Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / David Hoffman on Growing a Third Generation Hotel FF&E Company Through Service and Systems

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David Hoffman on Growing a Third Generation Hotel FF&E Company Through Service and Systems · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:18
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:22
today's guest is David Hoffman, Managing Partner at Furniture
0:25
Industries, a third generation company based in New Hope, MN.
0:30
Since 1952, Furniture Industries has helped hotel owners turn
0:35
ideas into welcoming spaces. The team handles interior
0:39
design, FF and E purchasing, project management, freight and
0:44
on site installation, giving clients a full service path from
0:48
concept to grand opening. They are an approved purchasing
0:52
agent for IHG Hotels and Resorts and a listed procurement
0:56
services provider for Hilton Brands.
0:58
These partnerships speak to the company's track record for
1:01
quality and on time delivery. David leads sales strategy and
1:06
client growth. He is a Miller Hyman trained and
1:09
has spent more than 20 years guiding hospitality projects
1:13
across the country. Now before we get into all that
1:16
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2:04
All right, back to our guest today, Managing partner,
2:07
Furniture Industries, David Hoffman.
2:09
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:12
Thanks for having me. So you've got a pretty diverse
2:16
work background before joining Furniture Industries over 7
2:20
years ago. Pick one of your stops Prior to
2:23
joining the family business and tell us a memorable story from
2:27
there, a potent lesson that you learned.
2:32
Yeah. You know, I think I spent a fair
2:35
amount of time in the litigation consulting industry and I was
2:38
with a company called Trial Graphics.
2:41
I was working in Chicago in mid 2000s and I was a sales Rep
2:46
there trying to work with trial attorneys to get their cases for
2:49
us to help them on a consulting, you know, for us to provide
2:54
consulting services. And I remember I had set up a
2:57
meet, you know, we had to set 7 to 10 meetings a week was our
3:00
quota. And I set this one meeting and I
3:02
was so disappointed because it was just a paralegal and I'm
3:07
trying to get to these Ammo 50 partners at these firms.
3:11
I'm like, you know, and I met meeting my quota.
3:13
I'll go have the meeting. Had a fabulous hour long
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conversation with this incredibly gifted paralegal at a
3:21
very large firm and turns out she was working on one of the
3:25
largest cases that our firm ever ended up working on.
3:29
In fact, we worked with them for over 2 years on a massive
3:33
arbitration. It was the biggest deal I'd ever
3:35
closed in my entire life to date, and so it was a really
3:41
good lesson learned that every opportunity is an opportunity
3:45
that should not be prejudged. And So what was different about
3:51
that? Because traditionally you would
3:52
think like, oh, paralegal, they're not in a position to
3:55
make a decision. What What do you think was
3:58
different about how that conversation or what followed
4:00
unfolded? Yeah, We had a really cool tool
4:03
at the time, which in today's standards would kind of be, you
4:07
know, pretty boring or, or pretty standard technology.
4:10
But we were we had a tool that allowed you to have hours of
4:14
videotapes depositions and it would transcribe it with closed
4:19
captioning, which wasn't really readily available.
4:22
And this particular case had hundreds and hundreds of hours
4:26
of deposition. So imagine being a paralegal or
4:30
a young associate on that team and trying to figure out who
4:33
said what and when and provide reports to the team.
4:36
Well, now with the transcription of these hundreds of hours of
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video, they could just search for keywords, find the video
4:44
clips they were looking for to pull.
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And she was the lead paralegal on that team.
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And when she saw that tool, which came from our conversation
4:52
about what they were, what she was currently working on, it
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like her eyes went wide. And it was an immediate change
5:00
in course. We really focused on that.
5:02
We ended up providing them a lot more services than just that.
5:05
But that's what got us in the door.
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So that was, you know, just a conversation.
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What are you working on and identifying a need?
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And I just so happened to have a tool that exactly meet met her
5:17
needs. I'm curious to you carries that
5:21
lesson with you into today. The work that you're doing in
5:24
furniture industries, like ever a time where you're like, you
5:28
know, this person, they're not sort of at the decision making
5:31
level that I would like to be speaking to, but you think back
5:34
to that and you take a different.
5:36
Approach I do, I, I think measured though to be fair, we
5:42
want to meet with the decision makers as soon as we can.
5:47
You had mentioned my training with Miller Hyman strategic
5:49
selling. One of the pieces of that is to
5:51
make sure you're on board with every buyer in the process.
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So I do think that still sticks that even if it's someone who's
5:58
not inevitably who's going to sign our contract, them being
6:01
interested in our services is really important.
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I also think I when I say measured, we are unlike a lot of
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the companies in our industry. We'll work on pretty much
6:11
everything. We do replacement orders, which
6:14
are not lucrative to do, just onesie twosie items that, for
6:19
example, a hotel might need. But we want clients to reach out
6:21
to us for everything. So I think we could put those
6:25
stories together in the sense that it seems small at the time,
6:29
but some of the smallest things we do lead to our best clients
6:32
and our biggest projects. Yeah.
6:35
You guys leveraging technology much in the way that you're
6:38
interacting with your clients? Every day and I and I truly
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believe that I preach this. We have a daily meeting every
6:46
day and I preach this, you know, we can only do it's in our
6:48
control. But one of the things that's in
6:50
our control is how do we get bigger, better, faster every
6:54
day? And if you're not doing that, I
6:56
think if you're not doing it every day, I think you're losing
7:00
opportunities to get better and grow.
7:02
And so we are utilizing as many technologies as possible to work
7:09
with our clients, whether it be on the design side with Revit
7:12
and having interactive drawing sessions on the business
7:15
development side. We try to use certainly
7:20
Microsoft has 365. There's lots of other online
7:24
tools. We like to use the Google
7:25
documents like Sheets and Docs to work in conjunction in real
7:30
time. I will say that our delivery
7:34
schedules are in real time utilizing technologies 'cause
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people don't, you know, I don't believe sending APDF on a Friday
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is as good as what was everything on that PDF up to
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Friday being available to them every hour of every day up until
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then. So that's an example.
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I just think that some of the old, you know, I, if I may,
7:58
sometimes I see fax numbers still in people see e-mail
8:00
signatures and I worry very much about the their existence for
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much longer. As a business, I think we do
8:06
have to move with the, the time. We don't exchange the level of
8:09
service or what we provide, but we do have to stay current with
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the technologies we're using. And Speaking of staying current
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with technologies, are you guys leveraging AI in any ways that
8:22
are replacing some of that human interaction?
8:27
That's a really great question, Anthony.
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I, I, I am wildly against replacing human interaction.
8:35
In fact, we have a hybrid workforce here since COVID
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didn't really change it to everybody being back all the
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time with everybody's here different, you know, many people
8:46
are on different schedules, but everybody's here on Tuesday.
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And the importance of that is when everyone's here on Tuesday,
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I say no instant messaging unless you're absolutely, you're
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on a call and you can't get off, get up and go talk to somebody.
9:00
And so to come back to your original question, I encourage
9:03
that same thing. I don't want AI to replace
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interaction face to face, whether it be video.
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I prefer in person, but certainly video has made that
9:12
better for all of us. But AI absolutely is in every
9:17
single day. We're trying more and more ways
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to remove the administrative tasks that people with certain
9:24
skill sets used to have to do so that they can use their time
9:29
more efficiently on what they are great at.
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So I know that sounds pretty vague, but that's kind of our
9:35
philosophy on it. No, makes a lot of sense to me.
9:37
And I want to come back to the consultative selling that you're
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talking about from the Miller Hyman training.
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But I want to go back to how was it that you ended up joining the
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company? You were off doing all kinds of
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other things in different fields, finding your own
9:51
success. Tell us how this path worked.
9:54
Yeah, I, I tried to be brief. My father-in-law who started
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this part of the company with his father-in-law, Elliot
10:04
Gensler, who started Park Upholstery back in 1952 about
10:09
five years into my career, said, hey, Dave, it looks like you're
10:12
having success in sales out, you know, with another company.
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I'd love for you to come sell for me.
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And I was looking and I'm like furniture, hotels, design,
10:23
installation. No thanks.
10:24
I'm doing litigation technologies and all this cool
10:28
stuff. But five years later, he said
10:31
the same thing. Why don't you know, you've been
10:32
doing this long enough? Why don't you come sell for me?
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And I was like, you know, just not, it's just not, not for me.
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And he never asked again. He, you know, obviously put it
10:41
out there for me, which I greatly appreciated.
10:44
About 20 years into my career, I said, wait a minute.
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I've done sales and sales, operations and process, process
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management, technology, incorporated Salesforce into a
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couple of smaller companies that I worked with and had been on
10:58
the team of that. I'm like, I have, I have learned
11:01
so many things that I think I could bring to a, a family
11:05
business like furniture Industries that maybe I would be
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of value in that respect. And so that's what I went to him
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and I said, you know what, I'm very interested if you'd have me
11:15
at furniture industries to help you with process management and
11:18
infrastructure and all this. And he looks at me and he goes,
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do you want to sell for Furniture Industries?
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Got it. Understood.
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Let's start there. And that's and so that's how I
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came to hear, you know, I learned so many valuable skills
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working for bigger companies, smaller companies.
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I really thought I could bring something to the table for this
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family business. So his comment to you, his
11:40
question to you, after you said all of that, do you want to come
11:43
here and sell for furniture industries?
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He was making the point that you're going to start in sales
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and then you can work your way up.
11:50
That's right, yeah. It's nice that you have all
11:53
that, that skill set, David. This company's been around for
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42 years without you. We're going to be just fine for
12:00
right now. Yeah, OK.
12:03
Yeah, so OK, we touched on it in the intro, but in plain English,
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what is it you guys do and who do you serve?
12:11
Sure. So design, you know, you
12:12
mentioned the design, procurement, logistics, install
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services. We do the the way I'd like to
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explain for people who don't know the hotel industry very
12:22
well, FF and E is furniture, fixtures and equipment.
12:25
But basically an easy way to explain it is if you picked up a
12:29
hotel and flipped it upside down and shook, anything that falls
12:32
out would be considered furniture, fixture and
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equipment. So beds, night stands, mirrors,
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art, lighting. When you walk into a hotel room
12:45
or a lobby and you see all that furniture, that's what companies
12:47
like ours help provide. We also, in the last probably 10
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to 15 years, do all the finishes, generally speaking,
12:57
for a hotel. Layers too.
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So carpet, tile, any kind of flooring, wall covering, things
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like that. Because we buy en masse, we can
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really help them from a budgeting perspective and also
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logistics of getting it there on time.
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Why? So the question I sometimes get
13:15
back and I'll ask for you so you don't have to Anthony, why can't
13:20
owners just do this themselves? Why can't you know Hilton and
13:23
IHG and Hyatt and Marriott and and on and on and choice And I
13:28
don't, you know, I don't forget all of the brands, but they all
13:32
have programs. It's easy.
13:34
The the pro you you walk into a Holiday Inn Express in one city,
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it's going to look the same in another and a home to by Hilton
13:40
and a Courtyard by Marriott, right?
13:42
So why would they need a company like this?
13:44
Every hotel is different. The build is different.
13:49
What people draw in their initial Revit or CAD drawings
13:53
from the architect often times isn't exactly what's built.
13:57
So measurements are required. People change their mind, people
14:02
miscount. So those are some of the things
14:05
we can help with on the drawing side, really showing them what
14:08
will fit. Especially in today's world,
14:10
renovations are huge. There's not as many ground up as
14:14
there is people buying up distressed properties and
14:16
changing the flag or things like that.
14:18
Well, what's going to fit? How do we know that this type of
14:22
hotel will work with, you know, here are some things you're
14:25
going to have to remove or add etcetera.
14:27
So we help on the planning side there.
14:29
But I'm telling you getting thousands of items to a hotel
14:33
within a few weeks time frame is a lot harder than you think and
14:38
that's why I serve it. So that's the service side of it
14:41
from the once you order, making sure the vendor's actually
14:45
producing, making sure they're actually going to get it to you
14:48
on time, aligning the trucks to get with the site to make sure
14:51
that it's able to get to site at that time that there will be
14:55
people to receive said truck, unload it, unpack it, install
14:59
it. And we're at the part of the
15:01
business the very end or they just want to get the hotel open.
15:05
So it's the it's the highest hottest moment.
15:08
And if stuff misses, they can't open the hotel.
15:13
So a service like ours is really critical and a lot of our first
15:18
time clients are their second hotel.
15:21
They maybe tried to do that part of it themselves.
15:24
There's just so many things that go into it and you know, the
15:28
people we have here, all of our project managers have interior
15:31
design backgrounds and degrees. So not only can they manage the
15:37
ordering, but they know the stuff they're ordering.
15:39
They know how it should look. They know where it should go.
15:42
They should they know if there's any incorrect items versus
15:46
someone who maybe is strictly procurement said why I ordered
15:48
ten of these. Why didn't you provide ten of
15:51
these? Not as much product knowledge.
15:53
So I don't want to get too deep, but that's what we do is from
15:56
start to finish, we get architectural drawing.
15:58
Sometimes we help with the actual design of the hotel all
16:01
the way through and everything's been installed and the punchless
16:05
walk and making sure anything that got broken gets replaced
16:08
and the hotel gets opened. So we're there with them the
16:10
entire way. You know, and it strikes me
16:13
hearing you talk that coordinating those timelines
16:16
right there at the very end, it's got to be really tricky,
16:19
right? Because you've got, I'm going to
16:21
make up some numbers here, but maybe lead time on carpeting is
16:24
five weeks, lead time on mattresses is 8 weeks, lead time
16:28
on couches is 9 1/2 weeks. And what you want to do is get
16:34
all this lined up to basically arrive around the same time so
16:40
that you know, it's stuff isn't sitting outside in a loading
16:44
dock because they're not finished with the construction
16:46
inside and construction's not finished.
16:49
And they're sitting around twiddling their thumbs for two
16:51
weeks saying why can't we open Because the beds aren't here.
16:55
Yeah, and there's and by the way, pretty good guesses on your
16:58
lead times there, Anthony. Not bad.
16:59
Four to six weeks, generally speaking, on finishes,
17:02
upholstered items like sofas and couches, you're looking more 12
17:06
to 16 these days. But to your point, not all the
17:11
points you made. We don't want to be late, we
17:13
don't want to be early because we're going to put it if there's
17:15
no container on site or there's no warehouse to go to.
17:18
But also there's the third element, which is, and I think
17:21
anyone can experience this in their personal lives as well.
17:25
All the trades have to be close to done.
17:27
The electrical, right? The plumbing, everybody's got to
17:30
be the people laying the carpet. Everybody's got to be done with
17:34
their stuff before we bring in our stuff because we can't be
17:37
sharing an elevator and we can't be tripping over each other
17:40
going into rooms. Stuff can get moved or broken
17:44
so, so often. And every general contractor's
17:48
nightmare is keeping on schedule.
17:50
And if one trade gets off, kind of everything moves.
17:54
So sure, you want us to bring all of your couches to site next
17:58
week. We're scheduled.
17:59
We're on. It's going to get on a truck
18:01
next Monday. Here we come.
18:03
And then you go, oh, no, we're two weeks behind.
18:06
Can you hold it? Now, if you're an individual
18:08
hotel owner and you call a vendor and say, can you hold my
18:11
stuff? I'm just being honest.
18:13
Most of the time they're going to try, but they're going to
18:16
probably say no, We got to you got to tell us how warehouse to
18:19
bring it to or get some containers on site.
18:21
When you work on as many projects as we do annually, we
18:24
have a little bit more pull with these vendors to say, any chance
18:28
you could hold that stuff and not at a cost to our client,
18:33
which is so critically important to them.
18:35
So yeah, there's there's so many moving parts toward the end of a
18:40
project. It it really it's something
18:43
these things get done and get done on time.
18:46
So obviously you're not the only company in the country that does
18:49
this. What sets you guys apart?
18:50
What sets furniture industries apart from the others?
18:53
Sure. So I think our, our, our unique
18:56
selling propositions are, are a few.
18:59
But the two, I guess I would focus on is we assign a project
19:03
manager at the very beginning, as I mentioned, with an interior
19:06
design background, who stays with the client all the way
19:10
through the end of the hotel, which may be as many as 18 to 24
19:13
months that they become, you know, their relationship manager
19:17
and know everything that's going on.
19:19
Are there other people here servicing our clients along the
19:22
way? Of course.
19:23
But they do have one familiar, you know, contact.
19:26
And we kind of talked about these folks are unicorns because
19:29
most of the time people are either on the design side of
19:32
things or the procurement side, right side brain, left side
19:36
brain, whatever you want to call it.
19:39
But we have them do both. So the fact that they get one
19:41
person to stick with is huge. For someone who doesn't want
19:45
finger pointing, which is the same person, it's hard to point
19:48
fingers. The second piece also is that's
19:53
that finger pointing thing. We stay with everyone.
19:57
We have our own ability to contract trucks as a licensed
20:00
broker. We have our own logistics
20:03
department. We have our own installation
20:06
management. So there's less people not
20:11
talking to each other that can cause problems.
20:14
And I will tell you there are many companies that do we do and
20:17
there are many companies that do what we do very well.
20:19
We think we do it better because of that all-encompassing
20:22
service. I've heard too many times from
20:24
clients that they'll have one firm procure who will pass it
20:28
off to a three PL. third party logistics company who will then
20:32
deliver to a third party installation company and just
20:36
stop there from it. Anthony, what if something is
20:39
broken or not, right? Whose responsibility was it?
20:43
Was it the vendor who didn't provide it or provided it
20:48
broken? Was it the third party logistics
20:49
company who broke it on the way there?
20:52
Was it the third party installation for team that
20:56
accidentally broke it or didn't? Who knows when it was received?
21:01
And now imagine that with like 50 POS or 60 POS like how it can
21:07
get very hairy. There's a there's a lot of
21:10
finger pointing that can take place there.
21:12
Yeah. So we try to, you know, take the
21:14
fingers out of the point, namely in that case where if we're
21:17
doing, if we're managing everything, we can feel better,
21:20
like we're in control as much as we can be.
21:23
Can't be in control of a steamship coming from overseas
21:26
or a truck on the highway that blows a tire in Kentucky, right?
21:29
There's only so much we have control, but we have more
21:34
control than most and I think owners really appreciate both
21:37
the relationship aspect with the project manager and the
21:41
ownership that we take to make sure everything's right.
21:44
Well, and it strikes me that, you know, folks are hiring a
21:48
company like yours because they don't want to deal with all
21:52
these headaches on their own, right?
21:54
They've got so many other things that they're focusing on.
21:57
So if you want to be done with the headache, it makes so much
22:01
more sense to hire a company that has all of these services
22:05
under one roof. You're dealing with one vendor
22:09
then. You can come sell for me
22:11
tomorrow, Anthony, that's right. You, you nailed it.
22:14
I mean that that's, that's the basis.
22:16
I mean, certainly there's a lot more detail that goes into it
22:19
and to say we're the only company that provides great
22:23
client service, I think would be foolish.
22:28
I do believe we're the best at it and work every day to get
22:31
better. So, you know, we do try to
22:34
instill that and we've got a lot of clients that will refer us.
22:36
You know, that's I don't care what happens with technology.
22:39
I think you and, and though we've just met, I think you and
22:42
I could agree that that referrals still are the gold.
22:45
If someone else has had a, a positive experience with you,
22:48
it's better than any salesperson you can have on your team.
22:52
If they tell another owner they did a great job, you should work
22:55
with them. Even better than that is
22:58
generally for FF and E companies and general contractors butt
23:02
heads a bit, sharing the space, getting stuff on time that GC
23:06
wants to deliver the hotel on time, which means the FF and E
23:09
company has to be done on time. And often times there can be a
23:13
lot of head butting at the end of a project.
23:16
But not to say we're we're, we have that happen too.
23:20
We have lots of general contractors who will refer
23:23
business that is even, you know, if that's gold, there's
23:26
platinum, right? I mean, that's even higher
23:28
because if people who usually are spatting are now referring
23:34
that's. Pretty great.
23:37
So I hear you talk all about the hotel side of things.
23:40
Many hotels have bars, restaurants in them.
23:43
Are you guys doing any of the fixtures for those kinds of
23:47
installations too? Yeah, absolutely.
23:49
I mean we're not doing generally speaking, we're not doing like
23:53
the millwork pieces, things that are built on site, measured on
23:55
site. We ought we do booths, but often
23:59
times if they're pre assembled pieces or require minimal work
24:03
on site. But all of the chairs, all of
24:06
the tables, all of the decorative lighting, all of the
24:09
flooring, the artwork on the walls, absolutely, we're doing
24:13
those too. Yeah, but not like back of house
24:16
kitchen resolations. We are not food and beverage and
24:19
people ask me all the time, can you buy my plumbing fixtures for
24:23
me or my, you know, washing. Not the washing machines that
24:27
might be in some suites in hotels.
24:30
I'm talking about the back of house laundry.
24:33
It's just not our game and and we're not experts in it and I
24:36
don't think we're the right people to do enough of that
24:39
business with enough expertise. Food and beverage is a whole
24:42
nother category, operating supplies, OS and E so like
24:47
towels and soap and things like that.
24:50
Occasionally clients want us to get involved.
24:52
We typically don't do that either because that's an ongoing
24:55
thing. But yeah, basically anything in
25:00
the hotel other than the back of house heavy machinery we we can
25:03
be involved in. So I want to come back to the
25:06
Miller Hyman training that you're familiar with, you know,
25:10
you position yourself more as a consultant.
25:13
And I think what I'd like to explore with you a little bit,
25:16
David, is this idea of, you know, so many times in the sales
25:20
process, there are multiple decision makers, right?
25:23
It's not just the owner, it's not just the CFO or the, you
25:29
know, purchasing person like, you know, you have to go through
25:33
several gatekeepers there. How do you approach a more
25:36
complex sales process like that? Yeah, I think everyone is a
25:41
little bit different. I think the the biggest thing
25:46
for me is actually to not close your scope so quickly.
25:52
And by that I mean, sometimes anybody can be guilty of this,
25:56
myself included, or someone in our, you know, our business
25:59
development or one of our project managers.
26:00
Oh, I'm talking to the owner. They really like us, they want
26:03
to work with us. That's great.
26:06
The question becomes, are they the only decision maker?
26:08
Are they'll be only person who's going to be a part of that
26:10
process? Do they have an owner's Rep?
26:13
Do they have a project manager on their team who's going to be
26:15
working directly with us? Or is it going to be them that
26:18
we're working directly with? Let's find out everybody who was
26:22
involved on their team 'cause that likely will be all the
26:26
people we want to talk to and at least make sure we're we're in
26:29
front of before they make a decision in in.
26:33
And I read that book a long time ago and it was a the ability to
26:38
train in the Miller Hyman strategic selling.
26:41
But I do remember one of the stories from the book about this
26:45
guy was golfing with the vice president, and they had the best
26:47
relationship, and he had the biggest deal, and he was gonna
26:49
close. And the guy kept telling him,
26:51
we're working with you, we're working with you, don't worry,
26:54
you got this deal. He was so excited.
26:56
And one day he got the call. Hey, man, you didn't get the
26:58
deal. It's like, what are you talking
27:00
about? You've been telling me all along
27:01
that I'm the one, that we're the one.
27:03
We're the best. And you know, in short, the guy
27:06
says, yeah, but I wasn't the one making the final decision.
27:10
So you know, those questions, it's really important.
27:15
Who else is going to be important for you?
27:17
Do you have AGC selected? Can we talk to them?
27:21
What questions do you have? Who on your team are we going to
27:24
be working with? I think people are really quick
27:28
and I don't care where it is in life.
27:30
Experienced it in many places, I'm sure many people have that.
27:34
People are quick to get to the sales pitch instead of listening
27:36
to what the actual need is. I can, I think, address any of
27:41
your needs, Anthony, with the same sales pitch that if I gave
27:44
it to you first, you'd be like, this guy's just a salesman
27:47
versus listening to what your needs are and understanding what
27:51
went well and what didn't go well the last time and what we
27:54
might be able to better perform on.
27:58
So that is, you know, that's where the Miller Hyman piece
28:00
really comes into play is to understand everybody who's a
28:03
part of the buying process, to understand what roadblocks you
28:06
have, how to overcome them, if they're even able to be
28:10
overcome, if you really should be chasing a deal.
28:16
If I may for a moment, like I don't want us to be trying to
28:20
win projects that are, that are being bid by column jockeys.
28:27
That's what I call it. People who take your pricing and
28:30
put it into a column and then put the next company into a
28:34
column, a column, a column, a column.
28:35
And at the bottom, this company is the cheapest.
28:37
Boom, we're going with them. We're going to lose that every
28:40
time. I don't want to, I don't want
28:41
to, I don't want to fight Walmart and no offense to
28:44
Walmart, but they're going to beat the corner store on pricing
28:47
every time is if pricing is all that matters and then we should
28:52
find that out right away and maybe not participate.
28:55
If all you're looking for is the bottom of the barrel and the
28:58
cheapest way to get it there, a service company is probably not
29:01
who you want to be working with. I think it's a fair thing to
29:04
say. So, you know, part part of that,
29:08
too is being able to say, you know what?
29:10
This isn't a deal that we should be pursuing.
29:14
It's hard. That's hard to do from an
29:16
ownership perspective, from a sales perspective.
29:21
But you go go through one of those projects where you decide
29:24
you're going to cut your margin and do it by just a a hint of
29:28
profit, just because you want to get this client in the door, do
29:31
a project. Those that aren't very rewarding
29:34
generally are harder to work on. Think about employees who are
29:40
part of your team and the the challenges that are you're
29:44
presenting to them because you just wanted to win at the lowest
29:47
cost possible. I don't, you know, there's
29:50
enough work out there to not pursue every opportunity.
29:57
So who are the right fits for you?
30:01
Tell us. I don't know geography, size of
30:04
hotel, brand, what whatever the qualifiers are.
30:09
Yeah. You know, today kind of anywhere
30:13
we have, we have made our business for many, many years
30:18
off of the select service hotel market.
30:21
Each brand calls a little differently.
30:22
So basically, you know, somewhere between like 70 and
30:26
140 rooms. Typically not a full service
30:30
restaurant on site, although some of them do smaller
30:33
footprint, maybe a pool, definitely a breakfast area that
30:39
for decades that was like what we did.
30:42
I mean we did wait going back to the 70s Baymont Inns and we were
30:46
all over Candlewoods forever. And we've done to date now 78
30:51
home, home 2 by Hilton. So the select service market is
30:54
still very much in our wheelhouse and what we perform
30:57
really well at. But we're also doing resort
31:00
work. We have been doing some work
31:02
with Margaritaville. We've done independent hotels,
31:06
we've done custom built branded hotels.
31:11
So we've expanded out from just the that select service model.
31:17
And your other question I think was who's the ideal candidate
31:20
for us, someone who understands the pitfalls of this industry,
31:29
the challenges that they're going to seek and wanting to get
31:33
it done on time and trust their partner.
31:38
That's the best client for us. We have at least 10 clients
31:42
we've worked with on hotels for more than two decades now who
31:45
continue to build and that can be large corporations that own
31:50
150 hotels now to, you know, individual hotel operator who
31:55
now has 10 hotels under their belt.
31:58
So it's really across the board, it's nationwide.
32:01
We do a tremendous amount of work in Florida and the
32:03
Southeast, but we also do work here in Minnesota and California
32:06
and randomly, which we're very pleased about.
32:10
We've done 8 hotels in Montana over the last 18 months.
32:14
So we're all over the place there's. 8 hotels in Montana.
32:18
There's a lot more than that. Shockingly, Bozeman, Billings,
32:23
several other places in Montana are really growing and and
32:29
booming and you know, we've done we're on our SO it's 2026 now.
32:36
So in 2024 through now this, we're working on our six hotel
32:40
in Bozeman alone. So it's, you know, it's a
32:44
booming, it's a booming economy there.
32:46
So with your clients, who tends to be your contact person or
32:51
who's the decision maker that you get to work with the most?
32:54
The best for us is when we can work directly with the owner.
33:00
Less complications in communication.
33:04
Certainly they're the ones signing the contract and paying
33:06
the bills at the end of the day. So that's that's primarily like
33:10
50% or more of our projects. We're working directly with the
33:14
owner. About 10 to 15% would be with
33:18
the owner's Rep. So someone either who works at
33:21
their development company or they hire externally to be their
33:26
representative to us. They don't want to deal with it.
33:28
You deal with it and just report back to me kind of thing.
33:33
The, you know, So then if I'm doing my, if I remember my math
33:36
from what I just shared with you, the other 35 to 40% would
33:39
be as either a subcontractor of an architect or general
33:45
contractor who wants to offer more services.
33:48
So we provide it for them as their sub in that case.
33:52
And then the other one is somewhere in between where like
33:54
someone at the company is a project manager, It's their job.
33:59
They're the FF and E procurement specialist, so everywhere in
34:03
between. So talking about some of these
34:07
tight timelines before, I wonder if you've got a particular story
34:11
in mind that you can share with us.
34:12
Tight timeline, logistical complication, something where
34:16
you guys had to get creative in solving the problem for the
34:19
client. Yeah, there's a lot every other
34:24
day. Let me think of.
34:28
Let's let me think if I can. So we had a client who had
34:37
everything they said ready to go.
34:39
We saw pictures of site. We said you're not ready to go.
34:42
They did not have containers, they did not have warehousing.
34:45
And they had told brand that they were going to be open by a
34:51
specific date, which we told them based on how everything's
34:54
looking, it's not going to happen.
34:57
We were able to install in 140 room hotel by holding back
35:03
deliveries and then basically bringing in couple trucks every
35:07
day for a couple weeks, 140 room hotel to get them open on time
35:13
in two weeks. It is not normal.
35:17
It is just not a normal thing and of.
35:19
Course, what would be the normal timeline for something like
35:21
that, you know? 4 to 6, I mean it just depends
35:23
on site. If site's done with all their
35:25
trades and they let us have free rein on the building, yeah, we
35:28
could do it in two to three weeks because we would
35:30
coordinate the trucks according, you know, the the key is just in
35:34
time delivery, which a lot of people will tell you today
35:36
doesn't exist. And I will tell you, yes, it
35:38
does. It's just harder.
35:41
And I would, I would highly advise against just in time
35:44
delivery when you're doing a renovation.
35:46
So you're doing floor by floor or you are, you're not.
35:49
Your timeline is going to shift a ton with a new build.
35:53
Just in time delivery means I need the headboards to hang on
35:56
the wall today. Great.
35:57
That's the truck that's showing up today.
35:59
We're going to unload it, we're going to unbox it, and we're
36:01
going to go to every room and put up headboards and you go
36:04
outside in and you can do it very quickly based on what you
36:09
need that day and you're taking it off the truck and you're
36:12
distributing it to the rooms that day.
36:14
That's just in time delivery. Many, many people will swear by.
36:19
I don't want to have to wait for my chairs to show up if they're
36:22
late. Just bring everything to a
36:25
warehouse. So how did you guys pull off
36:28
that two week timeline with limited access?
36:32
You just have to get like working all hours OK?
36:36
You got all the access at the end, but it's, you know, it's a,
36:39
it's a matter of OK, if we can get in On this date.
36:42
And the logistics team working very closely with the project
36:46
manager here to work with the vendors here, with all everybody
36:50
hands on deck to say, OK, this date, our installer is going to
36:54
receive this, this and this. Good.
36:56
This date, this, this date, this.
36:58
You got to make sure with the elevators operational and we're
37:01
in there, nobody's getting in our way.
37:03
We will do this, this and this. You need to provide us access to
37:06
this, this and this. And so as we received and
37:09
distributed, a lot of people don't believe you.
37:11
You should do like a category at a time.
37:17
A lot of installers believe you should do a floor at a time,
37:19
which is why they like having everything in the warehouse.
37:22
Bring everything for these rooms on this floor and we'll do this
37:27
floor first or we'll do a room at a time.
37:31
I will tell you I'm not giving away the the, the, the secret
37:34
sauce here, but it's true. Your installation time is like
37:38
at least 30 to 40% faster if you go by category.
37:43
So that's why we were able to do it in two weeks.
37:44
We can hang all the headboards at once and now every room has
37:48
their headboards, right? Because it's all in the same
37:50
truck. It's easier to distribute.
37:52
It's faster because you as an installer, as you're putting
37:55
stuff together, taking it out-of-the-box, you've done it
37:58
once, you've done it 100 times, you're faster than 100th time.
38:01
If you're doing a room at a time or a floor at a time, you have
38:03
to come back to that particular and remember what's the fastest
38:08
way to assemble and install this?
38:10
So just little things like that certainly make things go better.
38:15
But on every, I mean, Anthony, honestly, everyday it's like, oh
38:18
gosh, there's a truck that's, you know, two hours out and
38:22
they're not, they don't have anyone.
38:23
Is there any way we can hold it? Oh my goodness.
38:27
Site told us they're ready. We showed up and their parking
38:29
lots not paved, finding a warehouse nearby to deliver all
38:34
those goods to so that the truck isn't stuck with a container on
38:37
the back and know where to put it.
38:38
These are everyday occurrences. Everyday.
38:42
Wow, that's a fun one. What are some common missteps
38:45
that you see hotels make as it pertains to interior design
38:50
choices? Great question recently
38:57
forgetting about commercial grade fabrics and forgetting
39:00
about commercial grade construction.
39:03
If you're, if you're using a branded hotel, they're only
39:07
going to be working generally speaking their preferred or you
39:11
know vendors that are approved are going to be commercial
39:13
grade. You know, one of our, one of the
39:17
folks here, Mark, one of the partners and, and, and owners
39:20
here, he always says families with two kids and a sleeper sofa
39:26
in your hotel room, you're guaranteed those kids are going
39:29
to be jumping on the couch. The parents wouldn't let them do
39:32
that at home, but at the property.
39:35
So that's just an example of like people treat things
39:39
differently. They bang their luggage into the
39:41
case goods. They they don't treat the sofas
39:44
and beds the same way they would at home.
39:46
It's got to be commercial grade. You have a different person in
39:49
there, you know, every week or whatever it is.
39:51
People don't treat it with the same care they would their own
39:53
personal items. I see the mistake hotel owners
39:57
make. This residential stuff looks
39:59
beautiful. This finish looks awesome on
40:03
that coffee table. I know we were going to go with
40:06
this commercial grade finish, but they said they have a color
40:10
like this, Let's just go with it.
40:12
And then people put their water glasses down on a coffee table.
40:15
That's not finished, right? And three months after opening,
40:19
they're replacing 150 coffee tables because it's bubbling.
40:25
What type of flooring are you in?
40:29
An area where there's going to be a lot of people who are
40:31
working out in like the oil industry or out in the field and
40:36
coming back with dirty, muddy boots are typically you would
40:41
have carpet tile or broad loom carpet in your hotel.
40:45
Should you be considering LVT, You know, the, the flooring
40:49
that's much easier for your housekeeping to clean and will
40:53
last longer. You know, these are some of the
40:55
things our designers talk very early on about.
40:58
And then design choices. Are you going, are you going out
41:02
there just to go out there today?
41:04
Because today's fashion, it looks really cool, but in six
41:07
years, your hotel's not going to look as presentable as it did
41:12
today. Things like that too.
41:13
And I'll tell you, there are so many, you know, people don't
41:17
like the term value engineering because it means I'm cheapening
41:20
my stuff. I don't necessarily agree with
41:23
that. There are two different types of
41:24
value engineering. There's I really like the way
41:27
this headboard looks, but if I made it in straight teak wood,
41:32
it will cost me $6000. If I make it in a wood that
41:36
looks like teak and still appears very nice, but it's more
41:39
durable in a different product and cost me 1500, am I really
41:44
ruining the design or am I making a smarter choice?
41:48
So those are the types of things we do like to talk both on from
41:51
the budgeting side, because you can go out and find fabric
41:54
that's $250 a square yard, that's designer fabric.
41:58
You can find one that's $25 a yard and looks the almost the
42:02
exact same, won't feel the same. So things like that.
42:06
And then in things like the senior living space, and most
42:09
senior living facilities would know this, but as an example,
42:11
like you have to have different resistance on your fabric to
42:15
liquids and things like that. And, and there are variables in
42:20
every product category that one needs to think about, not just
42:24
from how it looks, but how it's going to perform and will it
42:28
last a long time? Are you going to be replacing
42:30
that? So we've been talking all about
42:32
hotels, but then you just dropped in senior living
42:35
centers. Are there other verticals that
42:37
you guys work in? Yeah.
42:39
I mean, we've done a fair amount of senior living work.
42:41
It certainly doesn't. It's not one of our larger
42:43
verticals, but we do play in that we have clients who are
42:47
both in the world of hospitality from hotel, but also have senior
42:50
living clients who've come to us from referred from architects or
42:54
other designers to do the FF and E.
42:56
So yes, we do senior living, we do restaurants, we do
43:00
multifamily. You know, our, our needs are
43:04
greatest typically in the hotel space because things like
43:09
multifamily, the apartments or condos or whatever don't, aren't
43:14
outfitted with furniture. So it's just the finishes then
43:17
that we're dealing with and maybe the public areas.
43:19
Similarly for most senior living facilities, unless it's memory
43:23
care or something like that, people are bringing their own
43:25
stuff in. So it's not as our our clients
43:31
needs for us aren't as great, maybe on the design side, but
43:34
certainly not the FF and E which is where we play heaviest.
43:39
David, behind most success stories, there is usually a
43:42
chapter that almost broke somebody.
43:46
Can you share a serious challenge that you've gone
43:48
through, personal or professional?
43:50
How you got through that, What you learned?
43:52
Yeah, you got me so excited talking about our business and
43:55
industry, Anthony. Sure.
43:58
I, I guess for me from a personal standpoint, I started
44:04
in sales and in my early 20s found some success in a few
44:08
industries. And what I learned, what I
44:13
thought I learned at the time was that I was really good at
44:17
sales. And then all that mattered was
44:19
that I could close the deal. And then what everyone else that
44:22
the company was doing didn't matter.
44:23
I was just there to close deals and make it happen.
44:26
And then would want both the, I guess the financial piece of
44:31
that, but also the accolades. You're great at sales, David,
44:35
good job. Awesome.
44:36
And I'm pretty sure I, well, I definitely had one manager at
44:40
one point tell me as much. But I know looking back in life,
44:43
I carried myself very differently than I think I do
44:46
today, which is that my chin was farther up in the air when I
44:52
walked in a room then maybe when I do now, which is that I
44:55
thought I was had a gift and I am great at this.
44:59
And therefore, everyone should acknowledge my greatness at
45:01
sales and what I learned when I mentioned the company I worked
45:07
with toward the beginning of my career in litigation consulting,
45:13
I started to rub a lot of people the wrong way.
45:16
And when your consultants who are doing the work that you sold
45:21
don't want to work on a project with you or that you sold, you
45:24
sell. They aren't going to work as
45:26
hard in the background or be as interested in the win as you
45:29
are. And that starts to affect your
45:32
ability to sell when you don't acknowledge that there are other
45:36
people around you who are helping make the company or you
45:39
great and you're taking all of the credit.
45:42
And I felt pretty flat, 1, three month period of time where I
45:47
thought I wasn't going to be working there anymore because
45:50
nobody wanted to deal with me. I was just a ball of arrogance
45:53
walking into the room. And it took some mentorship,
45:57
some own personal acknowledgement and reflection
46:00
and work myself. But I'd like to believe over 20
46:04
years later that while I still feel I'm, I'm pretty good at
46:09
sales, I understand the importance of everyone around me
46:15
having to be as great or better and acknowledging their
46:19
greatness and acknowledging what it takes as a team to win versus
46:23
just individual personal satisfaction, which I was too
46:28
focused on. You know, I got to applaud you
46:31
on that. It's really hard to be that self
46:35
aware and that self critical and saying, you know, shifting this
46:42
mindset of, oh, I'm a gift here. I am a blessing that's bringing
46:47
all of these deals into holy cow.
46:50
I've really got to make some changes.
46:52
Can you kind of walk us through the moment or moments when this
46:57
realization to you really started to unfold?
47:01
Yeah, I mean, I'd like to take more credit than that, that
47:05
you're like giving me there, Anthony, for like the moment.
47:08
The moment was when the my sales manager and the vice president
47:12
sales company invited me into a meeting I wasn't expecting and
47:15
told me to check myself. That was alarming and shocking
47:23
and did not see it coming. And for at least a month
47:27
afterwards, like what are they talking about?
47:29
They don't know a chip on the shoulder kind of attitude.
47:32
But I give my wife a lot of credit for, you know, kind of
47:36
helping me be like, why? Why don't you listen to what
47:38
they're saying versus just be automatically assume they're
47:41
wrong. And so the self reflection
47:45
point, you know, from a personal standpoint, as I didn't want to
47:49
be that person, I didn't want to be the person no one liked when
47:52
they came in the room. And the only reason maybe the
47:54
management liked me is 'cause I was bringing in revenue.
47:56
Like I, I didn't want to be the disliked team member.
48:01
And maybe more importantly, I want to be able to look in the
48:04
mirror and like what I saw and I, you know, when you can.
48:07
So over the space of like 6 months to a year there, it took
48:11
that long to kind of be able to look in the mirror and go, yeah,
48:13
I don't, I want to do something different.
48:16
I just want to be a different person.
48:18
So did you have any recognition that you were rubbing people the
48:23
wrong way before you were pulled into that surprise meeting?
48:26
Probably should have. But you didn't.
48:28
It wasn't. It wasn't until then.
48:31
But even still, like when they first pulled you in.
48:34
Sorry, go ahead. But even when they first pulled
48:36
you into that meeting, you're like, you know, you said for a
48:38
month afterwards, you're like, what are these guys talking
48:40
about? They don't know what.
48:42
Don't they care? I'll just go work somewhere else
48:44
where people will appreciate what I bring to the table.
48:46
Why? Why would they say these things?
48:48
You know, I give them a lot of credit too, for just being
48:51
honest. Like, we want you here, but not
48:53
as this current iteration of yourself.
48:56
These are behavioral things. This isn't core.
48:59
These are behaviors you can choose to change.
49:02
We're not asking you to sell differently or, or not utilize
49:06
the tools you have with communication and writing and
49:09
getting meetings or anything like that.
49:10
But the way you're treating your team mates and the way you're
49:13
carrying yourself, these are behavioral things that you can
49:15
choose whether you want to change.
49:17
And like you just mentioned, like, and I mentioned before,
49:19
like 30 days, I was like, they don't know what they're talking
49:22
about. Maybe I should, you know, I
49:23
don't even remember what the what the tool was.
49:26
I think maybe monster back in the day, you know, I was looking
49:29
at all the other jobs that were available and where could I go
49:32
work? They don't appreciate me.
49:35
So I took a little bit, but I'm glad I and it certainly didn't
49:38
happen overnight, but I'm glad I took the steps to that journey
49:42
of self accountability. Constantly asking for feedback
49:46
constantly. Not like changing with every
49:49
piece of feedback I get, but being open to hearing it, to
49:53
acknowledging that exists, to understanding that other
49:55
people's perception is their reality.
49:59
Now I can't change their who they are, but I certainly can
50:03
acknowledge that their perception of me is this is
50:05
there's anything I am doing to create that perception or they
50:08
just out of their mind. And to be fair, sometimes it's
50:11
the latter, but I'm not. More times, it's the former.
50:14
Well, and you're touching on something really important here,
50:16
David, because having the awareness is one thing and that
50:19
took you a little bit to get there.
50:21
But then once you have that awareness, taking steps to
50:25
changing behaviors that have just been second nature for you
50:30
for years is a much more challenging thing.
50:33
It sounds like one of the things that you did was to just start
50:37
asking questions, right? You wanted people's feedback.
50:40
Are are there other things that you did along the way to help
50:44
redirect some of these behaviors?
50:49
I think, I think a lot of it was just the the humility aspect of
50:53
it, which I'm not 100% great at. Still today, I'm still working
50:58
on everyday, but like understanding that maybe it
51:02
wasn't always me that was the reason I won and looking for
51:05
those opportunities to tell that person you're the reason we won
51:12
or your success here helped me be successful.
51:15
Thank you. Like instead of spending so much
51:18
time focusing on what I was doing well, I really try, I
51:22
really focused a lot of energy on finding what other people
51:25
were doing well, pumping them up, acknowledging their great
51:28
work. So I think that was a big step
51:32
too, was like spending less time figuring out what I did right
51:37
and what others either could do right or helped make it win and
51:43
encouraging that behavior when I got into management.
51:47
I think that was helpful. I really, I think, I think
51:50
people spend a lot of time and again myself included on what
51:55
could I be doing better versus what could I or how do I do
52:00
better for us to win versus what are other people doing well that
52:05
I either want to emulate or what are they doing well that I can
52:09
say great job doing that so that they want to do it more shifting
52:14
the focus I guess a little bit less off myself and more other
52:17
people. I like that and we've talked
52:20
about sales, very good at sales, continuing develop other things.
52:25
But aside from sales, what else is your superpower, David?
52:31
Wow, well, my children would tell you it's not the dad jokes,
52:35
nor would I think the employees here, although I've got many of
52:40
them. What's gosh, that's that's
52:44
really hard to be to just come off of the humility speech to
52:48
you, Anthony and then be. Like, well, I wanted to stop
52:49
pummeling you. Migrated sales button.
52:52
No, I think inspiration. You know, I love coaching youth
52:57
sports. I enjoy being on boards for my
53:01
kids activities. I enjoy pumping people up and
53:08
getting them excited about stuff.
53:09
I certainly can yell at my TV enough about my Badgers and my
53:12
Vikings. But you know, my boys enjoy, I
53:17
think for the most part watching the games with me because of how
53:19
passionate I am about the moment I'm in.
53:23
And I think the team here feeds off of that.
53:25
So I'd like to say inspiration. I really focus on like trying to
53:31
be inspiring and positive and and holding people to account to
53:37
what their level of greatness is.
53:39
I do think I exceed or I excel in that.
53:43
Nice for people listening. Would you have recommendations
53:48
for anybody looking to get better at leadership, improve
53:52
their sales approach? A book, a course, a podcast,
53:56
something that's been helpful to you?
54:00
Yeah. I mean from the sales
54:01
standpoint, I really think the you had mentioned the Miller
54:04
Hyman, it's been years since I've like continued the courses
54:08
on that. But like just the idea of, so if
54:10
someone's in business development, the idea of
54:12
consultative selling is so powerful, yet so obvious, but
54:18
it's not obvious to someone who's not looking for it, which
54:21
is to stop selling off the bat, but just understand what exactly
54:26
is it important to the person you're in front of.
54:31
So on that, you know, one example I'll give you is, and
54:35
this is from years ago, my, my oldest is now 17, going to be
54:40
going to College in the fall, but he was about to be a baby.
54:43
So, so let's say 18 years ago and I was very excited and I
54:49
want to have a video camera. Now we all have phone cameras
54:52
and it's really not as exciting. But back in the day, I want to
54:54
have a cool camera and I went to Best Buy and I got a camera and
54:59
I'm like, you know what? I need a laptop that will
55:03
actually hold all of these to share with my family and to save
55:06
them forever. All these pictures because they
55:08
didn't have a good laptop for that.
55:10
So I got the camera, I went to Best Buy and I went to the and
55:15
by the way, I love Best Buy. It's not a knock on them.
55:19
This was the time, the 20 something or 18 years ago.
55:23
I go to the computer aisle and I and a guy's there, he wants to
55:26
help me. Hey, I need to get a laptop.
55:32
And what did he say? Let me show you what you need.
55:35
And he took me straight to a laptop that was high-powered at
55:40
the time. This thing is amazing graphics
55:45
and it's awesome for gamers and it's really slick keyboard and
55:50
all of these things and he goes, this is the one for you.
55:54
I go for me, you don't even ask me what I wanted in my computer.
55:59
You just gave me a sales pitch on a really cool computer.
56:02
I'm sure for some people that would have been great, but like
56:04
what I need is storage because I'm going to be an overzealous
56:06
dad who takes 8000 videos. That's the laptop I need.
56:10
I don't care about the gaming platform of it aspect of it.
56:14
So I use that example to like, I still see that it's like, Oh my
56:18
gosh, let me tell you, we are so.
56:21
Great. At all procuring orders and
56:26
tracking them before they ever get to site.
56:29
That is the highlight of furniture industries.
56:31
Anthony should work with us. If I had asked that person, how
56:34
did your last job go. Our logistics company couldn't
56:37
get a single truck on site. That's the only thing I care
56:40
about, I missed. So again, strategic selling or
56:46
least consultative or at least ask questions for people in the
56:48
world of business development. From a management standpoint, I
56:51
think it's really, really important to not just constantly
56:55
praise. I don't know.
56:57
So you asked about a book. It's an old one, but it's a good
57:01
one for anyone going into management.
57:02
I think the One Minute Manager, anybody who goes into management
57:05
here at Furniture Industries, it's a required reading by me.
57:08
I don't know. Have you read that one, Anthony?
57:10
I have, but give us a couple of takeaways from it for our
57:13
listeners. Yeah, we spend too much time on
57:16
the negative and the positive. That's one of the biggest
57:19
takeaways. If someone did something good,
57:21
tell them they did something good.
57:23
If someone did something they should know better, tell them
57:26
they should, but don't sit there and beat them over the head with
57:29
it if they did something wrong, and don't sit there and heap
57:31
praise on it till they're blushing.
57:34
If they did something, Well, if you can do it in one minute on
57:36
both sides, that's kind of the ideal.
57:39
I mean, that's a very small take away.
57:41
It's not a long read, but it's really powerful about like
57:43
allowing people to operate and succeed on their own and not
57:49
micromanage but still hold people to account both
57:52
positively and constructively. So I definitely think anyone
57:57
who's going into management should read that book as a
58:00
starter, as a one-on-one for. Sure.
58:02
What's the future of furniture industries look like, David?
58:06
Growth opportunities, interesting internal projects
58:09
that you're working on? Thank you for asking.
58:16
We just talked about this at our annual conference not long ago.
58:19
Look, we're still going to do what we do great and do more of
58:21
it. We were able to scale because of
58:24
infrastructure, technology and really great people.
58:27
It's we don't have that many more people this year than we
58:31
did four years ago. But our growth is, is well over
58:34
50% from that timeline because we're able to do more work in a
58:40
smarter way that's the smarter, faster, better, stronger.
58:45
So that piece I want to continue.
58:48
I want us to continue to grow our bread and bread business to
58:50
be a reliable source for FF and E design, procurement,
58:53
installation for Select Service Market.
58:55
I want to do more on the resort. And I think people in that part
58:59
of the world are finding our service to be immensely positive
59:05
for them too, in that typically resorts have like multiple
59:10
people doing the FF and E, whether it be the restaurant or
59:14
the pool area or the beach homes or the hotels or the condos.
59:20
To have one stop shop appeal like we provide is very
59:25
interesting to them. And we're doing more of that.
59:27
So I'd like to get more into the resort side.
59:32
Some people here have recommended we try to get
59:35
further upstream into the architecture part of our
59:38
industry. I'm not quite there yet, but
59:40
that's certainly something on the could be somewhere on the
59:43
horizon. But I really feel like we we
59:48
have created AI mentioned the infrastructure like we have
59:50
departments, we have processes, we have technologies that we
59:55
use. We have ways to we're constantly
59:57
improving our systems every quarter.
1:00:00
For those who have, there's another book for you, traction,
1:00:03
the EOS model of small business. I can't think of Gino's last
1:00:08
name. Thank you.
1:00:11
And Mike Payton, who actually was the first time I ever did
1:00:14
EOS, he was my coach. He also helped write the updated
1:00:19
version. So I'm a big believer in a lot
1:00:21
of their things. But one of the things is in a
1:00:24
small business, you get so busy doing the business that you
1:00:28
forget about looking at the business as an equal part of
1:00:32
growth is you have to like be introspective.
1:00:34
And what can we work on this quarter, this year to get bigger
1:00:38
and better and grow? So we have those in place now
1:00:42
and we're growing because of it. But definitely the short answer
1:00:46
to your first question with the vertical I think is on the
1:00:49
resort side of things and and just an expansion of within each
1:00:54
of the brands, not just select service, but you know four and
1:00:58
five star hotel chains might be part of the resort as well.
1:01:04
Just got one more question for you today, David.
1:01:06
But before I ask it, I want to knock out three quick things.
1:01:09
First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with David, his
1:01:14
e-mail address is dhoffmanwithtwofs@furnitureindustries.com,
1:01:19
dhoffman2fs@furnitureindustries.com. And he's given us a phone number
1:01:24
here to share as well, 763-299-0775.
1:01:29
We'll have it in the show notes, but here it is again, 7632990
1:01:34
775. Also, if you're enjoying the
1:01:36
show, a quick comment or review on your favorite podcast app
1:01:40
goes a long way towards helping others discover our show.
1:01:44
So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
1:01:47
And as a reminder, if you want to get more hospitality
1:01:50
employees, access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds
1:01:54
that, as paradoxical as it seems, actually increases your
1:01:57
company's net profits, reach out to us at adbackbenefits.com.
1:02:01
So last question for you, David. A year from now, what is 1
1:02:05
specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
1:02:10
A year from now, gosh, that's a good question that I probably
1:02:16
should have been prepared for. You know, a year from now, I
1:02:19
would think increased employees like I have a number in mind.
1:02:28
I don't care to share it. But if I want to hit that
1:02:30
number, because if we hit that number, that means we have gone
1:02:36
into the vertical that I was referring to more deeply and to
1:02:42
have maybe four or five more of those types of projects by a
1:02:46
year from now. I like it.
1:02:48
We'll check back in with you to see how that's coming along.
1:02:51
David Hoffman from Furniture Industries, I want to be the
1:02:54
first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
1:02:56
with us today. I really appreciate you being
1:02:58
here. Yeah, thank you for having me.
1:03:01
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:03:03
podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
1:03:05
And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.