There was a time when the lowest bid won. You could be forgettable, generic, and a little slow, and still take home the business, as long as your number was smaller than the next guy's.

That time is over. And I don't think enough people in this industry have noticed yet.

I discussed this topic recently with Matt Danilyw, CEO of Avanto, on a Hot Takes episode of the show. We spun the wheel, landed on a question about how the definition of value has changed over the last five years, and what came out of it applies to every dealer, rep, and manufacturer.

Price used to be the whole story

For a long time, "best value" was just code for "cheapest." I never bought into that, but our customers did, and so did the influencers shaping their decisions. Lowest price won because there wasn't much else to compare.

That's not true anymore. Service and experience now outweigh price in almost every buying decision I see. You don't have to be the cheapest option on the table to win the business. Yo...

Every week, I hear a version of the same question, and I mean every week!

"How do we get in front of more designers?"

It's a fair question. Manufacturers, dealers, and independent reps across our industry are all trying to figure this out.  As someone who likes to solve problems, and this is a problem, I've found myself wondering if it's the wrong question.

What if access isn't the real challenge?

What if the challenge is that the world around us has changed, and we're still trying to win with yesterday's playbook?

The interior design community has evolved. The workplace has evolved. Technology has evolved. Expectations have evolved. Even the way buyers research products and make decisions has evolved. Yet many organizations continue searching for ways to do more of what worked five years ago.

That realization got me thinking about future-proofing your business.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't believe you can future-proof a business.

Think about the pas...

I'll say what most leaders in this industry won't: your best salespeople are hiding. Not from laziness, but from habit. This industry has trained itself for decades to look identical, sound identical, and let the product do the talking. That instinct is costing dealers business they'll never even know they lost.

I don't think that's a controversial claim anymore. I think it's just uncomfortable. Somewhere out there, a video influencer with zero furniture background put together a 20-minute explainer on why task chairs use a five-star base instead of a four-star base. Hundreds of comments. Not one from anyone in our industry. She did our job better than we did it, on our own product, and we let her.

That's the gap I want to talk about, and it's exactly what a recent conversation with Erica Jaffe, better known online as the Office Furniture Girl, crystallized for me.

Copy First, Then Innovate

You don't need an original idea to start. You need permission to borrow one. Erica's whole s...

Have you ever talked yourself out of something you really wanted? A promotion, a new product line, a difficult conversation, an investment in yourself?

You're not alone. I've done it too, and one of the best decisions of my career almost didn't happen because I was scared.

On this episode of The Trend Report, I break down the three things I see in every leader who keeps growing while everyone else stays stuck. None of it is talent. None of it is luck.

Confidence Is a Result, Not a Requirement

Most people think confidence comes first, that you need to feel ready before you act. What if that's backward? Confidence shows up after you've taken the first step, not before it.

At Clerkenwell Design Week in London, small brands and independent designers showed off products that were unconventional, risky, and in some cases, never destined to become commercially viable. The point is that someone believed in an idea enough to put it into the world. They acted before they knew how the market...

The traditional dealer model made a lot of sense for a long time. Build strong manufacturer relationships. Hire great salespeople. Deliver on time and with a smile. Repeat.

But something has changed.

Customers are entering the buying cycle later than ever. They're doing their own research. By the time they reach out to you, they've already made up their minds about half the decisions. So the real question isn't whether you can deliver the product, it's whether you're showing up early enough, and with enough value, to matter.

Speed Is the New Size

Tim Carroll, CEO of Lyric Workplace in Nashville, Tennessee, has a provocative take on what separates the dealers who will thrive from the ones who won't: speed.

"I believe the fastest will win," Tim told me on a recent episode of the Trend Report. "If you have prided yourself on how big you are, but you're like the Titanic, and it takes you a minute to turn around, you may start seeing a change in your business."

That's not a knock on l...

The average age of a specifier in the design community is 27 years old.

Let that sink in for a second.

The people who hold enormous specification power, the ones deciding what goes into projects before you ever get a call, are in their mid-to-late twenties. And most of them aren't finding us on LinkedIn. They're not opening our product-heavy emails. They're definitely not watching our YouTube channels, because we barely exist on YouTube.

So here's the real question: if they can't find us where they live, are we even in the game?

We Only Get One Meeting a Year

In a recent conversation with Clint Winn, President of Loftwall, we got into exactly this challenge. The A&D community is one of the most important influences in our industry.  They're at the front end of projects, shaping what gets specified long before furniture even enters the conversation. But access to them has never been harder.

Here's the reality. When you do get in front of them, you might get one meeting a year. Fif...

What Does Real Sustainability Actually Look Like in the Contract Interiors Industry?

Sustainability. We all say the word. But what does it actually mean?

Ask ten people in this industry, and you'll get ten different answers. One person thinks certifications. Another thinks recycled content. Another thinks solar panels on the factory roof. Someone else is thinking about social equity and fence-line communities.

That's the problem. And until we fix it, we're just checking boxes we don't fully understand.

The Word Itself Is Part of the Problem

John Strassner, consultant, educator, and host of the podcast Once Upon a Planet, makes a point that hits hard: "sustainability" might be the wrong word entirely.

"If you're sustaining something, that's not really a compliment," he told me on Episode 193 of The Trend Report. What does he prefer? Planet health. It's broader, it's more human, and it actually describes what we're trying to do.

Here's why that matters: when there's no common lang...

What Clerkenwell Design Week taught me about the real influence shaping our industry

During my first visit to Clerkenwell Design Week in London, I expected to see beautiful products, emerging trends, and innovative workplace solutions. I expected to be inspired by design.

What I didn't expect was to leave thinking about courage.

One of the highlights of the trip was an unexpected meeting with Nora Arratibel, the CEO of Ondarreta, a leading Spanish furniture manufacturer. As she shared the story of the business her grandfather started and how the company has evolved over the years, I found myself thinking less about the products in the showroom and more about the people behind them.

Over the next several days, I noticed a pattern.

Showroom after showroom featured remarkable products from small and independent manufacturers. There was incredible craftsmanship, bold creativity, and thoughtful use of materials. Every product seemed to tell a story. Every collection reflected a uniqu...

Most small businesses in the contract interiors industry don't lack ambition. They lack alignment.

There's a real difference between knowing where you want to go and having an actual plan to get there. Most owners confuse the two. They've got goals written down, initiatives underway, activity happening everywhere. But when you start asking deeper questions, what you often find is a wish list dressed up as a strategy.

That's exactly what this episode of The Trend Report is about:  Episode 192

 Strategy is not a goal list

Susan Pilato, co-owner of Mantra Inspired Furniture, put it plainly. When she started, she understood her mission. But the plan on how to get there? Missing. Activity was happening, Neocon appearances, rep conversations, product development, but without a true strategic foundation, none of it was connected to a destination.

"Things are happening," Susan said. "You think they're moving you forward, but if you don't have a strategy of what that activity is set to bri...

Most businesses in this industry are working hard. They're showing up, making calls, hitting deadlines, and managing relationships. But some of them are building something that compounds over time, and some are just staying busy.

The difference isn't luck. It's not even talent. It's three things: how you handle adversity, how deeply you connect with your customers, and who you surround yourself with.

Here's what surprised me. I found the clearest articulation of this framework not in a business book, not in a leadership seminar, but on a morning walk, listening to Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais. His guest was Kevin Evers, author of There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift. Before you click away, stay with me. Because the business behind the music is worth studying.

Adversity Is a Diagnostic, Not a Setback

Every business faces hard moments. Lost accounts. Broken relationships. Market pressure you didn't see coming. The question isn't whether adversit...