Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of September 23rd, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. This episode is dedicated to John C. Williams a retail legend, advocate, friend and mentor to many who left us September 21, 2019.

In this week’s episode an exclusive interview with keynote speaker and author Jeremy Miller on his new book “Brand New Name” - “A proven step-by-step process to create an unforgettable brand name “ We talk about the inspiration for the book, the challenges it helps solve and how individuals can take agency and ownership in their own branding process.

Next I chat with Nisha Oza, head of brand partnerships for Chinese Laundry. We talk live at the Global eCommerce Leaders Forum in New York in the Purolator Podcasting Studio and explore Nisha’s personal and professional journey up to and including becoming one of the industry’s leading experts on influencers and managing influencer marketing for this fashion forward brand and online retailer.

Lastly I’ll take a look at the retail news of the week, but first, let’s listen to my interview with Jeremy Millier.

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Thanks to Jeremy and Nisha for being my guests this week, now let’s hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, biggest retail weekly in Canada and you can subscribe on www.retailcouncil.org for free.

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That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a great week!

The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

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