HeyJaredDear Corporate... Love Stores | Engaging Retail Employees
The podcast retail executives need to hear but rarely do.Hosted by CATO Creative's retail consultant Bekki Cait, and veteran store leader Matt Copeland, each episode brings you the unfiltered truth about what's really happening in your stores.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 10, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 16, 2026
Latest episodes
Our First Ever Episode: Has Anything Changed? (opens the original)
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More than a year ago, we started this podcast with one big question: why is the disconnect between corporate and store teams so hard to fix? So this week, we’re going back to the beginning. In our very first episode, Matt and I unpacked the day-to-day realities behind the corporate–store divide: initiatives landing in stores as though there’s unlimited time to absorb them, too many competing priorities and communication channels, metrics that can work against the mission, rigid standards that un
Inside an Executive Store Visit (opens the original)
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This week, Bekki asks Matt to walk through an executive store visit from start to finish: the first rumours that someone is coming, the weeks of preparation, what “visit ready” actually means, what happens when executives walk through the door, and the strange phone-tree that follows them from store to store. Matt explains why a well-run store and a visit-ready store aren't necessarily the same thing, how store leaders learn to manage the visit itself, and why he uses that rare face time to teac
Who's Allowed To Have A Voice In Retail? (opens the original)
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What happens when someone without a traditional retail background starts questioning the way the industry works? In this episode, Matt turns the questions on Bekki after a retail veteran warns that she should “be careful” about challenging industry professionals. They talk about who gets credibility in retail, why outside perspectives can be uncomfortable, Bekki’s path from employer branding into retail employee experience, and why curiosity—not walking in with all the answers—is central to her
Balancing Structure & Soul In Cannabis Retail - Guest Lakeisha Parker (opens the original)
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We talk to Lakeisha "Keisha" Parker, a cannabis advocate and longtime retail leader whose writing frames cannabis as a teacher and the industry as a tug-of-war between profit and purpose. We discuss how cannabis retail overlaps with traditional retail but is complicated by regulation and stigma. Keisha describes burnout, frequent acquisitions, the cost and delays of cannabis hiring/badging, and the widening corporate-store gap in MSOs, urging executives to visit stores, listen beyond KPIs, inves
A Regional Manager's Perspective - Guest David Miller (opens the original)
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"No Man’s Land": The Regional Manager as Retail’s TranslatorWe dig into the “middle layer” between corporate and stores: regional/district/area managers, with guest David Miller joining from Scotland. David describes the role as a balancing act in “no man’s land,” translating corporate strategy into shop-floor reality while pushing real store constraints back up to senior leaders. The group debates why corporate communication gets lost, why visibility and unannounced store visits matter, and how
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