Two Minute Tweaks w/ Lisa Uhrik

Tweak #118: Visiting with Ann Patchett & the Parnassus Team

A St. Patrick’s Day visit to Parnassus Books in Nashville, along with a conversation with Ann Patchett and managers Cat Bock and Andy Brennan, offered a profound insight into what community really means. When Parnassus’ leaders talk about community, they begin with each other. That spirit of mutual care, collaboration, and simple hospitality shapes the culture of reading they create for customers, authors, and the wider community. It’s a meaningful touchstone for all of us.

Tweak #117: Storytelling as a Bookshop

In this episode, Lisa Uhrik explores the idea of treating your whole bookshop the way a publisher would view a book – with a clear storytelling theme that begins in the windows and unfolds throughout the sections, displays, and customer experience.

Featuring an example from Ashley Michael and Plenty, Lisa shows how storytelling can extend beyond display into a whole-bookshop approach that evolves month by month across the year. It’s a thoughtful way to guide curation, merchandising, and engagement while creating a more cohesive and memorable journey for your friends and customers.

Tweak #116: Learning About Literacy

Lisa Uhrik welcomes bookshop explorer (and literacy expert) Ken Bigger, who stopped at Plenty as store #252 on his country-wide tour. Their conversation takes a turn from travel stories to a big idea: literacy isn’t a simple “have it or don’t” trait. It’s a continuum that includes traditional reading and writing, plus digital and cultural know-how, and even skills like attention, empathy, and reflective thinking. That shift changes how we talk about the people we serve, and how we see the work happening across the counter every day.

In this episode, Lisa asks a more human question than “Are you literate?”: What are you yearning to do, understand, or be part of next? Because when bookshops meet that yearning with the right book, conversation, or welcome, we grow community literacy in practical, meaningful ways.

Tweak #115: A Good Bookshop is Never Done

The quiet days after the holidays are a gift. They give us a chance to step back, notice what worked during peak shopping, and make thoughtful adjustments before the year truly begins.

At Plenty Bookshop, the team used the week between Christmas and New Year’s to do just that—refreshing windows, shifting displays, and making small layout changes based on real bookseller observations. Those tweaks promise easier service, better flow, and stronger sales heading into 2026.

The holidays give us powerful insights—if we pause long enough to notice them. Join Lisa for a quick reflection on small layout changes that can make your shop work better for everyone.

🎧 Listen now.

Tweak #114: The Quiet Carpenters

Hello Quiet Carpenter,

I want to thank you.

While reflecting on your work, I wrote you a poem. It’s from the future – 2036 – and it’s about the way you helped turn the world around, not with noise or spectacle, but with steady care.

In this short reflection, I’m thinking about the people who stay. The ones who tend places, keep company, notice what needs attention, and quietly make room for others. I imagine a bookshop, a familiar rhythm, and the kind of work that doesn’t always make headlines, but makes a life and a community possible.

This is a small thank-you to anyone doing that kind of work. The kind that builds continuity, offers hope, and shapes the future one thoughtful, persistent act at a time.

🎧 Click to listen now.

Tweak #113: Three Simple Ways to Start the Year Well

Join Lisa Uhrik as she shares three simple ways to start the year well—grounded in joy, bold instincts, and small meaningful wins. From feeding the laughter to trusting your gut and fixing the tiny things that get in the way, this quick episode delivers three ideas you can act on today.

🎧 Click to listen now and start the year with joy, clarity, and momentum. It only takes two minutes!

Tweak #112: Protect Your Calm (and Your Coworkers)

During the busy holiday season, small stresses and short tempers can lead to harsh words with coworkers or customers. Lisa offers a quick reminder to pause, breathe, and notice when you’re running on empty.

Simple micro-tactics—short breaks, a quick laugh, saying no to one extra task, or building margin between commitments—help you protect relationships and be kinder to yourself and others during the holidays.

While you're here, take a quick pause to recharge and listen to the latest episode of Two Minute Tweaks.

Tweak #111: What If It's Easy?

For this special 111th episode, Lisa shares a personal story—Dave Uhrik’s 90-foot fall that became a life-changing lesson in perspective. What began as a terrifying tumble turned into a philosophy for living and working with meaning, ease, and intention.

Drawing on Greg McKeown’s book Effortless, Lisa connects this dramatic moment to the power of simplifying, releasing perfectionism, and creating sustainable rhythms that make the most important things feel lighter.

As the holidays approach and the pace quickens, we ask this important question: What if it's easy?

 

Tweak #110: Words That Stir the Senses

Words can do more than describe. They can stir memory, awaken the senses, and invite people closer. In this episode, Lisa Uhrik follows writer Jack Pawlik into the art of language that delights—the kind that turns a simple cappuccino into a velvety espresso topped with microfoam, crafted from organic whole milk.

Lisa explores how vivid, sensory-rich writing can transform ordinary menus, signs, and shelf talkers into experiences that linger. A few well-chosen words can make a cup of coffee taste richer, a tea feel storied, or a bookstore moment feel like a scene worth savoring.

This week, let your inner writer lead. Choose words that evoke warmth, curiosity, and connection, and watch how language itself can help your space come alive. 

🎧 Click the link to listen and get inspired!

Interested in more? Listen to the referenced Life of Plenty podcast with Marissa Fike here.

Tweak #109: The Science Behind Great Signs

Join Lisa Uhrik as she explores three scientific truths that can help you connect better and boost sales—through the menus and signs at your bookshop’s cash wrap. Discover when customers really read your signage, and how the Golden Triangle and Serial Rule can help you highlight what matters most and sell up to 20% more.
🎧 Click the link to listen and get inspired!

 

Tweak #108: An Easy Face Out Fix

This week Lisa shares an idea from friend Cal Crosby at The King's English Bookshop in Utah. She explores a simple solution that brings quiet, purposeful messaging while also facilitating face outs in a stable front and center position on the shelves.

When the world is heavy – we look for light loads and small, helpful things.
This is one of them. 

We encourage you to try it and share your thoughts or other simple display tricks with us.

Tweak #107: The Hidden Influence of Sound in Retail

According to expert Erik Thompson, about half of what we see is what we hear. Things like entrainment (a new term for us!) lead to strategic considerations for your music experience in the bookshop – which in turn lead to connection and sales. That interesting fact, along with the advent of AI in detecting "personal" vs. "retail" use of things like Spotify and Pandora, suggest that thinking about both music content and sourcing are important. 

After listening, we encourage you to experiment with your space’s music by choosing slower, less lyrical tracks, consider developing a brand sound, and be sure to give yourself a daily dose of birdsong. ♫

Tweak #106: Turn, Turn, Turn—The Surprising Cost of Returns

Are book returns quietly draining your resources? In this eye-opening episode, Lisa reveals how routine book returns can consume the equivalent of eight full weeks of work for one person.

Use this episode to spring forward and begin your own analysis on how to transform this challenge into an opportunity to improve efficiency and profitability.

Listen to previous episodes to learn or recall practical strategies to minimize returns and maximize sales through thoughtful displays and customer engagement. Tune in now to revolutionize your approach to book returns and drive your business forward!

Tweak #105: Which Type of Bookshop is Yours?

What if the “industry standard” isn’t the only way? In our latest podcast, Lisa’s research reveals three broad themes shaping today’s bookshops, and how knowing yours can transform everything from layout and design to inventory strategy.

We’re challenging the idea that all bookshops must adhere to 3-4 inventory turns per year. Instead, we explore how your bookshop’s core focus — whether book-centric, community-centric, or advocacy-centric — can guide your decisions. Most shops blend all three, but leaning into your primary theme can sharpen your strategy.

Click play for actionable insights to tailor your bookshop to its unique purpose.

Tweak #104: Turn, Turn, Turn

The secret sauce that has given Franklin Fixtures resilience in the economic "big pause" we've experienced is the same one that gives our bookshops staying power in tough times: it's all about inventory strategy.

• What if we sold every book we purchased?
• What if we got out of the business of returns?
• What if we held less inventory and turned it more frequently?

Join Lisa in these powerful questions to ponder in this week's Two Minute Tweak. Click to listen now.