The Longer Game

Michael Maher
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Biweekly

Embracing the future of retail, while living in the moment. Leaning into trends and advancements in retail so brands see a clearer path to success with an omni-channel approach. Sharing hope about the future.

  1. Jul 10

    Season 4 Episode 11: The Best Brands Serve Consumers

    What makes a brand great? Is their logo? Their slogans? Maybe, just maybe, it goes way deeper than that. Good brands sell products. But good is the enemy of great. Great brands know their Why. Great brands have great products. They have great customer service. They obsess over achieving their Why and go above and beyond to get there. If more brands truly believed in their product and the reason they got started in the first place, well, we'd be inundated with great brands! Chief Commercial Officer & President of New Ventures at Bobbie, Sara Ahmed Holman, joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share why Bobbie is winning all over the place. They know their Why. They obsess over getting the best product into the hands of moms so they can feel good about what they feed their babies. Don't sleep on this episode. Let your baby do that. Grab a bottle, put in your headphones, and feed that baby! What they cover 1. Staying true to your brand identity and knowing your why is crucial for all brands that want to have staying power. 2. Many brands mistake virality for brand building. Chasing the trend isn't what builds a brand. Chasing trends means you bend your Why around the What. And your Why should always dictate your What. 3. Breakout brands are the ones who are building the brand and trust over time with the consumer. One way you build trust is through great product, That is at the core of every iconic brand. It's absolutely essential that you have great product in order for you to have longevity. 4. We're in a dangerous situation right now where we believe that building something fast means we're building something great. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest: Sara Ahmed Holman is Chief Commercial Officer & President of New Ventures at Bobbie, the infant formula company that came to market in 2021. Before Bobbie, Sara led growth and partnerships at Innovation Endeavors, the venture firm founded by Eric Schmidt, focused on food, agriculture, and life sciences. Earlier she held operating and leadership roles at Lookout and Weebly (acquired by Square). A UCLA School of Law graduate, Sara co-founded the Food and Beverage Team at Bryan Cave and has advised numerous CPG and health startups. Connect with Sara: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraahmed/ Bobbie: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bobbie-baby/ About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology  https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 11: The Best Brands Serve Consumers

  2. Jun 26

    Season 4 Episode 10: You Are Enough

    Food & Beverage brands often start a business with a very personal why: a family member got cancer and needed healthier food, the founder went through a health crisis of their own, allergies led to creating a new formulation of a popular product.  As your business grows, however, the demands can pull you in many different directions.  Raising money, gaining entry to more retailers, adjusting product-market fit, Amazon growth; they all take your focus off of why you started this thing in the first place.  Jordan Buckner, CEO of Foodbevy, joins us on this episode of The Longer Game to share his experiences with why he started a business, why he eventually exited, and why he is helping other founders now on their journey.  One of his biggest epiphanies came from realizing his identity was tied to being CEO of his company. He wasn't sure what could possibly be next if it didn't work out.  The truth is simple: everyone shows up to the table enough. You don't have to achieve anything to be enough. You don't have to do anything to be worthy of being loved.  Grab your favorite protein bar, take a bite, and let those neural pathways develop as we get started. What they cover: 1. Founders often build from a place of passion or need and but not the proper business acumen to create strong unit economics, which make for a long-lasting CPG brand. 2. Right now it's very easy to start a food & beverage business in the beginning because of all the resources and the partners but there is a ginormous chasm between that and building a profitable and self-sustaining brand. 3. Brands often start with why but it's easy to lose it along the way because of the needs of the business pulling you in so many directions. 4. Successful CPG brands have to be built on an amazing product. You may be able to sell it once but getting consumers to keep buying is a different story. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest: Jordan Buckner is the CEO of Foodbevy, a media platform that helps food and beverage founders grow from the early startup days through scaling, with inspiring stories, education, and connections to great partners. Before Foodbevy, Jordan founded and ran T-Squares, a line of energy bars, an experience that shapes how he supports founders today. Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanbuckner/ Website: https://www.foodbevy.com About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 10: You Are Enough

  3. Jun 12

    Season 4 Episode 9: Retail Ain't Dead Yet

    Is retail dead? It appears that way but considering 80% of sales still happen in retail stores, what gives?  Ecommerce and marketplaces like Amazon have provided an amazing convenience factor, changing how consumers shop. This has taken business from brick & mortar retailers but not without a fight.  BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In Store) has emerged as a way to provide convenience while leveraging selection. Walmart, Target, Kroger, and many other larger retailers have enabled this to keep pace.  But more is still desired.  Al Schuster, President of Polaris Brand Promotions, joins us on this episode to make the case for why retailers need to make their stores experiential if they want to retain their customer base.  It's not just samples but creating experiences that invite people in and engage them in a way that retailers just don't seem to be leveraging currently.  Grab a sample, or 5, and press play. What they cover Retail is always changing but the changes have been more dramatic in the past 20 years with Amazon entering the marketing and now rapid tech advances at stores.In store engagement is challenging right now due to stores providing better tech enablement, i.e. ordering on apps or at touch screens instead of from a live human.Retail stores control the environment in the store but since consumers aren't shopping as much in stores or even in the same way, brands need to think long and hard about their investment in these stores and what that looks like to get the best ROI.Ecommerce has a way of taking the shopping out of shopping. Think signage, music, looking at actual items, which removes the ability to both experience the product and shop by comparison.Hiring a brand ambassador may be the one of the best things a brand could do today. Why? It builds engagement and real connection, something missing from current in store interactions. And in doing so, you build more brand ambassadors after the fact, giving your brand real momentum. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest:  Al Schuster is the President and Owner of Polaris Brand Promotions, a nationwide experiential marketing and promotional staffing agency. Connect with Al:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aschuster4379  Website: https://polarisbrandpromotions.com About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 9: Retail Ain't Dead Yet

  4. May 29

    Season 4 Episode 8: Freedom To Fail

    Humans have a tendency to shy away from failure, and for good reason.  It hurts. It could cost us our jobs.  But what if on the other side of that failure lived an innovation that drove amazing change?  Maybe we'd think about failure differently. We think so.  R.J. Talyor, CEO & Founder of Backstroke, joins us on this episode to talk about his favorite subject: failure.  "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  Walt Disney also said, "If you can dream it, you can do it."  The current economy surrounding AI has a lot of hype but also a lot of potential. There is this potential for us to leverage AI to allow us to be more human, yet we tend to focus on the dark side where humans are no longer needed.  Sure, change is coming.  People will lose jobs or remain out of work because of AI tech implementation.  But could there be more that lives on the other side of that? We think so.  Grab your goggles and swim cap and let's dive right into it. What they cover AI has evolved dramatically from the 1950s to where we are now in the world of generative AI. It's enabled us to do things better & faster.All the AI hype about job replacement and destruction is an alamarist signaling for attention. The reality is change is on the horizon and there will be job loss but the potential is incredible.Beyond the AI hype is true creativity again. AI allows us to take the things machines can do well off our plates and truly lean into our humanness, i.e. creating art or building relationships.AI needs a why and an end goal to truly be functional. You can't just implement AI technology. You need to know why you're doing it and what you hope to achieve at the end of it for it to truly be a successful project. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest:  R. J. Talyor is a leading voice in email marketing and applied AI. A veteran of ExactTarget, he founded Pattern89, acquired by Shutterstock in 2021. Today he is Co-Founder & CEO of Backstroke, helping brands use AI to drive 10 to 30% more revenue from email, SMS, and mobile. Connect with R.J.:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjtalyor/  Website: https://www.backstroke.com About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 8: Freedom To Fail

  5. May 15

    Season 4 Episode 7: The N-of-1 For Founders

    Being a Founder is hard. There are an endless barrage of obstacles facing you at any given moment. Doing that with a Co-Founder, well that often feels harder because now you've got two people who need to make the decisions: two people who aren't always on the same page. What if we told you there was a better way to do it? What if you could build with a Co-Founder by leveraging your strengths and taking ego out of it? Well your day has arrived. Kiki Couchman, Co-Founder of Sourmilk, joins us on this episode to discuss what it's like to intentionally build a CPG company as a big fish in a small pond, how to be a great Co-Founder, and why your gut health is so damn important. Kiki and her Co-Founder Elan Halpern has something special going on here. We dive into the excitement of early stage building, showcasing how being scrappy is an amazing skill set. Unsure of the difference between an influencer and a content creator? Yeah we cover that too. Grab a spoon, your sourmilk, and get ready for earful. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest:  Sourmilk is an NYC-based, women-founded brand creating organic, grass-fed, Greek-style yogurt designed specifically for gut health. Kiki Couchman is Co-Founder, building Sourmilk to make gut health accessible through everyday food. Connect with Kiki: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-kiki-c-242929112/ Website: https://sourmilk.com Instagram: @getsourmilk | @couchwoman About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 7: The N-of-1 For Founders

  6. May 1

    Season 4 Episode 6: Baking In Slow Growth

    Low and slow sounds great for a rack of ribs.  Growing a business that way, though, sounds risky.  Will there be enough revenue?  Will the window close?  The reality is that growing slowly gives brands luxuries that fast-moving, well-funded competitors simply cannot afford. Victoria Berk, Founder and CEO of Know Good, joins host Michael Maher to share her journey of building intentionally. Know Good's break-and-bake chocolate chip cookie dough is made with clean, better-for-you ingredients and is already selling out across New York City. Victoria shares how staying local, listening closely to customers, and validating demand before scaling has been the foundation of everything. The conversation also digs into how consumer thinking around nutrition is shifting, why ingredient transparency is becoming a real competitive advantage, and how keeping a product format familiar can actually be the smartest innovation move a brand makes. What they cover Why founders need a little naivety to stay connected to their missionHow slow growth creates product validation advantages capital cannot buyWhy there is never a good time to take a risk, so the best time is nowWhat the consumer shift around nutrition means for brands on shelf and onlineHow to innovate without overwhelming customers with too much that is new The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar.  The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together.  Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest Victoria Berk is the founder of Know Good, a brand transforming modern baking and snacking with clean, crave-worthy treats. Know Good's hero product, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, is selling out across NYC. As a Nutritionist and MBA graduate, Victoria is pursuing her passion for wellness by bringing thoughtfully crafted, indulgent products to life. Before founding Know Good, she worked at consumer startups including Goop and Obe Fitness, as well as in management consulting. Connect with Victoria LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriaberk15/ Website: https://knowgoodfood.com/ Instagram: @knowgoodfoods About the Host Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 6: Baking In Slow Growth

  7. Apr 17

    Season 4 Episode 5: Right Data, Right Place, Right Time

    Everybody wants more data.  Everybody says their data driven.  In reality, who isn't data driven?  We all make decisions based on data points, it's just not always the right data that drives us.  What matters is the quality of the data and the actual story that data is telling us.  James Gossling, Co-Founder of Bispoke, joined us to talk about the importance of the right data and how you visualize it. In working with Amazon, he has seen how siloed the data is, making it harder to make the right decision for your brand. The solution: bringing all the data you need into one place to make a better decision faster.  More data doesn't equal more revenue. Deciding on the right data, then getting it visualized properly is what leads brands to crush the competition.  Grab your creatine and fish oil and let's get poppin'. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest:  James Gossling is a seasoned ecommerce and analytics leader with over a decade of hands-on experience driving growth and operational excellence for high-performing digital brands.  He co-founded Bispoke, a data-driven analytics platform that helps Amazon sellers and brands turn chaotic marketplace data into clear, actionable insights—powering smarter decisions and measurable business outcomes. Bispoke’s tools and dashboards support sellers and vendors representing over $1.5 billion in annual Amazon revenue. Before Bispoke, James led ecommerce and marketplace strategy for major consumer brands, managing nine-figure Amazon P&Ls and multi-million dollar ad budgets while turning data into growth engines across channels. He is a husband and father of four living in the Salt Lake City, UT area. Connect with James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jgossling/ Website: https://bispoke.io/ About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 5: Right Data, Right Place, Right Time

  8. Apr 3

    Season 4 Episode 4: How To March With Pace And Urgency

    Believing in something when you don't see it is the definition of faith. As an entrepreneur, you have to be persistent in your pursuit of something, even when all the evidence says "you're failing" and nobody else believes your venture will ever get up off the ground. That's a tough pill to swallow but it's the one Matt Behrend, CEO of Agility, took and survived, finally proving his thesis. Matt and team believed that brand advertising was important but it was often unattainable for brands without huge budgets. They knew it could be more accessible, as well as measured effectively, so that brands of all sizes could invest more into it. And they've done just that.  After 7 years of hard work, marching with pace and urgency, Matt and team are seeing results in the form of revenue. When you play the long game and believe in what you're doing, it always pays dividends. Mix a scoop of creatine in your water and let's rep this episode out! In this episode: • Why most brands fight over the same small group of buyers • Why performance marketing looks efficient but stalls growth • How brand advertising actually creates demand • Why measurement has held brands back • What it takes to build when there’s no proof it will work Play the long game long enough, and it pays off. The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelongergame Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelongergame About Matt Behrend: Matt Behrend is a serial SaaS entrepreneur and CEO of Agility Ads, a precision brand advertising platform built to make brand a predictable growth engine. He brings 15+ years of experience building and scaling marketing and sales teams at venture-backed SaaS companies, including multiple exits. Connect with Matt: https://agilityads.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbehrend About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: michael@thinkcartology.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher Sponsored by Cartology https://thinkcartology.com

    Season 4 Episode 4: How To March With Pace And Urgency
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About

Embracing the future of retail, while living in the moment. Leaning into trends and advancements in retail so brands see a clearer path to success with an omni-channel approach. Sharing hope about the future.

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Maher
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    96
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Michael Maher
  • Show Website
    The Longer Game