Tea with Rich. Getting Real.

On this episode we talk with long-time friend Adam Grohs. A man with as much if not more experience in the  eCommerce and Agency lead space than Rich and I. Adam is also the cofounder of agnoStack, which provides seamless, commerce-platform agnostic, customer support for orders across all channels.

Today. We get deep, quick, on a number of topics related to commerce and tech, and of course the the occasional question for Rich and I, and some drift topics that creep in - like how Rich manages his email - and Adam and I don’t. 

With Adam having 20+ years in the Agency space, specifically leading and managing Commerce engagements, we jump into the deep end to discuss his take on some of the confusion surrounding headless and composable commerce, and the potential for a new platform in the market. Including a dialog around the commoditization of commerce and the need for agencies to provide valuable services on top of the “new basics” and foundational tools.

We hit the platforms, mentioning Magento, Shop, BigCommerce, Salesforce, etc. - and Adams appreciation for how Commerce Tools has approached things. We also touch on some of the true newcomers, like Vue, and some of the more modern architectural approaches and needs for the emerging brand, while also waxing poetic on the challenge for the Enterprise to pick-up new school ideas and tools before their moment passes.

We then dig a bit deeper, and discuss the importance of creating differentiated experiences and focusing on post-purchase customer support and loyalty (a relatively new and uncharted area IMO), and go as far as highlighting the need for modernizing organizational structures and strategies to adapt to the changing landscape. 

After a LOT of that talk Adam gets to probe Rich and I a bit, and we share our personal experiences and some regrets as young leaders, highlighting the importance of accountability, empathy, and wanting everyone to succeed in our businesses. This leads to a dialog about our friendship and the camaraderie within the industry. 

Bottom line, we go deep on tech and the challenges and misconceptions, while also making some predictions of our own on how the Agency of the future can flourish in this new world of service opportunities.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Background

02:18 - Fathers Day and College Orientation Updates

06:02 - Tea’s Birthday in Miami Adam

07:38 - Adam Grohs Introduces Himself

14:51 - How Adam and Rich Met

17:11 - Adam on (re)Becoming a Developer and Entrepreneur.

19:14 - Adam on being Commerce vs. Digital focused.

20:36 - Exploring Buzzword Bingo and Commerce Industry Confusion

23:50 - Adam on the Shift to Serverless and Microservices Architectures

28:02 - The Need for New Platforms in the Commerce Space

31:50 - The Real Shift in Customer Touchpoints

33:24 - Has Commerce Been Commoditized?

41:07 - Has Tech Become Overly Romanced?

43:18 - What is the New Battleground?

45:00 - Post-Purchase Experiences and Loyalty

49:04 - The Ability to Drop in Anywhere Along the Experience Chain

53:05 - Adam on Being Humbled by Modern Tech and New Experiences

53:34  - The Need to Modernize Organizational Structures

55:03 - Macro trends and Generational Preferences on an Experience or Brand

58:45 - The Opportunities Within the Commoditization of Technology

Adam Gets to Ask Some Questions

01:02 - (Q) What Are Your Essential Day-to-Day Tools That You Wish Existed When You Were Starting Out? 

01:06 - Drift Topic - We give Rich Anxiety as we Talk Email Management and our 50K+ Unread Inboxes 

01:12 - (Q) What Are Some of Your Regrets and Lessons Learned Looking Back, That You Would of Done Differently With What You Know Now? 

01:20 - Adam Expresses Appreciation for how Rich and Tea Operated 

1:25 - The Power of Friendship, The Idea of Working Together, and Closing Comments

Peace. -t

In this half-episode, Rich and I get real with each other, slow things down a bit, and just shoot the shit.

We cover topics like my evolving golf game (in the cold), some of our favorite wins as agency leads, and our favorite movies (we have zero in common). Rich talks about a recent speaking engagement on best practices for selling and the importance of knowing your customer. I reflect on the importance of celebrating milestones in business and we both share a 'favorite project' win. 

We drift off into the challenges of working with RFP's, poor expectations, and outside creative collabs. I ask Rich about his favorite movies (one of his picks is Warrior).

We wrap up with a chat on the importance of living well, staying functionally healthy as we age and our goals to live to 100.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Golfing in Cold Weather

06:30 - If you could relive one biz moment - what would it be, and why?

13:30 - Moments, looking back. I wish we celebrated more often

15:28 ish - Rarely shared facts about responding to RFP’s, and deciding who not to work with

19:36 - Favorite movies

27:32 - Aspiring to Live to 100

31:53 - Reading to my kids - shutdown

32:51 - The Importance of Exercise and being Health focused

Peace. -t

On this episode we talk with a long-time friend and collaboration partner Vicky Aisenberg. Rich and I met Vicky nearly 15 years ago (woh), as an new inside sales rep at Demandware.

This episode is about balance. At work, as a mom and wife, and as a mentor and sales leader. We also give Vicky a chance to ask Rich and I questions about what we look for when interviewing and hiring, and what we'd like to be doing next, if we could do anything.

There's a lot of shooting the shit, too, per usual.

We start by reminiscing about the early days in industry and discuss the importance of authenticity and being human in sales. Vicky shares her journey from starting as a BDR to becoming an RVP.

We touch on work-life balance, and how Vicky balances her career and her family life. The conversation takes a lighthearted turn as we discuss professional fashion choices, including "growing" into the role and dressing for your personal style.

Rich and I briefly debate tennis shoes vs. sneakers, as a name and term. He has lots of sneakers. IMO. He don't even play tennis.

We snap back to reality, briefly, with Vicky discussing her vision for work and home, and emphasizing the importance of seeking the unknown unknowns.

Rich and I share our perspectives on maintaining a strong couple relationship and the importance of being authentic and vulnerable, at all times, with all things.

From here we transition to a few gems on career growth, emphasizing the need to have a strong personal brand, actively networking, and continuously interviewing for opportunities.

Chapters, ish, for quick looks...

00:00 - Intro and Welcome

01:35 - Vicky's Intro

05:25 - Memories of working with Vicky

08:03 - Vicky on being a Role Model

09:37 - The Importance of Hard Work and Authenticity in Sales

13:44 - What was your professional attire go-to?

16:04 - Fashion Choices: Sneakers and Personal Style

21:32 - (Q) How have you managed being a professional and a Mom of 4

26:51 - (Q) What's your couples maintenance look like?

35:03 - (Q) What was the most challenging part of your growth path?

37:03 - Building a Strong Personal Brand

44:26 - The Importance of Having a Support System

50:00 - (Q) What are the types of people, in your businesses, that stood out to you? What did you look for in a hire? A question for Rich and Tea.

01:00 - The Value of Mentorship and Teaching

01:05 - (Q) What would be your dream job? A question for Rich and Tea.

A bit about Vicky..

Victoria Aisenberg

Regional Vice President of Digital

Salesforce. 

By way of introduction, my name is Vicky Aisenberg and I have three main roles in life: Mom, Wife, and Sales Leader.

Each has their own importance in my vision for success as they fill my cup in different ways. I'm a mom of 4 young children - twin 9 year old identical boys named Aiden and Liam, a 6 year old girl named Paige, and a 2.5 year old boy named Parker. To say I'm "going through it" would be a vast understatement.

I'm also a wife to my wonderful husband of 12 years Avi. We both shared the same vision for our future - lots of kids, big house, social and active lifestyle, career focus - and honestly that's what's made our relationship last.

Lastly, I'm a career junkie. I love the purpose that my work gives me. I love the feeling of helping people and feeling all the feels of hitting a goal that you've worked so hard to hit.

I love the camaraderie of a team and I love challenges and taking risks. All of which to say why being a Regional Vice President of Sales for Digital at Salesforce is my job. I've been with Salesforce, via an acquisition of Demandware, for 14 years, and I still feel like I'm making a difference every single day.

*She's also on LinkedIn, Obvs. An easy find.

Peace. -t

On this episode we talk with long-time friend Kathryn Murphy, whom we met and collaborated with while she ran Product (imo) for Demandware (aka SFCC).

We begin with the usual banter, discussing each of our "first time meeting" stories at the Partner Advisory Board gathering in LA during Shop.org 8 ish years ago, and Kathryn gives us a bit on her journey in the tech industry (she started coding at 18 folks).

The serious, ish, dialog starts as we move into a discussion on the challenges and importance of building strong partnerships between software vendors and systems integrators (SIs), and ISV's too. The conversation touches on the need for shared incentives, alignment with customer needs, and investment in enablement and onboarding. We also discuss the value of an open dialogue and collaboration among competitors for the betterment of an industry.

We then move into Q&A time, with this episode focusing on Kathryn asking Rich and I our opinions on topics like "when did you know it was time to take a break and/or stop"?

Rich shares his experience of having his role eliminated at Capgemini and deciding to transition into advisory boards. Tea talks about his decision to leave RafterOne (fka PixelMEDIA) and the toll the last few years took on his health.

At some point the questions get blurry, but the dialog stays magical as we talk about the parallels and importance of of staying top of mind with customers (and anyone really) and providing a positive unboxing experience - which is more than what we may think - and deserves a deeper look and focus by ALL software and service companies.

A bit about Kat...

Kathryn Murphy

SVP Product at Twilio

Kathryn leads product management and user experience for Twilio Segment, Twilio Engage and CustomerAI.

Additionally, Kathryn is a board director for SuiteFiles, a cloud-based workspace management system built on Microsoft’s Office 365 platform.

Kathryn is a seasoned Saas product and engineering executive with over 20 years of experience in retail, commerce, payments, customer data platforms and analytics. Kathryn has built and sold companies as well as held senior leadership positions at Salesforce, Pluralsight, and Twilio. She has been active in the tech community including serving as the chairman of the Utah Technology Council. She is an investor, advisor and board member for many startups in the Saas technology space.

*She's also on LinkedIn, Obvs. An easy find. If you were to ask Rich and I to describe her, it would as a Unicorn-level product leader and partner.

Peace. -t

Unscripted and raw, this episodes covers topics that are very personal to Rich, Bishoy and I. We get deep on childhood and retirement/sabbatical fears, overcoming lifelong insecurities, and how celebrating small goals can get you further than you've ever dreamed.

A fellow podcaster, Bishoy is also a childhood cancer survivor, author (2x), father and husband, and a celebrated marathon runner.

We start, ish, with a discussion around who inspires him, how he keeps his cup full, and a personal triumph story.

Bishoy also probes Rich and I about our leadership styles, and asks, as people that have technically "made it", if we have a personal guidebook for success, and how we navigate our day to day lives.

And, per usual, there's a bit of pre-amble and random shooting the shit with Rich and I, as we talk about running, golf nonsense, and I had to bring up the Masters. It was epic.

About Bishoy:

Bishoy was born in Egypt, and at the age of 3 his family uprooted and  immigrated to the United States after he received an unforeseen diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. On his 13th birthday, Bishoy underwent brain surgery for what was eventually revealed to be a golf-ball size blood clot (venous hemangioma) and was thereafter granted a clean bill of health.

As a child battling cancer, Bishoy was never able to unleash his full potential as an athlete. In his adult years, Bishoy reinvigorated his passion for fitness and slowly began chasing down goals which once seemed impossible in the midst of his cancer journey. He is now an Iron Man and a 10-time marathoner. Bishoy was determined to use his story to inspire others and he has led charitable campaigns for cancer research raising over $125,000 since 2017.

Navigating the professional world at the height of the financial crisis, Bishoy launched his career at J.P. Morgan. He was a member of J.P. Morgan’s Met Club and awarded for his work as a leader within the sales organization. In a career shift that had been deemed notoriously challenging, Bishoy made the leap from finance to tech in 2019 when he transitioned into a role at Salesforce. Since then, he was elected into the Sales Excellence Academy an honor awarded to the top 10% of performers within the organization.

In 2019, Bishoy added Author to his list of accolades when he published his memoir, Break Barriers: How Setbacks Can Dare You Rather Than Define You. He wrote his book with the objective of giving readers a tool to channel the mindset to overcome obstacles whether they be personal, professional, or on the playing field.

Four Years Later, Bishoy published his second book, Audacious: Uncaging Your Authentic Self. Audacious was written to empower you to set huge goals for yourself at work and beyond, to live life on your own terms. By unleashing your inner audacity, you can separate yourself from the pack and take the bold steps required to accomplish your grandest ambitions.

Bishoy is also the host of Mile 40 Podcast. Mile 40 is a forum to learn about how athletes, professionals, and leaders of all backgrounds stare down moments in life where the only option is to rise up. The Mile 40 podcast strives to remind listeners that the comeback is always greater than the setback.

You can learn more about Bishoy, his books, his passions and his Marathon progress by visiting his site:

www.bishoytadros.com

He's also on LinkedIn, Obvs. An easy find.

Peace. -t

In this short Rich and I each share something that no one knows about us (well, actually, something MOST people don't know).

I share my longish affection with collecting change, Crown Royal bags and not following through on my promises to "go to the bank, while Rich talks at length about his undefeated Boxing career. We of course wax poetic on both topics, and veer off topic a time or two.

Peace. -t

There's nothing more important than the relationship we share with our partners and/or spouses. And all too often we sacrifice our couples game for personal and professional demands.

In this short Rich and I go into detail on how we maintain and nurture our relationships with our wives, and discuss date nights, getaways, drives and walks to nowhere, and the need to make an effort to maintain that magic.

And of course we hit a a few random topics, like, spooning, Jelly Roll, and getting back to "coupling" properly.

Peace. -t

With ShopTalk approaching we thought we’d drop Episode 2 on ya'll flying or driving in, and talk about our reasons for going this year.

We also continue the theme of simply shooting the shit, and get back to answer questions of each other, and those from our friends in the biz.

In this episode we cover… 

Getting Real. Because it matters. That's something. -t

Welcome to Episode 1, where we try for the 5th time to create our first podcast, and we're literally just shooting the breeze, getting through a few incidentals on our backgrounds, and answering questions from each other, and our LinkedIn friends.

We're getting real, and sharing stories from the trenches.

Today we answer questions around how we met, disasters from our past, our experiences going through M&A, and a bit of perspective on our leadership styles and experiences, and our perspective on the work-life balance riddle.

Rich Lyons is an ecommerce legend, and former agency owner, whom exited his agency after guiding his teams through a successful acquisition.

Thomas Obrey, is also a former agency owner, and active practitioner in the ecommerce space, whom also exited his agency after it's acquisition in 2022.

Together. We're quite the odd couple.

That's something. -t