Tillys board director Mike Relich on the AI business case a retail board of directors will approve.

Save $100,000 a year writing product descriptions, or cut $10 million of inventory. You can only fund one. Mike Relich, board director for Tillys, puts that question to every retail leader building with AI, and he says too many still pick the product descriptions.

Recorded live at RetailClub in Huntington Beach, this episode focuses on one leadership skill: working with your board of directors, especially when the ask is AI. Mike has sat on both sides of that table. He asked boards for capital as a CIO and CEO, and now he decides who gets it. Ricardo and Casey ask him what a retail board of directors needs to hear before it funds an AI project.

What You’ll Learn

• Why so many retail boards think AI means ChatGPT, and why educating them is management's job
• The $100K vs. $10M question, and why inventory is retail's biggest use of working capital
• The metrics Mike wants in every AI business case - sales, margin, markdowns, labor efficiency, and shrink
• How Reddit complaints end up in what the LLMs say about your brand
• Mike's pilot test: defined KPIs, the real total cost of ownership, and why free vendor pilots mislead
• Why he won't approve an AI project that IT owns
• What to call your data infrastructure project so the board doesn't turn it down
• Mike's four-part, plain-English AI primer for a board of directors

👉 Stay Sharp. Lead Boldly. Stay Human.

Brought to You By Retail Agent Con - November 17, 2026

Explore how AI agents fit into retail work at Retail Agent Con, a live virtual event on November 17, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern, produced by IHL Group with ClearSight AI.

Join retail leaders from Tractor Supply, David’s Bridal, Artisan Lane Furniture and Dr. Janet Sherlock on the org changes required for agents and humans to work together. Plus analysts from IHL Group and Retail Razor for practical conversations about agents in merchandising, order management, inventory control, store systems, and more.

Retailers attend free, sponsorships and individual tickets are available.

Learn more: www.retailagentcon.com.

Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/

Newsletter: https://newsletter.retailrazor.com/

YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube

Guest Spotlight.

Mike Relich. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-relich-7395b01/

Non-Executive Board Member. Tillys. https://www.tillys.com

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Swag, Tag and Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Steve Worthy on The Accelerator Mindset - founder fit, product market fit, and the question retail buyers are really asking.

Steve Worthy is back on Blade to Greatness to break down what he calls the accelerator mindset - how growth happens inside a retail business, and why the gap is almost never the product.

Steve admits honestly to Ricardo and Casey the part nobody says out loud. Retailers are cynical by default. They rarely name their real problems, because admitting a logistics failure or a buying mistake makes them look bad. So, retail tech founders walk in selling a fix for a problem the retailer won’t put on the table, the deck gets praised, and the check never comes.

The accelerator mindset is Steve's way through that. Start with founder fit and the story of why you're in retail. Move to product market fit as the retail buyer defines it. Then separate systemic problems from non-systemic ones - retailers only fund the systemic ones. Gregg Steinhafel, then CEO of Target, gave Steve the test years ago in an interview: one store with a problem is not a problem, but the same problem across many stores is a conversation worth having.

👉 Stay Sharp. Lead Boldly. Stay Human.

Sponsors

RetailClub. Retail and brand leaders can attend RetailClub AI Festival and receive $1,750 toward travel and hotel. From the founders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, it's three days fully outdoors in Huntington Beach, September 22 to 24, with 2,000 senior leaders working through how AI is transforming retail.

W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. ASU is a leading public research university and its W. P. Carey School of Business is the largest in the United States. AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy is a 3-day executive program running October 5-7, built by the #2-ranked Supply Chain Management department. The program is designed for senior leaders setting AI strategy across procurement, logistics, and operations.

Register at https://specialevents.asu.edu/878064 with ID Code retailrazorasu for $1,500 off.

Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/

Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com

YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube

Guest Info

Steve Worthy, https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveworthy/

Founder, Worthy Retail Global, https://worthyretail.com

Host of the Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy podcast https://worthyretail.com/podcast/

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Swag, Tag and Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

April Sabral has a leadership test that takes one meeting. Walk out and count the split. If you spent more than 20% talking, you’re still managing, not coaching.

Ricardo and Casey bring back bestselling author and leadership coach April Sabral for the manager to coach reset that retail needs. Retail leadership coaching is the topic, and April treats it as an operating change rather than a soft skill.

Her framing: ops consistency comes from systems, growth comes from questions. A leader who opens a huddle with "What did you learn yesterday?" gets a different day than one who opens with a to-do list. And when a target gets missed, "walk me through your process" keeps the person in the room. "You missed target" starts their exit interview.

April also makes the case that positivity is measurable. Track turnover, customer reviews, and productivity before and after coaching training, and the manager to coach shift stops being a theory you have to argue for. As she puts it, energy leaves evidence. She reads it on the face of whoever is standing in front of her when she walks into a store.

👉 Stay Sharp. Lead Boldly. Stay Human.

Brought to You By:

RetailClub. Retail and brand leaders can attend RetailClub AI Festival and receive $1,750 toward travel and hotel. From the founders of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, it's three days fully outdoors in Huntington Beach, September 22 to 24, with 2,000 senior leaders working through how AI is transforming retail.

Register by August 28 at retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast.

W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. ASU is a leading public research university and its W. P. Carey School of Business is the largest in the United States. AI-Enabled Supply Chain Strategy is a 3-day executive program running October 5-7, built by the #2-ranked Supply Chain Management department. The program is designed for senior leaders setting AI strategy across procurement, logistics, and operations.

Register at https://specialevents.asu.edu/878064 with ID Code retailrazorasu for $1,500 off.

Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/

Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com

YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube

Guest Spotlight:

April Sabral. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilsabral/

Author, Positive Accountability for Teams, https://a.co/d/0eX42X19

Founder, Ripple Leadership, https://www.aprilsabral.com

Executive Director, Miami Business Council.

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Swag, Tag and Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.