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Delivering Ecommerce Podcast: Episode 03 with Johnny Russo

May 10, 2021 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

I was supremely honoured to be on Episode No.3 of Chris Parsons’ new podcast, Delivering Ecommerce, where he and his guests will discuss all things Ecommerce and Digital.

On this episode, we talk about Ecommerce, Leadership, Digital Transformation, The Cozy Shop, Retail, my new book launching in 2021, and my favourite musical (spoiler alter: it’s Frozen II).

You can view or listen to the podcast on various channels linked below:

YouTube: Delivering eCommerce Episode 03 with Johnny Russo VP, Marketing & Ecommerce at The Kersheh Group

Spotify: Delivering eCommerce Episode 03 with Johnny Russo VP, Marketing & Ecommerce at The Kersheh Group

Amazon Canada Feature: Supporting Outstanding Canadian Businesses

November 8, 2020 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

For Holiday 2020, Amazon Canada asked to interview me about one of the largest growing brands on their platform, Jellifish Kids. It was a feature to support Canadian businesses during the peak 2020 Holiday season. They also prepared a digital lookbook to share with media and customers during the key Holiday season. Below are some images and links to the feature.

Thanks to Amazon Canada for all their support.

Here is the excerpt of that article as it appeared:

Johnny Russo, VP of Marketing and E-commerce, Jellifish Kids, Montreal, QC

How did Jellifish Kids get their start:
Jellifish Kids is part of The Kersheh Group, a manufacturer and marketer of sleepwear established in 1978. The brand was started to fill a void in the kids sleepwear market. Jellifish Kids is all about comfort and focuses on fun, colourful and playful themes in its designs. We also have an established line of licensed sleepwear, including partnerships with Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and more!

Tell us about your role and why it’s important to Jellifish Kids:
When I joined the business in 2019, the core focus of my role was developing our brands – most crucial of which was Jellifish Kids – and scaling the e-commerce business across Amazon, various other marketplaces and our own e-commerce sites. It’s been amazing to see the support the company has put behind this role and, most importantly, being supportive of the vision we have, which is to become the largest sleepwear destination in North America.

What does it mean for a small business like Jellifish Kids to have a VP of Marketing and E-commerce:
I was asking myself the same question during the hiring and recruiting process before I joined. For me, it meant Jellifish Kids was seriously getting behind developing their brand and launching their e-commerce division. I’ve had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with our executive committee and I can tell you they are all big believers of what we’re building. I’ve got a great team that embraces challenges, supports each other, is adaptive and is positive along the way. After all, we sell pajamas, so we have some fun throughout the journey.

Check out the entire feature article and see all the great Canadian businesses supported by and with Amazon.

Here are some of the images featured in their lookbook highlighting the Jellifish Kids brand and products.

Take a look at the entire Digital Lookbook Amazon put together to support successful Canadian businesses during the peak Holiday 2020 season.

My Podcast With The Voice of Retail: Culture, Personalization, and Retail Tech

November 24, 2019 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

In September 2019, shortly after starting my new role with The Kersheh Group, my old pal Michael Leblanc asked me to be on his The Voice of Retail podcast. I’ve always respected Michael, especially the work he’s done with the Retail Council of Canada. So I obviously was excited to be on.

And to top it off, I found out that I would be featured on the same podcast as my virtual mentor, Mitch Joel. What an absolute pleasure it was to be on the same podcast with someone I consider a mentor (no more virtual, as weeks after the podcast, he was kind enough to have coffee with me), and someone who I have followed so closely in my career. It’s a great honour to be on the same podcast as you Mitch. And thank you Michael LeBlanc for giving such a large and impactful voice to retail in Canada. What a tremendous job you do.

The podcast discussed Canadian Ecommerce, trends in the industry, Digital Transformation, agile methodologies, culture, building a team, personalization, and retail technology.

Here it is in its entirety:

Digital rock star, global keynote speaker and agency pioneer Mitch Joel helps us Decode the Future, and Vice President Marketing/eCommerce for The Kersheh Group Johnny Russo talks culture, personalization and retail tech

From Writer to Marketer, and How I Embraced the Curveballs Along the Way

May 23, 2019 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

I read a book called Mind Platter last year. It’s by a Canadian-Lebanese author named Najwa Zebian. It’s one of those books where every page or two is a different topic, or chapter.

She had many topics on life, success, happiness, family, positivity, personal development, heartbreak, and career.

I highly recommend reading that book, but this is not a book review. There was one particular section on change that made me stop and think about my own life and career. I often take images of quotes or writings that resonate with me, and upload them into Evernote for safe keeping and future use. This was one of those times.

“Sometimes we choose to stand at a closed door and hope that it will somehow open,” writes Zebian.

Chase Growth, Embrace Change

I don’t know about you, but my oh my, do we change a lot over the years. In my case, I think that’s a great thing. If you follow my blog or my social channel, you know that I embrace change (not just for change’s sake) but real, solid, growth change.

When I was growing up, I didn’t have too many frustrating days. I’d play lots of sports, my parents and family would support me, financially and otherwise, and even when I bought my first car, a 2000 Toyota Celica, my parents were there to throw in the extra cash I needed. Things came easy.

My grades in high school were pretty good, and then in College (Cégep in Quebec) and University, as I got more independent and more interested in what I was learning (sorry Physics and Chemistry classes, you just weren’t my jam), my grades and work went from good to great.

I Was Going to Be a Hall of Fame Sportswriter

However, things always seemed to come relatively easy for me then. I got into one of the best Journalism programs in Canada (Concordia University), got an internship at the only English language newspaper in Montreal (the Montreal Gazette, my dream place to work), got published a few times in print, worked for the Montreal Canadiens writing blog posts and news articles (interesting, since I detested the Canadiens since I was 9) and then I graduated with a high GPA. All good I thought. Easy. Next up, my dream job, which was either working at aforementioned Montreal Gazette, to be a sportswriter and learn under the great Red Fisher, or to be a sportscaster on TSN.

[Read more…]

The Happiness Advantage: Yours For The Taking

March 31, 2019 by Johnny Russo Leave a Comment

Just before I went on vacation, I read a book called The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor. I love reading books on leadership and personal development, and I always have a backlog of about 5 books ready to go when I finish the previous one. But The Happiness Advantage was not on my list. My wife actually got it from her boss. Once she finished reading it, I picked it up…and I could not put it down.

The Happiness Advantage centers on The 7 Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. I really though this was just going to be study after study of random research. But Anchor is a great story teller. He took research, his own life experience, and created a framework for being positive and, maybe just as important, spreading that positivity. I also enjoyed that this was not solely for your personal life, but also your day-to-day work or professional life.

And about halfway through reading the 7 Principles Achor outlines, I knew I wanted to document it and start implementing them. So not only are these principles in my own life purpose playbook, but I wanted to help others by writing this blog post.

Now, a warning. If you plan on reading this book soon, maybe you should read it before reading my blog post, as I don’t want to ruin any surprises.

I’ll outline the 7 Principles from the book, and try to give my own story around them as well.

Principle 1: The Happiness Advantage

The first principle talks about ways we can improve our moods and raise our levels of happiness throughout the day. These are helpful to always keep in mind, as they are proven to raise serotonin levels, known as the happy chemical.

[Read more…]

Delivering Ecommerce Podcast: Episode 03 with Johnny Russo

My Podcast With The Voice of Retail: Culture, Personalization, and Retail Tech

The Happiness Advantage: Yours For The Taking

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