How to Create a Customer-Centric E-Commerce Experience

Hey, guys. Welcome to episode number 268 with my friend Josh Orr of Streamline Retail. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Booty Tea Hub and I can't wait to chat. One of the most commonly asked questions I get from brick and mortar store owners, especially since the pandemic, is, Ashley, how do I take my business from a brick and mortar to an online business? And how do I give my customers that same sort of in store experience on my website? You know, today, you guys, I'm so excited because one of my dear friends, a great expert inside of the retail industry, Josh Orr, is joining me to answer that very question. Josh has spent a lot of time in the world of brick and mortars working with stores on implementing inventory management systems and point of sale solutions and also e commerce solutions. And he has definitely mastered how to take a brick and mortar store and build an e commerce presence that matches that same experience. So today on the podcast, we're going to talk about how to take your brand from being store centric to customer centric. I know you're going to love this experience today with Josh, you guys. He has been a speaker at the Boutique Summit and the virtual Boutique Summit. So get ready to take notes and also check out today's show notes for extras from Josh. I hope you guys enjoy. All right, guys, welcome back to the show. This week I am so pumped to be joined by a fellow industry expert and a dear friend of mine, Josh Orr from Streamline Retail and the Retail Initiative podcast. Josh, thanks for coming on the show today.

Hello. Hello. It's really good to be here.

You know, I, I think about how many times in our industry, boutique owners have boutique besties, right? And how important that is. Like when you go to market, you've got friends to be with and you've got events, you've got friends to be with there too. And as like a speaker or like an expert in the industry, like you've got to have besties as well. And I think about like the times that you guys have ended up in our hotel rooms after the summit or after like speaking at market and we just sit down and talk or like going out to dinner and Just talking. And I appreciate your friendship and your perspective in this industry so much. So it's been really fun to grow with you through all this.

Absolutely. I have loved those. Really are some of my favorite. Like whenever in speaking or in anything is hanging out with you and Beth and Eric and Sarah and the whole community, it's been, gosh, I mentioned we talk about Girls Night. I think we end every email to each other with hashtag girls Night.

Yeah, we had a great time one time in Vegas that we will forever call Girls Night forever. So the legend lives on for sure. I don't even know how we're going to talk about anything serious after that, but I do want to make sure if you're listening today, grab a notebook. If you are a brick and mortar, specifically listening today, definitely grab a notebook because there's going to be a lot of wisdom that I know you're going to drop. And if you're an E commerce store, we're going to talk about you as well. So I want to start here. I want to get into the nuts and bolts. But first, give us just a little bit of context, Josh, how you got into this industry, how you started helping retailers and boutique owners and what kind of led you to where you are right now.

Yeah, gosh. So I have been in retail almost my entire life. My first job was selling shoes at the finish line way back in the day. And you know, it's funny, Ashley, you and I in a lot of ways have like this overlapping journey where. Because you majored in political science as well, right?

Well, communications, PR and then a minor in poli sci.

Oh, got it. Got it. Yeah. So I, you know, did that whole thing and coming out of it, I just wasn't where I wanted to be. And I literally stumbled into the point of sale world and I got into retail through the point of sale side of things. I was essentially like a reseller for point of sale tools. And I worked with like, gosh, over a hundred retailers and eventually, like the conversations always came back to E commerce. And I started to see where the most successful brands were, the ones that were engaging customers in multiple ways. They weren't just a storefront, although they definitely were a storefront and they weren't just an E commerce site. But they really had unique ways of engaging people and their perfect customers, really, in so many different ways. And so we, you know, as we were building out a team for web, really, we decided, you know what, like, that's where we want to focus is on helping brick and mortar stores Launch and succeed online. It's such a different world, especially when you have a storefront. You know, succeeding online is challenging enough as it is, but especially for a storefront, it just looks so different. And so we wanted to help brick and mortar stores overcome that.

So fast forward to the 2020 and a global pandemic and what a great opportunity. I mean, there's never been a more important time than this year for brick and mortar stores to really understand that. And this is something you and I, you know, thinking about past conversations, we've talked about this so much about you can't put all of your eggs in one basket forever. And there was so many, and still is so many successful brick and mortars. But you kind of have to think about, like, am I gonna sell this business one day? Am I gonna transition it to another generation? Like, what is the future of my business gonna be? And unless there is some digital component to it, this, the future is a little bit unstable. So talk to me about how you really leaned into this during the pandemic and really started to go down the road of helping brick and mortars transition to adding an online revenue stream.

Yeah, gosh. So in March, when this got serious, we, I mean, we really were busier than we have ever been and it hasn't really slowed down since. And it's been, you know, over the, gosh, over the last year. You know, the way that people enter our world is through what we call like a strategy session. It's where we help people, like gain clarity of where they're wanting to go and what they're wanting to do and how online fits. And a lot of the people that I was talking to through that process that were like, you know what, we really just want to focus on our store right now and we're going to focus on what's working and we're not really going to worry about that. But let's maybe revisit down the road. Those people were coming back and we're now saying, you know what, that really was the wrong call. And they were wanting to focus on launching quickly. And so we really have taken a kind of like a two step approach to E commerce with this, understandably, especially like when this happens, it was about how do we get online as quickly as possible and that sometimes it was launching an e commerce store. But we are big on, you know what, sell however you can sell. If that means you need to do facetime appointments or you need to do comments sold and reach your, your customer through your social channels, do that. But let's use this as an opportunity to, you know, like, you've talked about a lot. Like, this stuff happens for us and not to us. So instead of saying like, oh my gosh, my brand can never survive this and just taking this, like, victim approach, instead saying, okay, like, this happened. It is what it is. I have to, to take this as a chance to reevaluate how I've done things and say, what can I do moving forward? And launch a launcher, e commerce site, Launch your online presence in a way that really has like the long term strategy in mind.

Oh, man, I feel like I've used that quote a million times. This is happening for us and not to us. And it reminds me of. One of my mentors is Beau Eason. He's a former NFL football player. Now he's a speaking coach. And he talks a lot about why is the human race greater than any other on the planet? Like, why are humans superior to all animals? And one of the reasons is we have the ability to adapt that other animals don't possess. Right? And so this period of time that we're in, it's all about adaptation. It's all about the pivot. And I'm sure you've heard this too, Josh. Like, how many boutique owners do you know that have, that have brick and mortars, have always said, I know I should go online, or I would like to go online, but I don't have time, or I, you know, there's always like a roadblock. And now all roadblocks have been completely removed. And it's given them this opportunity. So when they find you and when they start to realize they need to go online and they're ready for a website and to build Omnichannel, like, where do they start first? What's step number one?

Yeah, gosh, step number one is first to realize who your customer is. And that seems like such an obvious thing. I think we all know who our customer is, especially if you're a brick and mortar store, because they literally come to you, you talk to them, you know who they are. But brick and mortar stores also can kind of get away with not having that really pinpointed because you get foot traffic and people come in and you can sell them. You can compensate for not understanding who your customer is with great customer service, with engaging them in a, you know, being a good salesperson can overcome a lot. But online, people want to visit a site where they belong. They want to go somewhere and be like, oh, my gosh, this was literally made for me and that's who. That's who people shop with when they're shopping with a small business. They're shopping with small businesses that speak to them specifically. So it is the first thing actually isn't going and signing up for Shopify. I would say the first thing is say, who does my business serve? Who do I want to serve? And then building out your entire strategy from that. Not just your e commerce strategy, but also your store strategy by understanding who that is. It impacts literally everything. Your marketing, your ads, your buying, your. You name it, everything's going to come back to who your perfect customer is.

So talk to me about this. I think sometimes brick and mortars go online and their identity is very wrapped up in the history of their store and the experience that they can give people in the store. How do they transition that online and give people like that same feeling knowing who their customer is? Give them the same feeling they would want them to have in store, but give it to them online. How do they do that?

Oh, my gosh. That's literally my favorite subject in the world. So think about, I did Disney World a few years ago and follow me here. But you come back, think of any trip that you've been on. You know, whether that was like your trip to New York where you went to Broadway or whatever. But I went to Disney World and it was a super fun trip. And I came back and I remember showing pictures to one of my friends with the cute kids and all that stuff. And weirdly, I don't know why, but I was like wanting them to experience what I did, and I was wanting them to have the experience that I had on this trip. And I thought that it would happen by me showing these pictures. But it, that falls short if I. If you go to, if you have a trip like that, if you want someone to experience Disney, you don't show them pictures of your trip. You show them the movie Frozen. It's the same thing with your storefront. The mistake that brick and mortar stores make is, you know, you'll go to the homepage, you know, you'll go to www.ashleysboutique.com and there's going to be a. I don't know if that's a real site, by the way. It probably is, but, you know, and there's going to be pictures of the store and then there's going to be features of the store and a big about us that tells the story and all those things. And we do that because we want them. There's so much pride in your Storefront, which, if that's what you've had, I totally get that pride in the storefront. But instead of just focusing on the storefront, let's pull back and think, well, what is it really about? It's not about the actual store. It's about the experience they have in your store. And we want to bottle up that experience and take that online. So the starting place of that is go into your store and think about what the customer should feel, where do their eyes go, what lifestyle are they invited into? Whether you know it or not, your store invites them into a lifestyle and that's why they're buying. What they're buying is they think like, my life's going to look a certain way if I have these things. Invite them. Think about what you're inviting them into. Now, let's take that feeling and then let's take that. How do we translate that to something online? So if you have a, like, you know, some stores, you walk in and there's like a, you know, the cool girl vibe and the staff is very much like, we're just the friend shopping with you kind of store. Well, think what imagery would have that. And so your hero image, that huge one at the top, can be friends hanging out in your clothes and they have the look of the feeling that the person had when they walk in your store. So we're bottling up that experience, that feeling that the customer has, and we're finding a different way to show that online. That isn't a picture of your store, because you're not going to get that with a picture.

You know, let's take that a step further because I feel like the understanding of how to take good pictures, it's one thing to know what pictures matter and, like, what's going to put your customer in that place, but then the. The art of taking good pictures. There's a million and a half YouTube videos, right. There's trainings in the Hub. We've got an expert in the Hub that just did a podcast on this denim and velvet, a whole tutorial on taking photos. Like, to me, that's what you're saying is you've got to master that art as well. The pictures have to be attractive and make people feel that same way you want them to feel in the store, right?

Absolutely. So what we say when, we say when you're trying to launch online, we say that you need three roles. You need a creative, a doer, and a visionary. So the visionary is the person, likely the owner, who sets the vision for where the store is going. The doer is the person who clicks the clicks and does the detail person. But then you need a creative. And I do believe there's, to a degree it can be something you have or you don't. But if you do, like, if you can take good pictures, if you're the person that takes good family pictures, you can magnify that with training resources that are available to you. And so by utilizing the thing like, you don't have to do things in a super expensive way. You don't need to go out and buy a $2,000 camera and a $3,000 lens. Your iPhone has enough available to you that good pictures are good pictures. And so learn, use that training and practice on your phone. And if you show some promise, then sure, maybe go out and invest in some equipment. But yeah, I agree. Starting with photography is so important. I would say that an ugly site with good photography can go a lot further than a, you know, beautiful site with terrible photography.

Preach. Yes, I totally, totally agree. And just a good, like download Lightroom on your iPhone or I love the Teza app for their presets. Like some of those things are really simple to make your photography go a long way. So absolutely, that kind of transitions into. I always say this, I always say, Kevin Costner was lying in the field of dreams when he said, if you build it, they will come. And I think E commerce is the same way. So many times people feel like, okay, as long as I have a great site, my customers will find it, they'll get there. But that doesn't happen. That's not true. So how do you help brick and mortar stores understand, like, okay, we've got you the site, now you're online, quote unquote. But now how do we get people there? How do we get people to buy online?

Yeah, gosh. So traffic is one of the most important things. And I think especially for brick and mortar stores, that idea of if, if you build it, they will come is a lie. And it's really about focusing on things that are going to actually have an impact. I think that, you know, the idea of generating traffic can be such this, like this mountain that how do I overcome it? Or in the assumption that it's just super easy. But let's assume that you're convinced that it is a challenge that we have to overcome. It can feel like a mountain. And so I would say to start with the things that are like low hanging fruit for your brand, build your Instagram following. Gosh, like, how much training do you have Ashley, about Instagram.

Build your whole lot more.

Yeah, build your Instagram following and use it to drive traffic to your store. Of course, that is like sellable post and all of that, but it isn't even about like just selling through Instagram. Engage your customers there and then have call to actions that go to your site. Using paid ads can be incredibly effective. Like, gosh, especially with all that's going on, you know, ads have never been cheaper. And so too if you spend time right now to learn what's effective and how they engage and how to build audiences, ads can be an easy way to drive traffic. But the biggest one, especially for a brick and mortar store, is if you have been faithful in collecting emails. And at the checkout when people come up and you say, can I get your email? Use that list. Ashley, I know you and I follow some of the same people and one of my favorite guys is Russell Brunson. And he talks about the fact that one of the best assets that your business has is your list. And as you grow that you can use that and wield it in any way that you want. It can't be taken away from you. Utilize that list and send people not emails that are just like, hey, we launched our site. Come visit, but send them emails that actually engage and get them to want to open and actually click in the emails.

So as I think about that and like Russell Brunson talking about being, what does he call it? Not the hero, the attractive character. Right. I think about so many times brands get caught up in just posting product, product, product, product. But like Russell says, it's all about, you know, the person. It's about identifying with the brand and building relational content. And I think about it like money follows eyeballs. You know, it's about posting engaging content and then people will follow you to your site after that. So how do you look at that? Like the two sides of content that we post to get people to engage with us and then bring them to our customer experience on the website? Like, what tips do you have for people to get people to the site? But then also how do you follow up with them? Post, purchase after they've been to the site and purchase something?

Absolutely. Gosh, you're hitting on all of the big pieces. You know, that is, you know, when we, when I speak, you know, that's the big thing I talk about is increasing traffic, increasing conversion, and then getting people to buy again, increasing retention on your store. So first with traffic, it's exactly what you just said. We, where we don't just want to post item after item that's for sale but you still can do that in a way where you're publishing the item but you're doing it in a conversational way. If you look at the brands that are one that you know are successful but two are also engaging people on their social channels in a unique way. You'll go to their descriptions in their post. Of course they're using lifestyle photography but they're funny, they have a, they have a voice in it and they're not just saying, you know, this cute top and then the price and link in my profile or the button to actually buy it there. Instead they're talking about the fact that they are sick of having to stay inside and but if they're inside, they might as well be cozy in these, in these shorts. Thank God for the elastic band, right? Like there's, there's some humor in what they're saying and, and they're engaging their customer in a unique way and that's gonna look different for everyone. You know I talk about that perfect customer. Well this on the same side like your brand takes on a voice and what would your perfect customer be friends with and speak to them just like you would your friend about that item. If you were to call your perfect customer and tell them why they would love it and tell a story behind it. Do that, don't just publish the item and, but then give a clear call to action. So I think that is an easy social media to traffic strategy as far as retention is concerned. I think that's so important. You know, you talk about, you know, I brought up ads earlier, you know, you might pay 6, 7, 8, 9, $10 to gain a customer and if they're not spending enough on that initial purchase, it could end up not being profitable. But the way that E commerce really becomes profitable is getting people to come back and buy again and again and again. And you know, we always say your best customer is your existing one. So there's some easy low hanging fruit there one send newsletters and I don't mean like just send, hey, shop our new arrivals. Be creative with the, you know, the copy of your headline. Make it something fun and engaging of you know, like with everything like it's, gosh, it's the middle of summer. So talking about how, you know, how sick you are of the heat and how we're ready for even, you know, regardless of where you are in the country, being ready for winter or something, something that engages them and wants, makes them want to actually click on the email and then point them to your newest thing, whatever you're trying to feature. There are tools that can automate a lot of this. Like, I love Klaviyo personally, but there's plenty of, plenty of other things that do this. So it can be a manual thing, not like a newsletter. Or it can be some automated things like mailchimp or Klaviyo.

Oh, that's so helpful. Talk to me about when someone gets our site going and they feel like, okay, Josh, I'm doing these things, I'm getting some traffic to the site, but I just am not getting the conversions that I want. What are some common places people can troubleshoot looking at their conversion rates online?

Gosh, I could talk about conversion all day long. So when people visit any site or really anything in the back of their brain, there's like a, there's just something that's saying, is this right for me? Is this right for me? Is this right for me? And, you know, I say that almost in joking, but you know, we love to say that Amazon or the boutique down the street is our biggest competitor. And I'm like, no, it's not. It's the back button. It's people that go to your site and their brain immediately answers the question, this isn't right for me. So there's a thing that I call the 5 second test. And you know, whether you are brick and mortar or just E commerce, you can do this with your site right now. So turn to someone like your husband or a friend, open your computer, go to your website and don't scroll. You're just going to look at what's called above the fold. That's that top part of the site that you don't scroll at all. You see, and open it for five seconds and don't let them scroll. And then close, close the computer. They should be able to answer, what do you do? Who do you sell to? What do you sell? Just based on that, that top image, that hero image or navigation, the copy that was there within five seconds, people should be able to come to that conclusion. If you can't come to the right conclusion based on that five second test, then people likely are falling off because they don't know that your store can speak to them. They're not going to go to the product pages or to the collection pages because even from your homepage they didn't know that it landed. So by taking, you know, even creating simple hero graphics, those big ones at the top and having copy that, that welcomes them. So, like the Dog days of summer or whatever that might be with a summer collection, with some swim stuff or whatever, whatever those things might be, you know, create that collection and have something that speaks to them. The next big one is on the product page. Either you don't have enough details, so people are trying to continue to answer that question. Is this right? For me, they don't have enough details about the item. What size is the model wearing, what's the material, how do I wash it? Gosh, like I know that that's something I'm always thinking about is like, how do I wash this thing? And by providing those simple details, we're answering, answering that question. And then the things that they just don't know. We're leaving too many things unanswered. How much does shipping costs? What happens if I don't like it? How do I return it? And we force the customer to go searching through our site and, and trying to find these answers. And every time they have to click somewhere, there's the risk that they're going to leave. And so we want to try to answer as much of that as we can right on the product page.

That's so helpful. So helpful. What about this? I feel like this is another commonly asked question around brick and mortar. Specifically going online is how do I manage inventory in two places? What, What's a great solution to that?

Yeah, gosh, managing inventory in two places. If there's any question I get more than that, I don't know what it is. So it really depends on what you're using for your point of sale. First off, if you're not using anything you need to, I think Ashley preaches on that enough. So you need to be managing your inventory, get out of that spreadsheet, get off of paper and pen and use something. The truth is, first off, there are two kinds of point of sale systems. There are cloud based ones, so those are ones that are like online. So Lightspeed, Springboard, Vend Square, Shopify, and then there's server based tools. So that's like QuickBooks, Retail Pro, those things, server based tools are really hard to integrate, not impossible, but they're just, they're a lot more challenging than cloud based tools are. So if you're able to, I do recommend, like try to move to cloud based tools. Integrate better, but depending on what you're using, if you have more simple needs, you could always use something like Shopify that has the ability to manage inventory for multiple locations and transfers. And you know, even now with Shopify POS Pro, their newest Thing we can do a lot of things that we couldn't do in the past. But if you have more advanced needs and you're using something like Springboard or Lightspeed, you know, there's an amazing integration by a company called Accumula, and tools like that enable you to integrate your point of sale and your online store. But the important thing is you do want to have them integrated and it doesn't have to be this impossible task. It really can be a simple thing of just setting up the integration one time, learning how it works and publishing your items. But what you don't want to do is leave them unintegrated, leave them not connected and leave them not connected and run the risk of selling something online that you just sold in store. Because we talk about increasing conversion and if you industry standard is 2%, generally it looks different for everyone, but let's just say 2%. 100 people visit your site and only 2 buy from you. You just busted your butt to get 10 or 100 people on your site and only two of them bought. You then have to call one of them and say, hey, that thing you just bought, we actually don't have. That ruins the brand experience. It ruins everything that you're working for. So by having them integrated and having your tools in one place, it prevents that situation and, you know, ultimately lets you create a customer that you can re engage again and again and not lose their future sales, all because our tools weren't working.

What about when you. So once they're synced, do you get this question a lot of, like, where do I launch them first? You know, I've, I've uploaded them to my point of sale. They're online. I also have them in store. Should I start marketing them hard for people to grab them in store first or online first?

You know, that really does look different for every brand. So, you know, we work with dozens and dozens. And one of my favorite ones, you know, they have trained their customer. So, you know, especially for a brick and mortar store, it can be so daunting to, you know, you're getting boxes every single day when we're not in the middle of a bunch of craziness. So you're getting boxes all the time. And you know, you have that customer that just loves the shop from the box that isn't unpacked yet. And instead of trying to keep up with it constantly, instead having a routine, having a. On Monday we enter items into our pos and on Tuesday we take pictures. On Wednesday, we take care of publishing everything and we create our Instagram stories around it. And on Thursday we launch the products and on Friday morning they're live in the store and they're on the racks creating a schedule. And it doesn't have to be that, but creating a routine that allows you to launch items at a specific time. We find that creating some urgency and some scarcity around those items by, you know, previewing them on Instagram beforehand and then letting them launch online at the same time every single week, kind of put some hype around your launch and, and then letting people shop. You know, it depends on which one you want to be the center. You know, some people will launch them on the store the morning of and then launch them online that night. Or you could do the opposite.

I love that you said, oh, go ahead. Sorry.

No, you're good.

I love that you said urgency and scarcity. Like, you have to build hype around it. You can't just let them out there free to the world and hope someone finds them. Right. I mean, there's definitely an art to it. And also, can you speak to this consistency and how you train your customers? Like I think about, we're always getting new customers. Like every day there's someone new. And so they don't know how your business works. So how do you help boutique owners continually train their customers on how to buy with them?

Gosh, I love when you see a brand that has like a trained customer, you really get someone who becomes faithful in shopping with you. So if you launch every single week at the exact same time, they are trained to do that, you know, so whether you're launching on lunchtime, on Wednesdays or Thursday evenings, or whenever, they're literally trained to do that. Now, how to actually train your customers first when they're buying from you? If you're using a tool like mailchimp or Klaviyo, have a, like a welcome sequence, which means like email 1, then email 2, then email 3 that goes out a few days apart. And let that be like your best of the best of what you have to offer. Point them to your social channels. Don't assume that they're following you. They literally could have, could have been on the Explore page on Instagram, thought your post was cute, clicked on the image and bought, but they never actually followed you. So we don't want to assume anything about, about how they're engaging you. Invite them to follow you on Instagram, invite them to join your text marketing or whatever you have set up through those email sequences, and then use the channel that your Perfect customer engages best on. That's going to look different for everyone. So if your perfect customer is on Instagram and obsessed with Instagram, then have a schedule on Instagram where every Tuesday you do try on sessions of what's going to launch on Wednesday. Or, you know, you have an IGTV of, you know, you goofing around in the clothes that are going to be a part of that collection, whatever those things might be. Or maybe it's Facebook. Maybe it's in the group and you get on Facebook and do a live try on the day before things go live. It's all about, where's my perfect customer already? And then how can I engage them primarily through that channel? It doesn't mean that you're. If your perfect customers on Instagram, you likely still are going to speak to Facebook, but you can really push people to the one channel where your perfect customer likely spends most of their time.

I love that. Let's talk about the lightning round. You ready for this?

I'm ready.

Okay. Favorite book?

Ooh, gosh. Probably Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson.

All of the secrets, folks.

Or my nerd side is the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I have a Theodore Roosevelt quote framed behind me.

We love to. We're the same person. Oh, my gosh, the man in the arena. The best fun fact, I'll tell you this, and I mean for everyone listening, I don't know why you even care to know this, but I literally had a dream about Russell Brunson a few nights ago that Jeff on our team also is a huge Brunson fan. And Jeff and I were waiting in line to sit by him on a park bench to get his autograph. So there's that, you know, randomly Russell Brunson will show up in your dreams because he's that awesome. I digress. Okay. Favorite podcast.

Favorite podcast. You know what I've been really into lately is there's one called the Daily Mindset Medicine from one of my mentors named Taylor Welsh. It's literally like a four or five minute podcast that I listen to now every morning that just helps address your mindset and realizing that going into every day. So this morning, the one I listened to was about where you place blame, you place control. And, you know, if you blame coronavirus for your business failing, then coronavirus has all the control. But instead if you blame the fact that you didn't launch the sales channels you needed to when you should have, then you now have control over it. You can fix those problems. So the Daily Mindset Medicine by Taylor Welsh has been a game changer for me.

I am writing this down as we speak. Where you place blame, you place control. Man, that's so good. What about favorite mentors?

Favorite mentors? Ooh, I don't want to be stereotypical here. You know, I as, I hate like mentioning, mentioning him, but you know, Russell Brunson has had a huge impact on my business. You know, he, with him, he was the one that really taught me the impact that you can have and how like, you know, a lot of times we think about serving and we think that is, you know, almost wrong to, to charge for it and what. But when you realize that your work can have a real impact on completely changing someone's life. Like, my favorite thing about retail is like, I think retail is like the lifeblood of a community. And when, when I help a retail business and I help them grow, I'm literally transforming a town. And it was like through. So through Russell. Like that's where I picked that up. Otherwise, like, probably like Tim Ferriss. I dig some four hour work week.

Oh man, Both so good. And Tim's podcast is unbelievable. How about this biggest fear? Snakes, payroll or Internet trolls?

Ooh, Internet trolls. I wouldn't say I'm necessarily scared of them, but what I, what I hate about Internet trolls is like just to me, they are like mindset killers. Like you could just be crushing it and feeling so good about your yourself and your day and if they hit you at the wrong time that day, it just derails everything you have going for you. And it's so easy to give them so much control. So I just hate Internet trolls because of that.

I totally agree. It is a mindset conundrum to figure out how to overcome and handle Internet trolls. I mean, it's a process. We're all a work in progress. I would say when it comes to trolls, last thing I want to talk about is we talk a lot about community over competition inside of the hub and as that relates to boutique owners specifically. But my stance on it is community over competition doesn't know any industry boundary. Like, it's for all of us. All of us have more opportunity in an abundance mindset. The more we give, the more we receive. You know, we all should be looking at how we can work with others. And I think about our relationship a lot of times as an example of that. Like we, we both serve boutique owners. We're both, you know, speakers and industry coaches and have programs and similar programs, but yet we still work together. Talk to Me kind of about your take on that and what community over competition means to you.

Gosh, that plays out in so many ways. You know, I. You know, I naturally think of two people. When I think of that, I think of you, and I think of Angela from Hot Mess, you know, with you. Like, I have my mastermind that I teach with Tara Austin. And in some ways, like, we have some overlap in what we're teaching. And. And on one hand, it'd be easy for me to think, like, okay, well, if, gosh, if people are doing retail bootcamp, they're not going to want to work with us or vice versa, which I want, of course. Like, I want people in retail bootcamp because I think it's incredible. But instead of having this mindset, realizing, you know what, like, we both are helping people grow their business, we both are equipping retail. Retail store owners to do something. And it's kind of like when you're a boutique owner, you have to realize you don't solve everyone's problems, and you have that boutique down the street that you may see as your competitor, but instead you realize, you know what, they're doing something different for their customers than I am, and the way I engage them is different, and the problem I'm solving for them is just different, and that's okay. And so instead of, you know, worrying so much about what they're doing, instead realizing, like, Ashley, you solve a different problem than I do. And there may be some overlap, but we go about it in a different way. And, you know, Angela and I, who I adore her, we both are in a, you know, ultimately in E commerce design and E commerce consulting and on, you'd think that we could have, like, this competitive nature between us, but what we've. We've both come to the conclusion on is 90% of the time, the perfect customer for her and the perfect customer for me can be so different. So instead of me thinking like, oh, well, if I do this or she does that, what is that going to cost me? Instead, her and I are messaging on Facebook all the time, like, sharing tips and observations and things that can help each other. And I think for boutique owners, that can be obvious. But even in our own industry, this is something we have to practice, and we have to do 100% on our own and not see it as a threat, but see it as a chance to allow our customers to be served in different ways.

Oh, I love that. And I think about, you know, as someone who takes coaching from others, you and I both have mentors We've both invested in courses and masterminds and programs, and we often share what we learn from those programs with one another, which I think is super cool. But I find that once you buy a course, like, and you're serious about growing your business, you're a lifelong learner. And so anyone who tells you that they have all the answers, like, just come to me. I'm the only answer. I'm the only solution. That's not how it is. Like, we should be looking all over. Like, I have a number of great mentors that I love to follow. So specifically, like, if you come to the hub and the Hub's like your only source, I mean, I'm flattered, but there's other great people out there, and that's why you are in the hub and Angela's in the Hub and there's 80 service providers in the Hub because there's more than enough to go around. And we all teach things in different ways. But ultimately, it's up to the boutique owner to decide how to interpret something and put it to work in their own business.

You know, Ashley, I think if you only go to one source, you really are, like, robbing yourself of so much that you can learn and so much that you can apply. So, you know, Ashley, I think your courses and your content and is incredible. But do I think that if someone's learning from you and then turning around and learning from Bob Negan or learning from these other retail people out there and they can say, you know what? Ashley says this and Bob says this, and with that advice, I'm now going to turn around and do this in my own unique way. You get to turn around. You get to create your own strategies by learning from multiple places. And I think that applies to anything, whether it's your faith or parenting or, of course, business. And so for me, like, if I just read Russell Brunson, I'm not going to be able to go anywhere. But as soon as I combine what I'm learning from him with what I'm learning from all the other business books that I'm reading, then I'm able to create new strategies and new ideas that apply to my business in a unique way. And so, like, stay broad and continue to learn from. Gosh, from as many people as you can.

Oh, that's so spot on. Right? It's. You've got to take the information from everyone and 100% make it your own.

Absolutely. But I will say the one caveat. I do say learn from as many people as you Can. But my focus of 2020 is, you know, I've been that person that just reads a bajillion business books, and 2020 has been the year of implementing. Like, I took what I'm. I take what I'm learning now, and I'm literally turning around within days and am working to implement. So as you're learning these things, like, I can't, you know, if you're in retail bootcamp, don't just sit back and learn, but instead, like, leave that session and immediately write down, like, what's something I can do today? What's something I can do over the next few weeks to implement the things that I'm actually learning. Because if we just learn and we don't implement, it's for nothing.

I feel like that's a spiral that a lot of us go down. Like, Eric and I had this conversation about a year ago about podcasts, and he's like, ashley, I love that you listen to podcasts every morning, but when are you implementing anything that you learned? Are you just in this constant state of consumption? And I was like, well, that's a really good point. I do consume, but I don't have time to implement. And so I felt like with some of the mentors that we've worked with, we've, like, gone all in with that mentor. I'll say Bo Eason, for example. Like, we met him through Brendon Burchard and Brendan Burchard's stuff. Like, we've went all the way through his stuff. We've been through his mastermind. Then we met Beau, went all the way through Beau's stuff. Now I'm in Beau's mastermind. Like, you've got to pick one person and just, like, if they are your kind of person, take all of it in and implement it and then move on to someone else. Like, don't do it too quickly, but, you know, go back and forth and put it to work in your business. Do you feel the same way? Like, same thing I'm implementing, not just learning.

100. Yeah. So right now, you know, I'm in a mastermind from a company called Traffic and Funnels, and it's been transformative, and it's the traffic welt. Taylor Welch from the Daily Mindset Medicines, the owner of that. And so, you know, I'm all in on that right now, but in a few months, it's probably going to be something else. And at each. Each time I do that, my business grows, my business transforms in a unique way. So it's the same thing in retail, but it doesn't mean that I move on from who I learned from before. I just continue to add and I'm, like, focusing my attention on where I am right now.

Absolutely. Yeah. You never leave one, but you continue to add to the arsenal that you have. That's perfect. Yeah, man. Josh, you and I could sit here and we could chat all day about a lot of things, but this has been so fun to get to share your wisdom with our community. And I know we'll be dropping links in the show notes if you guys are interested in learning more about Josh and Streamline and his podcast and also how you guys don't just coach business owners, but actually have programs to help brick and mortars implement building their online strategy, which I think is really important. You're not just telling them how to do it, but you're actually doing it for them and with them.

Exactly.

We'll link all that up. But I want to ask you this one last question, because, again, this is why we're all here. And you and I have had this conversation about. Our business is about ripple effects. It's not about selling a product or providing a service that's just good for today, but it's good for forever. So as you're thinking about your growing family and 30 years down the road and you've got grandkids and you're sitting on the front porch with them and you're talking about the life that you led and the businesses that you built, what is the thing that you want them to remember most about who you are and what you did and the legacy that you left in the world.

Around you that I want my grandkids to think about?

Yeah, well, like, what do you want them to know about what you did? What do you want to leave behind for them?

Gosh, when I think about my grandkids, looking back or, you know, looking back at my life in 30 years to right now, really the thing that I'd want them to focus on or think about is the way that I. I enabled others to find their success. That's what I love about my work, is that I get to enable people's lives, like people's businesses to succeed. That especially like a brick and mortar store who's never had this online presence, and I'm literally helping them launch a completely new sales channel. By doing that, I'm enabling them to grow and take their business into the future. So what would have been one outcome now is another. And when you get to impact someone's business, you literally impact people's lives, and I want them to look back at this season of my life and say, wow, like, the way that he got to help people really did change lives. It wasn't about building a website, it was about transforming a business. And I love that piece of what I do. Because when you change a business and you literally have this ripple effect of you change their life, which changes things at home, you then change their business, which changes things in the community, and you have this positive ripple effect through the world through something as simple as the way your business serves them. And that isn't unique to my work, but I love the way that it does play itself out in my work.

I love that. Such a bigger purpose as to why we're all here, man. Josh, again, thanks for being on the podcast today and if anyone wants to get a hold of you again, we'll link it up. But you're a part of the Boutique Hub and I'm sure whatever market everyone is able to attend next, they're going to get to see you there as well. So thanks for your friendship and thanks for pouring into our community like you do.

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week. Sam.