This is a Boutique Chat podcast episode (YouTube) hosted by Ashley Alderson with guest Sara Burks (and a co-host). They teach a six-layer framework for retail business health (1: Foundation — vision/brand/mindset/operations; 2: Products — inventory/financials/profit; 3: Team — hiring/roles/training; 4: Sales — strategy/channels/merchandising/e‑commerce/live selling; 5: Content Strategy — creator-first approach and repackaging into revenue streams; 6: Traffic — social, email, PR, traditional marketing, paid ads). The hosts explain common 2022 industry challenges, concrete pitfalls in each layer, and invite listeners to their Retail Bootcamp and Best Year Yet challenge (early January events).
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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 Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat.
Hey, guys, welcome back. It is the very last episode of this season of the Boutique Chat podcast and what better way to end it than with my partner in crime, Sara Burks. Welcome back to the podcast.
Yay. I'm so excited. Thank you for having me. And yeah, I'm pumped about this.
It's gonna be great. It's been a minute. I feel like we've done a lot of podcasts together, but we haven't for a little bit. Too busy.
Time just goes so dang fast anymore. But nope, this is gonna be good. This is gonna be good. Great way to interview you.
When we get together, I feel like for these podcasts, we're like in a hotel room at Magic or we're these like random places and we're like, we have to tell people these things. They need to know them for their business. Today we're a little more organized. We've got some definite year end tips, some definite, like what you need to do for 2023 ideas. And we're just going to talk about some most common struggles that we see a lot of boutique owners facing right now and how to work through them. Right?
Absolutely. I love, you know, all year round we're in the groups and we're at events and we're showing up at the, at the markets and, you know, Coors Boutique Summit, all the stuff. And we have such valuable conversations with people in the industry, small boutiques, very large boutiques, brands, small brands, just getting started, service providers in the industry, all sorts of tech providers, and we are able to bring all of that back. And Ashley and I have these really awesome conversations and things just kind of start snowballing, right? Like the situation that happened with this boutique and then how it affects this other store and what we're seeing is trending. So, yeah, we wanted to compile all of those things and you know, with some insight what's happening in the industry and going forward and bring that all to you guys today. So this is not just stuff that Ashley and I just sit around and make up.
Right?
This is straight from the voices and from the people in the industry, working on the daily and what we are seeing, being inside the boutique hub with all of our members.
You and I haven't had this conversation yet to put a bow on this year because you're so right. Like, it's all these combinations of these conversations we have, but we have not had this final conversation of just looking back at 2022. I've been telling people, if I could describe 2022 in one word, it would be weird. It just was weird, Right? How would you describe it? How would you look back and say, what do you think happened in 2022 in our industry?
Gosh, you know, I remember having this conversation with you about 2020 and remembering feeling like I was getting chased through the woods by a tiger. And every time I felt like I was making some headway, I'd stop. And next thing I look back and there the tiger was again. It was something else, you know, and I felt like that was gonna calm down in 2021. And then here we are in 2022. And again, to say weird, I think you're pretty accurate. It's, you know, just the big race, and it felt like things were coming at you from every direction. And, you know, there seemed to be a lot of just uncertainty and, yeah, uncertainty in the industry, but people trying lots and lots of different things. It felt like a lot of different things brought into the industry to just, well, I'm going to try this a little bit. I'm going to try that a little bit. And, yeah, weird is a good. I mean, tech advanced so fast and conversations we've never had before. So, yeah, 2022, I'd say weird. That's a pretty good one. It's a pretty good.
Yeah. You know, to your point about, like, being chased by the tiger, I think in 2020 there was, like, fear that set everything off. Right. Everyone was scared, like, what's going to happen? And then when we started to run through it, like, we literally were running, and then we're like, oh, my gosh, this is working really well. People are buying. Everyone's having record years that flew into 2021 and everyone was just running. But I think everyone is also waiting for it to slow down and become normal again. Never did. And this year, just, like, just. It was just up and down. It was weird. And so I think about this analogy of. And I've talked about this actually a lot before in the hub, but slow down, to speed up. And I kind of feel like that's where we're at in time. Like, everything's coming down off this weird sprint that we've been on. So many new boutiques in this industry. I talked about last week on the podcast how I think that so many new boutiques came into the industry. There's. There's almost like a cleansing, and there's a lot of boutiques deciding this isn't for me, and I'm leaving, and that's okay. So now I feel like we're at this point where we have to slow down to speed up, get more efficient, get more streamlined, go back to the foundations of why we built the business and how we built the business and rebuild it so that it's sustainable long term and just, like, give ourselves a moment to breathe again and then shoot forward into 2023. Does that feel accurate?
That feels so accurate. And I've seen that happen with so many stores where it was almost like you're having this conversation. Light bulb goes off, and they're like, wait a minute. What am I doing? Why am I finding myself here in this space? How did I get here? And then that, like, rally it back in and go back to the drawing board and get really laser focused on who I am, what I wanted out of this business to begin with, and who are my customers, and what do they expect out of me? What are they looking to me for?
Right.
And so I feel like. I feel like that was, you know, after the big, long race. You're right. I get that. And, you know, through coming out of the battle, and some people survived and some people didn't. Right. And some people saw the pivot and made. Made adjustments. But at the end of it all, I think 2022 was a year to sit back and really assess and say, am I making myself happy? Am I living my best life? Am I serving the people that are important to me? Or am I literally just running around like a crazy person and hoping there's money in the bank account at the.
End of the month? Yeah. That's so, so accurate. One of the kids last night, I don't even remember what we were talking about, but Easton and Hadley came up with this analogy, and they were talking about driving a car and only putting gas in the car, but not ever analyzing if anything else is wrong with it. And that's what I hear you saying. It's like for the last two years, we've been just putting gas in our car and just seeing how far we could get. And now we're like, oh, man, we got to rotate the tires. We got to check the oil. Do we even, like, the car we're driving, or is this like a Prius and we really want a Cadillac? It's time for some changes, right?
Yes, yes, yes.
All right, so here's where we're going. So I think about, you know, going back and rebuilding the foundations of business and reassessing what's working and what's not. And you and I, for the last, I don't know how many years, have been working in Retail Boot Camp. And really, Retail Bootcamp is built right around this whole idea of we have to sometimes slow down to speed up, and we've got to go back and assess the car that we're driving. And last year, you and I decided we're rebuilding all of Retail Bootcamp. Like, what's got us here isn't going to get us there. We want to go back, update some things, shorten some things, add some things that maybe we're missing. And so for the last several months, we've been working on that rebuilding, which is a huge undertaking, by the way, but we've been rebuilding all of Retail Boot Camp. Maybe we're not done yet, but we're going to get there. And if I think about how we built it, I love this because it goes back to this analogy of layers, and there's six layers deep in a retail business. You and I've kind of analyzed, like, everything a retailer of any type needs to be successful. And it really falls in these six layers. And each of these six layers really is, you know, honed in on a touch point or an issue or common obstacle that we see that retailers of all sizes need to go back and adjust and review and build upon so that they can get where they're going. Right. Like, if you don't have your company vision and your operation plans, which are in layer one, you can't get to digital traffic, which is layer six. You've got to go back and rebuild the whole thing. So what I want to do today, for everyone who's listening, is just talk through those six layers, explain what they are, explain how we got there, explain the common obstacles that. That retailers see in each layer. And really, those are the layers that are going to make up Retail Boot Camp, which is open now in January, and it won't open again until June. This summer, we open it twice a year. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about layer number one. Do you want to intro that for everybody?
Yeah, absolutely. I think this kind of goes back to what we talked about just a minute ago is, you know, after 2020, two and people running around and thinking, oh my gosh, where am I at? How did I get here? The clarity for 2023 and going forward is really going to be laser focused on your vision and your purpose.
Right.
And it's if don't anybody jump off and think, oh my gosh, here we are talking about boring stuff again. But no, seriously, why do you exist and what decisions are you going to make on the daily that support that? Right. Or are you just going to be chasing that dollar bill wherever it might go to the point where you're all of a sudden competing with people that you didn't want to be competing with. That's not in your wheelhouse. And so that clarity around the vision and who you are as a brand and telling that story every single day on repeat is so damn attractive to people. That's what's going to get people to like, oh my gosh, who is that? What are they doing? I want more of that. And then people are going to bring their friends and other like minded individuals and before you know it, you have acquired a huge loyal customer base because you, you're staying true to who you are. And I would say between 2020 and up to last year, people got very disorganized about that. And so I think that is a foundation building block is layer number one. We just, we're really going to help you dive back into identifying that and determining really who you are and why you exist.
Yeah. And within that layer, how we visualize this in Retail Bootcamp, the foundational layer is really broken into four blocks. And that includes your vision, your brand, your mindset, and your operation plan. And those four blocks are just the foundation of everything you do in your business. And they're always things for us to revisit. And to your point, Sarah, people want to do business with people, not companies. And so being really customer centric and going back and saying, okay, who is my customer? What do they really want? Because in the last year, I think we got so busy chasing dollars like you said, that we were selling the rose toy and then everyone was selling Queen of Sparkles and then everyone was selling Judy Blue and everyone was chasing what the other person was doing rather than just saying, what's my customer really want? Who are they? How can I really stand out in a really crowded market? We just got so busy looking like everybody else and not being unique.
You know, I just, I, as I read different, different retail books and talk to different people and I'm talking about like that people say, oh, I just don't have any more customers. There's no more customers out there. And I go back to, you know, at one point I was selling a skincare line and somebody said, there's no more customers. And the head of the skin care line was like, oh, what are you running out of people with skin? And we're like, no, we're not. So there are more customers out there. However, yes, everybody has skin, but not everybody has oily skin or this type of skin or whatever it is. So if you're going to serve somebody, figure out who that person is, what their problem is, what they struggle with on a daily. And how can your brand, your business, make them feel like they're living the very best life ever, Right? Like you're bringing out the best in them. We all struggle with different things. And if you're the ones right now sitting there thinking, sarah, all I do is sell clothes, then you're part of the problem. You don't just sell clothes. You sell a hell of a lot more than clothes. You're selling a solution to the person's problem. Maybe she doesn't like the way she looks in the clothes. Maybe she doesn't feel good about herself. Maybe she's coming off of having a baby or whatever it is, or maybe she's starting this new career and she just know have the confidence to look professional. Who knows what it is? Maybe she's on a budget. Maybe. Who knows what the situation is? Everybody's got something, but we want to empower people to feel like they look like a million dollars. They have that confidence to get out of the house and go and do the world, like worldly things they want to do, right? And that all comes with how you present yourself and how you are attracting your customers every single day. You can't show up for them one day and then ignore them the other day. And talking about, talking about identifying who you are and telling that story, you know, to put it in a real plain perspective, we all have friends or acquaintances. We've. We've met along our lives and we're going to. I bet everyone listening right now, you could identify one or two people that you're like, oh, my gosh, that person's so fake. I just, I know them and I'm in a circle with them, but I just don't trust them. I don't. They don't bring out the best in me. They're not helping me in any way. So when I decide who I'm going to spend my time with and I'm going to go to lunch with somebody. Are you calling that person? No, you're not. You're actually probably avoiding them. You're only going to need that person on the very last resort, right? But you have that tried and true friendship. You had that tried and true relationships. Those people that are there for you and that trust you, that you trust and are bringing out the best in you and are honest with you and helpful and servant. Those are the people you want to spend your dollars with. Those are the people you want to spend your time with.
Oh, that's such a good analogy. Such a good analogy. One other, I just want to give one more angle to what you're saying because you mentioned clothes and I just want to like, like throw out a flag here. It's not even just about clothes. There's so many stores, I think on the home and gift side of the industry that I've gotten to know in the last year that need to have that same thought process about, wow, my customer, I'm like the tried and true go to for them in home and gift, but they also are wearing clothes. Right. There's crossover, there's opportunity to get to know my customer. Not just through this one lens and this one product line I've always offered them, but there's something else out there that I just have to ask that question of how can I serve them right and how can I become that tried and true friend for them? I love that.
I think the only other thing I want to add to this is why is, why is this foundation building block so important? And for those of you that are still listening, I hope that you really take this into account because everything we are going to discuss and discover about your business, business and about who you are in this foundation is important and imperative on every decision you're going to make for the next five building blocks. Everything we do in marketing, every product we source for our inventory, every pop up shop that we decide we're going to go to, whatever those decisions are in the next few months, right? In our business, the next few years has to come back to this foundation. It has got to be able. You've got to say, is this who I am? Is this why I exist? Yes, it is. These are my people. Then you can. These other decisions are going to be so much easier. If you know who you are and have that solid foundation and know who your customer is and what language you're going to speak. Everything going forward. So much easier.
Yeah, you can't run Facebook ads if you don't know who your customer is. So everyone's got to go back to this for sure. Second layer of the building blocks is products. So we've got the foundation layer. There's four building blocks within it. The second layer is products within products. The building blocks are inventory, financials, and profit. Talk to me about some of the biggest struggles you saw in this layer of business in the last year.
Oh, gosh, a couple different things that I'm seeing is, you know, going to market and sourcing products. You know, I always talk that you are an investor, not a buyer, right? Like you go on an investing trip when you go to market because you're investing in products that your. It's your intent to turn on and sell at a higher price, right? So that's investing, right? So, but what am I investing in and when do I need it? So negotiations and working with your vendors to get those products in at the right time that serve you in your cash flow, in your spatial needs, in your delivery, and your how you're offering those to your customers is so important. And that is one thing. Through 2021, we, we found was a real issue with the supply chains being disrupted. And then it started, it eased up and got a little bit more organized in 2022. But people got in a habit. When I say people, I mean retailers tended to get in a habit of just taking the goods when they could get them and then having this huge problem on their hands of either they were short on certain classes of inventory that they really needed because their dollars were tied up in other inventory that they just thought, why, I can get it now, I might as well get it now. So understanding a budget for your investing and making sure you're not selling yourself short to the point where, you know, I'll use. I'll use the white tank top example. When I in my store, I needed to have white tank tops on hand all the time for foundation items to sell, blouses to go under, sweaters, whatever it was. And if I didn't have those, it made it really hard to sell these other items, right? So if I didn't have the money or the ability to invest in those white tank tops, my sales really struggled because even though I had thousands and I mean thousands of dollars tied up in other products, I couldn't sell them. It was like the car that has the gas in it but no tires. So you're like, okay, great. So got a car, can't go anywhere with it, can't do anything with it, right? So that inventory investing is a science. And so we really go through that deep dive. Bring some really awesome industry experts to help you identify that and help build out those inventory classifications, because that's where your profit's going to lie. And you know, everybody talks about, well, I want to make more money, I want to make more money. Okay, so then we're going to take those numbers and basically one of the things we'll do is we'll say, okay, how much money do you want to make? Right, Just give me a, throw a number out there. And then we're going to work that backwards and we're going to say, okay, then if that is your goal, this is what you need to have on hand to satisfy that goal. And then this is what you're going to be needing to, to sell. And so in, we don't just want to say Overall blanket inventory, $100,000. No, we're going to break that down and help you understand, what do I need to have in white tank tops? What do I need to have in place settings? What do I need to have in wall hangings? What do I need to have in, you know, denim jeans? Whatever it is. So that is, to me, really, that's exciting because that's where the money is. And also taking that a step further, itemizing and understanding where the money is not just coming in, chasing those dollars coming in, but where it's going out. Where's the holes in the bucket, where are the things that we need to fix? You know, where are more income generating activities and what are our risks?
Right?
Like what, what's our, what's, what's our, our strategy for spending money too? And, and being, and owning that. That's a big one.
One. Yeah, man. So important. And again, this goes back to the idea of the retail art side of the brain and the retail science side of the brain. The art side's easy. We see it all over Instagram. Right. But the true retail science, no matter what you're selling, this is what's hard. And this is what a lot of people skip because they're intimidated by it. But it doesn't have to be hard. We can make it so much simpler.
It is. And, and I know one of the things that we've worked through in our mastermind that we do here at the Boutique Hub, and, and we've built this into Retail Bootcamp this year specifically, is understanding the opportunity to sell less, but make more.
Yes.
I mean, the light bulbs I hope are going off for people right now because it's like, wait, what do you mean? What did she say?
And I did.
I said we're going to work through some processes of selling less but making more money. So the more margin you have, the more time you have. And who doesn't want more time? Increasing that margin just increases your opportunity and it might be the opportunity to do less.
Yeah, I think that was a huge trend this year. Yeah, I think a lot of retailers woke up to the fact that I can sell with way more margin this year and sell higher priced items on top of it. So yes, for sure we'll be covering a ton of that. All right. Layer three. Layer three. And building block number three is team. Team. And this is such a big one. When I. So when the economy started to shift, right. And do weird things and there was all this fear and panic in 2022, which is again, why it was weird. One of the things I heard people say is, oh my, you know, my payroll, I don't know if I can afford to have team. Like, am I gonna have to lay people off all these things? But when we really look at team, team is your greatest investment. Investment. It's an investment, not an expense. But one of the biggest expenses that we find with team is under trained, underutilized staff. And I think a lot of people have found themselves guilty of that. So this is something you speak about a lot. I would love to hear your thoughts on just optimizing your team and some common mistakes you see people make.
One of the big. You just mentioned it, right. Not optimizing your efforts with your team members. And they're just sitting there. We used to say it at our store like they're a warm body. You know, we don't need any. Just warm bodies.
Yeah.
And that business works too fast anymore to just have somebody taking up space and, and milking your payroll. Everybody has a purpose. And. And the one thing I will say that I am finding trending with employees is they want to be accountable. They want to have a purpose, they want to have an appreciation. Like, they want to know people are happy with what they're doing in general. They're not there to just take up space. Many of the people are there to figure out how they can advance.
Right?
How, what, what's the next step if we do this as a company now what right now that they want to take over your life and they want to run your business. But guess what, guys, you're not going to run it forever. The idea of planning for the buyout is. Starts today and you hope you're bigger and better tomorrow and more People come knocking on your door and maybe it even is your employee that says he, when you're ready to retire, I want in. And guess what happens then? Then they start building the empire with you. They don't try to work against you with the assumption of like, I'm not doing that. All she's going to do is go to Vegas again. If I help out here, that's not. That upsell is not important. You know, if that's the mindset they have, then that's costing you money. That, that, that is an expense.
Right?
But if you have that employee that buys into the mission going back to foundation building block 1, who you are as a company, what you stand for, who you're serving, how you're improving the lives of your customer. If they buy into that, the sky is the limit on what you guys can accomplish together as a team. And that's the attitude. It's the, it's together as a team, right? It is not Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the packers. And that's it. It's the packers, it's Green Bay, it's everybody all over the world wearing green and gold on a Sunday. That's the team. They're all there for one thing, to support each other and be the best right now. Okay, granted this year they're struggling a little bit, but nonetheless they're working hard together as a team. But it's not just a one man show, never has been. And that's the attitude, I think going into 2023 that, you know, let's, let's forget about everybody's hiring and nobody wants to work. I BS I think people want to work, but it's up to us coach them and to give them that love language, so to speak, where they feel fulfilled and they want to show up and they see how when they work hard and they make those sales and they organize the back room and they do awesome on shipping and receiving all those things, all those little bitty pieces, how they add up to huge wins for you as a cuz. As a company and what, what that is opening doors for them in their career. Their career, right? Like, how awesome is that?
Yeah. Is this a job or a career? I love that. Well said, Sarah. It's here.
It is my favorite time of year.
And you're invited.
You're absolutely invited.
And it's free.
You guys.
It's time for the best year yet challenge.
I know that so many of you.
Nerd out just like I do when it comes to the beginning of the year and mapping everything Out. So the very first week in January, January 3rd, 4th and 5th, please join me, Sarah Burks, Jeff and Shannon Gordon, and our entire team at the Boutique Hub as we have a real chat about what worked in 2022. What lessons did we learn, what didn't work, what's changing and how can you prepare for the year ahead? We're going to massively lay out your next year with goal setting, intention planning. We're going to talk specifically about your inventory and what's changing in our marketplace, but also how to build collections and how to market your business with growing and changing social media trends in the new year. So please join me. It's absolutely free. You are invited at the Best Year yet challenge. The link is in our show notes, and I promise you it's all over our social media.
So I hope to see you there.
The very first week in January for the Best Year yet challenge.
All right, Layer number four. Layer number four is all about Jerry Maguire. Show me the money.
Money.
It's about sales. Layer number four, we break into building blocks, including sales strategy, sales channels, merchandising and E commerce and live selling. So, as I mentioned, like, when I think about retail bootcamp, I just want to, like, throw this disclaimer out there, too. This is for brick and mortar, it's for E commerce, it's for live sellers, it's for home and gift. There's really not just one retail type we work with, but we literally work with the gamut. And sales and sales strategy, I think are pretty across the board when we break those things down. So let's talk about sales strategy just to begin with. Where do you think a lot of retailers fall down in that area?
Oh, so I don't. I think a lot of them just don't have a strategy.
Yeah, yeah.
I think a lot of people just think, oh, I'm going to try to sell this.
Right.
And they start throwing stuff on so many different platforms, they have no idea what's hitting. It's like having a headache and taking essential oils, a hot compress, taking ibuprofen, taking a bath, get. And going to sleep and drinking a gallon of water. What happened? My headache went away. But what am I going to do Every one of those things next time? Or some of those things worthless. Did some of those things not help at all? So I think one of the biggest things we've seen the last few years, especially last year, is chasing that dollar. People just started trying everything and not tracking anything, not analyzing anything. So they had no idea what hitting and what wasn't?
Yeah, I totally agree with that. Something I, I find myself talking a lot about, whether it's at summit or in Bootcamp or at Mastermind, is just taking what you're saying and breaking it down into a simple formula, a traffic formula. So if my sales goal is X, if I divide that by my average order value, I know how many transactions do I need to hit in that period of time? If I take those transactions divided by my conversion rate, I know how many people need to either come through the door of my store, my website, my live sale in order to achieve X number in dollars. And when I know how many people I have to attract to my business, then my marketing brain can say, oh great. I know that if I send X number of emails and if I go live and if I post X number of times on these platforms and achieve this like average engagement rate, then that's easy. But so many people are so busy just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. And like your headache analogy, just, just wondering what's actually making the sales convert at the end of the day when I really could be more streamlined and break it down. And then I can ask myself questions like what happens if I increase my conversion rate by half percent? What happens when I increase my AOV by $10? Man, that just changes all those numbers dramatically. And I can do a lot more with a lot less. Yeah.
You know, one thing that we didn't mention, but we discuss in the earlier building blocks of your business is how to ids, how to identify, discuss and solve if you have a problem in your business. And the sales strategy is one of those. You know, I worked with a store just not too long ago and their sales were falling and she was really concerned. And her inventory numbers, when she just looked at inventory numbers, they were solid. Well, we got to looking. What she didn't have in inventory at the time was add on items. She was missing sales in her upsells, she was missing sales at the counter and at checkout out. And she was also missing sales because she was running out of size mediums and the mediums were her biggest seller and, and always add on items. She was low on jewelry and some of the little other little add on items. So her sales were down and it was, she was getting plenty of traffic. People were coming to her site, but they were bouncing because they're. The sizes they were coming for weren't there. And then the ones that did fill the carts didn't complete the conversion because there wasn't enough there to make them feel like they were going to, they wanted to pay for the, the product.
Right.
Like they weren't just going to buy the one shirt. They typically would buy the shirt plus a couple accessories or whatever it was to add on to make her feel like, ah, I've really got something that I'm going to pay for here. So that like idsing that getting back to the root of the issue can save us so much money. So having that sales strategy and really knowing where are my dollars really coming from and what are those things, I cannot let slide, I can't let go in my business. I've got to make sure I've got the mediums, I've got to make sure I have on those add ons, Things like that going back to the products and profit building block. Right. Learning, taking all those things again as we build this empire into the sales strategy funnel.
That really comes down to merchandising too. Like when you're thinking about idsing those things, you're like, gosh, how do I merchandise these pieces together whether I'm in store or I'm online? And Sarah, this is something that I think became a real big trend in the last year is drop shipping and pre orders. And so many people got so wrapped up in just this product chase of I can drop ship that I can pre order that like this single product is going to be a hit. When in reality, just like you're saying, it's not about the single product, people don't care about the single product, but it's about how do I make an outfit out of this, how do I merchandise our room, how do I make a display on my mantel out of these items? How do I could, you know, give a complete gift to somebody with these items rather than just focusing on that product. So if we can approach our business well merchandised, from the photos to our website, to the live sales, to what people experience when they walk in the store, some of those quick turn ways of getting inventory that we became accustomed to in the last year don't work long term. Yeah. So good. All right, let's talk about the next layer. Deep. Next layer. Deep. In business, we are on layer number five. This layer is definitely my sweet spot and that's content strategy. And to think about layer five in content strategy, one big change I see coming for our industry in the next two years is we're no longer retailers, we're no longer boutiques, we're no longer home and gift stores, we're content creators. And that might be uncomfortable For a lot of people to really like when you put yourself in those shoes because you're like, oh, I'm so sick of social media. Like, if I could just run my business without social, I'd be great, great. But that's not the reality we live in anymore. We have to be fully content creators because our mission is to build a brand, to build a community, to build relationships with people. But the cool part is when we accomplish that, and we're really great at being content creators, we're selling way more than just the products we're buying at market right now. We can build multiple revenue streams, whether that be through subscriptions like Instagram subscriptions that are brand new or real estate or MLMs, or being affiliates for other companies and other products. The sky's the limit to what we can sell through multiple revenue streams if we are content creators. So we first have to have content strategy.
Yeah.
And I, you know, I'm going to come at you and say, that sounds exhausting, sounds overwhelming, and it sounds exhausting. And that's one of the cool things I think about this particular building block is narrowing that down. And again, going back, and if you just, if it hits me like, you've got to create this content, blah, blah, and I forget who my customer is or what my product offering is and where my profitability is, then I am thinking, holy crap, she wants me to show up absolutely everywhere for everyone. And I'm dancing on Tick Tock and I'm making a, you know, a souffle in my kitchen. I'm doing all these kind of things all on camera to try to sell a damn sweater. But no, that's not what you said. Right. What you said is creating content that serves your customer through the sales channels we discovered in the profitability range that we talked about in module two or in building block number two, all going back to the core reason you exist and your purpose. So when you say it like that, then I'm thinking, oh, okay, so I know who my customer is. I know where he or she is living.
Right?
Like, like, what channels am I optimizing the most? How am I pushing the sales content and what exactly am I offering them? I'm not offering them absolutely everything under the sun. No. Because I narrowed my focus in building block number two, so I like it. Okay, I'm over here now saying, all right, that makes more sense. I can do that, I can do that. But at first I'm sure people are like, oh my gosh, there it is. The ultimate content strategy. That means I'm going to live with a camera in my face 247 and I'm all of a sudden way out of my comfort zone.
So I love that you brought it back to the, to the beginning layers because you're right, it comes back to your brand, it comes back to your customer, it comes back to the product. But I'm going to even say it comes back to building block number three and layer number three team. There's a whole training that we do in there just on Internet interns. You know, we. In the last. Gosh. When. How long has Charlie been on our team? Two years. When we first hired Charlie as an intern From FIDM in LA, she came on and just took over TikTok. I think she took over TikTok Pinterest and was assisting with some of because we've got like four Instagram channels and she was assisting with those. So it might feel overwhelming, like, oh my God, I've got to do a souffle and shake my butt on Tick Tock. No, you, you have some help in somebody who can take the pressure off of you. Because if there's thing I heard from especially our million dollar boutiques in the last year, it's that they're burnt out. They're sick of being the face of their business and they know now they have to diversify and bring other faces on board into their community and to, to help lead their brand because they can't be everything to everyone. So that is the strategy that we're gonna talk about.
That's so good because I mean, going back to the packers, right, what I was telling you talking about earlier.
Yeah.
It's not Aaron Rodgers showing up there by himself. Oh my gosh, think of all the players involved in that, that in that team, right. Everything from their media people to, you know, all their play callers and then they break it down. Offense, defense and every single angle is there's somebody there helping. And that's one of the things we, we tend to as small business owners be like, oh gosh, I can't do that. And we limit ourselves with that mindset. I can't do that. It's just me. I can't afford that. You know, one of the talking about Charlie, Charlie pays for herself. Charlie pays for herself tenfold with what she's able to do for the boutique hub. And everybody in this, in, in our business is, you know, pulling their own weight. And so that's a whole nother thing on team. If they're not, then they're not. We'll make it, you know, hard decisions, but. But that is part of it. So when we're thinking about that content strategy and we're thinking about opportunities, we can't limit, have a limited mindset to think, oh, I just can't do that because of, of whatever it is, you know, the mindset is, that's where I need to be. Let me figure out how to make it happen. Who can I bring in?
Is it a fixed mindset? Is it a growth mindset? Simple as that. Sarah, you've talked about the Packers a lot today. I just have to ask you this question. Who's your favorite Packer player of all time?
I'm a Brett Favre girl.
Yeah, that's good. I agree. Until he started to show his private parts to people that got a little awkward. You know who mine is?
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah. We could go down a lot of rabbit holes. Okay. I'm gonna steer us back on track. Okay. Last layer of business. Last layer of business is traffic. And unfortunately, I think for a lot of boutiques, especially in the last year, traffic is like the shiny object everyone chases. How do I get across social media, marketing, all these things. But again, going back to, you have to have all these other layers in place and then get to traffic. So within traffic, the building blocks are social media, email marketing, PR and traditional marketing. And then paid ads is like the cherry on top of all of it. So let's talk about traffic. I feel like one thing that always surprises me when I hear from retailers that they have not optimized and I'm shocked as to why is email marketing. Email marketing is tried and true. It is the list that you own. You can shake your butt on TikTok, but if you don't have that email address captured, how are you going to remarket to that customer? So I think that is something in the next year to really think about honing in and optimizing, man.
And there's, I mean, there's a big difference between a good email and the bad email, right?
Yeah.
And learning some of the basics that we're going to go over and then some of the higher level ideas here we'll go over in retail bootcamp about building out those email campaigns and just, just how to, how to get started, you know, so it doesn't matter where you're at. There's room for improvement with emails anymore. And all the different platforms were not just sitting there back in 2016, you know, with very generic templates and things that it, they're art. They really are. And you know, I think, I think there's just so much opportunity there and to entertain and to educate. Not just about a sale, right. To really make sure you're getting in front of your audience in a way that you present yourself as the industry expert. And I think it's a great follow through with the rest of the marketing and things like that we want you to do and we think is important. But I really do, I agree emails are non negotiable.
Yeah, I just think about emails like if we put as much emphasis on emails as we did, showing up and entertaining people in our live sales, right? We think about all the games that we play and the transitions and the collection that we build, all the things for live sales. If we had that same energy with emails and we entertained and we showed up for people and just built a personal relationship with people through email, man, would they convert differently. But so often I feel like they become an afterthought and people are like, check out my new arrivals. When really nobody cares about your new arrivals. They never will. You have to make it exciting and come at your customer through what does he or she need right now? And how can I fill that need and solve a problem? Now my emails become more fun and.
It'S interesting to me how many times we talk to business owners and we talk about segmenting your email list and that is just something they don't know about. So talking about that, like how do I take my list of 10,000 people and really break it down and communicate with my size 6 shoe girl that loves heels, right? Like I always said in my store that when I was sitting on five and a half and size sixes, I was like, I could literally sit on these forever, you know, Or I could go ahead and segment my list to the people that I know would wear these shoes and get that information out there to them specifically. That's an email they're going to open. When the subject line talks to them and says something that speaks to a problem that they have, right? Because they have a hard time finding cute shoes in that size. But when my subject line speaks specifically to that person, they're going to open up that email 99 chance they're going to open the next one I send them to. But if I just keep sending big blanket emails that go to everybody and I just send an email about this run of size sixes that I have really cute six high heels and I send them to the ladies that wear, you know, wear flats or have never don't wear heels. Why would they open that email or if they do, why would they want to open the next one? One.
Right.
So segmenting those lists, your sale driven customers, your new arrival customers, whatever it is, they're two, they speak different languages.
Discount Debbie.
Yeah, discount Debbie. So that's what's so cool about email marketing is you can, if you're aggressive and, and you understand who your customers are going back to those earlier building blocks and you know what their language is that they need you to speak to them. Emails is the easiest place to do it.
Yeah, I love that cherry on top for sure. So, man, looking back, Sarah, we could, I think you and I could sit here and talk about this all day but I will spare everybody the details going back over what we covered. Six layers. If there's anything I want you guys to take away from this as you think about your business in the next year is just break it down by layers. What are your six layers deep of business and are you equally addressing each layer? All the way back to foundations which again were vision, brand, operations, mindset and productivity. To the second layer which is products. Right. Inventory, profitability, financials. Third layer is team. Fourth layer is sales strategy and channels. Fifth layer is content strategy and sixth layer is traffic. How are you equally addressing each of those? So Sarah, you want to talk about how we've built that into retail boot camp for the coming year. What's changing? Because I know a lot of people listening have been a part of boot camp or have considered being a part of boot camp.
Well, as far as boot camp goes, we continue to have lifetime access to the course.
Yeah.
And so that is very important because as the industry changes, the course is going to change. So we're bringing you new strategies and very up, up level information this course. And I think the one thing as we talk about these building blocks and the foundations and all these kind of things, go back for everybody listening, go back and think of something that hit your business over the last year or something that hit a business that you know of over the last year that really set them back. Whether it was a hurricane in Florida or whether it's the economy or whether it's an illness or whether it's a family emergency or whatever it is. Look at the companies that rebounded quickly and look at the companies that didn't rebound at all. And then look at the companies that you didn't even know had an issue. You like things that you're thinking, oh they, they had a perfect year. Guarantee they did not have a perfect year, they just had their Foundations and their building blocks. So in order. They're six layers deep is so in order and on track that you didn't know that they had a stumble. You didn't know that there was a setback.
Yeah.
And that's the beauty of it all. And that's how we built Retail Boot Camp. And going forward, that is our focus because we understand how important that is for longevity, sustainability in your business and ultimately profitability.
Absolutely. Profit and peace. At the end of the day, you guys, if you don't know about retail Boot Camp, I'll just give you a little bit more information in terms of it's a six layers deep, but it's about 14 weeks that we spend together in a group coaching program with Sarah, myself and oh my gosh, over 50 experts, I would say by now we are big believers on if we don't know something or if someone knows something better or deeper than we do, we bring them in, in, hey, come talk to our people. So we have over 50 guest experts that join us in the group coaching program. And you guys can go through it every semester. We do two semesters a year, one in January, one in June. And then we spend time together on a retreat in LA with a private buying experience in the fall. And that's one of my favorite things that we do all year long. I love getting to meet people on such a, such a deep personal level. A lot of people bring managers and spouses along with that trip. I just love that it's my favorite trip of the year here.
Yeah, it's a really cool opportunity for you to see the inside workings of the fashion industry here in the United States. And, and it, you know, it's just an als also not only a sourcing opportunity, but a networking opportunity. And you are in this, this very intimate coaching experience through Retail Bootcamp with Ashley and I and all these other like minded business owners for 14 weeks. You build these relationships together, you create bonds and then you get together in person and really solidify those relationships. And watching the collaborations from businesses that have worked together through things like Pink Friday and Shop Small Saturday, things like that, all those, all those events are just, it's mind blowing to us. And you know, it's almost like we're putting these relationships together that just build this marriage, so to speak.
Right?
And it's so cool the opportunities to find and source products and services and, and industries like Almost Secrets, right? Like what's working here and what's working there. And big box stores have huge company or you know, people in high rises, making these decisions and helping them along the way. And you guys don't. And this retail bootcamp is that for you. It is your personal coaching experience with like minded businesses across the country coming at it from many different angles. What's working, what's not, how can we, how can we help make this business better and how can everybody benefit from it together? Together we can take on the Amazons of the world independently. It's really, really tough. It's really, really tough. But when you have that support team around you, all of the businesses that come into it, like we said, it's brands, it's clothing, boutiques, it's home decor and gifts, special occasion, it's all sorts of different things. Plus then add in all those service providers and industry experts. I mean, it's just gold. It is. It's. I don't know of another opportunity like it.
I love it, you guys. I'll drop the link in the show notes today for more information on Retail Bootcamp. Also, if you're catching this podcast live, if, if it just downloaded and you just listened to it, this week is also our best year yet. Challenge. Hopefully I'm able to see several of you there. Hopefully Sarah and I get to see you in retail boot camp. If not, you guys, I just want to thank you as this is the last episode of this season. I just want to thank you for listening. Thank you for being here through all the guests guests through all the episodes this season. We're going to take a couple of weeks off. We'll be back with a fresh season of this podcast. But if I have not already mentioned, I'd love to see you in person this year. So let's spend some time together. Whether you're coming to Dallas in January or Atlanta in January. I'll be at both of those markets. Vegas. Sarah, I know you'll be joining us at Magic, so we'll get to see you guys there. If not the Boutique Summit in Dallas in March. There's all kinds of opportunity to get together in person, but wherever our paths may cross, you guys, we are so blessed to get to serve you in this industry. Thanks for being here. Thanks for a great season. And Sarah, thank you for being on the show today.
Oh, as always, it was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to see everybody in person as well and see where your businesses go from here.
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We'll see you next week. Sa.
