Adopting Tech and Overcoming Challenges in Retail: A Conversation with Brian Numainville

What’s the secret to navigating a career that spans a fascination with business from childhood, pioneering work in geographic information systems, and community engagement? We had the privilege of sitting down with Brian Numainville - a member of our BrainTrust, Principal at The Feedback Group - who unveils his personal journey, filled with insightful stories and practical advice. From branding and marketing a research department for Nash Finch Company's corporate stores to creating a community program 'Feeding Imagination', Brian’s professional journey is one you’ll not want to miss.

In the throes of 2023, we grapple with some of the most pressing issues facing the retail industry. Brian sheds light on how inflation, food price inflation, and the challenges of employee retention and attraction are impacting retail and how organizations are typically responding. But it's not all doom and gloom. Our conversation brings to light the importance of listening to employees, fostering a culture of communication, and effectively addressing these issues in practical ways.

Wading into the waters of technology, we engage in a fascinating discussion about the advances in AR and VR. In his leadership role at The Feedback Group, Brian provides insightful perspectives on AI advancements and the sociable aspects of VR. We also explore the power of podcast platforms and the role they play in fostering engaging conversations. By the end of this chat, you’ll be left with a greater understanding of the retail landscape in 2023, the potential of technology in the industry, and some food for thought on taking a leap towards your future. So, plug in your earphones and let us take you on this informative journey!

-----

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/numainville/

Check out The Feedback Group: https://feedbackgroup.com/

RetailWire is the retail industry's premier source for news, analysis, and discussion. With a focus on the latest trends, technology, and consumer behavior, RetailWire provides a platform for industry experts and thought leaders to share their insights and perspectives. Whether you're a retailer, supplier, or service provider, RetailWire is your go-to destination for staying informed and ahead of the curve.

Be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you think. You might even hear your comment read on the next episode!

To learn more, or to join our Daily Discussions, visit RetailWire.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Retail Wire Podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:07

Hey everyone, what's going on? It's Brian Backbegin, with another great episode here on the Retail Wire Podcast, Joining me in the studio. Today I've got another one of our Brain Trust members This guy here. He is the principal at the Feedback Group. He is the founder and president of Newman Sites LLC. He's previously held several roles with the Nash Venge Company where, if I'm not mistaken, that's where he actually initially was when he got involved here as a Brain Trust member at Retail Wire. So without further ado, I'm going to jump right in and say welcome to the show, Mr Brian Newmanville. Yay.

Speaker 3: 0:45

Thank you, yeah, glad to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hey, man, welcome to the show, and you spelled it right too. That's good with your IAN, all right, good job, oh man. So thanks for making time for us today. How's everything going in your world?

Speaker 3: 1:01

Absolutely busy. We're about to launch a national study of in-store grocery shoppers this afternoon. So it's been a day.

Speaker 2: 1:08

All right, man. Well, best wishes with that. We'll try to get through this here so that way you can get back to saving the retail world. All right, So tell us a little bit about yourself, man. Who are you? Where'd you grow up? Tell us a little bit about just who is Brian Newmanville.

Speaker 3: 1:24

Sure, well, you know, i grew up in Minnesota here and I think I was destined to get into business because I carried a briefcase in elementary school and of course that did not make me popular. But my dad worked for control data, so I've always been around technology. I was one of those kids the first one in my class to bring a printed report to school from a computer generated off a mainframe report. But I was kind of a nerd that way. What can I say? But really my first dose of marketing was one of my earliest jobs as a teenager.

Speaker 3: 1:57

In high school I worked for an ad agency writing copy and doing some brochure design work. So I kind of got interested in the whole marketing area that way. And then the next job I had was doing phone interviewing for a market research company, and so that was interesting. And one day they asked me to videotape a focus group because their person didn't show up and that got me hooked on research and retail and kind of understanding the minds of people and why they wanted to do what they wanted to do when it came to shopping and selecting things, and so it was really kind of what sparked my interest in the whole retail area.

Speaker 2: 2:38

Yeah, man, that's awesome. So you've definitely been around retail for a long time, like childhood Exactly.

Speaker 3: 2:47

Well, i went to the University of Minnesota after that, got my graduate and undergraduate degrees in communications, but more of the theory side, the research oriented side. I did TA a class in broadcasting, but that's about as close as I got to broadcasting. But after graduating I started working at Nash Finch Company, which at the time was a Fortune 500 retailer and wholesaler, and I started out in research and within about three months I got promoted to build a geographic information system And it was one of the first in the food industry. At that time. On PC There were some mainframe things around, but I kind of took and developed this what we called the market analysis and planning system for, in short, maps. Doesn't that catch you, you know, you kind of remember that.

Speaker 2: 3:33

Okay.

Speaker 3: 3:33

All right. But and then the late 90s, i got promoted into a director of research and really built out a whole research department that had the GIS and consumer research and employee surveys, market sales projections. all that stuff kind of came together at that point And in my career.

Speaker 2: 3:54

Man, okay, all right. So so out of all the positions you've held, what would you say was kind of like that, was there one of them that was like that light bulb moment that was just like? this is totally making me dig deeper. Let's go.

Speaker 3: 4:10

Well, you know, yeah, yeah, I mean there totally was, because, like when, when I got, when I got promoted to take over research, there really wasn't a research department. I mean there was, there was, you know, one person kind of doing research with an admin, but there wasn't really a department And my mandate there was to really build out a fully functioning department that not only helped our own corporate retail stores, our own supermarkets, but also was a service for all of our independent retailers. So I kind of built a business within a business, you know, and started really being able to brand and market what we did for all of our customers and use it in our own, in our own corporate store. So it was really. That was the moment where I was kind of like, yeah, i'm in the right place, this is really you know, this is really it, this is fun.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Yeah, did anything like that exist in kind of your competitors at that time? Or was it really truly pioneering, you know, industry-wide, or was it more just for your specific organization?

Speaker 3: 5:09

Well, i mean, it was the GIS thing That was. That was new And I, when I did that it was really kind of pioneering stuff because one of our competitors had a mainframe based system. In fact they tried to hire me to come and run theirs after I built this one. But it was really pioneering at the PC level and kind of, because back then in order to do mapping stuff you had to have like one of those carousels Remember the old carousels in the computer, that where you put like 40 CDs, oh yeah, to load up stuff.

Speaker 2: 5:41

Yeah, there was a vertical slot and you'd have to wait and you'd hear that little grrrrrrrrrrrrrr and then go again and then close. Yeah, I was there, Yeah that's right.

Speaker 3: 5:51

So that's at that time, to load up the census data and to load up mapping, street files and stuff. That's what you had to do. But I kind of was integrating all of these different components and services together into kind of a unique offering, that that we kind of had, that others didn't. So it was a fun time.

Speaker 2: 6:09

Yeah, so do you ever get annoyed with yourself and put a CD or you know disk in the wrong direction, wrong?

Speaker 3: 6:15

way, oh wrong direction, wrong disk, i mean it. You know all of the above right.

Speaker 2: 6:20

I guess my other follow-up question to that was you mentioned you were kind of the nerd kid that You know took the one. You were the first one to take a printed report in from a database like that. So how many paper cuts would you say you got from the periphery, on the edges of the paper I mean?

Speaker 3: 6:36

a few. Yeah, i remember that. You know it was that the paper wasn't the best, so you know it was kind of one of those perft yeah, the green bar things and yeah, it was not not pleasant.

Speaker 2: 6:45

That would catch you really fast. And it's funny because, like my son, he's 12 He'll never understand that. He'll never get that reference because he doesn't have to deal with that right. But We know that's right. And if you and if you pulled the wrong way and it ripped halfway into your page on a 14 page document, well, you know what Got a luck, or you're re-picking again.

Speaker 3: 7:08

So That's right.

Speaker 2: 7:11

Well, so all right. So you grew up, you know, kind of getting into the the technical side of everything. You so now, where are you at now?

Speaker 3: 7:21

So now at the feedback group, so what we, what we do there and we work primarily in retail and mostly with supermarket retailers and wholesalers. Okay so we look at ourselves as listening partners. So we're helping our clients listen to all other different stakeholders, whether it's employees, customers, area shoppers, their business partners. So we do surveys with a whole bunch of different tools. We're not, we don't view ourselves as a technology company with a shiny survey tool. We're more of a consultative and and help you know. If you've got a tool that's working for you, we can come alongside you or we we can come in with our tools and help you, help you do there.

Speaker 3: 7:58

You know the research you want to do, yeah, but whether you know in, like in today's world, we're doing a ton of employee surveys because of all the issues with retention and attracting employees, that's become very hot, and we kind of go through these cycles of what's important at a given moment in time. Sometimes it's employee surveys, sometimes it's customer surveys, sometimes it's business partner surveys. We're also doing a lot of that where we help wholesalers listen to their retail customers. Okay so you know it's it's any anything in terms of listening to your, to your stakeholders, and We also do a lot of like I mentioned at the beginning. We do national studies of online shoppers and in-store supermarket shoppers and we just do that as kind of a service a service to the industry and and to get benchmarks that we can use with our clients, and We like to share that information because it helps everybody, you know, do better, and we've even written a book called feedback rules. So we're all about feedback, okay that's really awesome.

Speaker 2: 8:54

So is there I mean just thinking exactly of that like what are they like? two or three kind of Key issues that you know you mentioned it's a lot of, you know The dealing with retention and kind of the, the talent scouting and stuff. Right now, what would you say are the top two or three Issues that you see frequently right now here in we're in you know, the middle of 2023. What's something that's kind of kind of a common issue Maybe the others are looking out for right now.

Speaker 3: 9:23

Well, i'd say that I mean, obviously, inflation, food price inflation That comes up a lot. We use a question in our surveys that you know Kind of asks if the retailers on on the customer side, if that's how you know when the customer is answering the question, you know, do you feel like the retailers on your side when it comes to fighting inflation? Okay, because that's such an important measure of understanding, like, how do they view their, their supermarket? So that's one thing, is the whole inflation thing and obviously The employee retention and attraction is another one. In a general sense, i mean just Needing to know and what you're you know. I think I responded today on the on the retail wire question about you know It's really about listening to what your employees want and need to help them be more engaged.

Speaker 3: 10:12

It's not a one-size-fits-all. I mean you know you can, you can say, well, it's more money or it's this or it's. You know that. But the reality is it varies from organization to organization And you have to be willing to listen to that and understand what's unique to you and what you can do. You know what you can affect to change that.

Speaker 2: 10:28

So yeah, i think I think far too often Organizations, especially after a while of maybe being disconnected from the grass roots people, you know it's.

Speaker 2: 10:39

It's funny because I think as a society here, especially in, you know, north America, we tend to think that more money will fix the issue, right, you know it's like, hey, well, maybe make more vacation time or something like that. But in reality maybe it's just hey, you know what, that system that I have to use every day, can you just make it work properly? that would make me so much happier because, personally, i've stepped out of roles that were paying me very well, had, you know, incredible benefits, all this other stuff, because of the environment that I was in and it was just not, it was not good, and I've stepped backwards, i've taken less money, i've taken different benefits or lack thereof completely. That's not what makes me satisfied. And so, you know, that's where I think that you know the work you're doing, i'm sure, with feedback is just Incredible, because you get the opportunity to really help an organization see What's what's actually the cause of the problem, not just a way to treat some symptoms right.

Speaker 3: 11:38

Right. Well, there's so many times where people think they know what the answers are, yeah, but what the real answers are are very different from them, from what what the person or people originally thought. And It's so important to have a listening culture because if you, if you develop that listening culture, you know, and people know that you're responsive, mean that one of the things we always tell people is you know, don't even do it, you know we're don't even do the research if you're not willing to act on it when you're done, because that's going to do more damage to your organization, because then you collected this stuff and you did nothing with it And then people think you don't even listen.

Speaker 2: 12:12

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:13

Oh, that's super critical.

Speaker 2: 12:15

I think whenever yeah, exactly that point. Whenever, whenever you're, you spend the time, the money, the effort You know to go through the process and figure out what's wrong. If you don't do anything with it, then Why do anything at all? You know, honestly, it's best to not do anything at that point if you're not going to take action Once you understand it.

Speaker 3: 12:33

So right, and I mean an action, an action to solve the issues, and even action just to communicate what you heard. Right, i mean a lot of times that we, you know that's a step in the process, it's a chapter in the book. You know you have to be able to take what you heard and turn that back around in a way that tells other people in the organization Hey, here's the three things we really heard from you and here's our plan as to what we're going to do about them, and we'll, you know, be giving you updates over the next 12 months. You know that that that goes a long way.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Yeah, communication is key in so many areas, especially whenever it comes to to dealing with interpersonal matters. because, you know, i can imagine that's, that's definitely I would imagine that's probably part of your follow-up process, right with them and saying, hey, Here's, here's not only what we found, but do you, do you also make recommendations then on? Hey, here's how we would, here's how we would recommend rolling this out to the team or anything else, or you kind of offer that Follow-up?

Speaker 3: 13:30

Yeah, i mean it varies from client to client. Some clients have us real engaged in those types of things and other clients, you know, want to do it more themselves and we provide the you know the guardrails in terms of what we think you, you could or should do. But you know it really varies from client to client. But yeah, i mean, when we do consumer research, for example with with stores, a We've got one client who's great because they have they have a corporate office kind of review call and I go over the results And then they have a store level review call where they we go over it with all the department managers So everybody has it as a stake in the results and understands what they are, can ask me questions And that's like a best practice. I mean it's a, it's a great way to go about it. But yeah, it it's really important to have that, that communication and and back report out back to To the team.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yeah, so. So take us back a little bit here. So I know we were talking a little bit ago and in kind of in the introduction I mentioned that you became a brain trust member While you were with Nash Finch A company. So what kind of, what all did you do for Nash Finch while you were there?

Speaker 3: 14:38

Well, i mean. so when I was at Nash Finch I did, like I said, the geographic information stuff and then I took over research, built that. Then I also built the public relations function. There wasn't really a PR department at all. It was legal, would just approve or disapprove whatever needed to go out. I got into writing annual reports and press releases and marketing collateral and a lot of things that we hadn't done as an organization. That was like a brand new creation, which I loved. Then the other piece of that was the charitable foundation. There was a corporate foundation that really hadn't done much, but I took hold of that and we got that thing built up. We got employees to be able to contribute to it.

Speaker 3: 15:29

We would grant out to a lot of different nonprofit organizations in the hunger and shelter and education areas a lot of funding for their nonprofits. My favorite memory there was creating a program called Feeding Imagination, which nice tie to the food industry and to the reading side of things, because what it was? it started out as a book donation to wear jeans on Fridays. Everybody would bring in one or more books in exchange for wearing jeans. We did it like once a month and we called it Feeding Imagination Friday. Then we ended up putting libraries in schools that didn't have them and we had all sorts of fun with events that we did. I had an Olympic athlete come in and one time with one of our events related to that. Just a really cool effort by the organization to really get engaged with the community and it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 16:28

Man, that's fantastic. Yeah, I know I had a somewhat of a similar experience whenever I was with a certain marketing agency here in Bentonville, just seeing that opportunity to say, hey, there's something that happened in our local area, here in our region. At that time it was actually a tornado that hit more Oklahoma, just up the road from us. Everybody there wanted to go hey, how do we give, how do we donate, do we volunteer? Do we what We? just myself and one other person in the organization just saw that opportunity to say, hey, this is how we can connect with our people and connect our people to other people. I think that's huge in any organization. Who does to you for seeing the need and stepping up and filling that?

Speaker 3: 17:13

Yeah, one of the really cool things about it was, too, that Spartan ended up buying Nash Finch. But one of the things that lives on is really the combined charitable foundation. I started a thing called Helping Hands in the Community Day and I saw that Spartan Nash just had their Helping Hands in the Community Day last week. That still lives on. They still do it. They still fund a lot of the same partners that Nash Finch did here in the Midwest, and then they've got other partners that they've funded as Spartans Foundation. I had actually advised the Spartan Foundation person at the time when they were starting up their foundation, so it was all cool to see all that come together and live on beyond the merger of the two organizations.

Speaker 2: 17:58

That's got to feel really good. So then, how did you get to know about Retail Wire? Let's go there for a minute.

Speaker 3: 18:05

Well, i think how I found out about Retail Wire, interestingly enough, was my now business partner in the feedback group was on with one of the Nash Finch retail clients talking about this feedback platform, that, this automated feedback platform that we still have. That's how I got to know Retail Wire, because the CEO said, hey, you should listen to in on this, because our customer is on with this guy and you should talk to this guy. So in the end, i ended up hiring my now business partner as a vendor to come in and help me do some research projects. Then fast forward about five years and I ended up leaving and joining his company. Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 18:47

Well, that's always fun, right.

Speaker 3: 18:49

Yeah, you never know where those things go, but that's how I found out about Retail. Wire was that first panel that I heard them talking, and then I got interested in it and became a panelist myself.

Speaker 2: 19:01

Yeah, We're glad to have you because I know I've seen your comments throughout the whole discussions pretty frequently actually. So that's good man. So we love seeing the people that actually know what they're talking about Jump in and you've got expertise in certain areas and that really shows. So thanks for jumping in and contributing on that.

Speaker 3: 19:22

My pleasure. Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun, a lot of good people and it's a lot of good idea sharing, So I enjoy it.

Speaker 2: 19:27

Yeah, absolutely. What would you say, thinking of your experience and what you've done, and even thinking about the brain trust and how you share, your views, your opinions, your wisdom from the years, what would you say would be some good advice for someone who maybe is wanting to follow in your footsteps? A certain category, certain area of expertise, what would you say would be a good thing for them to look into or maybe get their feet wet in right now, so that way it sets them up for success in a future career?

Speaker 3: 20:06

Well, one of the things that I always tell people is don't be afraid to try stuff you haven't done yet, even if you don't have the experience, because those opportunities are about a thousand times more valuable than the ones that you thought you were going to do because you have some education in it or you have some knowledge about it. And that example I gave earlier the whole geographic information system. there wasn't a roadmap for me to follow And nor did I have any educational experience that would lead you to believe that I could do that. And I remember they put an ad in the paper for this position and I had just been hired three months earlier And I went to the guy that was going to run that area and I said I want to do this, who do I talk to? And he said well, you got to talk to the vice president, and so I've knocked on the vice president's door, who I knew. but I knocked on the door and he said you know, come on in. And I said that ad in the paper, i can't prove to you I can do that job. And I'm here to tell you I can do that job And I'd love a crack at it.

Speaker 3: 21:05

And they ended up. that was enough. I mean they gave me the position, said go for it. And I had the most powerful computer in the entire company at that point in time because you needed all that horsepower to run the mapping stuff. But that's the kind of advice I'd give somebody. It's like you've got to find those. I mean that was a once in a lifetime kind of an opportunity that ended up leading to a long career in research and retail. And you know who would have known, right, i mean it was, it was, but I so. I mean it's really taking those risks and not being afraid to try something that you may or may not, you know, really have the experience to do. But you know, if you feel you can do it, give it a shot.

Speaker 2: 21:49

And that's good, and you know it's actually. It's funny because I just I don't know, you listen to many podcasts, I guess, or Joe Rogan, i do, obviously, but there's have you heard a guy named Theo Vaughn? He cracks me up. He's definitely got a very interesting character, we'll say, but half the stuff is just silliness and kind of funny and it's like, oh my gosh, i can't believe you just said that, but he actually said something really good and I thought it was so good.

Speaker 2: 22:18

I heard it yesterday And he was talking about. Someone had asked him what would you tell yourself? you know, if you could go back and tell yourself something at a younger age, what would you say?

Speaker 2: 22:30

And exactly to your point, his statement was he goes hmm, ask her out, and she's like oh really, you know it's about a girl and he goes no, whether it's a girl, whether it's a job, whether it's a trip you want to take, whether it's an opportunity, whether it's a chance that you're taking on yourself, whatever it is, ask her out. He's like it don't matter what that is. If it's a person, it's a thing, it's a place. Take more risk on yourself and jump in, because you never know what's going to happen and if you don't take the opportunity, you'll never know. And so I just thought that was really, honestly, surprisingly deep actually. So it was just like just what would life look like if we all just walked into the office and said hey, can I talk to you? I know I'm that guy, you know, i think Pudos man, that's really awesome to hear that. You know.

Speaker 2: 23:22

I think, especially in today's society, we think that everything has to look a certain way, it has to go through a certain channel online or it needs to go through these certain levels, when in reality it's still people to people, right, and so the opportunity to walk right in there. You knew him, you had a good rapport already and you said hey, look. You went in humbly but confidently and just said look, i'm that guy And they took that chance on you. And now here you are, man. I mean, just imagine if you hadn't gone and done that, you know what life would have been differently, but you'd have still been successful. It would have just been probably a different path, you know.

Speaker 3: 24:01

Right, you just don't know And you know. and the other piece I would say in terms of advice that I go along with that is learn, learn, learn. I mean I'm like a lifelong learner. I can't help myself. I mean I'm digging into everything from AI to VR to you know, you name it. I just I can't help myself. And I think that that curiosity, that willingness to just if I don't know how to do something, i go figure it out, and that's another strong attribute for somebody starting out in their career that curiosity that have that curiosity, have that willingness to just go learn something new. Go, you know, watch a, you know podcast. I mean listen to a podcast, watch a video on YouTube, go study up on stuff, because you know. that's the kind of thing where I mean a lot of my career has not been because of what I did in college. It's been because I've learned stuff, you know, that allowed me to do it, and I think that that's another thing that is definitely a good piece of advice for somebody starting out.

Speaker 2: 25:04

Yeah, absolutely Speaking of curious. what are you curious about right now? What's some stuff that's coming down the pipeline in retail and specifically your area of expertise, But just in general, in retail, what's something that really gets you excited right now?

Speaker 3: 25:20

Well, you know, i'd say one thing is really the whole. I mean AI. Generative AI is one thing that I'm like, super interested in. I've been messing around with, you know AI stuff for the last couple of years, well before chat, gpt and so on. But I think that we're just so early in this process And I know there's kind of two schools of thought or two camps out there. One is I wish it had never happened And the other one is I'm super excited, right. So I mean there's not.

Speaker 3: 25:48

People tend to have a very polar position on this, at least everybody I've talked to. But you know, i have a good friend who's a marketing communications guy And I worked with him at Nash Finch and he, we had lunch and he said you know, i've been looking at this. I'm a graphic, you know graphic design work, and he's very successful, his own company. And he said I could do one of two things I could dig my head in the sand and just kind of ignore this for the next five, or hope I get through the next five or six years till I retire, or I can embrace it and try to really, you know, utilize it in the work I do. And he said I'm doing that, and he told me about a week or two after that that he'd been picking up clients because they saw him posting generative AI photo work that he had done And they were so impressed that he was doing that and he was ahead of the curve that they hired him.

Speaker 3: 26:33

So I mean, i really think that there's going to. You know, whether it's automation, whether it's advertising, whether it's accounting, whether it's research tools, ai is going to play an increasing role as time goes on. We're not going backwards on this and I tend to be pretty bullish on tech, given my background. And you know and I didn't mention this but for about a year at Nash Vinch I also ran the corporate computer center, so that was my operational experience.

Speaker 2: 26:58

So what all did that entail?

Speaker 3: 27:01

Well, that was at the time. That was about a dozen computer operators, a couple of data entry clerks, the old mainframe that took up a room that was air conditioned, you know, with the floor tiles and, oh yeah, i mean the big you know UPS battery backups that were the size of a you know of a floor, and so it was quite a deal. But you know, i kind of, as my boss at the time said, you did about five years worth of work in a year Because I redid everything and realigned the supply chain and all sorts of stuff. But you know it was interesting. But I, you know I'm pretty bullish on technology in general. Also, given my dad working for control data, i used every computer under the sun as they came out. I had an Apple Lisa when I was a kid.

Speaker 3: 27:48

Nice. So you know, i just see that there's more. There's so much more application than we're even thinking about today And it's going to get so much better in terms of capability as time goes on. And I think the same thing about virtual reality. Vr is not dead. It's not going away. We never really had a metaverse, and just because a company's name meta doesn't mean they're the metaverse.

Speaker 2: 28:12

Exactly So, you know. speaking of what, did you think of the recent thing We're talking about, VR here? What did you think of Apple's recent release with their kind of their mixed reality headset? I mean, what do you see some good applications there.

Speaker 3: 28:28

You know it's interesting. I wish that somebody would make some kind of a combination that's a little more like Google Glass but doesn't look so nerdy. you know that would allow you to do real heads-up display kind of stuff as you're moving around. I mean, i did try. I didn't have it, but I had a friend who had Google Glass And I mean the battery life was horrid but the thing had some real interesting capability.

Speaker 3: 28:50

And I think Apple I mean Apple of all people, i'm a Mac guy, so I mean I like Apple stuff now, granted the price tag for what you're going to be able to do with it. I'm not sure that we're there quite yet. Yeah, but I do think that a mixed reality headset like that, if it wasn't so cumbersome and clunky to wear and had longer battery life, would be the, you know, is kind of the next iteration. I think AR is so much easier to sell and to start using than VR is, but it's not as immersive. And you know, i mean I got a VR, i got an Oculus headset years ago and I've been messing with that for years And they're, you know you can't. It's not really for productivity but for connectivity with people, like during COVID I played. I played the laser tag with my kids, you know, in VR I mean it was like you know, because they lived in other places. So, as you know, i think there's so much more application And with retail, there's going to be a time and a place where that stuff's going to continue to evolve and be interesting.

Speaker 3: 29:49

I mean, second life was second life. Now we're, you know, now we're in, now we're into VR. But this stuff's going to keep evolving until it gets to a place where it's going to be much more mainstream and much more utilized in a broader way. But we're not quite there yet.

Speaker 2: 30:02

Yeah, absolutely, it's funny. You bring that up because you know it's, i'm definitely a sociable person And so I jumped into was it Rec Room, i think it was the other day and was playing around in there a little bit. And then there's a couple of different other programs. We got my son the Oculus 2, was it two Christmases ago or whatever, So whenever it was still pretty hot there and everything And so we got that.

Speaker 2: 30:25

And it was so funny because I usually don't enjoy kind of the social element of VR stuff, just you know, meeting random people, because that's just that's just weird for me.

Speaker 2: 30:35

I'm sorry, like I grew up in the whole realm of you know AIM Chat, you know the AOL instant messenger, everything else, and I kind of had enough of that in college of like random people you know popping up on your screen. But it was so funny because, of course, of the two people that I met in the VR headset that day was they were both dads playing on their kids, their kids Oculus, and wasting time. They said, you know what the kids gone for the day. I'm gonna jump in and check this out And so I think we were all skeet shooting at one point, but no, it's really cool to see, i think, the advancements that we've got and knowing how fast it's going to compound to, because it feels like every advancement that we make it's, you know, it's half life of everything else. It's incredible. So can't wait to see what AI does for us in the coming weeks and months and years, you know.

Speaker 3: 31:37

Right. I mean, how long has Chat GPT been hot? a few months now. I mean. it's like think about how far it's come in that short a period of time. And I was using AI writers a couple of years ago that were built on previous versions of that And I thought that was cool. But you know, here we are now And you know what's the next one going to be. Yeah, but I'm not worried about it. I'm not worried about it taking over the world and destroying us. I'm just not, i'm not buying that.

Speaker 2: 32:00

So now that's. I think that'll be a little while still, but I'm not too worried about it because you know whatever by that point, hopefully I'll be set up on a farm somewhere. So I guess we'll kind of wrap up a little bit here. But if you had to, you know one thing I love asking because obviously you've been in the field for a long time. You understand the industry. You've got a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge. We've talked a little bit about you know, taking that chance on yourself and jumping in with that conversation. If you could go back in time, though, to when you were just getting going, is there one piece of advice that you would love to tell yourself? And it can be the same thing you've already talked about, or it can be something else, but what would you go back and tell yourself when you were just getting going here in retail and kind of your career path?

Speaker 3: 32:55

Yeah, you know, i mean I think what I would have done differently is actually pre that a little bit, because, you know, I mean when I was in high school, i mean I didn't really know what I I mean, what am I going to do? Right, i didn't. I didn't take advantage of a lot of like educational opportunities. I was a good student, but I didn't do all the you know extra stuff. I, you know, i started working, which was good experience, like I talked about earlier, but I really didn't do the high school stuff.

Speaker 3: 33:24

I mean I, you know, and I think that I might have, it might have been helpful to me to have a wider perspective going into college than I did, and so I might have done, you know, student government or I might have done other things that I didn't try, because I didn't really have that. I was probably more risk adverse when I was in high school than I was. Once I got to college and into my career. I was, i was probably more cautious and I think I would have been less cautious and done more earlier to try to broaden myself than I did. I think that's what I would probably do differently.

Speaker 2: 33:59

Okay, all right. No, i think that's really good because you know, especially as we're kind of heading into this era right now where you know I feel like traditional college is kind of taking some hits lately, you know, and so people are looking at it differently going do I do this, do I do a trade school? do I not even go and just jump right into work? Man, i think that's some really good advice to kind of lead people along their own path of figuring out who they are and maybe what they want to do in life.

Speaker 3: 34:27

So yeah, yeah, no, when I got to college, when I got to college, that's kind of when I I mean, i hit my stride in terms of figuring out, okay, what do I want to do. I've been exposed to the research stuff by then, and I worked at AT&T while I was in college, so I got a little bit of a big corporate experience, as at that time they were, you know, just out of divestiture, and so it was. You know, that's where I really hit my stride. But earlier than that I didn't really, you know, it wasn't as important to me. But, like you know, once I got to college and started taking some of the courses and understanding, for me that was the right thing.

Speaker 3: 35:02

Now it's not for everybody. Some people are much more well suited to go to trade school or do something else, and we should encourage that because there's lots of good green jobs. There's lots of good. I work with a nonprofit called TreeTrust that has some outstanding training for youth in the green sector who otherwise might not you know, might not find a good career path otherwise. So you know, i mean there's lots of good opportunities out there. Find what's right for you, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:32

Absolutely. Well, i'll tell you what. If anyone wants to follow up with you a little bit more and kind of learn more about who you are and what you're up to, where would the best place for that be? Would that be linked in for you, or is there a different website or anything that we should go to, or what's the best way?

Speaker 3: 35:49

Yeah, best way, reach out to me on LinkedIn. That's great, and the feedback group it's. Feedbackgroupcom is our website. You can reach out there as well and learn more about the kind of things we do. But, yeah, absolutely, i'd welcome, you know, invite anybody to reach out to me that wants to connect.

Speaker 2: 36:05

Awesome. Well, i will make sure and put those both in the show notes here, so that way you can all put a link directly to your LinkedIn on there, and then I'll put the feedback group website as well. So, but do Brian a favor, though, if you do end up jumping in and wanting to connect with him on LinkedIn, because there's a lot of spammers out there right now and, especially, you know, everybody thinks that they can give me, you know, 47 new leads a day and, you know, increase my revenues 10X in the next month. If you do reach out to Brian on LinkedIn, throw a little note in there. You know how to ask you. if you want to send a note with it, just say hey, heard you on the RetailWire podcast, loved what you had to say, would love to connect. That way he knows where you're coming from and that you're a real human being, and you actually did listen to him. So, that said, i'm gonna go ahead and wrap us up. What do you think, brian? Are you good? Anything else that we need to throw in?

Speaker 3: 36:57

No, it was great. I appreciate the conversation and thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 2: 37:01

Awesome man. Well, thank you so much again for being here with us and I look forward to having you involved in more conversations here on RetailWire. And, of course, if you're listening to this right now and or if you're watching us on YouTube and you have not hit subscribe yet, be sure and do that, because we would love to have you following us to make sure you don't miss any additional episodes that we have. We got some really great guests coming up. We got some more, just some fun content. I'm not even gonna get into it right now, but you're not gonna wanna miss it, that's for sure. We're on all your major podcast platforms as well as YouTube, so if you wanna see what either of the Brian's here look like, then go over to YouTube. You'll find us there. Look up RetailWire and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1: 37:44

Thanks for tuning in to the RetailWire podcast. We hope you enjoyed the episode. Be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcasting platform and leave us a comment for a chance to hear it read on the next show. We'll see you next time here on the RetailWire podcast.