e, too. so sophie, i have an xfi password, and it's "daditude". simple. easy. awesome. xfinity. the future of awesome. coming up, this company doesn't care if you buy anything at their retail stores. they're not selling products, they're selling data on your shopping habits. how to better utilize youtube to promote your business. and this woman created high tech backings for earrings so you won't lose them. will the executives at hsn back her and let her sell them on their network? when it comes to making decisions, we've got your back. so let's grow fast and work smart. that's all coming up next on "your business."

♪ >> announcer: "your business" is sponsored by american express. don't do business without it. hi, everyone, i'm jj ramberg, and welcome to "your business," the show dedicated to helping your growing business. does the rise of online shopping mean the death of brick and mortar? a new business model that doesn't depend on making sales or stocking inventory. they still make a profit. how, and will they succeed? we went to silicon valley to find out. when you walk into this san francisco store, every move you

make is turned into data. >> here you can see that the customer just kind of walking by, not stopping at this product. but once he enters the zone of the product, it turns green. >> this is beta. according to the founders, it may be the new face of brick and mortal retail. >> our model is not built on sales. it doesn't matter to us whether you buy now or buy somewhere else. >> what? >> it doesn't matter to us whether you buy now or buy somewhere else. >> beta doesn't make any money from selling the products on display, and its customers are not the people shopping in the aisles. the money they make comes from the brands displaying the products in the store. >> brands pay a monthly subscription fee, and it covers the square footage they're occupying in the store for their products. >> as we've all heard, the retail industry is in turmoil. >> shopping centers turning into ghost towns as consumers shift to online shopping. >> the problem is that the way people like to shop now doesn't

agree with the business model the stores are constructed around. >> how often do you see people now that are even purchasing something in a store on their phone while they're standing in a retail store? >> people still love poking around in these stores, increasingly they don't love buying things there. that's why they wondered could they find a way to make money from the foot traffic instead of from sales? >> we have hundreds of thousands of people to walk through our store every month and it's an opportunity for those products to get discovered. >> two feet of sehelf space or half the store, they're paid to answer customer questions and -- >> we love the fact that customers can come here and experience our brands hands on. if they buy here, great, if they go some place else and buy it, that's terrific too. >> phil is a marketing chief at net gear. he says beta not only serves as

a showroom for their products but it also gives your marketing department something else, something extremely valuable. >> you get a lot of data that makes us feel great. >> it's a research laboratory where manufacturers get realtime feedback on customers' reactions. >> everything from traffic, impressions, customer engagement, demos, you know, to sales data. >> the typical store, about 3,000 square feet has about 150 cameras in it. those cameras are being trained through algorithms to identify when people are interested in things and just counting. >> i'm ready. >> so you can't see faces here. as you browse different products, we're able to stop and measure your attention per product and also which ones you're sort of ignoring and walking by. >> i have no problem with their business model. i think it's very clever. that's not what bothers me. it's the collection of video without our knowledge that bothers me. >> bob hoffman is a former advertising agency owner and

industry critic. he worries about privacy issues around so-called surveillance marketing. >> i don't think they're doing anything nefarious, honestly. i don't. but when i walked into their store i should have been notified that i'm being videotaped. and i wasn't. >> i think most people know you walk into any store you're going to be monitored. there's security cameras there. there's no difference. >> the difference is intent. you don't know what they're doing with it. you don't know who they're giving it to. you don't know how it's going to be used after they're through with it. you don't know how it's going to be disposed of over time. >> in light of the recent disclosures about facebook's disregard of customer data protection, bob suggests it may be dangerous for a data driven business like beta to ignore the issues of consent and security. >> if they were to tell me, by the way, we use cameras to watch our customers shop and just wanted to let you know, to be transparent about that, you know, we don't identify who you

are, and in 30 days we destroy it, then it's gone forever, and we don't share it with anyone. >> phillip and vibo are open and deliberate about how the stores operate. they say they don't want to hide anything. and when it comes to privacy -- >> we are transparent and again have no problem of kind of speaking to it. we're very open about kind of what we're doing. at the same time, i don't believe there's any postings that, you know, say, that are in the stores. >> after the interview. vibu got back to us. he said the content is anonymous, the data is encrypted and deleted after 14 days. while retail stores have collected data about their customers for decades, phillip and vibu turned this function into the core of the business. as they see it, their baa at a store brand may become a blueprint for the future of store front retail. >> the store is really a marketing platform at the end of the day. >> we're catching up the physical world with the business model at the internet's enabled. we're just the first, but we're

definitely not the unique or the last. there will be a long line of companies like this. long gone are the days where using video to market your company is just for businesses with deep pockets. today, with not that much work or expense, anyone can put together a nice looking video. according to our next guest, you should. kate stanford is the managing director of global ads marketing at youtube, more than a billion users and they just launched a new program called youtube director on site where they will create a free ad for you if you advertise on the platform. >> thanks for having me here. >> video is a great way to get your message out. >> we know the small businesses have so many stories to tell, everything from why they got the idea, why their customers love them. the beauty of video ads is you have the full power of sight, sound and motion to bring that story to life. but also, it's where your customers increasingly are.

we see more and more people turning to video on demand, youtube of course as you mentioned. and if your customer is there, it's where your business needs to be. >> like advertising, you can see how much you're spending and how much you're getting out of it. some points of what makes a good video, not as easy as putting your camera somewhere and taking something. watch a few seconds of this first one. >> island creek oysters supplies 500 of the best chefs in the country with 200,000 oysters every week. >> this is an oyster harvester, not exactly a company you think of as first to market in video ads. what they did great in the ad, very clearly right off the bat at the top of the video, mentioning the name of their business, what they do, and the number of chefs they provide, which gives authenticity and credibility. >> look at another example. >> at stats we are the go-to

neighborhood spot for eating, drinking and watching the game. our menu keeps an eye on culinary trends while still serving the classic bar food. >> so here we're going for authenticity. >> exactly. i love this one. so many small businesses think if you're going to get into video advertising you might need to use expensive actors. when you use real people in your ads, your real customers or employees, it makes your business come to life in a much more authentic way. in this example, it actually gives you a good sense of what it's tyke to be at that bar. it looks fun and engaging. you want to check it out. >> it's fun for the employees to be part of this, and they'll share it with their friends also. you don't have that much time. people's attention span is relatively small. i assume you've got to take your ideas and distill them down to something simple. >> it's incredibly important to keep your message simple, focus on the one key thing that differentiates your business, why your customers should care about you. one great example, a company

called kay chesterfield, in their video ads they do a great job explaining why you might want to buy vintage versus new and the before and after shots how the business made that. >> let's move to the end of the video, let's show an example of one you think is good. >> why not have a neck built for the way you play. visit warmoth.com today. >> what did they do? >> want to make sure you close the video with a clear call to action. your viewer needs to know what they need to do next if they want to learn more about your business. engage. showing your website, phone number or e-mail, make sure in that last frame you're giving a clear call to action. in this example, that's what they did, ended with their website. >> thank you so much, kate. >> sure.

for several weeks now we've been doing our elevator pitch from here at hsn, the original tv network. we've made some dreams come true, and we've had a few disappointments. but today we're going to find out again if our elevator pitcher makes the cut. they're going to be pitching to two executives from hsn to see if they're going to get the chance to sell their product live here in a studio just like this one to 91 million households. we wish them -- i wish them the best of luck. mayumi, hi. >> so good to see you. >> i'm so excited to hear your pitch. congratulations for getting this far. it's a big deal. >> thank you so much. it is, indeed. >> tell me the name of your product again. >> yes, chris mel la. >> they're the earring backings. >> most secure earring back. >> i cannot wait to hear what they say about it. congratulations, i know this is four years in the making for you. >> uh-huh. >> you're going to be pitching to two people, these two people are going to decide if you get a

chance to be on hsn. how do you feel about this? >> oh, my god. >> nervous? >> yes, a little. >> you're going to do great. i'm quite sure. let me tell you who they are. dara trujillo and matt demmers. they work for hsn. you look gorgeous. the product is great. let's go. >> hi, i'm mayumi from chris mella. thank you for having me. it's the most secure high tech earring back. have you ever lost an earring? you're not alone. in our survey, 86% of us have lost an earring, at least once, but no more. chrysmela is the only earring back like this patented.

inside these tiny devices are three ball bearings that lock automatically onto earring posts in any sizes and any types. it stays locked until you unlock it. no wonder "people" magazine called it the most genius invention ever. i'm happy to share this fantastic innovation i found in japan with millions of people. >> perfect timing. not perfect timing for me, i just lost a gorgeous earring my husband bought me. now he knows. so i need this. what do you guys think? good job, by the way. >> well, i love it. quite honestly, i'm wearing clip-ones because of the fact that i lose earrings all the time. my earring backs and they fall off. quick question, though, do was it help hold it in place up front? >> yes, great question. we heard so many customers

requesting the lift function. so we developed a sister product to chrysmela, it's an extra that comes to give you extra lift and support. >> what do you think, matt? how did she do? >> good. one of the things you want to think about is you have a lot of other potential competitors in the market for earring backs. play up to the true technologies and the benefits, including strength components, flexibility for multiple post widths. all those things will help the customer understand how this can benefit her. >> lots of good benefits. >> she just stopped shaking. it's amazing. such a big chance for you. >> it is. >> find out what the answer is, is mayumi going to get the chance to pitch live to millions of hsn customers? are you ready for this? now you're shaking again. all right, it's going to happen.

let's hear, check to see the on air, if it goes. is she going to get the chance to pitch live? >> i love it, i will be your first customer, for sure, love it, absolutely love it. >> four years, four years in the making. >> four years, wow. well, we love making dreams come true, girl. >> thank you. >> all right, what does this mean to you? >> i don't know. i'm speechless. i'm so happy. i'm so thrilled to share this -- i fell in love with this product when i first saw it in japan when one of my business trips. and i fell in love, and i needed them yesterday. and i knew there was a huge market in the states. >> did you think you were going to get the yes on air? >> i wasn't sure.

>> we're tough cookies. >> thank you. thank you so much for the opportunity. >> you're welcome. >> thank you. >> i'm taking these. we love our pets. americans spent nearly $70 billion on them last year. inspired by her rescue dogs marie moody decided to start up a pet food company with an emphasis on nutrition and safety. her idea is getting two paws up from pooches everywhere. >> i always loved animals. when i started this i didn't know it would look like this. >> marie moody founded stella & chewy's in 2003, a pet food company she named after her two rescue dogs. the idea came to her after receiving devastating news from her vet. >> chewy was a soul mate dog. when i first got chewy, i was working in the fashion industry and he was sick and the vet said

this dog's not going to make it. i sort of had this epiphany. i started doing research on pet food. even though we've domesticated them, their dna is 99.9% wolf. it made a lot of sense to go back to how they used to eat in the wild. >> she fed chewy a raw food indict, meat, fish and vegetables. >> how did chewy respond? >> he got 100% better, not even slightly, but 100% better. he lived to be almost 17. >> when did you realize, okay, this is something that other people want? >> i think i started to realize that when i saw how much better chewy got. if you really love your dog, the single most important thing you can do is to feed it a high quality diet. >> she spent six months drafting a business plan. launched her new company in her kitchen. >> what was it like? >> i had industrial freezers in

my living room for four years. in the beginning i delivered it by taxi. i did eventually get a used mini van and turned that into a delivery vehicle. >> when the used mini van, i really made it. >> this is the greatest day. >> producing healthy pet food proved a smart business move. sales took off and soon her kitchen-run business needed a new base. she moved stella & chewy's headquarters to her hometown of milwaukee. bring your best friend to workday is every day. >> this makes it a fun place to work. >> yes, and you can see -- >> he smells the food. >> the pet food is made from raw meats and organic vegetables and freeze-dried. >> this is where it all happens. >> this is it. >> in 2010, marie stepped down as ceo of her company. but remains chairwoman. >> talk to me about that transition and why it was so important. >> i think a lot of people have difficulty sort of giving up

titles or delegating. that's never been an issue for me. >> part of it was so that you could spend more time with your son. >> by the time i was able to step back from the business a little bit was when he was really going into first grade, second grade, third grade. >> do you have advice for other women who are starting their own companies? >> i think it's about you have to really want it. i mean, for me, i felt like i really didn't have a choice. like i had to do this. i wanted to do this. >> her determination paid off. today stella & chewy's is sold in 5,000 stores nationwide. it's a multimillion dollar pet food company. >> it's a great industry to be a part of. it's a really happy industry. people love their dogs. >> what do you think it takes to be a good boss? >> i think if i had to say, i mean, certainly some degree of compassion and empathy, while

also being very strategic and able to drive your team. we have launched the second season of our podcast "been there built that." this week we're talking to yea r who created okay cupid and match.com. i hope you all get a chance to listen to it. it's really interesting. if you do, please give us some feedback. the podcast is pretty new, and we would love to hear what you think. listen for free. it's called been there, built that. find it on tune in or wherever you get your podcasts. still to come, how to properly compensate your sales force. and why you need to keep a close eye on employee engagement.

♪ ♪ (baby crying) ♪ ♪ don't juggle your home life and work life without it. ♪ ♪ and don't forget who you're really working for without it. ♪ ♪ funding to help grow your business... ♪ ♪ another way we have your back. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. ♪ we are building our saylles organization. i'm interested in knowing what suggestions or advice you have in structuring a compensation

plan for our sales force. >> so i would say that, you know, compensation plans are not a game of perfect. and it's really just about getting something done and established. a couple years ago our sales team requested that their compensation package really be more based on objective measures as opposed to subjective measures. so we definitely took that employee feedback and developed a new plan. we got most of the legwork done in a shorted period of time. there were things we were really trying to perfect and ultimately realized no matter what there were going to be some flaws in the program. ultimately we decided let's get a new plan in place. let's take that employee feedback in stride. and knowing it wasn't going to be perfect, we committed to making changes and really to adjusting the plan year after year. >> we now have the top two tips you need to know to help you grow your business. let's introduce our panel and get their voice. the veo of ross organic and

entrepreneur and investor scott gerfain of socket. you just sold a business. so congratulations to both of you. we are getting advice from two successful people today. >> the top tip is the zero marketing strategy. it is just saying no to save your business and to get what you really want. so if you think about yourself, you have principles, you have values. things that are like a moral compass you don't go against. you build the same attributes to your business. as you build your business and things start to unfold, you go to the market, you encounter all sorts of situations, right? all of a sudden the margin structure doesn't allow you to do it properly. the valuation is way too low. those types of things. it is that moment where you have to stop and say, you know, no, this is against my plan. and if i go forward, my entire plan is going to fall apart.

and there will be irreparable damage. what happens is if you look at value in the market, at that point of saying no you get to go out and exercise the business the way you need to do it. what you off find is those partners end up coming back to the table. >> but what you also might find is a drop in revenue or something happens along the way, right? you make it sound so easy. you say no, and then everything turns out great. what happens often is it shows up in the bottom line. >> you may suffer in the short-term but will prosper in the long term. very often you see businesses making short-term decisions that don't benefit them in the long run. >> okay. stephanie? >> my top tip is all about communication transparency and team building. it's regarding surveying employees. every year we would take an annual survey of our employees and get a feel for what they felt were the real issues. >> how many employees?

>> 32. >> how did you get them to tell the truth? there is no way to be anonymous with 32 employees? >> number one, we did do an anonymous survey. what told people we're going to put this out for all of you to see the results. i had no idea to know what the results would be when i took over the business. it was a little bit of being vulnerable. let's see what we are, get a baseline. we were just putting forth a five-year plan at that time. it gave us a feel for what the hot spots were that people felt. people were very, very honest. they knew i would be looking right at it, and they had no problem saying exactly how they felt. >> what you have to manage in that is one person being very fired up about one issue and then not getting it addressed in a way that makes them feel better. you open up the door. this is what i think strongly.

and now you're not changing it. >> precisely. what we ended up doing is showing the results to the entire company in an all company, all hands meeting. and, yeah, we would go right through. it would be very, very obvious what the problems were, what the hot spots were we called them. you're right. it was obvious. like a bar graph. so many people selected one or two. most were nines and tens. one or two people absolutely matter. and you don't know who they are. and so what we would do is get in teams after the survey. instead of looking at me saying, steph, how are you going to fix this? let's fix it together, figure out solutions here. it gave people a better understanding of these things aren't easy to solve. we need to get behind it as a team and accept it and understand it. >> it also gives you a chance as the owner to say, look, we're not going to fix this, right? it doesn't fit in with what we're doing. so now it is up to you. do you want to stay here or not.

great advice. congratulations to both of you. >> well, our business is based on traffic. so a great asset i use is qlik analytics. it has been very, very he helpful, especially with my travelng. >> one of the apps i like is called downcast. i spend a lot of time on the road. if i'm not making calls, i have the podcast to learn what other leaders who have done different things in their businesses. what is neat about downcast, not only does it refresh and upload whatever the latest especially second of a cast i like, but it makes suggestions. >> aw watermark is a great tool. it's free. it allows you to repost your pictures on any site with your logo or website on it.

as far as it being shared, you have a presence wherever it goes. this week's your biz selfie is from trevor bayacy month owns free your arms. they store luggage equipment and packages it. it is perfect for people who don't want to sclep their luggage to and from the airport. submit a selfie of you and your business to yourbusiness@msnbc.com. make sure you include your name, the name of your business, the location, and of course don't forget to use the hashtag. thank you all so much for joining us. we love hearing from you. if you have any questions, comments, want to say hi, e-mail us at youryourbusiness@msnbc.co. check out our website

msnbc.com/yourbusiness. we put up today's segment plus a whole lot more for you. and connect on your social and digital media platforms as well. and our podcast been there, built that. we look forward to seeing you until next time. until then, i'm jj ramberg. and, remember, we make your business our business. don't make a first impression... or a lasting impression without it. ♪ ♪ don't turn your house into a home without it. ♪ ♪ don't go live... or even share a moment without it. and don't watch her dance like nobody's watching without it.

whatever you do, don't forget that the more you live forward, the more you need someone at your back. ♪ ♪ the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. ♪ morning glory, america. i'm hugh hewitt coming to you today from detroit. given this week the importance of what it means for the war, secretary of state pompeo's trip to north korea and his return with three americans held hostage to be greeted on the tarmac. the president and the vice president, a rocket barrage at israel from iranian forces in syria met with a withering return of fire from israel. new disclosures about michael cohen, a tweet about credentialing the press. and of course president trump's ripping of pnt