The Trend Report

Navigating the Future with Shelley Rosetta of Solomon Coyle

• Sid Meadows, Shelley Rosetta • Season 6 • Episode 154

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What does it take to thrive in the office furniture industry during these turbulent times? Shelley Rosetta, Principal at Solomon Coyle, brings a wealth of knowledge from her journey from bedroom space-planner to dealership principal to industry consultant. 

Our conversation reveals how flexibility, operational excellence, and authentic leadership have become non-negotiable qualities for success in 2025. Shelley shares her perspective on why our industry must engage with educational institutions earlier - helping students understand the diverse career paths within office furniture beyond the traditional design role glorified in academic settings.

As we explore Solomon Coyle's work, Shelley unpacks how their financial benchmarking, compensation surveys, and leadership development programs provide crucial insights for dealers navigating an evolving marketplace. Their transition to blended learning models reflects broader industry shifts toward adaptability and innovation.

Whether you're a dealer principal, manufacturer, designer, or involved elsewhere in the industry ecosystem, this episode offers practical wisdom for navigating uncertainty while building a sustainable business for whatever comes next.


Resources

Episode 40 - How the Office Furniture Industry is Changing with Paul Holland - https://www.sidmeadows.com/episode40

Episode 151 - Love What You Do with Doug Shapiro - https://www.sidmeadows.com/episode151

Build Like A Woman: The Blueprint for Creating a Business and Life You Love by Kathleen Griffith - https://www.amazon.com/Build-Like-Woman-Blueprint-Creating-ebook/dp/B0CG4KWFD2

Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others by Stephen M.R. Covey - https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Inspire-Leaders-Unleash-Greatness/dp/198214372X

Connect with Shelley:

Email - srosetta@solomoncoyle.com
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleyrosetta/


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 to the Trend Report. Glad that you're joining me today. I'm Sid Meadows. I'm a business leader, coach, consultant and longtime student of the office furniture industry, and in this podcast we have powerful conversations with industry leaders, innovators and others that are making an impact in their business and our industry. As you know, my goal is simple to provide you with valuable insights, information, resources and tools to help you grow and your business grow, and to help move our industry forward. So let's dive into today's conversation with my special guest, who I recently met at BIFMA conference out in California Shelly Rosetta, who is a principal at Solomon Coil. Shelly, how are you today?

Shelley:

I'm great, Sid. Thank you for having me.

Sid :

Well, I kind of cornered you. I did that to a couple of people Like, hey, it's nice to meet you. Will you come on my podcast? You're right, but I've been a huge fan of Solomon Coil for many years and love the work that you guys are doing, and excited to talk about it a little bit more In full disclosure. You're the second Solomon Coil employee that's been on the show. The now retired Paul Holland was on, I think in season two, and this is season six, so excited to hear your insights with us. So, shelly, let's just kind of jump in. So I'm really curious how did you get into the office furniture industry?

Shelley:

That's a great question. So it was a little winding road that got me there, but I started out. You know, when I was little I used to space plan my tiny little bedroom of you know. It was probably like a 10 foot by maybe 12 foot bedroom and I could space plan that room like nobody's business. And when you say you like, did you?

Sid :

draw it on a piece of paper.

Shelley:

Yes, I drew it up and then I'd move it around you know myself and so that that led to taking an architectural drafting class in high school and I just kind of fell in love with drawing and you know space planning and architecture from there and I went in and my bachelor's degree is in interior design. I went to the University of Kansas and then, you know, when I got out I started as a designer at a dealership.

Sid :

Okay.

Shelley:

And what I found was I just did not want to sit behind a computer all day, I just I wanted to be out, I wanted to be talking to people, and so I eventually transitioned into sales and have worked for some dealers and was a principal at a dealer and have also worked for some manufacturers. So I love the whole ecosystem of our little industry and so have been a designer, a project manager, a sales leader, kind of just, and everything in between.

Sid :

That's great. It started at a young age, but I'm sure when you were in college studying interior design and they started going through opportunities that were available to you once you got out of school, was office furniture part of that discussion, and working at a dealer.

Shelley:

You know that's the sad thing about going to your classes and having your professors in, especially interior design and it's probably this way in architecture. You know they really limit your train of thought of what you're going to do. You. You come out of there thinking that you are going to go work for, you know, an HOK or a Gensler and I'm going to be this great designer in a big city in New York, and they don't really mention that. You can be a rep, you can go work at a dealership, you can be at Solomon Coil. There's just so many different avenues that you find out after you graduate and I would love to see them talk about all the different paths that you can take while you're in school.

Sid :

So I think, in general, our industry needs to provide more education and more thought leadership to a lot of different demographics, including the young designers that are in school. Right, we should be talking to business classes, too, about, hey, this is a business option, not just going to work at this accounting firm or this marketing firm. Right, I know all those sound really glamorous to us, but our industry is a really great place to be, but we have to talk about it more. Each and every one of us have to step up and, even to the high school level, right, go and talk about what our industry does and why it's important, why it's fun, what makes us unique and the value that we provide to businesses, because it's a really cool place to be.

Shelley:

I completely agree and Cheryl Durst and I were talking at VIFMA and completely agree that we need to be starting at the high school level, even if at the middle school level, because that's when you kind of get their excitement when you're talking about your cool job, that you have, and we completely agree.

Sid :

So in Texas, which is where I live, when you're a freshman, an entering freshman in high school, you have to pick a path. And you can pick the medical path, you can pick the business path, the marketing path. Interior design is a path. And I pick the business path, the marketing path. Interior design is a path. And I remember when my daughter came home and like, hey, I have to pick a path. I'm like pick a path. She explained it to me and she picked interior design.

Sid :

Now, she picked interior design because of how interior design has been glamorized, because of things like HGTV and others you know, the magnolia network, I'm not bad mouthing any of them, but that's what her thought process was. And then she got into the program and she said she said I'm changing, she's creative, right, so her degree is actually her college degree now is actually in fashion merchandising. But in high school she said I'm changing. And no, she didn't change her path because she had gone so far. It's just like if I go back, then I'm gonna have to, it's gonna be all this extra work, summer school, I'm gonna keep doing it, but in college I'm gonna do fashion merchandising, all right, great, she said.

Sid :

The reason being is she goes kind of similar to you she goes I hate autocad. I don't want to sit there and draw things all day long and like draw a bath. Because I mean a lot of designers, when they get into school or they get into their first job at a firm, they're trying bathroom partitions and floor plan. I mean not floor plans but the design of a floor over and over again in a high-rise building and it's not how it's been glamorized, right. But it is incumbent upon us to talk to and to teach people and to educate people about, and there's a lot of things we need to educate people on, but educate about our industry.

Shelley:

It's true, it's true, and there are so many different ways that you can take your paths in this industry that it's exciting. I mean, I think that you just don't even realize it until, unfortunately, you get out into the business. And so I agree, we need to be talking about it.

Sid :

A lot of people don't read to your point, like people don't know what an independent rep is. I'd never heard of it until actually I went to work at AIS. I didn't really know what it because my worldview at the time really was Hayworth Right, and so Hayworth doesn't work with independent reps, and so Hayworth doesn't work with independent reps, and so I didn't really understand what they were. Until I got to AIS and I really started to understand what the independent reps were. So there's lots of different aspects of that. So let's talk about Solomon Coyle for a second. How did you get to Solomon Coyle? So you were at a dealership. So what led you to Solomon Coyle?

Shelley:

Yeah, so I was a peer group member when I was at my dealership and met Paul and David and really had that just amazing experience at the peer groups. I was a new principal so I was still learning, so I would go to those peer groups and just kind of absorb everything that everyone was sharing. So I was really in learning mode at the time when I first joined the peer group and it was so helpful. It was helpful in not only learning but giving me confidence in what we were doing and understanding what some of the things that we were doing that were really unique to our company. And then so Paul and I became very close and he was actually became a mentor for just business in general for myself. And then when I decided to leave the dealership, I took a kind of a break and went to go work for my friends at Hayworth because we were a Hayworth dealer and they were starting a new program there which was the Real Estate Alliance program. And I found that very fascinating to be part of something that was just getting kicked up off the ground, started off the ground and had the privilege of working with an amazing team, got to travel a lot, meet a ton of real estate folks that I still keep in touch with.

Shelley:

And that entire time, you know, I was continuing to talk to Solomon Coyle and David and I had several conversations as well, and I was really nervous about the financial portion of it. And yes, I mean, I was a principal at a dealer. I, you know I can read financial reports, but I wasn't completely confident that I could be an advisor in that area. And you know, david and Paul, both were so great they're like we'll teach you what you need to know. This is, you know, you have great business mind. We'll teach you what you need to know.

Shelley:

And so as we just kept talking, you know, they finally twisted my arm and got me over to the dark side of Sullivan Coil. And you know there were so many things that were appealing to me and one of them was the ability to be with the whole ecosystem, so not just under one particular manufacturer's umbrella where you kind of get stuck in your bubble of doing things the way that that manufacturer is doing it. And I was always super curious, both competitively I wanted to know what the other people were doing, but really more so I was just curious, like what makes Miller Old tick, what makes Steelcase tick, what is different about all of their cultures that is authentic to them, and the same thing with the distribution channels. I wanted to know everything. So I'm just kind of nosy, I guess, and so I like curious better.

Shelley:

Yeah, curious is better, right, so it was just, and being able to be in a position where you're Switzerland is just a really nice position to be in within our industry, and so I've completely enjoyed it.

Sid :

The transition, though, from dealer, seller, service provider for a physical product to end users, with influencers like design firms and real estate firms and things of that nature, to being a consultant. That's a huge shift. So how have you adjusted to that? You called it the dark side. I mean, I don't think consulting is the dark side. I think sales is the dark side.

Shelley:

Coming from recovering salespeople right.

Sid :

Exactly right. I actually said that to Doug Shapiro in episode 151. I said you know you came from marketing and product management into sales, so welcome to the dark side. How do you like it? So you know, how have you found this transition into being a consultant if you're truly a consultant advisor rather than somebody actually out on the feet, you know, out feet on the street selling and actively furnishing spaces.

Shelley:

I think it was an easier transition than what I had thought, and part of that transition is that I had, you know, I did start out as a producer, then was a sales leader, then was a principal. So you're kind of getting farther and farther away from the actual product application and so, and then when I went to Hayworth, you really are talking strategy. I mean, at the end you are selling a product, but really when you're in global accounts you're talking about the high-level strategy and business goals of your customers. So that transition was not that difficult. When I came over to Solomon Coil, it's just a matter of you know, I had a very finite amount of customers, you know, in those cases, and it's just, I just have more now and very diverse.

Sid :

We talked a little bit before we started recording and our paths have crossed a little bit because of people and different things, and we just met at the BIPMA 360 conference, right? So how long ago did you leave Hayworth?

Shelley:

So I will be at Solomon Coil for three years in June, the first part of June.

Sid :

So my last job at Hayworth I was a director in global accounts and when we moved to West Michigan, I moved to West Michigan at the same time that Mitch Cantor moved to West Michigan. So you just said you were part of global accounts, so you worked for Mitch.

Shelley:

Yes, so I worked with Chris Tornblum and then through Mitch Cantor.

Sid :

Okay, mitch and Chris probably don't even listen to this podcast, but they will now.

Shelley:

They will now.

Sid :

So I'll talk about Chris. When I first met Chris, he had just got out of college. It was in West Michigan. We were living in West Michigan and he was the jump stuff guy and Hayworth had introduced a collection of tools like desk accessory tools and it was called jump stuff and Chris was the marketing guy for jump stuff. So, chris, I just told how old you were, but I've talked about this in the past actually.

Shelley:

And he's been with Hayworth for a long time. We always teasing that he started with Hayworth when he was 12.

Sid :

Yeah, Well, he lives. He and his wife live here in DFW, yes, so I run into him occasionally at the airport and other places. But so another way that our paths have kind of inadvertently crossed. So I know, and I'm sure some of the listeners know, what it is that you do at Solomon Coil, but tell us who is Solomon Coil, what do you guys do, what are your services?

Shelley:

It's a great question. It's funny because you know we have so many different kind of buckets that we play in, but really in my opinion, at the foundation of our business is our peer groups, and our peer groups are what really allow us to build our relationships with principals and owners and their teams, and that has often led to the other parts of our business. So we were talking earlier about our sales leadership program. A lot of the people who enroll in our sales leadership program are members of those peer group teams. Now they're outside of that as well. But when we look at our engagements, our consulting engagements, they often start with peer group members and then word of mouth might get to someone who's outside of the peer group. Same thing with our data and analytics. So you know we have all these different kind of verticals within our own company, but I would say that really the peer groups are the foundation and then we build from there with data, analytics, research and education.

Sid :

So when you say data and analytics, now I know that one of the things that you guys are most well known for is your financial survey of the dealers, and you survey all of the dealers that are members of your peer groups. They fill out a financial analysis kind of thing. Right, you take that and I'm simplifying it you take that, you analyze that and then you present over to them and to potentially other people, kind of the financial benchmarks of a successful dealer based on the feedback. Did I say that correctly, Shelly?

Shelley:

You did. You did, yeah. So that financial benchmarking which we're right in the middle of. They'll be finishing those surveys in the next month and so, yes, that all comes together and it's both with our peer group members and outside. We get a lot of people who benchmark even outside of the peer group members. That's great, yeah. So it's great data that we are able to break down, and what's nice about it is that when we're having conversations with people, you can really kind of slice and dice those metrics in a way that is understandable and usable to that particular dealer. So is that dealer, is it a $25 million dealership or is it a $100 million dealership? And you don't want to compare the data from a $25 million dealership and try to make them meet data of a $100 million dealership Completely different animals, for sure.

Shelley:

Completely different animal, and it's really interesting because a lot of our what I would call enterprise dealerships so a lot of the really large dealerships well, a lot of them are made up of five or six smaller locations that make up that larger enterprise. So for them they kind of look at it both ways, right they're looking at the data from the enterprise level, but they're also looking at the data. How do I need to address this for each local distribution arm as well?

Sid :

So if they're tracking financials at the local level which they should right yes, they can see the big picture of the hundred plus million dollar and they can look at the 25 million in ABC City, right, and realize what, hey, these are some of the benchmarks we're not hitting that we need to hit. So I think it's great that that information is there. Now, do you make that information public, or part of that information public to non-members?

Shelley:

Yeah, so if you participate you get access to all the survey results and then we usually share some of those high-level results, but really we try not to share the rest of the data, except for with the people who are participating in our groups.

Sid :

And we see some of the high level results that you're talking about in the industry magazines, where you guys have either been interviewed or you've done a press release about it, sharing the high level. So you got financial benchmarking. What other types of research are you guys doing that helps our industry?

Shelley:

So the other big one that we do and right now we're doing it every other year is our compensation survey.

Shelley:

And that's a big one. We have really great participation in that survey as well, so that one will start going out to everyone probably in May of this year April May and that is something that we get a call on at least once a day, if not two or three times a day, on hey, what should I be paying my BD or what should I be paying my VP of sales? And being able to break that down into not only the position but for your zip code and really be able to get down to that finite answer is really helpful for people who are doing compensation planning.

Sid :

So I mean compensation is your people are likely your most expensive bucket inside your business, right? A fair pay to them is really important. It does change by zip code or by region, right it does. A VP of sales at a dealership a $200 million dealership in New York is not going to. It's going to make more than a VP of sales of a $50 million dealership in Birmingham, alabama, right it's going to be different.

Sid :

It is different, but I mean it's great that you have that and people have access to that. So you're doing research, you're doing peer.

Shelley:

So we just started our sales leadership program, which we used to do sales leadership kind of as a two, three day in person.

Shelley:

So this was kind of pre-COVID in person program with you know a dealership or maybe an alignment, a manufacturer's alignment, and we decided kind of through COVID, but we've been developing a blended learning kind of through COVID. But we've been developing a blended learning and we just launched that first class in the end of 2024 and finished up that first class and we're on to our second class that officially started today. And so it's this great blended learning of you know cohort and accountability partner online and then teaching in person as well. So we've gotten some really great feedback. You know, we kind of looked at that first group of people as this is the group that we really want to hear the feedback from, and so as we go forward we'll continue to make adjustments on that as well. But we also have we we teach still in-person well, virtually in-person our project management training class and that usually runs twice a year for several different classes. That keeps us busy. Our next class that we're doing is our dealer management development.

Sid :

Strengthening the bench.

Shelley:

Yes, exactly, exactly so. Those are just, you know, some of the examples of some of the programs that we have that we will probably put into a blended learning because we want it to be accessible to more people and be able to have them do it on more, on their timeframe.

Sid :

So, as an active, avid, sometimes obsessed learner, I appreciate the fact that you are offering educational resources, and these are available to people that are not part of your peer groups too right.

Shelley:

Absolutely yes. Yes, In fact, when we finished up the sales leadership program, what was very interesting about it? When we kind of took it out there to the market a little bit. Yes, we use a dealer as the example company within the sales leadership program, but really the sales leadership program could go outside of our industry because it's really about accountability, setting KPIs, it's about being a really good leader and having the right mindset to be a really good leader, to build a good team. So I think that will be interesting to see where that goes in the future.

Sid :

That's great. So I want to shift gears. I appreciate learning more about what you guys are doing. I know our listeners do too but let's talk about the future of the dealer a little bit, and that's what Paul talked about when he was on a few years ago. Obviously, things are changing in our world and there's a lot of craziness happening right now in 2025. This is the first week of March that we're recording this right and terrorists have gone into effect, and there's this whole craziness happening with Ukraine and the war, I mean. And there's this whole craziness happening with Ukraine and the war. I mean. It's all these things happening and there's, you know, scuttlebutt conversations about economic downturns, stock markets not doing really well this week, I mean. So let's talk about, just foundationally, your thoughts about what is the dealer of the future look like.

Shelley:

Great question, I think, as we're listening to all the noise that is going on right now. I think that flexibility in building flexibility within your business and adaptability within your business is going to be very important, and being operationally sound is going to be very important, and then just taking the time to really solidify those relationships is going to be. You know something that you're going to want to work towards and you know, as we see, the continuation of mergers and acquisitions and just the way that the industry itself is changing. Some of the lines are selling direct now and so you don't quite know what's going to happen in the future. And I'm sure you remember the days when, if you were a dealer, you could sell many major lines, and obviously that has changed over the last several years. You know decades and you know will that go back to that?

Sid :

So adaptability, flexibility. And then what was the third one? You? Said Operational excellence. Operational excellence, okay, which is also about cost control, like maintaining efficiencies, yeah, so can you give me an example of like a flexibility? What do you mean by the deal? Or the future needs to have flexibility.

Shelley:

So I think when we talk to people now, you know we still have people who are selling in that traditional way. They haven't changed anything in their sales approach, and especially after COVID I think COVID really just accelerated some of these things that were already in the works. For sure, but being able to look at how you're going to market in a different way. So you know, social media is one major thing.

Shelley:

Now, how do you get your message out there before you even meet people in person? You know what are the thoughts that they're forming, what's the perception that they're forming about your company, before you ever even meet a key contact at one of your potential customers. And so I think you know that social media, that AI, is a huge topic within some of the distribution channels now, and being flexible in that area as to, hey, just embrace it, it's here, it's not going anywhere. So, instead of kind of being scared of it, I think you can be cautiously optimistic about what are some of the things that it can do to improve your business not to get rid of people, but how can it help you use the skillset of your people that are at a higher level and let it do some of the mundane things?

Sid :

Agreed, okay, so I appreciate all those. I'm a huge advocate of your digital presence because you and this is any business need to control the narrative around your digital presence, if not around your digital presence. If you're not controlling it, somebody else is and you need to be tracking it. You need to be listening to what people are saying to you about online and things of that nature, and please don't be boring with your social media when you're out there. Don't just post pictures of your product. Okay, we could go down a rabbit hole about that.

Sid :

We want to know you Correct, because we do business with people. We want to know the people inside the business. Don't just show us your most recent case study. Show us, like how it got there. Like show us the before, and we love before and afters. Like show us the before. Talk about the process. Interview the client. There's so many creative things you could do to capture that much wanted attention of the user on social media. You got about three to five seconds to capture their attention before they're scrolling indefinitely to the next thing.

Shelley:

I love what you're doing with your videos now. Oh, thank you, I do. I love that and I think you know I think some of us are just a little bit shy in some of those things, but you know, I love it when people take a little bit of a risk and it pays off because we get to know you. Like you said, we're building relationships.

Sid :

Thank you for that. So do you know, rex Miller.

Shelley:

Of course I know Rex Miller.

Sid :

So Rex texted me the other day after I posted my video. He goes Sid, lose the sunglasses. Rex texted me the other day after I posted my video. He goes Sid, lose the sunglasses. I'm walking in my backyard with my sunglasses. I said I had shorts and I said, rex, I appreciate it. The sunglasses were actually part of the whole message of the video, but, anyways, I appreciate the feedback, so I really enjoy doing them. And he actually said to me Sid, when are you going to do a video? To teach people how to do a video? And I went well, it's really simple. It's like three or four steps. So maybe I'll do a video soon about how I create the videos. That's not what I do. Anyways, I'll be happy to share that.

Sid :

So the other thing that you said was artificial intelligence, and so James Stroll, who's the principal at Workspace Resource, was on a few weeks ago. He talked about. One of his things was embracing artificial intelligence. Doug Shapiro, the VP of Sales at JSI, also talked about artificial intelligence and embracing AI. I have a LinkedIn newsletter that I started on the second edition of it, which I'm not sure the timing, but it was several a few weeks ago.

Sid :

I talked about understanding AI and embracing AI, and I walk through a really practical step-by-step process of the different AI tools that I use and how you anybody could use them to do something, to create something right and to your point. It's here, it's not going away and it's not going to replace your job. The quote that I heard and then I put into the newsletter, which I think is really important to reiterate here, is AI is not going to replace your job. The person that learns AI and leverages AI will be the person that replaces your job. So, leaning into that, and it's a tool and it can be a really, really valuable tool and it seems like this big, huge, scary thing, but there are dozens of ways to use it. I want to give you a practical example.

Sid :

I didn't really talk about this in the newsletter, but imagine uploading and we'll talk about a manufacturer for a second but imagine, as you're a manufacturer and you upload all of your installation documents and instructions into Google's Notebook LM and your customer service team gets a call about an installation question from an installer who's in the field. All that customer service person has to do is type that question into Notebook LM. It's going to go directly to the resource where that information is found, based on the data that you put in, and it's going to answer that question in probably 10 seconds, rather than me saying hang on just one second. Let me go grab my installation manual off the shelf and I'm flipping through pages. I think it's on page 30, but actually it's on page 50.

Sid :

And then you got to read through it and then you got to say, hey, let me fax you a copy. We don't fax anymore, but that's just a bad example, but let me send you a copy of this, right? So there's another way. I think even just that tool is. People want to know hey, have you sold this chair in yellow? The AI will read the images and you can meta tag them appropriately that says this is XYZ chair in this color yellow, and then you can search a library of images that says I need XYZ chair in this color, and it'll come up with anything that you've tagged appropriately that you can quickly send to a designer. You could send to a dealer. All of us just need to be creative about the ways that we can use what is really a very powerful tool to move our business forward.

Shelley:

Yeah, and I think some of the you know, some of the things that we're doing just kind of day to day that we're all talking about is, you know, the RFP situation, right, we'd all love RFPs to go away, but they're still here. So how do we become more efficient with our time? Because they do take a lot of time and a lot of resources out of our teams. So, you know, when you have you know a list of ancillary items that have been put into the RFP and you want to provide alternates to those, get that photo and have it go search for like items within your libraries. So just little things like that that can just make your process so much more efficient and where you can use your skills for other things.

Sid :

Yeah, easier too, I mean from a dealer perspective.

Sid :

You could even load up a spreadsheet, for example, of projects that you've won, the discount that you've won them with right, and you can go ask it, hey, based on the data that you have on projects that we've won or lost, for that matter, because you can keep that information updated and tell me what the discount that we use, both from the manufacturer and the sell price discount that we use on this project or on a project of this size for this type of product, and it can give you that data, which then informs how you might want to go after quoting a project. So I mean, there's so many really great use cases for it. In leveraging and understanding how to use it, we just have to get our proverbial head out of the sand, lean into it, play around with it and, as I said in my newsletter, if I can learn to use AI, anybody can learn to use it Absolutely, and I think what people don't realize is that we're thinking kind of chat, gpt and co-pilot, so we're often thinking about it on the front end of our businesses.

Shelley:

But it can really go through your entire quote to invoice process, your customer service, your accounting, your logistics and how you schedule your teams for the day logistics and how you schedule your teams for the day. So I really think if we just, like you said, you use the word embrace, I think that's a great word to use to move forward.

Sid :

So recently I believe it was on NBC News. The CEO of Chipotle was on NBC News. Did you see this clip by chance?

Shelley:

I didn't, I didn't.

Sid :

Okay, so he was talking about Chipotle's business and how they're not raising pricing and, based on all the things that are happening right now, they're going to keep the pricing the same as long as they possibly can. And the interviewer asked him about AI and how they were using AI and he talked about some of the improvements that they were doing, and one of the things that he did is they created their own AI tool. Funny enough, they call it Ava Cotto, like Ava, a-v-a, like a woman's name Ava, ava, ava, ava, ava Cotto not Avocado, but Ava Cotto and she's a scheduling tool. So if you need a certain day off or something, you can go and put it in and the manager can put in information. It'll schedule. It'll literally create a schedule for everybody's work for that week. Right, I was like wow, they showed a really quick clip of it, but it was just really cool and it was cute the way they named it Avocado, avocado as a play on. It's kind of funny I can talk about this forever?

Shelley:

Yeah, no, a lot of people are building their kind of own platforms and you can do that. It's very exciting. It's very exciting.

Sid :

So I want to talk about Rex again for a minute, because Rex called me the other day and we were talking about something my walk and he called me while I was walking on my daily walk and we were talking about something, and we were talking about opportunities that exist in the world and if indeed we get to places where people aren't buying as much furniture as they're buying, right? All of us whether you're a consultant, a dealer, a manufacturer, an installer, independent rep, whatever we have to think of different things that we can offer and services that we can offer to our customers. And this kind of came out of my interview with Doug Shapiro and I want to kind of ask you your thoughts about it, because Doug said something along the lines of we need to start teaching people the why the workplace was created and the how to use. You think about that for a minute. We furnish a workspace but we never really train people or users on how to use the tools in front of them or why it was designed this way. Like, most people today understand how to use a high digestible table because they're so popular, but do they really understand that the benefit of the high digestible table is that every hour for 20 minutes. You should raise it and you should stand for 20 minutes. Most people say this is really nice to have, I'll stand up a couple of times during the day, but the real benefit to it is every 20 minutes. Once an hour, you stand up for 20 minutes and it gives you and there's so many, but it's incumbent upon us to share that.

Sid :

So what the conversation Rex and I were having and I told him, I said I'm interviewing Shelly, I'm going to ask her this question. Like I'm interviewing Shelly, I'm going to ask her this question how can dealers take that and turn that into a service? That's just one example, because if indeed the slowing of buying the physical product slows down or stops, we hope that doesn't happen. But we have to look at other things that we can do. And just imagine I know we resist this like sell a membership. Hey, mr Customer, once a year we'll come in and do this or we'll do that for you. So anyways, I'm rambling, tell me your thoughts about that concept.

Shelley:

We're right in line with that concept and we've been talking to our peer group members for years about diversification and to us diversification can mean a lot of things. It's kind of not just focusing on the commercial office furniture. It might be moving into hospitality or healthcare or higher ed. So that's one thing to think about and for diversity, but also that service side that you talked about, that is like the Holy Grail. That is what causes the stickiness to your customer and when you can be great at some of those services and those could be things like you know and we were talking about the other verticals, but it could be AV, it could be wayfinding, it could be talking about culture, it could be talking about leadership, it could be all those things but when you get into the true service side, like logistics, what distribution companies do really, really well is they are procurement and logistics experts.

Shelley:

There is no one out there that does it better than our dealers in our industry and I think if they can leverage that more within their business and they're able to communicate that within, both internally and externally to people, I think that, right, there is like kind of the holy grail of what can get you through the times that there's not a lot of furniture going on out there and also may create opportunities on the furniture side, because you're able to talk about the why, and I think we are better now than we were 10 years ago. You know, 10 years ago we were just selling panels, and if you were awarded the first floor of you know 500 workstations of panels, guess what? You're probably going to get the second floor too. That's not really how projects are made up now. So you're more. You are more vulnerable now, so you really have to create that bond between you and the customer some other way, yep.

Sid :

Well, in projects today, I mean it's you kind, mean you talk about the RFP, right, but you kind of have to do this, but you really don't want to do this. So many projects today are a race to the bottom, Like who's going to put the lowest GP on it to win it, and none of us want to operate that way. We can't build and grow businesses with single digit margins and sustain it for a long time, right, Every now and then. Yeah, I guess that's what you have to do, but you've got to figure out other ways to beef up the bottom line, to increase your profits, to grow your sales. That maybe comes from adjacencies to furniture, right?

Sid :

Maybe you look at carpet I'm not advocating that you go start a carpet business, but just as an example, right? Maybe you look at carpet I'm not advocating that you go start a carpet business, but just as an example, right? Or maybe adjacent products, adjacent industries. You mentioned hospitality. A lot of us, you know especially when I was in the dealers that I talked to we stay away from it because hospitality buys differently, but maybe there's educational opportunity.

Shelley:

People out there have figured it out.

Sid :

Yeah, Go learn about how hospitality works and get in. Try to figure out what's the opportunity for you inside and your business inside of that. And I think this is a time to explore. It's a time to be creative and I think it's also a time to summons 20 seconds of courage and just go try something. You don't have to wait for 10 other dealers to go do it before you decide to adapt it, 10 other dealers to go do it before you decide to adapt it. Create a brainstorming session with your team and brainstorm ideas and bring people in to talk about it. And in order to do that effectively, you've got to create this environment where people want to throw out crazy ideas, because in a real brainstorm, the crazier the idea the better, because as you continue to go through your process with that, you're going to take that big crazy idea and in that is probably one really smart idea that you just kept drilling down into to get to what potentially could be a significant revenue generator for you.

Shelley:

Yes, and you know what is it that fail fast, fail often, and so I think if you can set a culture, build a culture that allows you to do that and, like you said, really have people come to the table with you know crazy ideas, I love that.

Sid :

Yeah, I've always been a fan of that. Some people look at me like I'm crazy when I say that, but hey, so we're almost out of time. But I want to ask you is there a tip that we've talked a lot about, some ideas here, but is there a tip that you might share for any business not just a dealer community, but any business on navigating 2025? Because if the first two and a half months are any indication, the next 10 months are going to be crazy. So any tips for navigating 2025?

Shelley:

You know, I think one of the smartest things you can do is be authentic and really take this time to hone in your message about who you are and really know who you are.

Shelley:

Don't just be, you know, putting some whack words out there.

Shelley:

You know, really, truly live who you are and really know who you are. Don't just be putting some whack words out there. Really truly live who you are as a company and be that company that people want to not only come work for but want to work with, want to partner with, so that your name rises to the top for those opportunities and, I think, just shoring up your team and what we talked about your services and be ready for that next wave. You know, I don't think it's going to be, you know, complete chaos. You know, this year I do think this is a wave where we are riding. However, I just I think it will level itself out probably the second half of the year, but right now, take this opportunity to really get your message solidified and know exactly who you are and make sure that you are reaching out to your customers and asking them what they are going through, because they're challenged just as much as you are, so make sure that you're staying close to them and just listen.

Sid :

I'm going to reframe what you just said, the last part. Anyway, go talk to your customers. Go talk to your existing customers that haven't bought from you in three years. Go reconnect with them, learn about what's happening in their business and, for the love of all things, holy, don't sell them anything. Just go talk with them. Learn about what's happening in their business and, for the love of all things, holy, don't sell them anything. Just go talk to them. Let's literally go have a conversation very similar to what we're having. Go buy them a cup of coffee and say it's been a while since we connected. Really appreciate, you know, the opportunity we had to work together.

Sid :

I'm really just curious, like what's happening in your business? How are you navigating 2025? What do you see happening in your business? Yeah, how are you navigating 2025? What do you see happening in your business? And through that, you can learn so much. You can learn about so many opportunities. You might learn about an opportunity to sell a service Don't sell it in the coffee, please wait. But you know, just go. Go have a conversation. There's so much power in having a true, authentic conversation with people. You can learn so much about things you might want to think about doing inside of your business.

Shelley:

Right.

Sid :

So, shelly, best leadership tip or advice that you would give to a leader in our industry.

Shelley:

Well, I mean, we kind of live by servant leadership here at Solomon coil, so we are big proponents in really lifting up the team and kind of building those rockstar teams. It's not about you as a leader. It's really about your ability to build a team that can collaborate and be successful for the company. It's not about you.

Sid :

Yeah, I wish you'd say that again a little bit louder. So I'm reading a book. What are you reading before I tell you Are you a reader? What are you reading?

Shelley:

I am such a reader. I usually read about six books at a time. So, and, and you know, I'm not the only one.

Sid :

I don't feel bad now, thank you.

Shelley:

I know it's, it's actually it's really bad, you know. So I read everything from just you know, books that I want to read, just to not think about anything, to business books. I actually just read a great book, and especially for the women out there, I read a book and it's called Build Like a Woman I think is what the title of it is and I loved it. It was kind of Build B-U-I-L-D.

Sid :

Build Like a Woman.

Shelley:

I believe it's build like a woman.

Sid :

This comes up the blueprint for creating yes A business and life you love, by Kathleen Griffith. Okay, we'll drop a link to it in the show notes provided.

Shelley:

It's super cool, especially for those of you who are moving into leadership, have aspirations to build a company or to take over a company. It's just a really great read.

Sid :

So, yeah, that's awesome. I'm a huge reader. I'm a huge podcast listener too. I'm reading a book that kind of ties to what you were talking about a minute ago which is called Trust and Inspire. It's by Stephen Covey not the Stephen Covey founder of the Covey organization, this is his son, okay, who now runs the organization, taking over dad's business, right, and it's about leadership and it is about and he talks he gives really great examples in this book and I would encourage any leader to read this because he talks about like leadership that you and I probably grew up with, and this was kind of enlightening for me because I was one of these leaders. He talks about command and control leader Yep, and I was a command and control leader because that's how I was taught.

Shelley:

That's how we were all taught.

Sid :

Yeah, and I remember the first time I heard the term servant leadership. That's a story for another day but I was like what is that? What does that mean? I didn't understand it. Now I totally get it and embrace it as I've grown as a leader.

Sid :

But the trust and inspire is about. Our job as leaders is to trust the people that we hire to do great work and inspire them to do great work. And so the way I say that in several people if you're a regular listener to the show, you've heard me use this phrase before and I've written about this many times which is lead from the back. Lead from the back. And in the book he talks about leading from the front, but he's talking about giving example, being an example leader in the book, but for me I talk about leading from the back. And you got to trust the people around you. You've hired them for a reason. They don't need you to micromanage them and tell them what to do every day of the week. If you have to do that, you have the wrong people on your team.

Shelley:

Then we have messed up because we have hired them.

Sid :

A hundred percent we have hired the wrong person. So I'd like I want to keep talking because this is so good and I really appreciate you and sharing all of your insights. Congratulations on getting to Solomon Coil and all the great work that you guys are doing there. I do appreciate your insights, shelly. Maybe you'll come back sometime and share a little bit more with us? Absolutely. But if our community would like to get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Shelley:

Email is the best. That's the easiest way to get a hold of me, so I welcome anybody who wants to reach out.

Sid :

We will be sure to drop your email address, your LinkedIn profile, all that down in the show notes. And, gang, just remember that if you do reach out to Shelly, please be sure to let her know that you heard her here on the Trend Report and that's why you're reaching out. Shelly, thanks again for being here today, being part of our community, and to all of you joining us today. We really appreciate you. Go out there and make today great, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. Take care everyone.