So before we begin, I want to encourage you toattend next Tuesday, December, 10th at 11 AMeastern. I’m gonna do a holiday hotline, and I’mgonna answer all your questions, give yousome tips, more tips on how to make theholidays great. But put it on your calendar rightnow, December ten, eleven o’clock AM easterntime.

So let’s talk about this idea. Of we’ve got aseveral weeks left, we’ve got a lot of thingshappening, and this idea of pace becomesreally, really important.

So even though this isn’t a marathon, a year ora career is a marathon, this is a really importantstretch in your business for most, retailers.

And it’s important that you manage your energyso that you can end strong. Not just Christmas,but then you’ve got the week after that to clearand, to to clear out your your holidaymerchandise and change seasons. And then, ofcourse, then you go into two thousand andtwenty five and you want to go into twothousand and twenty five. You know, you’regonna be tired after the holidays, but feelinggood. So this idea of pace.

So the legendary basketball coach, JohnWooden, had a quote worth keeping in mind.

John Wooden said, be quick, but don’t be in ahurry. I like to say it, go fast, but don’t be in ahurry. When you get caught up in trying to dotoo much, the energy that comes from being ina hurry diminishes from the quality of the work,and it burns you out quicker. So this idea ofbeing sort of in yourself, not, you know, notbeing crazy, not getting out of control, butevery time you catch yourself getting anxious,spinning up, getting stressed, you just tellyourself go fast, but don’t be in a hurry.

Relax, don’t be in a hurry. Get things done, butdon’t be in a hurry, which kind of leads us tosomething else. It’s that whole mindset. This isanother piece of that mindset, and there arethree attributes. I call them the three p’s.

They are presence, patience, and positivity.

So let’s sort of spend a moment on each ofthose.

Presence, being there in the moment is one ofthe ways that you know, it’s part of that wholedon’t, don’t go fast, go fast, but don’t be in ahurry mentality.

Just being present with what is going on whenyou are in your store will make your experiencein the store better. When you leave your storeand go home, be present with your family.Don’t take the day at the store home with you. Iknow it’s hard.

I know it’s hard. I went through nineteenholiday seasons in the toy business. But thisidea of being where you are, being there fullywill really help you conserve energy. Youknow?

Again, what are we trying to do? Paceourselves. If you’re thinking about all the thingsthat went on in the store all night long, you’reburning, energy unnecessarily.

Then patience.

You know, things are going to go wrong at theholidays. You know, orders are gonna come inlate. People are gonna come in late. You’regoing to have, unreasonable requests fromcustomers.

I get it. I understand it. Be patient with it. One ofthe things, especially when we think about yourcustomers, there’s this concept called sonder.

And sonder is a term that that sort of speaks tothis idea that everyone has a secret world thatmost people don’t see. So when somebodycomes into your store, if they’re grumpy, ifthey’re hurried, if they’re, you know, impatient,recognize there may be things going on in theirlives that have nothing to do with you, but areplaying themselves out in your store. So mypoint here is give everyone a little bit of grace.Right?

Hopefully, your customers will give you gracewhen things don’t go quite the way you wantthem to do to go, but, also, you want to and youwant your team to be, you know, this idea of bepatient. Understand that everybody’s got astory. You don’t know what’s going on witheverybody. And this is one of the thecompetitive advantages that we have asindependence, isn’t it? This ability to connecton a very, very human level. And when youconnect that way and you show patience andunderstanding with your customers, with yourteam members, with yourself, the holiday willbecome much richer, much fuller, much better.

And the final p is positivity.

Be there. Be smiling. Be ready. Be positive.

Be positive for your team. Be positive well, bepositive for yourself because it will make theholidays a lot more fun for you. Be positive foryour team because, positivity is infectious. Andwhen your team feels it from you, it willtranslate to the, a better customer experience.

So, you know, again, presence, patience,positivity, These are all things that will serveyou incredibly well through the holiday season.And then finally, I want to encourage you torecognize that you’re playing a long game here.This isn’t, you know, this isn’t your career. Itisn’t the year.

It’s only this holiday season.

But, you know, so you have a bad day.

Don’t let it get you down.

Positivity. Right? Don’t let it get you down. Ifyou have a bad sales day, just regroup, dustyourself off, get out there, and kick some asstomorrow.

Right? You have many, many days. One badday does not make a bad season. You know,one bad week does not make a bad season.

If things aren’t going the way that you wantthem to go, be positive and do something aboutit. And so the final thing to sort of wrap thiswhole thing up is, you know, yes, it’s the end ofthe year. Yes. It’s a lot of work.

Yes. You’re going to be tired. But, again, if youmanage yourself well, when it comes to theend, you’re going to feel really good aboutyourself, your team, what you’ve done, and thatwill give you momentum going into twothousand and twenty five. And I wanna have ashout out here for my friend, Chris Stevenson,who owns J Dubs Wine Shop here in GrandHaven.

I recently did a sales training for her and herwonderful team, And one of the things that shegave me was this bottle.

And this is our motto. The motto forindependent retailers in two thousand andtwenty five is do epic shit. So, again, what arewe trying to do? We’re trying to end strong sowe can start strong in two thousand and twentyfive.

I hope that you found this message helpful. Ihope that you’ll be there next Tuesday.

If you have any questions that you wantanswered on the holiday hotline,bob.negen@whizbangtraining.com, and I willdo my best to get to all of the questions thatare submitted beforehand. Alright, everybody. Ihope you’re kicking butt out there these days.Take care. Bye bye.