenes stories—including doubling a Super Bowl ad budget in a 24-hour crunch to save a campaign—and reveals how she is currently modernizing the 50-year-old NordicTrack brand by transforming it into a hardware-agnostic digital fitness ecosystem.

Recorded live at the Retail Collective Summit, this dynamic panel features top state legislators, federal economic advocates, former regulatory chiefs, and prominent venture capital moderators addressing the macro-economic realities of scaling private enterprises. The discussion dives deep into the shifting landscape of corporate funding, uncovering how single-family offices are increasingly acting as direct institutional investors to bypass traditional venture capital bottlenecks. Speakers outline the critical need to transition funding models from traditional enterprise software toward advanced manufacturing and hard technology, shortening volatile supply chains to build a more durable, locally resilient infrastructure.

The conversation also tackles the complex tensions between localized regulatory sandbox programs and the massive paperwork burdens imposed by federal agencies on small business operators. Looking firmly 20 to 30 years into the future, the panelists confront the hot-button issue of energy grid infrastructure and mega data center development. They map out the precise policy frameworks required to manage critical minerals and advanced technological disruptions without exhausting local energy or water supplies. It is an essential masterclass on maintaining an elite economic outlook while scaling capital, culture, and community on a global stage.

In this episode, Cydni Tetro—President of MNTP™ and Advisory Board Member for Swire Coca-Cola—breaks down what it truly means to create transformative products that place the consumer at the center of a brand's narrative. Cydni tracks her career from early B2B enterprise roots to her time as the head of technology commercialization for Disney. She pulls back the curtain on working with Disney Imagineers to turn passive observers into active story participants—developing infrared "glow with the show" Mickey ear hats and building 3D magic mirrors for princess dresses through a meticulous validation process called "play testing".

She also recounts her wild entrepreneurial ride with 3D Plus Me, detailing a legendary 60-day sprint where her team rapidly deployed custom scanning infrastructure and retrofitted action figures to launch personalized Marvel and Star Wars merchandise across Walmarts nationwide. Finally, Cydni touches on her corporate turnarounds, explaining how she scaled Brandless from a pre-startup asset to $100 million in revenue over three years and how she currently uses AI as a corporate force multiplier to handle modern industry disruption.