Bernardine Wu did not get to where she is overnight. Years of work with retailers, brands, distributors, investors, technology providers, and industry organizations cemented FitForCommerce’s unique position at the center of the digital commerce ecosystem. This led to Bernardine's successful exit to OSF Digital in early 2022. Today, their clients benefit from the collected experience across their team of consultants and the expertise gained from being at the intersection of technology, strategy, and process. Whether through client engagements, speaking at industry conferences, hosting workshops, or creating white-papers and reports, the insights and perspectives Bernardine and her colleagues share help retailers make smarter investment decisions everyday. The Omnichannel Retail Index is a great example - https://osf.digital/omnichannel-retai.... Enjoy the show! Find out more about Bernardine in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernardine/ OSF Digital: https://osf.digital/ Stay in touch with me! __________________________________________ ► Website - rebekahpanepinto.com ► Email me at - [email protected] ► Find me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpa... ► Find me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rebekahpane... __________________________________________

Ben Howard has a massive mission at Fitbit! He wants to enhance individual health journey and drive healthy behavior change for all users! Ben focuses specifically on doing this alongside health plans in wellness, clinical, and health plan design. They take a collaborative approach to bring the right solutions at the right time from the brand members love. Most health plan members already know and love the Fitbit brand! And with Fitbit Health Solutions, they get a holistic member experience, inspiration to truly change health behaviors at every level, highly personalized digital guidance and insights, and social connectedness through one of the world’s largest health and fitness communities. During our time together, Ben shared many insights on how the Fitbit team is staying at the forefront of fitness innovation. Since they became part of Google in early 2021, the technology in their devices has been consistently enhanced... with their most recent release including Google Maps and Google Wallet on your wrist. Enjoy the show! Find out more about Ben in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-howard-55584b54/ Fitbit: https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com | https://www.fitbit.com Stay in touch with me! __________________________________________ ► Website - rebekahpanepinto.com ► Email me at - [email protected] ► Find me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto ► Find me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rebekahpanepinto __________________________________________

Floriss Group founder James Rores has been in the sales industry for over 3 decades and he’s seen it all! After working with over 6,500 mid-market companies, family businesses, startups, and global enterprises (including many INC 500, Deloitte Fast 50, Deloitte Fast 500, and Innovation Award winners), he realized something big: hidden within every sales organization was the potential for systematic growth. All leaders and teams need is the right structure to flourish. At Floriss, they are practitioners first, trainers, and coaches second. Their sales process and methodology were developed in the field and proven through years of hard-fought wins and lessons. Find out more about James in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrores/ Website: https://florissgroup.com/ Share, Subscribe, and Enjoy! Stay in touch with me! __________________________________________ ► Website - rebekahpanepinto.com ► Email me at - [email protected] ► Find me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpa... ► Find me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rebekahpane... __________________________________________

She is a "customer experience junkie", but I also consider her a Retail Luminary! Vicki Cantrell is a retail strategist and community builder, and is recognized for relationship building and accelerated growth. Her recent career includes Retail Transformation Officer for Aptos, NRF’s SVP, Communities and Executive Director, Shop.org, COO of Tory Burch, CIO of Giorgio Armani Corporation and Gucci Group. Most important is the impact she is making today through her organization, Vendors in Partnership! The Vendors in Partnership (VIP) Awards are a retail industry celebration for the solution providers that power the retail ecosystem, and the new ways that partnerships were formed and challenges were overcome. Their goal is to acknowledge service to this industry, and will recognize and celebrate a willingness to transform from within, create deep and perceptive partnerships, and great solutions. Having established these awards for the solution provider community, they are also giving retailers a formal way to support, influence and recognize those partners who integrate business methodologies based on shared success measures and a service level designed for mutual benefit. Vicki's mission is to recognize the brave, the innovators, the teachers, the supporters and the agitators! Find out more about Vicki in the links below: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vickicantrell/ VIP Awards: https://www.vendorawards.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Tommy Norman, Chief Agility Officer for Acklen Avenue. Also, a part-time guitar rockstar! Now is time for a new entrant to the board – The Chief Agility Officer, with executive responsibility for transforming how work gets done in an organization, not what works gets done. A disruptive influencer, the Chief Agility Officer will relentlessly focus on reducing time to market for new products and services, improving responsiveness to external pressures and releasing the organization's potential to innovate. Tommy does all this AND more serving in his role and we dive into the details during our time together. Find out more about Tommy in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommynorman/ Website: https://acklenavenue.com/ Share, Subscribe, and Enjoy! Stay in touch with me! ________________________________________ ► Website - rebekahpanepinto.com ► Email me at - [email protected] ► Find me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpa... ► Find me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rebekahpane... ________________________________________

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Dan Prestegaard, Chief Information Officer at United Urology Group (UUG). Private equities may seem hasty in their decision-making but Dan shares how it looks from the other side of the fence. Dan gives an insider's look into their company, from managing security to spearheading innovation in AI and RPA, so that they can serve their whole spectrum of patients and physicians. He talks about the importance of a good team and their constant evolution in being intentional with innovation. HIGHLIGHTS The balance between private equity and healthcare Creating standards: Increase transparency and measure metrics Find talent, VC backing, and partners for innovation Serving both patients and physicians QUOTES Dan: "I think some of the bad rap that private equity has is because they have such broad access to multiple businesses that they can see what bad looks like. They understand pretty quickly when you have whether it's management that isn't performing or they have costs that are out of whack." Dan: "The nice thing about private equity, what it's trying to do is, it's trying to find places to grow the business so that you can scale and take economies of scale." Dan: "I would highly recommend if others do the similar type thing which is get a VC in place that really knows it and can help to bring along the technical staff and the administrative staff in getting policies and procedures, technology, other things in place so you can really grow the program." Find out more about Dan in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-prestegaard/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Elliott Cordo, Head Of Data at Capsule. In his current role, Elliott also shares how they leverage data to digitize the pharmacy service. The pharmacy model has barely changed since its invention and Elliott and his team have been trying to solve it with digital means to give stakeholders a smooth and integrated experience. The benefits are intriguing, from helping with access which in turn increases adherence to improving customer journeys with digital means. He also shares how they empower their users, from doctors to insurance to pharmacists to patients, the final end-user. HIGHLIGHTS ●Elliott's journey in data: From consultant to data and insights ●Digitizing the disjointed pharmacy service ●Retail is offered but going digital is the strategy ●Giving pharmacists an opportunity for more job fulfillment ●Leverage AWS for insights to build community QUOTES Elliott: "It feels quite saturated like it doesn't seem like there's as much undiscovered country of digitization cases that haven't been solved. So pharmacy is one of those and I think what intrigued me, you know, if you think about how pharmacies operate, they haven't changed in model since they were invented. It's still very laborious, manual processes by pharmacists. Kind of a traditional customer service model." Elliott: "It's not cohesive. It's like a doctor, I'm handing this off to some pharmacy. And then you're going to go there and you're going to deal with problems. And they might have to go back. You might have to go back and talk to your pharmacist. You might have to do something special with your insurance company in order to get the drugs paid for." Elliott: "People will go to pharmacies far more often than they go to doctors, almost in order of magnitude, so it creates a touchpoint which allows us to provide data, provide insights that can't be found elsewhere." Elliot: "I think it gives us an opportunity to have access to AWS in ways that we wouldn't as a customer typically, any ability to work and interact with product, have some influence, provide feedback, kind of get to touch things and kind of play with things before most folks. Though I think it's useful for AWS, it's definitely useful for me." Find out more about Elliott in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-cordo/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with James Sherer, Sales and Business Development Manager at Keller Schroeder. He shares how their analytics data serves customers across different industries with the goal of streamlining and increasing their own customers' satisfaction. James also talks about using data in his sales process. He uses a CRM to track his professional relationships but still gives particular importance to the value of actually calling people. He goes deeper on the various use cases for data analytics, like cutting response times during power emergencies, to save on company resources while also providing a better experience to end-users. HIGHLIGHTS Analytics data increases response times during emergencies Streamlining business processes across verticals Sales and relationships: Use a CRM to track your networking New use cases: Trash management and weather prediction SalesOlogy and being an employee-owner of Keller Schroeder QUOTES James: "It's a situation where it's a series of disconnected steps in the business process and, by using some data to highlight where there are discrepancies in that business process, you can make it more streamline. So almost making it more like a project management process." James: "I look at the sales process as almost a project process of 5 or 6 steps really to audit what I do as a salesperson and a marketer and, you know, kind of use lead generation, use technology, always kind of looking at my sales pipeline, my sales performance, and managing myself before anybody else has to manage me." James: "I like to use a couple of different vendor-partners in the CRM space to track not only my personal connectors and my personal network, but also our own internal Keller Schroeder prospects and clients." Find out more about James in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswshererjr/ Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/ Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Shane Mulrooney, Co-Founder, and Head of Growth at New Era ADR. The legal space is steeped in tradition and, if there's one thing COVID made clear, it's that innovation in this space is not just useful but also necessary moving forward. Shane shares how they remove some of the pain of dull lawyering tasks. He also shares the innovations they usher like the "neutral bench," a diverse panel of mediators who may have a deeper understanding of cases. Lastly, Shane shares how he stays fit and how speaking your mind is central to collaboration. HIGHLIGHTS Remote dispute resolution and making legal tech mainstream Giving back lawyers' lives to them Moving the needle for a diverse "neutral bench" Mental toughness and the value of speaking up QUOTES Shane: "We're trying to give them a tool where they can actually spend time doing the fun lawyering which is arguing the substance of the case, drafting arguments, and really litigating instead of poring over boxes of documents and doing mind-numbing discovery." Shane: "The pool is going to be what the pool is, however, we can always make sure that when we are pulling those 10 who have the right experience, we can always make sure that that 10 is much more diverse and much more reflective of the population writ large." Shane: "I think it's the best way to run a business and to make decisions is to just make sure that everybody can be honest and free to speak their mind." Find out more about Shane in the link below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-william-mulrooney/ Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/ Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project welcomes back Andy Laudato, Chief Operating Officer at The Vitamin Shoppe and author of Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team. As the pandemic eases up, people are starting to revert back to their pre-pandemic ways. This is most apparent in their spending habits. By adapting to this fact and utilizing new technologies to meet their customers where they are at, The Vitamin Shoppe has emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever. Andy also shares what empathetic leaders can do to adapt to ever-changing needs and be at the forefront of innovation. He talks about the power of daily habits in molding executives into the leaders they want to be. HIGHLIGHTS Post-COVID changes: Customer buying shifts and new technologies Fostering Innovation: Keep the lights on (KTLO) is the foundation Establish credibility to be trusted to risk for innovation Empathetic leaders adapt to the needs of their team QUOTES Andy: "Complacency is the enemy of reliability. Because if you get complacent, then you might not change but the world around you will." Andy: "The most important thing for any IT department is just keeping the lights on, KTLO. And I don't mean figuratively lights but it could be that but it's your paychecks are printing and your products are shipping and your warehouses are running." Andy: "The nice thing about technology is it always gets better, it always gets cheaper. What doesn't are people, right? And so, what you don't want to do is have people spending their time doing things a computer can do better." Andy: "I would say to anyone who really wants to be executive, figure it out, how do you get up early? You got to go to bed early. So that's the key." Andy: "If you're being a diode as a leader, all your team hears is when things go well. And they don't take the crap. So I say, as leaders we get paid to take the blame." Find out more about Andy in the links below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlaudato/ Website: https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/ Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Fostering-Innovation-Build-Amazing-Team/dp/1119853109 Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/ Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/