Well, hey, everybody. It’s Bob. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we are going to explore the talent trap.

So the talent trap. What is the talent trap, and how does it apply to you as a retailer and to your success?

Well, in order to explore the talent trap, the first thing we have to do is define talent and skills.

And talent is something that comes naturally.

If you’re a good singer, that is something you are born with. Enthusiasm can be a talent. Maybe it’s an eye for design.

Perhaps it is, in this case, in retail, selling.

I loved marketing. It was a talent. I was good at it naturally.

So that’s what a talent is. It is sort of it’s an innate characteristic.

Now let’s talk about skills.

Skills are something that is learned either through experience or education.

So now how do those two concepts tie together for the talent trap?

Well, here’s what happens. In retail, often, we get caught up in our talents, and we let our talents bring us as far as they can go, or we let the talents of our team bring them as far as they can go. But then the trap is when you get to the edge of what your talent can give you, you stay put. You stay stuck. You are trapped. Let me give you two examples, very, very clear examples from retailers like you from yesterday’s Retailpalooza.

So we had Angela Scogin, the owner of Cooks On Main in Williston, North Dakota on talking about selling. And what she said was that some of her people are really good salespeople. They’re naturals. Right?

They get out on the floor. They engage. They’re extroverts. But the other thing that she said was that a lot of her team members aren’t extroverts.

They aren’t naturals.

And when somebody is an introvert or perhaps she has a lot of young employees, she said when she gave them the skills, they became successful. When she gave them the skills, they became confident. So it’s this idea. Again, the talent, in some cases, is an, an extroverted personality, a love of product, a comfort getting out and talking to strangers, but the skill is understanding how to sell.

So, the other person that we talked to was Lisa Roberts from Rock Paper Scissors in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And we were talking about marketing with Lisa, and Lisa was sharing at the end that she was always a good marketer. She’s a good merchant. She’s a a really intuitive marketer.

She has ideas, lots of ideas, and that’s a talent. But what she shared was when she started to learn about marketing by studying the retail mastery system, then all of a sudden her talent got momentum.

Her talent turned into skills. And once you develop a skill, then you can build on it. Right? You build on it. You develop skills.

And I think that it’s really important that we look at both of those examples in the context of, talent and skills. Lisa was a talented marketer, but she got much better results when she became a skilled marketer.

Many of Angela’s salespeople were already talented, But once they were given skills, what the the kind of the six steps to the perfect purchase that we teach, then they became even better salespeople.

So understand this. What got you here won’t get you where you wanna go. So your talent can only bring you so far, and then you get stuck in the talent trap. The talent trap is I just need to do more of what I’m doing and try harder to do it, and, hopefully, things will change. Well, that doesn’t work.

The talent trap, what I’m encouraging you to recognize is when you get to the place where you are stuck, where your talent has taken you as far as it can take you, then you need to realize that you need to just start developing skills. Well, let me I’ll I’ll I’ll even change that. You should start developing skills even before your talent takes you as far as it will take you. Because the sooner you take the sooner you learn skills, even if you have talent, the faster you will become great.

You will become excellent. So this idea of what got you to here won’t get you to there can be translated into the talents you have and the results you get from applying the talents you have will get you to here. But skills are what’s going to get you to the next level. So we have a new platinum mastermind group member.

His name’s Lorne Park Paquette from the Nebraska Quilt Company, and he has an absolutely fantastic quote that he shared yesterday is skills pays the bills. And I I’ve I’ve I’ve used that, Lauren. And it’s true. Right?

So the more skilled you become as a merchant, the better business person you become, the more money you make. Don’t get caught in the trap. When you catch yourself getting stuck, look to develop the skills.

So the thing that I’m asking you to do, your homework for today is look at where you are in your business. Look at the different areas in your business and say, where am I running on talent or where aren’t I running on talent? Where do I need to develop skills?

Because skills are gonna pay the bills. Skills are gonna get you where you wanna go. Talent can only take you so far. Recognize that. Embrace it. See it as an opportunity.

Go out and learn what you need to do.

Learn what you need to know. Apply what you need to know. And then all of a sudden, the world starts shifting for you. Success starts to come to you.

It all becomes easier. It all becomes better. You have less stress. You have more fun.

Your team has more fun. You make more money, and your customers are happier about the experience they get in your store.

So I just wanna wrap this episode up with this. So from today until this coming Friday, the Retail Mastery System is on sale. You can save up to five hundred dollars on the Retail Mastery System. So we talking about skills. Skills pays the bills. Well, the retail mastery system has over twenty five hours of retail skill education. So you can learn all of the what you need to know to make an informed decision by clicking down the link below.

But if you are caught in the talent trap, if your business has gaping holes in because of your lack of skills in a particular area, whether it’s inventory management, whether it’s marketing, whether it’s assortment planning, whether it’s store operations, whether it’s your team, the Retail Mastery System has the answer for you. The mistakes have already been made.

They’ve been made by me, and that is all in the Retail Mastery System. So So if you’re ready to up your game, if you’re ready to develop new skills, I’d encourage you. Click on the link down below. Check it out.

See if it’s right for you. I believe it is. And then if it is, make the investment. Even if you’re sitting on the fence, recognize there’s an unconditional money back guarantee.

It’s good for ninety days, so you take no risk. So if you go, wow, I could really use some of those skills, do it. Don’t don’t hesitate.

Make the investment. And if it’s not what you think it is, call the office. We’ll give you your money back. Alright? Okay, everybody. This episode of Real Retail TV is done. We’ll see you next week.