A Chat With Sue Landay, President, Trainer’s Warehouse

There were other innumerable challenges along the way. I was thinking about the change in my title, too, and what that meant. We’re not that big on titles here. When I became president, my dad became chairman of the board. While our roles did continue to evolve and to grow, but the way those roles grew was related to what other employees came on board and how we could use them. Early in the company’s history I might have been doing everything, such as square inch reports, writing copy, overseeing design, list rental, overseeing customer service staff and HR, financial analysis, the whole thing. But as I became president, I said that since we have more people here, I can start delegating these things. But the first question that came to mind after that was if I delegate everything, which probably is what I should do, then what do I do? That was an early challenge in taking over the helm. I quickly found that in delegating those responsibilities, I was able to take on an oversight and leadership role and make sure that things were moving forward. I was able to do more because I wasn’t bogged down by the day-to-day tasks. I didn’t have to do it myself anymore. I was able to guide growth and all of the activity.