Maxine Clark is one of the true innovators in the retail industry. During her career, her ability to spot emerging retail and merchandising trends and her insight into the desires of the American consumer have generated growth for retail leaders, including department store, discount and specialty stores. In 1997, she founded Build-A-Bear Workshop®, a teddy-bear themed retail-entertainment experience. Today there are more than 400 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores worldwide.
Maxine Clark is the founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop & Chief Executive Officer of Clark-Fox Family Foundation. She’s made many impressions with her skills and abilities to have the vision of the consumer and her unique strategies when it comes to branding. While working her way up the chain in her career path, Maxine, at age 48, successfully managed to structure, build, and grow her billion-dollar company based on hugs and love…
In this episode we talked about:
Quotes:
[16:22] “The journey is far better than the destination.”
[17:03] “So I just really was able to know pretty firsthand what the customer was looking for. I had good instincts about that.”
[25:37] “You have to constantly be innovating and that’s what made retailing so successful.”
[26:37] “We do need to do a better job of connecting young people with talent and ideas to people who can execute it.”
[29:56] “Curiosity is really what made the world what it is today. Somebody thought there could be something better and they invented that better, and that’s what we’re all prospering from.”
[30:55] “If you don’t put your ideas out there, other people can’t add value to them. They also maybe can’t steal them, but more importantly they can’t add value to them…people can’t steal what’s in your heart.”
[55:49] “I look for the Bentley and then I figure out how to do it on a Ford-budget.”
Links Mentioned On Our Show:
Build-A-Bear
The Bear Necessities of Business
Delmar Divine
Clark-Fox Foundation
May Company
PayLess
BGBS 073: Lauren Gropper | Repurpose | It's More About the Mission
BGBS 072: Chad Hutson | Leviathan | The Business of Creativity
BGBS 071: Maurice Cherry | Creative Strategist | The Restorative Power of Play
BGBS 070: Gregg Treinish | Adventure Scientists | Moving at a Human Pace
BGBS 069: Don Wenner | DLP Real Estate Capital | How Do You Instill Grit?
BGBS 068: Coach Jimmy | Speaker/Story Coach | Are You Willing to Be Willing?
BGBS 067: Margaret Hartwell | Archetypes In Branding | What’s the Deeper Meaning?
BGBS 066: Gregg Bagni | Alien Truth Communications | Only the Clever Survive
BGBS 065: Marlo Vernon | CarePenguin | You Just Have to Go For It
BGBS 064: Bill Creelman | Spindrift | You Have to Be a Little Hardheaded
BGBS 063: Douglas Davis | The Davis Group | Decide to Learn Something New
BGBS 062: Dr. Sarabeth Berk | More Than My Title | What Do You Do??
BGBS 061: Beau Haralson | ScaleThat | Find YOUR Success In Its Season
BGBS 060: Tim Parr | CADDIS | Own Your Age
BGBS 059: Chris Kirby | Ithaca Hummus | It's Simple.
BGBS 058: Kris Fry | Smartwool | It’s an Experiment
BGBS 057 - BONUS: Jay Ferracane | Storytellers Are Bullsh*t
BGBS 056: Tamer Kattan | Comedian | Listening Is the Cost of Being Heard
BGBS 055: Mike Rohde | Sketchnotes | No One Has Your Persnickety-ness
BGBS 054: Andy Starr | Level C | Different Is So Important
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