You matter a lot.

And those are the opening words from my opening keynote at this year’s Retail Success Summit.

And in that keynote, that short fifteen, twenty minutes, I don’t even know how long it was, keynote, I talked about the fact that you as an independent brick and mortar retailer have a huge influence on the world. And I hope that you’ll watch this episode of Real Retail TV. I hope you’ll watch that keynote because if you do, I think that you will feel good about who you are, what you do, and the influence that you have in the world.

And to be honest, one of the reasons we’re sharing this keynote with you is because right now, we are selling the replays for all of the sessions, the breakout, the keynote, all of the sessions from the two thousand twenty four retail success summit.

But something that’s very cool, a deal that’s happening right now that won’t ever be replicated, is that right now, if you buy the replays, you will also get tickets to next year’s retail success summit.

Next year, only next year, two thousand and twenty six, we’re going back live again, but the two thousand twenty five retail success summit is going to be virtual. And it’s a two for one right now.

For this low, low price, you get both the replays from the twenty four retail success summit and tickets to the nine two thousand nineteen. The two thousand twenty five virtual retail success summit. Enjoy the keynote.

You matter a lot.

As independent retailers, as indie retailers, the things that you do, the way that you interact with the world has ripples. You have influence.

You make a difference.

And part of what I wanna talk about here is I want you to recognize this. I want you to realize this. I want you own this. I want you to embrace the influence that you have.

You see, when I look around and talk to people, often there’s this sort of I don’t matter kind of mentality.

And sometimes it comes because you’re in the weeds. You’re so busy, you don’t get a chance to step up and look and see how important you are to the people around you, to the communities that you’re around.

Sometimes it’s because you may not be confident.

You may not think you’re good enough to be all that you can be. And how does that show up? That shows up in the, aw, shucks. I’m just a little old shop, you know. I’m just a little old shopkeeper.

Stop that.

Stop that. Everything that you do, even if you’re one person, if you’re a one person store, you make a difference.

You can be a chain of stores with dozens or hundreds of employees, but one store, you make a difference.

You might not think you are all that you are because of fear. You might be afraid that if you become everything you want to become and everything you aspire to be, that your friends and family might not like you so much. Anybody have that happen out there?

You may fear being all that you can be because you’re afraid of it yourself.

You’re afraid of it yourself. And here’s what I wanna say. The greatness in you should be unleashed. You make an influence.

You make a difference in the world. Everything you do, as I said, is a ripple.

So being too busy is fairly easy to overcome. I mean, we teach people how to get out of the weeds every single day. Confidence can be learned.

Right? If you do something that makes you a little afraid, you feel good. You feel confident. You’re ready to do it again. And confidence is nurtured and it’s grown. And fear, fear is just, excuse me, it’s a bullshit feeling.

Fear is merely too much past or too much future and not enough now. Too much past. Oh, I did this thing. It didn’t work.

I’m not good enough. I’m not smart enough. Somebody told me this thing when I was in second grade. Who cares?

Future. Oh, if I do this, it might not work and I’ll have egg on my face. No. Now.

Now. Today. Today is your time.

So let’s talk about influence. I think of three things when I think of how you influence the world.

The first way I think of is how you influence people emotionally.

Don’t you? Don’t you make a difference with the people who come into your store? Rachel, you guys are in the flower business. How many florists here?

So we’ve got some florists here. What are you in the business of? You’re in the business of selling emotions. You’re in the business of touching people.

Well, once upon a time, we were having a Platinum Mastermind group meeting, and Marie Foley was talking about how she sends out letters. She says, oh, I send out a lot of cards and I get a lot of cards back. And she she said, oh, yeah. I counted them up one year.

And I said, how many did you get? And I forgot the exact number, so I emailed her last night. And here’s what she said. She says, yes, of course, you can share this.

It was a hundred and seventy five Christmas cards with thank you for being here for us with a wonderful staff and always a smile on everyone’s face down the stairs.

Around fifty flowers and treats were delivered, some to specific team members, and then her brother died after Michael’s death. I received six hundred and eighty two cards, flowers, meals, candy, and Catholic mass cards from pretty much from customers all detailing how important I was, my store was in their lives and that me losing a family member was like them losing a family member.

This is a personal influence, isn’t it? This is how you get to make a difference. Big brands can’t or won’t do this. Online brands can’t do this.

Independent retail is the most human of all commercial endeavors. What do we do all day, every day? We work with people. Independent retailers, even more so.

We’re working like this. We are being human, aren’t we?

So that is one thing with your customers. How many of you hire younger people? Yes?

You influence them, don’t you? You teach them how to serve. You teach them how to lead. You teach them lessons that they’re going to use throughout their lives.

So in the early days of the Mackinac Kite Company, my business, we had a kid who worked for us named Andy Engel. And Andy started with us when he was twelve or thirteen years old. We We used to hire them when they were really young, and they were our kite flyers.

They would go to the park a half a block from us, and they’d put up a big, kite show. Hot shows we were looking for. Because if we had a hot show, we fly them, they buy them. And so Andy was one of our kite flyers. Later on, he graduated. He started to work on the floor and, you know, he stayed with us for six years or so and then he went on to become an adult.

And, all you know, he’d stop in every once in a while. One day, I’m reading the Grand Haven Tribute, our local newspaper, and there is an article, Grand Haven area, public schools hire a new superintendent.

Guess who it was?

AI. That was his nickname. Not artificial intelligence, Andy Engel.

AI was the new superintendent of schools. It’s like, wow. Alright. Good on you, Andy. Way to go, man.

So fast forward a month or so, there is an opinion piece in the Grand Haven Tribune. And it was from Andy Engel. I was like, oh, this is interesting.

It was a thank you piece to me and my brother, Steve, for the experience he had at the Mackinac kite company, for the lessons he learned from the things that his experience working in retail taught us, Taught him. I’m sorry. You see, you make a difference. You matter a lot. Think about this for a moment. Show of hands. How many of you touch people every day at that deep personal level?

That’s right. Every single one of you. You matter a lot.

You also have influence, spiritual influence. And I don’t mean religious influence, I mean the spirit. I think that you independent retailers are part of the heart and the soul of your community.

That when people come from out of town, they don’t say, hey, we’ve got a new Amazon distribution center. Let’s go see. Let’s go check it out. Or Ford built a new factory down the road. You should see that puppy. What do they do? They take him to the cool stores, don’t they?

You are part of the heart and soul. So Aaron Link, raise your hand, Aaron. So Aaron Link owns Etcetera Boutique. And Aaron was listening to a radio story, and that story shared that, lower income women that there were a lot of lower income women who were foregoing feminine hygiene products so they could feed their children.

Now, something needed to be done. You see, Erin’s got that independent retailer spirit. So she got on it. She created a drive.

They filled nine extra large shipping boxes with feminine hygiene products. This is the indie influence in action. This is the kind of things that you do to impact the world. This is the kind of things that you do that turn into money eventually, don’t they?

And you built your business by doing this wonderful thing.

So the Guins are all the way in the back. And so the Guins were in a platinum mastermind group meeting and we were sitting there and they had a hot seat and they said, well, you know what? We’ve got a problem location and we don’t know what to do with this problem location.

So, like, okay. So everybody’s giving them ideas.

Sell it, you know. And Nancy says, I was willing to just write it off and take a million dollar hit and just go be done with it so I can put my energy someplace else. But then Jiltak said to them, well, maybe somebody wants it.

And they looked at each other and said, I know somebody who is would love to own a pet store. It’s been their lifelong long dream to own a pet store. So they gave their store and all of its inventory to Cindy Sanmartino, and she still runs it successfully to this day.

Isn’t that a great story?

What does a corporation do? They shut it down and move out.

What did Chris and and Nancy do? They gave it to someone so that the the pet owners of their community could continue to be served and so that someone could have this business.

This is the indie influence at work.

So how many of you do something in your community that makes a huge difference?

Yes. You matter a lot. A lot. And then there’s a financial impact that you have. Do you know that sixty eight percent of the money that is spent in your store stays in your community?

Do you know, American Express says, that small businesses, employ fifty eight point nine million people, forty seven point five percent of the workforce. That’s all small business, but you are part of it. Right? You’re hiring people. You’re providing livelihoods.

You have impact. And I love this one. This comes from SCORE.

Small businesses donate two hundred and fifty percent more than large businesses to their communities.

See, this is where we get to make a difference. This is where we have that influence, and that influence turns into money.

That influence is what this is all about. And so that’s what this is all about. That’s what this this is what this two days is all about. Mark Turnbull, you flew all the way from Onyx in the north of England just to be here.

This is what? Your fourth summit? Right? And Andy Hadmire, you could have walked here from the wealthy street bakery.

The point isn’t how far you came. The point is you’re here.

You’re here to learn and grow.

You’re here to have a better business. You’re here to make more money. You’re here to have a better life. And you’re here to have more influence.

And so that’s the challenge. That’s the opportunity. This room is filled with guides.

Your next guide could be somebody sitting right next to you. Laura Alakaddoun met Sean Devree in the line at a Starbucks.

They became business best friends and talked to each other several times every week.

I hope that we can be your guide, Susan and I and our team at Whizbang! Training. I hope that the people who come up on this main stage and do collaborations or do panels. I hope that you learn something that will help you grow. I hope that you go see our sponsors and you find things that will open your heart and open your mind to help you build a bigger and better business. That’s what these next two days are about. These next two days are about you changing your life, you changing your business, you having more impact on the world.

So are you ready to do that? Are you ready to take these two days and make something special? Good. So here’s what I’d like you to do.

While Susan comes back up, I’d like you to stand up and find at least two people that are near you and say hello, shake their hand, hug them, look them in the eye, give them a high five, whatever feels comfortable, but look them in the eye and say, you matter a lot. You know why? Because you matter a lot. So stand up, do that, and there’s Susan.

Alright, Susan.