You matter.

You have impact.

You have influence.

This is important. You as an independent retailer are the heart and soul of your community.

So think about the impact that you have. Think about the influence that you as an independent brick and mortar, as a local retailer have. Think about it at all the levels. Customers, you have the opportunity to make people’s day every day.

Tens, dozens, sometimes hundreds of times a day, you and your team make people happy. You make you uplift them. You brighten their day.

Think about the people who work for you. You hire and employ people. Not only does it keep the money in town rather than send the money to Arkansas or Minneapolis or Seattle.

Your money stays in town. But it goes deeper than that also.

When you build a great culture, you give your people something. You know? It’s a real gift. A good employer, a good leader is a real gift. People come into your store. They work for a while. They leave feeling good.

Often, you’re one of the first employers a young person has ever had, so you’re giving them skills. You’re showing them leadership. You’re giving them things that they’re gonna use for the rest of their lives.

And think about the influence that you have in your community. When you participate in town wide or city wide events, when you do cause marketing, when you do donate, when you do participate in the life of your community, All of these are the things that all add up to you having a tremendous influence in your community.

And this idea of the indie influence is so important to us that we actually made that the theme of this year’s Retail Success Summit. The Indie Influence.

Be inspired.

Be brilliant.

Be you.

You know, when you come to Grand Rapids and you sit in the room with hundreds of other independent retailers, you’re going to be inspired.

You will get information that will help you grow a better business. You will meet people that will influence you and inspire you to become a better business person, to become more involved in your community, to have more impact.

And when you learn these strategies, when you get this inspiration, it leads to you being more brilliant.

You know, the better business person you are, the more impact, the more influence, and the more income you’re going to make. But the the final thing and perhaps the most important thing is when you sit in a room full of successful independent retailers, you give yourself the permission to go back to your store, to go back to your community, and be you, to be the most authentic version of you. You know, one of your greatest competitive advantages as an independent retailer is your ability to be yourself, your uniqueness.

Last year, the very first lines of the Retail Success Summit, The opening of my opening keynote was, you can’t out Amazon Amazon.

You can’t out Walmart Walmart.

But Amazon and Walmart together can’t out you you.

So think about this. When you develop skills, when you become inspired, when you get all of that information start rolling around in your head, when you’re working on your business, not in your business, when you’re away from the day to day, all of a sudden, that information’s going to crystallize into something that you can bring back to your business, to your community, and you will have more influence and more impact and, yes, more income. So right now right now until, April nineteen, there is the early bird special on the retail success summit. So, normally, the retail success summit is nine hundred and ninety seven dollars. Until the nineteenth, it’s only four hundred and ninety seven dollars for the first person and two ninety seven for each additional person.

So right now is the time to register. And, you know, we’ve been doing this is our seventeenth year. We’ve been doing this a long time. And I can tell you for a fact that if you come, if you’re not if your mind isn’t blown, that you can come to us and we will give you all of your money back plus a thousand dollars. How about that for a better than money back guarantee?

Nobody else does that better than money back guarantee. I am so confident that you will leave inspired, brilliant, and you that, yeah, we’re giving you a way better than money back Grand Rapids, register, make your travel plans, Grand Rapids, register, make your travel plans, and be prepared to have even more indie influence.