Mando Gonzalez

Accept your curiosity. Do what interests you.

The ends of the midwit meme are the fundamentals.

Search merchandising fundamentals: • Show products that people want • Show products that fuel the P&L • Show those products sooner rather than later (bonus points if those products are the same thing)

Technology does not shift demand. Focus on creating a well-positioned product that people want, first. You’ll never hear a happy customer brag about what systems their favorite brand uses.

Most of your retention problems are actually acquisition problems. Most of your acquisition problems are actually merchandising problems. Most of your merchandising problems are actually positioning problems. Optimize tactics, sure. But always look upstream.

When you feel sorry for yourself, your form gets worse. When your form gets worse, it gets harder. When it gets harder, you feel sorry for yourself. Stop this cycle. Keep your head up. Maintain form. Keep pushing.

One of the most underrated things you can do is to give credit and praise to others at work. The ones who give credit generously build loyalty upwards, downwards, and sideways. When you win, spread the praise. When you complete a project, name the people who helped. This doesn’t make you look weak, it makes you look confident. People remember how you make them feel. If you’re known as the person who gives others credit, you build allies fast. And when your name comes up behind closed doors, those same people will vouch for you. That’s how internal politics actually works.

Why do pilots always whisper into the intercom

Your assortment is your foundation. It’s what brings people into your store. It’s what you optimize your merchandising for. It’s what makes dissatisfied people stop their shop and leave to a competitor. Get the right products on shelves first.

It took me a long time to learn the difference between looking smart and being smart. Looking smart is seeking validation. Being smart acknowledges your own brain can get in the way of success. You prioritize getting the job done. You ask for help and get others involved.

People love to act like exiting your W-2 is somehow the goal of any career. But I am of the opinion that one of the most noble things you can do with your life is work at a company. Yes, it sometimes requires you to subject yourself to frustration, injustice, bureaucracy, and more. But if you join a great team, you will accomplish more together than you ever could on your own. You will build trusted relationships and gain lifelong friends. And all the while, you will be refined: you will gain patience, humility, trust, and perseverance. You will learn. On top of all that, you get to focus on what interests you, unlike a business owner who is forced to be involved in every department. And, you often get great benefits, stability, and work fewer hours than in business ownership. Be thoughtful about the company you join, but do not dismiss the benefits of working alongside others. The grass is always greener…

Halves are in. Half loaves of bread. Half sticks of butter. People are more conscious of their consumption.

Merchandising Blocking & Tackling: Something is always growing. Something is always shrinking. Give more space to things that are growing. Give less space to things that are shrinking.

Every product is an ingredient for a solution. You market the solution by showing what the solution will look like and how it will make the customer’s lives better. You can do this on: • Homepage • Marketing Campaigns • Packaging • Product Detail Pages

Your ability to capitalize on demand is limited by your supply and/or production capacity. You can’t sell what you don’t got.

A brand story is only as powerful as the problem it aims to solve.

It’s expensive to run a large, multi-media marketing campaign for each of your brands or products inside a grocery store. The next best option is to improve your product packaging and run thousands of mini marketing campaigns in a distribution system you’ve already paid for.

Executive presence seems like a byproduct of: • Clear communication • Confident body language • Status/work leverage From there your reputation can precede you and set the stage before you enter the room.

It takes an insane amount of time and energy to understand something and form a nuanced opinion. If you don’t have the time and energy to understand something, it’s okay to defer to “don’t know don’t care.”

Mistakes are an opportunity to fortify yourself and lock back in… …if you allow them to teach you.

Most of my time used to be spent focusing on WHAT tasks to work on. I assumed those tasks would take care of me. This year, most of my growth came from focusing on HOW to go about my work: • Managing time & attention • Promoting accomplishments • Connecting with people