I'm gonna tell you the three or maybe four episodes of this podcast
that you need to listen to, to speed up your path to success.
Believe it or not, today is the 300th episode of the Resilient Retail Game Plan.
It's absolutely mind blowing to me that we have been going for
nearly six years, 300 episodes, and recently crossed the 1 million
download threshold as well, which is.
Absolutely mind blown for something that I have for the majority of the time
recorded in my absolutely tiny office.
And one of the biggest joys of the podcast is when I go out and about
and I meet people who listen to it.
So if you are a regular listener, I just wanna take a moment, say
a huge, huge thank you, because it absolutely means the world.
What I wanted to do in today's episode was really reflect back on the key themes
that have come outta the 300 episodes, and I wanted to talk you through.
Three episodes, well actually four sneakily that I have picked out that
really reflect the biggest themes that I talk about on the podcast.
So if you are new to the podcast and you haven't listened to the entire
back catalog, which is perfectly understandable, uh, but you want to get
a really quick sense of what the podcast is about and get some key episodes
that will help you really understand that messaging, then this episode
is going to walk you through them.
So I began the podcast in 2020, which was obviously the middle of
lockdown, the middle of the pandemic.
And since that time.
The retail industry has gone through what I almost would refer to as a perma crisis.
In other words, there hasn't been a single year since I started the podcast
that everything's just been absolutely fine and there haven't been any major
crises or major issues that are looming.
And so what has changed since then?
I do believe that people believe even more in the importance of our
local shops, our local communities.
I think that people still have an appreciation for shopping in person, that
they really missed it during the pandemic.
Yes, we saw more people shopping online because they had to, but I think that
people have really grown to love and appreciate that experience of shopping
locally, shopping with independence.
And I believe that we've also seen an incredible new
wave of independents opening.
People who've got a real passion for it, a real passion for their community, and I
actually feel pretty confident and excited about the future of the High Street.
I think there've been some incredible seismic shifts though in the way
that the industry has operated.
I think AI has come in and had a huge impact.
In both good ways and bad ways.
I think that it's actually been a huge bonus for a lot of small business owners.
I think that AI has helped become the team member that you just
didn't have the budget for.
I think that it's helped people get more consistent with their content.
I think it's helped them repurpose information in a way
that they couldn't do before.
It's helped them be able to get an extra helping hand, and I think that
it's been really super positive.
Interestingly though, I think that it's also in a way highlighted just how much
has become automated, how much people are beginning to just hear the same
thing over and over again, and people are really craving that human connection.
And I actually think that independent retail has a benefit of being quite AI
proof in terms of nothing's gonna take away that experience of seeing people
in person, seeing bricks and mortar.
And I think that can actually be a real bonus for independent retailers as well
in, in small businesses in general because one thing that they've really got going
for them is their true, authentic voice.
You have a voice, you are a real person.
And I think that the more that the world leans on ai, the more that
people are going to feel, almost like.
Unconscious repulsion against things that are too robotic that are not real.
And I think that that's actually gonna help people really connect with
independent retailers and brands and feel really excited about talking
to them because they're real humans and not AI avatars, which I think,
yes, it's great for efficiency, but in terms of human connection, I
don't think it's particularly great.
But on the flip side, I think retailers do have to recognise that not online
shopping itself so much as the way that customers are going to arrive at
your online store is going to change.
So I think that we do have to be aware of the fact that people will be using
shopping agents more and more to make purchase decisions and making sure that
our businesses are being found by them.
I think that that is a key consideration, but I think that ultimately.
A lot of these shifts, they're just different ways of getting customers.
There's so much that has stayed the same.
The importance of great customer service, the importance of having
products that your customers actually want, the importance of making your
customers feel seen and cared for.
Actually, a lot of the things I think that really help with success in
2026 are those really key fundamental old school retail principles.
As well as a really good understanding of how do you grow your sales, how
do you connect with your customers?
How do you manage your stock so that you're not letting your
profit drain out in random places.
as the French say, sells al The more things changed, the
more they stayed the same.
And I think that.
Yes, there's been a lot of shifts.
Yes, people are maybe buying in a different way, but the experience they
want to have, why they come to independent retailers, what they're looking for
hasn't really shifted in that time.
What I wanted to do in today's episode was really reflect back on the key themes
that have come outta the 300 episodes, and I wanted to talk you through.
Three episodes, well actually four sneakily that I have picked out that
really reflect the biggest themes that I talk about on the podcast.
So if you are new to the podcast and you haven't listened to the entire
back catalog, which is perfectly understandable, uh, but you want to get
a really quick sense of what the podcast is about and get some key episodes
that will help you really understand that messaging, then this episode
is going to walk you through them.
So when I thought about the really big themes that I talk about on the
podcast, one that comes up again and again is stock, also profit, and then
the third one is the mindset element of running a retail business as well.
So if we start with stock, then an absolute quintessential episode that will
help you understand why I'm so passionate about this topic is episode number 278.
And that is all about dead stock.
How to free up dead stock that is cluttering up your cash flow and stopping
you getting the money that you need to reinvest into your best sellers.
This is a topic that I touch on in lots of different episodes.
There are seasonal episodes about your dead stock at Christmas.
There's how to clear it in January.
There's lots of different episodes where I touch on how to figure out
how much to order and how to run promotions without damaging your brand.
But episode 278.
Is a really good look at why this topic is so important and why it's
something that is literally make or break for a lot of different retailers.
So the sneaky extra episode that I wanted to drop in when I was
talking about this is episode 262.
Episode 262 is all about your cash flow and the different elements that affect it.
So your cashflow, I talk about the SHOPS acronym, which is.
Your sales, having it all planned out, your overheads, your profit, and
your stock and how those five elements that spell out SHOPS nicely are really
crucial when it comes to your cashflow as a retailer and are really important
elements for you to understand how they all interact and help you end up with a
healthy cash flow, which helps you be more resilient and pay yourself more, which
is a big bonus in your business for sure.
So those are my topics.
Episodes 278 and 262.
If you head over to resilientretailclub.com/300, that's 3-0-0.
Then you will see links to all of these for episodes that
I'm gonna be talking about.
So if you are busy scribbling around trying to figure out how to write down
the episode number, don't worry about it.
You can just head over to resilientretailclub.com/300.
Those two episodes I think are really good representation of one of the absolute.
Quintessential key themes of the podcast, which is all about
your cashflow and your stock.
so when we come on to talk about profit, that's something else
that I'm really passionate about.
It does link into your stock piece for sure, but profit is also about
how you have profitable sales.
And you actually make the most out of your sales and protect your profit margin.
So episode 259, which is called Sell Less, Make More, has lots and lots of
tips for you about protecting your profit margin, and definitely go check that
one out because that again, is a really big theme that goes through everything
that I talk about in the podcast and is really crucial for you to understand.
it takes to become a really resilient retailer.
And actually all of those tie into the key truth that I like to talk about,
which is that there are two fundamental elements that impact whether or not
you have a profitable and therefore successful, long-lived retail business.
And that is, are you making enough money every time you make a sale, which
is all to do with your profit margin.
If you're worried you're not, then definitely go check out episode number
259 And also, how quickly are you getting your money back from when you spend it on
your stock, which again is everything that we talk about in 278 and 262 So making
sure you're clearing through your dead stock, making sure you've got a plan for
your cash flow, and then really honing in on your profit margins in episode 259 as well.
And then the final element, the final thing that I talk about a lot on the
podcast and a final, really crucial part of running a retail business is
the mindset side or the psychological side, or motivational side, whatever
it is, however you want to call it, of what it takes to actually.
Get up every single day, run your business, keep looking forward, keep
overcoming those obstacles, overcoming sometimes the loneliness of running
a business where maybe you don't have other people, you can bounce ideas off.
All of that is absolutely essential when it comes to building a retail business.
So, for example, one of my recent episodes, number 296, the
importance of keeping selling even when it feels like times are tough.
That is definitely a great episode to tune into if you haven't heard that one
yet, because I'm touching on that absolute crucial element of running your business.
The importance of not just.
Financial resilience, but also that mental resilience as well.
How do you keep going?
How do you believe in yourself,
believe in the work that you're doing as an independent retailer,
which is absolutely critical, and keep moving yourself forward.
So there you have it after 300 episodes, I mean, there's so much more that we
cover in the podcast that three really big themes are, are you making enough
money every time you make a sale?
Which take a listen to 259 for that episode.
Are you clearing through your stock enough?
Getting that money back?
So listen to 278 and 262, and then how do you feel in yourself?
Are you motivated?
Are you believing in yourself and your mission as a retailer
to keep you moving forward?
And if you feel like you need a pep talk, then 296 is your episode.
As I said, if you head over to resilientretailclub.com/300,
you'll see my personal picks for the four episodes that really.
Encompass everything that we talk about in the podcast, and we'll
give you a really good grounding if you haven't listened to all 300.
But by all means, do take a look through.
We have incredible speakers.
We cover all kinds of topics, but these four episodes are really honing
in on the key message of the podcast.
Thanks so much for listening, and here's to the next 300 episodes.