In this episode, Sadaf Beynon is joined by Shelley Rosetta, a sales and business development leader with more than 30 years of experience. Shelley opens up about the mentors, conversations, and experiences that shaped her leadership — the good, the painful, and the transformative.

We explore:

• The leaders who believed in her when she didn’t
• Why great performers often struggle as new leaders
• The mindset shift from “doing” to “developing others”
• How accountability begins at the top
• Why mentorship has quietly disappeared in many workplaces
• How identity, empathy, and self-awareness shape the way we lead
• Why leadership is about showing up, not titles
• How to lead from wherever you are

This conversation is a reminder that leadership isn’t about being the star of the show — it’s about creating space for others to grow.

Connect with Shelley:

Email: srosetta@solomoncoil.com

but we see it across industries is that you have these wonderful people who really become kind of rock stars, whether it's a rock star seller, a rock star designer, and they are amazing individual contributors. And so they naturally start moving up into leadership.

and managing others. And what we're seeing time after time is that they don't have the skills often to make that transition. So they either don't have the skillset or they don't have the mindset.

Welcome to Conversations That Grow, where we explore the moments that shape who we become as leaders and people. I'm your host Sadaf Beynon and today I'm joined by Shelly Rosetta, a sales and business development leader with more than 30 years of experience. But what really caught my attention isn't just her career, but the way she thinks about leadership. That it isn't about titles or tactics, but about showing up, mentoring and making space for others to grow. So with that said, welcome to the show, Shelly.

Thank you so much for having me. So nice to see you again.

Thank you and you too. Shelley, to start us off, what's a conversation you've had that's changed the way you think about leadership or business?

You and I had talked a little bit about this before and I was trying so hard to think of just one conversation that is really shaped and wanted to have that impactful moment for you. But it's really been more of a collection of conversations throughout my career, really throughout my life. And looking at the people who have been meaningful to me,

you

starting with my mother, my father, and having some great friends around me, great leaders, both on the positive and negative side. So the conversations that I've had throughout my career have shaped the way that I try to lead. And I've learned from both those very positive conversations and the negative ones too. I was just racking my brain trying to think of

just one pivotal moment that really kind of changed the direction of where I wanted to go. But it was really more of a collection of conversations that kind of grew along with me. Like, you know, kind of matured and got older and was in the workforce longer.

you mentioned your mom, your dad, friends, leaders, and as you said, over your lifetime, it sounds like you were, first of all, in good company, and you were able to learn from them as you were growing up. I wonder, because you mentioned about positive and negative instances as well, and I'm curious

If you wouldn't mind just digging into a positive one or a negative one that you can remember.

Yeah, you know, I ⁓ had a wonderful manager who I reported to for when I was working for a manufacturer. In fact, I've been really lucky. have had, for the majority of my career, I have had wonderful management and leaders that I reported to. And I just remember, you we were going through a tough time in one of the...

in part of my career. And I just remember this leader, she never gave up on me. She was always extremely positive. And even though I decided not to stay with that company, I will never forget just the support and I always felt she believed in me. And she made that very clear. And it really

That was an experience that she was just always so kind, but very firm. We knew exactly what was expected out of us for what our goals were, where we were shooting for, but she always did it with kindness. She could probably tell you what my dog's name was back then, because she knew me and she knew all of us. It wasn't just me.

Hmm.

Mm.

she knew all of us. And so I've tried to take that along with me and knowing the people that, not just the people that I leave, but my coworkers. I think it's hard to leave people if you don't know what kind of makes them tick, what things are important to them. Money's not always the most important thing to people. Sometimes it's...

whether it's flexibility or if it's a little autonomy. So I think knowing what's important to is really important when you're trying to be a leader.

That's really good. She sounds like a fantastic leader. Yeah. And especially if you came across her earlier on in your career, it's so good to have someone you can look to and emulate. What about a negative one?

Yes, do it.

You know, just a couple of negative ones. know, I've always looked at those type of experiences that, you know, we can learn sometimes more from our negative experiences. And we can learn what do we not want to do? Who do we not want to be? How do we not want to treat people? And so, you know, I keep those kind of close to my heart as well as I'm trying to be a leader and continuing to grow and

Yes, yes.

And remembering how kind of bad leaders made me feel how the engagement for whether it was, you know, my particular job at the time or the engagement in the company, how that really has an effect on, you know, how engaged you want to be depending on how they're treating you. It's just so important. mean,

Mm-hmm.

You don't really want to go to war or bat for someone who is either disrespectful or you you can tell that you're not meaningful to them. They don't value you. So you know I you know I choose not to be like that.

Yeah, yeah, that's

good. I agree. think those negative experiences can actually make you a better leader because you've been there, you've experienced that you understand what it feels like. And like you say, you don't, you you know what you don't want to be and you know where you don't want to go.

Yeah, you're exactly

right. I think it's really interesting because you see all kinds of leaders and we're all different and none of us are perfect. We all have those days when you look back on the day and you're like, you know, I probably didn't handle that so well or I wasn't patient with someone or I wasn't clear. But I think as long as you're working kind of towards just being the best leader you can at the time.

Mm-hmm.

and trying to learn along the way. I really respect people who really continue to strive to do that.

Thank you for sharing that. All right, so when we spoke, something you said to me was that you started out with a design degree before moving into sales and leadership. So I'm curious, what did that journey teach you about yourself?

You're welcome.

you know, the design degree, I love design. I still love design. There isn't a there isn't a space that I walk into that I don't admire or, you know, think about what what's the space creating everything down from what you see to what you smell to, you know, the warmth of the room. And I still love that part of

Yeah.

my industry and just life in general. But what I realized is that I wasn't really that good at it. I knew good design when I saw it. I was just not really great at communicating it. And what I was better at as I kind of, you know, went through my career is I was better at listening to what the business goals were and what

our customers wanted to achieve with this space from a business vantage point. And how they wanted their members to feel when they came into an environment. But I just wasn't that strong at the one creating that environment. I could listen and I could communicate.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

the goals to someone else who really did have that talent. I just wasn't the one with the talent.

Yeah.

Yeah, so was there a point

in time or a conversation that helped you understand that about yourself?

You know, I think it was really my first, my very first job. I was sitting behind a computer and I really loved the mathematical part of it. You know, I love this space planning part of it. I love putting the puzzle together. But as I was asked to start putting things like finishes and other architectural details into the space, I could just tell that that that wasn't my thing.

Hmm.

Hmm.

And I didn't want to fail someone. I didn't want to fail their space. And so I just started gravitating more towards the business conversations and just really learning more about people's business. eventually, you know, went into sales. And that seemed to be where the fit was for me. I loved being out. I did not like being behind my computer all day.

Yeah.

Hmm.

⁓ I wanted to be out. I wanted to go to meetings. I wanted to talk to people. I wanted to hear what the struggles were with their work environments. And so I think it was just kind of this weird natural progression that led me to sales and then finally leadership.

sounds like

that experience that you had that you allowed yourself to actually, you know, immerse yourself into is what shaped your path to where you are now.

Absolutely, I think just paying attention to it. I mean, I could have just been a really not so great designer for the rest of my life. I'd prefer to succeed at something.

Yes, we all do, absolutely.

Yeah.

Shelly, you've seen how often great performers get promoted into leadership without being equipped to actually lead. What happens, do think, when businesses confuse individual performance with leadership?

It's a really great question and I think we see this a lot. We don't just see it in my industry, but we see it across industries is that you have these wonderful people who really become kind of rock stars, whether it's a rock star seller, a rock star designer, and they are amazing individual contributors. And so they naturally start moving up into leadership.

Hmm.

and managing others. And what we're seeing time after time is that they don't have the skills often to make that transition. So they either don't have the skillset or they don't have the mindset. You know, I can speak to sales, especially in sales. Some of the high that we get is, you know, going after that big dragon and slaying the dragon.

and bringing it back to the company and winning this huge project that you maybe weren't expecting to win. And without sounding like a caveman, like feeding the company. You're kind of feeding the company by bringing in these projects. And that's kind of the high for us. And just even the process that you go through to dig into how to win that customer or that project.

You

But once you kind of flip that switch into management, what we see is that they don't teach people, they don't teach their team how to be successful. They are still wanting the win. And so what happens is they often don't have the patience to either verbalize what their team needs to be, show their team what they need to do.

They kind of just do it for them. They kind of keep being that main person. And so their team doesn't learn. And what happens is that there starts to be some animosity because sometimes that seller is still, or the sales leader is still getting, you know, commissioned on some of the projects that are being brought in. So you're almost in competition with the people who you're supposed to be managing.

Yeah.

So it's something that we have really kind of honed in on because we think that, I mean, there's a way out. And I think in some of it's just changing mindset of where you are as a person and where do you get the high from instead of slaying the dragon, can you get your high from developing people and watching their success and watching them grow?

Yeah.

Hmm.

And then the other part is just trying to instill the skills that it takes to be a leader in whatever area it is, whether it's sales or design or HR or whatever that ⁓ area is of expertise.

Has there been a time where you've seen that gap up close? So maybe someone you worked with or maybe even in yourself? And I guess what did you take away from it?

We see it daily because we work with a lot of sales leaders. Some are really amazing and some have flipped that switch. Others are still struggling and I think even if I were to look at myself even early on, I think I had to get to a point either in my life or in my mind where that wasn't as important anymore. I really

Yeah. OK. OK.

you

cared more about watching people develop and seeing their success and seeing kind of the excitement on their face when they came in with their win. then also, you know, being able to sit down with your, people that you're leading and be, being able to share things, different methods of doing things or

Accountability one of the things that we really see a lot of is. The.

the inability to hold people accountable. And that is maybe one of the hardest things on teams because you have these expectations. We're assuming that you've given them clear expectations of what they need to do. And in sales, it's always forecast. People hate forecasting. We dread it.

Yeah.

But it is part of the process ⁓ because it's meaningful for a number of reasons. And it's part of how you run your cash flow for your business. It's how manufacturers know how to staff up. So it's very important. And I'm just using that as one example, but you ask people to complete their forecast every week, every other week, whatever it is, and they continue to come to meetings.

without their forecast completed. And it's like, long are you going to allow that to go on? And I think as a leader, you have to set clear expectations and then you have to pull people to those expectations. And there's a saying that we talk about is, you either develop them up or you develop them out. because when the other people in your company arm

Hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah.

are doing what they are expected to do and they are holding themselves accountable, when you are not holding someone accountable, all eyes are on you. It's not on them, it's on you as the leader because people see that you are not holding that person accountable or you know, it's bad behavior or whatever it might be. It's our job to hold people accountable and to hold ourselves accountable.

Hmm.

have you had or I guess what's your experience because I'm sure you have seen this leaders who are not holding themselves accountable.

Yeah, I think that's that's part of the problem is, you know, as leaders, part of holding ourselves accountable is to make sure that we are clear with our team members of what our expectations of are them. And once we set those expectations, we need to make sure that those expectations are met. And so it's kind of one or two things. Either your expectations were not in line with what they should have been.

Or you don't have a way that you've learned to have these kind of complex discussions with people, know, just direct. I think especially as women, I think sometimes we feel like there is an expectation on us that we cannot be direct and that we kind of have to be softer about our delivery and our message. And

I just I don't believe that that's true. I think direct and clear is always the best path. For feedback, especially for our team members.

Just picking up from what you said about women if women are speaking out, being upfront and honest about whatever is going on, are they seen as difficult, would you say?

Yes, I think that they're seen as difficult. I think I've often been seen as difficult, you know, and I think when we know that we're seen as that, we tend to kind of muffle our voice or ⁓ change our kind of natural way. And I think more often than not, there was no need to change what you were doing. You were just being direct.

Hmm.

and clear. And if you know, it's unfortunate because I think what happens is, is that a lot of women leaders lose confidence. And quite frankly, people lose confidence in them because now they're beating around the bush, they're not clear. So I think just, you know, I work every day to try and be as clear as I possibly can. That's still why

Hmm.

while encouraging my team to collaborate. I love the collaboration, but when it comes down to making a decision, I need to be the one ultimately to make that decision.

Yeah, from my experience being tagged as difficult because you've spoken up often results in feeling distrusted. And so you're not as you was talking about confidence, you're not showing up in the same way as you you. I think you use the word muffled. It's it's not just in how you speak. It's actually how you're performing as well. I think it has this knock on effect, doesn't it?

Yes, it's a kind of this, it's

this weird vicious circle that it's hard to get yourself out of that. And sometimes you just have to be brave and just be authentic. And this doesn't mean that every person, whether it's a man or a woman, we all need to take a look at how we speak to people, how we communicate. But I do think that there is a different expectation often.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

because we're seen as something

So you said earlier about

the heart, like one of the hardest things to do is the inability to hold people accountable and just pairing that with leaders who are not able to hold themselves accountable. Does that does that statement ring More true in that in the instance where a leader isn't holding themselves accountable first? Like, is it a knock on effect? I guess is what I'm trying to ask.

⁓ yes,

I can see that. think that it could be very much a knock on effect. because as I speak to leaders who I can tell are not quite confident in their position yet, their teams are not succeeding. Their teams are, failing. They're not meeting the expectation or the company goals. And so what we saw is that it's rarely a team problem.

Hmm.

It is almost always a leadership problem. And that doesn't mean the leader is a bad person. And that doesn't mean that a leader can't get better. It just means when we see teams fail, we often can go back to the leadership of the team. And so, yeah, absolutely. think the first thing that we need to do is get our leaders confident, make sure that

Yeah.

We are being clear with what we're expecting from our leaders. What is the expectations from them? And if I go back to sales, are we expecting our sales leaders to be the ones out in front, bringing in business, or are we expecting them to grow a team that can do that themselves and have that leader continue to develop the team and mentor the team?

so that our customer experience are met and our goals are met as far as revenue and profit margins. So I'd much rather see it that way.

What would you say if someone has been promoted to a leadership position because they're, you know, they're good contributors, they know what they're doing, they work well at it, but don't necessarily have the skill set, the mindset as you referred to before. what mindset would they require in order to become a leader in that situation?

Yeah, I think it's a great question. think the mindset is, it, do you want it to be about you? know, or, or do you want it to be about your team? And again, it kind of goes back to that. What is going to feed that ego of yours? And is it your individual success by, you know, bringing in a project or, you know, doing whatever it might be, you know, having the best design, you know, designing an amazing project.

⁓ or is your ego going to be able to be fed by watching all these other people who you've probably hired, who you spent time developing and watching them bring in the success for the company. And then kind of sitting back and going, you know what, I had a part in that. My leadership had a part in how well my team is succeeding right now.

Yeah.

Mm.

And so I think it really, truly is about a mind shift of it not being about you, but others, and then really kind of doing what you need to do, whether it's training or reading or just, you know, going out and, know, risking, you know, conversations and growing your skills along the way. once you've slipped that switch, then taking on and saying, okay.

Hmm.

Hmm.

What do I need to do to be that leader that now I can envision myself being?

Yeah, it sounds like it requires self-awareness too, like so understanding what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are and what you need to lean into and or not.

Yes, no, I completely agree. think you do just like, you know, I think it's important for you to know your team members. It's very important for you to know yourself. And I think we still always go back to just, you know, know your authentic self and, you know, work with your strengths of what makes you special. And, you know, there's so many areas and resources that you can reach for.

when you're trying to build those leadership skills. And even at Small Mic Oil, I mean, we saw that that was a need. And that's one of the reasons why we came out. We have a couple of programs that one is the sales leadership program that we have that I love. ⁓ I think it was great timing. And then there is another program, dealer management development. And that is again, having people who are either moving up into leadership or just became leaders and

teaching them how to lead and teaching them about the businesses. reach for those resources wherever they are, ⁓ whatever industry that you're in. There are resources out there for you.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Hmm.

From your work, Shelly, I'm curious, is there, like when you're teaching people these skills and this mindset, is there an area that you find shows up consistently where there's resistance?

⁓ yes. I mean, I would say that, ⁓ that kind of the patience in letting people fail. so letting their team members fail a bit and then having those immediate conversations with them. when they see something that maybe they would like to see done differently. I think that immediate feedback is always really important. So I think it's just more about.

Mm.

the patients of they're most likely not going to go to market or lead or do the task as the same way that you would have done. And I think to allow yourself the patience and the flexibility of mind to let them...

try to do it in their way. That doesn't mean that you can't, that there aren't better ways that you can teach them. It just means that you can't just, you know, stop stepping in and doing it for them because they will not learn that way. We were talking in a group this past week about the old school ride alongs. You know, when I first came into sales, you know, my sales manager would come in and they'd get in my car and we'd go to appointments together.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah.

And you know, it's kind of an old school thing, but part of that was really, really great because I would go to an appointment, I would leave the conversation, we'd get back in the car and immediately we would talk about it. You know, the person would say, you know, how'd you think that that meant? Well, how'd you think that that one part of the conversation when you said this, you know, and they said this.

Yeah.

I maybe would have answered it differently. You you didn't know the answer to the question, but you kind of made something up. I would have said, hey, let me get back to you on that. Let me go get that answer for you. So just teaching them to be confident. But we were just talking about that the other day, because that doesn't happen anymore. People don't go out and kind of, they kind of show up every once in a while and it's kind of that

Yeah.

Yes.

Hmm.

cringy, weird, you know, my manager's in town. So can you schedule an appointment with me? Cause I, you know, I got to take my manager somewhere. So it's kind of turned into something a little bit weird, but it really used to be kind of a mentoring opportunity for that person who was new into their career.

Yeah.

Hmm.

I can see how that would be really benefit actually quite fun as well in some sense. Because it's first thoughts and yeah, yeah, no, that's cool. You've you've you just brought up mentorship again because you were talking about it earlier and you said that it was key to your own growth. I'd love to know about a conversation that you've had with a mentor that's really changed how you saw yourself as a leader.

Yeah, actually, bring back the good part.

Hmm. you know, I don't know if it changed me necessarily. think it kind of morphed me just gradually into who I am, but, I have had a mentor and, and this, this person is almost kind of legendary in, our industry. And so when you, when you talk about this gentleman, ⁓ ever anybody who worked for this particular company knows him and you can say specific words and they're like,

I know who you're talking about, but to this day, I do things that I learned from him. And when I am writing emails or if I'm writing a proposal or just in the way that I'm presenting to someone, there's so many things that kind of fly through my mind that he taught me.

you

He was a great presenter and very, very good in front of people. And I may never be as good as he was, but it runs through my mind all the time. Just the pointers that he gave. worked for that company for almost 10 years and I remember so much of the conversations that we had and he was almost always in teaching mode. You know, so.

Hmm.

I think that, you know, this now I'm 25 years, well, 15 years later, 15 years later after I left the company and I still, you know, look back and I remember those things. So I think that people don't realize how impactful they can be positively.

Mm.

Wow.

on people in their careers, even if they don't stay with the company, you you're helping grow a person into who they will become. He was, he was, he still is, he's such a gift. And in fact, I talked to him not so long ago and as soon as he was on the phone, it just brought back all those memories of, you know, so long ago. the first thing I thought to myself is he's still teaching, you know.

Hmm.

Yeah, that's amazing and he sounds like such a Yeah.

Yeah.

Hmm.

He's still teaching, you know, to this day, which is amazing. Love it.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, thinking back about some of the things you said about leadership and the mind shift that you have to have. now when you talk about your mentor, he sounds like, such a great leader. Yeah.

He was and you know,

it's so funny because we pick people for different things. You know, he was an incredible presenter. And again, I have been so extremely lucky to have wonderful leaders. I had a leader who was actually younger than me and I didn't know how that was going to work. And he was amazing. And you know, I look at the women that have been my leaders and just

there were just a couple of that were just, you know, they're still, they're still my friends, you know, because I look up to them. So I just think that it's kind of like when you look back at your teachers in grade school or high school, and you know, we always have that favorite teacher, very similar to that, because I think that we just don't realize the positive or negative impact we make on people as they move through their life and their career.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, Why do you think mentorship is often missing in businesses?

think we just got too busy being busy. I think the pressure of business nowadays and we're always, we rarely have enough people to be comfortable in doing all the things that we need to do for our business. And I think we just get caught up in the day to day minutia ⁓ of our businesses and

Yeah.

However, I think if we just took a moment, that upfront work of mentorship will pay dividends on the back end. So I think it's just looking at it as an investment to our careers and our companies and making sure that that does not leave. Because we have seen that. ⁓ We were just having conversations this week about

Mm.

Hmm.

the bench, our next generation of leaders within our companies, that bench is getting very, very thin in a lot of companies because the baby boomers, they're starting to retire, Gen Zs are coming in. So we've got the Xs and the Millennials and then the Gen Zs coming in. And we haven't brought any of these people up to be leaders. we're kind of, we just don't have a good bench.

Yeah.

Hmm. Yeah.

That's our fault. That's our fault because

we have not spent the time to mentor people and develop people along the way. So we are absolutely seeing that right now.

Mm.

One of the things we talked about when we first met was that your belief that leadership isn't about titles, but it's about how we show up. And you shared this story about your son. And I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing that again. And ⁓ I think that would really help us think about leadership in a different way as well.

Yeah.

Yeah,

it's, it's, I mean, I thought it was great. So my son plays football in college and he, his, one of his coaches, when he first went to college, they were looking, you know, they had all the boys go around and tell stories about their lives. And some of the stories are tragic. I mean, there are some boys that have lost their watch.

Yeah.

Hmm.

their brothers or sisters get killed and one of their parents might be in jail, both of their parents might be in jail. And it kind of came to my son, know, hey, what's the hardest thing that's ever happened in your life? My son didn't really have a lot to share. mean, in comparison, his life has been pretty easy.

He kind of spoke up and he said, you know, I, I don't have an experience like that to share, but your sharing of these experience have made me look at life differently. And, ⁓ I look at you differently and I look at you, how resilient you are to, be here and, ⁓ what it to get you here. And I'm going to take that kind of with me and.

I'm going to appreciate number one, the life that I've been given and that I didn't have those struggles. But now I can have an empathy and, a respect level for you, my teammate who has gone through all those things. ⁓ and because I think at first when they came to him, think he felt like he almost had to make something up that was, you know, dramatic as well.

Mm.

Yeah.

equally dramatic.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And I

mean, I'm quite sure. And he kind of gave this thought like, kind of what's the worst thing that's ever happened to me. And I loved it that he was just honest that, you know, he was able to say, parents were there the whole time. You know, I didn't have these struggles. But that doesn't mean I'm not a good football player. That doesn't mean that I can't be a great teammate. And part of me being a great teammate is understanding what you've gone through to get here.

Hmm

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hmm.

So I really appreciated that from him. And he was young, he was like, I don't know, 18 maybe at the time. So I thought that that was, I thought it was wise and a tough position to be in when, and my daughter went through the same thing when she was applying for her graduate degree. All the questions were, what have you really struggled with?

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah.

And you start to feel guilty because you didn't have to struggle. And you shouldn't feel guilty. You should be very appreciative that you didn't have to struggle. And how can you take that and put that back out into the world for someone else?

struggle, yeah.

Hmm.

thank you for sharing that. I love that story. And you're right. It's very wise on his part. And I think Mark of a good leader right there. Yeah, because, know, yeah, I think. you rightly say that leadership is not about titles.

I hope so. We'll see when he graduates in December. ⁓

I believe it's wherever you have influence, you're a leader. And that can be in a boardroom or in the locker room It can be anywhere. And I think we all have a place

where we hold that influence

Yeah, you know, I think I've always said, you know, leave from where you are and that is, you know, you don't need a title to be a leader. you know, you don't need, to be even like you said, in the boardroom, you can be at your desk and you can show great leadership. And I mean, some people aren't very interested in having the title, you know, that does not have interest to them.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

⁓ but every day we see them lead. so I think to, I think it's really great advice that we all have the ability to lead from wherever we are in whatever position we are. And I think one of the things that.

Yeah.

The question that I always ask is, what do you do as a leader or even an employee? And your values don't match where you're at. I think, know, talking about people being brave and taking risk, I think that a lot of times in leadership, you try to stick it out. You try to change things. And I think sometimes it's

Hmm.

It's better for you to say, you know what? This isn't the fit for me. It's not the fit for me. And that's okay. But if I stay, I'm going to become the black cloud. You know, I'm going to become that employee that isn't good for other people. And then, so maybe I need to continue on my journey somewhere else where maybe the values fit for me or the culture for me or

Hmm.

the opportunity fits better for me. And so I do think that, I think when the economy is doing great, it's really easy for people to do that. ⁓ When the economy slows, think people sometimes feel like they're stuck in their position. So I think that's part of being a leader as well, is knowing yourself really well and knowing when maybe it's time to move on.

Yeah.

And I think that that can be very, very scary for people.

It comes back to that self-awareness, doesn't it? ⁓

It does, yeah, it does.

And being brave and kind of just being your authentic self and ⁓ being at a place and bringing your best self to wherever you are as well as a leader.

Yeah.

would be the one thing you most want to pass on to the next generation of leaders?

⁓

boy, that there's great opportunity out there for you that we need the diversity of thought. We want to hear your voice. I love it. You know, my husband and I have always picked neighborhoods where we weren't the norm.

Yeah.

We kind of love diversity. We especially love diversity of age. And we're okay with kind of being the older ones on the block. And I, you know, I always pictured myself, you know, when I'm 80 or 90 years old, I'm still going to be kicking it then I'm to be around, you know, all these young people. But I think that diversity of thought and they're coming in with

You

maybe even more of an open mind because they haven't had the experiences, know, the ups and downs that we've gone through that kind of, you know, fog some of our thinking sometimes. So I think that's really the most important thing is that your voice matters, your ideas matter. And even though, you know, maybe all your ideas won't be picked up, I promise you that, I mean, we're listening.

Hmm.

At least I hope that people are listening because you can't grow as a company, you can't innovate if you're not listening to new ideas, new thoughts from those that are coming up in the next generation. ⁓

Yeah.

Shelly, thank you. This has been such a powerful reminder that leadership isn't about being the best performer, but about being willing to develop and mentor others, even when it stretches us.

Yes, thank you so much for having me and I love the conversation and thank you for being such a great person to talk to and I love it that you're talking about these things as well.

Thank you,

thank you Shelly. It's been great to have you, but before we wrap up, if someone's listening and wants to connect with you or learn more about your work, where should they go to do that?

Yes, please reach out to me. I am S Rosetta, R O S E T T A at SolomonCoil.com. Thank you so much.

Awesome. Thank you.

And to those listening in, thank you for joining us on Conversations That Grow. The links that Shelly has just mentioned are in the show notes for you. So please do feel free to reach out to her and connect. And I hope this episode has reminded you that leadership isn't about titles. It's about the conversations that shape how we show up and the kind of leaders we're becoming. Thank you for listening and bye for now.