The Barb Wire celebrates its tenth episode with a visit from Ben Smithee, CEO at The Smithee Group (thesmitheegroup.com), a digital consultancy whose mission is "helping big brands think small and small brands think bigger".
 
Talking with host Barbara Palumbo, Ben shares why he decided to originally focus his consultancy on the jewelry business (8:10 ), and Barbara refers to him as one of the industry's few true "influencers" online (11:10 ). He talks about his unique upbringing in Dallas as the adopted Asian son of white parents (17:00 ).
 
Ben's passionate about social media, calling it "the great equalizer" for small businesses (29:30 ). And he later shares one of his pet peeves -- retailers who can't stop complaining about the things their customers do (32:50 ).
 
He also cites a specific behavior that he believes, if a retailer performs it daily for the next 365 days, will guarantee them a six-figure increase in their sales (36:20 ). Later, Ben shares the specific sales pitch he uses with jewelers to convince them to invest in building their social media following (40:30 ).