Episode 4: The People Behind the Perfect Transaction What creates the perfect running-store transaction—and how do you build a team capable of delivering it when the owner isn’t in the room? Greg Koch and Mark Jimenez work backward from the ideal customer experience to examine the hiring, training, accountability, and culture behind it. Mark shares how Red Rock Running Company developed a dedicated training role, why its fit process includes nonnegotiable steps, and how treating retail employment like a career has helped the company carry its vision across four locations. The conversation also explores why great salespeople do not always become great managers, the importance of addressing small problems before they become cultural norms, and the difference between hiring runners and hiring people who can genuinely serve customers. Greg shares the challenges of staffing two stores in Sioux Falls’ competitive labor market and the work required to turn a young team into capable professionals. Because customers can purchase running shoes almost anywhere. The people inside an independent running store—and the experience they create—are what make it matter.
Run Specialty Cooperative Podcast
Episode 4 | The People Behind the Perfect Transaction
HOSTS Greg Koch and Mark Jimenez LENGTH 42:57
Lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the substance and conversational character of the recording.
Greg 00:01 Hello and welcome. You are listening to the Run Specialty Cooperative Podcast with your host, Mark Jimenez and Greg Koch. It's another week. We're getting consistent here, Mark.
Mark 00:15 I am so impressed with us. This is our third scheduled appointment in a row that we have made the time to be here for. So we're like training for a race or something.
Greg 00:27 Yeah, consistency is key. I think I read that somewhere. It might be. Yeah. So we're rocking and rolling. Our last episode got a lot of positive feedback from other owners and stuff, talking about running clubs and activities. So, you know, thanks for sharing your wisdom and your knowledge on those things. I think it was very well received. We'll definitely want to revisit that down the road. I have plans to do that where maybe we bring on like someone from a brand to talk about the club experience. But that's not today.
Mark 00:58 Or they could just come listen to our talks at The Running Event, which apparently we both are speaking at.
Greg 01:03 That's true. That's true. Yes. I mean, separate sessions, but at the same time. Really? Are we at the same time? Probably. But no, that'll be fun. The Running Event is coming up. For those that don't know, The Running Event is a it's a huge industry event for running stores specifically. And lots of other people that kind of live within the running industry sales and marketing and executives that are in this field and influencers show up there a lot. But it's where you see a lot of new product get launched and lots of exciting ideas and information coming out. And what's your what's your take on The Running Event, Mark? Give me your elevator pitch on The Running Event.
Mark 01:44 Oh, man, I feel like it's grown beyond just run-specialty stores. Now there's there's so many people, influencers, everything running related. Gosh, it's just it's it's overwhelming with activities and brain space. But it's great, you know, it's great to go chat with other store owners. I always enjoy the education sessions. I feel like I learn a lot. And then of course, the trade show is lots of fun to see the newest and greatest things. And some of us, you know, walk around and try to see if there's any disruptors we can identify early. I know KJ and Greg had some good finds last year. But yeah, it's, you know, it's a lot of fun.
Greg 02:40 Yeah, it's it's definitely not for introverts. It makes it hard for me. Yeah, it's difficult if you struggle in social settings, because there's an event or an activity going on, basically nonstop. But I agree with you, the education day. So there's a day before the trade show starts. It's it's really education focused. And we're still store owners are able to come together. And it's it's how, you know, a guy like Mark and a guy like me can can meet and interface and be able to collaborate and share experiences. And so those industry opportunities are pretty significant. And I think for me and what would be described is maybe I'll fly over state in a kind of unique market where we don't have we don't necessarily have rep agencies or reps living anywhere near Sioux Falls. You know, the closest would be the Twin Cities area, which is like four and a half, five hours away. So we don't get all of the opportunities from a knowledge standpoint that we would like to get being here. So going to The Running Event for me has always been a major priority. Just try to carve out as much time as we can so that I can be able to learn and be the best I possibly can be as a store owner. So kind of a cool deal. I'm glad you mentioned it. I kind of already forgot or maybe I'm putting it on the back burner because I'm terrified about presenting there, but it'll be a good time for sure. I have some questions for you. Yeah, we jumped ahead, Mark, but I have some questions for you today. And basically I haven't seen you. And then well, I guess we chatted a little bit last week with those more work related. So I want to know, Mark, what is I'm going to lead to something here. So you're just going to bear with me. But first, I want to know a movie or a TV show that you rewatch over and over something, something that you just if it's on, you're going to watch it. Like if you're at The Running Event and you escape to your hotel room and turn a TV on. And this is on. Wow. What are you going to watch on repeat?
Mark 04:44 That's a good man. I had no idea what these questions are ahead of time. Just everybody knows. I think I don't watch a whole lot of TV shows over and over. I'm kind of a one and done. But the one that I have watched three times is the first season of True Detective on HBO. A movie? Yeah, it's a good one. A movie that I will watch over and over again, like I said, man, who has time to watch movies and or flip through channels? Maybe, maybe Memento. Christopher Nolan's first movies is something that if it's on, I like to watch.
Greg 05:26 You are an intense, intense fella. I like it. I'm going to put a pin in that and come back to it. But next up, Mark, what does the perfect day look like for you?
Mark 05:43 Oh, boy, the perfect day or just the perfect work day, the perfect day. No, I've never done this before. All right. Well, a good day for me. I get up and let the dogs out and have some coffee and I will go for my run and come back. Ideally, I get a little bit of time before I start working. So maybe I could have a piece of fruit or chat with KJ about what the day looks like. Those are the best. If I can avoid looking at my emails till 10 a.m. Pacific time when our stores open, then I kind of ease into it. And then I live by my calendar. So whatever's on the calendar, we knock those out and then have a nice dinner with KJ. And maybe we'll watch a show together in the evening. And that's a perfect day. We're low key around here.
Greg 06:41 Hey, I'm a fan. Low low low key, the older I get, the more low key I want to be.
Mark 06:50 Are you going to answer these questions along the line?
Greg 06:55 No, just me. Nope, I came prepared. So you just get to roll with it. So man, we're leading into something just so you know, but all right. What's one thing you hope people say about you when you aren't in the room?
Mark 07:05 Oh boy. I try to say that to follow the advice of what other people say about me is none of my business. And what's one thing people say about? I hope people say about me when I'm not in the room. I'm a hard worker. I think that would be a quality I try to embody.
Greg 07:38 All right. So what we're leading to here is I've been doing a lot of staff training. And you said you wanted to talk about finding employees, training staff. And I want to know, and I think these are going to tie in really well together. So now I want to know, describe the perfect running store transaction. So we're getting more into business now. What is that perfect store transaction?
Mark 08:05 Well, I mean, a customer finds us from one of the many channels. Word of mouth is the best one. We love that. So customer comes in and is greeted by an associate and gets the whole fit process. And during the fit process, the associate asked the right questions to get the customer what they need. And isn't, you know, isn't establishing a budget for that customer because we don't know what's in somebody's wallet, but presenting products that can benefit the customer. We like to have, you know, UPT of 3.0 is great. But the perfect transaction is, you know, we love, we love shoe, sock, insole transactions. We love sock, insole transactions. But honestly, it's the transaction where the customer gets what they need and is presented with everything they need. So if the customer talks about, man, I chafe every time I run, and we don't show them some moisture wicking apparel, we haven't given them what they need. So I hope, I don't know, is that is that a good answer, Greg? Is that
Greg 09:13 we're getting there? Yeah. So I, you know, clearly fit process, we've talked about it a little bit, but having sort of steps into, and I think for running-store owners, I think it's important to think about those steps of what does that perfect transaction look like, you know, fit process is a huge part of that. Asking the right questions is a huge part of that. Now, and this is, this is where I really want to pick your brain about is coaching and training that with your employees, because I think that also relates to building culture and creating an environment where people want to work for you. So walk me through that. So you've got the perfect transaction, you mark know how to execute the perfect transaction, you know what you want it to look like. Now, how do you translate that to a team?
Mark 10:08 Wow, well, we've got a team that varies in size from about 23 to 28 employees, depending on whatever we are. We're lucky to have a training manager, Violet, she's great, and she works at all of our locations. And she designates at the beginning of each week training topics. So she'll go around and work with employees, but sometimes the schedule doesn't allow her to work with every employee. So she puts it out for the managers to expect them to do it. And KJ directs that as well. Just from experiences that happen in the store often, like, oh, you know, this happened this week. Oh, that's a good training topic. It is, you just can't take a break, Greg, like with training, it is constant, constant, constant. And I tell the staff and my managers that the reward for a job well done is more work. You don't get to rest. You get to just keep working hard. And it's also something that I don't, I mean, this is the hill I die on. We have to have good employees. So it's constant. It's just constant training. It's every day. It's scheduling messages in Slack, you know, when you see something, but that employee's not working until the next day. It's telling managers when I walk in and see something happening following that chain of command. Like, I walk in and I see employee B do something in the store. Well, I'm letting my manager know. I saw this in the store. And if I need to apply pressure to the manager, the manager applies pressure to the assistant manager or to the employee. And it's constant. What makes people want to work for us? Man, I've talked a lot. Or do you want to jump in before I get to that part?
Greg 12:11 I can jump in for sure. But first of all, Violet is awesome. I've been able to work with Violet before. And she has the best name. That's my daughter's name as well. So I've always got a soft spot for Violet. But I've actually not only have I been able to train with her, I've also been able to see her training in one of your stores, just in some of our travels and visits where I've been able to go out to Vegas. And so what an awesome deal talks me more about that position. And when did you guys bring on a training position? And how did you get to that piece?
Mark 12:44 You know, it was really an evolution of us as store owners, KJ and I. Violet's worked for us for a long time. And on his story, when I was a math teacher, she was actually one of my students back a long time ago. So yeah, anyway, Violet was an excellent salesperson. And one of the mistakes KJ and I kept making early on is that we would take our best salespeople and turn them into managers, which takes our best salespeople and takes them off the floor. And oftentimes, we started to realize as we grew as store owners that the skills needed to be a great manager aren't necessarily the same skills that are needed to be a good employee. We wanted to keep Violet with the company and provide a path forward for her. And we realized she's got this great skill set. She was, you know, a five star review machine. And so why not keep her in that role where she gets to now work with new employees, take what makes her special and pass that on to other people, take, you know, our store, everything about us from our vision to our fit process and pass that on. And she's pretty good. She's constantly constantly training. So we're very happy to have her.
Greg 14:16 I love it. I think it's, well, it's brilliant for you, especially with four doors. I mean, it's pretty difficult with two doors to, you know, I feel like wherever whatever store I sort of land in is the store that thrives. And that's not a great position to be in. But with four doors, I think taking the time to have a person dedicated to that education and training is huge. And I'm sure you could pick that apart a little bit for me if I let you, but I'm not gonna. You mentioned vision and some of the questions I asked you, you know, like your perfect day and what do you think about when or what do you hope people say when you're not around? As it relates to vision, you know, owning an independent running store, you're a store owner. And so you have to have a vision of what path are we on? Where are we going? What does that look like? I know you, you know, redefine what it means to be a runner. You do that so incredibly well that I know that portion of what you've got going on. I know if it processes huge, all those things, but as far as staffing, establishing that culture and having that vision go forward both when you're there, but more importantly, when you're not there, what are some things that you've done there, Mark, as you've sort of developed your team? And as it relates to employees, I think this is huge as you go out and recruit to have an established vision and be able to have everyone sort of share that experience. Walk me through that.
Mark 15:46 Oh, yeah, I'm glad that, you know, our vision redefining what it means to be a runner or to redefine what it means to be a runner. How do we trickle that down when I'm not in the store every day? I mean, Violet does a good job. That's one of the first, it's in our employee handbook. And it's, you know, one of the things she trains in on, you know, the first, second, third day of training, what's our vision, she quizzes them on it and which is great. But, you know, if you don't store owners out there, if you're listening, if you're running-store owner or any small business, if you don't have a vision, what are you doing? Everything you got to do stems from your vision. And I think that's trickled down to our managers when you look at who leads our stores, if I could take Michael, you know, Michael came to us not a runner. I think most of our employees are quote unquote not a runners. But Michael has now led the opening of a chapter of Black Men Run here in Las Vegas. So finding the need for the community. And he gets to where the Michael from Black Men Run hat and he gets to where the Michael from Red Rock Running Company hat sometimes he has both of them on at the same time. But that's redefining running in Las Vegas, where there previously wasn't a space for African-American males to get together and run. And now there is. And we just lead that through with our, you know, it should trickle down to our employees. And honestly, we have this habit of employees where like sometimes there's this weird inverse curve, our employees either work for us for like two weeks or two years. There's not a lot of in-between it seems. Tell me more. Tell me more, he says. Gosh, I mean, where were we even going with this? What was the original question? Like how do I, how does the employees know what it means to redefine? What it means to be a runner? How do they translate that vision? It trickles down to our fit process and making running a comfortable space. We like to identify people as they come into the store. We have to advertise that to the community. You know, I bought an existing store called Red Rock running company. That running is so intimidating. So just to get people to walk in in a community that, you know, we're not flagstaff. We don't have an elite running community here. There's, there's a few really fast runners, but, but we're, we're a community, we're a service community where, you know, Vegas is built on the service industry. So I'd say, you know, we don't, we try to, it's my time. We try to not hire runners. We try to hire people who can have a conversation with other people who can learn the product. And then what's, what's pretty fun is that most of our employees who don't have a running background, but then start to start their own running journey while they're here. And that allows them to have that redefining experience themselves. And, and now, you know, they're running in our group runs, or we see them at our five Ks, which is always fun because I have sometimes I don't recognize them because, you know, you've got somebody in work clothes and they show up and running clothes. And, and I'm like, oh man, I didn't recognize you not there. But, but that's great, you know, so they can go on the journey of their own, but also the fit process welcoming people as they come in. Everybody, we want everybody to go through the fit process, whether you've shopped with us before, you know, whether you've been running for 50 years and you know what your foot's like. We just want to give the same quality of service to everybody and we want everybody to feel welcome.
Greg 20:10 You're knocking out of the park, man.
Mark 20:12 I feel like I'm painting in broad strokes here, but.
Greg 20:14 No, I think you're, you're, you're keying in on a lot of things. And, and I think for running-store owners that might watch this, clearly you've got passion behind this. And I think every running-store owner kind of gets into this business with a lot of passion of the vision piece. They understand that part. And yes, I want to sell running shoes because people need running shoes. I want to have a high units per transaction rate. I want to do all of these things, but it's the stuff that's not so sexy that I think makes it stand out at your store. Because process procedure, those things, I think you guys do really, really well. And from a staffing perspective, I think that plays a big part. So, you know, two weeks or two years, you know, you come in and you think you're going to work at a running store. So I'm going to get free shoes and it's going to be pretty much a cakewalk. And, you know, I love running. So all I have to do is talk about running. And that's, that's all it takes. And I can tell everyone that I'm, you know, super fast or super good at the sport and that I've been running for my whole life. And people just think that's great and they'll buy shoes for me. And I don't think that flies so well. No, our associates should not be talking about themselves to that level. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, the process, the procedures, I think, you know, talk to me and when you you know, how do you weed that out? Obviously, you have an interview process walking through that.
Mark 21:45 Well, you know, it's never perfect. We try and you've been through the same interview training I have. We've developed it through, you know, using The Mann Group. We start off talking about how employment at Red Rock Running Company needs to be a win-win. We ask them about it. We ask them to define what that means. And we use that term throughout employment. We try to ask questions about past experiences rather than asking them to tell us what they would do in certain scenarios because anybody can make that up. So we ask about past experiences. It's not perfect. But when we eventually make a hire, we are relentless. And nothing, I'm not going to say nothing makes me more proud. But one of my most proud moments is when I see the managers having these conversations in Slack, hey, saw Bob today do the fit process, you know, assuming Bob's a fictional employee in this story. Well, and he skipped the Brannock device. He did not measure the person's foot. Well, that's, we don't skip steps. And, you know, period. When you go through our fit process, it's non-negotiable. You put the customer through every step. And one of those steps is the Brannock device. Period. End of story. And when I see that, you know, our managers are not shy about doing, you know, a formal conversation with them. And we have steps, you know, it starts with, you know, a verbal warning like, hey, you know, saw you didn't do that. Tell me about it. And then if it happens again, you know, it's a written warning. And it sounds like we can be really, really tough. And so that's, you know, going back to your like, why do people want to work for you? Well, some of them don't. We lose some very quickly when they find out that we're not messing around. Like, this is not your, this is not Payless Shoes. You don't stand behind the register. You know, we want you to work, you're working with customers. And ultimately, you're representing KJ, you're representing me. And I don't like being made to look stupid. So it's that customer service. It's that every step. And we have a line. And we don't want people to cross the line. And I tell managers a story, I heard this sometime when I was a kid. And maybe I've shared it even on this podcast, if I have, I'm sorry. But I heard a story at Parable where, you know, two truck drivers are being hired for, have I told this? You might have, but let's, you know, not everyone listens to the same episode and it's good. Okay. So, so guys, you know, interviewing two truck drivers, and it's a very dangerous road. And he has truck driver one. How close can you get to the edge in truck driver one? So I could get three inches from the edge. I'm a great driver. And truck driver two says, I'm going to stay as far away from the edge as possible. And truck driver two is the one that's hired. And so we have a line. We don't even want people to approach the line. Stay, you know, that's where our gentle pressure, because they approach the line until the managers like, push them back, push them back, push them back. And it might sound silly to have a record of discussion with an employee who is consistently two minutes late. But we do it because that's our line. You know, we hired you to work these hours. We talk about a win-win situation. If you cross that line, we're going to have a conversation with you. And, and, you know, that leads, you know, we've had an employee quit because of that exact reason. Oh, my gosh, you wrote me up for being two minutes. Like, yeah, well, it was like 17 times. Like not that many, but it was a few times. And that's our line. And if you're consistently two minutes late, somebody else is going to start being three minutes late. And we can't maintain a professional environment with that. So we push them back, we push them back, we push them back. And it's constant. Sometimes I feel like KJ and I are living in Groundhog Day with, you know, the patterns that repeat themselves. But the good news is, is when we get employees who thrive, they stay with us for a long time.
Greg 26:09 Absolutely, because the culture is established. The, you set the tone and you've been consistent. And I think, I think that stands out so that two weeks or two years makes perfect sense to me as you describe it. So it's, it's really easy to say we hold people accountable. It's another thing to practice it and to consistently do that. I know for me, I've struggled there. But it's interesting. I had an employee ask me, we were going over some of those details again. And, you know, he said, do you think, do you think the sales numbers are impacted because we're not doing these little things? And I said, honestly, I don't care about the sales. I care about me helping you become a better professional and understanding you're getting paid to do this job. My job is to help you understand why it's important. And I think the why piece is really, really important when you're coaching those employees of why is it important for us to make sure that this fixture looks this way? Why is it important that laces are tucked on the shoe wall? Why is it important? You know, all of those details that go around the store, I said, if we're doing all of those things, right, this sales will come. So that's, that's where I'm at with it. It's, you know, I equated it to sales are sort of like, if I'm coaching in football or basketball or something like that, sales are win losses, right? Like, that's our win loss record. And I can't get any wins if I don't have a team that's capable of managing the details. And so we're going to keep losing. We won't get sales unless we get those details sort of hammered out. So talk to me, Mark. You know, you mentioned that you guys have a process, you know, whether it's the verbal warning, written warnings, those types of things. Timeline, how did how did that culture get established for you at Red Rock Running Company? Because I think a lot of store owners, they know what their expectations are. But I don't think they understand the details of this part.
Mark 28:02 It's a process. And I don't want to take credit for it. All of it. In so much at Red Rock Running Company, I have the idea. And, and I'm like, this is what I want. And I see an endpoint. But it's up to KJ to get us from my idea to that endpoint. And so sometimes she's like, ah, you just went straight to D and the alphabet, you know, BC, D, E, F, G is up to me, but she's great at it. So how do we get to this point? You know, we made a choice a while back. And again, you know, I think it was probably at the first TRE I was at, you know, I heard Dan Mann speak that, you know, your employees need to treat this like a career. And that's stuck with me because at the time, we were hiring runners who thought it was a fun job. And doing the schedule was a big puzzle every week. I can only work Wednesdays from, you know, four to six. Okay, you're hired. You know, I can't work Saturdays because that's my long run day. You know, man, and it was just this big smorgasbord of people working two hours here, four hours there. And I started to realize that that inconsistency, when it's just a fun job, they don't carry that vision forward. When it's a career, they're able to carry that vision forward. So we made the choice we're going to try to only hire full-time employees. We have an exception now and then, but mostly we only hire full-time employees, which us means 30 hours to 40 hours a week. We give them benefits because we treat it like a career. It costs us a lot of money to provide health benefits to our employees. And I'd love to cancel that put it in my pocket. And, you know, occasionally I could buy our insurance on the open market. But if we're going to say you need to treat this like a career, then I'm going to treat it like a career. You know, we offer a retirement plan with matching up to 3%, which the young people don't seem to understand. But, you know, twice a month, I send a message about it in our, you know, kind of payroll summary. So these steps all just kind of happened along the line. And what we need to do, but it's creating the culture, taking the steps and saying, this isn't a fun job. This is a career. Even if you're only here for six months a year, it's a career, you know. And, and hopefully our employees take some of the things they've learned and when they move on to something else, then they take it with them.
Greg 31:09 I love that. It's, it's truly inspiring. Like, I don't, I mean, you're in it. So I don't know if you necessarily know that. But I think I know myself, I know some of our colleagues who have really struggled with that. Because, you know, whether you came from a running background or, you know, you just sort of dumb luck fell into the industry and suddenly own a running store, this was not necessarily the purview of how you thought you'd be managing people or even running a business. I don't, you know, for myself, that's for sure kind of what I thought of when I started getting into this is I didn't expect to be here, but then also the, the consistency with the employees. I think that's such a unique challenge. But I think it's, it's a, it's a true testament of that, that two weeks or two years that stands out. But then also having that vision, carrying it forward, you mentioned at one point, you know, you're representing me, or I don't want to be embarrassed, something along those lines. And that comes back to that question of, you know, what are people saying when you aren't in the room, professionally speaking, and that's a huge piece when you have, when you have employees, they are representing you, your vision, your company. And that can be a challenging mental hurdle for store owners to have. But I think it's important to acknowledge it and to own it and understand that as much as I don't want to care, what other people think about me still matters. It's still a big deal. And then retail, when someone walks through your door, I think it's like eight seconds. You have eight seconds for them to decide if they want to work with you or not. And that's tough. I mean, that's bull riding right there for my South Dakota friends. And you got to be on you. That's a pretty good bull rider, isn't it? Eight seconds. I wouldn't. In South Dakota, we're only good. So. But the policies, the procedures, the vision, the customer experience, that perfect transaction, it all gets tied up into a bow. You can't have that perfect transaction without having those steps, the procedures, a vision, a goal of how you're going to make these things happen. Some people can dumb luck into it, but it's rare. They're not going to stick around very long within the industry. It'll eat you alive. There's a lot of ways that you can go buy running shoes. You and I both know this. But it's the people that matter in our stores. And so creating good people, that's the task that we have as store owners. And I think it's one of the hardest things about being a running specialty store owner. But I think you're on to something. And that's why I'm glad that you're willing to share and just let me ask you questions without any prior knowledge to what was going to go on today on our show. But I'll give you some time. Mark, you can ask me a couple questions. You didn't get to prep any, but what you got? Fire back at me.
Mark 34:10 Okay, well, since we're kind of on the topic of employees, how hard do you find it to keep your store staffed in smaller town Sioux Falls versus larger town Las Vegas?
Greg 34:29 Yeah, it's a it's a bear right now. But it's not just us. So Sioux Falls specifically has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. I'm pretty sure it's the lowest in the country. That's what the media keeps reporting to me locally here, which is a good thing. I mean, there's people can work here. There's jobs and everyone has one. But it creates a really competitive market. And so for me, the challenge is competing at pay. Even even if I were, you know, capable, I think that's the unique challenge. So I'm really kind of fighting that battle. So I have a friend who works in healthcare and she's hiring and for jobs in healthcare that don't require a degree, they're starting at $25 an hour. And I'm just like, that's a lot of money. And she's like, and people are not taken because they can find jobs for $26.50 or $27 an hour here. And with with no, no education or anything, that's to say that that's the only way to be able to make money. But that's just kind of a sample of the market that we're working in. So weekends were good. I'm able to staff the weekends. I do have runners on staff. I've got some really, really good runners, but they're also just really good kids. And it's it's taken me a long time to sort of weed through that. But I'm really proud of who I have on staff. But I am kind of playing that that jigsaw puzzle at the moment. You know, in the past, like when we opened our second door, I had two full-time employees. And so with them makes up part-timers. So with me, the two full-timers, it didn't seem like that big of an undertaking. And now, you know, circumstances have changed. And now it's me and I got 12 staff between our events crew, our retail and our coaching. And so it's it's an adventure every single day. And finding employees is is a trick. But I I'm confident because most of my employees are new, but that doesn't mean that they're not quality, that they're not capable, and that they can't handle it. It's just it's good for me to put it in perspective of as a coach, how am I going to prepare them for those wins and losses? And how are we going to manage the details and how am I going to hold everyone accountable between two stores when it's just me? And so making time on my calendar, you talk about living by your calendar and some of those things, that's I'm living it. And it's not easy. But I am optimistic. I'm positive about where we're going. We do 401k match as well. I don't have benefits yet, but I actually I'm pursuing it and looking at the more full-time staffing model to see if we can't find at least two, again, because that was when we were in a really sweet spot. And so just ebbs and flows, to retail, retail ebbs and flows a lot. But that's life.
Mark 37:35 Yes, it is. It's the life of a small business owner. We scared anybody away. It's not for the, it's not for the faint of heart.
Greg 37:41 Definitely not. And there's a couple months throughout the year that are always challenging, where just cash gets real tight, you know, invoices hit, those types of things. And it just gives you, you know, it puts more gray hair in my beard than red hairs, which is kind of sad to see, but I'm okay with it and some of those types of things. But it's, it's the ever-present journey. But it's also really rewarding. Like, I don't want people to lose sight of that. Like, you know, you talk about it. It's a career. Well, it is a fun career. I mean, the people that were changing people's lives, you know. Yeah. And so this past weekend, we had the Sioux Falls marathon and I was able to volunteer out on course and do a cheer station and just to see people and the smile they get when they see you. And they make that connection of like, oh, I bought my shoes from that guy and now I'm running this race and, you know, or people coming up to me at the expo and like, hey, I follow you online and thank you so much where you do. Those types of experiences are very rewarding. It's a unique experience because you don't think anyone's watching you online or listening to your podcasts. But those things do happen and it's, you know, we did, at our cheer station, we did beanbags. So as runners would go by, I'd give them a beanbag and see if they could score like cornhole and they were tossing bags. And like, just to see people's reaction of like, first, like, we had a few people like, I'd hand them a beanbag and be like, what is this? Like, is this like, nutrition? Is it hydration? What am I supposed to be getting? I'm like, it's supposed to be fun. I'm like, I'm trying to take a bite out of it. Yeah, we did have a couple beanbags just disappear. People kept taking them with them. I think they thought that was supposed to like be moisture wicking or something. But it was a good time. It happens. It happens. The bottom line hiring at Sioux Falls is a unique challenge. It's because of low unemployment. Like we're on the kind of the flip side of the script as some other folks.
Mark 39:34 How about that? I get some people to pack up and move to Sioux Falls.
Greg 39:39 We're ready for you. It is a boomtown.
Mark 39:44 Do I have other questions for Greg? Gosh, I don't know. What's uh, okay. We'll end it. What's your favorite movie coming full circle?
Greg 39:55 Well, so it's difficult because there's a fourth season out right now, but I am a Ted Lasso fan. I watched that on repeat. And so I picked up a habit from my wife who she works from home. And she loves background noise. And so she can put like a show on and have it just playing his background noise and not even necessarily be watching it, but it just is like a comfort thing for her. And I've sort of developed that habit. And so if I'm doing like payroll or, you know, back end things, I can put Ted Lasso on and it just keeps me sort of positive and happy. Just because that's kind of the type of show it is. And I like to laugh. I like to smile. But from a movie perspective, um, how you or your choices were so dark and mine are just pretty happy, go lucky. Um, a long time ago, I was a baseball player and I grew up loving Major League. And, you know, just in the the second one. Yeah. So I can anytime, Major League one or two is on. I can sit and just watch it to completion because it just it takes me back and makes me laugh and just the quirks of baseball and some of the nuttiness that happens in the dugout.
Mark 41:07 I totally relate to that. So there you go. Nice. The show for us is Bob's Burgers. That's that's the background noise here.
Greg 41:13 Okay. That's a good one. I haven't. I haven't watched that one, but a lot of people have told me about it. Like I feel like I should check it out.
Mark 41:19 Yeah, it's, you know, it's good background noise.
Greg 41:25 Yeah. Don't take it too serious, right?
Mark 41:31 Correct.
Greg 41:33 Cool. Well, Mark, thanks for the time today. Thanks for, uh, letting me pick your brain about employees, the perfect transaction. Um, I think that's a good topic. I think it's stuff that we can continue to revisit and, and rediscover. What I would encourage, um, our running-store owner friends, if you're listening to this or if you're following along, um, give us some feedback, feedback. We didn't talk about feedback today, Mark, but we will. Um, we live off feedback and being able to have positive, negative feedback, understand where we're at. Let us know topics you want to cover. If you think Mark is absolutely nuts for some of the things he said, let them know that if, uh, if you're, if you're like me and you're doing in the jigsaw puzzle and you are looking for ways to make that better, um, let us know. That's how we get better. And it's always about moving towards better at 605 Running Company. Um, you talk about vision. So just throw that in there. Uh, but let us know. Um, put it in the comments wherever you choose to listen to this. We're on a lot of different platforms and, um, we will see you next time. Um, Mark, I didn't even talk to you. You're going out of country tomorrow. So we'll get a recap on Berlin next show. That'll be our tease. You've been listening to the Run Specialty Cooperative podcast. This has been Mark Jimenez and Greg Koch. Have a great day.
Run Specialty Cooperative Podcast | Episode 4