Hey. It’s Bob Negen. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore sort of three pillars, three foundational pieces to your success. And if you do these these these three things, well, your success is all but guaranteed.

So the theme for this year’s Retail Success Summit is all in. And by the way, right now, early bird pricing, better than money back guarantee. Go all in. Get your butt to Grand Rapids for the retail success summit. But, anyway, as I was reflecting about this theme about all in, and I was reflecting on the fact that it’s an uncertain, unsettling time that AI is disrupting everything that tariffs have made things, you know, unstable.

And so but how do you I was reflecting on how does a retailer sort of make themselves immune to all of the changes that happen?

And it came down to three things. Three places where if you go all in, you can weather almost any storm. Not only that, every storm will make you better, stronger, and better equipped for the next storm. And the first place to go all in is with your customers experience.

You know, ability to make your customers feel incredibly special is your only real competitive advantage. You know, big box stores, big brand stores, online brands, they can’t or won’t give their customers the kind of experience that you can and should. An online brand can’t. You know, it’s you have the ability to have that human to human interaction.

A big box store won’t. You know, they just their their business model is different. It’s not customer focused. It’s focused on all sorts of different things.

But a Walmart, I think you can imagine, is not focused on their customer the way that you focus on your customers. So the experience is driven by your philosophy, And that philosophy is WWMCW. What would my customer want?

And when you make that your philosophy, when you say, I’m going to run my business for my customers, good things start to happen. Now, I know some of you are going, well, wait a second, Bob. Well, wait a second. And yes, there are always extenuating circumstances. But at the end of the day, that strategy, that philosophy, that mindset that you understand that your customers are profit, everything else is an expense, that you make it all about the customers.

Recommend recognize this. Love your customers. The money will follow.

The second pillar, the second place to go all in is professional development.

You cannot let me just say that again. You cannot just expect to show up and be successful. Yet, think about your experience, the people who you know and work with. Maybe it’s other merchants in your town.

Maybe it’s other retailers in your, industry. They have a vision of what retail should be like. And when the market doesn’t fit their vision, they become frustrated, they become angry, they blame other people. No, no, no, no, no.

The world is changing and it is on you to change with it.

Education, ongoing mental education needs to be part of who you are. If you don’t change with the times, the times are going to pass you by. My friend and Randy friend and mentor Randy Gage calls it his curriculum. And I love this term and I’ll go come back to it in a second.

But what Randy does is he picks a topic that is of personal or professional interest to him. And he spends a half hour a day every day on it listening to podcasts, reading blogs, books, all of those things. But just think about this. If you spent a half hour a day on a topic, how quickly could you become really, really fluent, really, you know, really skilled, really know that topic?

And the answer is it will not take long. You know, over the course of a month, a half hour a day, five days a week, have ten hours of study a month. And you start to compound that over the course of years and good things start to happen. You know, the smartest people who invest in the Retail Mastery System spend a little bit of time every single day, you know, a lesson a day and before you know it, you’re through the whole thing.

And if you go through the entire retail mastery system, you will be smarter. You will be a better, smarter retailer than ninety five percent of the independent retailers out there end of story period.

But another place to go all in, and this is my curriculum that I’m actually starting today, is AI.

You know, I’ve been using chat like everybody else and, you know, I’ve been using it sort of as a souped up Google. But no, no, no, no. I recognize, I understand that there’s so much more. And unless I go all in, it’s I’m never going to be able to harness that incredible power that AI holds.

So that’s going to be my curriculum. I’m going to spend a half hour to an hour every day for I don’t know, until I go, woah, okay, I got it. I’m doing it. And so my point here is that professional development is absolutely critical to your success.

You must must become better. You must become smarter. This is also why you really should be at the Retail Success Summit.

Because you can go through your retail mastery system, you can read books, you can learn from AI, but there’s nothing like being in the room for two days. There’s nothing like talking to people at the break, going out to dinner, meeting new people, immersing yourself in professional development, professional education. Again, you know, it’s got a better than money back guarantee. So why wouldn’t you make that commitment to yourself? It’s part of going all in on your future.

And the third pillar here, and I believe that this is just as important as the other two, and that is personal development.

Until you become a better person, it becomes harder.

Now, let me just back that up and say it differently.

Who you are will determine how good you can be.

If you have beliefs that are holding you back, they’re holding you back. So I’m encouraging you to develop a personal development habit. Personally, my personal development habits are number one, I do yoga nidra every morning. When I’m when I wake up, I put my headphones in while I’m still in bed, nice and comfortable, and I do a yoga nidra. Look it up. It’s a it’s a form of meditation.

It’s wonderful. I sort of call it a lazy man’s meditation. But Yoga Nidra is a personal development practice that makes me calmer and more present.

It allows me to see my life more accurately, which allows me to make better decisions for my future for my now and for my future.

My next personal development habit is every morning and every night I journal. And there are real retail TVs about my journaling habit, how to do it and all those things. But self reflection is an important part of how I grow. And every day I talk about how I feel, I list some gratitudes, I make a list of how I want to show up in the world and that practice.

And by the way, I’ve been doing journaling almost every day. I mean, literally almost every day since August of nineteen ninety seven. So, you know, that’s a lot of self reflection, but I feel like I’m I’m alright. I came to a good place and journaling is a big part of that.

And then the third part of that habit is every morning I do a little professional, I mean personal or spiritual development reading. Not very much. Usually it’s only a page or two. You know, whether it’s a self development book, a personal development book, James Clear, Atomic Habits, or whether it’s David Hawkins or you know, or Michael Singer, a spiritual teacher, whether it’s a religious text, but something that feeds my something that makes me better.

I want to be a better business person, but I want to be a better business person because I’m a better person. And so by having that habit, those three habits actually, I feel like I have made slow, steady, real progress in becoming a calmer, happier, better person, which has led me to being a more astute business person, which has led to success.

So there it is. Those three things. If you do those things, if you go all in and by all in, I don’t mean you have to spend five hours every day. I mean, you spend a little bit of time every day thinking about working towards building a habit upon building that muscle, you will become the kind of person and become the kind of business person that really is almost unstoppable.

And that’s what you want, isn’t it? That’s what I want for you certainly is for you to build a better business that allows you to have a better life, to have more impact in your community, to be happier, to make more money, to do all of the wonderful things that you deserve because you’ve made that commitment to being a business owner in today’s world. So, I hope that you found that helpful. If you have any habits or any thoughts on what I’ve shared with you here today, please put it down in the comments below.

But just as importantly, make sure you register for the Retail Success Summit. Alright, everybody. I’m Bob, and we’ll see you next week.