Do you have your 2022 goals ready for the new year? Have you begun? Do you need to update them? Join us as former retail store owner, RETAILMavens founder Cathy Donovan Wagner shares her cutting-edge expertise in coaching and providing guidance for retailers on how to increase their sales, find profit and improve cashflow to sleeping better and living a life they love! Listen as Amy and Cathy touch on important business topics to help you establish your 2022 goals and to prepare you for the year to come!
RESOURCES
Guest Websites:
https://retailmavens.com/
| NY NOW:
https://nynow.com
| NY NOW Podcast Page:
https://nynow.com/podcast
| NY NOW Digital Market:
https://nynowdigitalmarket.com
Thank you for podcasting with NY NOW! We look forward to connecting with you across all our platforms and seeing you in person!
Website: nynow.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ny_now
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nynowmarket
Do you have your 2022 goals ready for the new year? Have you begun? Do you need to update them? Join us as former retail store owner, RETAILMavens founder Cathy Donovan Wagner shares her cutting-edge expertise in coaching and providing guidance for retailers on how to increase their sales, find profit and improve cashflow to sleeping better and living a life they love! Listen as Amy and Cathy touch on important business topics to help you establish your 2022 goals and to prepare you for the year to come!
RESOURCES
Guest Websites:
https://retailmavens.com/
| NY NOW:
https://nynow.com
| NY NOW Podcast Page:
https://nynow.com/podcast
| NY NOW Digital Market:
https://nynowdigitalmarket.com
Thank you for podcasting with NY NOW! We look forward to connecting with you across all our platforms and seeing you in person!
Website: nynow.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ny_now
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nynowmarket
Welcome to The NY NOW podcast, a modern wholesale market for retailers and specialty buyers seeking diversity and discovery, gathering twice a year in America's design capital New York City. It's where buyers and designers on Earth have refreshed and dedicated collection of eclectic lifestyle products.
Amy Loewenberg:Welcome to The NYk NOW buyer brand spotlight Podcast. I'm Amy Lowenberg, relations manager and retail and maker advocate for New York now, and my focus is to bring you important information, conversations and perspectives from both sides of the aisle. Today's conversation is not with a buyer or a brand, but someone whose business is about helping retailers. As a former retail store owner, RETAILMavens founder, Cathy Donovan Wagner, learned how to master numbers and to go from near bankruptcy to owning three successful multimillion dollar stores. She now uses her cutting edge expertise in retail and consumer behavior to help 1000s of independent retailers increase sales and improve cash flow. She guides retailers to more profit, better sleep and living a life they love through powerful group and private coaching programs, industry speaking events and a thriving online community. And today, she's talking with us about some of the things to think about food for thought and some quick tips in terms of making or updating our new goals for the new year as we enter 2021 and look forward to a stronger 2022 Oh, Cathy, I am so excited to be talking with you today. I have been following you for a while now. I've listened to your interviews and watched some of your YouTube videos. And just immediately I would say I'm just struck by the amount of valuable information you share. So I want to dive right in because I plan on letting you share just as much as we can possibly fit into today's conversation. All right, so are you ready?
Cathy Donovan Wagner:I am ready. I'm so excited. I'm so honored to be here. Amy, thank you so very much. Thank
Amy Loewenberg:you, my gosh, you are so welcome. This is gonna be great. I know it. My first question is obviously, Cathy, what drives you? Like, like, why do you do what you do?
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Well, like so many retailers, I was an accidental retailer. You know, i i And I made so many mistakes, and almost went bankrupt a couple times. And I had to I mean, at one point I had to decide if I was going to keep my stores or not keep my store you know, like what was I going to do and I decided that I just wasn't ready to give up that I wanted to learn more like there had there it just I there had to be a way to succeed in retail and resource up I hired a coach to help me that helped a lot. I resourced up so that I could get better. And I already I love numbers and the science of simple consumer psychology not that you have to love that to be a successful retailer. But
Amy Loewenberg:I'm so gonna dive into that later cabbie.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Good, good, good, good. Yeah. I love hearing about about people but I really just tested and tweaked until I found what truly worked and we went from almost bankrupt to then my sister and I had our stores together and and I ended up having three stores and and they were really successful. I loved retailers and retail and I had four kids and I was take weekends off. And in what I thought was funny is that my sister and I would go to trade shows and I would end up being sitting around those sitting around those tables in the back talking to people about because they just weren't they weren't happy in retail or they were struggling and I ended up just I want to just share my my, what I what I discovered what my discoveries were what I had learned, I wanted to share it with them to make them more successful. And I just became much more passionate about that than I actually was about retail anymore. So that's that's what drives me is helping these independent. You know, it's helping these independent retailers succeed, because I just don't want anyone to experience all the struggle that I experienced.
Amy Loewenberg:I mean, it's always so wonderful when we can learn from somebody else's experience and and and take from their wisdom and apply it to ourselves and our own businesses. We're totally going to be talking about that today. But before we do, why don't you tell us a little bit about retail mavens and your awesome team?
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Thanks well, and gosh, you know, team is so critical, right? It always makes such a difference. And I'm so grateful because yeah, no, you know, you can't, you can't you can never do it alone. And but our mission is to is to help independent retailers to really empower them to have more freedom to increase their profits. And in fact, our tagline is more, more profits and better sleep like that's what we always talk. It's about it's about the whole retailer. It's really about becoming a richer retailer in every sense of the word like not just monetarily, but in every sense of the word. And so we have group and one on one coaching programs where we combine this, this the art of what the passion is because the retailer Always start something because you have a passionate about something right. But you, but passion alone doesn't always pay the bills, right. And so, so we met, we take that passion, and then we match it with the Science of Successful business practices. And so we we oh gosh, we are so passionate about equipping independent retailers with the skills they need to grow their business and, and really enrich their life and create this business that supports them in every way financially, creatively, emotionally in everything. And it's it's such an honor and a blessing to be able to do this. And the way we look at it, me is that it's as if literally, the retailer is giving us their dream and sharing it with us. And we get to help fan it to the life that they that they dreamed of when they when they first had it to the vision they had when they first had that dream.
Amy Loewenberg:Yeah, there's a lot of trust there. It's a very powerful moment when you get to contribute and be a part of somebody else's dream.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:It really it's just it's it's it's like I said, it's truly an honor, it really is really, fairly you love what you do. I do. And I'm so grateful that we get to see people's lives changed, you know, we get to see, you get to see the impact that we have. We have we like tell you, the whole team will tell you that we feel like we have the best jobs in the world because we really get to impact people on a daily basis. And it's just wonderful.
Amy Loewenberg:Well, I get to say the same thing with mine, but less
Cathy Donovan Wagner:right in. All right. All right. All right.
Amy Loewenberg:All right. So let me just say it the universe through down its gauntlet and challenged us all to look at our business differently, right? We needed to do the things that we've done in the same manner now for years in a new way with fewer resources. And truth be told, many grab the bull by the horns. And they reimagined, they took chances, they made change, and they develop something new. So we now have new businesses, new products and services that have sprung up, we have retailers who were not literate, technically who are now like super tech savvy. We have businesses that have had their strongest year ever, which is what I want to talk about, because it's December, and if our 2022 goals have not yet been identified, I think now's the time to address them.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Yes, for sure, for sure is and, and really, for many retailers. The the gift of everything that's gone through is it it's forced them to, to look at what they're doing and to realign what they've done in order to in order to change with that with really with the customer that was already changing. I mean, that would that was the customer is already changing. What's more online, and so it forced all the brick and mortar retailers that only did that to really add that whole thing. Well, with being closed, they had the time to phrase and create all that, you know. So that's, that's the part that's really exciting.
Amy Loewenberg:Well, also the challenge, too, is that we have listeners that are, you know, on all different aspects of the retail spectrum, right? There are many different levels of business. So let me focus in a little bit is Is there like a basic goal list that we should have that like applies to everyone, there are
Cathy Donovan Wagner:a couple of truths that you have to accept about business, no matter what you're in, right? First of all, I believe that there's no such thing as a work life balance, because it's all life. And, and so one of the things that we've started to do really, really focused on in the last couple years is taking this holistic approach to coaching our retail clients and encouraging them to set goals for richer life, in every aspect. So not just goals for work, not just goals for the business, but also goals for personal and have them all on the same thing. They have to all be together because you have to have you have to be richer in relationships and health and wealth in front enjoy all that has to work or nothing works. And so I think that's one of the biggest things is to make sure that you're looking at it all that you're looking at it all. We have a really interesting
Amy Loewenberg:because I mean, I mean to interrupt, but I would tell you that in the past when I've written goals, they've been very separate. They've been in business and personal.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Yeah, no, and they shouldn't be they should because life isn't like that. Like
Amy Loewenberg:oh, it makes perfect sense. So does this past year dictate the way we create our 2022 goals like what happens when outside forces alter our path like the supply chain issues and and what about these unknown future disruptors? Like do we plan for them in our goal making?
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Well the other part that I think you have the other part that you I know you have to make sure that you're facing is your you have to make sure you're facing that you are not your numbers like it's more important than ever that you're focusing on the business side of the business. It has to you have to you have to make sure that that's in line that that's all that you're that you're that you have successful business practices. What I see happen so often with all different kinds of businesses is that people get afraid to look at their numbers, you know they do. And the, the thing is, is that you are not your numbers, and you have to remove that emotion and remove that judgment and not be afraid of those numbers, and realize that it's simply a snapshot in time, and you can use them to create strategies to change your results. And that's what you have to do. So for sure, that is one thing that the pandemic made everybody have to focus on, because there's no room, it really wiped out so many weaker retailers, and I'm not dominant, a judgmental way. But it's just, you know, it's just true. The other thing, I think that it's also really helped people to get serious about is what is it they want from life? Right? We help businesses, you know, I have, I've had so many retailers come to me saying, I just, I'm fine business, I actually made it through the pandemic, but this just isn't what I want to do anymore. I can I just know, I don't want to do it anymore. And so we help them transition out of it, we help them sell their store or clothes or store, whatever. And that's wonderful. Like, right, I mean, that's a beautiful thing. And so that's what when we talk about this holistic thing, and focusing on the numbers, those two things have to go together in order to create your 2022 goals. But it is really more important than ever before, that you are doing what you love. And that when you think about 2022, that you're excited about it, and you're excited about changing it all. And if you're not, then don't do it. Like don't do it. You've already lived out the dream that people you know, that so many people, everyone dreams of opening their business, and you actually done it. So you know, anyway. So that's the one thing that's really important. And the one other thing is recognizing that there will always be disruptors, right? I mean, the last two years, of course, have been super extreme, obviously. But there's always going to be outside forces or disruptors. I mean, before that it was the election, there's always the economy. And honestly, that's the thing is that you can't give your power away to those outside forces, you have to keep looking at what else is possible, what new opportunities are available, because of the changes, look at all the ways that that that retailers were able to serve customers more, so much more, and when and when you're clear that that's what you want to do is serve them and serve them, well, then that becomes your clear. And then you can use that to then create your clear goals that then kind of become I always say they become your lighthouse that guide us through any storm no matter what happens.
Amy Loewenberg:And I love aligning both what you want, personally, with how you want your professional life to be because we are happier in our professional life when we're happy or personally. And vice versa.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Absolutely, yeah, it's so it's so critical that those two things are aligned. And I feel like people don't just don't talk about that enough. And you can't be held hostage by any part of your life. Like you have a choice, you have a decision. And the beauty of it is that once you create these goals, and you determine this plan, it's so it makes everything so much easier. Because with the plan, it's easier to get back on track. And it stay the course when you have to pivot. But then I mean, it's so it's like so think about how if you're if you're in your car, and you've looked up a you know, or walking or whatever, and you've looked up a destination in your maps and your Google Maps or whatever, then if you get off course it just recalculates. That's just that's all we do routing
Amy Loewenberg:Rerouting. Now I'm going to hear that in my head all the time. I actually I actually really love that. Um, so you've said it like a couple times already that there is a science to retail science to actually sitting down and creating these goals to like, I am like, I'm an idea person, I'm all over the place, but you know, put me down in front of the computer. And it's like, I'm just staring at my screen. How do I start this process? How do we start this process?
Cathy Donovan Wagner:So I'll tell you the I literally have a timer, you can use your phone, but then your phone gets you distracted. I literally have a timer and I just set the timer and force myself to just brain dump any every idea every goal, every idea I have into into a document so I just get started because the biggest mistake is and I'm sure Amy I'm the same way I have tons of ideas and the mistake Listen, all of this stuff I teach about goals. Really everything I teach is because I screwed it up so bad to begin with. You know. I really look at like how I've made my mess. My message is what I tried to do, and I didn't set plans or goals for a long time because I was like you I would get nervous like writing stuff down. And that's the biggest mistake is that people don't set goals and they don't create a plan to get there and and part of it for sure. Is that you think you don't have time to you know that that you think you don't have to Time to sit and write everything out that we have ingrained in our heads that that motion being busy equals success. And that does not that is BS. It's totally BS. And the thing is, is that planning creates time. Yeah, actually creates time it actually does. So when you start with your goals, and then when you're clear on the big why behind the goals and why it is you're doing what you're doing, I mean, then you just have to lay out the action steps that you think you will work that you think will work. And this sort of leads into how you will fail, you will get off track. And also just resting in the fact that failure, it really is just the first attempt in learning. FHL first it really, truly is. Now, I mean, I've had some failures this year, and you absolutely get emotional about it. And that's fine. You know, live it, you know, go through that. But what did you learn from it? And how can you move forward,
Amy Loewenberg:I'm writing notes
Cathy Donovan Wagner:I get so passionate about is that the second mistake people make and most people make in that, and I did too, is that they'll start out strong, right? The new year's resolution, yep, your new binder, whatever, whatever it is a new leather book, I love to use moleskin for stuff, you know. And so I'll write it all out. And this is going to be great, and then fizzle out as every day. Life happens and old habits kick in. And but but the thing I say all the time is that you didn't fall off the train, you didn't fall off the train, there is no train. It's just life, right? So you get to just start again. And people tend to think that they failed. And so you know, no, no, no, you're not failing, you're not failing. You're four.
Amy Loewenberg:I just want to I want to backtrack, because I'm not sure if we said that loud enough for people to hear. Failing is your first attempt in learning. That acronym is fantastic. Like I never really thought of it in that manner. I mean, I do believe in trial and error personally, but just thinking about it in a different way, kind of alleviates that discomfort that we have, you know, I think a lot of people get stunted because they don't want to make a mistake. Yep. Right. And so we have to find comfort in what makes us uncomfortable. Mm hmm.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Exactly. You think about how you think about I mean, I love sports and so I love the analogy about like Wayne Gretzky, so And for sure know that that FAI l was not my quote. I don't even know where I got it from. But it's like, I love like the Wayne Gretzky the rink. Wayne Gretzky, quote, The NHL hockey player who who says, he says you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, you know, and then the stat that I don't even remember what the stat is, but the stat of Michael Jordan and how many game winning shots he actually lost. But you missed, but you remember just the the huge, you know, spectacular things that he made. And it is. I also love the story of Sara Sara Blakely, who started Spanx. And do you know that at dinnertime, she and her brother, her dad, they sit around the dinner table, and her dad would actually ask her? So what did you fail at today? Oh, like, it wasn't like what's good about your day, he would ask what they feel that today, because he instilled in them, he instilled in them in such a young age that that you have to fail to succeed, you have to fail to succeed. And it's not sexy to talk about. It's not fun. But it's true. It's true. Well, it
Amy Loewenberg:certainly would evoke a dynamic conversation and a very different one than generally what we start around the dinner table. So all right, so So next, Okay, how about I listen important business attributes, and you give me a little food for thought so that we can share that with our listeners in terms of making smart goals. Okay. All right. So these are very abstract, but very poignant, if that is to be said, business strategy and obstacles.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Recognizing that, what got you here, what got you to the place you're at right now, will won't get you there, the place that you want to be at. And so you have to change things. And one of the things that has to change is your to do list. If your to do list is the same as it was a year ago, if your responsibilities in your store, which leads often to what your to do list isn't your business. If it's the same, you're not going to get to there to what your next goal is. And you can certainly learn from someone who's who's where you want to be. That's a fabulous thing to do. So that you can break through whatever barriers are keeping you stuck. But I mean, I make this I just realized last week that I was making the same mistake myself. I was. I'll tell you a trick about this is that if you're feeling overwhelmed, like I've started to feel so overwhelmed about stuff, and it's because I realized I had taken on new things, I had added new things to my to do list, but I hadn't removed some old things. Mm hmm. So that's, that's one thing that's so important. And something else that we've just added to our own to do list as a team is thinking about potential obstacles or trying to predict certain failures ahead of time. And so that ahead of time, thinking about just loosely, what will plan B, B, if plan A doesn't work? If I'm going to do this big event, and I believe it's going to create this many sales for me for that month. But if it doesn't, what is my plan B going to be just so just so it's up there?
Amy Loewenberg:So what I'm hearing is that our goals can change and evolve as we are in them. Mm hmm.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Absolutely. Yep. And if you want to change, you have to change your to do list. That's that's the truth.
Amy Loewenberg:All right, first of all, data driven decisions. I think we can talk about this for a long time. Go for it. Yeah, this should
Unknown:certainly be a topic because it it. This is a very tough one for people. You have to get comfortable with your numbers, and I get it that can be super scary. And but you are not your numbers. And the thing is, though, is that your numbers do tell a story that will guide your next steps. You have to you really have to measure everything you do. We measure as as a team and our clients all measure the steps that we've taken every week to achieve our goals. What percentage are you at? You know, what, for what percentage, what percentage did you get done to move towards your goals that you wanted to we look at it every single week. And it's making such a big difference in in our successes and how in how we move in failures, we've absolutely had more of both, because we keep going. And it's because we're always looking at the fact that numbers do tell a story that will guide those next steps. I love that one of my one of my longtime clients, I think it worked with her 1012 years now, she said to me, she said, Cathy, I just have to tell you, I'm really disappointed when you and I first worked together, you said you would teach me You promised to teach me to love my numbers. And I have to tell you, I don't love my numbers. And so I I'm just pausing and waiting for that, like I didn't even know what to say back to her. And she said, But you have told you have taught me to love the math, that makes me money?
Amy Loewenberg:Well, you know, I think that there, there is a comfort there. You know, there are so many numbers that revolve around our business, right? Whether it's, you know, profit or margin or our investment or our overhead, you know, there are numbers in everything we do. I mean, I think the the key thing for me was finding comfort and understanding them. And once I understood what they were, I could then find comfort in engaging in a conversation with them. Right? Because how many times have we had a conversation where we know that we're probably the person at the table? Who knows the least on that? That's okay, you know, it's part of the learning process.
Unknown:It absolutely is. And you just have to accept it's the whole thing of how, if you know that that is a weakness of yours, and you know that you want to get stronger at it, then right? What got you where you are, what got you to here isn't going to get you there and some things have to change about it. One really quick tip about data driven decisions is to focus on cash flow, because so many people end up focusing on profit. Now, I'm not saying profit isn't important, but what I have learned is that profit truly follows cash flow. So if your cash flow is good, you know, your profit, your profits will follow. And you have a
Amy Loewenberg:great YouTube video on that. I watched that about your entire conversation was really very poignant. I don't think people I don't think everybody understands the difference.
Unknown:No, exactly. I know I didn't again, this just came out. I don't think you know, my gal telling my my come telling me hey, good news and bad news. Good news. You had a profitable year, we did cash flow sucked all year. And he's like, Oh, well, that's the bad news. You owe tax now taxes now. And yeah, I don't know where you're gonna get the money to pay for them. I was like, geez.
Amy Loewenberg:Okay. Okay, so now how about merchandising, how does the way we merchandise affect our sales
Unknown:so much. And it's one of those things where every person who has a brick and mortar store knows that because it's the classic case of how you put something by the register or, or by your speed bump, which is a speed bump is like when you walk into a store. And there's some sort of table or some sort of display that literally makes you pause in your tracks as the speed bump does in the street. And what's so funny is that everyone knows that you can put highlighting items in that store in those places. And people will say, Oh my gosh, I love this. When did you get this in? And you're thinking to yourself, I've had it for like six months? Yeah. But then you're just smiling. I know isn't it great, I love it too. So merchandising can make such a big difference. And it's so critical to make sure that it matches with your brand, who you are, and that you're not just copying what other people do. Another really quick tip about this is that it has to also match your marketing. So what happens so often what we found is happen is that people will use so people are people are looking at your Instagram, they're looking at your Facebook, they're looking at all these posts of all this stuff they have, it's so critical to make sure that you're that you're featuring those things in the store too, because so then people are taking in all this information from all your marketing, and they're thinking, oh, you know, I want to go to that store. They might not even really remember specifically, what it was that made them want to go to your store online or brick and mortar, it doesn't matter. So it's so important that you have an area on your website, and it's placed in your store that says, As featured on Instagram, or featured in our Facebook Lives or whatever, because that's how you can match your merchandising with your marketing. And it makes it makes all the difference in the world. Because then people will remember why they came there when they see the things right. Even if they don't verbalize it, they still do. Otherwise, they leave disappointed. Like, oh, yeah, and they don't even know why. And you'll never know. But they'll never
Amy Loewenberg:know, it's an excellent point that that's something that I think permeates everything with where we are right now is just really bridging that gap between digital and physical. And if you're not drawing the straight lines with your brand, your own brand identity, and that doesn't, you know, flow in your merchandising and in your marketing and in your presentation all together. I mean, there's the disconnect. That's an excellent point. And it's challenging, it's challenging to do that.
Unknown:It really is it really Yeah, it's one of those things that you really have to make sure that you have helped with you can't do it yourself.
Amy Loewenberg:So that might be an interesting goal to make for ourselves, too. Alright, so let's talk about marketing a little bit. That is, I talk to a lot of very new independents that are mostly designer makers, and they've, you know, moved into selling their art, and they're new to the business and boom, you talk about target audience, and I'm not quite sure what that is.
Unknown:So true, so true. And really, that becomes a super important, non sexy thing to do is identifying who your ideal customer is. And that becomes really important that you do know who they are and give them a name even, you know, great one, one great tool that because of so many retailers are visual, one great tool that I really love to do is to sort of think about it as if your brand is like a magazine, and that you're going to create like a magazine cover for your target customer. If you think of the cover of the Magnolia magazine, that's totally different than the cover of Time Magazine. Right? seems obvious, but your brand should be the same way. So do a magazine cover like what what are your people, you know, what are your people interested in use use images, use use sentences, use words, you know, to sort of identify who they are. And then the other mistake that people make is not making a consistent marketing plan. So often it ends up being that you do it just you know, kind of half assed, you know, just like just pulling stuff out of your pocket, you'll remember at the end of the day, oh, I was supposed to do I haven't done a Facebook post today, or I haven't done a Instagram story today. And so you end up just doing it half assed like that, which doesn't serve you because it doesn't make sure that all the beautiful things you offer are really featured and highlighted on a regular basis. So again, planning really does create time if you take the time to do it. And the other thing I love challenging people to do is to find a minimum of five uses for every single marketing piece you do, so that you're rinsing and repeating things. So like as you take an image of a beautiful piece of art that you've created. Make sure that you're using that image in five places. Like you could use it in an email, you can use it in Instagram, on Facebook, you can use it wherever you can you how can you use it in the store, or on or on your website use. But literally try and find five uses because so often, I find that retailers are creatives who like to create things and they prefer creating than to reusing, but it saves them so much time when they do
Amy Loewenberg:that's really an excellent point.
Unknown:It's true about all your content, every post that you make, like whatever the not only the image, but also the content in the post. Like that same information is so valuable. And you forget how genius you are, Amy, you're just like everybody else you forget how genius you are. So make sure that you're sharing that message everywhere but just split it up, right I mean, so you're on Instagram now well, you could post it on Facebook six weeks from now you can Email, you know, someplace else, but you have to make sure that you're doing it everywhere.
Amy Loewenberg:Definitely, definitely. So what about wholesale versus retail? Do we look at these businesses differently? And do we go about making our goals different?
Unknown:It's interesting, because in a lot of ways, they're similar. They sell stuff, right? Right. There's so many important differences, like the obviously Ay, ay is, are they selling direct to a reseller, reseller? Or are they selling direct meaning a store? So are they selling direct to a reseller, or store? Are they selling direct to the consumer? Because those are two different target markets. So you have to do different kinds of advertising? Are you going to have a physical location have to do merchandising there? Or are you going to have is it all going to be online and you're going to have holes in you're going to have merchandising on online. Also, the product focus tends to be different. The product focus for, you know, wholesale, tends to be a little more narrow, whereas in a retail, it's much wider. And also interestingly, one thing that I have found helps people if they're trying to decide where where they want to end up, if they want to be a wholesaler, or retailer, if you think about it, and retailer, you get to talk to a lot of different people and impact a lot of different people. Whereas if you're a wholesaler, it's you're dealing, you're developing deeper relationships with really fewer people. So for some people, knowing that there's no work life balance, and you have to enjoy what you're doing. Sometimes that helps people decide which it is they want to do. And then that shapes what their goals are. Hmm.
Amy Loewenberg:Okay, one more, because this this, this one is important to me. Team development. Yes, right. My goals need to include
Unknown:other people. So I'm so grateful that you asked me that question. It wasn't until this year, actually, that i i And I have a fabulous team. And I don't know why I was nervous about it. But it just gave me such a great, great understanding of how people struggle with team and struggle with in struggle to share everything that seems so vulnerable, their own dreams, about their business with their team. But it's the only way that you can get to where you want to go. It's the only way that you can help more people and become and get more and have more impact. And so I did share, you included them in the goal setting process this year. And it was so powerful. And I know that the reason why it was so powerful is because we also worked to structure our team in a way that we hadn't before. And I'll be honest, even though I teach it, I teach this all the time, but I hadn't done it myself, I'm ashamed to say. And it's it's true, you first have to write all your responsibilities in your business. And for excuse me, first, you have to write up the roles and your business, think about what the roles are that you want filled. And then you write out the responsibilities for each role. And then you can see who you need where, and in the beginning, you're, you're wearing all of those hats, right? But the goal is to keep giving away those hats that don't align with what your true geniuses, right. And that's what makes it so powerful. And as we worked to go as we work through this this whole year, it's been, it's really powerful. And really, your team wants to be included? They do.
Amy Loewenberg:I mean, I would think that I would think that any goal is more achievable if you have a team supporting you, because they come up with ideas
Unknown:that you don't think of. It's amazing. I mean, I know that I I know that I kept things from my team, not because it wasn't like an ego thing like I was better than them. I just thought, well, they have a lot to do. You hear this all the time from clients, that that you know what my team is busy enough. I mean, I don't need to burden them with this goal setting but they love being a part of it. Everyone now wants to be part of something bigger, like in the way in the olden days, you would just have a job and go home. But now people really enjoy being a part of something that's bigger. And so when you when you create that mission, and you include your team in helping you to set the goals and reach those goals of that mission, it emoticons they and they have ideas that you don't have. It's it's literally a goldmine. It's literally a goldmine of talent that I hadn't that even though I have such a great team, I hadn't adequately
Amy Loewenberg:utilized. Well, I mean, the fact is, is that we're moving at the pace that we move at. We're used for we're conditioned to it, we've been doing it and we're doing things differently now. And, you know, I think the really wonderful thing about utilizing our entire team is that we have people that are in different aspects of our business. So they're picking up different touch points from our customers, whoever they are, whatever line of customer we're talking to at that moment. And you know, the brainstorming and the ideas, the creativity that can come from that is really what can be our next new thing. I mean, Cathy, what what I am getting from you is a real amazing sense of, you know, getting down to basics and not looking past To the point that we're so used to doing in in a in a tunnel vision way, step back, think about every aspect of our business, bring in other channels to think about our business, make the time to do it so that we're not we're not cheating ourselves the benefit of putting together a great game plan, and then having the courage to evolve it while we're in it. That's what I'm getting from you.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Perfectly said, well,
Amy Loewenberg:perfectly communicated, which is really kind of fun. Because first, I'm going to ask you, is there anything because I could just I could talk to you forever. Now. Is there something that we haven't touched on that you would like to share with us?
Unknown:Absolutely, I want to share with you the process that I'm using with my team that I've already seen such fabulous results of it's a, it's a process to help you create your best year yet. It's true. And I'm so intentional about words, you'll notice I don't say best year ever, because that's not what I want, I want your best year yet, because that's what I want to keep striving towards right. And the most effective way to do that is to have a clear vision and a plan to get there. And the not sexy part is the planning process. But I've created this planning process, I found this process that works the best to help you build your business with more clarity, and less overwhelm, and a lot more success. And when you're doing it with your team. It's incredible how much faster you can get there, you can get to where you want to go. So we've created this, it's a proven path we've actually been teaching this for for I think now almost nine years, it's the first time that I'm involving my team in it actually, so So join me with that I so I'm so excited to be able to share with your people, it's five steps to really map out your goals and projects and events for the next year. So that you can look at it in a holistic way, and make sure that you're looking at every part of your business, and that you're creating the plan and the process to achieve it.
Amy Loewenberg:Oh my God, that sounds amazing. And I believe this is free.
Unknown:What I know for sure is that if you take these steps, you're gonna it's gonna start your 2022 on fire. And so we're so excited to be able to give that to you. So excited.
Amy Loewenberg:Well, I'm excited to be able to share that with our listeners, I think that everybody is always looking for great new resources. And Cathy, you and your team are an amazing resource. So you can actually reach Cathy at WWW dot retailmavens.com. And if you're interested in this free five day best year yet, email challenge, right, you can go directly to retail mavens coaching.com/byy/is That correct Cathy, did I do that, right? Yes,
Unknown:thank you very much. So retail mavens on Instagram and on Facebook, and I'd love for you guys to join me on our retail mavens, revolutionaries Facebook group, we call it revolutionary because we are focused on helping you create impact and freedom and to become a richer retailer in every sense of the word. It's it's it's a wonderful community of people. And we're also on YouTube, you can search for us there. And it's an honor. It's an honor to help you on any way in any way we can.
Amy Loewenberg:Well, that's a really great segue to talk about what our listeners can expect from us in 2022. Can I spill the beans carefully.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:I'm so my gosh.
Amy Loewenberg:All right. Well, this has been so informative, and I've loved every minute of it. So for the New York now, nation that listens to these podcasts are amazing community. These spotlight podcasts that come from me are the fourth Wednesday of every month, but moving forward the fourth Wednesday of the last month in each quarter. So do the math on that people. once a quarter. You can expect another spotlight conversation with Cathy or one of our amazing team members, where we cover a myriad of topics directly relating to growing your business. So a lot of what we talked about today, we're really going to dive into and you know Cathy and her team are so free and liberal with the information that they give. I really cannot wait to dive into the weeds here with you and your team. And I'm just I'm so excited to to have connected with you I know that you're aware of New York now that you've been very familiar with emerald and I would assume that some of your community knows us as well. So I'm really looking forward to joining forces with your community and introducing you to mine.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:I'm I can't wait I'm so excited to be a part of the New York now nation I want to know do I get a t shirt because
Amy Loewenberg:I'll make you a t shirt Cathy.
Unknown:We all need New York. New York now nation T shirts.
Amy Loewenberg:donation that is a new one I'm going to coin that one. Okay, well with that, I will say thank you so much for spending your time with us today. This has been really interesting. I can't wait to dive in further with you and, and everybody, you should really check out Cathy, and look at her website and look at her Instagram and her Facebook. She really is. So sharing with information. And I know that if you reach out, I'm pretty sure you're going to hear back. So with that, Cathy, I say thank you so much, and we will talk to you soon.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Thank you so much, Amy, for all the work you do for all these independent retailers. On behalf of all of them. Thank you so much for providing all these resources and all this inspiration, Amy, what you do is so important. Well, we do what we love.
Amy Loewenberg:So I'm gonna start my 2022 goals.
Cathy Donovan Wagner:Sounds great already. Hi. Hi.
Amy Loewenberg:Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation. So have you created your to do list? Are you updating it by removing old items before adding new ones? Do you have five uses for every single piece of marketing that you do? And are you thinking about roles versus responsibilities. I hope this conversation with Cathy Donovan Wagner of RETAILMavens helps you to prepare your goals for 2022. And as always, please don't hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, suggestions, or just to say hi and introduce yourself. Thank you so much. And I'll talk with you again soon.
Dondrill Glover:Thank you for listening to the NY NOW podcast. Make sure to tune in weekly for engaging and insightful conversations touching on the most relevant topics facing our community today. Is it your mouth calm to learn more about our market and how you can join in all the conversation