The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Empowering Small Retailers: NRS Plus Revolutionizes Independent Store Success

Episode Date: March 14, 2026

Empowering Small Retailers: NRS Plus Revolutionizes Independent Store Success https://NRSplus.com/ About the Guest(s): Elie Katz is the President and CEO of National Retail Solutions (NRS), a company dedicated to empowering independent convenience stores, liquor stores, tobacco shops, and gas stations across the U.S. With extensive experience as an executive in diverse industries, Ellie utilizes his strong leadership and organizational skills to drive NRS since its inception, under the subsidiary of IDT. NRS provides an advanced point of sale, network, and credit card processing ecosystem servicing over 35,000 retail locations. Elie Katz is also involved in managing real estate and food establishments, showcasing his deep understanding of business growth and investment. Episode Summary: In this episode of the Chris Voss Show, Chris hosts Elie Katz, President and CEO of National Retail Solutions. Elie Katz’s journey in establishing NRS as a beacon for small retailers is explored in depth, alongside discussions on how NRS provides advanced solutions to help independent retailers compete effectively. From revolutionary point of sale systems to integrations with platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats, Elie Katz outlines how his organization facilitates digital transformation for small businesses in an increasingly competitive market. Listeners are offered a firsthand understanding of how NRS’s tailored solutions are leveling the playing field for independent retailers across the United States. Elie Katz elaborates on NRS’s latest initiatives, including the expansion of premium features and AI product recommendations that streamline operations and enhance consumer engagement. The discussion also dives into security innovations like the company’s patented panic alarm and strategies for digital transformation, which are not just theoretical but ingrained into the ethos at NRS. Elie Katz’s insights into focus and execution in leadership highlight pivotal lessons that are not only applicable to existing retailers but inspiring to aspiring entrepreneurs as well. Discover the evolving dynamics in retail and learn how to remain relevant and successful through adaptive strategies in this engaging episode. Key Takeaways: NRS empowers over 35,000 independent retailers across the U.S. with state-of-the-art POS systems and service integrations. Elie Katz’s leadership philosophy emphasizes understanding pain points, focus, and execution to drive company growth and customer satisfaction. NRS’s AI product recommendations help retailers optimize inventory and pricing, vital in today’s economy. Partnerships with major companies like DoorDash and GrubHub expand customer reach for neighborhood retailers. Innovations like the panic alarm showcase NRS’s commitment to retailer security and business continuity. Notable Quotes: “Small retailers have to stay in the game, especially in today’s economy.” “Focus and get it done. You can’t pay your bills with excuses.” “We’ve got to keep up with the AI transformation, or you risk being left behind.” “Digital transformation isn’t just necessary—it’s vital for survival in today’s competitive market landscape.” “Every feature we add aims at one goal: helping small businesses become more efficient.”

You wanted the best... You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

Because you're about to go on a monster education role. rollercoaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hello, this is Voss here from thecrisposh Show.com. Welcome to the show, a lady for doing. We've gotten an amazing guest who's been touring the show for quite a few times. We're going to be talking to him about his business and how you can make your business run better. In the meantime, go to Goodrease.com, Fortress, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com,

LinkedIn.com, dot, com, four chest,ch, Chris Voss, 1 on the TikTokity, and all those crazy places on the internet. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Faw show. Some guests may be advertising on the podcast, but it's not an endorsement or review of any kind. Today we have L.A.Y. Katz on the show with us today. He is the president and CEO of National Retail Solutions. And seven years ago, he brought his many years of experience as an executive at various companies in diverse industries, plus strong leadership, interpersonal, and organizational skills to found NRS, National Retail Solutions. He also manages real estate properties and food establishments.

That sounds fun. I know I'm hungry. And he possesses a keen business savvy with an understanding of the value of investment, generation of revenue, and business growth leadership from creation and acquisition through exit. National Retail Solutions is a subsidiary of IDT. and as a provider of point-of-sale network and credit card processing ecosystem, which services over 30,000 independent retailers and bodegas across the U.S. Welcome to the show, Ellie.

How are you? Chris Voss, it's an honor to be here with the man, the myth, and the legend. It's not going to have you as well. Thank you very much for coming by, Ellie. Give us your dot-coms. Where can people find you guys in the interwebs? N-R-S-plus.com. NRS National Retail Solutions

NRS Plus.com. I don't you see I'm trying to grow the Chris Voss goatee. Ah. You see it coming in little by little. It's going to take a little more time. 99% of the people listen on audio, so now you're giving them all a reason to go to Utah.

Now everyone's got to run to their favorite channel and take a look at this amazing. People may start thinking we're twins. Stop. Flattery will get you everywhere. So, you know, we actually have two Elis that come on the show. Real Onig from CNN.

I know Elionic. I should say, I don't know him personally, but I watch him, you know. He's been on the show a few times now with his... He's great. I love watching him, and I love the fact that he spells it the same way as I do. He's a good representative of the Ellie name. Yeah, he's a good guy. Smart.

So we're going to get into it with you. Tell us, give us your... We did the dot com. Give us a 30,000 overview. to lay a foundation for what you guys do there in NRS. National Retail Solutions was started with the idea to give the independent convenience stores, liquor stores, tobacco shops, gas stations, the independent, basically the tools to not just compete, but to level the playing field against a lot of these big brick and mortar corporate stores

that are coming in and crushing small businesses, unfortunately. And I'm not saying they crushing it intentionally. but reality is when you got big money versus little pockets, it's hard to compete. So we give them the tools. And it starts with the technology, with the world's greatest point of sale register from nrsplus.com. We give them the tools to be able to help run their business efficiently, effectively, market it, and keep up with the trends. So the trends today, well, we have obviously online ordering, marketing, market. marketplace ordering, so being able to be integrated with like the, you know,

Duer Dash and Uber and Grubhub, all of our point of sale registers have that ability. All of our stores have that ability now. And also loyalty, rewards, inventory, all the buzzwords, all the, all the important components that are needed to run a business, and we do it at a fraction of the cost that some of these other competitors offer. A fraction of the cost. Fracturing the cost. You know,

I'm a small retailer's got to stay relevant, especially in today's economy. It seems like things are slowing down a little bit. And, you know, you've got to be up on the things. I remember when COVID hit, a lot of online businesses that were like restaurants and different things, they didn't even have an online presence.

And suddenly they needed that. When COVID hit, you mentioned about our community. So our community is 35,000 doors coast to coast in every single state, right, including a little bit in Canada, 35,000 doors. And these are all the independence, like the true independence, the onesie, Tuesdays, the mom and pops, right? So when you mentioned COVID, at that time, we had 10,000 doors.

And literally the next day or two, they all went offline. Wow. All of them. And my heart, like, dropped, right? Because they didn't know, are they supposed to be open, where they're supposed to be closed? Are they essential? They're non-essential.

You know, it was a chaotic time at the time. And little by little, they all turn back on, thank goodness. And today we're at 35,000 locations and growing. And we grow because we understand, you know, you mentioned about my background, organizational skills and all the other great things that you said about me, and I appreciate it very much. But I think the most important skill that I have is I understand the independent merchant. And I understand their pain points. And when you understand their pain points, you know how to talk to them and you know how to sell to them.

And that's why, and you know how to build technology or solutions for them. And that's why NRS, National Retail Solutions, is such an amazing growth story of all the people that we help. So tell us about your entrepreneurial journey. What led you to found NRS Plus? So our parent company is IDT, the Jonas family, Howard Jonas is the chairman. Shmool Jonas is the CEO. and they've been selling their telecom products in these independent stores since 1992. And they've been very loyal, you know, the calling cards.

And then after the calling cards, they have a boss revolution on, you know, on an app, which has been very successful. And they've been selling their telecom products in these stores since 1992. They sell it in the corporate stores as well, the big box stores as well. but 80% were being sold in these stores. And they called me into their office 10 years ago, right? So 10 years ago, and this is before Amazon. Amazon was always Amazon, but this was before Amazon was what we know it is today. And they said, listen, Ellie, we're in all of these stores,

and these stores are lacking the technology to be able to compete. And we want you to build a point-of-sale register for them so that it can give them the tool to manage their business properly and more efficiently because this way they could stay in business. You know, I own restaurants, as you mentioned. And in restaurants, there is a churn or a statistic that everybody knows, right? It's like one out of, I think most restaurants close within the first year, you know, like 60% or 70%, some crazy high number.

And it probably is even higher now with the way inflation is going and way costs of employees are going. I don't know what the actual is. But these independents, they also have a high churn rate because they have a hard time competing, a hard time paying for goods, trying to get traffic to come into their store, trying to get loyalty, right, a loyal customer. I will run into this morning I ran into a convenience store, but I've never been in there before and I may not ever go in there again. So what type of loyalty is that?

You know, they got my dollar today, but their name may not get my dollar tomorrow. So we're giving them all of these tools so that they can capture these customers. keep these customers, make sure these customers come back and run their business officially. That's great. That's a great service to offer to people. You've recently expanded your premium features suite. Tell us what that is to further empower independent retailers. What are these new tools? So we are, our ears are in the ground. Our head is not in the sand. Our ears are to the ground. I personally visit eight to 12 stores a month. Talk to the owners, see what it is that they like about our register, what it is they like about our credit

card processing. And I listen to the feedback and I hear their needs and I hear their pain points. So we mentioned about the integration with DoorDash. That's a new feature that we've just done, right? You know about ordering from restaurants with DoorDash and Grubhub. And now I can say Uber, we just signed an agreement with them. I don't know. You know, it's public now that we signed it. You know, so you know about ordering from these places when it comes to, you know, your favorite restaurant. But did you know you can also now order from Uber and DoorDash and Grubbub for a local convenience store? And it's amazing. I'm so amazed at the numbers and the amount of orders that go through this system for our convenience stores.

And I'm impressed and I'm happy about it because we're helping those merchants. We're helping those merchants get more customers. And we're helping those merchants get different type of customers. So I've got a teenage, I got three teenagers now, but my, yeah. But I love you here, really. Whenever I tell the story, I think about my one teenager who's sitting on the couch and hopefully he doesn't listen to this podcast because he's sitting on his couch playing his video games most of the day.

And then he's hungry or he wants a soda or a snack. He doesn't get into his car and drive to the local convenience store. He goes on to Uber or DoorDash or Gras. Rub Hub, and 27 minutes later, somebody's ringing my bell, and 27 minutes later, my credit card just went, and that's the generation that you need to, it doesn't matter what you've been doing in the past. That's the generation that you need to make sure you capture, because if you want to be a future store, you need to make sure that you get these customers. So that's why you mentioned some of the features. Those are some of the features. We're also integrated with the Tobacco Rebate

program, right? So, you know, there's a lot of people that do partake in. the tobacco world and um they don't want to spend a lot of money or you know they want to be able to pay the same exact price in the small store as they do in one of these big stores you know when it comes to buying power and we give them that ability by participating in these tobacco rebate programs the merchant makes money the consumer pays less and has some type of loyalty that's an integration that we're very proud of um and and we have a lot of we have we have integration into protection for your lottery lottery

it's called lotto shield to protect you know so lottery scratch tickets are actual money they go live

when we walk into the stores and we see those piles and piles of all the beautiful scratch tickets and you say okay give me one of 26 and one of number 11 that's all live inventory

that's all real money it's like literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars sitting on someone's counter if they don't monitor it properly it could disappear. It could not just disappear by someone doing something wrong, by, you know, sticking it in their pocket, et cetera, but it could also by them mismanagement. So we have, you know, that integrated into our point of sale. But the list goes on, and Chris, we had to be beer all day if I started telling you about all the different features that we come up with so that people can run their small businesses efficiently and effectively. So if people listening out there in the audience, what's your area of?

service. Do you service all the United States? Coast to coast, every single state, including Alaska and Hawaii. Now, AI is transforming every industry. In fact, I'm just holding on trying to figure it all out. How are you guys using AI through your AI

product recommendations and other tools? So we have AI in two different ways. We have the internal AI, so efficiently wise, you know, efficiently, we are using it, or I guess the right word is efficiency. internally, like so that different divisions of our company can run their business better,

can do reporting better, can do things a lot quicker. So that's the internal mechanism. And then the external we do for the customers, when there's customer interaction with our company, we have something called like a Sammy AI, which is an AI bot that will guide the customer, whether it's if they have a question, if they have a, if they, if they, if you ask the AI bot about some of our features, they will tell you all of our features. If you ask them how to use some of our features, if you ask them a customer service question, they'll give you the answer that way.

And then we have a very cool product called AI product recommendation, and that's for the merchants. You know, we take it for granted when you walk into a chain store about the items that are on the shelf, right? We just see all these items on the shelf. shelf, but every single item on the shelf was carefully thought about as far as price, as far as product, and as far as placement. And we don't, and the small independence, they don't have the luxury of some back-end, you know, dozens of people focusing on their price, product, and placement.

So we help them because we have a community of 35,000 stores. And every single state has hundreds, if not thousands of stores. So while you're in Florida, it may not recommend you to have ice melt as your top 300 items. But when you're in New Jersey, and especially this winter, ice melt will come up as a product recommendation and it'll tell you what the average price is being around the neighbor. Because I go to, let's say I'm a merchant. I go to Costco, I pick up a case of water and I bring it back to the store and I say, you know what, I paid $5 for this case and there's $25.000. four bottles. So maybe I should be selling it for, you know, 50, 70, 80 cents. You know, like I do

that math. Well, this AI product recommendation tells you, A, what size water you should be selling because it shows you the ones around the area. Oh, wow. And B, how much you should be selling it for. So there's no guessing. You also don't want to overprice something because if you've overpriced something, you lose that customer. You get the reputation of that's the ripoff store. Oh. You get that reputation of that's the ripoff store, even though someone just looked at one item. No, they're not coming back. Yeah. And sometimes they make those decisions just like that. How many small retailers do you find struggle with digital transformation? And explain just what that is in terms of utilizing your services. I find that many struggle with digital transformation.

Because, and I want to tell you a story, a little story to show you how personal it is. I just gave you the whole history of how successful DoorDash and Grubhub and Uber is in these convenience stores. And I told you how in restaurants, that's where people know, you know, DoorDash, Uber, Grubbub, that's really, I think, certainly when it comes to myself, that's where they know to order from. And maybe that's because that's where they started, but maybe it's not as well. So I have a restaurant, and my partner doesn't partake in Uber, DoorDash, and Grubbubb. because for the last 30 years, we've been using drivers and we've been using websites. And I said to him, I said, listen, we need to get Uber, Doordash, and Grubbub.

We're losing a lot of market share. I'm speaking to myself now. Or I'm speaking to my partner, but I'm speaking to my, you know, everything I just said to you and to the millions of people that are listening to you, you know, now I'm speaking to myself. You know what his response to me was? Smart guy. right runs run of my restaurants Ellie

for 30 years we have not used any of these online ordering sites and we've been around for 30 years so proof is in the pudding why do we need it now so Chris how many stores struggle with digital transformation you're

looking at one of the people that are suffering right here on the other side of your camera and that's just one story imagine a lot of the immigrant population that may not be familiar that are running some of these stores all over the country. This is the way we've been doing it. This is the way we're going to do it.

You know what I respond to when I said this to my partner. I said, let me ask you a question. What type of phone do you have? He said, oh, I have the smartphone. I said, why? Why don't you have the flip phone, right? Flip phone is great. It makes phone calls.

It stores address book numbers. In fact, I find that the flip phone makes conference calls much better than, you know, my phone. I won't mention which one my phone is, right? So why do you have to have the smartphone? And the answer is because you need to be advanced with your digital transformation in all aspects of your life. And that includes running your store efficiently. Don't be afraid of technology. Don't be afraid of adapting and don't be afraid of change.

It could be helpful. And national retail solutions, what we do, you mentioned about features, we understand the merchant, and we have people that help every single merchant with every single feature so that they are not going down this road alone. So if you have a question of how to connect your camera system to your point of sale register, we have what we call a commissioner of that program. So that's what we do. We hold their hands. We white glove it, we put a bow on it, and we make sure that that merchant who's ordinarily not willing to do digital transformation, does digital transformation for their benefit.

Yeah. I mean, you've got to, and the future keeps moving and changing. I mean, the one thing I have learned in business is, you know, it's ever changing. It's ever evolving. You know, technology advancements are really crazy. What's going on with the AI is really crazy. You got to get on board because otherwise you get left. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of companies that I've seen, you know, that were, I think

there was a couple 100-year-old restaurants in San Francisco that have closed in recent years. You know, the COVID really hit them hard and they just never recovered, probably because they didn't adapt. And I watch with my son, by the way, it's interesting that you say that. I watch with my son on YouTube when he's not on the couch playing video games. I watch the rise and fall of and then you plug in what the of is, right? So Kodak is a great example. Or Blockbuster is another great example.

I used to laugh when Netflix would send me a video in the mail. I'm like, okay, it is company. He's not going to last, right? Yeah. And now where's Netflix and where's Blockbuster? I think they offered to sell the Blockbuster. And Blockbuster was like, no, we've been doing this for 30 years. quote to quote what your partner said.

Why should we ever bother with this? Well, MySpace, right? Do you remember when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace? Oh, yeah. Like, oh, wow, he's going to do great with it. Yeah, that would be awesome. Put it right in the can. It was kind of over the, it kind of jumped the shark.

I think when he bought it. I mean, he bought it at peak hyperness, and it was about to blow. If you're asking, I think he wanted, I think he was, I think he wanted to be in the digital transformation space. And this was something that was packaged to him as, oh, this is digital transformation. You know, it's like, yes. Yeah. Security is a growing concern for retailers. How does your integrated safety and loss prevention tools protect both the owners and customers?

So we listen to our merch. and a couple of things that they've said to us. So I mentioned about that camera integration. So the camera integration is, you know, you integrate the point of sale register to your camera system. Almost every one of these stores have a camera system. The owner is sitting in their office. A customer comes in, puts a case of soda on the counter,

and they see on the camera system, they see the number $1.56, right? As opposed to being $15. $156 for the case, that person behind the counter decided to charge them $1.56. Did they do it intentionally because it's their friend or their buddy and they're trying to steal some money? Or did they do it accidentally? We don't know.

But now the merchant does know and the merchant's able to find a mistake, educate or fire, however they do. Or when we have a merchant app. Before the merchant couldn't leave their store. store. Now the merchant can manage their store from the other side of the world. They can watch their store sales. They could watch their store inventory. They could see what they're getting low on. They also can, you know, change pricing, right? From the other side of the world, they could change pricing on their register. And now, let's say that the person working behind the counter

keeps hitting no sale, right? So that, you know, it looks like a dollar is being given to me, but they hit the no sale. They get an alert on their phone. So they are apprised to what's happening with their store via their merchant app, which is a great app. And it's one of the reasons that many people buy our point of sale register because of all the great features just in that merchant app. Yeah. That's pretty good to be able to manage your company wherever you want.

Sometimes I think of things in the middle of the night, and I have to send an email to myself or make it. change. I do that also, by the way. I woke up last night, two in the morning. I was like, I sent a little email to my assistant. Even if it's cryptic, I know that she'll ask me in the morning, like, what did you mean by octopus blood? I wanted to remind you that I wanted to do a promotion. I want to tell you, though, about my favorite security feature, if I can. Sure. And because this is unique to national retail solutions, but this speaks volumes of what type of company we are. We have a patented panic alarm embedded into our point of sale register

so that when somebody comes in and says, open the drawer and these convenience stores, they're convenient not just for the customer, but also for people that want to do harm because you could run in, run out. Someone walks in and says, open the drawer. They push the button on the point of cell register, the exact button they would have used to open up the drawer. the way they push it, it's all patented, it sends a silent alarm to the police department. Oh, wow. Yeah, and this is a feature that we have for our customers as well.

They can partake in it. And the person behind the counter does it a certain way. The robber gets the money, you know, walks out, and hopefully there's a whole greeting club of police officers outside that store, welcoming them. Yeah. Welcome to your free... Welcome. Let me give you a free ride to our police station.

Yeah, we have this hotel that we have. You can stay there. But it also keeps the merchant or the employee behind the counter safe. They follow instructions. We all watch the movies where, you know, they're like, don't push the panic alarm when they walk into the bank and you see the person sticking their hand under the counter. And next thing you know, that employee gets a bullet in their head.

We don't want our employees. We want our merchants to be safe. And that's why we came out with this patent. panic alarm. That's pretty brilliant. That is great. Yeah. Let's see, we're seeing major retail groups partner with NRS.

Tell us who some of them are. And what are they doing picking up and using your platform? Well, we just announced a nice partnership with Krausers. Crowsers is a small but a relatively older chain that's been around for, like I said, for many, many years when I talked about older, older and age. And I don't remember the exact year they started, but I know

that it was a, they've announced that we're at the now official exclusive point-to-sale register as they continue to grow their stores. We just announced a partnership with Crasdale. We did it like within a week apart and people like, look at Crowsers, Crosdale,

also a company that's been around since 1907. a massive distributor of food to the convenience stores. And they wanted a solution because they recognized that their customers needed a solution. And they're an amazing group of people. They service the East Coast here. I don't know exactly all the states, but they've got several thousand stores that they service.

We announced our DoorDash and Grubbub within the last few months. That were a real honor. We didn't announce the Uber yet. This is between us. between you and I and we will. We're working on the press release, but we did sign the agreement. But this is like what we do.

We constantly find different companies that are going to complement and help these merchants be more successful. And we hold their hands and we make sure we give it to them in an affordable price and we make sure that we're giving them a product that they're proud of, but not just proud of, that they can grow their business

and manage their business and be successful with their business. Well, everyone wants to be successful, right? Everyone wants to be successful. Some people don't put in the effort, and some people don't understand that it requires effort and tools. And this is a tool and an effort that you need to make. If you want to be successful, you have to call National Retail Solutions, NRSPlus.com, whether it's our payroll service, whether it's our cash advance,

whether it's our amazing credit card processing that doesn't rip people off, that doesn't have a long-term contract, that doesn't have a cancellation fee, that gives free equipment, or it's our world's greatest point of cell register, and we have different verticals that we now service, not just a convenient liquor, tobacco, and gas stations, that's where we started. Now we have one for the pizzeria for the cafe. Now we have one for the vape shop, and we have some for other stores. So nrsplus.com for the 32 million small businesses out there, in the U.S., they should go to nrsplus.com and see how we could help them be more efficient and run their business more effectively.

And how is the role of the neighborhood retailer evolved in today's economy? There's some changes you've seen over the last five years. I mean, I believe that everybody is having their challenges right now with the economy, with the inflation, with the different pricing, with the different costs. for employees per hour with the difficulty of getting employees per hour and also not to get into the politics but you know with the immigration issues that are going on some of these these merchants and some of the customers are of these merchants are afraid to enter some of these stores all over listen you see you see the big box ones right where you know you hear the immigration maybe

hanging out there etc they're all over you don't know where they're going to be so with that said And it's cooled down over a little bit from what I see. But with that said, all these different factors play into challenges of running your business. It's not just one factor. And that's why it's important that you have the tools. That's why it's important that you have the different features and functionality so that you could be part of the delivery world or the online commerce world or the savings or the loyalty or the rewards. So nrsplus.com. That's all I got to say.

And are there any other trends you're seeing across convenience, grocery, and independent retail that others should be paying attention to? Yeah. I always say that there's four things right now. If you have these four things, then you're going to be, then you're part of the trends and you're part of the success. We spoke about AI. We mentioned, let's not forget Bitcoin, right? Whenever I go to a trade show, everything's AI and Bitcoin and, you know. Protein, protein.

I don't know. Everything is protein, protein, protein. Oh, everything's got protein. Everything's protein. I walked up to my favorite Dunkin' Donuts the other day. There was a sign on the window. All it said was protein, protein, protein. That's it.

They didn't say what it was, where it was, who it is. Protein, protein. So you got AI, Bitcoin. Protein and Dubai chocolate. Every register now has Dubai chocolate. Yeah, what is that about? I don't know. Everything's Dubai chocolate.

I went into the bagel shop the other day, and the owner came up to me, goes, you got to try this. I said, what is this? He hands me this cup that's all layered with chocolate. Got some, like, grassy stuff on top. Like, and then some, some, I don't know what, it was green something. Green something. He's like, this is a Dubai chocolate shake.

I was like, okay, I'll try it. Yeah. Have you seen the price of some of the chocolate, though? Yeah, well, he told me that I said, this one was gratis. He was offering it to me to try because he just made it. It's not a curiosity. How much is this Dubai chocolate shake? Take a guess, Chris.

16 bucks. 10 bucks. 10 bucks. 10 bucks. Dude, they're like a pack of chocolate is like 16 or 24 bucks. Oh, he should have told me that it'd do buy chocolate shake with protein. Oh, with protein there too. He messed up.

Yeah. I just, it's funny how we do these. You know, the new thing, it seems is there's, I think it's, I think it's Free Delayos released this or Nabisco or whoever owns them. But they've come out with a new line and it's NKND or something. It basically is naked, the word naked, but it's without the syllables, I think. Or the, yeah, whatever. I had it.

I had their banana chips. Oh, yeah. Are they good? I loved it. Yeah, but evidently they don't have the dyes and the, whatever else. Yeah, it is the naked ones. 100% of a hundred percent. But they still taste great, huh?

In the Chicago airport, I saw it in one of the stores. Yeah. You know, they have one of these stores where it's like, you know, they don't have the registers. They just have you walk in, take whatever you want off the shelf and then walk right out. And then they just charge your credit card, which I was getting nervous about, you know, like, did they, like, what did they charge? Did they charge me what I was holding? Do they charge me what I was looking at? I get nervous, but I guess it also is the future, right?

And I took a bunch of those naked chips and it was delicious. All right, I'll try them then on your recommendation. I saw them and then I want to full, all your audience wants a full report of the next, the next L-E-Y cats and Chris Vos get together. We'll just be crunching into the mic, crunch, crunch, crunch as we eat a bunch of potato chips. Yeah, I saw them on the shelf and I'm like, oh, great, this is the new thing. I think the FDA is banning like they're trying to get rid of some of those colorings and stuff. And some of them are banned in other countries.

But, you know, we're America. We don't, you know, bully. Unfortunately, I can give amazing business advice. I'm not sure that I'm the guy to be giving dietary advice. I'm the wrong guy for that. Are you getting biased advice from L.E.Y. Katz? You're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

Me as well. I mean, I'm 280, so yeah, maybe I'm not the right guy for your BMI reference. Who's your core audience today, both on the retailer side and the consumer side? Small business. If you have a small business, if you're thinking about going into a small business, whether it's a one employee shop or 100 employee shop, go to NRSplus.com, look at some of our products, and see how we could be helpful to grow your business and make sure your business. this runs officially. And how can they onboard with you guys? So they reach out. Is there a thing on the website? Yeah, we have online forms. We have phone numbers. We even have our Sammy AI chatbot. Oh, really? Yeah, on our NRSplus.com, go test Sammy AI. See how well they respond to you.

That's pretty good, man. That way, 24-7 people can be talking to you and ask it for help. What feedback do you hear from most of the retailers after they switch to your units there at NRS? the retailers love national retail solution and the numbers speak for itself 35,000 doors, 35,000 stores, which equates to about 39,000 point of sale registers that are out there. You know, the ones that I speak to love it. But, you know, it's like anything else. It's very robust but easy to use. But if you don't try to take advantage, if you don't avail yourself of all the different features

to help run your business officially. Then it's just a point of cell register. You want to make sure that you learn about all the different, whether it's the relationships that we created, the features, the functionality. You want to make sure you learn it and see how I can adapt that to my business and run my business better.

Yeah. What sort of, in leadership and vision, what sort of lessons have you learned building a company that serves thousands of businesses? Focus is the most important. Really? Stay focused, right? There's a lot of distractions.

There's a lot of people in the office that, I'm going to tell you a great, you know, I only gave you this small story about when the Jonas has called me into their office. And by the way, the Jonases are phenomenal people, unbelievable. And I don't just say that because they're my boss. I honestly believe it. They're just great human beings. And they started it with the intention. Listen, they're not, we're not Santa Claus.

We're a for-profit business. We're publicly traded business. the IDT is a troubleically traded, but they did it because they recognized that these stores needed our help, and that they recognized that these stores without our help were not going to be able to survive against these big brick and mortars. But with that said, when I was given my marching orders, I was told by dozens of my colleagues here in the office, don't waste your time, don't waste IDT's money, you're never going to be successful. These, Merchants don't want technology.

They're very happy with what they have. So focus. You know, if I would have listened to all of the bobbly heads, today we wouldn't have 35,000 locations and growing. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Yeah.

That's the classic story, right? Listen, that they say success has many fathers. Failure as an orphan. How do I, had I, you know, now that we're successful with this, business. Everybody's, you know, oh, it was my idea to do this. But it was my idea to do this. Color was my idea. Okay. Everyone's idea, right? L.E. White Catholic was just sitting back and doing nothing. But with that said, you know, focus. Don't get distracted. Everyone has their strength in this world. And you have to remember that. And even the people that that are not strong like

to give their opinions. That doesn't mean that they're right. It means you go with your gut and finish the job and get it done. Get it done is really my number two. Focus. Get it done. Those are my two advices for everyone. Get it done. Your bosses want to see success. They don't want to see excuses. 90%. My dad always said that. He said, Ellie, you can't pay your bills with excuses. I like that. Yeah, he wasn't teaching. He was really just educating me. He wasn't like, you know, it wasn't because I give excuses. You just making it clear. Like, you can't pay your bills with excuses. You got to get it done. I wrote that on my bills last month and, yeah, it didn't go well.

I want to tell you one last thing, which is my Roosevelt theory. Corporate America, they like PowerPoint presentations. Everything's a PowerPoint presentation, right? So I always said this guy in my office, his name was Roosevelt. This guy can do the absolute best PowerPoint presentation. If my boss said to me, Ellie, paint this wall, Roosevelt would come up with a 30-page PowerPoint presentation of what type of paint to use, how many people it's going to take, how long it will take, how long it will take to dry, what brushes, the different colors, beautiful, beautiful PowerPoint presentation. When you want to know something, at the end of the day, that wall will never get painted. You ask Ellie White Katz to paint the wall.

he'll run the Home Depot, pick up the colors, pick up the brush. That thing will be painted by the end of the day, and I'll be able to squeeze in a lunch. That's the difference. The Roosevelt theory, don't get PowerPoint presentations. They're garbage if you don't execute. That's true. Yeah, you have to execute. Yeah, you have to execute.

That's what we do around here on Fridays at the Chris Vos show. We have execution line, and we vote one. I heard about that. Yeah, yeah. They have to walk a plank, too, into a pool in the back, but they're, sharks in it. Now I see why you got the facial hair, you know, because you got to put on that that macho look when you're doing that plank walk.

Yeah, it goes good with the captain's hat. I kind of look like one of those old, we dress up like pirates. Oh, the skipper. Yeah, it's like, you know what I see it now? Yeah, what's it? Pilots of the Caribbean there. Oh, I was thinking of Gilligan's Island, maybe different generation. Are you calling me fat?

No, I'm calling you like nice and jolly. I am pretty jolly. But I always loved those guys. What a great show that was. I don't know. What an error. And what's next for P or NRS Plus? Any what coming innovations maybe?

We are going to continue scratching the itch of these independents as we find more and more needs. I'd mention that we got into payroll. We got into payroll because, and you mentioned the C word a few times, because during COVID, these small businesses learned. that if they don't have payroll, they are not going to avail themselves of all the different government programs. So we got into payroll to be able to offer these merchants a great quality product at an affordable rate. Cash advance. It's a horrible, dirty business, right? It's not a loan. It's an advance. It's based on your receivables. There's high interest.

But we try to be reasonable and we try to give these advances to our merch. and so that they can grow their business, they can buy equipment, that they can expand, that they can pay their payroll, pay their other bills, whatever else they need cash for. Right? So they could go to their bank. It could take several months. I went to my bank for a loan, and I'm still waiting to hear from them. Or they take a cash advance where it's not a loan. It's called an advance. It's based on your history and your receivables and your ability to pay back. and it's a lot, it's expensive money, but it's needed. It's needed, like I told you, I run a restaurant.

I have my inventory in my freezer that I paid for. I have my paper goods on a shelf that I paid for. But yet, I didn't make the sales yet, and I still have to pay my payroll and pay my rent. I do that because I take a cash advance. I know that I'm going to end up selling, and I end up paying some of my bills, and then I pay off my cash advance.

Oh. Cash? Necessary evil, like they say. Yeah, all that good stuff. So as we go out, tell people how they can reach out to you on board. Give us the dot com one last time and all that. NRSplus.com. NRSplus.com.

Well, thank you very much for coming to the show, Ellie. We really appreciate it. It was great to see you again and continue your success. Chris, I really love being here. And thank you for having me. Thanks for tuning into my audience. Go to Goodrease.com, Fortresschiscus, Foss. LinkedIn.com, Facebook.

dot com for it's this christmas youtube.com for it says christmas be good to each other stay safe we'll see you next time you've been listening to the most amazing intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life warning consuming too much of the chrisdwash show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter younger and irresistible sexy consume in regularly moderated amounts consult the doctor for any resulting brain bleed really we got you done and out