Coffee Time with Eric

It’s Thanksgiving week — a time for gratitude, giving thanks, and…shopping for gifts and using gift cards. In this week's Coffee Chat, I unpack insights from PwC’s 2025 Holiday Outlook Report

In 2026, after 230 years in circulation, the U.S. Mint will end production of the penny. But the digital penny is alive and well, thanks to its innovative companies, which are redefining what a penny can do. Microrewards with seamless redemption make pennies even more powerful when they’re digital — no physical friction, no rounding, and no tough choices for retailers between cutting profits or raising prices when the physical pennies run out. In this week’s chat, I demo the

It’s Halloween season — the perfect time to talk about things that send chills down every business leader’s spine. I spend a lot of time thinking about business risk: what could go wrong, how to prepare for it, and how to keep growing despite uncertainty. So, in the spirit of Halloween, here are the Top 10 Scariest Things Facing Businesses Right Now — and a few ideas for how to keep those monsters at bay.

Last week, I asked about the "The Future of Gift Cards" while on the road in Minneapolis. Thought leaders from across the gift card spectrum responded. Today's chat is a summary of the answers, comments, themes and trends that emerged.

A little help from my friends - the future of gift cards

Pushing Outside of the Comfort Zone

This week’s Coffee Chat highlights three UK events representing the very best of our industry

This week, I share how a business discussion seven months ago led me to a transformative retreat at an 800-year-old estate in Sintra, Portugal. This episode is a bit longer as I sit down with two special guests and industry colleagues, Shawna Nichol, MBA and Todd Tomlin (from Memorii Journeys), the visionaries who turned last week’s trip into reality. 

Coffee Chat #28 with Eric: The Power of Showing Up. This week, we're going to talk about the power of showing up. It started while I watched Novak break another tennis record at the (USTA) United States Tennis Association's US Open this last week, which made me think of Cal Ripken Jr.’s ironman streak with the Baltimore Orioles, which led me to think about…my high school friend, Rick Goebeler.

Did you know the average person has $244 in unused gift cards? Across the U.S., that adds up to more than $21 BILLION in unredeemed value. Let's look at what I found in my own gift card search at home.

The Power of Moments - Surprise & Delight using Customer Data

Coffee Chat 25 with Eric: How Many People Use AI?

This week, I filmed from Frisson Espresso on 44th Street in the heart of New York City. Grab your coffee - our topic today: Trends in business travel, with a little fun as we throw in some "bleisure" and Broadway, too.

I have the ultimate work-life balance quote for you: “Don’t get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.” — Dolly Parton 🎶 I’m taking Dolly’s words to heart today...

I’m in the UK this week visiting our Head of UK and Euro Accounts, Kelly Hinds, and catching the buzz at MAD//FEST. But the topic for this week’s coffee chat is about our team training at NeoCurrency on CQ (Cultural Intelligence)—led by our summer intern, Parker -- as a way to help grow our global rewards business.

This week’s Coffee Chat is a little “inside baseball” for those of us in the incentive industry. As co-chair of the Incentive Gift Card Coalition Communications Committee, I’ve been in Incentive Marketing Association mode with the IMA Summit happening in Austin July 14–16. I wanted to give a personal sneak peek at this special industry event.

This week’s Coffee Chat is a special one - I’ve got a guest...my daughter, home from college and proudly repping GenZ, joined me for a post-Father’s Day chat about gifts, dads, and what gifts feel the most meaningful from her 20-year-old point of view. As a GenX dad, I loved hearing how she thinks about showing love and appreciation. According to her, the best gifts check these four boxes: Make it personal. Keep it simple + heartfelt. Make it useful, e.g. gift cards. Prioriti

Many of us have had them…Jobs that never made it to the résumé. Roles that don’t quite “fit” our career narrative. Positions that got left off LinkedIn—not because they weren’t meaningful, but because they didn’t align with our so-called professional brand. This week, I’m sharing one of those stories. In my late 20s, I took a six-month job that had absolutely nothing to do with incentives, gift cards, loyalty, or payments. I worked at Bredenbecks - a Bavarian bakery.

We’re in the middle of a Payments War…and the consumer is losing. This week, I dive into the chaos erupting at checkout counters across America, where 34% of merchants (per J.D. Power 2025) are passing along the 3% credit card swipe fee directly to customers.

I am celebrating my 33rd anniversary in my longest-standing loyalty program (I signed up for it my freshman year of college) and reflecting on how gift cards and loyalty are a match as good as peanut butter and jelly.