Ron Thurston loves retail. And he's proud of it. Ron has led the retail teams for some of America's most prominent brands, inspired thousands of store employees, and traveled relentlessly across the country to sit and listen to what they have to say.

From a part-time sales associate to a vice president of stores, Ron has put in the hard work that a retail career requires and wrote a wonderful book called Retail Pride to share what he has learned along the way.

In today's episode, Ron shares his foundational principles for Leadership.  If you work in retail, whether "leader" is part of your title or not, this episode is for you.

You are going to love his passion for retail and all of us who work in this remarkable industry.  Enjoy the listen!

xoxo,

Rachel

Stop what you are doing and listen to this podcast!  April is ah-mazing!  April Sabral has spent over 25 years in various sales and operations roles.  She has now taken her knowledge and passion for people and retail and created retailu, an online learning retail leadership development company.  April has a new book coming out called The Positive Effect.  I know you are going to love April.  After you listen to this podcast, head over to retailu.ca to find content to strengthen and develop yourself.  Enjoy the listen!  

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This podcast features Darlene Y Mitchell, an Inventory Management retail executive who helps boutique and brand owners turn inventory overwhelm into profit and cash flow.  In the first few minutes of this podcast, you will feel Darlene’s love for retail and her passion to help retail owners be successful.  While Darlene owns her own consulting firm, she has also joined DeAnna McIntosh in starting Retailing Evolved, a social network, business strategy team, learning platform and business accelerator all rolled into one.  This is a subscription based model that provides varying levels of support for your business.  You decide what you need!  So cool.  If you are “IN IT TO WIN IT”, contact Darlene on Instagram @darlene_y_mitchell.   I know you will love this podcast.  Enjoy the listen! Rachel

In this podcast, DeAnna McIntosh shares her passion for fashion and working alongside boutique retailers to help them navigate this rapidly changing retail environment.  Both of her companies, The Affinity Group International and Retailing Evolved have put small retailers front and center, giving them the tools that historically, only the big retailers have had access to!  This podcast will inspire you to learn more about DeAnna and how she guides brands to maximize their capabilities.  If you are in it to win it, contact DeAnna on Instagram @retailingevolved! Enjoy the listen!

COVID 19 closed virtually every non-essential retail store in the world for the first time that many of us can recall.  Store teams were furloughed in many instances and when stores reopened, leaders like Cody Stockton were determined to come back with a vengeance and be there for their customers, no matter what that looked like.  Cody is a store manager with Le Creuset in Orlando, Florida.  I love his determination to keep his team and his customers safe while creating unparalleled customer experiences.  His commitment to "make the uncomfortable, comfortable" is inspiring.  During this podcast, Cody shares how he is successfully navigating brick and mortar retail during this "re-entry" phase of COVID.

John Hanson is a CX (Customer Experience) guru and has written a book called WOW Your Customers, 7 Ways to World-Class Service. In today’s podcast, John shares the 4 different types of customers and the importance of each.  Now you might be saying to yourself, 4 types of customers?  I know about the internal customer and the external customer.  Who are these other two?  You will need to listen to this podcast to find out.  After 34 years serving customers, this even shifted my thinking!  

Whether you are in retail or work with customers in a different industry, this podcast will benefit you.  If you enjoy the podcast, please head over to iTunes and leave a review.  Share with friends, family and colleagues too!  Visit my website, www.runninggreatstores.com to learn more about my company and listen to all my podcasts right from my site or on your favorite podcast platform.  Thank you!

Saira Sethi is a delightful guest who shares her retail expertise in how to create trust and empathy with your retail customers and associates.  You will want to listen to this with a pen and paper in hand as her tips for elevating your team’s skill with customers will be easy to implement resulting in elevating the customer experience in your store.  Enjoy the listen!