Have you ever felt stuck in your own head when it comes to thinking about your business?
Do you feel like you're overthinking every decision?
And are you wondering if you're the only one who's finding it hard?
There's a phrase that I love: you can't read a label from inside the jar,
and it's so true when you're a business owner.
When you are the one who's living and breathing a business day in, day out,
it's really, really difficult for you to get out of your own head,
to get out of your own way, and to really look beyond what's going on for you right now
and to think about the possibilities of what could be.
Now when you're in your own head, it can magnify your fears,
it can distort your perspective, and it can make normal challenges feel like a personal failure.
This happens all the time to small business owners, and I'm sure it has happened to you.
So what's the answer? How do you get out of your own head?
It can be really difficult to do, especially when you are the person running the business,
either at home all day working on your online business,
or even if you are in store or running your team, it can feel like you are still the one
trapped in your own head.
But the good news is there is a way out,
and one of the quickest ways that I found to shift perspective
from your own mental limitations is to see other people's stories.
And other people's stories are really powerful because they help us rewrite the narrative.
When you are the only person hearing your thoughts, it can feel like they're the gospel truth,
whereas when you actually see other people who've gone out there and done the things
that you wanna do, or if they've grown their business in a way
you may have told yourself isn't possible,
or they've overcome some kind of challenge that you yourself are struggling with,
it's a really quick way for you to shift your perspective.
I'm a big believer in the saying, you need to see it to be it.
And that is one of the most important reasons why I started Retail Roar in the first place.
So, Retail Roar — that's R-O-A-R, Roar like a tiger.
It's my free online summit.
It's coming up on the 26th and the 27th of March,
and I specifically created it because I was having so many conversations with people
who were stuck in their own head, and I wanted to pull together some really inspiring people
who had built their businesses from the same place that you have.
Many people who'd started in their parents' house or on their kitchen table,
they'd started with a stall, but now they have a whole load of shops.
Or maybe they started with a pop-up and now they have bricks and mortar chains.
There are people who started with an idea and now they've got huge reach,
hitting six-figure months or winning awards for their businesses
as the fastest growth and hugely impressive turnovers.
What I've challenged myself every single year when I've run Retail Roar —
this is my third year running it — and I spend pretty much the whole year doing this,
looking for people who've got really interesting, inspiring stories
that will give you the viewer an opportunity to really get out of your own head,
to put to one side what you feel like you might be capable of doing in your business.
And to see the stories of people who have really created something exceptional.
So everyone that you admire started with an idea.
Everybody who you look up to, and I'm sure if you spent five minutes,
you could think about the people that you really admire,
that you wish to yourself, "Oh, I wish I had a business like them."
They all started with an idea. They all had their wobbly first launch.
They all had a tiny following or a lot of self-doubt.
And what is the difference? Now you might say, "Oh, well,
they're just really good at what they do."
But I'm here to tell you that having interviewed a lot of people
who've grown amazing businesses, one of the biggest differences between the people
who create something amazing and the people who don't is that they kept going.
In this year's Roar, it's absolutely no different in terms of the brief that I set myself,
and I wanted to just run you through some of the examples
just to give you an idea of the kind of speakers that you're gonna be hearing from.
If you haven't signed up already, it's completely free to sign up. You can go to Retail Roar,
that's retailroar.co.uk.
Grab your free spot, and that's all you need to do.
You'll then have an opportunity to join a Facebook group,
and then the sessions are streamed into the Facebook group on the 26th and the 27th.
You'll be able to watch them all there as well as watch the replays throughout the weekend.
But just to give you an idea of the kind of people that we have got coming up,
I wanna tell you about a few of the inspiring stories that you're gonna hear.
One of the people that I really wanted to get onto Roar, and I was delighted it all worked out,
was a guy called Luke Ane Cameron. He runs a business called Yes Clean,
and I met him for the first time at an event that TikTok put on,
which was a press briefing for their Black Friday. And then they also had some creators.
It was like a matchmaking event between brands and creators.
So I was struck immediately by Luke and the branding for Yes Clean, which was really fun.
It's a cleaning brand, in case you hadn't guessed, and has a huge following on TikTok.
And what was so incredible about Luke's story — he took the time, he did the research,
and then he won the TikTok Breakthrough Seller of the Year
for his first year in business, where he shipped 650,000 orders in year one.
And what makes his story so interesting
is that he's extremely open with sharing the steps that he took,
the things that really made a difference to him and how he created this cult brand
with his incredible community following.
We also have another amazing entrepreneur, Catherine Byrne.
You might recognise her name from The Apprentice, where she was a finalist.
She has a brand called My Christmas Pajamas,
and again, she'll share some really great, concrete information about how she manages
with such a seasonal business.
You can imagine — when your business is built around Christmas pajamas,
you have gotta be absolutely spot on when it comes to your stock management.
In terms of bricks and mortar, we have got some incredibly inspiring entrepreneurs
who are gonna be sharing their stories with us in Retail Roar.
We've got Richard Austin, who is the founder of Vinegar Hill, a chain of stores,
as well as Priya Aurora, the founder of Lark London.
Now, Vinegar Hill has 15 stores. Lark London has 18,
and they both started with a single shop.
So it's so interesting to hear their journey in terms of starting with one shop.
What made them decide it was the time to expand, and how they went about doing that
while still delighting their customer.
And then we're gonna hear from Todd and Jenny Cassidy.
They have built a chain of 41 bridal boutiques.
But again, the really interesting thing about their story is
how they recognised a gap in the market, how they recognised that they could create
something that the customer really wanted, how they really leaned into that
and used that as their springboard for growth.
And then we have another fantastic, very inspiring TikTok Shop seller, Don Bogle.
She runs a business called Hair Anatomy,
and she's gonna be sharing how she went from selling at her kitchen table
to hitting six-figure months by building a community of women suffering from alopecia
or undergoing cancer treatment, who maybe were making their first ever purchase of a wig,
and how her sensitivity and her ability to connect with people
during this very emotional time for them has really helped her build her community.
What I love about all of these stories is, again, as I mentioned,
these are people who started exactly where you are now.
They are not shy about sharing not only their story,
but also some of the setbacks along the way.
I know for a fact, from speaking to a lot of people over the years,
that hearing these kinds of stories, understanding a little bit more depth
behind the trajectory that these businesses have gone through,
makes such a big difference.
And that was always my intention with Retail Roar.
I wanted it to be inspiring. I wanted it to be uplifting.
I wanted it to be really super feel good — a great opportunity for you
to hear from people that you maybe have never heard from before.
Maybe you are familiar with their brands, maybe you're not so familiar,
but these are people who are gonna be sharing not just the highlight reel,
but also some of the challenges that they had to overcome.
These are people who are gonna be sharing how they chose products,
how they marketed, how they built communities.
I'm always really keen to hone in on the questions,
because you often hear people say, "Make that connection with your customer."
Well, what does that actually mean in practice?
How do you survive tough seasons? What do you do when things aren't going right?
Because nobody's story is linear. It helps to normalise your own journey,
and it can really be sometimes the only thing that can get you out of a little bit of a rut,
for want of a better word. This is always so that you can get inspired,
get that information, that inspiration, and just hear from people who are just like you,
who have done amazing things with their businesses and some of the decisions they made along the way.
Inspiration — it's not just about feeling good, although it does feel good to be inspired,
but it's really, really important to expand what you believe is possible,
especially if you are often bombarded by negative messaging.
Sometimes we can get stuck in our own corner of social media where everyone's talking about
all of these businesses that are closing down, or people who decided to shut their doors,
or maybe you are hearing about people who've just decided to go do something else.
And it can feel very much like the reality is, "Oh, well, everything's really difficult
and it's just not possible to do what I want to do."
But when you actually hear from people who are doing the things that you wanna do,
or maybe it's not exactly what you wanna do, but it's what they wanted to do
and they've been able to build the business for them.
And that to me is the really important thing about hearing inspirational stories —
to really help you look forward and see things in a different way.
Three concrete business reasons to listen to inspirational stories.
Number one: you think bigger. You stop playing small.
You start to take your business more seriously, and you also just get really clear
on some of the other things that have worked for other people.
Secondly, it can help you feel more confident showing up,
get re-energised with your marketing.
We know that often you can get stuck in that cycle of doom,
where maybe sales slow down and you feel like, "Oh, this is all really difficult,"
so you are not as inspired to show up.
And then if you don't show up as much, then sales slow down,
and round and round we go in the cycle of doom.
Getting inspired, listening to these stories, can help lift you up,
give you that boost and get you back out there.
And thirdly, it can help you make braver decisions.
Just hearing about what's possible, the kind of decisions
that you might not even have thought were an option.
It can be really inspiring and help you look at things differently,
because as I said, you can't be it if you can't see it.
So definitely come along to Retail Roar.
Completely free to sign up and get your dose of inspiration.
So Retail Roar — it's not just about fluffy stories that sound really good from the headlines.
This is me sitting down with these incredible founders and delving into the details.
If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you'll know I love straight talking,
straight to the point. What's practical? What can we use as a takeaway?
The talks are short — they're typically 25 to 30 minutes long.
You can dip in and out. It's completely free to join,
so there's no reason not to sign up. I wanted it to be accessible,
and I wanted it to be open to everybody.
And if you sign up, you'll be able to get the replays inside the group
for a few days after the event.
So even if you're not available on the 26th and the 27th,
you can come along and have a listen.
So Retail Roar — it's about showing you what's possible,
about giving you real, practical insight and helping you see the bigger picture
for your own business.
So if you've been feeling stuck in your own head,
this is your chance to have a reset.
If you've been feeling flat, feeling isolated, wondering if it's just you,
then this is your reminder: it's not just you.
Everybody has these moments.
There's also another reason that I put it in the first part of the year —
because I knew that February and March can be really tricky, slow months
for a lot of people,
so I wanted there to be something really uplifting during that time
so you don't have to figure it all out alone.
You can get inspired. You can hear from incredible people
who have grown their businesses and learn from them.
How did they get through? How did they keep going?
How did they keep that forward momentum?
Go to retailroar.co.uk, get your free ticket,
come and see what's possible,
and then let's get you out of your own head and back into action.