Retail feels more complicated than ever. AI, tariffs, staffing challenges… it’s easy to feel stuck or overwhelmed. But what I’ve learned after decades in this business is that the retailers who thrive aren’t the ones with perfect circumstances. They’re the ones who learn to see their business through a different lens.
If you’ve ever invested time and energy into sales training, only to watch your team slip right back into old habits, you’re not alone. In this episode of Real Retail TV, I tackle a frustration I hear from good retailers all the time: the desire to build a confident, customer-focused team, and the disappointment when the training just doesn’t seem to stick. There are real reasons this happens, and they have far less to do with your people than you might think.
If you’ve ever invested time and energy into sales training, only to watch your team slip right back into old habits, you’re not alone. In this episode of Real Retail TV, I tackle a frustration I hear from good retailers all the time: the desire to build a confident, customer-focused team, and the disappointment when the training just doesn’t seem to stick. There are real reasons this happens, and they have far less to do with your people than you might think.
If you’ve ever wondered what really drives retail growth and why some stores seem to thrive no matter the season, this episode of Real Retail TV breaks it down in a way every retailer can understand. I walk through the three ways a retail business grows and how they work together, not in theory, but in the real world where margins matter and results count.
In this episode of Real Retail TV, I’m sharing a promotion that drove a ten-times increase in year-over-year sales. It started as a simple Summer Solstice Sale idea and was transformed into something far more memorable—a full-on “store heist,” complete with a real-life ex-convict as part of the story. It’s a powerful reminder that the right twist can turn a familiar promotion into something customers can’t ignore.
As we kick off 2026, this episode of Real Retail TV is Part 2 of a conversation we started about making this your best year ever. If Part 1 got you thinking differently about growth, this episode goes a step further. We move beyond big-picture ideas and into a more tactical discussion about how real progress actually happens, especially after an “interesting” year like 2025.
As we close out the year, I want to pause and simply acknowledge something we’re all feeling. It’s been a strange one. A lot of uncertainty, a lot of noise, and for many retailers, a fair amount of anxiety. In this episode of Real Retail TV, I talk about why recognizing that feeling matters and why it’s also the first step to moving past it.
This time of year can be joyful and exhausting all at once, and it’s important to pause and remember why we do this work in the first place. In this episode of Real Retail TV, I want to share a perspective shift that can make these final days not just more profitable, but more meaningful for you and your team.
Last week on Real Retail TV we dug into something every great retailer needs this time of year: taking care of yourself and your team so you can hit the homestretch with energy to spare. This week, we’re shifting gears. We’re talking about a few simple, high-impact moves that can help you squeeze every last drop of opportunity out of these final holiday weeks.
The holidays are in full swing, and today I am talking about a success strategy that often gets overlooked even though it can completely change the way your season feels. It is practical, it is doable, and it plays a big role in how smoothly your store runs from open to close.
