Two Minute Tweaks w/ Lisa Uhrik

We're exploring two principles of signage in our bookstores. In this first episode of two, we're editing the signs by reducing the quantity and helping people keep their focus on browsing and learning, rather than discarding and deciding. Join us on this journey of constant adaptation and discovery – where retail rules are bent and a whole new world of connection and creativity awaits!

Rather than measuring retention, here is an offering of four questions that may better define staff success today. We're building on our understanding of the sansdemic (without enough people) and how that has shifted so many things about our work with others. 

Today's episode provides insights into an effective and simple method of analyzing your store's visitor journey using a low-tech heat map. Join host Lisa Uhrik in the latest episode of the 'Two Minute Tweak,' where she explores this idea and her thoughts about "putting the milk in the back of the store." 

What would happen if we looked at our bookshops like a publisher looks at a book? Take a mental walk through the store with me and let's consider how the things that we know so well about the best books can help us in crafting the best bookstores. 

Many of us lament our lack of display space in our book spaces. We know that when we elevate something and make it special it moves quickly into the hands of a happy customer.

But what if we thought about this differently? What could happen if we think of our shelves as fixtures -- a kind of extended staff member -- and we consider it ALL as display?  

We're exploring a book club pick that is making a difference in the way we approach relationships: David Brooks' How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. It's a small and subtle shift that can make a big difference in your store. Click now to listen to this timely tweak.

In this season when stores are packed with people and stacked to the rafters with books and gifts, Lisa talks about creating stable displays -- and reveals her own mishaps with displays. Click below to listen to this timely tweak.

Re-telling a Ken Blanchard classic about Butter Cups, Lisa reminds us in this busy season that it's easy to miss the mark with our focus.

Today we're thinking about how our little actions at the point of sale mean so much -- for better and worse. Instead of alerting the store to the total someone just spent on books, we're finding some more discrete ways to thank them for shopping with us.

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday season, Lisa has been thinking about core ways we can maximize holiday connections and sales. Her thoughts and inquiries with others resulted in a couple of "holiday hints" that are powerful fundamentals. 

In preparation for a workshop at MPIBA this week, I invited folks to send me a picture of their most tired, frustratingly stagnant or just uninspiring display in hopes of working together to make it better. Here are two things that we saw consistently ... click to listen.

We're bending a marketing term to help us connect with our customers and friends in our bookshops. In marketing, personas are fictional characters you create based on research, representing your customers. Here, we're using your passions to build a persona around yourself or your booksellers to connect with customers and come at things from a different angle. 

Whether you're a solo bookseller or part of a larger staff, keeping the various parts of our bookselling world connected is a challenge. It's like we have one head space for social media and another for events, and still another for curation and display sometimes. When it comes together it feels nice -- we all have experienced that -- so how do we make that happen every day? 

In this episode, we're exploring a single thought about reverse-engineering your payroll to find your store income objectives... figuring out what you need and then collectively working to achieve that so that everyone can get paid equitably. It's a sort of mind flip that has worked for some -- could it make a difference for you?

What we do matters. Let's talk about how and why.

In today's tweak, we're pondering the power in talking about the profession of bookselling with staff and customers. We're framing what we do as a social science/art/business competency set and lingering on nuggets of wisdom from experts. Click to listen now!

In this episode we're following up on the art of hiring when flexibility, fun and feeling good is today's currency. Bookshops have a special advantage -- click to listen now as we talk about leveraging that advantage in ways that work for everyone and move the mission forward.