We were lucky to catch up with Chris Gladin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I worked as a Nurse Manager during COVID. I had a successful career, but I was really unhappy with my job. Typical corporate downfall feeling unappreciated, overworked, lack of work life balance, and I felt trapped.

During that time I day dreamed about what it would be like to run my own business. After injuring my back at work I decided it was officially time for a change. I discussed my situation with my girlfriend, did some calculations, and concluded if we made some changes I could start my own Game and Collectibles store.

I stepped down as a manager to working back on the floor, and worked 80 hours a week for a year so that I could save as much money as possible to begin this Journey.

Now I’ve been open 3.5 years, we have nearly 1800 5 star Google reviews, and our gaming community is bigger than ever.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve played tabletop games (primarily Warhammer 40k and Magic the Gathering) for 30 years. So it felt like the obvious choice for a business I was going to both enjoy and succeed in.

The one thing I found that most Game and Collectibles stores I went into lacked was customer service. It’s unfortunately not uncommon for customers to say they don’t feel comfortable, welcome, or included when hey venture in a lot of Game and Collectibles shops. So my mission from the beginning was to change that.

I greet every customer that walks in, offer them assistance, and don’t hover. We have a rewards system to incentivise repeat visits. I tell every customer leaving to have a great day and that we appreciate them and mean it! We have open gaming spaces where everyone is welcome.

Almost every review we receive mentions how friendly and helpful our staff are, and I further encourage that by leading by example, and sharing with staff the positive reviews we receive especially when they’re mentioned by name.

I also believe this positivity has a trickle down effect so we attract customers that are also friendly and engaged leading to a community of encouraging and fun people to be around.

We also have the most adorable mascot, my French bulldog Miso who tragically passed in 2024 but lives on through the shop.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think the most important part of social media is just posting. We don’t have the most interactive special media base, but our content is seen a lot more than I realized. Customers often mention our socials when they tell is how they found out about us, or that they saw a new product in, ot event coming up.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

It’s so obvious, but treat your team how you would want to be treated, but remember not everyone is going to have the same drive, motivations, or experiences as you. So sometimes you need to remember that while yes, you would have done something differently, that may not always be as obvious, or even the best way for someone else to complete a task. So discuss it with your staff. Instead of saying “I want you to do that this way” maybe try asking “Do you find that way more beneficial than how I do it? And Why?”

Open communication is the key to maintaining morale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://misosgameroom.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/misosgameroom
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/misosgameroom
• Youtube: https://YouTube.com/misosgameroom
• Other: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kBgrpagHtH6bGeRw6