Redefining Retail: A Conversation with Industry Veteran Cathy Hotka on Networking, AI, and the Future of Retail

We're thrilled to have Cathy Hotka on the show today, a seasoned veteran in the retail industry whose career journey is nothing short of remarkable. From her days as VP of Information Technology for the National Retail Federation and a congressional liaison for the White House, to her unique insights as a sixth-generation native Washingtonian, Cathy's story is nothing but fascinating. Her progression in the retail industry is a testament to her resilience - starting out as Fritz Mondale's receptionist, she has gone on to make significant strides in the industry, including running the CIO Council for Big Oil CIOs and creating the NRF CIO Council.

In our conversation, Cathy sheds light on the creation of the StoreOps Council and the profound effect it has had on the retail industry. Through her unparalleled insights, we examine the importance of networking and benchmarking in the retail space, and the role it plays in improving the industry and customer experience. Cathy also unveils how her single person consultancy has redefined the expectations for networking opportunities and brought about an open exchange of ideas and resources.

Our discussion wouldn't be complete without touching on the future of retail - Artificial Intelligence (AI). Cathy shares how AI has been instrumental in revolutionizing the customer's experience at CarMax, from creating comprehensive descriptions of their cars to personalizing the shopping experience. If you're curious about the impact of AI in the retail sector, Cathy's insights are a must-listen. Plus, we explore the potential that lies in having a single person consultancy and networking opportunities in retail. Subscribe for more intriguing discussions on the retail industry!

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Connect with Cathy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathyhotka/

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.

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:01

Welcome to the Retail Wire Podcast.

Brian Crum: 0:07

Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode here on the Retail Wire Podcast. I am your host, brian, and if you're just joining us for the very first time, welcome. I'd love to have you here. Be sure to smash that subscribe button because we've got a lot more exciting episodes coming up. And today I'm excited because we have another episode of our Meet the Brain Trust series And in this one, y'all I am really pumped for the person I'm getting ready to chat with here and introduce you to This person.

Brian Crum: 0:40

I'm not going to say what they do currently because literally their name is in the company, but this person comes from a background and we're going to get into some of this. This person has been the VP of Information Technology for the National Retail Federation. This person has the technology liaison with the American Petroleum Institute, director of event planning and at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. This person was also a congressional liaison for the White House Yes, that White House. And now somehow we get the privilege of having her as one of our Brain Trust members here at Retail Wire. I don't know of a different introduction to give than just Cathy Hotka say , welcome to the show.

Cathy Hotka: 1:35

Thank you, brian, it's great to be here.

Brian Crum: 1:38

That's quite the list of accomplishments there, Cathy.

Cathy Hotka: 1:42

It's interesting, but the most relevant one, i think, is work at NRF. I had been running the CIO Council for Big Oil CIOs and had the opportunity to come over to NRF and create the NRF CIO Council And everybody said it wouldn't work because no one would join.

Announcer: 2:03

They were wrong.

Cathy Hotka: 2:04

They were wrong, And that organization has been going strong since 1996, bringing together top technology leaders for shared learnings, helping folks not reinvent the wheel and also providing opportunities for lobbying against dumb regulations that come up periodically from time to time.

Brian Crum: 2:27

Or like every day right, Or like every day. So I was at.

Cathy Hotka: 2:30

NRF for seven years and there were a lot of changes. I remember when I got started the NRF show was in the basement of the Hilton And once people began to know one another it got way bigger and it took over a piece of Javits and now it's the entire Javits.

Brian Crum: 2:47

Yeah, I was going to say I mean, so what was the? we'll get into this too as well. We'll talk more, But just thinking how big was NRF whenever, like say, how many people do you think were showing up to the first view?

Cathy Hotka: 3:03

I'm going to guess and say 3,000.

Brian Crum: 3:05

Okay, all right, and now, what's the numbers around?

Cathy Hotka: 3:07

It's 30-something.

Brian Crum: 3:10

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 3:11

All right 30-something.

Brian Crum: 3:12

Before we jump into NRF's conversation, tell folks a little about who you are. Where'd you come from? What's where'd you grow up around? What makes Cathy Cathy, you know?

Cathy Hotka: 3:24

So I'm a native Washingtonian. My kids are sixth generation native Washingtonians. We've lived here a long time And I've had a fascinating career with truly amazing people. I've had a wonderful time at it, but the work in retail has really been thought-provoking and interesting because the people are so great. People who work at retail companies are fascinating. They love what they do And I guess the best way to explain it is they may move from job to job, but they never leave the industry.

Announcer: 4:04

Yeah.

Brian Crum: 4:05

No, absolutely, And I think that's you know, that's a really cool thing that I'm seeing too, because it's funny. I started out after college and kind of jumped into some retail side. And you know, from a corporate side I've worked. I worked in stores and everything kind of during college, but then flipped over to the retail corporate side whenever I moved to Bentonville, Arkansas. I won't tell you who I worked for, But they you know you're right, Once you're in it, you really understand it and you really know it. And even though I walked away from retail industry for a little bit, hi, I'm back. So here I am at Retail Wire And you know it is an exciting field. It's a great place to be because there are a lot of passionate people And you know, just like yourself, they have a really cool history, They got a really cool past. So you're you're fifth generation Washingtonian Right, See, it's late in the day, Don't mind me. So what's some of your favorite stuff around Washington there? What's your favorite things to do around there?

Cathy Hotka: 5:17

Well, you know, as you know, we've got all of these unbelievable, world-class free museums.

Brian Crum: 5:22

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 5:23

But you know, the other cool thing about DC is that we have a very diverse population. We have many embassies here, So our local cuisine is international.

Brian Crum: 5:33

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 5:33

If you have a hankering for Ethiopian food, you can find it here.

Brian Crum: 5:38

So good, actually funny enough. I love Ethiopian food.

Brian Crum: 5:43

So, there was a great place in Dallas whenever I lived there for a short period And I was like holy smokes, this is actually really great. So yeah, so you've let's, let's go forward a little bit. So you've got, you know you're there, you've got your family, your kids. So then how did you did you grow up in the retail industry at all, or your parents grow up in the retail industry, or how did you kind of get connected? How'd you get going on this? Because I mean, let's go even. You know I'm going to actually push pause on that for a second, go back even further. You were a congressional liaison for the White House. How did you get into that?

Cathy Hotka: 6:24

First I was Fritz Mondale's receptionist.

Brian Crum: 6:26

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 6:27

So when, when Mondale was in the Senate, they needed somebody from DC who understood the city and could help with tourists.

Brian Crum: 6:35

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 6:36

And, you know, the first person I met on my first day was Joe Biden, who lived Kitty Corner, across the hall.

Announcer: 6:42

I think I've heard of him.

Cathy Hotka: 6:43

Yeah, i think so, yeah. So I wound up doing congressional liaison and that's honestly great for association work because that's where you learn about constituencies, building constituencies and getting those constituencies together with one another, and really that's why I've been a network builder my entire career. That's what got me into retail. That's why I worked at NRF, put together the CIO council. Now I run the retail insiders party at the show. I started the store operations council because I thought it was stupid that the industry didn't have a committee studying the store.

Brian Crum: 7:23

Yeah, right, so That's kind of surprising right, like what, what, what kind of led you to to realize that and kind of you recognized it obviously, and then you're just like wait a second what that conversation looked like to be to, to approach them and say, hey, are y'all missing?

Cathy Hotka: 7:41

something here. Well, so I worked for the American Petroleum Institute, which is a full service trade association. They do everything.

Brian Crum: 7:48

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 7:49

So at NRF I was surprised at how limited the service offerings were, and it occurred to me that we probably should have a store committee. but I couldn't get it off the ground. So when I was gone I put together a proof of concept meeting with a whole bunch of people who said we need to have this right away. It's been meeting now for 11 years.

Brian Crum: 8:10

Wow.

Cathy Hotka: 8:10

The next meeting is coming up in September in DC And it's an opportunity the StoreOps Council. it's an opportunity for the chiefs of StoreOps who are doing HR they're in charge of technology in the store, they're in charge of merchandising in the store to get together and compare learnings.

Brian Crum: 8:29

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 8:30

And talk about how they do things And you know, you really would be surprised at how candid those people are.

Brian Crum: 8:35

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 8:37

They'll get together and they'll tell you almost anything And you know clearly it was fascinating during the COVID era when so many stores had to make dramatic, drastic changes.

Announcer: 8:52

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 8:52

Everybody would be just really free to share what worked for them and what didn't.

Brian Crum: 8:57

Well, and you know, I think it's funny because we were talking just a little bit before we hit record on this. But you know, go back just a little ways too. We were talking about how, you know, everybody used to be very siloed, right, And it's like very protective. You had to protect your secret sauce, right, Because we all thought we had this proprietary information, and some of it is absolutely. But, you know, for the longest time it feels like there was just this everybody stayed in their behind their own little walls. They didn't share information, They didn't share their learnings, And so you know what was kind of a tipping point for that? You know, you mentioned you were the one who started the CIO, So how did you approach that?

Cathy Hotka: 9:46

What I did was to ask them what they needed. So I didn't go in and say I have an agenda. I said tell me what you think we ought to be talking about, and one of the very first things that came up with was believe it or not? Y2K.

Brian Crum: 10:01

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 10:02

Because there were retail companies who were using very old technology And they were just there They were going to have a problem. Yep, this was about the time where Target realized that it was going to have a problem because they had three-digit store numbers, but they had 850 stores.

Cathy Hotka: 10:21

And if they go into a B1000, what are they going to do then? So there's just no reason for every retail company to address this kind of stuff on their own When they can talk to people who've already done it and who can offer them some advice, maybe suggest a vendor or two and make things smoother.

Brian Crum: 10:39

Yeah, you think that you know. do you think that I think whenever we go back to how much information gets shared on social media, on the internet, everything else like that, do you think that maybe that has led to more of the in-person situations of people kind of letting their guard down more?

Cathy Hotka: 11:00

Completely Look at the number of retail conferences there are now. Yeah.

Brian Crum: 11:04

Yeah. We're getting ready to go one in two weeks, So you know.

Cathy Hotka: 11:09

No, they're all over the place. They're in the UK, they're in Spain, they're all over the United States. There are plenty of people who want to go and not only hear from people on a stage, but also to have lunch with them and network and just say you know, here's what are you doing with the theft problem?

Brian Crum: 11:28

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 11:29

Right And get those sort of first-hand observations for people. It's very effective and it's advancing the industry.

Brian Crum: 11:35

Yeah Well, and to be fair, that's a great way to look at it is I've got a problem, you've got a problem, it's the same problem. And if you've found a solution, or if I've found a solution, you know, as a retailer, a lot of the times I think people from the outside looking in look at retailers going, oh well, they just want to be the number one, they want to wipe the competition off the face of the planet. Right, and they're like no, because if they wipe the competition off the face of the planet, sure, they might have a monopoly, but they're really kind of become, they'll probably become boring at that point, honestly, and so you need competition, you need those people.

Cathy Hotka: 12:17

Look at non-competition, look at benchmarking. So there's no earthly reason why Victoria's Secret can't benchmark against tractor supply. Yeah, yeah, and they can't and they do. And then you know we'll have a meeting and people are exchanging all kinds of stuff, and then I'll send around their contact information afterward so that they can get in touch with each other after the meeting and say all right, you were saying something about POS for the blind. Walk me through that again.

Brian Crum: 12:46

Yeah, oh, absolutely Yeah. And to be able to share those resources now openly and, like you're saying, it's really only going to make all the brands better. Right, it's only going to make everybody's experience better, which means you have a happier society, and a happier society means they're probably going to spend their money a little more freely, which means, whether it's you know you're sharing the market, it's market share, but it's in the end you're still driving customer happiness, customer success, and so if they're happier over there and they're happier over here, you're all going to win.

Cathy Hotka: 13:20

Well, and you know, we've got structural problems in this industry.

Brian Crum: 13:24

What do you mean by that?

Cathy Hotka: 13:26

Well, the latest and most obvious one is theft. I walked into a Duane Reed in New York City two weeks ago and pretty much everything's locked up. The candy bars aren't, but mostly everything. When you're walking down an aisle, you're passing glass. Yeah, this is an issue that we have to think about. We have an obvious problem with sizing. I don't know what the heck a women's medium is. It's different based on what store you're buying it from. It has resulted in a tsunami of returns. You know, as you know, when people couldn't shop in person during COVID, they bought things online. They ordered a medium. You know, when they get it home, it looks like a pot holder.

Announcer: 14:15

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 14:15

You know it's not adequate and we've run into all kinds of return issues. We don't in the industry have a way to describe fabrication.

Brian Crum: 14:26

Hmm, okay.

Cathy Hotka: 14:27

If somebody wants a brass and glass coffee table, maybe they can find it, maybe they can't. We have a huge problem with search. So you know we've got opportunities in the industry and the more we can put together task forces and, you know, workshops to address these things jointly, the better the opportunity we can wipe some of these dumb costs off the books.

Brian Crum: 14:54

Exactly, yeah, and I think that's where you know working together can truly help overcome those issues faster. It can compound the effect, it can get it off the ground, can get it implemented across a variety of stores and applications, and then suddenly you're going okay, this worked, this didn't work, let's do away with that. Let's, let's ramp up exactly what they're doing over here. Because you're right, i think, especially I don't know if people like here in the Midwest and like the South and everything you know I'm in Arkansas, northwest Arkansas We don't have everything locked up here. It's not an issue here.

Brian Crum: 15:30

But you see it in a lot of major cities today And a lot of you know the more developed areas. They are seeing a lot more theft And I don't think people understand just how bad it's getting in some of these regions. But I can imagine that having everyone working together to remedy this is really the only way we're going to overcome it. Right, like that's if you try to do it on your own, you're going to flounder, you're going to miss it, you're going to miss something And you're probably going to fix one problem, but you're going to spring up three in its place.

Cathy Hotka: 16:03

Well, you know, one thing people can do is to take photos of the people they apprehend, or see, or see.

Brian Crum: 16:09

Yeah.

Cathy Hotka: 16:10

And then share those photos with other retailers in the area. Yeah, You know if this dude walks into the store, throw him out.

Brian Crum: 16:18

Yeah Well, i know we'll get to this in a little bit of like things you're excited for, but where do you see, like, obviously, if you're meeting with this committee here in another couple months but I would imagine you talk throughout the year as well You know the individual members probably connect throughout the year Are you seeing people starting to lean into and organizations obviously starting to lean into? you know the facial recognition, obviously, but then pairing that with AI, law enforcement, things like that, to where do you think that you're reaching a point of being able to implement something all together across the board that should help remedy that, or is that still a little ways off?

Cathy Hotka: 17:02

It's a little ways off, but that's the main thing people are interested in. If you ask people right now retail people what they want to talk about, they'll tell you it's AI.

Brian Crum: 17:11

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 17:12

They know it's here. They know that some people are using it CarMax is one of the most famous examples. They're going to be using it as well. What exactly they're going to be using it for They may not know yet, but if I had to give retailers a piece of advice right now, I would say start working on large language models and get your foot wet in AI fast, because your competition is already doing it.

Brian Crum: 17:40

Yeah, so go back. You mentioned CarMax a while ago. So what are they doing right now that sets them apart, or setting them up to be set apart in the future? very quickly, what are they doing with this?

Cathy Hotka: 17:53

They've got a very smart CIO, shamim Mohamed. He got in touch with the nice people at Microsoft and some others, and what they do did was, rather than have siloed information about a given car, they threw all of that information into a large language model and told it to categorize that information so that you could have a complete description of that 2013 Hyundai Sonata.

Brian Crum: 18:20

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 18:21

All of it. All of it, including product reviews, comments from people, call center information. So maybe one of the little hacks that somebody learned was that, in addition to its regular windshield wiper, it can also take a different kind from a Honda. All of that is in there, everything's in there. So now the company and customers have complete information about these cars.

Brian Crum: 18:50

So it's almost like a company plus a wiki of sorts, right, is that like for the basic consumer?

Cathy Hotka: 18:58

And yes, and it's proprietary. Yeah, so they didn't dump this out into the public domain. This is for CarMax.

Brian Crum: 19:05

Yeah, that's all their own internal owned.

Cathy Hotka: 19:08

I totally could see beauty companies doing it, fashion companies doing it, home improvement companies doing it. They'll all do it. And so you know, for those companies that are thinking I don't know, ai is probably a couple of years off. No, it's not.

Brian Crum: 19:24

No, it's here, It's here.

Cathy Hotka: 19:25

It's talking to you right now.

Brian Crum: 19:27

Yeah Well, and you know I was actually just talking to somebody the other day about this that you know it's going to change the entire way we do SEO. You know you mentioned looping everything in or, you know, lumping everything into one pile, from customer reviews to different things you read on the internet, different YouTube videos, all of that. You know AI is really going to shift that customer experience. I think, because you're not only it's kind of marketing what 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, somewhere in there, where you know you're not just going to be like where you know used to and I'm sure you know this like the way that I saw it at least, was when you started marketing 20 years ago, and before that it was oh hey, here I have this product. You check out this product, i'm going to tell you why you need this product and you're going to go oh, i've come to the realization, i need that product.

Brian Crum: 20:27

But now everybody has the product readily available from a thousand different vendors. They have a thousand different ways they can get it. They can expedite it and get it here in 24 hours, or they can get it here within a week and maybe get a dollar credit on the next purchase that they make or something you know. So you have all these different things going on, but I think it's going to shift the way now that you're able to find products that you're able to really validate. does it do what the brand says it does? because you're actually able to access exactly what you're saying. You're able to access that information about what other people's experiences have already been.

Cathy Hotka: 21:09

Well, and you've got an empowered consumer who wants to be able to search for things, and you know, the old way was that you physically went into a store to see if they had something that you might want. They didn't, so you left, and then you physically went into another store and walked around to see if they had something you want. Now the empowered consumer should be able to search for a velvet midi dress with a three-quarter sleeve and a square neck. Mm-hmm, yeah, you cannot do that yet, but it's coming.

Brian Crum: 21:43

Okay.

Cathy Hotka: 21:44

It's going to change the way customers view their retailers and it's going to change the way everybody buys things.

Brian Crum: 21:53

Yeah, you know that's. I can't wait to see that come to fruition. I can't wait to see that actually happen because that is going to change everything, right, right. So, especially on the retail side. So let's, i mean, keep going on you here, because I know we're getting deep into the retail side. So, as you kind of got into retail, you know, one of the things you mentioned to me earlier was that you really got into retail because you loved the passion of the people who are in the industry. You know, once you're in it you never leave. And so what was something that you kind of found maybe about yourself as you got into the retail industry and you kind of left the petroleum side and you came over to the retail side, jumped in with NRF. Was there anything along the way that kind of surprised you about yourself as you started developing in the retail industry?

Cathy Hotka: 22:46

Not too much, partly because I'm a people person. Okay, and retail is all about the people.

Brian Crum: 22:51

Absolutely.

Cathy Hotka: 22:52

I don't care what they say about the, you know it's all about the merchandise and the merchant and blah blah. It's not, it's all about the people. And you know, i've always said in this industry you could call somebody at four in the morning and say, look, i can't tell you why, but I need $7,000. Yeah, you'll get it. Yep, don't give up on you. They wouldn't even think about it. Yeah, and that's what makes this industry, which is so backwards in so many ways. This is not an advanced industry in a lot of ways, but the people who fuel this industry have the potential to put it where it needs to be and they want to.

Brian Crum: 23:34

Yeah, and it's truly like you're saying they want to. It's passion, it's drive, it is who they are in their core, and I think that's why so many people that are in the field do so well with it is because it truly resonates with the core of who they are right. So was there anything that that's really good to know, that you know yourself very well And I think a lot of us could definitely benefit from knowing ourselves better It helps us to write your own company.

Brian Crum: 24:07

Yeah Yeah, i'm entrepreneurial myself, so I know that when I started finally jumping into that and leaning into it really hard, that's when I started realizing just how smart everybody else was And so I needed to become more like them, right, and I needed to understand the mindset of kind of who I was and how I should operate, versus just you know, like you're saying, sell more merchandise or something. It's not about that, it's about the connections.

Cathy Hotka: 24:36

Well, and you know, i've been privileged to know some very smart people in my lifetime And I'll include in to those people some of the really fascinating pioneers of retail a guy like Randy Mott, who created the modern IT shop at Walmart, ron Griffin, who created the modern retail shop at Home Depot.

Brian Crum: 24:59

Steve.

Cathy Hotka: 24:59

Stainwood Lowes pioneers, who you know. There wasn't technology before. When I was growing up, there was nothing, so these guys had to do it from scratch, and one of the ways that they did it from scratch was to communicate with one another. They went to Society of Information Management meetings, you know they have city chapters and they learn from one another. They talk to each other. We created some industry bodies, like VIX that got people together to come up with a standard hanger, but also some you know learnings around RFID.

Cathy Hotka: 25:35

You know the industry helps itself when people communicate and you know, communicate what the problems are and work together to find solutions, and they can.

Brian Crum: 25:44

Okay, so you mentioned something really cool about the hanger there. So when you look back at several of the accomplishments that you have contributed to or been the main driver on, tell somebody what's and this is not in our notes, so I apologize for right hooking you with this one but what would you say is one of your proudest accomplishments in developing a solution for something, or what might people I'm going to add a caveat to that one of what might people not have expected. You were the one who did that right, and so what might surprise our listeners? that you were it.

Cathy Hotka: 26:26

I'm going to give myself some credit for growing the NRF show, because when it was 3,000 people in the basement of the Hilton, it was because nobody knew each other. Now it comes so they can see one another. But I think my accomplishment is creating the expectation that there will be networking opportunities. So you know, dinners around the NRF show, cocktail parties around the NRF show, the retail insiders party, all of these different councils that have sprung up. There are councils everywhere now And it's done a lot to advance the industry. The people who have done the truly amazing things like bringing item level RFID into Macy's are doing the same thing I'm doing with being a single person consultant and go out and share that knowledge with other people. It's fabulous And I'm not sure it would have been there before had it not been for the CIO council.

Brian Crum: 27:28

That's really cool. That's awesome to hear, because I think of anything that's a great legacy to be building and developing and to one day leave behind, of just connecting others and helping make sure that the industry as a whole not trying to fluff it up any, but to say it's truly better sounds like it's truly better because of you, and that's pretty awesome to see And I say that because that's a reality Whenever you are able to introduce the concept that has got so many people have latched on to, and then suddenly, like you said, you haven't created all those committees, but what you started was the catalyst for creating those committees, and so then you empowered people to think, oh, i can do this for myself, oh, i can do this for my core, my group, my industry, my segment, my niche, whatever that is. That's a really cool thing to have changed an entire mindset about NRF and kind of the way that they used to operate versus the way they're operating now. So that's incredible.

Cathy Hotka: 28:41

You know, and you do it every day too. So your retail wire brings together a bunch of very smart people who can comment on the news of the day before you know. the populace gets a chance to comment And they'll be very open. They'll say I agree with you totally, bob, you nailed that. Or they'll say that's a bunch of hogwash.

Brian Crum: 29:03

Yeah, i've seen it happen a couple of times.

Cathy Hotka: 29:05

Yeah, Your approach is completely wrong. It should be this way. It's a really good way to get that dialogue going and get things moving.

Brian Crum: 29:15

Yeah, now it's funny because you're right. I think you know, the group that we have is so brilliant. They just the insights. And I love the fact that we don't have a whole bunch of yes men or yes women that just go along with the flow because they're truly passionate about what they're doing. And it goes back to your point that people in retail are passionate but also, you know, they're not going to.

Brian Crum: 29:41

I don't think it benefits anybody to just go along with the flow, right, it doesn't benefit anybody to just go. Oh well, they think that I disagree, but I'm not going to rock the boat, you know, and it's knowing when to rock the boat as well, that's a very important part. But you're right, i've seen it several times, even just in the short time I've been with retail wire of you know, there's been some very agreeable moments. Everybody jumps on board, we're all swimming in the same direction, but then suddenly there's another discussion where it's like you know, i think this, and someone will come in from the other direction and go oh, come on, you can't be serious right now. Like, why would you think that, when this is obviously the case?

Brian Crum: 30:21

And everybody respects everybody else 100%, you can have that disagreement and you're still conversing really well. The next time around.

Cathy Hotka: 30:29

We know each other, We like each other. There's a great amount of respect there And, you know, different people are coming from different spaces. Some of these people truly are innovators who've got really impressive track records behind them. But you know, at the end of the day, the industry is being changed daily. Yeah it's being assaulted by all kinds of new things And it's important to get that stuff out there and talk about it and not pretend that everything's great. Sometimes things are not great and we need to work on it.

Brian Crum: 31:01

Yeah. So if someone is hoping to, if somebody's hearing this episode now and they go, hey, i want to kind of follow in Cathy's shoes, your footsteps. You know I want to. I want to come alongside you or I want to better understand my own career and my own path. Is there something that you would say either you know skills or anything that they should be developing or lessons that they need to learn, or is there a way that they can approach their career to get better? What would be some recommendations you would have for someone just coming into the retail industry or just getting established?

Cathy Hotka: 31:38

So I'm happy to talk to anybody. If you'd like to get some advice, i'm happy to share. Just Google Hotcut and you'll find me. I think one thing people ought to do is take a good personality test. Okay, there's a woman named Sally Hogshead who has a website called How to Fascinate. Her thing is that she thinks people are at their most valuable when they are their true, authentic self. So what is your true, authentic self? It's the best 60 bucks you'll spend.

Brian Crum: 32:09

Okay, all right.

Cathy Hotka: 32:11

She got me, she nailed my son, she nailed my daughter. I think if people are thinking they want to increase their impact on the industry, find out what your strengths really are and then play to those.

Brian Crum: 32:25

Okay, okay, and I think that's really great, because, you know, far too often we think we need to be well rounded or something like that, and so then we tend to overlook what we are really best at, because we think, oh well, if I'm excellent at that, i probably should bring this other thing up over here. That's not always the case. You know, you should be well rounded, you should be experienced, but also do what you're really passionate about.

Cathy Hotka: 32:51

Right, do what you do. Nobody can do it better than you can.

Brian Crum: 32:54

I'll make sure and I'll throw a link to that, and I'll throw a link to your website and your LinkedIn as well down in the show description here, and so I would imagine it's okay for people to reach out to you on LinkedIn Absolutely Awesome. And do Cathy a favor, though If you do reach out to her on LinkedIn because of this, make sure and send her a note and say hey, i heard you on the Retailwire podcast. Let her know you're a real person and not just someone trying to generate, you know, 87 new leads. You know, because I can do this and this is, you know, don't do that, don't sales pitch her the very first thing. But, yeah, just let her know. Whenever you send her a connection request, let her know that you heard about her here on the podcast, so that way she'll know you're a real person. You listened and you actually understood what she was talking about.

Brian Crum: 33:41

So if you could go back let's kind of wrap it up here And this is the one thing I love asking everybody, because everyone has their own answer, their own unique approach on this But if you could go back to the beginning of, kind of just when you transition out of, you know, the Petroleum Institute and kind of really just started falling in love with the retail side. Is there a piece of advice you would give yourself as you got going, that you know would you do something differently? Would you do something faster, slower, better, worse? What would you say to yourself if you could go back to the beginning of your retail career?

Cathy Hotka: 34:20

Ask more questions. Ask people what the most interesting thing that ever happened to them is. Ask people what lesson they learn that they carry around every day. Don't assume you know it all, because you don't And the cool thing is that people in retail are generous. They'll tell you. So if you ask somebody in retail what's the best retail lesson you ever learned, you're about to hear it yourself because they'll share it. Wow, and that shortcuts all kinds of knowledge.

Brian Crum: 34:54

That's really good. I think just asking more questions is something that a lot of us can do, not only in retail, but also just in general in life, because that's how we learn, that's how we're going to grow. I know there's a lot of We're in a hot button society right now. Right There seems like there's a new reason to be angry every single day, or every hour some days. So asking more questions brings understanding, which means that you're creating a relationship instead of breaking it down. I think that's really really great advice, Cathy.

Cathy Hotka: 35:28

Love the industry.

Brian Crum: 35:30

Oh, yeah Well, thank you so much for making time with me here today. I know if people want to reach out to you they can do that. I would really encourage you to reach out to Cathy. She's a wealth of knowledge, And the same thing goes for all of our Brain Trust members here at RetailWire. She mentioned we've got some brilliant minds on here and they're willing to share their knowledge. They're willing to share their input and their advice and their experience. So reach out to them, Don't be a stranger. But yeah, be sure. And Oh, you want to say something?

Cathy Hotka: 36:01

Yeah, just one more. My claim to fame is that I know a million people, so if I can introduce you to anyone, let me know.

Brian Crum: 36:08

Okay, all right, sounds good. We'll have to talk after. So is there anything really quick before I jump off? Is there anything on your horizon that you're just really looking forward to next? What's next for you?

Cathy Hotka: 36:21

Yeah, yeah, the Store Operations Council October 12 and 13, washington DC. sit in the room not only with the coolest store operators around, but also the companies that are creating the future for store operations.

Brian Crum: 36:34

So cool.

Cathy Hotka: 36:35

Registrations free for retailers. Come join us.

Brian Crum: 36:38

Okay, let's check that out. We'll put a link down there in the description, i mean, so we'll get that there. But thanks again, and be sure, if you haven't hit that subscribe button, you're going to want to do that, because we've got more great content, like Cathy coming up here, interviews with people and talking about different subjects topics all of it related to the retail industry. So be sure, and come back here on the Retail Wire Podcast. We'll see you on the next episode.

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