#717: Retail Bootcamp 101: What It Is, Why It Works, and Who It's For

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Business can be a lonely game. But it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This week there is a familiar face in the house. Hello, Sara Burks.

Hello, everybody.

Always good to have you here. Back again to talk about all the things we're seeing and hearing the word on the street.

Oh, man, I love this conversation. I love being here. And, you know, we always talk about, like, what we geek out about. Ashley, you always like, call me out on. I like to geek out on numbers and team management and all the things and I think I gotta add to the list, like, I love geeking out about just helping small businesses reach their success, whatever that looks like. And so that's why I love. Thanks for having me today. I love this conversation and it's very timely, man.

I agree. All the timeliness, the geeking out part. I get so excited when you and I meet somebody who comes to us. They've had a struggle or they've hit a roadblock, or they just aren't sure where to go next. And we can work with them for a little while through Retail Bootcamp or whatever program it is. And then all of a sudden they come back and they're like, oh. And they have an aha moment. And we get to celebrate that with them. Like, that's the best feeling ever. So.

Oh my gosh. Right? You're right. So good.

Well, let's jump into it. So today we want to really specifically talk about Retail Bootcamp. And you guys know, if you're listening and you're not familiar with Retail Bootcamp, Sarah, you can tell us what it is in just a second. But as we talk about what it is, we're always hearing different success stories, like, what are people doing in Retail Bootcamp? What's working, what's not? Where are they focusing? And so we're going to kind of dive into the strategy of Retail Bootcamp today and kind of give you the word on the street of what's working. So as we do, Sarah, tell us what Retail Bootcamp is.

Well, let me start with what it is not. It is not just a stale course. It is not one of those things that, you know you're going to get a login, log in, watch these really boring videos and then just build it all on your own. It is definitely not that it is very hands on. It is Zoom Room with Ashley and I numerous times a year and industry experts and other retailers going through many of the same things you are and talking shop.

Right.

Like it is. You have a question, let's get it answered. Kind of more of that small group coaching. So it's called Retail Bootcamp as a course. But, but man, sometimes I look back at some of the courses I took in school and I'm like, I don't even know if course is the right word for it, but I think people are hungry for that. Like, let me be seen, let me get my questions answered. Let me be in the right circles. And that's really what it is. It's more that small group coaching mentality. The six layers of retail, we really break retail down to what, what helps retailers earn that success, reach those, those places in their business that they can be really proud of. And in order to do that, we look at these short steps that gets us to that long vision that we are trying to attain that you personally, as a small business owner is trying to attain. And so we do, we, we break all this down and we go bite sized pieces along the way. And I love, I love seeing these people that continue to come back semester after semester, you know, you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. That's that old saying. And right now, this last round, I know you can agree, we had some students that were back and they were just like raising their hand every zoom and then unmute. And they would talk about these successes that they said, oh my gosh, you guys were right. Keep coming back. It took me, it took me a few times to put this together. It took me a while to build this strategy, but now look at where I'm at. And they would just go on and talk about the successes they were having even in today's current economic state. And all the things. And so much to be proud of.

Yeah. So inside of Retail Bootcamp and that, you know, the group coaching program, it's 14 weeks, twice a year, we do it lifetime access. As long as you're a member of the hub, like all these things that go into it, as you said, the bite sized pieces, this is really important because I think you would agree, a lot of retailers that we see come to us and they just aren't sure where to turn next. You know, I've tried this thing over Here. And I think I should grow. Maybe I just need Facebook ads. Maybe I just need more marketing. Maybe I just need employees. But where do you go to figure out what's really proven and what's the next step to take? And so that's how Retail Bootcamp was developed. Do you want to kind of highlight the six layers of retail?

Oh, man. For sure. So for all of you retailers out there listening, or those of you that are thinking about starting a small business, I would just open up your eyes to think of your, like, the overall health of a business. There's many different moving pieces, right? And in Inside Retail Bootcamp, Ashley and I always, we talk sports analogies a lot because, you know, business is a game. It's a game you're trying to win every single day. And you, you know, might match up against a different opponent at any given point. So you have to be prepared for those things. So with that, we always want to start out with a really solid foundation. We start off at the basic building blocks. Sometimes people might think it's a bit boring, but when you have that solid business foundation, you can really build a solid business up, right? And the next thing we talk about is all the inventory and profit strategy, right? We know we need to go buy inventory. We know we need to do all those things. We need to manage our finances, we need to learn how to pay ourselves, but we need to allocate different funds to different types or different parts of our business. So once we've established that, then we can move into those. That third layer, which is all about team and team management and getting the right people in our corner, AKA also the boutique hub, right? Like, we're here to support you along the way. Ashley and I as your coaches, but also not just personnel and payroll, but your attorneys, your bookkeepers, all of those kind of things to help you really, with that team, to build you a solid business going up now, you can lean into stage number four. Layer number four of Retail Bootcamp is all about selling, right? If we would have jump into this before we had all these other things in place and it just, it would not have worked. So we wouldn't have had the funding, we wouldn't have had the team strategy behind it. Maybe we wouldn't have had the systems and processes or even, you know, a good return policy. So now here we are in layer four. We're going to talk all things sales, sales channels, sales strategy, merchandising, e commerce, live selling, all the things. And then we can move from there into the content plan what kind of content do we need to be putting out there to get the right eyeballs onto our products into our store? All of those things before we move into that final layer, which is super exciting. Everybody likes to learn about digital marketing, digital ads, all of that. So it's a big picture view of your business broken down into smaller segments throughout retail bootcamp.

Yeah. We jokingly refer to it as the six layers of lasagna. I don't know why, other than our team likes to make jokes. So we laugh that everyone likes to eat the crunchy cheese layer on top. The marketing. But the crunchy cheese layer just wouldn't be the same if you didn't have the meat and the noodles and even the cottage cheese, which nobody likes the cottage cheese, but it makes the lasagna what it is. So we've got to get all the pieces in there to make it all make sense. So let's go back, Sarah. If we kind of digest the six layers, which I love the six layers personally, because I feel like wherever you're at in your business, you can always analyze on a scale of 1 to 10 out of the six layers, where am I weak, where am I strong? And that should give you a good indication of where do I start, where do I need to put in the time and effort? And we even do this with our mastermind group. Like they continually go back and review where they at with the six layers and then we coach into each of those areas. So let's think about this last semester, maybe the last couple semesters and success stories or feedback that we've heard from our students or maybe areas where they've really drilled down and focused on some things in each of the layers so that those who are listening can maybe learn or take away or just think differently about their own business. So if I went back to layer number one, the foundation of it all, which includes your operations plans, your mindset and productivity, and also your branding, where do you think people should start inside of that layer?

Oh, gosh. One of the big things that I will say, I'm just going to use this example from this most recent semester is the real why behind your business and understanding. Like, what is the passion to get into this business to begin with? And it's funny because some of the students that we have followed along through the last number of semesters, they've realized what they thought their why was at first, once they really got into it, that changed a little bit and they realized that maybe they were setting out to serve a customer that no longer existed. Right. And so I think that is what's super important in layer one, when we really dial in on what is the why behind your business? What do you stand for in this industry?

Right?

Like, what's going to set you apart? Why do people care about you and your business? You know, as we always say, they're voting with you with the dollars they pull from their wallet to say, yes, I want to buy this from you. It's basically a vote saying, yep, I want to see you still live to survive another day of retail, you know, but why are you in business and who are you supporting? And therefore, if you know that why and you identify who that customer is, it makes the rest of this journey a lot easier. I think the really cool thing about watching people advance through retail bootcamp is the people who have maybe, you know, shifted their mindset a little bit of who that customer is and who the person is that they really want to serve that audience and get just drilled down to the nitty gritty about who that person is, where they live, what they need, what their struggles are, and how they as the retailer can really guide them in that, in that journey and bring in those lifetime values and those make them customers for life. So in the foundation, to me that's, that's like the aha moment. And that's the thing to say, stay in your lane, do what you do. Let the Sheens, the temu's, let, let the big box stores, let Target, let them go and let them do, you know, to quote Mel Robbins right now, just let them. But you be you. And I think that's super powerful.

Oh, I totally agree. When I think about stores and I'll think about like layer number one in a lot of the calls that I have with people, I overestimate, or maybe I underestimate the benefit of just time blocking and working on your plan of productivity for the week. I see so many retailers and I've been there myself where I have just like this massive running to do list and I feel like I'm always running and never caught up. I think a lot of people have felt like that, like I'm just doing, doing, doing all the time. So the more I can sit down with someone in layer number one and just really reflect on, okay, how do we just batch? Like, you know, the marketing things go on these days and working with vendors go on these days and the date with the numbers go on these days and just creating a system and a plan, plan for the week so that we can be more productive and before you even hire a team, I think that's gotta come first. Like you have to have a plan for yourself as the CEO of your business and the mindset of a CEO before you can expand your team. So to me that's one of the most important parts that I see in layer number one as well.

Yeah. To your point, I think a lot of people just over, they just skip over that. They just assume that, that you know, whether it's a 6, 8, 10, 12 hour workday is just going to be, or they'll, they're going to, they're busy so they must be getting something done. And I think that is something that we really pull the veil over or off of people's eyes in layer one and help them identify like how productive am I really being?

Yeah.

And where am I? Yeah, it's not effective. And how am I going to get to this goal that I just pulled out of thin air if I'm constantly going one step forward, three steps back? So I think that I love the time blocking implement of layer one. Yeah, I think it really does set again, you always talk about this, the difference between an entrepreneur and a CEO.

Absolutely. And okay, let's jump to layer two because I think if there's ever a place in the business that it's become more evident if you're wearing the CEO hat or the entrepreneur hat, it's layer number two. And that is all about products and profitability, inventory management, numbers. And this is one I'm going to pick on women in particular because this is the group that I see most often say I'm not good at my numbers and then kind of use that as like a shield or like a badge of honor or like some kind of device to say I don't really have to get to know my numbers in order to be successful when in fact you don't have a choice but to know your numbers to be successful. So what do you think is the biggest aha moment? Layer two.

Oh my gosh. I find the most satisfaction when we have people on the call that say, Sarah, I am no longer bank balance accounting. Like I have stopped just logging into my online banking and like saying, oh yeah, I still have money, life is good. No, that is a myth. We busted up right away this bank balance accounting situation and say no, we're going to figure we're going to dive into our, the health check of our business financially and make sure that we're allocating the right funds for my, my own personal payroll, rent, my staff, marketing, admin, Facility, all those things. We're allocating funds to each one of those buckets so that we can really build from there into, into our business. Fund it with inventory, fund it with team, keep the lights on, look for opportunities for expansion or whatever that might be. So that whole I don't know if I can afford it thing, we take care of all of that in layer two. Yeah.

And right, right from that point. One other thing you talk a lot about in layer two is the where does my money go Formula. And I get so excited when I hear from people and they're like, guess what?

What?

I'm allocating 10%, you know, to rent and I'm allocating 10% to paying myself first. And I've got all the profit first bank accounts set up and I know that I'm spending this percent on marketing and this percent on payroll and all the different things. So I think that's a huge eye opening experience too because often we see retailers who are just like, well, I made this money, I spent this money. Where it all went, I have no idea. But now I've got to pay taxes and I'm broke.

Yep. Yeah. Or they get to the end of the month and they're just like, oh my gosh, payroll is due in three days and I don't have the money. I don't have the money. So we make sure right away we coach to how to mitigate that risk, how to reduce that from happening and how to set up your budget. So if the course ended there, I think we'd be winning. I think, I think we would be winning. But we don't end there. We don't end there.

We could probably do 14 weeks just on layer two. I mean it's, there's enough there to literally go for Fortune.

Absolutely.

Yeah. All right. Layer number three is a big one. And sometimes there's people who disqualify themselves from layer three because they say, I'm a solopreneur, I don't have a team. And we like to say, yet, yet you're only as small as you're going to be today. So layer three is all about when do you hire, how do you hire? And then who's on your team outside of employees, this being your accountant and your attorney and your banker and your, your insurance agent and all the people who surround you that really still are your team, your family, who's still your team. What's been your biggest takeaway in layer three as of late?

Gosh, I think one of the big things is feeding off of layer one, not allowing yourself to become the bottleneck of productivity.

Right.

And then going ahead and just saying, I'm going to outsource some things. I am going to look for some help. I am going to. I've already allocated my funds from layer two. I've already started feeding the budget for payroll, and so I'm going to go ahead and use it. And I not only am just going to go hire some breathing person off the street, but I'm going to hire the right person. So we do a lot inside layer three about hiring, figuring out what does that person look like, what are the core qualities you're hiring for? What does it mean to be part of your team and get that buy in from a. From an employee so you can bring them in on day one, get them trained, they can become the mini you. Right. So it frees you up to do other things in your business. And we go well beyond that, just getting the person in the right chair, right seat in your business. But I think that for me creates so much freedom for our retailers that they kind of feel like at this point in the, in the course, they're starting to get their life back a little bit. Right? They're starting to see. They're starting to see the light and think, man, this is fun again. It is fun again. We want retailers to think back and say, this is why I went into this business. This is fun. This is where I want to be. Yeah.

Oh, that's so good. Have you thought about what it really takes to scale, to break through where you're at right now in your business and overcome some of the most common hurdles that we see in businesses trying to just become more profitable or to build more time into their personal calendar and to get their life back while they run a business that can operate without them. Well, that's what we do. Inside of retail bootcamp here at the Boutique Hub. Two semesters a year, once in January and once in June. 14 weeks of live group coaching. And inside, I want to share with you. There are some very common obstacles we see retailers facing that are simple fixes to help you break through to that next level. But it all has to come in order. You know, I often hear people say, hey, Ashley, should I just run Facebook ads for more traffic? And they think that's going to solve all of their problems. But the truth is, you can't run Facebook ads or add more traffic if you don't have the right products or know your customer or have a team and efficient processes built into your business. So inside of Retail Bootcamp there's a six layer strategy that we go through step by step with your business all the way from foundations and branding and your ideal customer to CEO and leadership management to building a team and profitability and being a profit first business understanding inventory management in turn retail math and formulas all the way up through sales strategy, e commerce, merchandising, all of the content management, management of all of your social media channels, emails, texts and of course Facebook ads. But we saved the best for last. So if you're interested in joining us and deep diving into scaling your business, no matter what you sell and whether you're new or you're a multimillion dollar brand just trying to break through to the next level, Retail Bootcamp has something for you. So check out our link in the show notes and enroll in Retail Bootcamp right now. So my takeaway from layer three, I think also would hopefully put them in the position of this is fun again. And that is when we see a situation where maybe someone's got a couple of employees, two to seven, I'll say, and they realize that one of them is a bad apple and they have come to Retail Boot camp and they are really stressing and weighing over the decision of do I let this person go? Maybe it's not that bad. And they're often just looking for reassurance to go with their gut instinct, which is this is not working out, but they're making excuses as to why they think it should. But I think when we go over things like really hiring, training, rewarding optimizing to your culture and your core values, it kind of gives people the freedom to say, you know what, this person isn't cutting the mustard. Here's why I can actually put my thumb on it. And so now I have a clear path to letting this person go. Cutting them free and replacing them with someone that wholeheartedly does fit what my culture is. So to me, I feel like I see a weight lifted off of people's shoulders when they're in that experience. And I love seeing that reaction. For sure.

Yeah, that is, I mean, that's your money at the end of the day that you're putting towards this person's payer check. And yeah, we want to empower you to make those big decisions. And maybe it's, maybe it's letting them go, maybe it's moving them to a different, you know, seat in the bus, whatever it might be. But we definitely, we hit layer three really hard because we know this is an emotional connection into your Personnel and there's a lot of different moving pieces that go along with it. And let's be honest, there's a lot of legal implications here as well. So we want to make sure you're trained up on those to bet better your business as well.

So. Good. All right, layer four, this is where we kind of shift to like I feel like layer one through three are very behind the scenes. We've got to get our ducks in order. Like it's you, the business owner that really has to work on those things. And then we get to layer four and it's kind of more of the fun creative side of the brain which people tend to gravitate this way anyway. Now we're like loosening up the reins and letting you get there. And layer four is all about sales, sales channels, sales strategies, all the different things. What's your go to in layer four?

Well, gosh, I think this changes a little bit every semester depending on who our, a lot of our students are. But we all like to see the money come in, right? Like this whole Jerry Maguire, show me the money. Well, in layer four we're finally getting where we're going to start seeing the money coming in, which is awesome. But I personally love to see our students become a little bit of like consumer behavior manipulators, so to speak. I hope that doesn't that. I hope that got some people's attention because we've all been shoppers our entire life, right?

You listening?

You've shopped almost every day probably since you had money in your pocket. You've been buying something whether it's a cup of coffee or up to a car, whatever it is you have. Consumer behavior. But what I think super interesting about this layer is like getting in the back end of a person's mind and helping understand why do they make the decisions they make. How do I get them to stay in my store longer to get to this section of my store to pick up this other little add on item? How do I get them to find to go to page five of my website? All of those things, they don't just happen, they really are manipulated. And if you don't think you are being manipulated as the consumer, stop and like look at the way people our stores have you move throughout their space or colors or fonts or different things they're using to capture your attention and add ons onto websites. It's all to produce more sales. And I love getting into this aspect of it and helping the retailer understand how they can be a bit more of A scientist when it comes to sales strategy and make that cha ching happen more often and getting that customer to purchase with you not only just more often, but when they do, they're actually buying more. So I know that's a big one. But there's a lot of moving pieces to the whole idea of sales strategy.

It really is. And it's in person sales, how you're training your staff, it's E commerce. We do a lot of conversion rate optimization and website audits. But I think both of you really share that. We love the merchandising piece of things. And you're big into like the physical merchandising, right? Or merchandising photo shoots or displays, like all of that. I love merchandising from the stance of launching collections. Like if you're a store that's just like, well, new arrivals, new arrivals, new arrivals, new arrivals don't really solve my problem. Everyone has new arrivals. So when you can start to merchandise in a way that solves my problem and gets me excited about where I'm going or what's coming or, you know, gift ideas for teachers or whoever it might be. Now you're talking now when you can solve my problems, I can spend more money.

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I think, I think it's worthy to note, like inside Retail Bootcamp, our content changes every single semester because it's very time sensitive. So, you know, this last round we had some, we had a lot of different conversations and live selling is really on the uptick, right. So we're seeing a lot of information coming and a lot of success, success coming with live sales. So this is something that we're adding in, we're talking more about, we're having real in time conversations about what that looks like, what the tech tools are to use, all of those kind of things and you know, how to have those conversations. Right now as, as we're navigating all the different things happening, you know, with tariffs and all the different things happening, it's just like, okay, how do I communicate that with my customer? How do I remain confident, you know, remain present where they feel confident shopping with me? There's sales strategy there, there's your voice being heard, all of those kind of things. I just want to add that that Retail bootcamp is constantly evolving and I think it's so fun because we get to be students of the industry and go out and present ourselves with industry experts and find out what's happening real time and bring that right back into the live coaching session. So I think, you know, sales are changing constantly. I wouldn't be surprised. By the time we get to layer four in the next round, there might even be a whole new sales strategy or new sales channel evolving that we, that we'll be bringing into retail bootcamp.

As well, for sure. All right, let's jump into layer 5, content strategy. Notice this isn't like content channels. It's not social media marketing. It's content strategy, which is very different. What's your favorite part? Oh, gosh.

I say this every time. I remember being that, that business owner and thinking, how do I get it all done? How do I get it all done? Now all of a sudden, I need to communicate with people on all these different channels. I need to become an expert and, you know, copywriter. All of this stuff I need to bring back my photography lessons right from 4H club or whatever I might have learned way back in the day. No, that's not the way it's going to work. Right. We want to help you build out a strategy to create content that converts. And there's a science behind all of that. And it's not just, you know, take a picture on your cell phone, post it, black dress, there it is. And that's enough. There's. You've got to build out a content strategy that you can, you know, time block that time where you're going to go ahead and build the content, then you're going to present it and you're going to repurpose it, and you're going to make, make use out of that. So those, whether it's you're ordering six items deep, 12 items deep, 24 items deep, that you're going to get that sell through off the content that you're putting out there. Right. The faster you can turn those, that inventory back into dollar bills, the more profitable you are. Your content strategy plays a huge role in that.

Yeah, I would just echo and kind of along that same vein, if you don't know how much traffic you need to your storefront or to your online store every single week to meet your sales goal, what is your marketing person doing? What's the point if you don't know the traffic number that you need? And so we try to walk through that step by step by step. So you can equate, okay, I'm spending this much time on Instagram and I'm making this many posts for the purpose of driving X number of traffic, which then at this conversion rate and this average order value should equate to this dollar amount in sales I think you can justify being on different social channels and sending emails and doing those things once you have the clear path from A to Z and the numbers all make sense. So we try to make that process really, really simple in that layer that's always exciting to see people catch a hold of that.

Yeah, I like that.

All right, last layer. The, the crunchy cheese layer. The one everyone jumps to and says, this one's going to solve my problems. But it doesn't unless you have the first five layers in order first. So talk about the crunchy cheese layer. Layer six, what's inside?

Oh, man. All things marketing. All things marketing. And marketing is a constant, evolving conversation, right? What is working? How much is it going to cost me to play the marketing game? How do I get noticed in a super noisy world?

What does it mean?

Right. From the traditional marketing to the paid marketing. And we dive deep into it.

Yeah, I love all things marketing. Whether it's, I think we think marketing and we think social media channels. Right. So what am I doing on Facebook and on Instagram and on TikTok. Right. But if we don't have all the other pieces of marketing in place, we're kind of missing. So we go into all the email marketing strategy. It is the only list that you actually own. We talk about tech strategy and then we go old school. Whether it's postcards or clientelling and rewards programs or public relations. And then of course there's this massive opportunity with paid ads. So we talk about Google paid ads, we talk about meta paid ads, we even talk about all the free SEO on the back end. There's just so much to dig into in this layer. But we try to really cover each of those areas independently.

Yeah. And I will just also remind everybody, it's Ashley and I teach Inside Retail Bootcamp every single week. But above and beyond that, we're bringing in industry experts every week to talk strategy of what they are seeing is working in their world. Right. So in marketing, right, we're bringing in the experts that, that's all they do every single day is they, they work with whatever type of marketing, right, in inventory or financial or bookkeeping. That's what they do. You know, as, as a, as a small business owner trying to manage all the different moving pieces. When it comes tax time, don't you want to hear from the person that actually understands all the tax compliance? They understand all the laws. That's the world they live in. They understand your, your risk, your liabilities and are able to coach you independently through those things that's the kind of thing that we say. It's not just who you know know, it's who you know. And Ashley and I like to. We. We know some really awesome people that. That love to come inside Retail Boot Camp with us and coach you guys through it.

You know, they also say, like, if you're the smartest person in the room, you better find a new room. And I think that's where we're at. Like, Sarah and I will never tell you we're going to be the smartest people in the room. We will teach you everything we know to the best of our ability, but we are going to surround ourselves with people who we think are way smarter than we are in each of these respective areas and then bring everybody to the room, which really makes everybody that much better. So, gosh, over the years, what do you think? We've had at least a hundred guests?

Oh, well over 150.

I mean, there's so many. So many people who have come in. And then the cool part about Retail Boot Camp is they're all recorded, they're all put inside the program. You can log in, you can watch all the past recordings, and everyone's, I don't know, independent viewpoint, I guess.

Absolutely. And what's really cool right now is we are. We're meeting inside Zoom, so you're face to face on zoom camera with all of these people. So, you know, if you've ever wondered, like, how do I get access to said expert from Pinterest? Join Retail Bootcamp. We will introduce you. How about a profit first specialist? We got you on that too, right? Like a branding expert, you know, a digital marketer. We've got you somebody that completely is coming in and talking about all sorts of canva hacks, all that. Yes, we've got you. The people that. That's what they do every single day. They're building that out. So inside Retail Boot Campus, it's access to a lot more than just Ashley and I. Not saying we're not awesome, but I mean, you have access to industry experts across all different types of services in retail.

If you had to look back at people who have taken Retail Bootcamp, and I know every week we're like, hey, raise your hand. Unmute yourself. Like, let's celebrate your wins. If you had to look back across all of our students and say, these top students had this in common, like, this is how they showed up. This is how they approach Retail Bootcamp, like, what did the most successful students we've had, what do you think they had? In common.

Oh, I think every one of them that committed to the program has had success. They have time blocked. They've marked it out. They haven't just marked it out on their calendar. They basically have announced to their team or their store, hey, this is what I'm doing at this time every single week. And they show up. Sometimes they beat us into the Zoom Room, right? Like I do. I jump into zoom 10 minutes before, and they're already there. They're in the waiting room ready to go. And, you know, they have went through the work.

Workbook.

They're showing up and they are being vulnerable and they're asking questions, which I love, because I promise, if they have the question, so does somebody else in the Zoom room as well. So I love it when they are committed. They're showing up, they're asking questions, and they're being a voice.

I think that's so good. And they're doing all of the work. Like, I don't know, sometimes I'll see retailers who, I don't know, they come into Retail Bootcamp and they feel like. Like, you know, I know what I need already. Sarah, you're not going to tell me anything. I just need this one little thing. And they want to cherry pick and just say, just teach me this one thing. I don't need anything else. But really, like, that's not what the doctor prescribed. Like, there's all these other side effects and there's all these other reasons that you take the medicine other than this one thing, right? So I think when someone shows up and they're committed every Wednesday, they are there like clockwork. Even if they don't have time to go through everything in the course or in the workbook, they still show up on Wednesdays to try to absorb what they can and then implement just like one little nugget at a time and try to get the broad scope of what's being covered. I think that's better than just saying no, I just need the one thing. That's it.

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure.

All right, well, guys, we hope you join us. We open Retail Bootcamp twice a year, January and June. The J months. Right. What better thing to do during the J months than to jump in and to work on growing your business? So we hope that you guys have an opportunity to take a look at Retail Bootcamp. Join us, come to the Zoom Room, meet some amazing people. Join us in person at the in person retreat that we host at the end of Retail Bootcamp, usually in the fall of the year. Sarah, Any other parting thoughts on Bootcamp this year?

Man, I would just encourage you. You know, when I listen to testimonials of past RBC students, the one word that they use is investment. It's an investment into their business. If you look at this as an expense, you're. You're going to come in with a negative mindset. There's just something around it. But if you look at this as an investment into your business that you show up and you do the work and you get in this room with other business owners that you can learn from and grow from, I promise you this investment will pay back tenfold. You're going to take away different things of every layer, every single time you show back up. So I encourage you, you know, have an open mind about it. If you're looking for that next thing that you could do to invest in, in your business to, you know, get these hurdles, Retail boot camp is it. We have a proven track record with thousands of retailers and testimonials that go along with it. And like I said, Ashley and I are out there making phone calls, getting in the right rooms with the right people to bring real time information here. We're not teaching you about something that worked six months or six years ago. This is current information. And I don't know, another. Another course that's like this. I don't know, another coaching opportunity that's like this that gets so much face to face with the. With the coaches and the experts that retail Bootcamp does. It is definitely a unique offering and it's not open to endless people. Right? We. We want to keep it niche. We want to keep it, you know, manageable. So we will cut off enrollment. And so if you're interested, you guys get on the list. You know, take action. Take action now, because who knows what the next six months in retail is going to look like? Who knows what the next six months in business is going to look like. But if you want to hear from people who are making connections overseas, we're talking about what's happening in the supply chain, what's happening at the ports, what is it going to look like the next few quarters down the road for you? That's the kind of information you are going to need. You can't just get that everywhere. I promise you, the news stations are not going to tell you the real story. So that's something Ashley and I really pride ourselves on. And we make it a point to be the eyes and the ears in the industry for you guys, because, as you know, I had a store for many years. I know how difficult it is to just survive every single day, let alone navigate all the crazy things that are happening in the world. So that is why I think it's so important to get in the right room with the right people and we invite you to do so.

I love it. Sarah, thanks so much for being here. Thank you for the light that you are inside of Retail Bootcamp, inside of membership, on stage, everywhere you're at. I appreciate you. Thanks for showing up today.

Oh man, thanks for having me today guys. We will see you guys inside Retail Boot Camp.

See you guys soon. Thanks for listening guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas is from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.