Hey Retail Razor fans, supporters, readers, listeners, and viewers!
This newsletter issue is a little different than what you’re used to seeing from me. This issue is the story of how The Retail Razor Podcast Network grew to what it is today.
About a year ago, I decided to do something that still feels a little surreal. July 2025 I had to leave Microsoft. The team I was part of was eliminated as part of an organizational restructuring. So I made the decision to go all in on The Retail Razor Podcast Network. Now I’m going to tell you the whole story of year one, the numbers, the surprises, and a thank you that I mean more than any metric on this page.
First, a bit of context, because the timeline matters to me. The Retail Razor Show podcast has been running since October 2021. Over the next couple of years I started to build a few more shows around it. The leap last July was not starting from scratch. It was the decision to bring these shows together, give them a unified banner, and run them as a single network, full time, with no safety net.
There was no guarantee that anyone would keep showing up.
But YOU did, and here is the result of what we built together.
The YouTube run still surprises me.
Video turned into the heartbeat of the network this year, and the last few months have been something else.
• We crossed 500,000 total YouTube views on June 20th. As I send this out, we are just under 535,000, with just over 160,000 of those from Shorts.
• We posted three straight months of more than 100,000 views each.
• The channel now has just under 3,500 subscribers and keeps climbing. (If you haven’t subscribed yet, go do that now and come back! I’ll wait!)
• One week we pulled in more than 65,000 views, our best week ever, which put us in the top 5% of all creators in the 1,000 to 5,000 subscriber range.
Over half a million views and a top 5% badge in the same month was not something I let myself imagine when I started.
The episodes you couldn’t stop watching.
One show became the runaway story of the year: Data Blades. Four of our five most watched episodes come from it, and every one of those hits is from season two, the first season we published under the network banner.
Here are the top five, trailers aside:
1. Data Blades, S2E7, “Only 9.1% of Retailers Have This, And It’s Reshaping Retail,” 23,000 views
2. Data Blades, S2E8, “The 97% Hiring Gap Nobody’s Talking About,” 18,600 views
3. Data Blades, S2E6, “Agentic AI Is Already Reshaping Retail, Here’s What’s Actually Happening,” 18,000 views
4. Data Blades, S2E4, “The Customer Experience Gap Nobody’s Talking About,” 17,000 views
5. The Retail Razor Show, S6E5, “The New Attack Surface Retailers Can’t Defend Yet,” 16,000 views
Our Shorts found their own audience too. A few that took off:
• “Retailers Have Been in Keyword Jail for 20 Years and Didn’t Even Know It,” 13,200 views, from Retail Transformers with Scot Wingo
• “What Every Retail Leader Gets Wrong About Growth,” 11,500 views, from The Retail Razor Show with Dr. Rebecca Homkes
• “Is Your Chatbot Actually Helping or Just Hiding?” 8,200 views, from The Retail Razor Show
• “Is AI Replacing Retail Workers? The Data Says No,” 7,000 views, from Data Blades with Greg Buzek
• “The AI Tool Frontline Workers Are Actually Asking For,” 6,000 views, from The Retail Razor Show
The topics drawing the biggest crowds tell you where retail’s attention is heading: agentic commerce, the augmented store associate, and store intelligence powered by AI. Retail media is the next wave building right behind them.
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A huge THANK YOU to RetailClub for being our sponsor! The success & recognition covered in this issue wouldn’t be possible without their support!
Who has been watching.
The audience side has been just as encouraging as the view counts:
• We’ve been reaching about 65,700 people a month these last few months, and more than 80% were brand new viewers.
• New audiences tend to find us through Data Blades, while the folks who stick around watch The Retail Razor Show the most.
• Our viewers skew experienced, spread fairly evenly across age groups above 25, with roughly a third between 25 and 54 and roughly a third between 45 and 64.
• More than 80% are in the US and Canada, and we reach people in over 27 countries.
• About 80% of views happen on mobile, which surprised me, since YouTube says more than half of podcast viewing now happens on big TV screens. (Casey will be glad fewer than 10% of you are watching us on a 65 inch screen!)
• Across social, about two thirds of our followers hold senior titles: director, VP, CxO, or founder.
That last one means the most to me. We set out to make shows that retail decision makers would respect, and those are exactly the people in the room.
Climbing the Goodpods charts.
Audio is where all of this began, and the Goodpods platform has been good to us. Where our four shows have landed:
• Retail Transformers and Data Blades have both hit the top 2 on the weekly Top Indie Business Podcasts chart, and the top 5 of the weekly Top Business Podcasts chart more than once.
• Retail Transformers, Data Blades, and The Retail Razor Show show up repeatedly in the top 5 of the monthly Top Indie Business Podcasts chart.
• All four shows have landed in the top 5 of the monthly Top Management Podcasts chart, and the top 4 of the monthly Top Indie Management Podcasts chart. Data Blades and Retail Transformers have held the top 2 on the weekly Top Management Podcasts chart.
• The Retail Razor Show sits at #5 on the all-time Top Indie Management Podcasts chart.
• The Retail Razor Show and Data Blades land consistently in the top 5 of the weekly and monthly Top Marketing Podcasts and Top Indie Marketing Podcasts charts.
• Blade to Greatness and Retail Transformers have reached the top 5 of the weekly Top Careers Podcasts and Top Indie Careers Podcasts charts, plus the monthly Top Indie Careers Podcasts chart.
Four shows, charting across business, management, marketing, and careers. For an independent network, that spread means the world.
Catch up on recent issues:
This newsletter plus a few awards.
Our newsletters have quietly become their own community, with more than 114 issues sent via Substack and 57 editions on LinkedIn, readers across 31 countries, and an open rate above 35%.
A few honors I’m proud of:
• Three time finalist and honorable mention for The Retail Voice Award at the Vendors in Partnership (VIP) Awards, in 2023, 2024, and 2026.
• Named to FeedSpot’s 100 Best Retail Podcasts.
• Named to Million Podcasts’ Best 70 Retail Podcasts.
• Included in the Thinkers360 Top 125 Podcasts from Thought Leaders for 2025 and 2026.
Thank you, and what’s next.
Here’s the part that matters most. Having to leave a strong role to build something independent was a real leap, and the only reason it worked is you.
Every view, every listen, every share, every reply.
The one thing this year drove home is that consistency compounds. Casey and I kept showing up, week after week, and you kept showing up with us. None of it came from one viral moment. It came from a steady drumbeat of episodes and a community that kept coming back.
To our guests who brought their insight, my amazing co-host, Casey Golden, and to everyone who hits play, thank you.
You turned a bet into a network. The conversations ahead, on agentic commerce, AI in the store, and the future of retail media, are going to be the best ones yet.
And if you’re new here…
Hi! I’m Ricardo! Thanks for joining us!
Come find The Retail Razor Show, Data Blades, Retail Transformers, and Blade to Greatness wherever you watch or listen!
I would love to hear from you: which episode stuck with you this year? Just hit the button to leave a comment and tell me.
Here’s to year two! 🥂
Until next time… Stay sharp. Stay human. Stay ahead!
With sincere gratitude,
Ricardo Belmar
Founder, The Retail Razor Podcast Network
Thank You for Your Support!
We’re honored to be the #1 Indie Podcast Network for Retail on Goodpods with the:
Top 4 podcasts in the Top Weekly Management Podcast charts
Top 4 podcasts in the Top Monthly Management Podcast charts
#1 podcast in the Top Weekly & Monthly Indie Careers Podcast charts
#1 podcast in the Top Weekly & Monthly Indie Marketing Podcast charts
And we’re excited to have two podcasts ranking in the Top 15 Retail Management podcasts and a Top 3 Retail Careers podcast on Apple Podcasts!
We’d love your support to help us stay at the top with all our shows by giving us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Goodpods, or Spotify.
The Retail Razor Show is part of the Retail Razor Podcast Network, alongside Retail Transformers, Blade to Greatness, and Data Blades. Find us at RetailRazor on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, and Instagram. For full transcripts of every episode, visit our retailrazor.com website!
‼️💯👏👏👏👍 So much to learn and absorb from your content! Many thanks!