Best Year Yet 2025 | Day 2 Replay

All right, We're live.

Hello. There we are.

Yeah. Hi, guys.

Welcome.

Hello, Hello. I see them coming in. Check chat's filling up.

There we go.

Good morning, everybody.

If you are just jumping on. Good morning. Good morning. Make sure you drop in your chat. Let's do a reminder. Where are you from? What's your store name? Oh, my gosh. St. Lucia's back in the house. Susie, you're giving me all the jealousy right now. I'm pretty sure Wisconsin warmed up to 9 degrees this morning. So I, you know, would still love to come visit you some polls again today. You guys ready for that?

Oh, I saw a Wisconsin store in there. Where was that from? They're going so fast. This is awesome.

You know, welcome back. I'm so glad you guys are back. This is great. We even have an extra face joining us today. It's going to be good. Kansas. We see Kansas in the house.

I see Misha's in. In the house, too. Hello. Mishko, a couple cans. Peterson. Oh, my gosh, you guys. So good to see everybody.

All right. All right. Well, let's get started. Should we do some polls to kick off the day again today? That was fun. Yes. I'm sorry. Texans, we learned our lesson. We added Texas back to the poll today. So let's start with the where you're from poll.

Look at this.

To you, Texas is like, thank you.

We are a land of our own. They said, thank you, Gretchen Hilly.

Yeah, right. I think there's also questions about, like, what actually constitutes the Midwest? How far east does the Midwest go? What's everyone's opinion on this? Because in Wisconsin, I would still say we're in the Midwest.

Oh, for sure.

Is Michigan in the Midwest?

They say it is. Yes. People in Ohio will sometimes say it is Ohio.

I don't know. That's. That's close.

I would agree. I would agree.

Ohio is the Midwest we've got.

Yeah, that's what I see. I have friends in Ohio and they call themselves in the Midwest or Midwesterner.

We'll take you. Everyone wants to be from the Midwest.

I'm in Ohio, and Google says I'm from Midwest, says Chelsea. Okay, Chelsea. As long as Google said, we believe you. Outside of Philly. Oh, we got Ange. Ange went ahead and just dropped us a Midwest map.

I like it.

Does anyone follow.

What is the Midwest account? I follow on Instagram, it's called the Midwest versus everybody. Does anyone follow that Instagram account? It is so funny. Like, the memes that they put on there are so Midwesty. If you're from Texas, just ignore. Sorry. All right, let's share the results of this poll. What do we have here? Midwest is winning today. Congrats, guys. Close, though. Southeast 29 to 28. That's pretty close. Texas third. Northeast fourth. All right, and then southwest and northwest. Okay, we need to invite some friends outside of the usa still holding in there today. You had more yesterday. Still nine of you from outside of the US Today. Welcome, you guys. Just quick note. If you're outside of the US and you're a member of the boutique Hub, we have a Facebook group just for you. We have lots of Canadians in the boutique Hub. They've got their own group where they collaborate, so it's fun to see that for sure. All right, next.

Canadians can finally ship again. They came off strike.

Yes. Man, there was a lot of excitement around that yesterday in the groups. That was fun.

I mean, right over the holiday season. Like, that's terrible. Okay, what's the next poll? Beth, what do we got?

Our.

What do you. Or what do you sell? What do you sell? Let's do that one. What do you sell?

There's a lot of options there, so make sure you scroll down, guys. If you don't see yours at the top. We added pet quilt, special occasion salon and spa yesterday.

And I think you should be able to click more than one. Interesting.

Yeah.

So good lot. We did have a several salons that I knew here yesterday. Lots of salons in the Hub.

Antiques. Oh, shoot, Linda, there was one. We missed it.

Oh, yeah. We did get a question yesterday too, Linda, maybe that was from you. Gourmet popcorn and gifts. I love that. Jewelry and flowers. Oh, flowers. We do have some florals. That's a great boutique combo. All right. Jewelry, special occasion, toys.

Rose says she's all but three of the store or those types of stores.

Furniture, you got a big store.

And coffee. Oh, another good add on wigs, jewelry, and handbags.

Lori. Yes. We've got a couple other people that sell wigs.

Megan, I see you turquoise. Can't turquoise be an option? Okay, let's share the results of this poll. Oh, equine. We have a lot of equine actually in the Hub. We do. And western. We could have done western as its own as well.

Yeah, we have our own western Facebook group for you guys as well.

Yeah. Since we talked about rodeo versus non rodeo yesterday, I feel like it's only fitting. All right, we see you home and gift. We see you children's. Oh, gosh. Several that sell men's apparel 38. That's good. That's really good. Lots of you in footwear as well. Salon.

Look at all those options Jeff has now to go buy clothes. Get away from that 1v neck t shirt you wear.

I have a. I've got a hoodie on today there.

Well, that's because it's 12 degrees in Wichita, Kansas today, I bet.

Oh, gosh. All right, last poll. Hub members, who here's Hub member. We see lots of familiar faces. We see lots of former retail boot campers here too. Hub member. Yes. Not yet. Former member should rejoin. Oh, I like that option. Soon also. Great option. So many good things happening yesterday. I got a little preview of something big that's coming to the Hub. Jeff, can I tell him about it? Can I give them a. Yeah, go for it and give them word if you've been a member of the Hub or you were a former member of the Hub. One of our biggest frustrations has always been we have so much information, so many training videos and all. Just all the things the trend reports, all the things we do. And keeping it all on an organized dashboard has been, like, hard. And so we built a brand new dashboard that is just about to launch. And it's like Netflix style. It is so easy to find all the trainings and the things in the Hub. And so that is going to be really, really exciting.

Imagine. Imagine the ability to veg out on your business building skills instead of a Netflix series. How powerful that would be. It'd be good. It'd be good. That was our goal.

That's the goal. I love it. And Retail Bootcamp got a fresh new layout. Very similar this round. So layer by layer, all the six layers. Very similar. All right, awesome. You can share the results of this one, Beth. The majority, yes. And then not yet. And formers, formers, you guys are always welcome back. We'd love to have you back. All right, let's. Let's get started today. Sarah, Jeff, you guys ready?

Yep.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

All right. Was anyone. Is anyone new here in the chat today that wasn't here yesterday? Or maybe you caught the replay yesterday? As a reminder, we. We are saving the replay for you. They will only be available for a limited time, so be here as long as you possibly can. Come back tomorrow when we talk all about inventory and all the things. We want to get you guys as much information. No fluff, just hard hitting, you know, whatever will build your business over the next two days. That's the goal. So, again, best year yet. I think this Is our seventh year doing it. It's always been our favorite training of the year. It's a great way to kick off the year, all of us together. And today's topic yesterday was all about that foundation that we talked about today. We want to talk about building super fans, right? How to build a business that can run itself by creating a base of super fans. We all read the fans first book as a team this year and this is like our mission going into the next year. So we're going to dig all into that today. Just as a reminder, as we get started today, if you take a picture, tag us on Instagram. At the boutique Hub, we're going to give away one free retail boot camp. Again, enrollment is open right now for retail boot camp. It closes at the end of the month. So limited time to get in there. And then those of you that purchase retail bootcamp throughout best year yet. So in the next two days, we're going to put you in a giveaway for a free VIP call. And that's a very limited group. It's a very small group. So that would be an awesome opportunity to get live one on one coaching with us as well. All right, let's meet our coaches for the day. If we haven't met yet. My name is Ashley. I'm the founder and CEO here at the Hub and also at our company, hubventory, Our wholesale platform built by the industry, for the industry. And for 12 years, my passion has simply been changing the lives of small business owners. That's. That's what we do. That's why we show up every single day. I just really believe you guys. I'm from a small town in North Dakota. 1600 people, no stoplight, no fast food, no nothing. Very small town. But we had a thriving retail community. And after college, I went to work in economic development in that small hometown of mine for about seven years. And I fell so in love with the passion that these small business owners had. And anything I could do to grow their business like that was my mission. And so from economic development to working here at the Boutique Hub, I feel like it's all very much in alignment because I've seen firsthand when you change a business, you change someone's life. And that changed their family's life, and that changed generations. That also changes the lives of the people that work in that small business. And then really, in turn, it changes the face of the community as well. So we were so fortunate in that small town to have again, a really strong small business community that made a Lot of opportunity for people. So retail is definitely possible no matter how big or how small that town is. For sure. I'm so lucky today, you guys. We have an amazing team here at the Hub. I know many of you had an opportunity to meet many of our team members online or in person at the Boutique Summit or at Market This. This is two of the best coaches in the industry by far. These two are amazing. They're passionate. Their knowledge is just second to none. So you guys are so lucky to have them on board today. Sarah, let's start with you.

Hey, guys. I'm super excited to be back today. If you guys missed yesterday, please jump back in and take a listen to that. There's lots of, lots of great takeaways for you. But I started in retail back in the 90s, back in 1992, I would, when I was in high school, yes, I'm that old and I would leave high school the middle of the day and go work at a ladies apparel store and just do all really like the grunt work. And man, it was the best training environment for me ever. Really sparked an interest in community service, serving customers, building super fans like we're going to talk about today. And eventually went on to study retail merchandising in college, went on to get my mba, all of those kind of things, but bought the store later on in life, expanded it into multiple locations, went online with it, taught entrepreneurship at the university, and then Ashley would always shop at my store and she and I would have some really awesome conversations about retail and business and consumer behavior and why people buy and we'd geek out about all these kind of things. And one night, honestly, over a beer, she goes, let's do it. Come to the Boutique Hub. Let's build out the education side of this. Let's build out that more community aspect. And here I am in 2017, sold the store and started here at the Boutique Hub. And now I coach retail boot camp. I'm inside all the education things here at the Boutique Hub. And yeah, best year yet is one of them. And I really, it's fun to help you guys kickstart your year every year. So I always say I'm an open book, guys. I have been around the block quite a few times and I'm happy to share all my experiences and, and wisdom and what I'm hearing from retailers across the country. So that's who I am. That's what I'm here today to help you guys do. So thanks for having me. Jeff Baton is to you.

Hey guys. So I'm Jeff. I'm the director of marketing here at the Boutique Hub. And then I also run Boutique Black. I've been involved in the online sales and online marketing industry since. For a little over a decade. A little over a decade. Pretty seriously. I actually cut my teeth in the network marketing industry, so selling shampoo and vitamins, but like, not really, but like teaching people how to sell shampoo and vitamins. And then that has evolved. I've been with the Boutique Hub for six years, five and a half years, something like that. I don't know. And then here in 2023, we started boutique Hub Black. And so Boutique Hub Black really opened my eyes to the boutique industry and the retail industry in a major. Right now I consult with right around a hundred. Right around 100 boutique owners every single week. And I actually have the opportunity to get on one on one and review the traffic channels, the sales channels, and the marketing opportunities for those hundred boutique owners. 100 different boutique owners every week. And so I have the opportunity to get on and see what's working and see what's not working. And I've learned more about the boutique industry since 2023 than I did all the years previous. And I'm pretty sure Sarah would vouch for that. But the, but the, but like, like, I just. One thing that I've discovered inside the boutique industry is there is still a very clear path to success. No matter all the news, no matter the industry trends, no matter the other boutique owners that are going out of business, trust me, there's still a very clear path to success. I'm going to share a little bit with you guys today about what that path look. But, but super excited for the future of the industry. Love working with each and every one of you. Like, love seeing you guys take charge of your own, like, future. Like, take charge of your own traffic channels, take charge of your own profit channels. And then I will have to say this, is that, you know, when, when, when people come to me in Boutique Black, the best people there are, the best business owners there are, are the business owners that have been through retail boot camp. And so just because their foundation is so wide, it's so sturdy and it's so robust, and they have all the basic building blocks in place that we're able to accelerate in such a different way than the ones that have not been through retail boot camp yet. And so anyway, that's who I am. That's. That's kind of what I do here.

That's good. It's herding cats I love it. I like. Well, so glad that you guys are here. All right, I. There's a few of you that are not yet members of the Hub. So I just. There was a lot of questions on this yesterday, so I put this slide in here just to kind of give you an idea of, like, what the lay of the land is. So the main thing that we do here at the Hub is our membership. This is where we show up every single day. I was talking about that new dashboard that we have, and really, it's three things that we focus on. We focus on community, we focus on education, and we focus on wholesale connection. And within those things, there's just a lot more. We do seasonal trend reports that are, you know, across all industries. Industry news, live events, resources, discounts, member exclusives, all the things. So membership's the main thing we do. But then twice a year, retail boot camps, like, okay, college enrollment, like, if you're serious about it, you want live group coaching. That's retail boot camp. And then you have lifetime access to do live group coaching twice a year, every year, for as long as you want. Ange is in the chat today. Angel's probably done retail boot camp, like, 15 times. Not gonna lie. She always shows up just like Sandy yesterday. It's incredible. And then like Jeff said, after retail boot camp, when you have that foundation and you're, you know, a store that's ready to pour the traffic on top, the crunchy cheese layer like we talked about yesterday, that is boutique Hub black. And we've seen some amazing acceleration and growth for the stores in that program as well. So today we're digging into all about creating traffic and super fans. We're going to talk about content, we're going to talk about sales strategy, we're going to talk about tracking and get into the nuts and bolts of how to make this work. And again, if I'm going to reference, if you saw this yesterday, this is our six layers that it's kind of our signature series for building retail businesses. After feedback from literally thousands of stores, this is how we see stores being successful is starting with the ground up. So starting with the foundation yesterday, a lot of our coaching came from the foundation. Then we move into products and really making sure we're pricing and we're managing inventory and we know our turn. We understand our cash flow and our where does our money go formula. Those are all things we will cover tomorrow. Then we look at team. Are you moving into being that CEO versus entrepreneur? Then we like to analyze sales strategy and sales channels. How are we showing up? How are we merchandising? How are we training our team to sell? And then finally, the last two layers, the content strategy and then the actual content traffic and marketing channels. So again, this is the layer that we always want to coach into. And today we're going to focus on these two top layers for all of our content. All right, so Sarah, you've got to introduce how this, how this book came into our world and how it's kind of changed how we view the industry.

Yes, yes, I, I do have to ask. I see a lot of people asking about it, but who has read the fans first book? It's about the Savannah Bananas. Anybody? Yes, Anybody read that? The thing is, the Savannah Bananas, if you guys have watched any of their tick tocks, any of their videos, like they reinvented baseball, they made baseball fun again for the non baseball hardcore fans.

Right?

Like to take the whole family to the ballpark to have an experience, all of this stuff. And so there's lots to learn. You may think, okay, Sarah, why are you talking about a book about baseball? But I'm not. I'm talking about a book about building fans. What do fans do? Fans show back up fans. Fans support a business, Fans support a cause, all of those things. And in your business, that's what you're wanting to do, right? You want super fans. You want people that are going to ride and die with you. They are going to be there for all the new launches, they're going to be there for all the events. They're going to be there and share and like and comment and do all the things on the social. When you guys put something out there, they're there for it.

Right?

That's what a super fan is. And it's hard to build a business anymore without them. So the whole idea, and if Ashley, if you want to go to the next slide, the whole idea with super fans in this book right here, it's by Jess Cole and there's a QR code for you guys. So I know a number of you guys are going to want to look this up, but the whole idea is that at the core, it means serving others. At the core of building super fans, it means serving others, putting them first, creating that memorable experience for them, inspiring a community, going above and beyond all these things that I swear, somebody saying, I don't have time for that.

Yeah.

Somebody right now is saying, I can barely, you know, show up on time. I don't have time to make my, my customers super fans. I don't have time to put them first. I don't have time to create these experiences. Experiences for them. But the thing is the, the world is a very, very diluted place when it comes to retail and, and options. Every time you swipe your thumb, you are getting inundated with a new product or a new offer. And in order to create those people that are loyal to you, that are going to show up and repeat, buy from you, you have to serve them. So this book is so fast to read. It's super engaging. It's a, it's one of the quickest reads I've ever read and highly encourage to make time, use this QR code, grab the book, you can get the audio, all the things. But this is going to walk you through this book. And what we're talking about today is giving your customers that experience that is going to elevate them to love you, trust you, keep showing up and expect like, what's the next big thing? What, what else are they going to do, you know, to wow me? It's the wow factor.

Yeah.

So when, when you're thinking about who your customer is. We talked a little bit about this yesterday and I love the four guests that we had yesterday. They all talked about when their business really changed and they started doing much better in business financially is when they got really narrowed down, laser focused about who their customer is. Who their customer is. So you're not just shooting out, throwing content and marketing to just anybody. And you know, you guys have been served ads before that you're like, why am I getting this? This, this, I, this isn't speaking to me. I have no interest in this stuff.

Right.

What a waste of time that is for whoever put that together. You want to know, like, who is your customer? What do they, what do they need? What problems do they have? How can you serve them? How can you help them live their better life? How can you bring out the best version of them through your offerings? And so what we like to teach Inside Retail Bootcamp is all about conducting these customer surveys. This is, we, we spend a whole week on this, helping you identify how to do this, how to set up the, the survey, how to, you know, go through all the questions, how to look back and, and put together a roadmap for your direction in your business on the content you're putting out there, the marketing efforts you're putting out there to be the very best business for your super fans that you possibly can be. This is what it means when you're building your avatar, building your brand guide Building out some of those keywords, that content strategy that Ashley and Jeff talk about all the time.

Yeah, I love this. And Sarah, I just gotta mention, like this was really the focus of yesterday. That's the thing everybody had in common, like you said was this is the core of everyone's business. Once you nail this, once you understand you're a magnet and you attract, but you also have to repel and it's okay to repel, to really know who you're attracting, that's really what's going to lead to those people being super fans.

Yep. And I think, I think the idea here is one shift of mental. We talked a lot about mindset shifts yesterday, but prioritizing people over profits will lead to more profit. But sometimes we get wrapped up in the profit so much that we don't even realize we're like neglecting the people. And it doesn't take much for me to be neglected by a brand before I like, never mind, I can find somebody else.

Absolutely.

So in your guys's workbook, we have a whole an activity for you in your workbook that is basically going to build out this frictionless experience. So I challenge you guys to kind of take, take a moment. Not you don't have to do it right now, but after the call, sit down with yourself and your team and whoever and work through this. Like, am I creating a frictionless experience for my, my customers? Ultimately, if you are and they are finding this easy to shop with you, engaging to shop with you, you know, it's not tasking, they're more apt to show back up the next time. But you guys, who's shopped someplace, whether it's in, in a brick and mortar store at a pop up online or someplace that you get there and you're just like, now what do I do? I'm standing around with a handful of clothes and nobody's waiting on me. I don't know where the dressing room is. I'm, I'm ready. I'm, I find something on my, on an ad. I go to the website, I have no idea where it is. I fell in love with this ad. Now I'm on the site and looks like they're selling, you know, older person clothing. And that's not what I'm looking for. Or I'm looking for the, you know, Jeff always talks about leopard pants. And I get there and there's no leopard anywhere. Or you think it's a home decor and gift store ad and you get there and it's toys. You're just like there's all this confusion. It happens all the time. Or then you get into the shopping online. I get into shopping online and you put something in your cart and all of a sudden you're like, wait, how do I pay for this right now? How many clicks do I. And it just pop up, pop up, pop up. And all you really want to do is pay for it or you want to find out like, what's the return policy? But I, how many clicks do I have to go find that all those touch points adds to friction. So this is just an opportunity for you kind of map this journey out. When your people find you, you find them that very first interaction, then it moves into the interest. They take action, they add something to the cart. Now they're looking to check out, then they're making the purchase, and then there's even more touch points after the purchase. How fluid is that? And are we thinking about the people, how they move in your store, how they interact with your products, how they react to your branding, that message, how you make them feel in the. Hey, welcome to wherever, to the whole post purchase experience of thanking them, offering them the rewards, the get back campaign, all of those kind of things.

So good. Sarah. I just want to show so those of you, again, the workbook was a free download in your emails, making sure you guys have this so you can map this out, this extension experience in your workbook to make that super easy. And I would challenge you to have your staff do it as well. Like you do it from your perspective, but then have your team do it from their perspective and see where there's an alignment and see where there's a mismatch. I think that would be really interesting. One other quick reminder too, from your workbook, all these QR codes, like the, the book, there's a whole bunch of them in your workbook too, to make those things really easy to grab.

Sometimes it can be, sometimes on that last slide there, sometimes it can be overwhelming to think about that sort of experience online. And so many boutique owners are like world class at doing this in person. So somebody like, you know, somebody walks in their store, there's a variety of products available. They're assigned, you know, a sales rep or, you know, a sales, you know, a salesperson. That salesperson asks them about their size and their fit and shows them multiple items. Like, you have to take that experience, that, that knowledge that you guys have for in store sales and, and frictionless experiences and concierge experience, that sort of thing and just apply that to, to your online experience and just think about it the same way. Like if, if somebody was to walk through the front door of my website, how would I want them to be greeted? How would I want to discuss their sizes? How would I want to educate them on our return policy? How would I want to display our different items and that we have for sale? That sort of thing. So many of you guys, like, your brain works really, really well there and then it gets overwhelming when it's online. But like, if you kind of like merge those two, sometimes it works out better.

Yeah, I two examples of those too. Those of you who listen to the podcast, maybe like two seasons ago, three seasons ago, I interviewed Dana Spinola, who's the founder of the chain of stores Fabric. Those of you in the south are maybe familiar with Dana Stores, but something that she does with her team is she does a wow Awards. So she's all about creating super fans and going above and beyond in the customer experience. So in their in store point of sale system, their sales associates will log when they've given.