Unlocking the Secrets to Retail Success in 2025

Happy New Year, everybody. It's Bob Fibbs, the Retail Doc. I am here today.

It is Sunday, January 1st, 2025. Happy New Year. And wherever you're joining me in from live, please type in where in the world you are joining me from and what you sell in a brick and mortar store. That's my specialty. I speak to large groups, large brands, medium sized companies, and all the way down to single unit mom and pops all around the world on how we can change the world by the people working and shopping in retail. stores.

So I'm glad you're here today with me. If you're watching on the replay. Please type in where you are as well, because I read every comment. That's what somebody says, how do you get 350,000 followers on LinkedIn, which I have, or 18,000 here on Facebook or YouTube. I don't know the numbers on YouTube offhand, but it comes down to being part of that community you're developing. So if you are trying and you're struggling and saying, does this work, whatever, being consistent.

My goal is to always do a live video every first Sunday of the month, asking your questions and then answering them directly. The more you can be responsive, the better. And I thought of this great quote by George Bernard Shaw I'm going to share with you today.

This is my true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I think that's a great quote. I think we can go down the wormhole of comments and get lost on reacting instead of just realizing, is this the person I want to be?

And then saying, maybe it isn't who I want to be and choosing to do something great. So again, do me a favor, type in where you're joining me from. I know there's always a little bit of a lag between all the little platforms. And let me know you're out there. All right. So I have a lot of questions here today. I'm glad you're here. And one of the things I wanted to share with you was an email I got. Good morning, Rose. Glad you're here today from the National Speaker Association.

I'm a member, have been for, I don't know, 20 some years. I've certified speaking professional. A lot of things about that, that has helped me become a better speaker. And many of you heard me on the stage as a direct result of the things I have learned there. But in an email, they said that there was a new option and you could go to the convention. But for 50 people, you could get an upgraded room. You would get met at the airport.

You would get guaranteed front row seating at all of the events.

Sessions. And it went on all these perks. And it illustrated to me all of the ways that the word I'm calling for 2025, premiumization, premiumization is happening in everything. There's going to be a better grade. There's a better upgrade. There's something you could get for a little bit more.

And while some people are going into the deals and discounts and I've got to do more and they're crying the blues, they're not making money and they hate their job and they're not paying their employees, which is a whole horrible place to play. You're probably not even on this call because my message is you can change all that by the attitude you bring to it, right?

But if you are looking for a way to increase your sales in 2025, which I would assume you do, think about how you can premium your offerings, whatever that's going to be. For example, I know that Margo has a question about picture framing. And some people say, oh, well, you know, we'll help people frame it. Well, build it into a package of what you'll do for X amount, making sure that you're always talking about these other options to premiumization your offerings.

And in fact, I have premiumized SalesRx this year. We have a brand new version, SalesRx Plus, which has Sidekick Rex, our AI generated role play module. And it appears in several of the lessons for the associates. And what it does is you learn three to five minutes interactive lessons with me. And then you go into the module and they start talking to the computer based on that one thing I taught you.

And they have to master it. Like if there's five points, they've got to do about, they've got to hit all five. And if they don't, when they end the, the customer either walks out or they end it and they get a scorecard and they can see what they did right or wrong immediately. And then when they pass, they can go on to a quiz. That way, we know that they've learned what they're supposed to. We know they've shown it.

And more importantly, you can hold them accountable to it. It's a game changer. It's amazing. And you'll hear a lot more about it because we're having a springboard starting on January 30th. That's where we take you for five weeks. You have group coaching call with me and we walk you through the program for five weeks to get your manager up to speed before you launch it to the crew. And there's a reason why we have so many people who join SalesRx for one thing.

And that is because the facts, And this is one that struck me from Deloitte the other day. Companies lose $1,252 annually per employee due to poor training. Multiply that by a number of W-2s you are sending out this month, and you will see, wow, it really does cost me, because an untrained crew is pretty much the blind leading the blind, or we think we've got it. And a lot of times I find you're settling for pennies when you can have dollars.

So think about that. You'll be seeing a lot of videos. In fact, part of my goal is in the next 30 days, I'm going to have 15 new videos, short one to one and a half minute videos. I'm going to have all about this program because I think it's a game changer for retail. And more importantly, the people who follow me, if you believe in my worldview, that instead of sitting there and going like, oh, I like Bob, take action with it. Like literally thousands of other people have around you.

So there you go. Good morning, Lewis. I never know. It's Lewis, right? From Downers Grove, Margo, Nancy. Hey, I love your card. The Carolina Wren is my favorite buddy. And he's back up here again, like 25 songs that little bird sings. So I love that. And good morning, Alex. I think Alex might have been user of SalesRx number two and is still with me today. So I'm glad you're all here. Let's get to your questions.

So Margo asks, I'm a custom picture framer developing a value price line of matte glass, basic frame, looking for wording that doesn't say cheap or discounted other than feature values holly jumped in right after and she said oh well just rename your premium items with you know gold ornate frame and put other words to the top and that's not a bad idea my and i you know margo i am not a picture framer so i just look at the at what you're trying to do which i think is to

say you have something at a lower price point then you know well you can see a lot of my art on the wall. Framing is not cheap. A good framer is not cheap and good art isn't cheap. So I think I've just come up with a basic package program, some way that anybody could understand it. So maybe you're going to say frame almost anything up to 12 by 14 for just $99.

I don't know if that's reasonable. I don't know if that's what you're trying to sell, but sell it as a package, not as the individual mat or the individual glass or whatever it is. And then use the word I just did, premiumization up from there, right? So if somebody says, oh, what do I get with that? And you're like, you get a cardboard frame, you get plexiglass, and we put it in a frame for you, and it has a hanger on the back.

And they're like, oh, why could I get it with a mat? Oh, sure, we can upgrade from there. Maybe that's going to be the way it is. But I think if you think of a bundle, that's going to be the better way to go to market with that, Margo, instead of trying to say each piece is different. I hope that helps. And if you want clarification on that, you know, comment below. And Christian, good morning. Glad you're there from Jakarta, Indonesia. It must be tomorrow.

You're seeing me tomorrow, I think. So that's great. Rose Shapiro. Oh, and Rose is here from Port Orange, Florida. And I need a couple of fresh ideas from Modi people.

To shop resale, not thrift, but high quality resale with new or like new women's designer fashions on consignment. My store is more like a boutique. And I think a lot of people still don't understand the difference between consignment and thrift stores. We're not the same. So Rose, I am a brick and mortar guy that sells products that are brand new. That is my, you know, that's why I work with Lego and Yamaha and a lot of big companies like that.

But I will say understanding, you know, consignment is a for-profit person. They split the money between the sellers and the, you know, the retailer and thrift stores are generally replying on donations and it's part of a charity, right? That's my basic understanding it. So I think you really got to target fashion enthusiasts, budget conscious professionals, and maybe echo conscious consumers is going to skew younger and just really narrow down who you're going after.

I think, you know, if you're really trying to say, oh, we're cheap and the other guys were ultra low price. I think that's chasing your tail. That's not going to help you. If any of you have any ideas, you can jump in here and type it in there. By the way, this always works better if you type in because I will have a dialogue with you if you will just type with me and I will be with you. I promise. Does that sound like good? Does that sound good? Put a Y in comments right now.

If that sounds good, put a Y in there. Take that first cautious step. Fair enough. And then also, it's funny, I did work with a consignment shop in Frederick's, Frederick, Maryland, and I was part of a downtown association thing. And I suggested to the owner, please just get out your smartphone. And every day you could walk through your store and say, oh, look, this is what I got new. That's that we got new in today.

The key for this though, is I think too many people go through and they're like, oh, we got this pink hat in and it's only $24.95. It's like, no, that's not it. You have to show something that piques their attention. What could I do with this? What are three ways I could use this, right? So if it's this hat, I would put it on my head, but my hair looks great and I've got to do those videos I told you about. So, you know, maybe you're going to say, you know, wear it this way,

wear it that way, or, you know, do it as a display to hold candy. It doesn't matter. But I know Stacey, if Stacey's on this call, Stacey is from... Lifestyles of Saratoga and Union Hall Supply up in Albany. And she always looks at the customer and says, I've got to give you three ways to wear anything I sell you. Otherwise it's going to hang in the closet. And I love that idea. Why couldn't you look at that rose and take one item each day that's brand new

and say, yeah, you could do this with it. You could dress it up. You could dress it down. You could go through and show the coat. You could dress it up with this or dress it down with that.

But video is your key. And here's the thing most people forget. Well, it's new for 2025. We spent all of our time saying our website is the most important thing. My Facebook page is the most important thing. My Instagram hashtags are the most important thing. And that still is sort of true. But what the algorithms are doing now is they're showing your content to people who are not following you, who are not your friends, who didn't find the hashtag.

The algorithm just figured, oh, So these are guys, this person likes watching videos about retail. I'll show you more of these. And so organic is going to be the buzzword of 2025, that the sponsored posts don't get me started on Facebook. If you stay at the end and you're interested at the end, remind me to tell you my Facebook saga of the last seven months. But in a short story, I am not advertising on Facebook because I was hacked and there's lessons for you there. So in any event, organic.

So you want to have content that is relevant to your audience and hyper focused and loyal. In fact, I have somebody else has a question I'll probably answer about video, but video where you are showing something that they can do different or three different ways with the clothing and keep up with it. That's the big commitment, right? I always say, take one commitment for the new year. And I think you should decide, obviously, to join SalesRx because quite simply, there's that massive figure.

If you think that it doesn't matter, it does. If you see people walking in through your store, making the dreaded loop and walking out, that's on you and that's not on them. It's not on the merchant's problem. It's because they don't feel anything. We go into a brick and mortar store to feel something, to feel valued, to feel seen, and to feel hopeful.

If you've got bitter Betty or bitter John behind the counter and they're scrolling through their phone and let me know if you need anything and you're frustrated, say, I've told them to this. They just don't listen. I've told them to listen and they don't listen. Well, then look at what you're doing. It's not working. So, yeah, you could fire them. Okay. But that's still not the issue. The issue is you don't believe training matters.

And you're forgetting that you're in the Olympics if you're in a retail store. You're in the Olympics. You need to perform at a high level with training repeated over and over and held accountable. When things aren't made, when sales aren't made, when we lose sales, you need to have that conversation. Why did they lose it? Oh, they didn't like anything we had. Wrong. I don't believe that. No one's walking into a brick and mortar store in 2025 and saying, oh, I wonder if they have this.

They already know what's out there because they've already been online or they use perplexity.ai and it told them something's out there. but they were curious to come into your store and it gave you a chance to win the sale. And if you're not reaping the benefits of that, that's on you. It's not on your merch. It's not on, oh, but the politics are just so, shut up. It has nothing to do with that. Oh, but you understand, our street is all torn up. I don't care if they walked

into your store. Do you get me? They walked into your store. They gave you the chance. They raised their hand.

They're like, hey, I'm here. I'm in. What do you got? And if you don't see it, or worse, you think that it's all about they're looking for this one pink hat. Hey, if they wanted that one pink hat, they would have bought it online. No one's walking into a store just for that. Although this was cool. I saw the roommate on Broadway with Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone. And so she's trying to learn how to become a salesperson. And she goes, couldn't I just say, and please just give me your credit card.

And they sold this in the lobby. And I just thought that was just too funny. But we get caught up on the pink hat. Oh, I love these pink hats. Well, who gives a crap? If you don't sell it, you're going to own 12 of those or 24 of those. You know, a lot of shows are going on right now and everybody's going, oh, I can already go to the buying shows. Isn't it fun? It's only fun when you can know what your customers want and they buy it repeatedly.

Not what you like, right? It's what the customer likes. Is that relevant tonight with anybody? Anybody care with that? Give me a, give me a thumbs up. Give me a like, yes. Talk to me. Talk to me. Come on, come on, come on. Talk to me, goose. Right. Isn't that the thing? Christina says, when I'm interested... My stream yard is getting a little weird here today. When I'm introducing cheaper products to a customer, I use the phrase budget-friendly, and it lands well, at least my customer.

Hey, thanks, Christina. Thanks for jumping in. I appreciate that. And Rachel, you're exactly right. Content is the key. And Mike, you joined me. Hey, sweet. All right, great. Awesome. All right, we're going a little long today, but there's a lot of... I hope this helps. This is kind of my... I haven't talked to you for two months.

Nobody gave me questions in December, so I've got a little pent-up energy here for you. David says, what are your top three tips to increase foot traffic in January and February? All right, David, I went to your site and you did a video, which was cute with a fly swatter. I didn't get the fly swatter, but I got that you wanted to do something that caught people's attention. And then you pointed on the wall to this is on sale and this is on sale and this is on sale and this is on sale.

And that's fine, but I wasn't sure why you didn't have as much fun with your products, right? Again, go back to the content. What three ways? You have a lot of jeans and you talked about, you have Vori and some of those. Vori's on fire, right? They have their own stores. What could you do to say, this is what you need, right? Tired of, and then fill in the blank. That's all of you, right? Tired of going into your closet and putting out the same stretched out sweatpants

that make you feel fat. Well, Vori doesn't do that. And here's why it does this. Maybe you show someone walking out of the fitting room. Two people walk out in sweatpants and say, doesn't this feel better? Imagine how much more you'll be able to accomplish your goals when you feel like you look great. That would be one video, right? 60 seconds, 70 seconds. Do that repeatedly. Here's the thing. Most of us, you're listening to me and saying,

oh, this is great. Great. Oh, love this, Bob. Are you taking notes? Are you actually going to go out and do it? Or you just say like, oh, Bob's on a rant. Because Bob can get on a ramp pretty easily. But all I want you to do is take action, which again, go back to thinking that everything that happens in your store is either your fault or your triumph.

It's not the customer. So when you're asking me one of the three top ways, number one is video, video that shows you engaged in the product, not look at all this stuff we've got, it's on sale. Not interesting, right? So, or another way to do it, David would have been, so with all of our jeans, I think your jeans were on 59 bucks on New Year's Eve, if I'm not mistaken.

And to say, so now's the time to stock up and get three, because a lot of these come in different washes, be perfect in the spring when you forget, when you've lost five pounds, whatever it's going to be. Give them some thought. Here's the thing. I feel like I'm giving a master class today. Here's the thing. In the old days, way back when there was a counter and people had to ask for everything, they would say, oh, I want that up there.

In the old days, they would say, oh, that's okay. It'd be like you pointing out and saying, I want some meat. Great. There's a cow over there. You can buy that. And that worked for a long time. And now, if you don't like meat, just forget this analogy. I can't really work with carrots on this. Nowadays, they want you to go and take it, butcher it.

I want you to put it on the barbecue. I want it exactly 175 degrees, black on the outside, warm on the inside, and I want you to cut it up, put it in my mouth, and then I want to think about buying it. That's how basic we have to get down to when we're talking about our products. The more we just say, yeah, look, we got the carrot, we got the cow, it's here, it's not going to resonate because we have so many things that are finding us on our cell phones.

So many things are taking our time that are forgettable. So how are you going to be memorable is saying this is for you and knowing that customer. That's why I keep going over SalesRx because I know we have transformed companies. Scott Abel was able to sell his store because he literally doubled his volume. We're not million dollar businesses here because he religiously used SalesRx. Whatever you decide to do, you have to be all in and not a voyeur in 2025.

So that's one is video answering your question, David. We're I like question to use video number two is use your list, which means if you have anyone's email address, you should have a regular newsletter out, which kind of does the same thing with your video. You could embed one of your videos to get them to watch it. But the key is having some more information. So have a. I don't know. I think you're, I'm going to keep going back to you, David. I think you're in Chicago or Illinois somewhere.

So know what the weather is and be able to talk about, you know, three tips for weatherproofing your shoes because leather shoes, the soles wear three times faster than wet. So you could talk about how you use Needsfoot oil or whatever it's going to be. And it's really ingrained, put a page on your website and then tweak it. So on your newsletter list, there's maybe one or two sentences that pique their interest so that they go like, Oh, I wonder what that would be.

And they click it because the click is what matters. What we care about is did they get that email and take action? Because that means they really did. And I won't kid you. I have a hundred thousand people on my newsletter list and the click rates are low because we don't, I mean, the open rates, we don't know because Apple is not sharing that with most people. And the open rates used to be, oh, my open rate is 20%. My open rate is 55.

That's great. but the click rate is much lower but the people who click are the people that believe my world value those are the people that you look forward to saying oh well then you could you could follow up with these people and say what did you like most about my spring offering what what should we offer for in menswear for 2025 or whatever it's going to be talk to them religiously all right there you go and and then my final take for all of you is move everything around i

get it you've always had the cards here and the, I don't know, the air blower, the leaf blowers over here. And you know, you had the motorcycles here. I don't care. Just mix it all around. Just move it around. It doesn't matter. Oh, but we've always had it that way. I know just you'll, you release a lot of energy. It's fun. And more importantly, that old merchandise that you had suddenly will be seen new by your employees and by your customers.

And instead of just saying that stuff is all 50% off move that in the back and have people be able to see what's new and fresh so there you go that was a long one did that help anyone and that help anyone give me a thumbs up anyone think that helped.

Yes anyone anyone glad you're here john hey good all right are live videos better than pre-recorded rose that's a great question i think they are but live videos should be boosted even with just five bucks underneath it so that you can pay facebook to show it or instagram and there's there's some debate over it but yes there's generational differences but the reality is instagram and facebook are still going to be your main items if you can do youtube like

right now i'm doing youtube linkedin and facebook on this live video but live means that things can go wrong as you. Lit the bowl of my little things I didn't want to think about from 20 previous year. And the fire alarm went off. And that's why live is fun. If there can be something different, but if you don't feel comfortable with it, then just go through and record one yourself. Cause I'm doing 15, as I told you, 15 about sales or X, why you need to do it,

what the numbers show us. And more importantly, how easy it's going to be. And Jill, I'm so thrilled, Jill, you are the best because Jill has been with me forever. And Jill switched her subscription from our classic program, which starts at 390 for up to five users and switched into SalesRx Plus when I showed her Rex and she was just, oh my gosh. And Jill's a teacher. So she gets it, why it's so important. If you don't get it, just trust me.

It's about learning and about them absorbing it and being able to master it. And that only happens from interactive videos and it happens from testing. Yeah, there's other people you could buy. There's competitors of mine have taken my training and then tried to knock it off. And the reality is just watching a bunch of videos isn't gonna change anything unless you have a program and you're a teacher. I am a teacher. I come from teachers. I know what it's supposed to do and not

do. And more importantly, sales are actually been vetted for the last eight years. This is a system that some of the largest retailers all the way down to the smallest have had success with. And if they can have it, so can you. So there you go.

And Julie says, What are the recommended sales strategies for excess stock of shoes, please? Well, Julie, that's interesting. One of my coaching clients, I was just talking about this on our call last week. And, you know, I'm an old shoe dog. I got my degree in college from working in shoe stores. I started in Nunn Bush shoe store and went on to Florsham shoe stores. And back then...

When shoes got broken up, right? So you buy a group of shoes and that's usually 12 to 14 and you sell out the heart sizes, right? So you got rid of all the nines to 11s and you got the 13s and you got the sevens and these weird things and the middle size are all gone. You can't reorder the shoe because it was a one-time deal. So what we did is we call it odds and ends and they got a markdown to a figure. So let's say it's a $50 shoe and you put a five on it.

All right. So if somebody sells that item for more than 10 times that number, you give them $10 from whatever that sale is, right? So if they can sell at a full price, they get 50 bucks. You're reporting the employee 10 bucks. That's great. That's the most immediate way you can do it. The advantage, though, is if, gosh forbid, you've sold them two or three other pairs and they want to discount it and say, hey, because you bought two or three, I can give you these for $20.

Great, but they don't get the $10. but they move the product. The key is that you're always thinking about how to spiff that. So that's what I suggest more than anything. But frankly, the reason why we end up with XX stock of shoes is they're not being shown. You are going through and waiting for that person to say, oh, I'll take this. And you sell them that one thing, the pink shoe that says, please give me your credit card. It's an odd shoe.

And you don't sell them any of the findings that go with it. And you don't suggest a casual pair or something else.

And you're selling men's wear in particular men's clothes or men's shoes once we find something we like it we want to go deep with it because we've done the buying and now it's just easy to buy several so if that's not happening for you julie look in the mirror and say are we really selling shoes or are we clerking shoes are we waiting for someone to say you have this in a nine and we go in the back and there's a nine and we sell it to him we go john had a big sale he sold that you know,

$191 pair of tennis shoes. Did he sell it? Did he? Really? All right. All right. So I, I'm going to, I have, I have two more, I have two more questions for you. And then I'm going to just look up here real quick. Anyone have any questions for me live? Yageshwar, you are saying many times finance takes over with reductionist mindset if damage is the brand long-term.

Any, well, reductionist means you're, you know, you're going for whatever's cheap, I think is what you're trying to say, and that's really hard to do.

Christian's asking me, what are my top three things to execute a business plan for 2025? The key is build a following, get them to pay you some money, and then make sure you're over-deliver. That's been how I built my brand over the last 30 some years. My gosh, it is 30 years. My gosh, it's 30 years in 2025. Unbelievable. But you have to consciously think about how you're going to do that every single day instead of, oh, I'm going to chase this shiny thing, or I'm going to do this thing.

Rose, glad to hear you're going to start today with that. That's excellent. I want to hear all about that. Exactly, Mike. You always want them to say this place always looks so different. Whoops. You want people to always say this place looks different every time I come in. The more you get tired of it. Oh, and side light, another little side rant, is people who don't see what the customer sees, right? Because you all go in the back door. And yet somebody who walks in the front

door sees why is that sign out at 4 p.m.? Why isn't there any lights on? Why is the front window got half drunk Starbucks cup or something in it? Because you're not looking at it from the customer's viewpoint. So always making sure you're doing that. Yeah, cost reductions will always be a challenge, I think. But at the end of the day, see, there you go. There's Jill. I knew it. Get the new program. And sales makers versus order takers, that's the key. That's the key.

Costs and profits will be challenging in coming years. Dude, AI, I don't think so. AI is not going to be that. AI is going to be, I think it's going to be a homogenation of it. You know, I can be clever when I write something. And I certainly can go through AI and say, hey, does the order of this make sense? And a lot of times it will say, like, I think you should add this and this. I'm like, great. Somebody could have been confused by that. Wonderful.

But nobody will be more human than a human being. So don't get me wrong. I do believe AI is going to be the start of Skynet from Terminator. We don't know what's being created. We have no idea. And they're just like, isn't this great? It is up until the point where we think that we don't have to think. And I think that's the challenge we have with young people who don't have to do homework because they used AI and teachers are trying to figure it out.

The whole point of homework was to get the mind to think. Going back to SalesRx, there's a reason why you have to go through the Sidekick Rex generator to get your mind to go, because I need the mind to have synapses to go, oh, that's how that works. If I don't do that, if I don't do the homework, it's like, you know, I was a music major. I've got my degree in conducting. And when I got to college, I didn't have time for practicing piano. And I tried to fake it.

Like I would take the lesson and then I wouldn't practice until like the day before. And I'd come in and my professor like, why are you here? Like, what are you doing? And I thought I could fake him. And he's like, no, because until your fingers have to actually do the movements, you didn't learn anything. And it's the same thing in sales. You know, oh, I love selling. Oh, really? You love selling to people who love you. What about people who don't love you. What about that new customer?

What experience do they have? So think about all of that because AI is great, but in a world where AI is moving people to not think, it becomes even more clear that the people on the sales floor have to think. And the way we can do that now is with technology that helps solidify what they're learning and make it into a way that's actionable. I hope that helps. All right. So Bob Rodriguez, you have asked me several things. Over the years about getting a team to follow you.

You're a shift leader, I know, and you have five-minute meetings with your team, and they don't have the same input as you do. They don't have the passion that you do. They don't really care to do it as much. I get all that. And you're trying to motivate them. And I would just suggest you've been a shift leader for a while. Why aren't you asking for how to be a manager or get a path with this bigger retailer you work for and become an assistant manager?

Because without authority, it's very hard to motivate people. And a shift lead is just a hard place to be. So I would suggest that you go and find out what can you do to get more authority and work your way up the chain rather than being frustrated where you're at. I hope that helps. All right, Barb has an interesting question to round us out here. What's the ideal temperature for a retail store relative to outside temperature during the season?

Our employees often set the temperature based on what makes them feel comfortable thinking it's what the customers want. Well, I would say, I mean, any book will show you at 68 to roughly 70 degrees for most people. I mean, I know in Tampa in the summer, it's got to be set to like 61 or something, right? Because it's so cold because Northerners were not used to that. But the key is don't set it to what's most comfortable to your crew because they're running around, hopefully.

And the warmer you make this door, it does feel cozy, but it can kind of deaden your instincts, you know, just cozy and you can get a little lethargic. And on the same token, having a store that is too cold in the winter, people don't feel comfortable to try and close. So that's a big deal of apparel. And one of the tips I had, you know, I used to work at the Blamo Fashion Center. It was a big mall in Southern California. And one of the things you learn about malls is there are no heaters.

They have air conditioning. They don't have heaters. So the only way we could keep the store warm was at night, leave all of the fluorescent lights on so that the heat would at least stay in there that it built up from the customers and everything and that seemed to work i hope that helps i hope that's also not echo unfriendly but hopefully that helps keep you warm with that and more importantly i hope that you think about.

I hope you're, I don't know what study you're saying that machines have replaced 200 of the workforce. The reality is if workers want to have a job, they have to earn it every day. If entrepreneurs want to have a job, they have to earn it every day. I think we're on the cusp of a lot, a lot of more entrepreneurs coming onto the scene.

I think a lot of people are going to jump without necessarily taking the time to learn what it takes to be a successful business, but we have a generation that has grown up on Shark Tank and they have learned about elevator pitches and how to do things. And that's an exciting time. A lot of people are figuring it out. But the key is that, yeah, AI is a tool, things you can do with it. But if you're not more human, when I walk into your store, there's a store across the river from me.

And I walked in, have a beautiful Instagram page, beautiful brands that I would buy, really like it. I walked in, I was in their store for 15 minutes. The week before Christmas, two employees, not one could say a word to me. And I'm just sitting there and I sent him a little note. It's like, I don't get it. How can you have products that cost that much money and a luxury fan base, and you don't even realize the experience you've got? Funny thing is, never wrote back to me.

Tells me like, well, you really don't care, do you? So while there might be more competition, if you're looking to grow your sales, if you're looking to hold your people accountable, if you're tired of hitting your head against the wall and saying, I told them, they just don't do it. Then realize it's on you. And that's what the end of this is going to be about.

That yes, if you join SalesRx Plus, which is the one with Rex, it runs $5.90 a month for up to five users, and then you can upgrade from there. If you join that, I'll have five group coaching calls, which will start, excuse me, January 30th of this month. And for five weeks, I will take your managers through it because you have to get the managers up to speed.

They've got to know what the program is. They've got to know how to, well, to sell it some ways, but also how to look at, wouldn't you rather have a crew that did this and this and this and this? If so, here's how we're going to do it. And we have a plan and all they have to do is lose all their garbage. I don't like to be trained. They'll never learn, et cetera. And just say, what if we could? And so that's what I'm going to leave you with today to think about on this Sunday morning.

What if we could, what if we could end up training our employees to do an exceptional job? What if we could make live videos that had people wanting to come in because they saw three new ways to use a product? What if we could go through and join our fan base and open a new store? Once you start asking those questions, then you ask yourself even better questions, which is, and how would I do that?

And I hope you'll choose following me, Bob Phibbs, the retail doc here, and on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on YouTube, whatever it's going to be. And just remember, we're about as happy and successful as we make our minds up to be. I'm Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doc. Thanks for joining me today and have a great rest of your Sunday.