Jeff Lenard:
Welcome to Convenience Matters. My name is Jeff Lenard with NACS.

Rose Johnson:
And I am Rose Johnson also with NACS.

Jeff Lenard:
And Rose, we’re going to talk about resilience and, I don’t know what you think the definition of resilience is and I didn’t look at Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as…but to me, it’s just the past year has just been one punch to the face after another. And sometimes it knocks you down. Sometimes it staggers you, but resilience is really how do you, how do you get back after just being knocked around a lot? I don’t know if you feel differently on your definition?

Rose Johnson:
Yeah, Jeff, I agree with you on that definition and it’s having a tough mindset and being able to get through those tough times, but you mentioned at the opening, that resilience was the most used word. And I like to say that I think pivot is also up there with resilience, which they kind of go hand in hand, right?

Jeff Lenard:
Absolutely. You gotta be resilient and you’ve got to pivot and a perfect time to introduce our guest Kendal Netmaker. He was a speaker at the NACS Show for our second day general session. Very well received. His official title is Keynote Speaker and Founder of Netmaker Enterprises and an expert on a whole bunch of things, including resilience, so thank you for joining us, Kendal.

Kendal Netmaker:
Thank you for having me.

Jeff Lenard:
So we’ll start…you’re much more steeped…you gave about a 45-minute presentation at the NACS Show talking about your personal story of resilience. How do you overcome things? How do you help other people overcome things? We talked about our definition of resilience. How would you set up the term resilience and why it matters to people in the convenience industry, whether it’s their business or whether it’s themselves?

Kendal Netmaker:
Absolutely. One of the ending talks that we did at the NACS Show, the sentence that I closed off with was a word that we use in our language. And it’s, it’s called [inaudible], which means to persevere regardless of life challenges, whether you’re a business owner, whether you are a founder or whether you are a leader and so on. Whatever life throws at you, that you keep moving forward in a good way, in our culture, that’s what we call that word, [inaudible]. And so when we look at [inaudible] and/or resilience, there are so many challenges that come to help us in a way where we get taught certain lessons. And during the talk at the NACS Show was focused on that, trying to look at the optimistic side of life, challenges, their problems, the obstacles that come in our life. And so during this time that we’re going through right now, many people may view that as a negative thing, but there’s also a lot of teaching points that are always in every problem and obstacle. And so the way we approach things is super important and the way that we come out of it, because we could stay there and become part of the problem, or we can adapt and see the problem and overcome it in a faster and efficient way.

Jeff Lenard:
Well, I thought this year having a theme on the second day of the NACS Show on resilience, I think was really powerful. We had a couple of retailers tell their stories about how they pivoted and were resilient and totally reinvented themselves. And Kendal, then you spoke and you talked about resilience. I thought it was a real good combination of acknowledging that we hadn’t been together for two years. And here’s some of the things that…some of the reasons why, and you never want to go through something like this, but I think the ultimate lesson is, we’re actually better for it. Again, not that we want to go through this, but when you look at resilience, why is it so important? Is it that we all face various adversities, but when…how do you – I probably should’ve started all this off Kendal – you had mentioned in your culture, talk a little bit about your story, I guess, in setting all this up in some of the ways you overcame resilience, which also helps you help others in their journeys.

Kendal Netmaker:
There was so many times in my early upbringing where I had to witness that firsthand in my mother, my grandma, my “kokum”, which we call her in our language. And also my ancestors, there’s a lot of history of indigenous peoples, and I’m still trying to overcome a lot of the things that were imposed upon us to become citizens, become human beings, recognize as human beings. And so I’m here now over a century later of a lot of hardships and I’m a result of all those people before me. And I always acknowledge that in everything that I do, that my ancestors never had these opportunities and I’m here trying to make the best of it to look towards the future. And, one of the things that we focus on when we’re making decisions in our culture is that it’s not for the present gain it’s for the future generations to come, your kids, your grandkids, and so on. And so we will make decisions like that. It starts to become more meaningful and life starts to become more purposeful for the individual, the founder and the leader and so on. And so I try to work with people and organizations to see things that way, which is ancient knowledge. And so it’s, helped to shape a lot of this Homeland that we all that we all share now.

Rose Johnson:
You know, Kendal, I was at the general session when you spoke at the NACS Show and I wasn’t able to catch everything that you talked about because I had to go do some work, but your story really resonated with me and it did because we have a lot of parallels. There’s a word that you use for grandmother, kokum, is that the word? And so when I heard that word my parents are immigrants and my dad’s side of the family are indigenous to Nicaragua in Central America. And so they have a word for grandmother “kuka” (sp.), And I said, oh, wow, that’s so similar and he’s indigenous, my side of the family is indigenous. And then of course you’re talking about leaning on your ancestors and making decisions today for tomorrow. And so as a black woman and everything that has been going on alongside the pandemic last year, that was a part of what I saw happening as well. Almost an awakening, where people were telling their stories and they’re using that legacy of what they know their people built and created to say, “we are powerful and we have a voice.” How does that translate into your, into your business? Because I see you talk about educating brothers and sisters back home.

Kendal Netmaker:
So, everything that I do has been taught to me in a certain way, and I try to translate it into the mainstream as best as I possibly could. You and I are all made up of our conditioning ever since we were kids – how we were taught to, to shake someone’s hand, to believe about if we believe in God, creator, whatever it is that we call the higher being. And so that dictates a lot of how we…how our mindset and so on. And so when we speak about resilience, what we’re really trying to focus on is the individual who’s in the audience, who’s listening to this on the other side of this podcast. That individual has been given a unique set of talents, gifts, abilities, and put here for a purpose. And when you start to acknowledge that foundation of who you are as an individual, that can take you very far, regardless of if you’re a founder of a convenience store, regardless if you’re a leader in an organization, or you go to university, whatever that might be for yourself, that’s your path.

Kendal Netmaker:
My goal is to try ignite that foundation and help you build upon that so you can go far. We can only go as far as that foundation and how solid is so to speak. It’s the same thing as a skyscraper, some of the world’s tallest buildings, that foundation has to be solid. Same thing for us. If we have cracks in our foundation where things we haven’t dealt with things that are limiting our belief systems of the future, then we’re limited. And so we have to go back and strengthen that foundation. And so I try to speak to that in a respectful way when I go and do keynotes, consults and so on.

Jeff Lenard:
I think that’s talking about the foundation and talking about heritage and talking about ancestors, I think is a really interesting way to look at this because in our industry, we have a lot of second generation, third generation businesses. And last year we faced a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, or once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic or whatever you want to define it as. And I think the first reaction is ‘I gotta figure this out. I gotta figureit. I gotta do this.’ But when you think about it as a continuation of a long line of folks who have supported me, who have given me lessons who have told me stories and storytelling, incredibly important in terms of guiding people. But I like the way of setting it as you’re just the latest in a long line of folks who have faced issues and look inward, and that might help you address no matter what it is, pandemic, something else, because you’ve had the training and you just may not think of it that way.

Kendal Netmaker:
Correct. Absolutely.

Rose Johnson:
And you know, Jeff, you spoke about maybe the second or third generation, but not only that, there is a network of people that you have, because when you start sharing your story and your experiences and how you dealt with things, that’s going to draw people to you. And then you’re going to learn from them. They’re going to learn from you. We all have some input. So the convenience industry, we celebrated – NACS celebrated – the 60th anniversary. And we talked a lot about how we, as an industry, were able to accomplish so much over that 60 years. And then we also talked about how some of the things we’re seeing now are actually not new, but maybe a twist and pushing it further, pushing the idea much further. And that’s what we, as the community can accomplish when we share ideas, share those stories, make those connections, reach out to educate and be a resource. I think that was a great message in your story, Kendal.

Kendal Netmaker:
Thank you. Appreciate that.

Jeff Lenard:
And, one final point from me, at least on storytelling is NACS has a bunch of different education – executive education – one of them is at Kellogg at Northwestern. And one day was pretty much dedicated to storytelling, just everything. It started when people looked at stars or even earlier than that, but you got together and you talked about common stories and that’s how things evolved. And now it’s the Marvel Universe or whatever it is with superheroes and just different stories, but stories don’t end when you stopped tucking kids into bed and you read those bedtime stories. Stories connect people to who you are as a business. And, is there an element that it just…as people face so much, I guess the story allows you to tell your sense of purpose. So it separates you from everybody else who does something similar because people believe in you more. How do you explain the benefit of stories, Kendal, when you meet with clients or we talk with people about this is why it’s important and you’re really going to have your story.

Kendal Netmaker:
So, this is important on the hiring piece, for example, if you’re the GM of a shop and so on, and you’re looking for team members to bring in, it’s super important to understand those people that you’re working with, especially if you’re working…if they’re in charge of dealing with a lot of people every day. Because how they give off energy, how they talk to people, how they converse is a reflection of that leader and their decisions. And so it’s the same thing as you and I, when we make decisions for each other, for our families, that’s our legacy. And it lives through our children, our grandkids, and so on. And so when we make decisions in business, it’s very much the same thing and very few people look at it that way. So that’s why I spoke a lot to that at the event there and trying to focus on when we make these decisions. It’s bigger than us, so to speak. It’s bigger than us.

Kendal Netmaker:
And so when you look at things like that, all of a sudden, your ancestry starts to come in. Your past things that you’ve had to overcome start to come and all the things that make you who you are that brought you to this moment, your lineage that history of where you come from all comes into this and makes it just makes things more meaningful over time. And so the decisions that we now make, we start looking at how we, our ancestors, are going to speak about us when we’re no longer here and so on. So how storytelling all ties us in together is when we understand each other, it reduces friction in the workplace when there’s a challenge, when there’s a problem, when there’s an obstacle, if we don’t understand each other, which storytelling ties everything in, when that’s lacking, there’s more problems, there’s more challenges, there’s more gossip, there’s more negativity, and so on. When people understand each other in the workplace through stories, through storytelling, understanding their history, where they come from, understanding the things that they’ve had to overcome to be in that moment today, suddenly when challenges come, they’re able to tackle them more effectively than people who don’t understand each other. And many organizations are run like that, unfortunately, where they just…it’s number system, they just bring people in, they know the turnover rate and so on. And, and that’s what they expect. But we could increase the longevity of employees staying with us, customers returning to us to support our businesses. If we take the time to understand our customer’s story and also the people we’re working with,

Rose Johnson:
You know engagement is huge right now, that’s a big topic and it encompasses what we’re talking about here with the labor shortage going on. And I know you both have heard about the great resignation. And so Kendal, you talked about having a story for your organization and attracting good people that way, because you know that the people that you bring in are then going to affect the output when they’re dealing with people, whether it’s within the organization or with external customers, they have to be able to carry the spirit of your organization. And therefore you want to invest into them, this is what we’re about. But I also want to take that one step further, because it’s more about just telling a story, right? It’s about living that story that you tell. Can you talk a bit about ways that you’re able to carry out some actions that reflect the story that you tell to attract people into your organization, to therefore then push them to be the best that they can be to then give a good output?

Kendal Netmaker:
Absolutely. I’ll share with you three ways there to do this. So the first one is, every business tends to have a founder or founders. And so the founder’s story is the most powerful one out of the three I’m going to share with you. So this is the first one. So this is the one that I use in Neechie Gear. When I had my own stores and I had my own brand, I would go and tell the story over and over. And so the people that would pick up on this, heard it through the media, they would hear it on our website, the video that we create and so on. So it created a lot of buzz in our area. And so when people to work for us, they bought into that and they bought into that mission. And when they came, they had a higher sense of pride working for us.

Kendal Netmaker:
It wasn’t just a job anymore. It was a sense of belonging for them. So that’s the founder story. That’s the effect that can create in getting people to come and work for you. The second part of that founder story, really quickly, is when people come and buy from you, it’s also the same thing as when that worker comes to work for you. It’s a higher-purpose buy for them. It’s a meaningful purchase, so to speak, especially when you have a social mission tied to your business. If there’s something that you’re doing, that’s meaningful, that benefits your community, that benefits your city and so on, now that’s even a double whammy. It’s even more powerful. So we did both of that. And I can talk about that more in the future, if you like.

Kendal Netmaker:
So that’s the founder story. The second thing is that people do is they could use customer testimonials, review stories. And so this is really important because when you start getting customers coming in, you want to capture their moments as best as you can. So what I recommend is one of the most powerful things you can do is capture it on video. You can do it on video, you can catch it on text. One of the things that we used to do is we would take pictures of customers wearing our stuff in our store. And we would write a little story about where they came from and where they’re off to. And so when we post it, people got that FOMO effect, and they wanted to come and experience that.

Kendal Netmaker:
They saw their friends in our store., so they would come and then they would get a picture. And so it created this ripple effect of people wanting to come and experience that that journey with us. So that is the benefit of showcasing your customers, the people that come and purchase from you. The third thing you can do is you can utilize people who are influencers in your community, your cities as positive role models for your brand. So some, some people use celebrities, but not everyone can get access to celebrities who are the positive influencers, and you get them to come into your store, capture them, buying your stuff, talking about their experience. And you can put that on your social media, your website, and so on. So those are the three ways.

Jeff Lenard:
The founder story is always powerful and we work at NACS, we work on a lot of groups that are community-based and why that founder created that organization is really incredible, because that’s, that’s the purpose. They found a problem and they wanted to solve it. Whether that problem is something that people needed to buy or whether it was a service that was needed, the founder story absolutely works. And in the testimonials there’s a reason that you see all those commercials that have somebody talking about toothpaste or whatever it is, it takes it away from that paid spokesperson to somebody actual, somebody I can believe in. And I think just reinforcing that in the pictures, in stores, we all have social media channels. I think it’s a really powerful and free way to advance your story.

Jeff Lenard:
Particularly if the pictures tie to something you’re really proud of. You have some companies, like Kum & Go on their coffee cups say ‘we donate 10% of our profits to charity.’ You link it to that, you tell that story over and over again, it means something more than we just have the hottest coffee or the coldest soda or something like that. Storytelling is so powerful and Kendal, you also…one of the things with stories is pay it forward stories. I mean, sometimes you see them and they’re stories about a line at Starbucks and 60 people paid each other’s stuff forward. And that’s one thing, it’s nice, it may get viral, but your whole where you are now was somewhat of a pay it forward story. So I think that’s pretty powerful and talking about how you don’t even realize something that you did you do in life, because you think it’s the right thing is the ultimate in pay it forward, it not only changes one person’s life, but that person has a chance to multiply that down the road. So why don’t you share that – your pay it forward story

Kendal Netmaker:
Yeah, so absolutely. So my first brand was the foundation of that brand came from a story. And this is the story. When I was in grade five, I was living in my reserve – well in the U.S., they call them reservations. So in Canada, we call them reserves. So it’s called Sweetgrass Reserve. And my mother single-parented myself, my three younger sisters, and we were living on social assistance welfare growing up. And that was a normal thing for us because we didn’t have vehicles, we didn’t have transportation, there was [inaudible], there’s no entrepreneurs back home. And when you’re isolated in a community where there’s little hope for stuff like that, to advance yourself, you start to get a mindset of hopelessness, so to speak. And it starts to…it’s challenging to think of optimistic and to think big and to dream big like that in an environment.

Kendal Netmaker:
So I was being raised like that, and I would go to a school nearby, it was a little farming community school, and one of my best friends I happened to meet there, we both took an interest in soccer and at recess, we’d be playing soccer on the soccer field. And he was the only kid out of that school, who two years later, when we started to become really good friends, he asked me why I wasn’t playing soccer after school. And I had to explain to him my situation. We were collecting cans and bottles; we were pawning my belongings just to have lunch for the next week; we didn’t have a vehicle; my only transportation was the bus; my mom’s single doing the best she could to raise us by herself and so on. So I told him all of our struggles.

Kendal Netmaker:
He told his parents that night, the next day, his family told him to tell me something. And Johann, his name was said, Kendal, I told my parents what you’ve told me, and we’re going to help you out. We’re going to drive you to games and practices. We already paid for your fee. You know what? This family did that. They would pick me up from my community out of their way to drive me to the soccer practices and the soccer games. We became best friends. His dad became my role model. His dad later became an anesthesiologist. Johann became a firefighter. And his dad was a role model to me because I saw firsthand what hard work did for people. He was a grinder. I believe part of his upbringing he had to be in the military in South Africa.

Kendal Netmaker:
And so when he came to Canada, and he was a doctor at that time, he was hardcore driven. Like that’s where my book title came from “Driven to Succeed.” But that driven was from him because I witnessed him waking up doing a lap around a lake every day, every time I’d be there on the weekend visiting, he’d be studying, he’d be there with his family. And he was just so focused on what he wanted. And I said to myself, whatever I decide to do, I want to do something like that. So I was being raised there and I was being in an environment of possibilities at a beautiful home, my mind’s expanding, I’m thinking this is what’s possible. And so being there as a kid that didn’t have a lot, I started to feel like I could get a lot in time if I really worked towards it.

Kendal Netmaker:
And so two years later, they had to move away. Right when they moved away, his family gave my mom a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria, a burgundy red vehicle. A vehicle they weren’t taking to the city. And this vehicle allowed myself and my siblings to continue to play afterschool sports. My mom was able to drive me now to practices. And with that gift of sport, it took me from not being a great student – I was never a good student – but I was able to graduate high school and I was able to eventually play volleyball. I went to go play college volleyball. I came back to now study to become a teacher at the university in our nearest city. And during that time I entered business plan competitions. And I learned about business on the side. And so now I’m engrossed in business competitions and I started Neechie Gear as a full-time student into entering this competition.

Kendal Netmaker:
Just kind of like Shark Tank, Dragon’s Den, where you have to to do a business pitch. And for us, we had to do a business plan. So I’m learning all this stuff, trying to do stuff. And during the whole time I’m telling the story of how Johann had helped me when I was a kid and I want to do this to thousands of my own people across this country, through a clothing brand, by giving a percentage of our profits every year to helping kids that are growing up just like myself. And that’s where that story came from.

Rose Johnson:
That’s an amazing story. Just what we had just talked about as well about investing in someone and what the outcome can be. It can expand your mind, it brings creativity, it exposes to new ideas. So I love that you’re then now giving that back as well.

Kendal Netmaker:
Thank you.

Jeff Lenard:
In talking about “Driven to Succeed” you hear a lot about athletes like Michael Jordan, he’ll find any perceived slight and use it as motivation. Use it as fire to become better. You hear that commonly among athletes. Find some reason, and I know one of your lines in your presentations was ‘everything in life was set up against me.’ Now with athletes, they use that for motivation to beat somebody else. Your motivation is slightly different, I presume. It’s not to beat someone, it’s to bring someone along. That seems a lot harder because finding a slight and motivating to excel is one thing. But, changing everybody else’s mindset as you go along, seems much harder. Are there any tips that you have because it seems very daunting to do it that way, as opposed to more of a personal type of vendetta.

Kendal Netmaker:
Yeah. I think for myself, when I do this work, it’s not so much hard to me. It’s more so I’m educating about how my people sustain themselves on this continent for millenniums. And so I’m just sharing that insight and how I have adapted. And so I live by example. I don’t teach things without living it so to speak. So I try to share that if myself, my siblings, my family were able to use this way of learning and apply it to ourselves, imagine what organizations, with companies can do for themselves. And so I have applied that in my own businesses, and I’ve applied that to my own mentees, the people I’ve coached in the past and watch them have success with it. So I’m here when we’re talking about athletes and their mission, my mission is also rooted to my being a role model to my people, my indigenous brothers and sisters.

Kendal Netmaker:
I’m trying to set a bar that I never had role models like this. That people that were in business growing up – entrepreneurs – so I had to become that person for myself. And that was very challenging. I had to face a lot of racism, a lot of ignorance, a lot of things that I wish I didn’t have to experience, but I know why it happened. And I’m trying to use that now as a positive to share with people that yes, you can overcome things. Yes, you can push that bar as far as you can, but it’s as far as you’re willing to push yourself up here, your mindset and your conditioning, and going back to heal your past traumas, your past wounds, so that you can keep moving forward. The further you go, the more you have to fix that foundation. If there’s something that you haven’t dealt with, it will come up the further that you go. And so I’ve always had to go back and I still am a student. I’m a sponge. I’m a lifelong learner. And I learn from the kid on the street, if I have to, so that’s the mindset you have to have, the further that you want to go.

Rose Johnson:
Lifelong learner. Love it. Love that. Yes.

Jeff Lenard:
Let me try to tie everything together with last question here. And we started talking about the pandemic and Rose mentioned the labor shortage. And if we look at them one way, we look at them, oh, just one more thing to deal with, there’ll be something else after this. So how, if you had any tips for retailers for how they might start thinking differently right now knowing that there’ll be something after this and knowing they’ll be something after that, is there one or two things that you recommend that people do differently right now to start that process that your on?

Kendal Netmaker:
Absolutely. I think for retailers, one of the challenges is keeping people right now and getting them excited to come in and hang with us for a long time. So this is going to be a lot tied to…the businesses that adapt the most to the change of the landscape of what’s happening right now, for example, the pandemic, we all know what’s what that’s done to us. But has it forced the business owner to change the way they do business? For example, are they getting creative with the social media? TikTok is huge right now. Are the businesses using TikTok and letting their employees now engaging with their customers and creating…I’ve seen a lot of businesses that utilize their social media and they let their employees create some really cool things for their business and it makes them feel part of that business now without taking company share.

Kendal Netmaker:
You know, when we open that door up to our team members to feel part of our business, to feel like they’re really contributing on a deeper level, they want to stay there longer. So that comes also down to the culture that you create there. Are you creating a culture of inclusivity? Are you creating a culture of family? Are you creating the culture of helping one another really caring and going back to that word, the story, do you understand them? Are you understanding them on a deeper level where you understand that they may need to take a few days off because they may have to go to a ceremony that you never knew about, but you respect and you understand and honor, that’s the way that they believe. So that comes down to understanding each other’s story.

Kendal Netmaker:
And then you create a culture that’s inclusive. You create a culture where people feel belonged to come and work for you, and they want to stay there because they’re not going to be able to experience that somewhere else. If once they feel like they can experience that somewhere else, or if they leave and they feel like, “man, what am I…why am I doing this,” you’ve created a really good culture that people want to come and work for and that’s what every business owner should strive to do. Reevaluate and create a culture where people feel honored to stay and work for you.

Jeff Lenard:
And it certainly helped you grow a couple of businesses and help them continue to thrive. Kendal, last simple question. How do people learn more about you so they can get more advice or get in touch with you?

Kendal Netmaker:
Absolutely. You can follow me on LinkedIn ‘Kendal Netmaker’ or you can go to my website, Iindigenousconsulting.com and I’d be happy to connect and answer any questions or give any feedback. If you need any questions answered, I’m here to help. So reach out anytime.

Jeff Lenard:
And you are like our industry. Your name is not traditionally spelled it is K-E-N-D-A-L. I know there’s a lot of different ways to spell it. So it’s Kendal Netmaker and that’s easy to spell. Our industry’s full of non-traditional spelling. So I just wanted to be clear on that, including ‘Lenard’, by the way. Anyway, thank you Kendal for joining Rose and me today on Convenience Matters.

Rose Johnson:
Thank you, Kendal. It was a great conversation.

Kendal Netmaker:
Thank you so much. It was an honor.

Jeff Lenard:
And thank you all for listening Convenience Matters.

Convenience Matters Outro:
Convenience Matters is brought to you by NACS and produced in partnership with Human Factor. For more information, visit convenience.org.

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