How Understanding Your Strengths Makes You a Better Team Member
She didn’t know she’d work in furniture, let alone be the president of a leadership development network for women in the industry!
We’re excited to introduce you to Emily Boyst, WithIt’s 2023 president and Senior Director of Licensing and Special Projects at Hooker Furnishings.
In her role at Hooker Furniture, Emily works with her team to manage licensing projects, launch programs in new sectors of the industry, oversee the Hooker Furniture Legacy brands move from the IHFC building in High Point to the third floor of the Showplace building, and much more.
Last year Emily filled WithIt’s vice president, president-elect role. Following the line of succession built into the WithIt executive board, she’s moved up and became our 2023 WithIt president.
We enjoyed chatting with Emily about topics including:
- How WithIt has promoted growth in her professional life.
- Her unexpected path into the home and furniture industry.
- The experiences she’s most proud of
- Her tips for professional development AND rest
If you’re curious to glean from Emily’s experience and professional wisdom, read on!
Q&A
WithIt: Hey Emily! Let’s talk about you. On a personal level, why WithIt?
Emily: Why WithIt? Why not WithIt? What’s not to love about a group of women who have a lot in common in an industry, but also a lot of things that you can learn from each other because each segment of the industry is different?
At WithIt, we all want to see women succeed in the industry. We truly want to find ways to mentor, educate, and learn. We make sure women have the right opportunities.
It’s a way to meet new people, a way to open your mind to new ideas and perspectives, and a way to gain support you might not get in your office or at home.
It’s hard for a spouse, family members, or friends who aren’t part of the industry to understand everything you go through day-to-day. And to ask a boss or a peer at your work to do things like find opportunities for you isn’t the easiest thing.
It’s a great way to get resources to help better yourself, educate yourself and open more doors and opportunities.
Even gaining experiences like being on the board or being on a committee, allows you to test out your skill set in something that you don’t do every day, but you want to see if you can do it or if you like doing it.
When I joined WithIt, I was still relatively new and younger in the industry. WithIt allowed me to go to events, meet people, and learn what everyone does.
It was motivating to see where I wanted to see myself in five or 10 years. I got to see all these women in the industry who were kicking butt, and I thought, “I want to do that. Let’s see what they’re doing and maybe I can do something similar.”
Getting those connections and having people from WithIt, “voluntell” me to get involved and do something, made a huge impact on my career path.
I joined a couple of committees to test it out and meet more people, then I was voluntold, “Hey, you should be co-chair of our annual conference this year.” I thought, “I’ve never planned a major event like this. I have no idea what I’m doing.” But they said not to worry. They said, “We’ve got all kinds of resources, we’ve got you. We’ve got this laid out. These are the kind of things you need to do.”
I said, “Okay, I guess I’ll give it a shot.” And there are some safety nets built in. You’ve got an entire board that’s looking out for you. You’ve got a co-chair that’s looking out for you. You’ve got committee members, and, of course, Amy Van Dorp’s always there by your side helping.
[WithIt] is a safe space to experiment.
And I mean, not only did I learn how to put on an event, but I also learned how to manage a bunch of different committees and committee members.
I was able to test out leadership skills and focus on communication with people located across the country and in Canada, too.
When you start getting involved, it can turn into some great experiences. At my day job, I wouldn’t have
planned a conference for a couple of hundred people. That doesn’t happen, you know?
There are all kinds of hidden little gem opportunities that you’ve got to dive in and let ’em come to you.
WithIt: Did you know when you graduated with a communications degree that you’d end up in the home and furnishings industry? What did that path look like?
Emily: Not a clue. I mean, at 18 or 19 years old, who actually knows what they want to do?
I had this idea that I’d be a businesswoman of some sort. You know, I’d wear a cute little suit, like a skirt suit and a jacket or something. I learned quickly that wasn’t the most exciting thing in the entire world. But yeah, I was one of those people who didn’t know exactly what I want to do.
A lot of people go to school and they’re like, “I want to be a doctor.” “I want to start my own business someday.” I wasn’t that person. To be frank, I knew I wanted to do something related to business, but I didn’t know what exactly that meant. So that’s why I went the communications route.
You must communicate no matter what you do. It was broad enough that I could sway it one way or another and figure out what I wanted to do. I had internships and opportunities to help me figure out what I wanted to do, but I had no idea.
I happened to have a classmate in college who graduated a year ahead of me who I think similarly wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted to do. He ended up getting a job with a small website and digital marketing company outside of Minneapolis.
When I started getting closer to graduation, I began putting my resume out there and telling my network of friends mostly (because that’s what I had). And he reached out and said, “Hey, I found this little company that’s a little out there, but we do websites and some digital marketing.”
[The company he was telling me about] happened to be a website company called FurnitureDealer.net, which focused on the home furnishings industry.
I had no idea about it, and it didn’t sway me one way or another that it was furniture related.
They gave me a shot, and I instantly fell in love with the industry, and I very quickly learned what the tech part of the industry was lacking at that point because it was far behind when I graduated college. The home furnishings industry wasn’t exactly the most tech-savvy.
And so there were opportunities everywhere. Thankfully the person in the company that I was working for also saw those opportunities but saw that some of the younger people they were bringing in straight out of college also see those opportunities and bring some passion and hard work to solving some of those challenges.
That’s how I got my start. I started writing about furniture.
They put me through a training program to learn all things furniture related because it was mostly brick-and-mortar furniture stores whose websites this company was running and managing. The first six months focused on writing SEO (search engine optimized) copy about furniture. So, I had to learn the answers to questions like:
What is a veneer?
What do certain wood grains look like?
What are the different styles?
From there it grew, and I was able to start traveling to markets.
I got involved in the partner side of our company and worked closely with manufacturers. I started working on our company culture and working on hiring and training people and developing younger talent. That’s where it started.
WithIt: From that first job to now, what are you most proud of?
Emily: I’m very proud of some of the legacy I left behind at furnituredealer.net. I still have a great relationship with them. They’re a wonderful team and a great company.
There were a lot of things I was able to do there because there were so many opportunities to improve. Within the organization as a smaller startup company, but also to impact the industry and people in the industry.
I don’t want to say one little specific thing, but, in general, the development of the culture of that company and the development of some of the tools within that company are things I’m very proud of.
Because of my previous roles, I became known as this industry person. I went to everything. I traveled to every market and conference. It was my job to know and be known, and I did it well. I feel I brought authenticity and genuineness to that job that you don’t always see when you make someone who is supposed to represent the company.
One thing I love about this industry and about the roles I’ve had before my role at Hooker is connecting with so many different people in the industry, and WithIt has been a big part of that.
Those relationships mean so much to me. That’s one of the biggest reasons I fell in love with this industry. I love people.
I’m very passionate about people and seeing others succeed.
The other part of my passion is the nerdy Excel part and processes.
These two things don’t always work well together, but they do for me.
I’ve heard people say, “Oh yeah, Emily knows everyone.” Well, I don’t know everyone, but I am proud of my ability to understand the industry and connect with as many people as possible.
WithIt: You were saying, “who knows what they want to do in high school or college.” If you had to give the class of 2023 advice, what would you tell them?
Emily: If you know what you want to do, go for it. Don’t hold back.
If you’re not sure, take a chance. Interview with a bunch of different companies, and if you get offers, whichever one in your gut feels the best, take a shot. You don’t have to be an expert at it. You don’t have to commit to it for 10 or 20 years, but you never know where it could take you.
I had no idea what this little company was going to give me. I needed a paycheck for sure, but it turned into my lifetime career.
Look for companies that based on word-of-mouth reviews and your personal interviews with them can give you opportunities. If you find a company that believes in you and wants to help you grow, you can do about anything that you want, and you will easily find yourself while you do it.
WithIt: As professionals, we constantly talk about how to better ourselves, improve, and make our day more efficient. Do you have any tips on how to plug into your individual power throughout the day?
Emily: It’s important to remember that you’re not going to be the best at everything and remind yourself what your strengths are — your innate, natural skillset, the things that you’re great at and that gives you energy.
Reminding yourself that if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, can help you put things into perspective. This is my strength. This is how I’m going to tackle this project. When you start getting into things that you aren’t as familiar with, as long as you know this is going to be a development opportunity, then you’ll approach it differently.
If it’s something you need to plow through, remind yourself. “I’m Emily. I’m good at processes and I’m good at talking to people. If I need to get this done, I can.”
If it’s a task I personally don’t know how to do I ask if there is someone I can talk to who can help me. That’s a strength of mine — getting help from others.
If it’s a development opportunity, give yourself some grace to have failures as you figure it out.
Be honest with yourself and with whoever you are completing this project for.
You can say, “This is an opportunity for me to figure something out. I would like an extra three days (or whatever you need) to get it done.” And that honesty and openness about whether you’re going to plow through a task or need extra time or help, most of the time, will get you the support you need to enhance your skill set.
And as far as finding ways to develop, don’t do everything all at once.
Pick one thing to focus on every couple of months or even one thing a year. Maybe you say, “I want to get better at communicating with my upper management.” That can be the one thing you do this year to grow yourself.
You don’t have to communicate better with everyone. You don’t have to also listen better. You don’t have to also take notes better. You don’t also have to make sure you’re the most efficient person every day. You don’t have to do everything.
I am the worst at this. I need to take my own advice, but you don’t have to do every single thing every single day to try and improve yourself. You’re going to be more effective if you focus on one or two things for the year. Master something and then work on the next thing.
It’s easy to get motivated and think you’re going to do all these things and end up doing nothing. I have to remind myself a lot, that I’m one person and don’t need to be doing all these things.
WithIt: Since we’re always talking about how we need to increase effectiveness and efficiency, what do you do to incorporate fun or rest into your life?
Emily: I’m a nerd. I enjoy games, like sudoku, number games, word games, and strategy.
When I’m at lunch, for example, I try to separate myself at lunch and not sit at my desk to eat. I try to get out of that mind space at the very least. Get up and walk around the building or go somewhere.
Doing something over lunch, like a word puzzle or searching for something online that I’m interested in doing. My husband and I like to travel, so sometimes I’m planning a next trip, or even dreaming about planning the next trip if it’s not possible soon.
I like a good crime show or suspense. Give me all the weirdness. I don’t know what it is for you, but you’ve got to turn your mind off and be a person outside of work.
I’m proud of my career, and I love what I do, but I also don’t want that to be the only thing that defines me.
This or That
In a final burst of quick-fire questions, we asked Emily about her design and work/life preferences. Here’s what she said:
Dress up or dress down?
Mountains or beach?
High tech or low tech?
Call or text?
Morning or night?
We hope Emily’s words have instilled confidence in you and encouraged you to treat every task like the opportunity it is. And if you’re considering WithIt membership for your professional journey, find out more about our mission here or make the decision to join today.
