Hard-Fought Leadership Lessons from U.S. Navy Seal & French Foreign Legionnaire Taylor Cavanaugh

The Voice of Retail

In this leadership-focussed episode, something different, something new. My guest is Taylor Cavanaugh, who takes a big, complicated life and shares insights from his time with the U.S. Navy Seals and the French Foreign Legion (the first American in history to be part of both), emphasizing leadership and resilience. He discusses his public exposure on "Soft White Underbelly," one of my favourite interview shows, and discusses the philosophy of having "no plan B" while stressing adaptability to maximize outcomes - professional and personal. Taylor advises embracing new experiences, leading with integrity, and making tough decisions in this fascinating, fast-paced interview.

About Taylor

Taylor Cavanaugh went from jail, to Navy SEAL, back to jail, suicidal, to French Foreign Legionnaire. Learning to self-actualize his divine design via a correct system of life disciplines. Now he is on a mission to show others how to re-align their lives to experience peace and clarity by training the mind deliberately as well as the body. Showing others how to get their fire for life back.

https://www.taylorcavanaugh.com/

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.