--- type: Article title: "Do You Compete With Yourself? — Weekly Retail Tidbits #227" description: "A competitive gym session turns into a retail-strategy lesson — plus three reminders (move slow sellers, don’t run out, mark down holiday now) and a NotebookLM tip." resource: https://amyfaychandler.com/do-you-compete-with-yourself/ tags: [do-you-compete-with-yourself] --- [Know Your Numbers](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/know-your-numbers/) | [Weekly Retail Tidbits](https://amyfaychandler.com/category/friday-retail-tidbits/) # Do You Compete With Yourself? By[AmyFay Chandler](https://wordpress-1600709-6279960.cloudwaysapps.com) December 12, 2025July 31, 2026 ## Do You Compete With Yourself? “The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” —Tony Robbins I bet you’re competitive with yourself – always trying to beat your own best. Me, too – which is how I ended up with burning legs at the gym this week. When I was working with Jami (my teacher), she gave me new instructions when we got to 2 leg weight machines. She told me to do as many reps as I could – instead of my usual. Being competitive – I went for it. First machine – I got to 27; second machine (opposite muscle group) – I got to 30. Whew. Legs were tired. But I shook it off and went on to the other exercises without understanding I would be coming back to do more of those… AND having NO idea Jami would ADD 2 reps to my previous totals making them 29 and 32 – with less weight… but still… and then AGAIN on my 3rd round – more reps – less weight.😳 My legs. OMG. If I had only known she was going to ADD to my totals I would have paced myself differently – had a different strategy. I had to laugh. It’s like retail – if you know how things tend to play out each month, each year – it’s much easier to have a good strategy. Hindsight. Lessons. Remembering to use what you know. I remember my first holiday seasons as a retailer. The lessons were there – but some I could not see because I did not have enough experience to understand them. Sometimes I just did not always remember. So here are some strategy reminders. They are not rocket science. I am guessing you know them. Just remember to use them. 🤓 ### If it’s not selling, move it. “Retail 101.” As I worked with one of you this week, she pointed to an item on the bottom shelf in the corner of the store and told me it was not selling. I told her when I was there about 4 weeks before it was also on a bottom shelf. It looks unimportant although it is one of the nicest products in that category in her store. Move it. Make it look important with eye level placement in a more central area. ### Stay stocked in best sellers. I will say it until I am blue in the face. Don’t run out. I mean, unless you are planning to close your business – then sell out. But if you want to stay in business – keep those best sellers in stock and turning. Your customers are thanking you with their dollars. ### Put holiday on sale now. Don’t wait for fewer customers to walk in your door after Christmas. Sell it now. Don’t save it for next year. Sell it now. Mark it just low enough to get your $ back so that you can invest those dollars again soon! What is your strategy this month? How is it working for you? What will you tweak for next year? Read on for an old-fashioned writing tip – and a new-fashioned AI tip. Thanks for being here. Thanks for what you create every day for your community. xoxo, ❤️AmyFay ## Use NotebookLM to learn anything faster Do you journal? I have tried many times – and failed long-term every time. I have easily over a dozen books that are started and not finished. But I keep going back to it. This time I wanted to learn the bullet journal method. I found some YouTube videos and asked ChatGPT about it. But it was time-consuming to go through everything and piece all the information together. So I used [NotebookLM](https://notebooklm.google.com). Basically you can share just about any source with it – yes, including YouTube video URLs. Then you can ask for the information you have provided to be given back to you in various formats. See below for the infographic NotebookLM created for me. It’s basic – and an amazing first try! I decided I wanted more details from the sources I provided – so I asked for a slide deck. See below for the 15th slide it created. Have you created a notebook in NotebookLM? If so, I would love to know what you are learning. If you don’t mind sharing with me – please do! 😊 [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#385955415e5941785955415e59415b5059565c545d4a165b5755) Journaling is an old-fashioned practice people have been doing for centuries that is relevant today. Learning different techniques using new-fashioned AI speeds up your learning curve substanti