In this episode…
Join David Hernandez, host of There’s Always a Lyric, as he chats with Yohan Jacob, founder of Retailbound. They dive into the retail industry’s complexities, discuss Retailbound’s unique approach to brand success, and explore the importance of understanding both manufacturers and retailers. Plus, Yohan shares which lyrics resonate with him the most!
Episode Transcript
lotus823 (0:19)
There’s Always A Lyric is sponsored by lotus823. At lotus823 your goals are our goals. We help consumer tech, home, and lifestyle brands gain visibility, drive relevant traffic, and increase sales through customized public relations and marketing strategies. Want to learn more? Head over to lotus823.com or get in touch at biz@lotus823.com today.
David Hernandez (0:44)
Welcome to another episode of There’s Always A Lyric. My name is David Hernandez. I’m a managing partner here at lotus823, which kindly sponsors this, yay! And I have today, Yohan Jacob, not only a good colleague and friend from the industry, but Yohan is the actual founder and president of Retailbound. And his journey in retail is nothing short of extraordinary. With over 30 years of experience, he’s a veteran who’s seen it all, from the inner workings of consumer electronics manufacturers to the strategic planning rooms of billion dollar retailers. His ability to understand both sides of the retail equation is rare and truly invaluable. At Retailbound, Yohan and his team have revolutionized the way over 4,000 clients around the world approach retail. From innovative startups to dynamic small and medium sized enterprises, he has guided them through the complexities of merchandising, marketing, product development, and so much more. His approach isn’t just about getting products on the shelf, it’s about creating lasting, profitable partnerships with retailers, Yohan’s expertise extends to every corner of retail merchandising, including the nuances of online and in store marketing, effective licensing strategies, impactful packaging, and strategic vendor negotiations. He’s a master at turning inventory management from a challenge into a strategic advantage. And boy, that is a lot that you do for a lot of people. Welcome, Johan.
Yohan Jacob (2:18)
Thank you for having me, David.
David Hernandez (2:19)
It’s a pleasure and I really want to start where things are right now with Retailbound and the whole journey that’s led you to the point where Retailbound has really become a true solution, especially for innovative startup brands, and even those small to mid size players that really need a leg up and guidance after they’ve created that great product. Like what happens now? How are things going?
Yohan Jacob (2:50)
Yeah, so business is good. I mean, honestly, when we started Retailbound nearly 17 years ago we had one goal in mind, helping young brands avoid some of the common mistakes I made when I was a supplier back in the early 90’s. When I was selling to retailers like Copiers, a RadioShack, Montgomery Ward’s, retailers who aren’t here today, right? I made a lot of mistakes, more than I’d like to admit on this on his podcast, because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, nor did I have a company like Retailbound tell me what not to do, right? So that’s why we created this company, to help how brands all shapes and sizes, not just how to sell to retailers but how to work with retailers as well. By the way, David.
David Hernandez (3:00)
And in those origin days, let’s call it. In those in those early days of the company. What was Retailbound like? What was life like, at Retailbound? Was it you? Did you have a crew already? Or did it just start from a bootstrap startup?
Yohan Jacob (3:53)
I get asked that a lot by a lot of ex merchants who want to be consultants. “If you could do it Yohan, anyone can do it.” Give or take, give or take. I did something that I wouldn’t recommend to most merchants or VP of Sales or manufacturers is quit your job by and doing full blown. Back, ya know 17 years ago, my wife was a stay at home mom with a baby and another one on the way. You know, if I don’t do it now I’ll have regrets. I’d be in my 50’s or 60’s saying coulda, woulda, shoulda. So i said, you know, I’m in my late 30s, I’ll give it a shot. I figure it didn’t work out for me, I’d get a job hopefully at Best Buy corporate or Costco corporate or Target. Fingers crossed, right? So I started out knocking on doors, broadly speaking, and landed my first client after a couple of weeks. Lo and behold, we got our clients open. Hopefully within six months to eight months I was able to equal the salary I was making at a previous employer. So hopefully by a year and a half, I’m able to double the salary. But it wasn’t the money. It was really finding clients who value my experience of many years of merchandising to help them fast track or as the young kids say today, hack the system. All of these young brands, when they try to reach out to a large retailer like Best Buy, or Target, like a job interview, large retail buyers know which brands are ready to work with them and which aren’t. The ones aren’t waste their time, waste the buyers time and don’t get a second chance of making a first impression. So that’s why they come in for a fresh start. In the first few months, they knock on doors, and networking like we do currently today. And lo and behold we have a very fun business for 17 plus years.
David Hernandez (6:00)
That’s amazing. It’s amazing. It really started at a very delicate point in your personal life with, you know, a young family and another one on the way, kind of thing. In retrospect, it was quite courageous. But the message I got is you bet on yourself.
Yohan Jacob (6:21)
Well, yes, I’d say before I took the leap of faith, I wrote a How To book, part of my bucket list of things I want to do such as getting married, have a couple of kids, be on this podcast, by the way, check, check, check. And my other one was to write a book. “What should I write about?” well what about retail? Even today, now, I want a few retail consultants who’ve been on both sides of the retail and buyer. That’s one of our main unique selling propositions of Retailbound. So I wrote a book in 2006 called Retail Bound, Learn How To Sell Your Product’s to Retailers. I was still working for OfficeMax Corporate. It’s on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. I think we sold 25,000 copies of the book worldwide. Not bad for a guy here in the middle of Chicago. And as you know, there’s a lot of people, mostly smaller brands that need help. So thanks to my wife in my my daughter and my parents, and my employer, I quit my job and said I’m not turning back. Basically the company was birthed from a book I wrote as part of my bucket list, 18 years ago.
David Hernandez (7:40)
Amazing. In those, let’s call it pre and then early days, right? So pre Retailbound, and then the early days of Retailbound. Were there people in your life that you had met through your network, or through work experiences, that you feel when you look back this person really helped me or they were a great mentor in pointing me in the right direction?
Yohan Jacob (8:11)
So I would say that, you know, in my corporate career as a merchant I’ve had plenty of good bosses. I had a boss named Jim Smith. Common name like Jim Jones. Right? Jim was my senior buyer when I first started out in the late 90’s as a merchant, and I was very fortunate to work with him. He showed me the ropes of being a merchant, and always taught me that, it’s in the book, by the way, the first and second edition of the book, that you’re not as good as you think you are as a merchant. The merchant, we always think oh find the next hot product right and we’re in. Like your baseball record, or you’re as good as your last putts, the last swing at the plate. And many merchants think, oh, we know everything. We’re the kings or queens, right? But unfortunately we’re not perfect. There are times when we products into stores and it’s not a success. So Jim taught me a lot about being humble, taking chances, right? And really find out how to really grow my business. When I started Retailbound, one of the first things I did David, and I’ve told other young ages, I actually mentor like you I give back as well, is to surround yourself with people that can help you with your deficiencies, your blind spot, I call it. As a merchant, we tend to be very egocentral. I know everything, I’m a merchant, I know everything right? You don’t. Especially when you’re on this side as a consultant or an agency. So one of the first things I did when I created the company was to create a board of advisors, a paid board of advisors. We had three people that had backgrounds in your digital marketing, entrepreneurship, marketing, right? And every three or four years, we would rotate those three individuals. So every three years, I would have someone new, saying, hey, go left or go right, or, Hey, let’s go this way. But when I was first started out and it was just me, not the team I have today, and I got to use you as well. It was me and the dog. So I had to create a board of advisors, that would, at least, you know, tell me okay, you’re doing this right, you did this wrong, and so forth. That’s one of the smarter things that did to start the company 17 years ago.
David Hernandez (10:46)
It’s so important to have those sparks, those moments, with people like Jim Smith, that kind of get you to see the bigger picture of yourself in the end. Just kind of staying on the thread of the industry itself, and specifically, where you are now, how do you see the industry? I mean, we’ve both been doing this for more than we know. A long time. We both remember when headphones were in one color. How do you feel about the industry and the current state of the industry with the changes in technology that have come, not just rapidly but that speed has continued to speed up? And now with AI a month is a year right? How do you see the industry? Are you feeling good about it? Where are you?
Yohan Jacob (11:46)
I’ll approach your question in two different ways. I’ll approach it by product selection, consumer electronics, one category you and I both play in and retail in general. So for products, yes. A quote I always used to say when I bought DVD players is, we eat our young. It took 15 years for the VCR to go from $1,000 to $99. Took four years for the DVD player to go from $1,000 to a $99 thanks to Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears, Walmart, right? We tend to eat our young. While you’re in CE and I’ve been in the CE field for over 32 years. Right, so yeah, I think as this space continues to grow, in certain categories like alt tech, smart home, VR & AR, AI right? Those categories will continue to blossom and more retailers will continue to add space. I was in a Best Buy store yesterday as part of a common shop for one of our newer clients and I was very impressed with how Best Buy layed out the store. I was there maybe a year ago at store and it wasn’t as open or friendly, or up to date as it was yesterday. So kudos to Best Buy. As for the CE industry and retail, we thought COVID 2020 okay, retail’s dead, right? It’s not dead. In fact, in 2023 or 2024 about 60% of retailers are planning to add stores this year and last year versus 20% decreasing stores. That’s why media says Oh, Best Buy closed 10 stores or they hard closed 3 stores right? It gets media attention. I think it forces retailers to think differently, and not to rely on the same old playbook. Less buy online, shop in store, as an example. Better educated associates in store like the blue shirts and Best Buy or having tools online help entrepreneurs help sell themselves before they make a position right? So retailers have gotten a lot smarter since COVID, which is good. The ones that haven’t are probably no longer in business ie Fries as an example. As an industry right now, I think retail is still grappling between the economy, right? What are the hot new products that are a must haves, that would be nice to have? Do I really need an 8k TV over my four year old 4k TV, that’s just good enough. So I think there are some challenges in the industry or retail in general but again, it goes in cycles. As long as you and I’ve been in business, we’ve seen the highs and the lows. Right? So weather the storm as I would say.
David Hernandez (12:38)
That kind of leads into the next question which is, what do you feel is Retailbound’s Why? But I feel that you sit in a unique position in terms of what you provide to brands entering into the retail space, both unique because of your background as you stated earlier, but also, because of the entire business model of how Retailbound works with these brands. What do you feel right now in terms of your purpose, as Retailbound? Is the biggest leg up that you can give a young brand? Do you feel it’s in developing the retail strategy? Or do you feel is also just as important to help them on things, almost like an accelerator to really understand what their roadmap should be looking like over the next couple of years? And have they thought about X, Y, or Z? Just can you give me a little bit?
Yohan Jacob (16:01)
I will say almost all the above. But I think a lot of our clients that come to us, they have a board of advisors or an investor and while they have all yes people, yes men and women on their team. At Retailbound, yeah, we’re consultants get paid at a certain fee but if we feel that they’re going off the track, we’re the first to raise our hands saying listen, “Hey, David, I like your strategy. However, I think you might be looking at a different way. Let’s get back on task.” Right? Our job is to help brands get it all the way. We have some clients that should be in front of a buyer. Right? We have clients that don’t have the time, or the interest in being in front of a buyer, right? So we take some of that work off their plates, but I think you know. What makes us a little different, like why brands like having Retailbound on their team is now we have a consultant, who’s been in the shoes about themselves. But more importantly, their customer. That’s our retail buyer. So now you’re actually talking to a former buyer, who knows what tricks, really which strategies buyers are thinking, so say I’m going through a four year based contract, with Best Buy, then I get it to my lawyer, they’ll revise everything. Y’all know what things you think the bar is gonna say? Sure versus no, I kind of take a pass, right? So it saves a lot of time and effort with us beyond their team to tell them what the buyer is thinking so they can better position their brand, their pricing, their strategy, because they have some like us whispering in their ear, what to do or what not to do.
David Hernandez (17:41)
And really, they don’t understand the audience, because they’ve never met the audience.
Yohan Jacob (17:44)
If they never were in the shoes of the buyer, we have, by the way.
David Hernandez (17:50)
That is a unique value proposition because you’re basically explaining to them not only here’s what you need to be sharing, but also what you shouldn’t do. And what is not important to the buyer. That’s great. When you look at the whole arc of your career, were there any big learning moments for you? I know, for me, just as a person, I tend to learn a lot more from failure than I have from the best. It’s a great teacher. Is there moments in your past where a mistake or what could be seen at least in the moment as a failure really turned out to be an aha moment for you?
Yohan Jacob (18:38)
That’s a very good question. I think at Retailbound, I’ve challenged myself as well as our team to think outside the box. I’m very, give it a shot and fail than not try it all, right? I think you know, we’ve launched other services from helping brands or raise capital to being an Academy for smaller entities to even franchising or licensing our name, Retailbound. One of our ideas, for a former employer, because he was a franchisee that wanted to franchise and really as a consultancy, we have our own methodology, How to go from point A to point B, I wrote a book but we actually spent six figures in licensing our methodology. So if someone say I’ll pay you X I’ll be a Retailbound consultant in Boston. Sure we can do that, but we went through that process and I will say that majority of some ideas we’ve launched weren’t a success, but we gave it a shot like the franchisee, right? Yeah. So we spent a lot of money, a lot of time and licensing our model. We’re would be consultants, former VP of merchandising who have never been a consultant or former director of sales for a brand like Sony who wants to go into consultancy, right? Here’s a a bible of how to be a consultant. How to help brands into retail. I think what helped us was re-evluating our processes and where, how we can improve. As we went through the time, very painstaking, gone through in developing from a brand new scratch consultant how to onboard him or her, it helped us when we onboard new consultant that work for us directly. We’ve used that Bible that we created many years ago, when it’s time to onboard new team members. And the good news is that back in the day, when we first started, we had one or two that suddenly worked out now that we have the Bible and certain processes documented, when we onboard new consultants it’s a much smoother transition. Because now we have stuff to kind of walk he or she through.
David Hernandez (21:15)
So even though it started as an initiative, for one thing, it became an initiative for all things.
Yohan Jacob (21:23)
Yeah, the goal got raised to drive more revenue. And it became a trend to be a training mechanism for onboarding new employees.
David Hernandez (21:34)
And that raised your success rate with new folks coming into the team.
Yohan Jacob (21:41)
My philosophy, generally speaking in hiring, you’re probably the same way is hire slow and fire fast. Right? Take your time. Right now we’re still in a buyers market of a lot of great who out there are unfortunately, looking for a job. I’d probably get a resume atleast once every three weeks from a foreign buyer or a current buyer who’s unhappy with the work. So I have a pretty good, you know, trust of have good talent. But I take my time and try and find the right person that makes sense for our company. And now having this documentation to provide him or her during their onboard, it’s a much smoother transition. And that’s why our average consultant has been the team for about four years. Our longest was for almost eight years.
David Hernandez (22:29)
Word of advice the entrepreneurial path is not for the faint of heart. So there’s maybe some younger folks listening to us, what would you tell them as far as advice that you feel that would be nice if you had some of when you were younger,
Yohan Jacob (22:54)
The advice I would give, two pieces of advice which I actually use when I mentor other agencies. One is don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Seriously. That’s how you learn. That’s how you grow. It’s like, Hey, don’t put your hand in the hot water. And it’s burning. Oh, or don’t touch that electric socket, right? So I tell my wife, ya know our kids are teenagers now. And I said they have to make their mistakes. If my daughter gets a speeding ticket, she just turned 16. Hey, I’ve told her what to do. Right? She’s gotta learn, right? So you know, learn from mistakes. Don’t be afraid. I think sometimes as entrepreneurs, they tend to be cautious. It’s our money versus working for a corporation. It’s their money, right? So don’t be afraid to make mistakes. And the second thing I tell young agencies or entrepreneurs is build relationships. Like Jim Smith told me treat people nice on the way up. in case you meet them on the way down, right? Build a relationship and really be true. At times I get a connect on LinkedIn. I’ll connect and I’ll say, hey, Jim, nice connection on LinkedIn and not get a response back to me. Jim reached out to me around, not the other way around. Always follow through on your promises and build those relationships, right? Because I think for us at Retailbound we’re very fortunate to have some really good friends like you’re agency. That’s why you’re company was featured in our recent book, or second edition, because again, we think, lotus823 is a great agency for brands who are looking to build awareness in housewares or CE or other categories they’re looking into. I think it’s building relationships, but that may help you stand out from your competition.
David Hernandez (24:48)
And right back at you. So my favorite question, you know, it’s the title of the podcast. Here it is, if there’s one song title or a song lyric that you feel captures your journey or your view on life. What would it be?
Yohan Jacob (25:06)
So I know we were joking before the podcast started that I have my playlist of my funeral. It’s called planning ahead, right?
David Hernandez (25:15)
I didn’t know we were gonna share that today but okay.
Yohan Jacob (25:16)
Being a kid in the 80s ,growning with Rocky and Karate Kid. I always felt I was the underdog even playing competitive tennis. I wasn’t the biggest I didn’t have the fastest serve. I started out later than most of my peers, right now being about to, you know, stand out. Even for job interviews trying to compete with people, right. But one of the songs that I, and I was thinking about this question you asked me a while ago, is a song called The Hall of Fame from The Script. I think it’s a UK or an Irish band. And I really like that song a lot. Because it’s from around the early days of Retailbound. Yeah, we’re just starting out. We weren’t well known like we are today, right? And like, what’s that one song, like when you’re working out. That one song that pumps you up when you’re lifting weights, or you’re writing. What’s that one song and even now, I hear that song on the radio this song, I get the little goosebumps. So the lyric I like is “Standing in the Hall of Fame. And the world’s gonna know your name. Because you burn with the brightest flame and the worlds going to know your name. You’ll be in the walls of the Hall of Fame.” So I really like that because obviously working hard we got a lot of honoree mentions from various organizations even chatGPT, right. Has recognized Retailbound.
David Hernandez (25:46)
That was so interesting. When you told me that. I know in recent conversation. You mentioned it to me. I was like, holy cow. That’s so cool.
Yohan Jacob (26:58)
I didn’t do anything but just all the content we publish like yourself, right? Somehow Jackie’s using it. So you’re an expert. I didn’t know that. It was kind of cool. That woman is inbound leads here, with Bonnie on chatGPT. Like, good to know. So I think people recommend us to their friends? Hey, you talk to my friend Bob. He started a new cool brand in electronics. And I think just you know, we found a lot of time up left, like most entrepreneurs, building our name, build relationships and term again, reaping the benefits after 17 long years. Right. So those the lyrics that I hold true to you, I guess.
David Hernandez (27:40)
It’s an interesting pick because it really talks about visualization. It’s saying visualize yourself in that whole thing.
Yohan Jacob (27:51)
Growing up in the Rocky and Karate Kid era right? That underdog, right? I still have a song on my iPhone and motivating me when I’m working out that extra mile you have to go right. So this song was around the mid 2000s. And we’re trying to you know, continue to grow the company I thought a really cool song by The Script was like the only song I have on my iPhone, but it’s a good song and I like the lyrics.
David Hernandez (28:18)
It’s great. It’s, really wonderful talking to you, in this way. I know you and I talk pretty regularly. But getting to know you this way and really getting to know parts of the story that I never really knew regarding how Retailbound really started. And it really is testament to you. Congratulations again and congratulations on 17 years with that in and of itself is remarkable, especially in our industry. And you know many more and stay healthy God working out two hours a day. I think you’ll outlive us all but here’s to more. And thanks again for joining me today.
Yohan Jacob (29:00)
Thank you, David.
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