The Trend Report

Meet the Collaborative Network

• Rex Miller, Sid Meadows, Michelle Warren, Julie Dillon, Erin Torres • Season 6 • Episode 157

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Get ready for a different kind of episode. Rex Miller takes the mic and interviews Sid and three other industry veterans who have united to create The Collaborative Network. This is a game-changing initiative providing structured support programs for small furniture manufacturers. Listen as Rex asks the tough but relevant questions about how this group plans to address the unique challenges of over 3,400 small manufacturers who previously lacked dedicated resources for growth and development.

  • Michelle Warren brings public sector expertise and small business advocacy
  • Julie Dillon specializes in independent rep management and sales strategy
  • Erin Torres offers brand development and marketing strategy expertise
  • Sid Meadows provides business advisory and coaching for small manufacturers
  • Their research identified five key challenges: market access, sales strategy, technology adoption, strategic planning gaps, and lack of community
  • They've created three tailored programs for businesses at every level: CEO Peer Group, Emerging Business Incubator, and Sales Director Peer Group
  • These programs are designed specifically for growth-minded leaders wanting to compete against larger manufacturers
  • Their vision: to be seen as trusted growth partners helping small businesses dominate


Find The Collaborative Network at thecollaborative.network or connect with any of the team members on LinkedIn.

Connect with:

Michelle Warren:

Catalyst Consulting Group - https://strategic-catalyst.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-warren-47a6888/

Julie Dillon:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-dillon-a3981911/

Erin Torres:

LaLeona Marketing https://laleonamarketing.com/ 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-cadieux-torres/

Head over to https://sidmeadows.com/connect to answer five quick questions and help us make season 7 the very best.


Connect with Sid:

www.sidmeadows.com
Embark CCT on Facebook
Sid on LinkedIn
Sid on Instagram
Sid on YouTube
Sid on Clubhouse - @sidmeadows
Subscribe to my LinkedIn Newsletter. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/inside-contract-interiors-7298489501159460865/

The Trend Report introduction music is provided by Werq by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4616-werq License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sid:

Hey friend, and welcome back, or welcome to the Trend Report. I'm excited that you've joined me for today's conversation. I'm Sid Meadows. I'm a business advisor, coach and longtime student of the office furniture industry. My goal is to share information that helps you and your business move forward each and every day, and today we have a little bit of kind of a podcast takeover, if you will. I'm excited to welcome back to the show our friend, rex Miller, who's been with us many times in the past. Rex, I think this might be like episode number five that you've been on, but today is going to be even more different because I'm giving him the mic, as he's going to jump in and ask questions of me and my fellow guests Michelle Warren, aaron Torres and Julie Dillon. We'll be answering all of his questions about our new partnership, the Collaborative Network. So, rex, take it away.

Rex:

Well, thank you, sid, and yeah, it's a different kind of role to play, but it's got all my curiosity, because you guys have come together to change the industry or provide a need. You found a common frustration in a common mission, and I'd like to hear a little bit about how each of you got to where we are today. And so we'll start with Michelle. And Michelle, how did you get here and what's a little bit about your background that puts you in this seat?

Michelle:

Sure. So I have been in the furniture industry for 28-ish years, on the dealer side. On the manufacturer side, I've run manufacturers and eventually found my way into a public sector niche, and so today I own a company called Catalyst Consulting and we help manufacturers, preferably small business manufacturers. I am a small business advocate, do public sector and in the process of doing that I just noticed all of the other needs that small business manufacturers have. And when the opportunity came up and I'm sure we'll share more about that anything that we can do to help small business manufacturers I'm on board to do.

Rex:

That's great. And then, julie, how about yourself?

Julie:

I also came from the dealer world originally and then moved over to the manufacturing side, and that's where Michelle and my paths crossed. And Michelle came in with the discipline of GSA and sled work, and I came in with the discipline of GSA and SLED work, and I came in with the discipline of sales structure, primarily focusing on independent rep structure. And then, several years ago, I started my own consulting business to help small manufacturers develop, enhance or curate the best-in-class independent rep sales forces.

Rex:

Great. And then Erin, it's your turn independent rep sales forces Great.

Erin:

And then, erin, it's your turn. Okay, so I have always been in the marketing within the manufacturing sector. I started out my career there and then made my way into the world of office furniture, where I've been helping out there now for 21 years. So what I've enjoyed the most is helping these manufacturers understand that they have a brand and helping them build their brands and then build their marketing strategies from there.

Rex:

All right, and then Sid.

Sid:

So, very similar to Michelle and Julie, I also started my career on the dealer side, then made my way to the manufacturing side. My paths have crossed paths with Michelle multiple times through that journey in my 30-something-eth year in the furniture business, and then, about 15 or 20 years ago, I met Erin at a manufacturer. And then Julie, probably about five years ago, after she had already or was just about to start a consulting business. And in 2017, I started my consulting business after leaving corporate, and today I do business advisory and coaching for small business manufacturers inside of our industry. So, as you can see, we kind of all have a tie of small businesses.

Rex:

Yeah, and I'm really interested because I come out of similar backgrounds, but you guys have uncovered stuff that I never even thought about, and what I love is that great starting efforts. Entrepreneurs have a problem, a common frustration that they're trying to solve, and I'd be interested to find how this group came together. What was that common frustration? What were some of the you know, happy hour discussions you had, or whatever that somehow spawned this collaborative effort together?

Sid:

So I'll jump in first because I'm going to pass it to Michelle, because it actually all started with her and Michelle seems so. Michelle, you want to start like tell how you kind of came about this idea.

Michelle:

Yeah, well, I'll actually go back further a little bit, sid, to conversations that you and I have had throughout the years, right, and something that you had said, that when I was on the manufacturer side, I think I just kind of was like, yeah, that's true, whatever I'm doing, I was with a small business, so I knew it to be true. But you continually would say to me you know how important it is to provide resources for small businesses because they can't afford the resources that the large manufacturers can. And I was not a small business and I would just say yes. And then, when I started my business four years ago, I was like, oh, now I really see what you mean by that, right. And so it all started, rex, with really a couple of things. I do public sector at Catalyst, but I would get phone calls from manufacturers that were like, hey, I think you can help us, we need help with independent reps, or we need this or we need that. And I was like I probably could help you, but I do public sector and I'm trying to stay really tight in my public sector niche. And so I was saying no, or I would take someone on and try to help them, but didn't really have the resources to do everything they needed to do, right, because I'm so niched on public sector.

Michelle:

And then fast forward to Neocon. Last year I had a conversation with a small business manufacturer that was just frustrated with how there are so many different things that they have to consider and everything costs something. And how do we make decisions when everyone is like I need $1,000 a month, I need $500 a month, I need $20,000 for this. How do we know what we need to be doing? And in that frustration had a conversation.

Michelle:

At that time Sid was doing some other stuff and I didn't even mention it to him. I was just talking to people like, hey, there is a need here for what I called an incubator. At the time I was like there needs to be like an incubator where we can help small businesses, where they can get all these things they need and someone can help them understand what exactly they need to be investing in and what can wait for future and what they don't need at all. And then Sid's time freed up and we were just talking about what he was going to be doing and I was like, well, before you make a decision, I have an idea and I'd like to share it with you.

Sid:

And.

Michelle:

Sid was like what did you say, sid?

Sid:

So I actually, when she shared the idea with me, I went that is brilliant. I can't believe I didn't think of it first.

Rex:

Like I was mad because she thought of it first, right.

Sid:

But I think the follow-up to that is that Michelle said something that I think is always really important. I've said it before and I know Julie and Aaron think about this as well If our industry has a problem or a challenge and we can truly identify it and create a solution for it, we want to help be the catalyst quote unquote to solve the problems for our industry. And so after Michelle shared the idea and I got over my jealousy of the fact that it was really her idea, then I went to work. I'm sitting on my couch in front of the TV and I'm Googling and I'm finding all this information. I'm texting her at nine o'clock at night going we could do this, we could do that. So my brain just went to work and then I came up with a business plan of what we were going to do. That's kind of, rex, you know, this strategy is kind of my thing and I've kind of mapped out this full strategy.

Sid:

And then we met in January at the BIFMA 360 conference and every morning Michelle made me get up at 530 in the morning, go walk in the dark down this wet trail in the woods, and every morning for over an hour we would talk about this and we talk about what we're going to do and talk about ideas. And then we started formulating, and then that led to Michelle and I going, okay, we can't do this alone. Who are people that we know, that we really trust, that we can bring in to be part of this initiative with us? And that's when we invited Julie and Erin to join us on this journey of creating significant impact for small business manufacturers.

Rex:

So, julie, when you first heard of the idea, what was kind of the initial reaction Was it wow, this is great, finally, oh, finally, okay. So so you did the finally.

Julie:

Okay, I've been wanting to collaborate with Michelle for a very long time and I got. I found Sid during COVID. That's how I first learned about the trend report, and I literally called him up out of the blue one day saying okay, you're. This isn't going to sound creepy, I hope, but you have one of the best voices on the radio. This is so great. And I didn't know you from the industry and I knew that him and Michelle were friends and then it kind of started from there. That's great.

Rex:

And then Erin, when you first heard about it, was it yay, great, or who are these people?

Erin:

No, I thought it was brilliant. I mean, I thought it was definitely a hole in the industry that was needed. Especially, I thought it was very timely too, considering everything that had been going on, with our administration wanting to really promote US manufacturing. So I thought this could be a way for US manufacturers to maybe you know have a lift and have people to turn to to help them get better.

Rex:

Yeah, and just for listeners to understand a little bit of who these people are, neocon will be coming up and if they go to the seventh floor I'm not sure which floors all of the what we used to call the third world manufacturers are, but all the many manufacturers, you'll get a feel for the scope of how many. But, sid, you were talking about the number and it blew me away. So what did you find out in terms of how big is this group that has this need?

Sid:

Yeah, One of the first things I did was start doing research about small business manufacturers and really trying to explore how many there were, what their challenges were, and we can talk about some of the research that we did internally. But through research I discovered that in our industry there are 3,594 manufacturers, office furniture manufacturers. How many? Again, 3,594. So if you factor out 20 to say those are the majors and the mini majors, right, Then you got 3,574. Take away another hundred for those that operate behind the curtain, meaning those that do OEM manufacturing for a lot of brands, OEM manufacturing for a lot of brands. That leaves us with 3,474. So let's just for an easy number, say 3,400 small business office furniture manufacturers exist in our industry and that's a lot.

Sid:

And when you look at the landscape to Michelle's point earlier, at who supports them, very few people. There are very few organizations that actually support, empower and uplift the small business manufacturers. There are very few organizations that actually support, empower and uplift the small business manufacturers. You have Solomon Coil that's doing very similar things for the aligned dealers as well as the aligned manufacturers. You have my resource library and the North American Independent Rep Council doing it to uplift the independent reps, which is fantastic, but nobody's doing it for the small business manufacturers, and so that was, I think, one of the biggest things about the idea that Michelle had, which was there is a need here and we can fill this need if we can do more research and come up with the programs that can support them in the right way.

Rex:

So now the question is what do they need? I mean, what's the problem that you're solving, outside of the fact that they're small, hard to get mindshare? But you've each worked with the independent rep networks, you've worked with manufacturers and distributors. How are you going to help these people get a voice and get a platform so that they can expand their businesses?

Sid:

So I'll talk about the challenges and then I think each person can talk about maybe a little bit about how they can help with that one particular area. So what we did after going to BIFMA and having informal discussions with people, we came back and had formal discussions with several small business manufacturer CEOs and we had a list of questions and Michelle and I did market research and we wanted to ask them what are your challenges, what are the things that are happening? Then we had some informal discussions, we had talks with others, like Julie and Aaron, about what they're hearing and we came up with five key things that were some of the biggest challenges market access and distribution channels right. Like how do they get into the market? How do they get access to the dealer community, right? Another one kind of falling in that category includes independent rep management. You'll start to see some through lines come through here, right. Then the next one was sales strategy and independent rep management. Like how do I actually create a true sales strategy and not only how do I manage the independent reps? How do I find them, because there's not really a directory of them how do I vet them? How do I onboard them? How do I train them? How do I empower them right?

Sid:

The next one was similar to what Michelle talked about a minute ago, which was technology and AI adaption. There's so many things in technology out there that every time we turn around, somebody's knocking on our door saying, hey, here's my latest and greatest tech for $1,000 a month. It's going to transform your business. And then there's fatigue around that. Right, there's a ton of fatigue around that, a lot of gaps in strategic planning and navigating growth, sustainable growth. Some of them just don't have formal strategic plans. Some of them don't have. They take more of an adapt-as-you-go philosophy, right. And then the last one was this was a little bit of a surprise to us. The fifth problem overwhelming and resounding from every leader that we talked to was their desire to be part of a community of like-minded leaders, and that surprised us.

Rex:

Yeah, that's what the dealers are attracted to to the Solomon Coils of the world, and there's a couple of these peer affinity networks as well, being part of a community that have common challenges, common interests. That's a great insight there. So, each of you, you're like the Avengers, you know. You each bring a different superpower to this force, vanquishing the evil of being invisible in this marketplace. So, erin, what's kind of the superpower that you're bringing to help these manufacturers?

Erin:

So I think for me, my superpower is building that brand and learning about that company to help them become someone that is seen and someone that is related to. I'm really good at building an emotional connection with the audiences that they're trying to reach out to so that people really understand what they're selling and why they're selling it. But also taking something usually working with manufacturers, they want to talk about the nitty gritty of the product and why it's so great and it's getting them to understand that there's a level before that that has to happen, and sort of explaining the problem that this piece of furniture solves and who really wants this and why do they want it and what's it going to change and really making them think a little bit deeper about what their product actually does.

Rex:

That's neat. And then, Julie, your side as well. It sounds like dealing with the independent rep firms, which that's like dealing with sand in your hands. So, how are you going to deal with the sand of the independent rep firms and their loyalty, getting their loyalty?

Julie:

Yeah, and it's a passion of mine. I think the way that I like to look at the collaborative team is that we each have our zones of expertise, which I think is great, but then we all are going to collaborate together because obviously, marketing feeds into the sales strategy, right, and sales will feed into Michelle's area and Sid's area. So we all have our zones where we're kind of laser focused on, but then we all are going to come together because that's really what's going to help make these manufacturers successful. So, when it comes to independent reps, I am very passionate towards them and very biased, because I think most manufacturers don't give them the time and the opportunity to build and nurture that relationship, and I think it's oftentimes.

Julie:

Manufacturers perceive some of the rep groups where their sales have declined, that they're not working or pushing in the line. A lot of times it's really the lack of communication is all it is, because they might not know what to sell, they might not know how to position it, they might not be able to get the information out of the manufacturer. There's so many different areas to think about and when you curate the sales force right and you have the right lines of communication and the right structure in place. These independent reps are the most powerful sales force you can ever have, so I'm very excited about it and I want the manufacturers to see them with the passion and light that I see for them to help grow sales.

Rex:

Interesting. That's great and, michelle, sounds like vertical markets is part of what you're bringing to the table as a superpower.

Michelle:

Yeah, I would say I, like I told you the other day, I like to call myself a subject matter enthusiast about public sector. I think, especially in today's world, it's hard to be an expert. But yeah, definitely bring that, that niche to the table. And then I would also say, just, you know, and we laugh a lot about you know, I had a long career before I niched into public sector, so we do a lot of, as Julie said, collaborative work together. Sid and I are always brainstorming, aaron and I, julie and I always brainstorming about stuff that has nothing to do with public sector. So I bring all of that experience that I have in the past. But my real focus in the collaborative is going to be the vertical markets.

Rex:

That's great. Now, with over 3,000 potential manufacturers, who's a good fit for what you're doing? Because I can imagine once people hear what you're doing there's going to be lots of tire kicking or people looking for something free. I can also see some of the second or third tier manufacturers need what you need because they deal with the independent reps as well and they struggle with mindshare. So define kind of your Goldilocks client. Who's right in that sweet spot. What are they looking for? What kind of leadership culture do they have? Who fits?

Sid:

It's a really, really great question and I want to tie it to the three programs that we're offering. Out of the research, we discovered that they started out with two programs and then, as we continued to go, we kept getting requests for this, for something specific, and so when we get a request, we're like, okay, if it gets requested enough times, we're just going to do it. Right, we're just going, we're nimble enough, we're going to do it. So the first thing that we created was a structured peer group for CEOs or business leaders, slash owners, and this is truly a peer group. It's a year-long commitment. It meets every month for a couple of hours every month. Virtually There'll be a couple of in-person sessions and through that peer group, we'll actually be talking about what's going on in your business. We'll be doing some problem solving, some hot seat coaching, some idea sharing, if you will.

Sid:

And so if you are a small business, the target audience is a small business manufacturer, their owner or their CEO or maybe their COO, right, somebody in the executive C suite. And it's really hard, rex, to put a dollar amount on that, because so many businesses in our industry don't really talk about what their revenue is. But if you're classified as a small business and you don't have a strategic plan, or maybe you got half of a strategic plan. Maybe you don't have a sales strategy, you got half of it. Maybe you got 10 independent reps and you desire to be part of a community of other like-minded, growth-minded business leaders, then the Structure Peer Group is for you.

Sid:

The second one is the Emerging Business Incubator. This is for you. The second one is the emerging business incubator. This is for the company that's probably less than five years old, maybe only a couple of million dollars in sale. They have a phenomenal product. They have a phenomenal culture, great people. Their leaders are some of the best leaders out there, and this is where you find the CEO being the VP of marketing, the VP of sales, right?

Sid:

The chief accounting officer right Running the manufacturing plant. This incubator is designed to also be a 12-month program that's going to guide you through creating your strategic playbook to create sustainable, long-term success, where we deep dive into strategies that are important for you and your business in order to create the growth that you need. Also, kind of structured in a peer group format, that's a much smaller one than the CEO group. It's a smaller group because it's a lot of heavy lifting from us, it's a lot of consulting from us and building playbooks together. And then the third one that came out of again, this was a request was and Julie's doing a phenomenal job at filling this group is our VP of sales, our sales director. Peer group. It is strictly a peer group for sales leaders of small business manufacturers. It meets quarterly for that one's filling up really fast because sales leaders also need a place to navigate to and to brainstorm and to share ideas. So those are the three programs and a little bit about that customer persona, if you will.

Rex:

And then, on the flip side, who's not a good candidate for you guys? I'm sure really small, you know one product, but in terms of, there's a lot of manufacturers that you know are 5, 10, 15 million and they may not be a good candidate for you guys.

Sid:

So I'm going to let everybody I think it'd be interesting to hear what everybody else has to say about who's not but what I will tell you is if you are not a growth-minded leader, then we are not for you, because we are growth-minded, we are high energy, we are looking to the future to help you grow, and if you don't identify with that, then we're probably not the right group for you. But I would be interested to hear what Aaron, michelle and Julie have to say.

Michelle:

Well, I hate when you go first, because that was my answer Not exactly, but we can beep it out in different words, but that was my. You know, we've talked to a lot of people that you know say that they're committed and then, kind of once they get talking, they're like, well, I don't really want to do that part of it or that's not important to me. Then you know, then this is not for you, right? Like Sid said, we want to help small businesses, but we want to help the small businesses that want to be helped, that understand that they don't have the resources that they need. They understand that there's potential for them to grow and that we can offer them, through this great team here, basically what they need to be successful, and they just have to want it right need to be successful and and they just have to want it, want it right.

Rex:

Yeah, and it sounds like that growth is not just size growth, but growth in their culture, clarity in their values, developing their people, getting smarter and more strategic is, as opposed to just being tactical every day. And we all know a lot of businesses rep firms, dealers, whatever that are lifestyle businesses right, they're comfortable. They'd love a couple new tricks, but they're probably not. You guys are much more strategic oriented, it seems like, in what you're doing, and so for your company, or for every organization, do you have some kind of guiding principles or some things that you commonly hold together? These are the important filters that we have and these are the behaviors for us to be able to work well together.

Sid:

That's a really great question actually.

Rex:

Yeah, it's a good question. And you guys are new enough where I'm sure, some of that is still. You're still learning everybody's but there may be a couple of things that really stand out. The reasons that attracted you together may be keys and indicators to those core values that you have.

Julie:

I was going to say all of us in our careers, one of the things that we have.

Julie:

We have a lot of things in common, but it's about passion and drive and all of us collectively together want that to be contagious with any manufacturer that wants to grow and develop. And when I was with a smaller company, it was very hard to navigate in the system with other manufacturers and it was hard to get to know some of the other manufacturers and one of the things that I really did or leaned on was with my independent reps when I go into the field or the territory to go work with them. I wanted to collaborate with the other manufacturers that they wrapped for two reasons. First, I wanted the other manufacturers to not see me as a threat. I wanted them to see me as another partner to the independent rep group. But the other thing is is I wanted to hear what they were doing, because a lot of them I was much smaller manufacturer with very, very little sales and I wanted to know how did you get, how did you get to be like their number one sales, you know, producer for them.

Julie:

And after COVID I think we've lost that connectivity with each other because there aren't as many group functions anymore where you can just organically run into three or four different BPs of sales somewhere, or regional managers or whatever it happens to be, because people don't travel as much as they did before. So this is a way for us to organically create a community virtually with everybody, so that they can start to network with each other, and I think that that's really important.

Michelle:

Yeah, and I would say about the people you know the people here in this conversation like I can look at each of the faces Sid and Aaron and Julie and tell you that they are the best at what they do. Aaron is the best at marketing. I've worked with her in the past at a manufacturer. She does my marketing for Catalyst. Julie is the best with independent reps that I've ever worked with. Sid is the best presenter. Like I always go back to the presentation side. When I first met you and you presented and I was like that was the best presentation I've ever seen in my life and that was 20 some plus years ago and I've never seen it done better. So you know it's great, like when you think of a team you want to create right to run a business with. You want to work with some of the best people in the industry and that's what we've put together here.

Rex:

That's so neat. Yeah, and Sid's also a sales Jedi as well. He's got some great stories, and one of the things that's becoming clear is you've assembled a group of industry nerds. I mean passionate students students, not nerds.

Sid:

Okay, yeah, we want to be contagious.

Rex:

Well, but having that deep expertise in the different areas and bringing it together, I mean you're all veterans, right, and I don't think there's any place anybody can go to see this kind of collection of veterans in the different areas. The other interesting parallel to me is Moneyball, the movie, where you guys are arbitraging a system that's unfair to the smaller. Now you've created your island of misfit toys, so to speak, but the whole idea of the system is set up a certain way and you're arbitraging the system by bringing this expertise together that other smaller companies can leverage. So that's the fascinating thing I'm watching take place before me here. I want to kind of look towards the future and have each of you look at first this next year coming up and major events and, like Neocon, I'm sure it's going to be a major opportunity for you to meet people and talk. But walk me through what you think the first 12 months and then, looking back after three, four, maybe five years, how do you envision that you've moved the needle in the industry?

Sid:

Rick's doing a great job with the questions, that's for sure.

Rex:

Yeah, that's for sure.

Michelle:

So let's go with that yeah Go ahead.

Rex:

It was kind of there was, yeah, there was, there's a forward looking. But I want to you know, I'm excited for what you're doing I want to hear and maybe we're processing in real time as to what you envision, what the aspiration is.

Sid:

Well, I don't have a short answer to it and then we can go around and deep dive into this a little bit, but for me it's small business domination. Okay, we work with some of the most amazing brands in the small business arena. They're amazing people, they have amazing products. They just need visibility, they need to be given an opportunity and I mentioned jokingly earlier, we're kind of the small business superheroes. I want to see small businesses dominate in our industry. There's no reason that we should have 3,000 quality manufacturers and that our industry sales are dominated by 20.

Michelle:

Yeah, and when you were speaking earlier, rex, about the group that we've put together, I was thinking in my mind we want to give them for lack of a better word an unfair advantage over the majors. Right, the majors have money and they can have resources, but can they put together a team like this? And so hopefully we're giving those small businesses an unfair advantage, right to grow and to succeed in our industry. I think, short term, we are, you know, obviously starting up and in pilot stage and we're going to kick off, and you know all three of those groups at the beginning or the end of June we're going to start going. So we've already started recruiting companies into each of those and at Neocon we will be looking for more manufacturers to join the program and then from there, you know, I think we, we all know that this is needed and it's going to be successful. So just cultivating more groups in the immediate future, for sure.

Rex:

That's neat, that's great and you know I I've worked with what would be considered small manufacturer and I know there are certain things you can pull off. You know you can move on a dime. You've got a personal touch. And there was one project, one of my favorite projects we were able to deliver 600 workstations in a three-week period of time when nobody else could, because you can shift those kinds of resources and make an impact doing that as you build your network, your superhero network. Let's go out three years, five years. What does it look like for you? Because you've got this unique platform, there's going to be interest in it. Where does it go from here in the next three to five years?

Sid:

So I'd like for Erin to start answering that question, because we haven't heard from her in just a few minutes, and then maybe Julie, and then Michelle, and then I can wrap it up. So, erin, what do you see the future as?

Erin:

I haven't looked that far out on this For me.

Erin:

I've been just trying to think about what is it that I think people need out there, and I think they just need to know what are the right things to do at the right time.

Erin:

And so I think there's different stages of businesses, and so I could see that maybe over time, we start helping people at specific stages of their business or specific areas that they want to move into. I also, in my heart, would like to see that we were maybe talking about the idea of a peer group just for marketing directors or marketing people, and I'm excited about that idea and also just excited about in the research that I've done in the world of marketing. It's really become an area that's become primarily female focused and helping them navigate work and life and all the things in between. And how do you get it all done Navigate work and life and all the things in between, and how do you get it all done. And so I think there might be some room for different types of networking as we, as we grow as well, because the truth is, is we? In today's world, everything is hybrid, from your life to your work to everything is melding into one sort of pot, and so I think maybe there could be some space there.

Rex:

Well, I can see too, as you're mentioning, none of us really know what the next 24 months or 12 months is, let alone 24, 36, but creating a community where you can learn from the edges and you can find kind of the outliers and then model that and bring that information down through the network, I think that's a powerful opportunity. Now, how do people even find you guys? Do you have a website? It looks really good. Hang on, ray.

Sid:

Before you go too far. I want to hear from Julie and Michelle about the future. I want to finish that part. Is that okay, Okay.

Erin:

Yeah absolutely.

Julie:

I'm going to leave my mic back for a minute.

Sid:

But, julie, tell us about your vision in the future.

Julie:

I see our vision in three to five years is that we've made an impact on the small manufacturers and we have created the best in class for those manufacturers within our areas of expertise. So the best private sector business, the best independent rep structure, the best business strategy, the best marketing, that we've helped create these manufacturers with really strong departments to grow their company and have passion and drive and make a mark on the industry. That is really what our ultimate goal is is to make all these manufacturers successful and help the independent reps to continue to curate really good line packages.

Michelle:

Yeah, I would say the word help that Julie kept saying, right, at the core of it all is we want to help small business manufacturers, right. And so I would say even today, rex, it's not what we originally thought it was going to be after the market research, it's that plus. And so I would say even today, rex, it's not what we originally thought it was going to be after the market research, it's that plus. And so I think the great thing about it is that we're all open to this being what it needs to be, whatever the small businesses need, like Aaron said, is it a marketing peer group? Is it a different type of community? We don't know what it's going to need, but I think we're all open to the idea of we want to provide what small business manufacturers need.

Michelle:

And if we keep that, that mindset and that business goal, then you know who knows what it's going to look like in five years. But I think it will be successful in doing everything that everyone has said they want it to do. If we just keep that in our mind. And it's not about what we want or and it's not about what we think they need, because there's been a lot of conversations about. Huh, I didn't think it was going to go that way. So you know, we're just trying to provide what they really need and not what we think they want?

Julie:

We want to be good listeners and implement and execute on what they need and guide them.

Rex:

That's a good stage for that. Yeah, you're in a great stage for that.

Erin:

I think we just want to be seen as a trusted resource, as a place where people can tell us what they're uncomfortable with right now, what doesn't feel right, what do they not have an answer for, and when they know that they can come together with these different levels of expertise to ask that question and come out with an answer, I think they're going to be that much more empowered. So I think it's creating just honesty, transparency and people willing to come to us.

Sid:

As I see that this is my vision. Right, my vision is that we walk into a room with our partner manufacturer and they look at whether it's all four of us at one time or if it's one of us at a time. They look at us and they introduce us as this is my partner in growth. This is my partner that has helped us get to the next level. This is my partner, this is my ally, this is my advocate that helped us navigate choppy waters during a crazy storm of tariffs. Right, that's my vision.

Sid:

I want to walk into those serums at Neocon and everybody in that organization knows who we are.

Sid:

We are embraced by them as a true partner to them and hopefully we're able to do that with continuing with our peer groups, adding peer groups, as there is a need, as Aaron mentioned about potentially adding a marketing we get enough people ask us about it. We will start a marketing group, but I also see that potentially could lead to other things, like potentially going down the path of doing research. It could be doing some additional consulting. There are tons of opportunities and along with that big vision I know Julie shares this vision with me Michelle might panic and spin around in her chair a little bit, but I would love to see a showroom at the Merchandise Mart called the Collaborative that's got samples of every one of our members and their products in a showroom showing how we can collaborate together because we are better together. Whether we compete with each other or not, we are better together and it's about us being the tide wrecks to raise the small business ships in our industry.

Rex:

Well and it feels like an idea whose time has come. We know that peer groups work because the industry uses it. I don't know of any broad-based peer group like you guys are talking about, and I'm excited about where you're taking it, all the passion I know you're going to be out at Neocon. I'm interested to see what comes out of that. Any final words in terms of how people get in touch with you and where they can find you during Neocon?

Sid:

So, aaron, why don't you share our marketing and where you can find us from the world of socials and website and stuff, and then the rest of us can add to it?

Erin:

Okay, so the website is thecollaborativenetwork, so you can go there to find us. Our LinkedIn handle, which was just recently created Let me make sure I have it right before I speak unintelligently on that it is you can find us at LinkedIn, at the collaborative network. One word. So those are some ways that you can find us. You can also find us on our own individual handles on LinkedIn, so there's a lot of different ways you can get in touch with us. We do all have our own businesses as well, but we'll be at Neocon.

Sid:

I'd like to say we'd be wearing bright yellow t-shirts, Michelle's favorite color.

Julie:

We will not be, but we will all be there. You'll see us hanging out together for sure. Sam is not in charge of marketing. If you haven't figured that out yet, I understand.

Rex:

Sam keep him in his lane. Will you provide some links in the show notes for people? That's great. This has been fun for me. Thank you for allowing me to reverse the roles in here and let me ask the questions for a little bit. It was fun. I wanted to nerd out a little bit more. We can do that at a later time. But any final words before we sign off here.

Sid:

Michelle, any final words to share?

Michelle:

I was just going to say see you at Neocon. There you go.

Rex:

Yeah, and that's a great way, because we'll all be at Neocon, and so I'm looking forward to seeing you guys, Plus anybody who knows us on LinkedIn. I'm sure there'll be posts to keep us up to date. Sid and team, thank you for allowing me to sit in with you and have this conversation.

Sid:

Rex, I couldn't thank you enough for coming back and letting me twist your arm to be the host today. It's always better when we have somebody else interview us, especially when we're talking about something we're super passionate about. We're excited to share the collaborative network with our world. We're excited to meet people. You got the website. You can connect with us there. You've got the LinkedIn page. You can connect with each of us individually. Look for us at Neocon. We will be there in force. We'll also be. We'll put out some information about where we'll be hanging out and having meetings. So we're working on some finalization of all that. But, Rex, thank you.

Sid:

Aaron, julie and Michelle thank you for being here To all of you listening, and thank you very much for letting us introduce you to the Collaborative Network. Thanks again for joining us today. Go out there and make today great, and we'll see you again right back here in a couple of weeks. Take care everyone. Thank you.