Vicki Cantrell on the VIP Awards

[00:00:00] Jeff Roster: Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to another edition of This Week in Innovation. Today we're continuing our series, Run Up to NRF 2024. Yep, it's that time already. Um, last week we talked about what I think is probably really one of the great get togethers at NRF, that's Retail Orphanage Super Saturday.

[00:00:19] Jeff Roster: And today I want to talk about Um, another really one of the four big events, I think that, uh, that every startup should, should take a peek at it's the VIP awards. And the founder of that is Vicky Cantrell and Vicky, um, love to have you come and tell us about what, what, what you're doing at VIP awards and, and how, uh, the startup community could take advantage of that.

[00:00:38] Vicki Cantrell: Hi Jeff.

[00:00:39] Vicki Cantrell: It's great to see you.

[00:00:41] Jeff Roster: Yes, we've, uh, we've worked together for, well, I don't know, a bunch of years, actually. Probably, probably better not talk about that. But, uh, I think, I think what we can say is we, between you and I, we have a lot of experience about how to really run, run a really, really good NRF from a, from a vendor perspective.

[00:00:58] Jeff Roster: And so I really want to talk [00:01:00] to you today a little bit about, uh, How vendors can really take better advantage of NRF. But I definitely want to talk to you about what I think is really one of the great parties at NRF. And that's, that's, that's your creation. That's your, your, your baby, the, the VIP awards.

[00:01:12] Jeff Roster: So why don't you introduce us, uh, assuming anybody doesn't know, uh, who you are and some of the startups, uh, they're kind of new to the industry. So go ahead and introduce yourself a little bit and then let's talk about, uh, this amazing thing that you've created.

[00:01:26] Vicki Cantrell: Okay. Um, hi everyone. Uh, I'm thrilled to be here and always happy to talk about this, uh, because I've been in retail for my entire career and what I've been so fortunate to have is that I've been on all sides.

[00:01:43] Vicki Cantrell: I've been, um, a startup. I've been, uh, worked for a big enterprise, um, Solution providers. I have been an executive in many retail companies, um, and on lots of councils, and I was fortunate enough to work for the N. R. [00:02:00] F. Uh, for five years. So looking across all of the communities, I was responsible for those.

[00:02:06] Vicki Cantrell: for those communities and community building and getting people to work together is kind of what I have a passion about. So what I've done here is created when I created vendors and partnership, it was really, and the VIP awards, vendors and partnership awards, it's really to change the way that retailers and Partners, vendors do business together.

[00:02:33] Vicki Cantrell: I still, we still have that kind of buyer seller mentality and I've seen so many great examples of partnership where all boats rise. So I, I want, there's that about really being able to celebrate great ways to do business and partnerships, but also there's no rewards. There's no awards. For the vendor community in the retail industry, [00:03:00] that ecosystem that supports.

[00:03:02] Vicki Cantrell: Everything we do and having worked for some of them, there's a ton of value there that is just not being let out. So I'm trying to push a very big rock uphill, tell vendors to do business differently and tell retailers to do, to approach partnerships differently, but that's how we created the VIP Award.

[00:03:22] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. You

[00:03:23] Jeff Roster: know, Vicki, it's really funny. Um, back at my time at, uh, my former employer, uh, Gartner, I was on the vendor side of the retail sector, um, analyst community and what I say here, um, always amazed me that how some of my colleagues had such a negative view of the vendor community. Um, almost by design and it just, I was on so many briefings where they were so aggressive and, uh, I don't know if it was in the water that we all drank.

[00:03:56] Jeff Roster: Um, but you know, almost like I want to stop the vendor from [00:04:00]talking and cause I'm an analyst. I want to, instead of just like sitting back, relaxing, let, let somebody give a briefing and then go on from there. And I think that's. You know, so that's always been my analyst experience and I think it's somewhat to the same on the retail vendor side of, of does it have to be a super aggressive and super cantankerous?

[00:04:18] Jeff Roster: And that's what I think I've, I really like about what you're doing is the idea that, um, you know, I mean, there's always a give and a take, but, uh, does it have to be that way? And it's, it's a really interesting event that you've put together.

[00:04:32] Vicki Cantrell: It's, um, look, you know, I, and I'm seeing the results. Okay. Even especially last year.

[00:04:40] Vicki Cantrell: So we launched in 2020, January of 2020, which was an interesting launch.

[00:04:45] Jeff Roster: I was there. I was there.

[00:04:47] Vicki Cantrell: Right. And, uh, We launched then, but I have seen this past year, this past January at the end of the night, I really went, people are really starting to [00:05:00] get it. Okay. They understand. And part of it was the pandemic and part of it was.

[00:05:05] Vicki Cantrell: The work we've done, but also the success that has been realized and the way that partners, vendors are partnering with each other. I mean, really the name of the game is you can't do this by yourself. And so all of these factors together are helping this mentality of let's approach this together. Let's figure out how we each put skin in the game.

[00:05:29] Vicki Cantrell: And most important. Both parties have to be transparent with each other. You know, there's always that retailer holds back the information for all the things you just pointed out about how people feel about vendors. Like you don't want to give them too much, but there's, you know, my whole theme here is empathy.

[00:05:48] Vicki Cantrell: And if you understood what's on the other side and what the other person is dealing with, you would have so much more respect for each other and a [00:06:00] much more fruitful partnership. The retailers have to understand how The chain of events happens for vendors and how they can support the retailer the best way.

[00:06:10] Vicki Cantrell: And the vendors have to really understand, not the, just the, you know, the sound bites. They have to understand what they're dealing with at a deeper level. Whether it be internal or the external customer. And empathy goes a long, long way in figuring out who is going to be beside you when the, you know what, hits the fan.

[00:06:33] Jeff Roster: Sounds good. Let's talk about the event itself. Um, okay, so we're, we're an audio only podcast. Well, we're an audio first podcast, but, um, as many of us are now, we're all starting to move more and more into video. So there's actually a bunch of slides. Um, the, for the, for the audio listeners, I'll go ahead and put those in the show notes.

[00:06:53] Jeff Roster: There'll be in a blog that'll be attached to the, uh, to the, the, um, the audio podcast. And, uh, this one might be kind of fun to, [00:07:00] to pop over on, on YouTube and take a look at it. Um, any, any way you get, we're gonna get the information out.

[00:07:05] Vicki Cantrell: Great. Um, let's, uh, move past this. Well, it's talks about what are the VIP awards and I think we just covered that pretty well, uh, it's for both of them.

[00:07:15] Vicki Cantrell: And, uh, we can, you know, move forward and talk about, uh, the vision and the mission. And again, uh, we did touch on that, but it's really important to celebrate Have the solution provider community for all that they do. And it's not, and it's also the service provider community, the analysts, anyone who supports the retail ecosystem.

[00:07:39] Vicki Cantrell: And so our mission is to change the way people do business. Okay. And you'll see that we have a lot of, of ways to kind of push that forward. So let's Let's go forward because I think, um, what's important here is our differentiator. So, not only are we the [00:08:00] only solution provider awards, there's really two types of award.

[00:08:04] Vicki Cantrell: One is a way, uh, the solution award. So this is where you're able to highlight and have a new way to talk about who you are and what you do and what you bring to the market. So there's whatever, whether it's a best distribution or best retail voice. or uh, best, you know, payment solution. You can talk about what you do for this market.

[00:08:28] Vicki Cantrell: Uh, but the real thing that speaks to the ethos of the VIP awards are the partnership awards, that category, because those are the, those are the awards that regardless of your solution, you are celebrating how you do business. What's your, how you come to the market, how you operate like a great citizen and you're philanthropically minded and your employees love you and your, your customers love you.

[00:08:57] Vicki Cantrell: And so the partnership awards are partner of the [00:09:00] year, um, best kept secret. Best longstanding partnership. So regardless of what you bring to the market, uh, this is an award that you can apply for or nominate for, be nominated for that really talks about how you do business. And you should take, these are tough to get and rightfully so, but you should be super proud if you are able to

[00:09:23] Jeff Roster: win those awards.

[00:09:24] Jeff Roster: Yeah. You know, Vicki, right. It's really interesting. So I'm, uh, part of a couple of companies that submitted for, uh, or, or part of this whole process and the process of filling out that, that, uh, form and answering all those questions was, was quite, was quite insightful because some of those questions that should have been really.

[00:09:44] Jeff Roster: Almost like, Oh, boom, kind of had to think through and like, okay, what does this mean? And, you know, it forced, it's forcing the vendor community to sort of maybe think a little differently. I mean, I think intuitively and obviously because they, um, actually both those, those [00:10:00] companies ended up winning. Um, they're doing it right, but just somehow thinking.

[00:10:03] Jeff Roster: And I found that a lot, like, Asking vendors for, for a vendor brief. When, um, I ask questions like, you know, what's your mission? What's your, you know, all these various things that I've literally, it's the same, it's literally the same form I've used for 20 years. It's amazing to hear the gears kind of grind sometimes that, um, you don't.

[00:10:21] Jeff Roster: Vendors don't always have that way of sort of looking from the outside, then looking back in. And, um, you know, it's kind of the job of an analyst and I think, I think that's what's really interesting. The, the questions that you're asking and how, how they have to approach it, how they have to fill out, um, that fairly, fairly complex, uh, survey instrument to, to sort of, uh, um.

[00:10:44] Jeff Roster: To qualify. It's really, really interesting. I haven't seen anything like this ever and, uh, it's, it's interesting to watch vendors sort of process through that. And I think it's also really good that that retailers begin to understand a little bit of, um, you know, because I think you asked, you talked to some of the retail partners and [00:11:00] they, they get a sense of what it's like to, you know, have to go through it sort of, you know, wrestle with some of these things.

[00:11:05] Jeff Roster: It's, it's, it's a really fun, interesting process. Yeah,

[00:11:08] Vicki Cantrell: there's a, let me say a couple of things about that because someone actually wrote to me after they went through the process. Um, and you know, I, I don't want to, uh, dissuade people from, from applying because yeah, the partner of the year that requires some real thought and, and some work generally though, when you're applying for solution awards.

[00:11:32] Vicki Cantrell: It's, it's not a heavy lift because it's a lot of things that you've already thought of and how do I talk about myself and how do I explain why I should win this award, etc. Um, so there's a lot of times that it's. It's not too difficult to apply, but you got to put the work in for partner of the year.

[00:11:52] Vicki Cantrell: But one of the interesting things was after, uh, someone had submitted for that, they wrote to me and said, I just want to [00:12:00] let you know, and thank you for this process because it was the first time that our team really got to stop for a minute. And see just how much we've accomplished. And, you know, we're all running a million miles a minute.

[00:12:16] Vicki Cantrell: Okay. Both retailers and vendors. And we don't have time sometimes to stop and say, look at what we've done. Look at what we've accomplished. So I'm thrilled that that's what they got out of that. It was, you know, a great result.

[00:12:31] Jeff Roster: Fantastic.

[00:12:34] Vicki Cantrell: The other thing that I wanted to talk about is You know, you mentioned the retailers too, and there's a couple of aspects about that. I think let's go to the next slide and I can kind of talk about that also. So the fact that we're celebrating partnerships, uh, this is principally vendor awards, but really the ethos is the partnerships.[00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Vicki Cantrell: So there's a couple of things that I find that have kind of evolved over the, over the few years that we've been doing this. Number one, we realized that it's not just while we're celebrating vendors and we want them to demonstrate their partnership, the retailers have to demonstrate their partnership also.

[00:13:19] Vicki Cantrell: So we came up with an award that is Uh, and my, my good friend Rob Garth helped me with this and we were talking about it. Okay. And so he said, you know, there are retailers out there and I was one of them because this is how I approached all of the vendors I selected when I was a retail executive is that there are retailers out there who get this.

[00:13:45] Vicki Cantrell: And understand that the only way to do business is in with this partnership mentality. And how do we celebrate them? So we created one award for a retail executive who in fact demonstrates partnership, [00:14:00] teaches their teams. To approach the relationship this way, you know, promotes transparency and partnership.

[00:14:08] Vicki Cantrell: And so the retailers have become very involved in this over the years because they want a better experience with their vendors. There's several things that you can do. So vendors can nominate your own company. Uh, anyone in the industry, retailer or vendor can recommend a retail executive for the retail partner of the year.

[00:14:32] Vicki Cantrell: Uh, anyone, retailer or vendor can recommend another vendor. And we had a ton of retailers. recommending their partners last year and we reach out and talk to the vendors and say, Hey, you've been recommended and it's a, it's a big deal. And they wanted to sit with them, the event. And it was really great to see that that is kind of.[00:15:00]

[00:15:00] Vicki Cantrell: You know, becoming, um, a really important aspect of this, the retailers saluting the vendors that are doing it right. Um, another way to get involved is sponsorship opportunities because by being a sponsor at this event, you are saying, this is how we do business. This is what we support. This is how we operate.

[00:15:21] Vicki Cantrell: And so you're talking about your partnership values. And then another way to get involved is I'm going to tell you to buy tickets or tables early because ticket sales, even though we're still in nominations, ticket sales are open because we are definitely going to sell out. So I will tell you that if you want to be in the room, which we'll talk about and what that's like, that you'll, you'll need to do something about that sooner rather than later.

[00:15:49] Vicki Cantrell: So, you know, you might think, okay, what does this do for me? Well, first of all, it's a very special event, [00:16:00] and Jeff and I will talk about that in a minute. Why it feels different than anything else you're going to do in the week that you are in New York

[00:16:08] Jeff Roster: participating with NRAP. Mostly because you're not exhausted, to start with.

[00:16:14] Jeff Roster: The first one out of the cannon. So you're going in there. It's you're fresh. The suit is still, you know, still clean. The ties, you know, you know, phenomenal. So from a vendor perspective, uh, being, being the first up is that's not, that's not a bad place to be for sure. Um,

[00:16:30] Vicki Canrell: I have to say Jeff, you are a hundred percent right.

[00:16:33] Vicki Canrell: Because look, the vendors are about to go through. The most grueling, yes, for the attendees, but really for the vendors, they're the ones that power the industry. This is their show. This is hard. Look, I was a vendor that did the show. It's hard. It's going to be a hard few days. Okay. And this is your night.

[00:16:56] Vicki Canrell: This is your celebration. This is your time to have [00:17:00] fun. And you are right. You are not exhausted. And there is nothing else competing that night, which you'll see that you have lots of stuff to do in the other nights. and lots of, you know, demands on your time. And so this is a really special night. But if you want to get involved, just to give you an idea of kind of the reach and the impact that, that has had, we track, um, so, so with a nomination, obviously you get a ticket to the event.

[00:17:30] Vicki Canrell: But you also get assets and if you, if you're lucky enough to be a finalist and you get assets to be able to speak about your nomination and post that to the world. And then if you are lucky enough to become a finalist, you get additional assets that we post and you post and customers post. And you really start to see, Oh my gosh, I'm a finalist for this important award.

[00:17:57] Vicki Canrell: And people are talking about [00:18:00] it. We do public voting. We have an amazing panel of judges that is growing because our, our entries are growing. Um, and they're industry luminaries and they really care about this. Um, and then the actual evening we've, I put some stats up here from past years, just so you can see that, you know, how much activity, and I'm not going to go back and change the word Twitter to X for what happened in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

[00:18:36] Jeff Roster: That's going to be, I'm a Twitter person. I'm not. I

[00:18:39] Vicki Cantrell: know. But anyway, it's, um, it's a lot of fun and you get a lot of, uh, important recognition and exposure that you may not have gotten. Uh, and you're talking about yourself in a different way with new opportunities. So I wanted to [00:19:00] make sure that

[00:19:00] Jeff Roster: yeah. And Vicki, I think it's again, I think that's really important for vendors and definitely the startup community.

[00:19:07] Jeff Roster: You get a chance to get a lot of that content in the Twitter stream on Friday night, two days, but really before the show starts. I mean, and then we kick right into Super Saturday the next day and, and we are all gonna be hammering that away. So, um, you basically can, can put your content and get, get, you know, your footprint sort of out a, a good two, uh, two, uh, full days before N R F and, you know, I mean these, these numbers are.

[00:19:32] Jeff Roster: I would say almost, Oh, that's crazy. Except, you know, I just see the, I just see the impact on some of my tweets on, you know, on, on X slash Twitter. Um, it's nuts now. I don't, you know, I mean, those are impressions. So is that somebody reading it or somebody, you know, driving by whatever, it doesn't matter still, those are massively large numbers.

[00:19:50] Jeff Roster: And this is really important for the startup community to understand. You don't win NRF. Um, Sunday morning or, or Monday afternoon, you [00:20:00] win NRF in September and October and November and, and December. And you definitely, you definitely want to get your foot going a good couple of days. So I just think, I just think the timing of this is just so phenomenal.

[00:20:11] Jeff Roster: It's just perfect. It's, it's the right event. I mean, if I'm going to wear a coat and tie and I don't know if you have to, but I, I typically do. Um, some folks dress up, some folks are still business casual. It's a, it's definitely, you know, it's definitely probably one of my, Well, one of my top four favorite parties.

[00:20:26] Jeff Roster: I'll, I'll, I'll leave it at that. Or get our celebrations. I don't know. Party. I say party, but I mean, part, uh, business event, what, you know, whatever the, whatever the right term is.

[00:20:35] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. Well, let's, let's actually talk about the event. Okay. Because people are going to want to know, yeah, but what's it like and who is there and, and those types of things.

[00:20:46] Vicki Cantrell: And, um, we can move on to the next slide and let's talk about that. So I mentioned a few of these things. So that is an actual picture of this past [00:21:00] January's event. And you know, when I say that the main event has camaraderie, inspiration, celebration, and fun, that is pretty much it. Okay. This is called a Relationship event.

[00:21:16] Vicki Cantrell: That's what this is. This is not a selling event. If you happen to be a solution provider and you happen to be interested in sponsorships and you call us and say, okay, I'm interested in getting involved. And one of your questions is how many retailers are in the room? I'm going to tell you that this is not the event for you.

[00:21:39] Vicki Cantrell: Because the approach is incorrect for what this event is. You have four days to go and sell. This is to make new friends, celebrate yourselves, celebrate everything you've done for the industry and for each other. Make new friends and have [00:22:00] fun and talk and relax. And it's great. I, I have comments from many people on both sides of the room of the, of the aisle of the vendor community and the retailer community that say, I love this event.

[00:22:16] Vicki Cantrell: It's not about the hunter and the hunted. There are no name badges. It's about people who you get to see for the first time in many months, and during the pandemic, after the pandemic, it was in many years. We give you lots of time for networking between the awards. And when I talk about inspiration, believe me, we have one speaker in the evening and whatever it is, I can guarantee you it will blow your socks off.

[00:22:46] Vicki Cantrell: It is an inspirational, uh, talk that really hones in about how in your life. Relationships are going to be [00:23:00] what guides your life, whether it's business or pleasure or personal. And we've had some great ones. Um, so you're always going to walk out with some amazing inspiration.

[00:23:11] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that's becoming quite a, quite a, quite a venue for that.

[00:23:15] Jeff Roster: I mean, uh, you know, Finnegan last year was, was just off the charts. I'm, I'm not sure how you're topping him, but I'll, I'll be very interested to see if you've got some executive that's done a worldwide whirlwind tour.

[00:23:27] Vicki Cantrell: I have somebody in

[00:23:28] Jeff Roster: mind. Okay. I mean, you're just keep raising that bar on that scenario.

[00:23:37] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. So anyway, Jeff, it's been, um, uh, this has been a heck of a journey for us and, and, you know, I appreciate you taking the time. couple of things that you said that's really important. Now is the time to be involved in NRF, um, because everyone is starting to ramp up and, and nominations are open right now for the VIP awards.

[00:23:57] Vicki Cantrell: So our cycle of [00:24:00] promoting yourself starts now. Every, we already have nominations in. We already have several, uh, recommendations for Retail Partner of the Year that came in this past week, uh, so, and, and nominations will close, I think, in the first week of October. So you have a few more weeks to get recommendations and nominations.

[00:24:22] Vicki Cantrell: Yeah. First week of October, potentially the second week of October, because then we need to go to public voting and judging and finalists. And so it's quite the process to get us to, to NRF, but the real work is being done now. And the real promotion and the real exposure is happening over the next couple of months.

[00:24:44] Vicki Cantrell: Um, so we're really excited. And right now I am in, We have been growing, as you know, and we are, we launched into London and Europe this year, and the VIP awards in London are September 26. If you happen to be in London, [00:25:00] please come to the event. We would love to see you there. So I'm in the final throes of London right now.

[00:25:08] Vicki Cantrell: Uh, getting ready for our, our big event there and in three weeks.

[00:25:13] Jeff Roster: So phenomenal. Well, um, as I said, I just think this is really just, just an amazing event. Um, highly recommend any startup or, or executive really, um. Check it out. I think it's a, there's a lot of really interesting aspects of it. Vicki, I do want to pick your brain a little bit for my startup community.

[00:25:33] Jeff Roster: Um, how, how do they make, how do they make a better presence at NRF? I mean, you've been, you're probably the only one of. You might be the only one of two executives that really have been vendor, retailer, and, and NRF. So you're probably the, probably the best person on the planet to ask these. How, what, what should a startup do if they want to really, you know, do a good job at NRF?

[00:25:57] Vicki Cantrell: It's a great, it's a great question. [00:26:00] Again, you, you know, I'm always gonna, regardless of NRF or anything else, this applies across the board. Uh, relationship first. Please. Look, it's hard. I look, I've invented something. I know what it's like to just, you, you feel so passionate about it. You just want people to be able to take advantage of it because you're proud of it.

[00:26:25] Vicki Cantrell: Okay. And so you just want to give information so badly because it's your baby. But honestly, there are two things first. You will not be able to legitimately talk about your solution if you don't make a connection with the person. So it's, it's relationship first. Please always remember that people buy from people.

[00:26:48] Vicki Cantrell: They do not buy from companies. They buy from somebody they connect with. So, relationship first. And the second thing that I always say is Oh [00:27:00] my gosh, you know, listen first, listen first, you know, I said from the stage last year, I said, if you find yourself this evening starting to get overexcited about your product or potentially feeling like you're selling, then you need to Say the word wait, and the word wait stands for why am I talking?

[00:27:28] Vicki Cantrell: So keep that that word wait in your head because if you listen To them, then, you know, your service or product so well, you will find places to connect what you do and the value you bring. You'll find places to insert that in a much more meaningful way. How to do NRF is aside from the floor. And understanding all of what's out there, you really need to [00:28:00] connect, do the pre work about connecting with people that are going to be there, the analyst community, the, um, uh, other retailers, other, you know, don't bombard the retailers, they are not paying https: otter.

[00:28:19] Vicki Cantrell: ai That most fortunately or unfortunately, most of the planning for schedules gets done near the end. Um, but if you establish great relationships ahead of the show, those people will want to see you and will recommend others to see you. Um, so anything you can do upfront, um, is, is really important.

[00:28:48] Jeff Roster: Yeah, that's, um, that's really good advice.

[00:28:51] Jeff Roster: And, uh, I continue to be surprised at, at the number of startups that, that are, are, are, are in retail, have, have legitimate solutions in [00:29:00] retail, but really have, have done a pretty weak job when it comes to, um, any of the social media engagement. Um, I'm a big fan of Twitter. I know now Some folks are back and forth and whatever.

[00:29:11] Jeff Roster: I, it is what it is. Um, I, I am telling you the conversations on, on technology, Twitter or X and retail X, Twitter slash Twitter is phenomenal. Um, I'd be careful about getting into the political stuff that, that's a, that's a bit of a dumpster fire, but, but for us on the tech and the vendor side, it's phenomenal.

[00:29:30] Jeff Roster: Um, and so. Uh, if you don't know which analysts are covering the show, I mean, you can assume pretty much any, any working analyst is going to be there. So you should be, you should be following them. I'm going to create a Twitter list, um, of all the influencers I know that are going to go there. Rethink Retail has published a list of, of the influencers.

[00:29:48] Jeff Roster: Follow every one of those. You should be following, I would think at minimum six to 700 people or 600 accounts. If you're, if you want to be active. In, in the retail, uh, sector [00:30:00] vendor community, it should probably be about 600. So if you're less than 600, there's some people you need to follow. And then, and then just pay attention and then just curate that, curate that, curate that.

[00:30:08] Jeff Roster: Pay attention to the, the, the Twitter streams and the hashtags. Um, and you know, dedicate a little bit of time, um, even throughout the show. Just maybe keep a little bit of an eye on it and just, and just, and just be, be aware of it. Um, and reach out. Um, the startup community, I think tends to be, ah, see, how do I say this politely?

[00:30:28] Jeff Roster: Um, a little bit, a little bit not great at, um, I, I think I, how about this? I think that the startup community does the hard things well, which is building something. And raising money and getting money to do it. And I think they do the easy things poorly. And that's basically reaching out. There's probably 30, 40, 50 analysts slash reporters that you need to pay attention to in retail.

[00:30:50] Jeff Roster: Probably less than that, actually. And so if you're not following every one of them, you're leaving a lot on the ground. And then, um, you know, certainly LinkedIn and, and... It's,[00:31:00] it's just not, it isn't, it isn't overwhelming. It's really not a lot of people that you should be paying attention to. And then, and then when you get to these events, sort of, you know, engage and, and, and whatnot.

[00:31:10] Jeff Roster: And that's the last question I want to ask you. Um, so the room is, is, is a phenomenal room and you walk in and there's, I don't know what. 200, 300 people, whatever.

[00:31:21] Vicki Canrell: Uh, no, this last year was 350, 350. Okay. So, and we, again, we want to keep it with the specialness that it has. Uh, we will grow a little bit this year for sure, but it will.

[00:31:38] Jeff Roster: Sell out. So, so you walk into the room and there's 350 people there. How, and Vicki, you're, you're, you're maybe one of the top five, six people I, I, that I watch and I see how, how you network. So what do you do? What do you, what do you tell somebody who's probably a bit of an introvert to begin with? How do you, what do you do when you walk into a room and there's 350 people?[00:32:00]

[00:32:01] Vicki Cantrell: I know and it's hard and not only that Talking in small groups. Okay, so there's just a couple of quick things. I would say about that. One is to your earlier point. Just. That you talked about right before we got onto this topic is the more you know and understand about kind of what people are doing and what people are talking about and the different products and retailers and what's happening with the animals are talking about.

[00:32:33] Vicki Cantrell: It's just knowledge so that when you actually will in fact meet these people, it'll click and you have something really valuable to talk about. You understand what they're saying because you've already going on. So it's really valuable to do that upfront work. Now, when you walk in a room, first of all, people are, forget to look for other people that look just like them.

[00:32:58] Vicki Cantrell: Meaning the ones that are [00:33:00] doing this.

[00:33:04] Jeff Roster: That's, that's a good tip. I hadn't really, I sort of do that, but I hadn't really phrased it quite like that. Like who else is, uh, who else is, uh, yeah, interesting. And then

[00:33:14] Vicki Cantrell: who else or who else is sitting, standing in a group and they're not really talking because they actually ended up at a group and, you know, want to start a conversation.

[00:33:26] Vicki Cantrell: Okay. And honestly, um, if you walk toward a group, you will know very quickly whether that group acknowledges you, they kind of sort of spread out a little bit and, and know that they will welcome you in. And if that, if they're in a heated conversation, they won't be able to do that. But if they aren't, you'll feel that and do that and, and then participate.

[00:33:52] Vicki Cantrell: So look, there, there are every combination of people in the room for, [00:34:00] for my event, people that know each other and are tight cliques and people that. are, are coming as single entries or just with two or three. And so we have all kinds of, of interesting, um, make ups. Okay. But I promise that you'll end up at a great table.

[00:34:19] Vicki Cantrell: We spend a lot. I spend a lot of time on. Who to, who that I know can be with who that would be fun and they'll have a good time and new people and how do they get kind of acclimated. So we do spend a fair amount of time on that. So

[00:34:35] Jeff Roster: just suck it up, walk in, um, be uncomfortable, uh, and just go forward and it's really get you ready for the whole week.

[00:34:44] Jeff Roster: Yeah. Vicki, uh, last question I have for you. Um, what skills do you use now that you wish you would have paid more attention to when you were back in college? For

[00:34:57] Vicki Cantrell: What skills do I use now? [00:35:00] Um, I would, you know,

[00:35:05] Vicki Cantrell: they may or may not have anything to do with this, but people that are passionate about things, I'm passionate about things and like pretty much everything. Okay. Anything that I talk about, I'm passionate about. And I've learned over time that if there's something that you think is going to be not right, or you think it's not the best thing for, for something, sometimes, You know, you don't have to be the person that is the naysayer all the time.

[00:35:33] Vicki Cantrell: If it's truly something that's not going to work, that's going to happen. It's going to be figured out organically, and then you don't have to be the person that was the naysayer, okay, during all of that time, because you know just from experience that it will work out the right way or the way that it's supposed to work out.

[00:35:57] Vicki Cantrell: So that's one thing that I [00:36:00] have learned and used. Okay. That there's, there's, when you're passionate about something and you think something is not going to, not the right thing or not going to work, don't stress about it. Okay. Don't necessarily stress about it. And the other thing that is, is I can't stress this enough.

[00:36:22] Vicki Cantrell: It's so important to listen first. It's so important to listen first. I mean, it sounds simple, but listen first. Yeah,

[00:36:33] Jeff Roster: you know that that's such a good point. I mean, they, the thing that I've always been taught is two ears, one mouth, use them in that order. And two, it kind of flashes back to my Gartner days, um, where, you know, you'd have to submit a question for the inquiry and all that sort of stuff.

[00:36:51] Jeff Roster: And, um, boy, I knew more colleagues that would sort of. Address the question that was quote submitted and I don't know. I mean, I just, I [00:37:00] never, I always never sat right with me. Cause I, I kind of wanted to get to understand a little bit what was going on. And you know what I found Vicky? About a hundred percent of the time, the question that was submitted was never the one they wanted answered.

[00:37:13] Jeff Roster: I,

[00:37:13] Vicki Cantrell: I will tell you a hundred percent.

[00:37:16] Jeff Roster: A hundred percent of the time. And it, you know, it was just whatever to, cause vendors sometimes, Oh, you want to make sure, you know, I get connected to the analyst and I've been turned down or, you know, whatever. And so they'd submit some generic thing, you know, what, what, you know, what time is the sunrise tomorrow or some, something silly to sort of get through the, whatever.

[00:37:35] Jeff Roster: And, uh, you know, you don't know that until you listen. So tell me what's going on in your company. Tell me what, you know, you know, interesting. So just get people talking, which means you got to listen. And know, you know, and just, and then be comfortable with, with an awkward, you know, silence every now and then.

[00:37:53] Vicki Canrell: Oh, that's honestly, that's a good one, Shiv. Be comfortable

[00:37:56] Jeff Roster: with that. It's hard. It's hard. Cause we want to fill that gap. You got [00:38:00] to, Oh, noise, noise, noise. No, I just take a, take a deep breath and think about it a little bit. Ask a question kind of like, huh, that's interesting. Let me think about that for a second.

[00:38:08] Jeff Roster: Cause it's when you

[00:38:08] Vicki Cantrell: said. Oh,

[00:38:10] Jeff Roster: sorry. No, I mean, it's, it just shows up authenticity and you're actually thinking as opposed to just spinning something up.

[00:38:18] Vicki Cantrell: Authenticity is the most important. And, and that actually talks to what you said. When you say, tell me what's going on in your company. I want to stress about that fine line that you better know about their company and understand them.

[00:38:37] Vicki Cantrell: Before you ever walk in a door or pick up a phone or start an email. Okay, period. That's different than saying Um, like tell, tell me what, like, you would never say, tell me what you do, tell me what your company does, but you want to understand how they think about their company. You know what their company does, but cause you did your research or [00:39:00] you shouldn't be sitting there, but it's, you know, tell me how, how you see your challenges.

[00:39:08] Vicki Cantrell: Okay. Tell me, because you want them, you want to hear their version of what their challenges are for their company, because that is much more authentic. I know you sell shoes and apparel. Okay. And, but what, what's your challenge with the customer? What's your challenge with the economy, those types of things.

[00:39:30] Vicki Cantrell: And you really need to be prepared.

[00:39:34] Jeff Roster: Yeah, no, great, great stuff. Um, uh, relationship game couldn't agree more, could not agree more. And I'm stunned at the number of times, number of vendor engagements I've been in where it's just immediately just launchable, you know, what do you cover? What do you know? What are you writing about?

[00:39:51] Jeff Roster: As opposed to saying, yeah, you know, and the counter to that Vicki is when you go with, when you do a vendor brief with, with, [00:40:00] the people that are on top of the game. The first, I mean, typically my NREF time is I book in, in, well, I book in about hour increments, but I also include the travel time, whatever.

[00:40:09] Jeff Roster: So it ends up being about 35, 40 minutes. Um, I can think of about 15 or 20 people, absolutely top of the game. Um, the first five or 10 minutes is. 100 percent asking about kids, um, you know, stuff, but honestly, I mean, not just, I'm not, I mean, cause they've done the work, they know they've built the relationships and so they know, and it's, you know, it's, you know, whether it's, you know, peewee soccer or, you know, like now, you know, kids are getting into college and so that's a whole different conversation.

[00:40:36] Jeff Roster: Take five minutes. It's, it's worth it every time. You can always spot, um, an analyst that's, that's maybe a little more green where they, they're nervous about that. I mean, you've got, you've got to give, you've got to take, it's a relationship business and it doesn't mean you're, you're, it doesn't mean you don't have to, you don't have to, you can't do the hard analysis.

[00:40:54] Jeff Roster: Um, but boy, don't never, never miss a chance to build a relationship. Great [00:41:00] stuff. Great stuff. Well, Vicki, thanks for everything. Good luck in, uh, in, um, the, uh, the, the old country, um, London. And, uh, I just, what, what, what, what a terrific time that would be. And then I guess the next time I'm going to see you will be a sunny New York city in

[00:41:18] Vicki Canrell: January.

[00:41:18] Vicki Canrell: I have a feeling that might be the next time we physically

[00:41:22] Jeff Roster: see each other. Physically see each other. We'll be on many, many planning calls in the next three or four months for sure. Many, many, yes. Well, congratulations on this amazing event. Um, if people haven't heard, I I'm, I'm a huge fan of it. I think it's phenomenal.

[00:41:36] Jeff Roster: Um, well worth investigating. Um, take a look, see, see what makes sense. And then, um, let's, let's all go have just an amazing, uh, retail 2024.

[00:41:47] Vicki Cantrell: Let's do it. Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate it. Okay. Bye..

[00:41:52] [00:42:00]

[00:42:15] ​