Vintage Insights: Discovery Before Solutions: Winning Joint Business Plans

A solution without a defined problem is a guaranteed way to lose a retail partnership. With consumer expectations shifting rapidly and omni-channel delivery setting new standards, understanding the actual needs of both the retailer and the end user is mandatory for survival. In this special Vintage Insights re-release, Ashley Caldwell, a 20-year retail veteran working in the diabetes space at Embecta, breaks down how she bridges the gap between massive retail pharmacies and critical patient care.

We sit down to explore the mechanics of building strategic alliances that go beyond transactional sales. The conversation covers the necessity of cross-functional alignment in Joint Business Planning, the evolution of retail health clinics in medically underserved communities, and why relying solely on modular data can mislead your entire strategy. Ashley explains her philosophy on why deep discovery must always precede the pitch, reinforcing that the best ideas are found on the store floor rather than behind a computer screen.

Building a successful program often involves intense internal friction and the difficult task of challenging the established norms within your own organization. You will learn how to build a concrete financial business case, constructively challenge business partners using store-level reality, and navigate the complex logistics of operationalizing a new retail concept from the ground up.

If you care about strategic retail partnerships, data-driven merchandising, and the future of healthcare access, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with your network. What is the most difficult internal pushback you have had to overcome to launch a successful initiative?

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Hello and welcome back to the Retail Journey Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

I'm Charles Greathouse and I'm James Harris. Today we have a very special guest with us, Ashley Caldwell.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Hi, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

Yes. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

So, Ashley, you and I go back 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Ten years.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Can't believe it.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Ten wonderful years.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

We look great. We look great.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Indeed. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yeah, yeah. So again, thanks for having me. And obviously, you know, I think the world of you and now of Charles as well, of course.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Thank you. Um, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

That's right. Um, yes, so I um let's see. So I have sort of had, let's call it a 20-year retail career. Um, I worked for probably the first half of it in consumer package goods, um, and then moved into sort of the pharma med device world 10 years ago. So today I work for a large pure play diabetes company called Inbecta.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah. And we work with retail pharmacies across the country um, helping them do what they do every day, which is serve, you know, the US patient population, particularly those with diabetes. So I love it. It's very rewarding um work.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

And um I have a lot of firsthand experience with Invecta as a type one diabetic. So your sales materials and and everything have have were really critical when I first was diagnosed. Like I just needed to research and learn how to manage this new exciting adventure.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

That's right. That's right, that's right. Yeah, it's definitely um, it's definitely very, very important work that, you know, whether you're in med device, you're in pharma, you're in the OTC side, um, you know, US healthcare has never been, you know, more critical to our patient population. And so it's a really it's a very rewarding industry um to be a part of. And it's constantly changing and constantly evolving.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

And I think for the better. Right. So yeah, it's it's fun to be part of.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Yeah. We'll be we'll get to be a part of the Kiss a Pig Gala tomorrow, raising more money for diabetes research.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

So uh bring us in kind of how did you get into sales? What did you start in analytics?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

What's that story?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah.

From Field Rep To Analyst

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So so when I graduated from college, University of Arkansas, Wu Pig Wu Pig. Um, we I moved actually to Southern California, and I was a field rep for Newell Rubbermade at the time. And I had a 10-store Walmart territory that I called on and sort of like schlepped RubberMade containers, and we had tools and we had food storage, we had all these things. Let's go.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

You must have been on the back, like the very back end of in-store reps working for CPGs.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, absolutely. The program only lasted about a year and a half, honestly. So it was it was great sort of training that I think even to this day still impacts me about like at the end of the day, like whatever decisions you make as a supplier, as a retailer, somebody in a store somewhere in the country has got to like pull that through. And you've really got to, you know, the term eat what you cook and get out there and like see firsthand what's happening. And it also really impressed upon me that the best ideas don't come from sitting behind a computer. They often come from being in the stores, hearing what people have to say, and then getting back behind that computer, looking at the data, looking at the research, and figuring out, okay, what could the solution possibly be? So when that program ended, you know, a year and a half in, because to your point, it was kind of at the tail end of that.

The Planogram Moment That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I moved to Bentonville and worked in our Newell Walmart home office. Um, and I worked as an analyst. And so it was a fun time, you know, there were a lot of analysts in the office. I got to learn very quickly from people that had been doing the role for years and years and years. And they kind of moved me around over about a year and a half. And I ended up landing on the writing instrument desk. And um, that was one of our largest, most profitable businesses, very SKU-intensive, brands like Sharpie, brands like Expo, Papermate, Unibol. Um, and being the school supply nerd that I still am to this day, who does not like to go back to school shopping, um, I, you know, was advising our team just on a modular that was coming up. And we were standing at the mod and and I just was saying how, you know, the mod and the data didn't look the same. The mod was one way, the data set another, in terms of what people were buying, what was growing, space to sales was off. It just it just didn't make any sense. And so um the buyer at the time looked at me and said, Well, then just do do what you think, and I want to see it. And I'm gonna come back tomorrow. And so I just spent hours just rearranging the whole thing. Came back, he loved it.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Sounds right from a timeline. Yeah. I'm gonna come back.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

I'm gonna come back tomorrow and I'm gonna get like I'm gonna bring like my bag of popcorn from layout center. Let's just do the whole thing. And I'm gonna like you're gonna smell like it all day. Right, and you're gonna smell like the burned popcorn all day. And um, and so they they launched it and it and it worked. And so I he just looked at me and he was like, This is who I want as my salesperson. And so I was never really somebody that was very quote sales-y, you know, I just didn't have that way about me, but I was very passionate about the data and digging into the data to see, you know, you have hypotheses, go, you know, go check it out. Okay, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

So as a merchant, that's my favorite kind of salesperson.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Because if it's the data, then you're just trying to bring the customer's voice to life. And we should we're working on the same problem together, trying to figure out how to make what the customer wants come to life on that shelf.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah, and you're going back and forth. Store data, store data. And you're trying to kind of see, okay, what really what really is the customer telling us, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Yeah.

Mentors And Constructive Truth Telling

SPEAKER_02 6:12

What era of you know the writing team? Is this Ed as the DMM back then or Eddie Tet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Eddie Tet. A legend.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

That guy.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

A legend.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Eddie Tut, uh, retail journey coming to you soon. He's got that'd be a good one. Come on, Ed.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Let's yeah, he'll tell he'll tell you what's what.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

But you learn from people like that. I remember him telling me one time, don't stop pushing us. Because there was something we were trying to do for years and years, and we just kept getting told no, and we kept getting told no. And he could tell that I was getting defeated and frustrated about it. But he just said, don't just don't stop telling us what we need to do. Don't stop telling us the truth. And I do not to like take a hard pivot, but I do think as, and I'll say a supplier community very broadly, but you know, I do think that we live in a time right now where that can be difficult. But I think that those people who do the hard work on the front end, dig into the information, get out into the stores, talk to consumers, figure out what really is needed and where the gaps are, and are willing to constructively challenge their business partners, are going to be the most successful. And I think that I was very fortunate early in my career to work with people that did that really effectively in a way that didn't come across disrespectful, but came across as like we are all on both sides of the table, part of one team.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

And we have a collective responsibility to bring the consumer and now the patient, as we say in pharmacy, the solutions that they are seeking to make their lives better at the prices that they can afford to pay. And so I I put Eddie Tut in that category of people that were willing to sit at the table and collaborate, truly collaborate and like get into it. Um so anyway, you're fortunate when you can find people like that to work with.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

And that foundation is just irreplaceable for me. You know, I think Eddie was that uh for me. He was a mentor while I was there. Jody Pinson, um, Scott Huff, certainly. Um, did you work with Seth Cordry?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

No.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Back when he was there? So he helped me get into the buying program in general and was over there. But yeah, I I think it's the courage of conviction and the uh that's right, having the courage to be curious as you look at a data set as opposed to like just finding the least amount of evidence necessary to support an assumption.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yep. Yeah, and I hope that as like sort of the next generation comes up through um, you know, into the workforce that they too will not be afraid to constructively challenge sort of what they're seeing and and how we're how we're serving our customers every

Better Data Starts With Store Reality

SPEAKER_00 9:09

day.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Well, we're recording this, you know, days after DSS is being announced as going away. Walmart Illuminate will be the foundation that new merchants start with.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

I'm so excited for a merchant to start with data that actually ties together customer journeys. Whereas in DSS, you were using an analogy to try to figure out how units uh store per week. You know, what which metrics and which stores, how do they potentially tell a customer-centric story? And at the end of the day, I still think there's nothing better than go talk to customers.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Because they'll tell you.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

They will tell you. Uh store associates are incredible at store associates. It is that unvarnished truth you get day in, day out. They have to live with it. I love that so much.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

You better, you better get ready and just grab a seat.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

And the diabetic category is something crazy important. So I got to buy the diabetes category. That's right. Um, very meaningful for me. And I spend some time in the store trying to learn from you know what customers are looking for. And I saw a uh lady in the the aisle sort of looking at these, you know, two different glucose tablets, which are basically quick introduction of sugar quickly absorbed, so to get you higher when you're low. Um, I was like, oh, cool. That's uh, you know, what's uh like do you mind telling me a little bit about oh yeah, you know, uh my uh my son passed out again on the shop floor and wanted to uh what were his numbers? Like, oh I don't have a meter, we just borrow our you know neighbor's meter every once in a while, and I'm just like, oh my goodness, this is your life. And you're rolling the dice using someone else's you know meter and test trips at the time. I was trying to figure out how to get rely on meters from $18 to $9. I think they're still nine bucks. Um there's a massive uh any merchants out there, how about 50% off uh uh an $18 item without any history? Uh, you know, no one had done that before, so I had to fight a lot for that. But it's like you can't, we can't not have meters in customers' hands. Like they have to be able to know what's actually going on because you're just treating you're just treating with glucose tabs as opposed to understanding well, what is actually going on.

Diabetes Affordability And Access To Care

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Well, and I think I think also in addition to just gaps in you know affordability of of drug therapy and all accompanying supplies is just simply access to care in the first place. Oh, yeah. Right. I mean, we still have a largely undiagnosed diabetes population. We have um a big percentage of the population obviously lives in you know medically underserved communities that don't have access to care. And I think that what when I came into this industry, I came into this industry feeling very drawn to it, but not really fully understanding why. And as a few years passed, I began to realize that that this retail access to health care was the thing that I was gonna get really excited about. Because, you know, whether you are, you know, someone who lives in a medically underserved community or you're a parent of a child who's sick late at night, or just the reality is that care is not always convenient or accessible or affordable. But retail pharmacy and retail in general is beginning to fill that gap in really exciting ways, whether that is sort of the continued growth and emergence of retail clinics, whether that be the Walmart health centers, whether that's you know, little clinics or minute clinics or you know, a lot of these clinics that are driven by the retailers. I mean, most people now get immunized at their retailers. Now you're seeing the emergence of COVID and flu and strep testing at retailers with you know prescribing on the spot. And so I think that that goes back to an area where patients want it. We as a healthcare team, all of us together, have to figure out how to continue to deliver that to people, not only because it's what they want, but to your earlier point, it's what's needed in order to help people, you know, live their lives to the fullest. Um and so that can happen, you know, and obviously you did that on the OTC side of the business.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Yeah, I get so jazzed about that. Yeah. And like Walmart with 4,700 stores. Yeah. It could be 4,700 stores.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Largely located in in medically underserved areas of the country too. So you almost feel this sense of responsibility to help, as you talked about earlier, right? Helping our partners to educate, helping to just to educate our pharmacy partners so they in turn can deliver care.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

And yeah, so so sticking with diet diabetes, you know, typically adult onset diabetes is something that's maybe it's not sudden in its development, but it's sudden in its realization, right? And and it's it's pretty daunting to get an endocrinology appointment unless you've got a referral, which means you have to have a doctor to to begin with, and many don't. Uh, and that's one of the that's one of the things in the clinics is an A1C check. Uh so you could for you know whatever, 45 or 60 dollars have a have appointment. Um, you know, that person becomes your primary, you get your diagnosis, and you walk out of the store with the things you need to treat that disease.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

It's that's right. And everybody's looking for help. So that's what we try to do. That's and I think that's what we'll all continue to try to partner up and do in all the ways that you know, each each particular retail pharmacy partner is different in terms of how they do that. So I think it's just it's uh it's important upon all of us to be willing to be flexible as supplier partners to help our partners serve their patients how they how they do it.

Discovery First In Retail Partnerships

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Well, let's uh let's pivot back to uh to uh strategic partnerships, building relationships with with retailers. That the two things that I think have stood out to me over the last 10 years of working alongside you is one, your your willingness and ability to really get into data. And in in most cases, it's asking for the data that you need, the way you need to see it, um, getting that understanding. But then aside from that, it's the relationships that you build with merchants, with uh the broader cross-functional team. Talk to us a little bit about your process uh when you've you know you've been in a few different categories, how you approach a category and and where those kind of where those connection points are in building those relationships.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Yeah, I'll start I'll start with what I think is the worst thing you can do, which is like what I think I would see people do. And I think it's the natural default, which is like to lead with a solution, lead with a product, lead with, you know, I'm here to tell you what I have, right? And I make it about me and I make it about my company. I think the number one thing that you have to do is spend a lot of time in what I call discovery. Right. You, you by the time you sit down to start trying to build that partnership, you have to know as much as you can possibly know before you ever walk in the door, right? What are they about? What are their goals? Who are the key players? How do things work? Like really get to know that partner. And and then I think the first conversations are always about what is important to you all, what are you trying to accomplish, right? I think at the end of the day, everyone gets cascaded a list of goals and priorities for this year, next year, et cetera. And you've got your marching orders. And so the people that can come to the table and help you accomplish your goals with what they have to offer, yeah, those are the people that are going to be successful. I think that that's number one. I think number two, you have to then, as you know, someone in my seat, be willing to go fight on behalf of your partner for what you mutually believe is the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

So internally.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Internally, I always joke, like, and I think any supplier that listens to this will just nod their head. Like dealing with your own company can typically be so much harder than dealing with, you know, usually spend more time. And that goes for, I mean, you know, anywhere. And it's not that everyone isn't um isn't trying to come from a good place, but you know, everyone understands their own limitations, right? So it's about how do you build a bigger vision for what you're trying to accomplish together and like what's in it for all parties involved.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Um, because you're kind of a dual advocate as a salesperson. You're advocating for your brand and you're advocating for your customer. You absolutely are. Making those two work together, yep. Might take a few concessions or compromises.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yeah. And and and being willing to challenge the status quo, be willing to challenge the way that things have always been done. Um, but also within that, you have to have a very strong financial business case, right? For both sides. So, how do you figure out how to make that happen? And then even interestingly, within retail pharmacy, I was just having this conversation earlier with a partner. Like, then you have to figure out how to get it done. How are you gonna actually operationalize that together? Which again goes back to Wow, a salesperson is asking that question.

unknown 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

So then you got to get in the stores. How are we gonna how are we gonna eat what we cook? Yeah, right. How are we gonna actually do that? Um, but I think so often it's very easy to skip over the discovery part and just jump to the solution because you in your mind you have a thing that you need to move forward. But you know, a pro a solution without a problem is no solution at all. Right. So what is the problem that's trying to be solved and then how do you work together?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Yeah, you know, to do that. I think it takes courage to have the conversation on the front end. It does. I think it goes back to the layout center, you know, room, looking at the data, looking at the model, like this doesn't add up. Yeah. Um, the courage to say, like, this doesn't add up. Uh we need to we need to do something that actually solves the problem that we're both aligned on. And I think the the courage to step into that conversation is the is so critical.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah. Yeah. And I also think that you have to establish like where everybody's coming from. Right. Again, it just goes back to like, what are you trying to accomplish? What's important to you? Um okay, right now I don't have the answer. I'm actually gonna take what I've learned here and I'm gonna go back. I feel like I'm giving away all my secrets.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

But honestly, like if you sit in there and you say I've got the answer right right here, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

That's pretty rare.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah, yeah. How do you know that you have the answer? You haven't heard the question.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

That's exactly right. Right. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

You don't know the problem auto. I know this is the solution. Yeah. Seeing it a lot. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

But it makes it more fun, and then everybody has skin in the game. And I think what what comes out is like so much better in the process.

Joint Business Planning With Real Buy In

SPEAKER_03 20:34

So let's talk a little bit about uh joint business planning. Because that's kind of you know, you're you come in, discovery, find the need, financially tie both sides to to this solution. And then there's year two, and then there's year three.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

And that's kind of where joint business planning can come in.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah, I mean, I think that you know, with your with your best joint business planning partners, you're you're always talking a couple of years down the road, right? It gets back to like the vision casting, it's but gets back to, you know, taking some time to just kind of dream together and say, what do we really think is possible if we could, you know, have all the stars aligned. Um, I think one of the most the times where joint business planning has also been the most effective is when everyone is unafraid to bring other people into the room.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

I think that sometimes we all get a little bit protective of our territory and we say, well, I mean, I could say, like, well, I'm the I'm the salesperson and this is the buyer. And, you know, it if it's just the two of you all the time, you're you're only getting two perspectives. Right. But if you bring, you know, an operator and a marketer and you know, someone from digital, and I bring a marketer and I bring somebody from product, and then we all pull together, right? We dream, we cast a big vision together, then we've got a couple of years worth of stuff to be working on, right? And some things are going to be shorter term. Some things are going to be longer term. But I think that when you have more people bought in and you have more skin in the game, I was talking to somebody about this earlier. You know, that makes a big difference in terms of cascading things up to leadership.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

It's one thing for one person to go for leadership. Yeah. And say, like, we need to do this thing, versus if six people get together and they go to leadership and they say, we need to do this thing. Right. Um, and so, but I do think part of the joint business planning process after you get through that discovery and once you sort of create those goals, is you you do have to get out there and you got to sell to a lot of other stakeholders, right? And you have to do that together. Um, I remember one of the programs that we did a couple of years ago, and we had to take it all the way up to the VP of pharmacy operations and get his buy-in. So we had to get the VP of merchant merchandising to approve it first and then shit. So you're like really having to get a lot of major stakeholders involved. And it was a huge success and everyone was really happy. But it was, it wasn't easy getting there. It took a lot of courage. Yep. It took a very strong business case, it took a very tight operational plan.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

Um but if your starting point is a shared goal, that's in the end.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

We were all fired up and we were we all really believed in what we were trying to do. And and that that will buy you some trust, I think. Because I do think leaders today, um, you know, executive level leaders are they're looking for new ideas. They're looking for fresh ideas. And um and I I think one of the my favorite things about the work that I've done over the years is that it's been so collaborative.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

And so it's never one person. And I think joint business planning kind of forces you to pull a lot of stakeholders in and it makes it better and more successful.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

I like your point on leaders looking for for

Post COVID Expectations And Telehealth

SPEAKER_03 23:56

new ideas. I mean, that's probably always been somewhat true, but post-COVID, I feel like it's even more of a thing. We went, I mean, we basically had two and a half shared years of trauma and recovery coming out. And now uh one of the, if you want to call it benefits, uh, and certainly COVID wasn't a benefit, but one of the the things that have come about from that is there's a little bit bigger box, you know, when you talk about b being outside of the box, the the idea that, well, we kind of have to do it this way because we've done it this way. We've now done so many things differently that we never did before, whether it's you know, speeding up Omni or online grocery pickup, uh delivery of groceries now, delivery of just about anything, um, that there's there is more of an appetite and a willingness to okay, let's swing for the fence on this one.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Well, and consumer expectations have changed. Like we're we're used to being able to pick up our phones, press a button, and have something arrive in two hours or less.

unknown 24:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah. That's the new standard. Right. Like you if I get online and you tell me it's gonna be a week, I'm like, I'm going somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Right?

SPEAKER_02 25:00

If I mean rewind 10 years ago and their current reality is insane. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah. And so I think you've just got to keep up with no matter what category you're in. Um the the consumer standard, I think, has never been higher. And I think their expectations of value have never been higher because now they have access to so much more. I mean, it goes back to healthcare, right? Like I now, depending upon my healthcare provider, can literally just pick up my phone and talk to a doctor.

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Right. Right. And that's a COVID innovation.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

That's a COVID innovation. It's certainly something that COVID dramatically accelerated. So you're seeing retailers get into telehealth in a way that they never had before, insurance companies with telehealth. So yeah, we're we're very particular now, consumers. We're very we're very high maintenance.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

Yeah, it's more information.

Lightning Round Stories And Habits

SPEAKER_03 25:53

All right. Well, let's uh let's move to our lightning round here. Okay. Um, what in your business are you most looking forward to in 2024?

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Well, some things I can't really share. Okay. That you can kid it. Um I think that so part of my job is I I lead a team of people that work with different retailers. And I think that one of the most rewarding things to me is to conceive is to see how those team members grow and develop and the way that their skill sets are expanding and the way that they're learning to think differently. And I think that that that is so rewarding. And as like we as a team talk about the things that we've all talked about, it's like things start to click for people. And they and they realize that like what we do at the end of the day, it's not hard. It just requires a willingness to dig in and be part of a team and do the work.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

But you don't have to be some like savvy, you know, right, savvy slick salesperson or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

The things that go on the resume are the achievements. But the thing, at least in my experience, the things you enjoy the most are the people you work with, especially as a leader, to see them develop and reach their potential. Like that's the part that is motivating. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

That's right. It's very rewarding. And then I think also just, you know, our industry in particular is just ripe with some exciting innovation. Yeah. And so I think that I'm I'm really optimistic about the things that, you know, we're work working on as a company. I'm very excited about the things that other companies and our space are working on. Um, I think if you are a parent of a small child that was diagnosed with type one in the last decade and you had access to CGM, you it was a game changer relative to friends of mine that had type one children before CGM.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Right. And so I think that that I'm just pretty fired up about some of the things that are on their way for our industry to help people um, you know, stay healthy.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Uh, what's on your reading list?

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Okay, I'm actually reading the Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson right now. It is a beast. It's a beast. And I don't know that Elon's management tactics are necessarily my management tactics, but you have to obviously have to give him an immense amount of credit for, like we talked about, being innovative, pushing the status quo, not being afraid to, you know, rock the boat.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Um, but boats are rocked. He rocks the boat. Um, love him or hate him, but it is a beast of a read. I'm gonna have to like audio book it at some point so I can get through it.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah. Biggest win in retail.

unknown 28:42

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

You know what I was so proud of is in my writing instrument days, this is an example. Um, the buyer at the time wanted a Sharpie Black Friday item, but he wanted it to look like a pizza box. And he wanted all the Sharpies to sort of fan around. And you talk about the thing where you just literally had to fight I had to fight tooth and nail for that thing. Like I never fought for anything in my career. I mean, it was complete departure from brand architecture. I mean, you name it and it was a limit. And we got it done and we sold through 80% of them in by noon.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Oh, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

And I just felt so because I thought, if this doesn't sell, yeah, praise God, I'm gonna have to like shop my resume out there.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

And um, and it did, but it and every year they still they do it every year, and every year I just beam with pride.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

And when I see the latest iteration, oh yeah, it's like they're still doing it and it does so well and it makes a lot of people happy. And I was, I I mean, there's a lot of things I was really I'm really proud of, but that one in particular just pops into mind.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

That's a really cool story. And what do you do to de-stress to relax?

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Well, I do love to read. Um, so that is definitely a de-stressor when I can. Um, I love to cook when I can. Um, but you know, mostly I'm in a season of life right now. I have a 10-year-old son, I have an eight-year-old daughter. Not a lot of relaxes. No, there's not a lot of relaxes.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

I spend a lot of time at the cheer gym and the football field. Um, but I think that um, you know, I wouldn't say that that's necessary, necessarily relaxing, but it's very rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Rewarding, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

And, you know, I mean, you all have children, you know, this season of life is short. And so I'm I'm actually very thankful that I can do work that I love, but also be the kind of parent that I want to be. And I'm I'm very thankful to be in a line of work that lets me, I think, do both to the way that I want to. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Yeah. Awesome.

Final Thanks And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's been fun. You came all the way from Little Rock. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Well, anytime I'm I'm just honored to be here and love you guys are doing this.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And as always, thank you all for joining us here on the retail journey. You can find all of our episodes on highimpactanalytics.com or wherever you download your podcast. Thanks a lot.