The Retail Whore Michelle Sherrier

This week we welcome Hilary Meehan, Co-Founder / CEO Mirthos. She believes in creative living, making life the perfect juicy delight of your wildest dreams & inspiring more people to enjoy this glorious mess called life (*there's a card for that!)
She’s developed a line of enthusiastic & encouraging greeting cards to help share this with the wild & fancy weirdos who need to hear it most.  After almost 2 years of operating under her own name & with a “no holds barred” aesthetic, Hilary took a pause to marinate upon the growing cacophony.  It was then that Mirthos Paper was distilled into the tonic you now enjoy.
Mirthos is a word created by Hilary from the word mirth, of course, and paired with ideas of pathos, logos, and ethos - pathos, in particular.  Indeed, Hilary is a word nerd as much as a papernerd.  “Mirthos is like pathos - but on the happy side - please use excessively”!
Michelle & Hilary discuss all aspects of art, flow and creativity and how it relates to retail and merchandising.
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This week’s guest is Mary Liz Curtin, owner of Leon & Lulu, Detroit’s own award-winning, 15,000 square foot, lifestyle store – which was originally a roller rink! Mary Liz is passionate about independent retail. Her knowledge of all aspects of the gift, craft and home industries gives her a unique point of view, encompassing the needs of retailers, vendors and sales representatives. She is also a heck of a retail shopper and loves to crawl malls, discover downtowns and walk through the Web to find ideas and inspirations for her presentations.
With over 35 years of hands-on experience in the gift and home industries, Mary Liz is an internationally acknowledged expert in independent retail and has advised numerous manufacturers on marketing, sales and management issues with her unique brand of Sales and Marketing Therapy.
Michelle & Mary Liz cover so much in this episode we know you are going to enjoy it as much as we did!
This week’s episode is sponsored by @salesproducersinc, a progressive business to business company representing Gift, Lifestyle, Fashion, Personal Care, & Kids lines selling to retail stores with a mission to create long lasting, profitable relationships by adding significant value to our Customer, Vendor, and Team partners. For more information, check out their social media or website www.salesproducersinc.com

We are thrilled to welcome back Dale Rhodes, Senior VP with Katin USA.  Dale’s path to success began at 17 years-old, when he worked in the retail industry at MGA (Guess Jeans), Camp Beverly Hills, and Val Surf. It came naturally for him to style celebrities and work directly with clients. It was then – during the hot trend of Guess in the 80s – that Dale paved the way for his future accomplishments in the apparel industry.
This episode is in celebration of National Sober Day, which took place on September 14th. Millions of people suffer from substance abuse, and this day reminds them that they are supported and that they are not alone in their struggles. Take a listen as Dale recants his journey to sobriety and what led him there. 
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Nicole Swartz is the attorney and founder behind Sprout Law, a law firm for women business owners. She's also a business owner as well. In 2015, she started a skincare line that was featured in hundreds of stores around the world and even the Golden Globes gift bags. After two years, she had to rebrand the entire business because she didn't have a trademark. Now, she helps other women trademark their brands to avoid the same situation.
Nicole is featured as an expert in Forbes, the Washington Post, Girlboss, and speaks at events like Alt Summit, Craftcation, and South by Southwest. Plus her Reels and TikTok about celebrity trademark gossip are pretty darn fun:)
Michelle & Nicole talk about her journey into the skincare business, aspects of the trademark process, common mistakes & why trademarking is so important.
This episode sponsored by Fine Lines, a west coast wholesale rep agency with showrooms in Las Vegas and Seattle representing over 50 fabulous gift, fashion + home lines.
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This week’s guest Alyssa Benner has been in retail for 16-17 years. She has worked in boutique shops and corporate owned retail & has always moved up quickly in those jobs due to not only loving what she did but hard work. She is a creative person by nature so when it came to merchandising it came so easy for her. As she began getting further into her career, she realized that not everybody had the skill set to merchandise.
For job interviews, she would always lead with her amazing merchandising skill set and how it would be a great attribution to their business, learning later that not all companies realized the value of an amazing merchandised store and more importantly the actual value to the store.
Alyssa currently works as a home and beauty buyer for Cupcakes and Cashmere. From one merchandiser to another, Michelle & Alyssa talk the good, the bad and the ugly of merchandising plus offer tips along the way!

This week’s episode is sponsored by Sales Producers Inc., a progressive business to business company representing Gift, Lifestyle, Fashion, Personal Care, & Kids lines selling to retail stores with a mission to create long lasting, profitable relationships by adding significant value to our Customer, Vendor, and Team partners. For more information, check out their social media or website Sales Producers Inc.
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Marcie Pantzer is the founder of Dear Annabelle, a luxury paper goods brand that brings a whimsical wink to the classic art of correspondence. The brand was born from Marcie’s personal love of letter writing, starting when she went away to sleep away camp as a girl.
Her passion for sending and receiving mail was only rivaled by her affection for the tools of the trade — beautiful stationery and fine paper products. With Dear Annabelle — named for her daughter — she’s created her dream line of stationery, place cards, and note pads that celebrate joy, humor and connection.
Michelle had the honor of creating her booth at the Shoppe Object show and in doing so and familiarizing herself with the products, she knew she had to have her as a guest.
Michelle & Marcie discuss creating the brand, its packaging and how she figured it all out after never being in a creator or in a product driven business. Impressive, to say the least.
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