Let's do employee recognition differently this year, and learn how our guest, Alex Schlindwein also known as Diamond Diaries, celebrates with the employees at Kiefer Jewelers at the annual Kiefer Conclave.
We go in-depth on the annual event that masterfully blends team-building activities, training, and celebration of hard work. We discuss employee recognition, the art of public speaking, and Longevity Pins, and how these can come together to motivate your team as they approach the most important months of the shopping year.
Follow Alex on Instagram for more Retail Jeweler Tips: instagram.com/_diamond_diaries_/
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Let's do employee recognition differently this year, and learn how our guest, Alex Schlindwein also known as Diamond Diaries, celebrates with the employees at Kiefer Jewelers at the annual Kiefer Conclave.
We go in-depth on the annual event that masterfully blends team-building activities, training, and celebration of hard work. We discuss employee recognition, the art of public speaking, and Longevity Pins, and how these can come together to motivate your team as they approach the most important months of the shopping year.
Follow Alex on Instagram for more Retail Jeweler Tips: instagram.com/_diamond_diaries_/
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop this week. I'm joined by Alex Schlinwein, also known as Diamond Diaries, our recurring guest, and we're talking all about the recent Kiefer Conclave event that she threw for her store, kiefer Jewelers, and also the key points of education and kind of unification and pep rally that she infused into it so that everybody would kind of be under one mind going into the holidays and also into 2024. It sounded like an awesome event. I saw it all on Instagram and I was following along and I wanted to hear a little bit more about it and I decided an In the Loop episode would be exactly what we needed. It sounds like an awesome time and it's one that I'm going to try to take a couple of key points from it to bring to the Punchmark Christmas party, and maybe you'll think about doing something like it next year. Cheers everybody and enjoy the show.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business with a user-friendly, point-of-sale integrated website platform designed for growth and results. Sign up for your free demo today at punchmarkcom. While you're enjoying this week's episode, take a moment and leave us a star rating on the Spotify mobile app. Or, if you're on Apple Podcasts, leave us a star rating and a review. It's the best way to help us grow into. Show that you're really enjoying the show. Thanks, and now back to the show. Welcome back, everybody. I'm joined by Alex Flynnwine, also known as Diamond Diaries, and we're talking all about the Kiefer Conkly. How are you doing today, alex?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How are you Mike?
Speaker 1:I'm doing very well. I'm so excited to talk about this, probably one of the more positive topics that we've got a chance to discuss. We're talking about how to celebrate your employees For this episode. At least the way I have it scheduled, it's going to come out maybe two, three weeks before Christmas and a lot of the times, a lot of companies are going to be having their end of year celebrations. I know that Punchmark will be having a Christmas party right after Thanksgiving and we kind of want to talk about how to do it right, and I saw on your Instagram that you guys had this event and it looked so not just fun, but like well done. Can you set up what the Kiefer Conkly is and like why you guys do it?
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, first of all, that's quite a compliment. And yeah, the Conkly and something that started dates back to almost 20 years ago. My parents started doing it and it's basically one day a year where we close both the stores and we get all hands on deck together frontline team, admin, jewelers, everybody all in a room together. We rent a conference room in a nearby hotel and we just really feel like having that day like out of our environment to do like it's a mix of team building, employee recognition, training and kind of like our kickoff to Christmas as well. So we always host it sometime in October or maybe early November to kind of get everyone like pumped up for the holidays.
Speaker 2:So it hasn't been consistent for a long time. And then when I came back into the business, I came across some old pictures of us at the Conkly, like when I was a teenager, you know, at some of the Conkly's, and there's actually one where I saw pictures of where we didn't have the Lutz location yet, our second location, and my dad was like showing sketches of the idea of the new store, and so that's kind of like well, it got my heart warm and fuzzy and I'm like we should do that again, and so then it kind of became my baby from then on out, and now we do it every year and of course my parents are like really involved still, but it's kind of my thing to run it now.
Speaker 1:Man, that's so cool. It really looked like, yeah, like a conference. It looked like you guys had put some time into. Did you guys have a run or show like an outline of what was going to happen?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, I have literally like I got my, I brought the schedule on my phone, just so I don't like forget to tell you some of the things that we did for the day, because it was a jam packed day.
Speaker 2:We start around 8 30. And then it starts arriving and we do breakfast for everyone. We have 30 minutes for breakfast, then we get it right into it for the day and then we wrapped up close to six o'clock. We kind of ran a little bit longer than I thought. So it was a full day with lots of twists and turns, and it's the kind of thing where each year I keep trying to outdo myself too. I always do a post event survey to everyone through Survey Monkey, and it's completely anonymous, and so everyone gives me their feedback afterwards. So like literally any little comment that I can do for the next year I really try to do so. It just like keeps becoming more and more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it almost. If you guys decided to have it at the beginning of a year, it would almost be like a year kickoff. But I think that sometimes with with drillers just being retail, it's always kind of a little bit delicate on when you want to place an event. You know you don't want to have it. Of course the natural spot would be, oh, it's having in December, but it's like that's the busiest time of the year and then you kind of want to have it in, maybe in January. But it's also like you're probably gearing up for Valentine's Day and you're dealing with post show stuff. How did you decide on, you know, mid October as your date?
Speaker 2:Kind of just by default, like looking at the year, and it would kind of end up being the only month that just didn't have something else competing with it and that we could focus on.
Speaker 2:And I really liked this whole idea of it kind of being like let's pat ourselves on the back for where we've come so far this year and getting everyone prepared for Christmas, because it's just such a big time for us. And yeah, like you said, like we don't really get a whole lot of downtime, because January people want to take some little vacations and then we go right into Valentine's Day, then we get a little bit of a break, but then it's Mother's Day and then summer everyone wants to go on vacation. So it just kind of like happened on accident and it works for us. And we always do it on a Monday, which is the slowest day of the week for our stores, and it works for us. But I have thought about doing it as a you know, early year event and maybe even adding a second one at some point is definitely a goal of mine.
Speaker 1:So you guys created this run of show and it sounds like you guys had like almost like segments. Like I was following along through your Instagram and it seemed like you had like a vision in mind, and is it to like inspire? Is it to, you know, give people an idea of like what the vision is? Or, for example, I saw that you had anybody who wanted to give a presentation was allowed to give a presentation, which I thought was super cool. How you don't have to like gatekeep that or anything like. You know it's not just only the CEO is the only person that can give a presentation. What was that kind of scheduling like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I literally just sent out an email blast to everyone and said you know, whoever is interested and willing to give a presentation at the conclave, please let me know, and I want to get as many of you guys in there as possible. And we had I was worried that we actually weren't going to get enough people speaking up, because you know it's kind of nerve wracking getting up in front of everyone in this room with the light shining on you and we record it all too, so you know you have to go back and watch it later and all that. But I told them you know, look, I'm going to really hold your hand through it too. Like we had a minimum of three meetings they each had with me to prepare their presentation, and I kind of helped them with ideas and like a framework for their presentation, and then they would practice it with me too. So they really like got a lot of prep work and two of them specifically said like they want to get better at public speaking. So that's why they put their name in for this and they did phenomenal, and I think it's really cool to like see that they face their fears and built a skill through doing this too, but yeah, so we had a lot of team participation.
Speaker 2:Our theme for the day was intentional, so I really tried to make sure that everyone tied that in throughout the day in some way and that, like, how can we be more intentional in what we're doing in our day to day? And some of that honestly ended up going deeper than just work related stuff. The best presentation of the day, or the one that got the most votes as, like, their favorite presentation for the day, was a presentation about ego and how to recognize when your ego is at play and kind of how to recognize it and harness it and keep it in check, and I think that just made such an impact on everybody because, you know, it's something present in all of us, especially in sales, and when commissions are involved, ego is definitely going to play a part. So I think it was really good for everyone to take a step back and realize like, hey, we're all in the same team, you know. So that was really cool.
Speaker 1:We always say. I always say fighting in the same direction, because it doesn't really matter if they have different tactics, as long as everybody is looking in the same direction, you're on the same team. And especially, though, just to take a back step you're talking about some of these people want to improve at public speaking, and that's actually the way that I see the. We have a client workshop. You presented at it as well with me. We did a live episode at it earlier this year. If you're listening, go back to that.
Speaker 1:But what was really interesting was a lot of the punch mark employees that presented at it. That was kind of one of their. Maybe it was their first time or one of their first times presenting in front of like a large crowd. But it's also what a great opportunity to present when it's kind of like the crowd is on your side. Especially for you guys where it's all internal. If you're ever going to have like a good first run, you want to start off on the right foot, and having all of the employees from the place that you work be the ones that hear you present for the first time, it seems like the right way to start your presenting career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is kind of their peers, so it's scary because it's not just like a crowd of strangers that you're never going to see again, you know. But I think that that's what encouraged them to do it, because it showed leadership by doing that too. So now, even if this person isn't in a leadership role, it established themselves as a leader in their position because of stepping up and doing this. So that's really cool.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about did you guys do awards or anything like that? Is that like something you guys do as a part of it, or is it more about educational content?
Speaker 2:Yep, so we do awards. This was kind of something that I don't remember where I got the idea from, but I really I'm big on recognition and just kind of team building and all of those things. It's probably one of the things that me and my parents have butted heads the most on throughout working together, just because they're more old school where they kind of believe like, oh, they should be happy they're getting a paycheck. And then you know me being a millennial, I'm like no people need more than that, you know like there's a paycheck and they want to know, like, that they're valued and that they're heard and all those things.
Speaker 2:So you know, now I think we're more on the same page with that, but it wasn't always that way. So that's something I've had to, you know, kind of fight my battle a little bit. But so one thing I implemented we do longevity pins, so it's basically I recreated our logo in a pin and some of them end up turning them into pendants for, like for the girls, and then each year we add another diamond to it. So we like put a little diamond in our key for not for them for every year that they've been with us.
Speaker 1:So we do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do this whole pin ceremony. So every year they have to like they turn their pins back into me. Like a couple of weeks before the conclave we add another diamond and then I re-represent or represent it to them at the conclave and put them up on the big screen and say how many years they've been with us. So that's been really fun. And I have one girl that's been with us since the since my parents bought the business, so 26 years. Her pin is completely filled. Like I could not figure out another place to put a diamond in it. So I ended up just giving her a gift cards and she could pick something else out.
Speaker 2:But I got to figure out what this is going to be after the pin gets filled.
Speaker 2:So I might have this problem with more people.
Speaker 2:And then last year I don't know where I came up with this idea, but I thought wouldn't it be cool if I could kind of figure out like superlatives for everybody, like you know back in high school, like most likely to succeed, but instead it would be like most likely to sell the most Pandora or most likely to take in the most repair business, or most likely to issue a rewards card to a customer.
Speaker 2:So it actually is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, because you know some of my top people. They're the top at several things, so I had to kind of pick which one you know I thought fit them the best and like really get creative with it. But I literally figured out something that everyone is like the best at and gave told them their superlative while they were up there too, and they all like laugh about it and they're surprised by it. And you know I can tell them numbers, like do you know that you sold this many of whatever? And like they're always shocked when they hear the number. So it's really that's been a fun thing too.
Speaker 1:So that's great. Oh, man, I'm. So. We have our, like I said, our Christmas party. It's going to be the first week it's almost in one month from when we're going to release, from when we're recording this, and it'll be the first weekend of December and I'm going to fly back to Charlotte for it and I'm like man, do I have enough time to do all these ideas? Take them all from from Alex and put them in on punch mark. That's amazing. They're all really cool ideas.
Speaker 2:Oh cool, I know and like again, these are all things I've like added each year, so it's not like I just came out the gate doing all these things. It's like each year the conclave has evolved and taken on, you know, more and more things. So, but just some of the ideas that I have stolen, all these ideas from somebody else. I can't take credit really for any of them. I wish I could cite the sources, but I don't always remember. But you know, please feel free to rip off any of these ideas because they're not mine anyways.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the merchandise or the swag. So first of all side notes. You know what swag stands for Stuff we all get, or should we all get. Did you know that I found that out literally earlier this year? Yeah, it's an acronym.
Speaker 2:So there you go, oh my gosh, my mind is blown. How did I not?
Speaker 1:know that I mean. Well, that's why people come to In-Lew for the educational content. So let's talk about the swag that you guys gave out, because it looked like it was really high quality. I guess I want to ask you, when it comes to being, you know, an owner of a business, co-owner of a business, how do you rationalize the cost on this kind of stuff, because I feel like it's very tempting to go the less expensive route. And then how do you kind of rationalize the cost when it comes to what you're going to be putting into this, as opposed to what is going to be taken out of it?
Speaker 2:I guess I think, just over the years, seeing the benefit of it. And again, like we didn't start out by giving all the swag to everybody. It's, you know, evolved over time. So it started with giving them all like kefir branded work wear. So I think we started with sweaters for the girls and then like polo shirts for the guys and just putting our logo on them and we thought like, okay, let's just give them one piece of clothing you know that they can throw on, not have to think about in the morning, look professional.
Speaker 2:And it was just a way we wanted everyone to kind of step up their image and we thought like it's not really fair for us to just expect them all to, you know, invest in their wardrobe if we're not willing to help them with it too. So we're like let's just give them the one article this year. And then they loved it so much the girls are wearing their sweaters every single day. They start saying like, oh, we want another color. I need a tan one now to go with this outfit. So then next year we give them another color. And it just kind of kept evolving. And so this year I came up with the idea to give them cups, and I'm obsessed with my 40 ounce Stanley I carried everywhere with me. I'm a psycho about it. You'll never catch me without my Stanley. And that's kind of where my idea came from, like I wanted to give them something that I would be excited to give or to get.
Speaker 2:And we all have this issue with the break room too, where, like, everyone just picks a random cup out of the cabinet and fills it halfway and then leaves it on the table all day and by the end of the day no one knows whose cup is whose and they're all like half full and it's just like chaos, you know. And then it's like, well, who left their cup out? We don't even know whose cup. That is kind of issues that are just silly, you know. So I'm like let's get them all cups with their names on it so we know whose cup it. You know each person's is and you know, we kind of know who's leaving their, their crap line around too. And I wanted it to be like their spill proof. You know, you could have them out on the sales floor and not worry about spilling and all those good things. That's kind of where I came up with the cup.
Speaker 2:And then at the last minute I decided like, okay, I really want, like there's going to be a lot they're going to take notes on for the day, and like, yeah, we could just use some basic notepads or whatever. But like I really had this vision that I wanted to give them a notebook that they would maybe like find in a drawer one day and dust off and open it up and look at notes they wrote in 2023 and be like whoa, look at where I was then and look how far I've come. And kind of look back in reminisce, because I do that. I find notebooks that I wrote in years and years ago and I'll look at the numbers, the goals I had and like the tasks I was working on them, like wow, I was just like trying to make a Facebook page, you know, or whatever it was, and how it's really cool to get to see that and what you were working on. So I wanted to give them something that they could maybe serve that purpose.
Speaker 2:So I got all this from Etsy and the notebooks I threw in at the very last second.
Speaker 2:I was literally like sweating, wondering if the package was going to show up on time and it made it in the final hour and they all like loved the notebooks so much. They all had like pages and pages of notes already written in it and they're bringing it to the store, meetings and like using it for everything now. So, and they're like they're nice, they're leather and everything. So I went a little crazy this year, but just because I kind of like just felt inspired because our team has been doing so well too. I don't know if you've seen, but like a lot of the industry right now is just saying that they're having flat year, a flat year or even down in sales, and you know, I kind of sheepishly say that we're up 15% this year where everyone else is flat or down. And, like I know, it's because of our team and we have an incredible team and everyone understands the purpose, and so I just really wanted to like reward them for that too, because I think we have something really special going on right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I first of all the notebooks. I saw my huge, huge, huge proponent of. I use a sketchbook and but it doesn't really matter, it could be a notebook. I have made the switch from having grid paper in mind to having blank pages made because it just helps me. I find that it is one of my life's greatest work is having this series of sketchbooks. I've filled up probably 30 at this point and since I was a freshman, I think, in college, so it's been just about 11 years at this point, or 10 years, of filling up these sketchbooks and every, I feel probably two a year and it documents my life and also just from a professional standpoint, having those notes.
Speaker 1:It's so useful because I can find journal entries or even in a lot of my sketchbooks I actually write down like important information, like you know locations or addresses or passwords and stuff like that, because I just know it's on this day, it's on this location, this page, and I can find that information from 10 sketchbooks ago faster than I can even find it in my mess of Google documents, in my, in my drive or in my email.
Speaker 1:So I do think that there is something to that, but at the same time. Giving that gift of useful content is such a so much value to it, and I think that that's like if anybody listening is trying to do one of these events like what Alex is speaking about. I think that giving some intention, like you said, intention, intentional thought about what these gifts are going to be. It's not just about, you know, giving people money that's great, everybody loves it but it's about giving something that is even useful, especially if you're coming from a work-related event. I think giving out like a notebook or something that is tangible feels like a real milestone marker and it also will carry with them and maybe even benefit them in the future. So really love that idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know I'm a big believer in if you write it and read it, you'll remember it. And I just thought what's the point in me putting all this work into this day if I'm not going to give them the tools to really take it home and remember this material? And, like I knew, we were going to throw a lot at them in the day. So I think the notebook was really pivotal to make sure that it was going to have lasting effects.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, you just got. My mind is just spinning a million miles per hour. I'm like I think I'm going to punch break people. If you're listening to this, that's what you're going to get for at the Christmas party. So buckle up. I guess I want to talk about a little bit more, about, like, how do you kind of even wrap this up or bring this home?
Speaker 1:Because when we have our Christmas parties, we've learned after the past couple of times is that there's the Christmas party, which is great, and we've learned that the best way to do it is we always have like a fancy dinner and we usually have some type of, you know, award event and we have something where we let people kind of choose their seats and get a chance to sit with other people and that's great and we go through. We we've started doing Secret Santa's and we have Secret Santa's at the end of it and that's always fun to you know, see who is the real Secret Santa and all that kind of stuff. But when it comes to the end, we've learned that it's good to kind of have a location picked out to have a more casual event. Do you guys do something similar to that that kind of allows people to mix even more. It sounds like your event was, you know, a little bit of a full day. How do you guys make it so that there's like that casual element to it as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this tradition started probably about two years ago where there's a Bahama breeze right next to the hotel that we, that we, rent out the room in, and first it first started with us just saying let's go to the hotel bar after the day's over and everyone just have one drink and then we'll go home.
Speaker 2:But, then some people were like, well, I'm hungry and, like you know, we wanted to hang out and we were still just talking and we're there till nine o'clock at night and we're like, okay, maybe we need a little bit more. So we decided to start going over to Bahama breeze after the day is over and it's that part is super informal, it's completely optional. So it's usually only about half the crew, or maybe even a little bit less, that come to Bahama breeze and we just kind of do like lots of appetizers and a drink. So try to not make it too, too late, because it was a long day and everything. And I find that like the debriefing that happens at that dinner is really like the gold, you know, and that's where I get the best feedback and everyone. You can just see all the wheels turning and people are like, oh my gosh, when I get into work tomorrow I'm going to do this, and you know. But it does continue past that point and it's really fun to hear people bring up stuff that was talked about at the conclave.
Speaker 2:Like weeks later, like somebody, there was a, you know, a really not happy customer in our store, just one of those people that was going to not be happy about anything that came their way, whether or not it really was like anybody's fault. And you know, we, the persons, found themselves like, well, I don't want to help them with this, or they should just go somewhere else, or like they're just being ridiculous. And then they're like, oh gosh, that's my ego, that's my ego, you know. We're like yep, yep, it is. You know, like, okay, real, real in the ego, what's the right thing to do here? Yes, they're not being reasonable, but what? What is the right thing to do? Like how, what would we want done to us in that moment If we were in their shoes? We don't know their whole story. You know, let's not write the story and let's just do our best to help them.
Speaker 1:So it's, it's cool when you get to see that, like down the road too, yeah you know, it's always funny when someone takes something away and you don't even know that that was going to be the takeaway. It's kind of always interesting, like if you've ever been in a teacher position or a mentoring or leadership position. Sometimes the side lessons are end up being the actual important parts, which is I always laugh that that's what they took away. It's like it's sometimes it's how it was presented or the fact that you didn't put too much emphasis on it. But we had, you know, discussions about like empathy or about being able to understand a lot of different aspects of the same problem and being able to see like, oh, I'm struggling with this and I can see how someone else would be struggling with it in a different way. Even though my viewpoint seems to be all-encompassing and so difficult, their viewpoint is also equally just as valuable and valid, and all those things. So I love that you guys allow that kind of camaraderie to proliferate. That's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And I do want to make sure to talk about the one of the exercises we did in the day was the pennies exercise and I've had that's probably the one I've had the most like DMs and comments about. And I actually had somebody ask me like can you send me like how you guys ran this, because I want to try to do this at our store and I think people really need this. And basically it's a way, it's an exercise to help illustrate to the team where all the expenses go, how much the expenses are for the company and what the real bottom line net profit is for the business. And this was something I think that originally me and my parents heard it the idea from Brad Hueskin, but we kind of took our own liberty on it and it's something I think my parents were really nervous to do because it was going to be so exposing to all the expenses of the business, but I felt like our team was really ready for it. I found that we had our team asking like well, how much does that cost, how much does this cost? And even just you know those comments of like you guys must be rich, you know, and stuff like that, and it's like let's explain to you how this works, you know. And so we literally started with each table had 100 pennies on the table and then we gave them note cards. We gave them about like I think, about 10 note cards and a and a Sharpie and we literally went through and said you know, okay, how many the pennies represent. Each penny represents a percent, a percent of the sale. So you just made a sale. You have 100 pennies, 100% of your, your sale, okay, and then we're going to take a penny or a percent away for each expense and see you know which table got the closest to the correct answer at the end. And we did an average, you know, of our company over the past year for this. So you know, it's not not every sale plays out this way, but on an average, this is how our sales play out. So first they had to say put on a note card the cost of goods sold. How much, what percentage do you think is our average cost of goods sold, separated the pennies, put it on the card and then next was okay, what do you think is the next biggest expense? Okay, payroll. What do you think is the percent that we spend on payroll. Okay, they separated that.
Speaker 2:Then we went all the way down the line marketing, packaging, insurance, occupancy expenses and then there some of them literally their tables were like we're out of pennies already and we're like not done with all the categories. They're like how do you guys make any money? And we're like, yeah, this is why we're doing this. And so it was really cool to see. And one of them was like can I do girl math on this? You know, we're like no, this is, this is real math, no girl math here. So that it was a really fun exercise.
Speaker 2:I think it was mind boggling to all of them to see really what everything costs. And you know, I think it's one of those things that's going to take a while for it to fully sink in. And now there's been a lot of questions after like, well, how much do we spend on that billboard and what does? What does our receipt paper cost and stuff like that. So now they're like trying to figure it all out, which is really cool. But they all are like oh my gosh, we need to. Don't use that piece of paper. Or, you know, don't order that, we don't need that, like you know.
Speaker 2:And then we even went through.
Speaker 2:How you know, discounting affects all those numbers and they were like Whoa, okay, I'm not going to discount anymore.
Speaker 2:Like that means we basically make no money when we discount.
Speaker 2:It's like yeah. And then we also did the positive, like okay, now what happens all those numbers if you add on to your sale, if you add a second item? That's all like you know icing on top of the cake when you add on, because a lot of those expenses don't need to be hit again because it's the same customer. You already have them in the door. We don't need to apply a whole other set of marketing expenses because that's the same customer. So just things like that.
Speaker 2:I think they really. And then we even talked about like well, what happens if we have, you know, shrinkage? We have inventory loss, how that comes off of our net profit, and then what does that look like? So I think it was really eye-opening. I honestly wish we would have probably allocated some more time to this exercise, because I think we could have gone even deeper with it, but I think that's the one thing that came up in the survey was like love the transparency. I don't think most companies would have shared stuff like that with their employees. It makes me feel like a partner, makes me feel like I'm a part of a bigger cause, of how this all plays out, so that it gives me chills, like just thinking about what happened during all that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's so cool. I think one of the best things that I did coming out of college was I had I was very fortunate I had two different opportunities to work before I graduated. One was with Punchmark and then one was with a company in New York City and the company in New York City was a very large company, and then Punchmark. At the time I was employee number nine and what I ended up, of course, going with Punchmark and the rest is history. But what I learned with Punchmark was because at the time we were so small and we were, you know, my boss and Dan Ross and Brian sat directly behind me facing the opposite way. But, you know, if I needed to, I could just ask Dan a question. If I had a question about what I was working on, which I did all the time, I sat next to Sarah, our our now our art director, and we, as we were learning I also we just talked and we talked and talked and talked. We listened to music, we listened to, but we also discussed the problems.
Speaker 1:I got to hear Jason, our director of education, on the phone At the time. He was a project manager and he would just. I could hear him working through things, and what it taught me the entire time especially listening to the you know the owners of the company discuss things is they were always focused. I always think of it as like driving. It's like there's. You can't be driving down the road and and have a clear head if you're looking at the steering wheel. And if you're looking at the steering wheel and how you're you're moving it, you're going to eventually go off the road.
Speaker 1:And I learned that they weren't just dealing with the day to day, they were also dealing with the bigger picture and the farther down the road that they could look. So what I'm trying to say is that I really valued having the opportunity to hear their perspective and hear what it was that was so valuable to them. It sounds like this. It sounds like this this exercise really gave that perspective to a lot of people, and I do understand that it might not be even possible to share all that information, but just getting people an idea and putting all the pieces out of the you know, out of the box, and putting them on the table for people to start to understand what it is that the landscape entails is, I think, really a valuable way to get buy in and also kind of understanding from the rest of the company on what the big vision is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and that's part of it too, is that now we've we used to be small enough where it was like what you were explaining, where everyone got to talk to my dad every day and, you know, knew all the little things. But now we have 28 employees and you know, we're all in our offices and doing what we need to be doing all day and it's not necessarily possible for us to have that hands-on approach with everybody on a day-to-day aspect. And now we've really focused on like okay, me and my parents, we're going to pour into our management team, so the management team can pour into the frontline team, and so it's kind of like a. You know just the way we have it structured now and it works. It's working really well for us. But you know, the conclave is the one day where we break all those barriers and everyone gets to hear straight from the person involved.
Speaker 2:And one aspect that I really like, too of the day is I give like a marketing update, since that's kind of my area and I just don't think that everyone really understands like how much goes into marketing this business and that, like that customer that comes in the door it's not by accident a lot of times, you know, and we've been around a long time, but we want to make sure that we're staying top of mind and that we're getting new customers. So I literally go through I don't go through everything, but most of our marketing initiative so they can see what it looks like to the customer and understand you know how much that's each one is costing. Like I don't think that they all realize that a billboard costs anywhere from 2,000 to 3,500 a month and we have eight of them, you know. So like I just don't think like they really realize how important that is. And then on in the edge or point of sale software, when they ring up a sale, there's a drop down menu that says a why in, why the customer came in.
Speaker 2:I've talked about this a couple of times on the podcast, but it's really the main way that I can track what marketing is working, because it's really hard to track, especially like digital initiatives to in store initiatives and all that. So I have to really rely on that why in? But my team gets lazy sometimes and they don't always ask people what brought you in today.
Speaker 2:So I really tried to explain to them why that's so important for them to stop and ask the customer, even if they're a repeat customer what brought them back in today, so that I know where to focus our, our budget and my time. I did a little quick test of it and we advertise on this radio. The Christian radio station in our area called the Joy FM, and I said raise your hand. If you've ever had a customer in the past year, say they heard us on the joy FM. Almost half the room raises their hand. But then I showed them on the why in report how literally no sales have been allocated to that, why in no one has picked that why in an entire year. So I'm like if I just went off this report I would stop this marketing avenue. And you guys, do you want me to do that? And they're all like no, no, no and I'm like okay. So when you hear someone say joy FM.
Speaker 2:I need you to pick that as the why in so I can see that properly. And they're all like, okay, okay, got it, got it. So I think that was good just to like help them understand like I my I can only do my job if you guys help me get that frontline information, so so that's a fun part of the day too and, I think, very eye opening for sure I.
Speaker 1:So my biggest push for all it was I started last year, but it's this year has been when you can't fix what you can't measure and at this point I now measure everything and I, because I'm trying to fix things, and when you it's you can't fix what you can't measure, but you also. Good data is clean data and what we've started to do is I've just started asking people oh, how'd you get this number? How did this pull up? And they're like oh, here's my math. And it's never a right or a wrong answer. It just gives me more perspective on it.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, I understand that when I ask my team leads every single week to submit their team's KPIs, these key performance indicators, when I ask them to submit them, I understand that it does take them time and it is kind of a pain in the neck and I got that.
Speaker 1:But what it does is it allows me to start to measure things and whether that means, for example, the customer success team.
Speaker 1:One of their KPIs is ticket volume. So how many tickets are coming in, and while I can't make a snap decision off of a week to week amount of tickets, what it has allowed me to do is now start to map ticket volume across the entire year, and I've now done this for a year and a half straight and I am going to be able to overlay that information so that next year, when people are like, oh, the busy part of the year is coming up, I want to be like, well, we're actually in the busy part of the year right now. Maybe we're having a less busy year, or maybe we're having way busier of a year and hopefully it'll end sooner, or we need another member. So I think that, while it is an extra additional task and ask, I think that that's also part of being a good manager, and being a good leader is letting people understand why I'm asking for that information. So totally agree, especially with the way that you presented it. That sounds like a great way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:So, alex, is there anything else about this Kiefer-Conclave employee appreciation, employee celebration that you would like to convey just in the wrap up? If people are trying to do this, it might be too late for them to run it for this year. But, as we know, a lot of owners and a lot of managers will start planning out their year starting in January. So we kind of wanted to get this in at the end of the year, especially when things are a little bit more joyous and hopefully people will kind of start to plan it in. Is there anything that you'd like to add just kind of in the wrap up?
Speaker 2:I would just say, like, start where you can. If you want to do an event like this, like you don't need to start it as a full day event your first time. You could do a half day. You could even just start it one hour and then build onto it. And I like to look for inspiration from when we go to trade shows. So there's been a lot of times I've taken topics and even materials from different seminars that I've attended at buying events and use that in the conclave.
Speaker 2:There's honestly so many resources out there free on the internet that you can look up to and exercise team building exercises. You can just snag right off the internet and just really start where you can. Definitely, I feel like it's going to be an episode you listen to maybe now in the holidays, and then come back to sometime next year when you can actually sit down and focus on it. But and it's great to be able to get it out while it's top of mind, because I know I've had a lot of people asking to don't be afraid to ask for some vendor participation that's one thing that my team has really enjoyed in the past. I've always just done like zoom calls. I've always made it a surprise to like we're going to have a surprise guest and they like they literally don't know who it's going to be till they pop up on the zoom call. So that's been fun.
Speaker 2:They last year in the feedback survey they said we really want the vendor to like come in person. So this year I got one of the reps, vidal from Guild and Fassett, to come in person. Wow, I really loved that. And he brought us like this huge box of really fancy chocolate and I think that really helped everyone.
Speaker 2:Just like put the face to the name. Like yeah, they email with him all the time, but like to get to sit down and talk with your rep like I get to do that because I go to the buying shows but all my employees don't get to do that, you know. So it was really a cool experience for them to get to hear straight from the representative and just see like he's a human being, like all of us, you know, and just make that personal connection. And he shared more about his experience and how he had he played a part in designing some of the styles for brilliant earth and stuff like that so like yeah, really, really cool guy and that was just like different stuff that like now they can go and use in their sales presentations.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, we use the designer that designed stuff for that company, you know. So I think it added a ton of value having a vendor and, you know, I think vendors are really willing to do that and be a part of it too and definitely make it fun If you can, you know, do any kind of like rewards or prizes throughout the day. People love that, and just don't be afraid to ask for the feedback and let it evolve. I think that's the cool thing about the conclave is, like the day it's evolved because of feedback I've gotten from my team and I want it to be valuable to them and that's why I try to like not get too emotional about anything that they might say. If it's like, oh, I didn't like that segment, I didn't like the segment, okay, no problem, let's try something different.
Speaker 1:No, ego yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I'm working on it, so so yeah it sounds like an amazing time.
Speaker 1:I love that you guys take the time out and also, you know we can't deny it it costs money too, and every single time you know we do our Christmas celebration, I try to make a special effort to sit down with the bosses at least one on one with each of them, and just tell them like hey, I know that this is an extra expense, I know that it takes time and effort and money, but I do appreciate it and it does.
Speaker 1:It does matter. So I hope that everybody who's listening I know that the holidays are a busy time. I understand. I understand that your guys' store are seeing the highest amount of traffic it most likely is going to for the entire year and you're probably more stressed than you have been the entire year. But those little special touches for your employees, for also for your, for your clients, really does matter. It goes a long way, especially during moments of higher stress. So I hope that we all kind of just keep that in our heads, Maybe keep that, as you know, top of mind as we go into the end of the year. And thanks so much for listening. Alex, thank you very much for sharing that story. Yeah, maybe I can't wait to hear about next year's for you guys as well.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:All right, cheers, everybody. We'll be back next week with another episode. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This week's episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. My guest this week was Alex Schlinwine, also known as Diamond Diaries. You can check her out on Instagram and learn more about successful retailer jewelry tips. This week's episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cochrum. Don't forget to leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop that's L-O-U-P-E and leave us a review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really helps the podcast grow. Check back here next week, tuesday, for another episode. Cheers, bye.