Chiefly Digital

CEO Insights: Success, Strategy, and Speed with Eric Eichmann

In the last episode of season one, Jay speaks with Eric Eichmann, CEO of ESW, and long time friend. They talk about Eric's illustrious career in technology, the art of seizing opportunities, creating the best teams, and the critical elements of driving business value and innovation.   Eric: “What's also interesting about the CEO job that I thought of is, you know, you have to be quote unquote decisive or provide a strong direction that everybody understands and everybody is sort of going towards, but at the same time, you have to be humble enough to listen to everybody. And know that you don't have all the answers, you coming up with your best answer at the time that you're doing it. But if you're humble enough to listen to others, even though you're setting a direction, you're willing to consider, hey, maybe this direction that we took on now based on these new facts and the thoughts that Jay brought to the table or whoever else. Might not be the best. Maybe we should be sort of recalibrating and going to another area. And I think, you know, that's, you mentally, you have to be strong and provide direction and feel pretty, you know, sure of yourself. But you you also have to know that you don't really know often, and you have to be willing to change and be flexible.”   Top(pers) Take:  1. Be decisive but humble. 2. Don’t take yourself too seriously; take the business seriously. 3. Raise your hand first and figure out logistics later.   Links & Resources: Connect with Jay [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaytopper?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACCzdIBa-dg01eacB8FU3GZWhugVUQrNhw&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BGVz1oWSoR5m6VYNuCG2ewg%3D%3D] Connect with Eric [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-eichmann-649110/] Learn more about fabric [https://fabric.inc/] Learn more about ESW [https://esw.com/]

Key Strategies for Thriving in Retail Tech Leadership with Karen Beebe

In this episode, Jay sits down with Karen Beebe, CTO at Bealls, Inc. They talk about Karen’s vast experience in retail, the power of learning something new every day, and how relationships are vital no matter your role or years of experience.   Karen: “ Relationships are key. You need to establish trust and you need to be trustworthy and you need to build those relationships at all different levels and throughout your career…So being around people that can help you make things happen, and being inspired by those around you, and exposing yourself to new things that you may be fearful of, but just going out there again and taking that risk. And, if you can do those things, I think that it rises you up to a method of leadership that you really start to appreciate.”   Top(pers) Take: 1. Speed-to-market: In a connected commerce world, thinking of how to go faster is critical. 2. The right foundation: Get your basics right before adding new technology. 3. Configuration over customization: Give power to your end users.   Links & Resources: Connect with Jay [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaytopper?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACCzdIBa-dg01eacB8FU3GZWhugVUQrNhw&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BGVz1oWSoR5m6VYNuCG2ewg%3D%3D] Connect with Karen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenbeebe1] Learn more about fabric [https://fabric.inc/] Learn more about Bealls, Inc. [https://www.beallsinc.com/]

The Intersection of Personal Growth and Business Success with Rich Lyons

In this episode, Jay has an enlightening and unique conversation with Rich Lyons, CEO and Founder of Life is Sales. They have an insightful conversation about leadership, emotional intelligence, and the importance of customer centricity and what it truly means. They discuss how personal development, trust, kindness, and self-care play pivotal roles in creating a successful business and fostering meaningful human connections. Rich also shares stories and lessons learned from his extensive career, emphasizing the power of awareness and the impact of bringing one's best self to work each day.   Rich: “All the customer wants is to hear you to say, as I hear you. I'm going to look into it and I will get back to you as soon as I can…They could be losing their job. They could be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars every minute that website is down during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is real-life stuff…so, I think the important part was, for me, and it gave me an opportunity to get in front of my company, to train people, to share what I had learned. It created a really great culture for us. I mean, we were real, I don't know how else to put it.”    Top(pers) Take: 1. Awareness: The more aware you are, the more choices you have. 2. Continuous learning: Learn from everyone around you. 3. Openness: Let people know who you are and let people in.   Links & Resources: Connect with Jay [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaytopper?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACCzdIBa-dg01eacB8FU3GZWhugVUQrNhw&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BGVz1oWSoR5m6VYNuCG2ewg%3D%3D] Connect with Rich [https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardblyons/] Learn more about fabric [https://fabric.inc/] Learn more about Life is Sales [https://www.richlyons.com/]

Turning Your OMS into a Customer Experience Powerhouse with Mike Micucci

In this episode, Jay speaks with none other than fabric CEO, Mike Micucci, to explore the future of commerce and the transformative role of AI in order orchestration. They dive into the impactful repositioning of fabric, the significance of the Order Cloud platform, and the innovative application of AI to enhance customer experiences and operational excellence.    Mike: “I always like to say as a consumer, I think all of us can relate to this is, commerce does not stop after checkout…And orchestrating that journey is more and more important. And again, this is orchestration I view as managing that flow, effectively, both operationally so that you can deliver on the costs that you need to do as well as deliver the customer experience no matter where they show up. So, this is not yesterday's order management system…Yesterday was about OMS. It was about control, financial control. Today is about servicing all these channels and doing it with the most impact to your customers, but also giving back to the bottom line of your company.”   Links & Resources: Connect with Jay [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaytopper?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACCzdIBa-dg01eacB8FU3GZWhugVUQrNhw&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BGVz1oWSoR5m6VYNuCG2ewg%3D%3D] Connect with Mike [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemicucci/] Learn more about fabric [https://fabric.inc/]

A Year in Review: Content, Marketing, and What’s Coming in 2025 with Brent Peterson

In this episode, Jay speaks with Brent Peterson, Founder of ContentBasis & Podcast Host of Talk Commerce. They discuss the role of AI in E-commerce and the need for better analytics programs, the shifting trends in Headless commerce, and the future of personalized shopping experiences. They also talk about trends Brent has seen for selling channels in 2024 and what might be coming next.    Brent: “I think the biggest thing that we talked about in the green room is the idea that everybody is using AI but not using AI. So a lot of merchants are using AI as generative, but they're not looking at it in terms of  analytical and really diving in and using it for those numbers. I'm not saying everybody, but the majority of the people that I talked to last year were not employing the analyticals, and the predictive analytics that you would want to use in AI for your marketing, for your numbers, for your KPI, for all those fun data points that you could be getting out of your E-commerce world.”   Top(pers) Take What’s Coming in 2025:  1. AI around analytics and predictive analytics. 2. Hyperpersonalization 3. Selling at the point of intent.   Links & Resources: Connect with Jay [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaytopper?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACCzdIBa-dg01eacB8FU3GZWhugVUQrNhw&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_all%3BGVz1oWSoR5m6VYNuCG2ewg%3D%3D] Connect with Brent  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentwpeterson/] Learn more about fabric [https://fabric.inc/] Learn more about ContentBasis [https://www.contentbasis.io/] Tune into Talk Commerce [https://talk-commerce.com/]