In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Exclusive First Interview with Edge Retail Academy's New CEO ft. Becka Johnson Kibby
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Mike sits down with Becka Johnson Kibby, the new CEO of Edge Retail Academy, to unpack real jewelry retail benchmarks, smarter inventory moves, and the coaching habits that outperform the market. We cover vendor partnerships, clienteling that actually works, and how to protect margin without leaning on discounts.
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Host Intro & Sponsor Message
SPEAKER_02Welcome 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 Becca Johnson Kibbe, and she's the new CEO of Edge Retail Academy. You've probably heard of Edge Retail Academy, but in case you haven't, they're the sister company to the Edge Point of Sale System, which is the most popular point of sale system in the jewelry industry. And they take the data from the point of sale system and they provide insights and information about it. They also provide a lot of coaching for retailers. They're also just some of my favorite people. I designed the Edge Retail Academy's website as one of my first websites I designed and built out at Punchmart. So I've always been very fond of them, and I've known Becca for quite a while in the industry. So getting a chance to sit down and interview her as the new CEO was a real treat. She has a remarkable view of the jewelry industry, and she kind of has a very clear uh idea of where she wants to go. So it was a fun conversation, and I hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_00This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, Punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. 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 and stitch together your digital and physical world in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmark.com slash go. And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01Oh, doing great. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02I'm so excited to get a chance to speak with you. You're one of the first people, actually, that I had uh really met and like developed a friendship with um way back in I think 2018, early 2018, uh, when we were building out your website. You were the first website I ever built, and I had this weird like fondness for that website because it was like the first one I really dove into. So I've always been following Edge Retail Academy. Could you maybe set up for the listeners what it is that Edge Retail Academy does if they are not familiar?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Well, first of all, our website's still amazing, and thank you for starting it up and made a few edits here and there, but that's awesome. Um, okay, so I'm Becca Johnson Kibbi with Edge Retail Academy. Um, look, our company is a business coaching firm uh with some other services that we add our, you know, add in for vendors and we do a lot of stats for the industry and things like that. I think that's it in just a really quick nutshell.
Sisterhood With The Edge POS
SPEAKER_02And maybe I know a lot of people are going to be familiar with the edge point of sale system. Um that's very, I mean, almost ubiquitous with the uh with the industry at this point. Could you maybe also set up what the relationship between the edge and the edge retail academy is?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. You know, so we've got a close relationship with the edge, um, long-standing in fact. The edge, the most widely used POS system in the jewelry industry created by Dick Abbott. Dick is also 50% owner of Edge Retail Academy, which naturally aligns our missions and work and things like that. In fact, we often refer to the Edge as our sister company. Um, and with that, each fall, we have a joint conference that we do, the Edge and Edge Retail Academy Conference, bringing together a vibrant community of Edge and Edge Retale Academy clients that uh, you know, they get to share insights together when they're there, connect with peers, learn about, you know, powerful edge features, but proven business building strategies from the Edge Retail Academy as well. So we have a close relationship. You'll usually find us side by side at all the jewelry shows we're at.
What Edge Pulse Tracks And Shares
SPEAKER_02I love it though. It's like the edge, their brand color is this like electric blue, and uh yours is this uh strong orange. And sitting next to each other, you can really see it, it does feel like a almost like a family thing. Yeah, two sisters or something like that. And I really uh always appreciate because we are usually positioned pretty close. You guys have Edge Village uh at all these jewelry uh shops. So um definitely a cool spot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the edge village is kind of fun. It just really brings together um, you know, select businesses that um are a part of the Edge Partner program. And by placing everybody in one kind of centralized area at the shows just makes it easy for jewelry retailers to discover solutions that help them run their business better.
SPEAKER_02And we'll get into the business coaching uh in a in a little bit. But for me, when I think of Edge Retail Academy, the way I kind of like see it in my brain, at least um on a very surface level, is you guys are able to see into the edge um point of sale system at to a greater depth and then draw inferences and uh data and insights from that information and be able to make uh reports and predictions based on that. Is that kind of like um a reasonable way to look at one aspect of your business?
Industry Trends: AOV Up, Units Down
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. That's called Edge Pulse. So we uh we directly connect to Edge Users POS and it takes their edge data and puts it into a platform called Edge Pulse. And one of the neat things about um Edge Pulse is it allows edge users to see what's happening in their store day to day up to the minute. So if you're you have a day off or you leave early for the day, you can literally look at your phone and see where the sales are at or who sold what. Um, but another big part of that is we're the largest aggregator of data in the jewelry industry. So what we do with that aggregated data is share it with the industry. So it gives everybody insights on what's happening, um, you know, what's happening in the industry, what's up, what's down, and things like that. And so people really look forward to that monthly vibe. Uh I guess e-blast that we put out there, we throw it out on social media as well. But we love sharing those stats because it helps you look at that and say, how am I doing compared to the rest of the industry? Am I ahead of the curve? Am I behind the curve? Or wow, people are really achieving that. I gotta aspire to do that. So it just gives you a little more insight than working in your own little bubble of your store day in and day out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I appreciate that you guys anonymize it essentially, where it's like an aggregate number. Uh, it's something that we try to do a lot of. And actually, in the episode before this one, one of the things I talk about is it seems like sometimes that data, once it's out there, it's out there. And sometimes I feel like people play with it really close to the uh to the vest, and they like they're always like hiding the state uh stats and data. And it's like, oh, you need to pay me for the stats. But then there's oh, we do this as well. It's like, then there's people that actually have this really nice data that they're just putting out there. And I think that that's the stuff I wish I could encourage more businesses to do is uh hey, provide an a normalized and um anonymized data set about how retailers are doing so that they can see where they fall, and then we can have more early warnings about maybe your business isn't doing as strong as it could be, and we should get some get you some help, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, there's we always encourage our coaching clients to look internally and how did you do this month compared to the same time last year or this quarter, the same time last year? But then there's that component of, but what's happening in the rest of the jewelry world? So it's important to look at your own numbers compared to yourself, but then how do you compare to the rest of the industry? That's why we feel so compelled to share this data and share what the market trends are, because it really does help people get a sense of what's happening out there and what they should do, or can you change course um depending on what the trends are and what we're seeing?
Inventory Health And Exit Strategies
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I always like when I see yours, uh, the the pulse is is generally based on the edge um in-store point of sale uh selling aspect. And we are strictly online, I can't see what's going on in stores. So I always like to kind of, it's almost like a um a very select data on our end. And I sometimes like to run it. And what was cool was I saw one from uh your um uh partner counterpart, uh Sherry Smith, where she was saying, um, it was just a national jeweler that the number of transactions was about the same as last year, but the average order value was up, and as a result, it was a great year last year. And that's exactly what we saw on the e-commerce side of things, where it was like uh it's almost like no one did anything different, but price of gold really kind of pulled the cart forward on it for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, Sherry loves numbers and she loves the stats, so she's amazing on our team because she takes all of our Edge Pulse data and then she puts it out there in easy to understand format for everybody to look and see what's happening. Um, so yeah, you're right. So the cool thing was the holiday retail sales, November to December 2025, exceeded$1 trillion for the first time making like historic milestone. But you're right, um, you know, like sales were up 5% across all products, um, but a sizable portion was grown by that price, uh the price increase. So it was price-driven. Um, the higher average retail sales were really key. It was up 12% from the previous year. Um, and unit sales were down 6%. So if you think about um number of sales or traffic coming in your store, so less bodies coming in, but we're selling more to each one of those bodies coming in. And that's really what helped increase the sales, which was huge. So, you know, as we move into 2026, um, success will be achieved by having the right inventory, um, definitely clientele, bringing more bodies into your door, uh, you know, the relationships and things like that, um, making disciplined inventory decisions because of some of those stats we're seeing, and really converting all of the clients or as many of the clients that come into your store as possible, including repair clients. Who's coming in to get something repaired? Can we turn them over to, you know, try to show them some jewelry items? Um, so really maximizing that opportunity when you get clients in the door.
Vendor Partnerships And Sell‑Through Data
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And as the average, you know, average order value goes up, it's usually because average unit price is also up. And I do think that there's something to be said about that means like it's not all sunshine and roses with that. I do think that like people do need to be a little bit more careful with what they're buying and what they're, you know, their stinkers, because you have a lot of your capital locked up with, you know, a couple of stinkers. And as a result, it's it's more important to be able to turn those over or just be really aggressive with your liquidations, I guess.
SPEAKER_01You know, you hit such a key point. Um, you are right on. We we always get our clients to have the healthy, healthiest inventory possible, which means having an exit plan for those things that really aren't working out for you and things that don't sell quick. So whether you're looking at it from the prices of gold being up or down or whatever, no matter where the price of gold is, we still follow our core principles when we work with our clients. And when it comes to inventory, that's not moving. When our clients have inventory that's over 365 days old. And again, that's a generalized um principle of looking at it, some categories, it'll age out a little bit earlier than that if it's seasonal or smaller priced items. Um, but we want to try to stock balance first with our vendor partners. But that also doesn't mean showing up to a show saying, hey, none of these things worked, take them all back. It's about, hey, here's some things that aren't selling. I want to turn them around and make sure I'm reordering my fast my fast sellers often with that vendor partner because that's a win-win for the relationship. Um, you know, we can also look at remaking, remounting some things, um, reach out to clients that maybe have these things on wish lists and things like that. Um, you know, so there's a lot of different things that we try. Scrapping is the very last thing to do. But right now, with the price of gold being so high, that has been a really great option for a lot of people. Um, bottom line, we want the non-performing inventory out of our store. We want it gone. Um, the high price of gold is just a great added bonus right now to be able to do it that way.
Vision For ERA: Growth Mindset & Coaching
SPEAKER_02You know, it's really interesting that you that you talk about that feedback with the uh the vendors and the retailers and also with yourself kind of there helping facilitate it. It is something that I think um it seems like it's increasing every single year, where the the communication channels are just becoming stronger and stronger. Um when it comes to your end, a lot of times you guys like us, we're we're battling for the retailers. Um, I know you guys have some um vendor-based programs. What is the conversation like when you're speaking with them? Because obviously we all have the retailers' uh best interests at heart. What is the conversation like when you start talking to uh to vendors right now?
SPEAKER_01Well, first of all, we've got a great vendor partner program, which gives vendors great visibility into what's selling quickly at retail, enabling them to keep more of those high-demand items in stock. And this allows vendors to replenish retailers faster when they call to reorder their best sellers. So retailers choose to opt into that, share their sell-through data with the vendors they select. And in return, retailers benefit from faster sell, for excuse me, from faster restocking of their top selling items because vendors already know what's moving. So when vendors are in this program, they can see across the board through their retailers their products that are selling through quickly. They know to get more of those in stock, remake them, have them there, um, and have that ready to ship. So the result is truly a win-win program that helps both vendors and retailers grow their business. So definitely having vendor partners that you share information with is a huge benefit in getting your business to grow and theirs. So it's just it grows into an even bigger partnership at that point.
SPEAKER_02I love that. Yeah, it seems like there are some the most successful uh vendors that I've had the privilege of interacting with lately are the ones that seem to have they are right there in store with you, it seems like. And they are if if they're winning, they want to hear about it. And if they have a, if they come out with a couple stinkers, they want to hear about that too. Um, just in speaking with uh Craig McBean just recently from Ospie, um, hearing him, he's like, you know, I I I'm not in the store, but I can be if I speak to all my retailers. And I think that that's kind of the attitude that I'm hoping increasing number of uh vendors are going to adopt.
Global Footprint: AUS/NZ Coaching Roots
SPEAKER_01So yeah, and some of the most successful vendors right now are the ones that are really work willing to work with their jewelry retailers and keep in close touch and help them curate that inventory based on what's you know, what the sell-through is, uh, making sure that they've got their fast sellers in stock and things like that. And that is just a winning recipe for growing your business in general.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Becca, I want to ask about what your vision for Edge Retail Academy is for this year, 2026 and beyond. Where do you want to take this already rather successful business? Um, do you want to spin off new programs or do you want to strengthen the ones that are already there? Where do you want to take uh take the business?
The WAG Award: Excellence Criteria
SPEAKER_01Great question. You know, first of all, I'm celebrating 13 years with Edge Retail Academy. So I've seen a lot of things that we've done along the way. Yeah. Um and I'm lucky. I work with the most amazing team and then we've got great clients, which is pretty cool. But stepping into this CEO role has been both a huge honor and a responsibility that I don't take lightly. And mostly because I do know that there's future growth for us. We have been a growing company for years and years and years. Um, and I love to keep building on that growth environment. So I'm excited about our future plans and I can share some of those with you. Um, you know, something I'm a big believer in is having a growth mindset and constantly growing personally, but also growing our clients, growing our team and things like that. And, you know, change is an important part of growth. So when I think about my vision for where Edge Freetale Academy is going or where we want to go, that growth mindset is a key part of that. Um, you know, in fact, a lot of people don't know this, but we have been a business coaching firm since 2010. And with that, when we look at that, um we hired our own business coach a couple of years ago to really look at retail academy, that's so cool. Yes, yeah. So I personally work with a business coach, um, a couple higher-ups in our in our company do. And we we had somebody, you know, it's really cool because the whole business coaching relationship with our clients is we're an outside voice looking in. So we we're not emotionally attached to your people, your inventory and anything else. So we're off we're able to offer kind of a clear view of where we see there's opportunities in your business. So the same thing for us. We hired a coach that um, you know, he's helped us expand our offerings to our clients, look at our business from the outside with a fresh set of eyes, and also help us create and provide more resources and tools to help our clients maximize and achieve their business goals. Um, and then on top of it, I personally had the extreme pleasure of just attending a business coaching forum and training in Australia with coaches from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, an amazing network of super sharp coaches, but so many fabulous ideas that I can't wait to put in place that we're already starting to work on and heading into this new year already. But people might not also know that we've got another part of our company in Australia and New Zealand. So we also have a business coaching firm in Australia and New Zealand and helping a lot of jewelry retailers there as well. So I guess if I have to really say, you know, what are the big plans this year to continue to grow, offer more to our clients, offer our clients a way to um to help them personally grow and professionally.
2026 Playbook: Curate, Clientele, Protect Margin
SPEAKER_02Man, yeah, first of all, I want to ask about this Australian um arm of the business. Uh, can you talk about the differences between uh you know North American uh-based jewelry, jewelry businesses, jewelry retailers, and maybe Australian, just because one time when I first joined here, I I asked my bosses, like, hey, why do we only service North America? Why don't we do like Europe or why don't we do South America? And they were like, you know, like the way that retailers are in North America is just it's it that's the way that they are in North America and not necessarily the way that they are in in Europe. And I think that I had never thought about that. Can you explain how like a business can service, you know, a place that's uh several thousand miles away from uh from the US?
SPEAKER_01Well, that's a great question. So actually, our coaching uh company started over in Australia and New Zealand. Um, we've got still part of our business that's over in both of those areas, and it's called retail edge consultants over there. And then when David, our chairman of the board, met Dick years ago, they decided to bring the coaching over here, um, Dick Abbott from the edge. So, anyways, we uh it started over in New Zealand and Australia, and it's moved here. Um, but I can tell you this there are similar issues that people deal with. You know, the market might be slightly different in different areas, but at the same time, there's core principles for building and running your business. So we share a lot of those and maybe um, you know, make some alterations um for the current market in both areas. But we're very closely aligned with what we do.
SPEAKER_02Really, really interesting. It's uh I always wish that we had, you know, more opportunities to travel abroad like that. And the fact that you were able to go to a coaching conference, that's that's very, very cool. Um, perhaps maybe on the topic of coaching. Um, I want to talk uh about that as a um as a service that you provide. Um, the way that I was introduced to it is through um you offer this annual award, the uh the William Wag Wagner Award, um, named after former uh employee of um Edge Retail Academy, um, seemed like an amazing guy. And now it's handed, it's um awarded annually. Could you maybe just give an overview on what you're looking for for retailers that win this?
Clienteling In Practice: VIP Experiences
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. This is one of our favorite things to award each year. We have our whole team together in December, and it's a tough award to win. We've got several hundred business coaching clients, and every one of our 11 business coaches has to put only one forward that they believe has, you know, they're it's recognized for excellence among our business coaching jewelry retailers and to honor Wagg's legacy, as you as you mentioned. So I'll jump into that just quick before I go on to how we pick them. Um, but Wag was um William Wagner, but we called him Wag. Um, he was one of our business coaches for years and passed away. And so we thought we wanted to put something in place that would honor him and really honor an outstanding independent jewelry retailer that Wag would be proud of us to nominate. So we look at a lot of things. There's the big part on the stats, you know, how well are they doing sales growth wise, profit growth wise, um, inventory, are they at their optimum inventory level and aged inventory and gross profit and gross margin, a whole bunch of things. But then on top of it, because of Who WAG was, we really look at the behavior of the jeweler. You know, do they attend all the meetings with us consistently? Are they implementing change, sort of being open-minded to wanting to change their business and putting new things in place, implementing things, things like that. Um, so we really look at a lot of different things because we we do um have awards that we give out just for stats. Um, but you know, the ideal WAG award winner is really somebody that's consistently engaged, they're receptive to feedback, um, proactive at implementing strategies. And by the way, they're doing amazing because of those things. So their stats naturally follow that.
SPEAKER_02It's it's so cool. I look at it every single year. I was just telling you before we got on. I uh I follow this like uh like the Emmys. I'm just like, I always want and I'm like weirdly competitive, and I always look to see if they're uh a punch more client. And a couple of them, a couple friends of the show, um, I've had on the the Falls brothers from Falls Jewelers on uh 2020 winners and uh they've been on on in the loop several times. And uh just recently um I met with uh uh at the client workshop in in Charlotte that we host every year. Um we had uh Quest, Quest Jewelers, and they were the let me see, like the looks like the 2024 winners.
SPEAKER_01Um they're amazing too.
SPEAKER_02They're great. And I like went up to them, I I like introduced myself, like, yeah, Michael. And um, they're like, oh, I'm with Quest. And I was like, oh, you guys won the Wag Award. And they're like, how did you know that? It's like I follow that. I was so excited when we signed you because of it. It's it's really a cool thing that you guys do that. And uh I hope that more more businesses uh take um, you know, really invested and uh deep interest in their business in their um in their clients like you guys are. Uh it's something that we try to do at Punchmark, that it's not just about like, you know, another name on the on the ledger. It's uh it's important for their success. Like we're not we're not just here just to collect dollars. It's about, I think that the jewelry industry and ecosystem seems to have more roots than than just the surface level. And I think that's what makes us different.
SPEAKER_01I agree with you.
How ERA Matches Coaches To Retailers
SPEAKER_02So, Becca, uh setting our sights on the future, it's our I guess honestly learning from the past as well. I wanted to hear about what you were seeing from 2025 and hear about like um maybe just talking about it as a glance, any trends that might have jumped out at you. And then we consider sets on 2026 and what if you're willing to make a prediction on what you think will uh will be, you know, kind of taking place in the industry as well. Um, anything that you're willing to share?
SPEAKER_01Well, first of all, just because of the stats and because of the stats that we've seen continually kind of go this way, where we're seeing the average retail sale uh grow um and we're seeing units drop, that's been kind of a trend we've seen for a while. I can tell you the jewelers that are seeing the most gain in their business are people that are really focusing on having a healthy inventory, but like curating their inventory to fuel sales. Not I'm just gonna go out and buy what I want and what I like, but what are my stats showing me? What are what are um you know, what are the reports showing me that I should buy? What are the fast sellers that people are buying quickly and then I'm not replacing? So when I replace those things quickly, we're going to sell them quickly again, usually. So the stores that we see growing the most have a very well-maintained inventory. They've got inventory management system in place. They are tackling the aged inventory, really keeping that low and not waiting till things are two years old. Um, you know, they there are some people that just say, hey, let's just take it out of the cases and leave it in the vault. And now everything looks fresh. But then we're still not addressing what are we doing with that aged. So inventory is a big part of it. Um, really clienteling. Now, clientelling, I feel like, has been a key for years.
SPEAKER_02Buzzword for sure.
Final Takeaways & Where To Learn More
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is a buzzword, but how well are we doing it? And is there just one or two of your salespeople doing it, or is is it part of your culture? Because I can tell you you can have the best marketing in the world. And we hope people come in from that. But that one-on-one relationship you have when you literally pick up the phone or you text one of your good clients or you email them, you check in, you invite them back in, those are the people that are easier to sell. They generally spend more money. So why aren't we taking time to focus our time there? One big thing we hear is we just don't have time to clientele. But then I urge you to look at what are you doing in your store and what could you stop doing in order to make more time to reach out to people and bring people into, you know, to sell more to. So clientele's a big one. And constantly looking at um, you know, your margins. So it, you know, when you get the people in the door, now don't discount everything. You know, what are we doing to keep our prices where they should be, keep our margins up? Because we can certainly sell more people. And if the margins are low, we're not making as much money. So that's not fun. Um, so it, you know, there's some key things, but but the goal is relationships, a great experience when people come in your store. These are things that make people want to come in and spend more time with you. Here's the other part with inventory. You can have the most beautiful store, the best sales team, but really your clients come to see you because you've got things they want to buy. So if you keep letting the aged inventory creep up and you have less and less of the fast sellers, then a lot of times our money's tied up in aged inventory. So we can't replace the fast sellers. And if you don't have enough of those things that excite people to come back to you and more often, that's when your sales start to drop. So those are really the key things to focus on this year and things that we're currently working with our coaching clients on.
SPEAKER_02So cool that you talked about each of those aspects. Uh, some of we had a retail round table on uh just before uh the holidays, uh leading right into it. And I try to get it right as they're about to start going dark on us. And I asked them, okay, what are you doing different this year? And I think two out of the three were like, we're not discounting anything, no discounts. And I thought that was a really novel approach. Yeah, just because, man, you know, if you if you discount everything, 20%, and you were going to make those sales anyways, like suddenly you're just making 20% less. And it's just like you're eating into your own in uh your own um profit. And I just thought that when you hear when I hear you say that, I thought that that was a very uh tangible kind of mindset shift that really uh kind of you know struck me as important. So glad to hear that that's important for you as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and on the discounting, we've got some tools that we use with our clients because we'll show them, hey, 10% doesn't sound like a lot. But if you discount everything 10%, here's how much harder you're gonna have to work to bring in the same number of sales and profit. And it's a crazy number. And so we we we take that graph and we fit in whatever their current discount percentage is. And if we brought that down, how much more would you be making? And it's pretty significant. Um, so when you really look at the number of sales that you discount it, it's a it's a huge um part of either not making as much money or having more money in your bank account.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And uh on the same topic of uh clientele, um, we had one uh of our clients, um, Anna Barnett from Barnett Jewelers. Oh, she's wonderful. She's wonderful as well. And she uh was told me this story about how she would drive to her VIPs, you know, these this handful of clients, and she would go out there and she would do private um, you know, showings for them and like get give them the opportunity to pick from the comfort of their own home because they've earned it. And I was like, what's what's stopping? And we're like, nothing's stopping us from from from getting in our own way when it and it just sounds like such a wonderful, like hand touch to it. You of course you don't need to do that the entire year, but making you know, showing them that you're making time for them is just uh talk about a way to incentivize a long-term client. So uh I'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_01Well, and making your clients feel special like that, because you can't do that for everyone. But the more you can do that and and lift that experience, that's everything.
SPEAKER_02I love it. Yep. That's the kind of stuff that when I as I talk to retailers, I've learned that there is a lot of different ways to run a jewelry business, and there's no limits to how creative and and innovative you can be when it comes to selling just relatively the same kind of stuff. What are we all doing? Selling rare metals and uh precious precious stones. And uh, but the way that you do it is kind of, I think, the art of it all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What makes you stand out? What's your competitive advantage? All of those things are so important now.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Now, Becca, I'll just give you the opportunity. Um, where can people learn more about Edge Retail Academy? Um, if they're trying to learn uh a little bit more and maybe bring you guys on board, where could they go and learn more?
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, people can always go to our website, edgeretailacademy.com. They can email us at info at edgeretailacademy.com. But one of the things I don't know if our website really portrays, and it's it's hard until you actually are involved in our coaching program. But we're very different than just, hey, we'll improve your financials or we'll optimize your inventory or we'll make sure you, you know, you have well-trained salespeople or you have operational excellence. All of those things are important and we work on a whole host of things. But our purpose is to improve people's lives. And we do that through helping them with their business and having the most amazing business possible. Um, you know, we truly feel that it's important to be a partner in our clients' growth. Um, it's almost like we become part of their team when they come on board, where that friend that challenges them or gives them that little positive push and help people realize that the cost and delay. So sometimes you have something you know you want to change or you should change, but you don't quite get to it. And that cost and delay, we help our clients see that without making some of these small changes sooner than later, it really costs you day after day, week after week, month after month. Um, and I think we really dig into the mindset with our clients. So, you know, having the right coach in front of you, but them having the right mindset to want to make change and how do you do that? So a big part for us is not just giving you all the answers, it's helping you learn how to fish so you can continue to fish on your own moving forward. So, our coaching isn't just about better results, it's about our clients helping them change because in the end, it changes their business, which is so cool to be a part of and see. We absolutely love that. And one of the things that I just have to share with you that I love, we grade ourselves at the end of each year because we've got all these stats of how the jewelry industry is doing in general. And then what we do, and that's the full group of jewelers we have in our system. And then we just take our coaching clients and we look at well, wait a minute, how did they do compared to the general industry? Our clients outperform the industry year after year. So for every, you know, when we look at that, it's like their, you know, gross profit grew 53 million last year, or age inventory was cut 24 million, like huge numbers, and it's crazy. And so we look at those stats and look at where we're making change in our clients' business because that tells us are we on the mark or do we need to do better in certain areas to help our clients get there? So um we believe in looking in the mirror, eating our own cooking, and um being better ourselves so that we can make our clients better.
SPEAKER_02That's so cool to hear. And you mentioned you have what, 11 business coaches currently? Yeah. Yeah. Do any of them?
SPEAKER_01And growing.
SPEAKER_02Yes, and growing. And is that something that you hope to have each coach specialize in a type of jewelry business? Or is it better to have them be more uh more, I don't want to say well-rounded because that implies the opposite if it's not. Is it like people that might be um they can talk to anybody from one million to a$10 million store? Or do you have some coaches that are they specialize in the$1 million stores and some coaches specialize in like the super large, you know,$50 million stores?
SPEAKER_01You know, that's a really great question. Um, we actually uh so we work with all different businesses, um anybody from a startup that needs a few meetings to get started to multi-multi-million dollar businesses that have several locations. Um more so our business coaches all um pretty much all come from the jewelry industry for years and years and a strong coaching background. And so when I bring somebody into the program that's wanting help and is wanting coaching, I look at the areas that they most want and need the help in their business. We're very well-rounded and very tailored. Um, so you know, everybody gets something just a little different based on their needs. But I look at what their needs are and then I look at our coaching team and I think, okay, who in their background with what they've done is very strong in these areas. And who do I think is going to have a good personality fit to? Because I truly believe when you click with your coach, you both move mountains together and we love seeing that. And when we don't get that right, we make a switch with the coach because um sometimes it is personality driven. And then we'll be working with the client for, you know, a couple of years, and then they'll say, I really need help in this area. And our business coaches might say, you know what, you've got to work with so-and-so on our team because that's their whole background and they're amazing there. So while I do believe our coaches are pretty well-rounded, we absolutely have because of where they came from in the jewelry industry and what they did for years and years before they came to us as a coach, um, there are strengths there. And so we will move some clients around to make sure they're in front of the best person to give them the best advice. But that being said, we do we do have some core principles and I guess core um curriculum that we use with a lot of our clients, but it's just tailored and customized based on their size, their location, um, you know, all those kind of things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Every jewelry store is is very different. And hearing that you have a more tailored approach is is really uh heartening to hear. It's something that we're trying to do as well, is that we kind of boil ours down into the different avenues of business for a jewelry retailer. So, you know, are you doing a lot of your um your revenue on custom work? If so, then we should probably tailor your website into that. Or are you trying to move a lot of e-commerce? Or are you trying to, you know, be your local jeweler? Like are you trying to be like a a smaller mom and pop, you know, community-driven type of store? They all they're all different. You can't have a one size fits all for every jeweler, um, because you're going to be wrong on some of them. So the fact that you guys are doing that too is very cool.
SPEAKER_01Um Yeah, you know, we we really believe in looking at all pieces of the puzzle of somebody's business. So even if you came to us and really specifically need help in inventory or sales growth, we always have our eyes on the other areas too, because we want everything to stay healthy. So we are very well-rounded that way, even though we might be working on one or two areas. But it is important to be able to tailor and customize these days because a one size does not fit all, and especially not in business coaching.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. No, Becca, just to wrap this thing up, um, any any final thoughts? Uh, it's gonna be your first year as CEO. Um, very excited. I hopefully get a chance to see you at JCK. Um, anything uh for the for the people listening at home before we wrap this thing up?
SPEAKER_01You know, first of all, I I just I think the industry's um it at an exciting part. I think there's a lot of growth that we see. I think there's um there's a lot of great things to be achieved in 2026. And I think um, you know, people really focusing on some of the key areas of their business and tightening them, strengthening them, and things like that, I think it's really important. Um, I love what you guys do in the it at In the Loop and Michael, you're amazing at doing this. So it's been a fun conversation to have. But yeah, if I if I can just leave the listeners with anything, it's really focus on your business, take charge. Don't be afraid to, you know, remember that cost and delay. Um, take charge of things and make make some change because you're gonna see a lot of growth this year by doing that.
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SPEAKER_02If not today, then when? And uh I really appreciate it, Becca. Thank you so much. I'm very excited for you all. And um, I'll be following along quite quite closely. But everybody, thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week, Tuesday, with another episode. Cheers. Bye. All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. My guest this week was Becca Johnson Kibby, the new CEO of Edge Retail Academy. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, Michael Burpa. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cocker. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and leave his feedback on punchmark.com slash loop. That's L O U P E. Thanks, and we'll be back next week, Tuesday, with another episode. Cheers. Bye.
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