Hey, it’s Bob. And in this episode of Real Retail TV we’re going to explore this idea that money loves speed. Money loves speed. If you’ve been part of our community for any amount of time, you know that I love a good concept, a good framework, a good catchphrase, anything that will help you remember important business lessons. And money loves speed has been valuable to me, and I hope that this episode of Real Retail TV makes it valuable to you. So let’s think about this. Money loves speed. So an example. So let’s just say you have an opportunity. The opportunity presents itself and you know how to make a good decision quickly and act on it. That opportunity will be acted on more quickly and you’ll make more money, money loving speed. Now let’s flip that on the other side. If you have a problem that needs to be solved and you can solve that problem quickly and effectively, that problem goes away and you save money or you make money, money loving speed. The thing to recognize about money-loving speed and making decisions that will speed things up is that whenever you’re making decisions on your own, You’re making those decisions through the filter of your experiences, your skills, your wisdom, or you might be making them through the lack of your experience and the lack of your skills and the shallowness of your wisdom. So if you can make good decisions, you will accelerate your success. Which is why it’s so important that you surround yourself with great people. You see, if you have great people, especially, particularly if you have great independent retailers in your corner on your team, you start to think better, you start to decide faster and act sooner. What does that mean? It means speed. It means money, and that’s the name of the game. So I’m encouraging you to think about doing this, to be part of a group of independent retailers that can give you access to what they know for what they think and how they do things. So you can get better faster. How do you do that? You can create your very own group, uh, your own mastermind of local merchants. Think about the people you know and you like and you respect and get them together regularly. Talk about your problems, talk about your issues, solve problems, help each other understand opportunities so you. Local merchants, people you know locally are one way to get a group like this together. Another thing to do is to do that with your peers, your industry peers. You know who the good people in your industry are. You know the people you like, you know the people you would like to associate with and share knowledge and information with. Get them together. We’re going to meet regularly and talk about these things. This is one of the beautiful things about Zoom or you can join our new peer to peer group called the Retail Room. There’s information on it down below, you can look at it, but that will be a peer to peer group that’s facilitated by me and Susan. Important to note that the room is not me giving a webinar every week. The room is a peer to peer group facilitated by me and Susan. And there’s a huge difference, right? This is not a coaching program per se. This is sort of a mastermind where everybody gets together and solves problems and looks for opportunities, helps hold each other accountable, and really, you know, that whole mastermind. Kind of experience and you will get better faster. You will solve problems more quickly. Let me give you a couple of examples, the kind of things that a group like this could possibly think of just thoughts. So, let’s say you are having a problem with someone on your team and you don’t know what to do. So if You’re not going to make money love speed. If you are sitting around and hoping that the problem goes away, you know and I know that the problem won’t go away. Right? But we hope, we wish, we might pray that the problem will go away. But imagine being in a room where somebody says, hey, I had this exact same problem. This is what I did. This is how the problem was solved. Now you have not only information, but you have encouragement and courage to go out and do something about it. Another thing that happens in a group like this, when you say something like this, is they go, Just do it. You know what needs to be done. Do what you have to do. Release that person back into the industry. So solving staff problems together is one of the things that happens in a group like this. Another example, this might have happened to you even. Imagine Somebody from a town down the road comes into your store and he’s a landlord. She’s a landlord and she said, you know, I love your store and I have a perfect location for you in the road down the road. Would you like to have a store in my town? And of course, that sounds really good, right? You get excited, somebody likes what you’re doing, makes you feel good. Been there, done that. And so without a group, you might. Decide to do it just based on your emotions, but with a group they will ask you questions. They will hold your feet to the fire. They will share things like they will ask you the hard questions. Can you finance it? Do you have the systems in place? Do you have a training program in place? Do you have a buying system in place? Are you personally ready to run two stores? And when they’re done with their questions, it’s your decision to make and you might say, I’m ready, baby. Let’s open that second store. They might also say, you’re not ready. And if you’re not ready, them helping you make that decision will save you an enormous amount of time. And stress and yes, money. I can’t tell you how many people I have talked out of second stores because they weren’t. Ready for it. Another example is resources. Let’s say that you uh don’t have a professional buying service on your team yet and you’re thinking about it, you know, you’re, you’re, you know, I know I need to up my inventory management game and I’m thinking about hiring a service. I’m thinking about this particular service. Somebody in your group will say, might say, I use them. I love them. You should go with them. Somebody in the group might say, you know, I used this other person and they just weren’t that good. But making the right decision about who to choose, which is an important decision, is another example of the wisdom of the group. And the wisdom of the group is so important. So if you’re listening to this and thinking this is exactly what I need, this is, I need to have a group of independent retailers around me who I can toss ideas off, who I can be inspired by, who I can solve problems with, who I can support and they can support me, a group with real camaraderie. I want you to really think about being in a part of a group like that. Again, money loves speed. People helping you make good decisions will help you make more money. So, You can start your own group with local merchants. You can start your own group with industry peers. Or what I’m gonna say to you is you can join the retail room. All the information is down below. You can learn more about it, but Susan and I are really, really excited about it. The people who have joined so far are really, really, really good merchants. There’s 3 people who were in the platinum mastermind group, so that speaks to the quality of what’s gonna, who’s gonna be in the room. But again, you know, it’s It’s just one of those experiences that’s going to make your life as a retailer richer, more inspiring, less stressful, and yes, it’s going to allow you to make decisions faster and make more money because remember, money loves speed.