There's something refreshing about conversations that aren't polished, rehearsed, or filtered through corporate messaging.  The contract interiors industry spends a lot of time talking about innovation, collaboration, and partnership. But when you peel back the layers, there are still uncomfortable realities we don’t discuss nearly enough.

That’s why candid conversations matter.

In a recent Hot Takes conversation on The Trend Report Podcast, industry journalist Rob Kirkbride and I explored several topics that continue to shape the future of our industry, from dealer loyalty and designer engagement to social media fatigue and the growing disconnect between storytelling and selling.

And honestly? The biggest takeaway wasn’t any single answer.

It was this:  Our industry may need fewer talking points and more truth.

Specialization Isn’t the Problem. Isolation Is.

One of the first questions we tackled was whether dealers and reps should specialize by vertical market, or if speciali...

Most businesses don't have an information problem. They have an accessibility problem.

The answers exist. The expertise exists. The product knowledge exists. The challenge is that all of it is often locked inside a handful of people.

A customer has a question. A dealer needs clarification. A designer is looking for a specification. A prospect wants to understand whether they're a good fit. And the answer sits in someone's inbox, calendar, voicemail, or meeting queue.

For years, that's been accepted as normal. It may not be for much longer.

Recent advances in AI are creating a new possibility for organizations willing to think differently: making expertise available without requiring the expert to be available. That idea surfaced during a recent conversation with Anika Jackson, Founder, Producer, and Host of Your Brand Amplified, who has built an AI-powered version of herself that can answer questions, share insights, and provide guidance around the clock.

The technology itself is ...

Visibility Isn’t Vanity. It’s Trust.

There’s a quiet problem happening in the contract interiors industry right now.

Most people are invisible.

Not because they lack experience. Not because they lack expertise. And certainly not because they don’t have something valuable to say.

They’re invisible because they’ve convinced themselves they shouldn’t speak.

Over the past few years, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with leaders across manufacturing, dealerships, independent rep groups, workplace strategy, and design. And when the topic of visibility or thought leadership comes up, I hear the same responses over and over again:

• “I’m not a thought leader.”
• “No one wants to hear from me.”
• “My boss probably wouldn’t like it.”
• “I don’t have time.”

At the exact same time, many of those same people are constantly posting about products, installs, and promotions.

And that disconnect matters more now than ever.

In a recent episode of The Trend Report, I shared a question I heard d...

Every 23 seconds, a student drops out of high school in the United States. That’s not just an education issue. It’s a signal. Because while almost every part of our world has evolved, the environments where students learn have remained largely unchanged. Row by column. One teacher. One static layout. And in an industry focused on shaping environments, that raises a bigger question: What role does space play in learning outcomes?

That question came into focus in a recent Trend Report episode featuring Libby Ferin, VP of Marketing at Marco, and Dr. Lennie Scott-Webber, a leading voice in how space shapes human performance.

The Problem Isn’t Visibility. It’s Focus.

For years, conversations around education have centered on curriculum, funding, and performance. But the environment itself is rarely part of that conversation. And yet, the data tells a very different story.

Flexible, intentionally designed classrooms lead to 12% higher test scores and measurable improvements in student en...

In an industry moving faster than ever, it's easy to get caught up in answering the questions in front of you. What's selling? What's trending? What does the client want? But sometimes the most valuable conversations are the ones that make you pause. 

That's what happened in this episode of The Trend Report.

In this Hot Takes episode, I sat down with Kay Sargent, Director of Thought Leadership for Interiors at HOK, practicing designer of over 40 years, and one of the most respected voices in our industry. We spun the wheel, tackled seven topics, and let the conversation run.

Listen to Episode 185. 

One of the first topics we landed on was the role of dealers today. Are they strategic partners, or are they order takers? Kay's answer was clear: they should be strategic partners, and they have always had the ability to be. But she made a point that stuck with me. Designers are often asking dealers to go beyond their role, to do parts of the job that designers should be doing themselve...

There's something about talking to a leader who is still in the middle of it. Not looking back on what they built. Not reflecting from a distance. Just leading through it, in real time, while the industry shifts around them.

In this CEO Chat episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Chris Hanes, CEO of Officeworks, to talk about growth, consolidation, talent, and what it really means to lead a dealership in today's market.

Listen to Episode 184.

Chris didn't plan on a career in furniture. Like a lot of people in this industry, he found his way here through a pivot. A job posting on a college career board led him to a small K-12 manufacturer outside of Grand Rapids, and the rest unfolded from there. Steelcase, Teknion, running a dealership, selling it, and now stepping into the CEO seat at Officeworks less than a year ago.

What struck me about his path isn't just the roles he held. It's the perspective he built along the way. When you've seen the industry from the manufacturer si...

In an industry that loves clear answers and proven playbooks, the reality is a lot messier. The biggest decisions we face, including how we sell, how we design space, and how we show up in the market, rarely come with a simple yes or no. They live somewhere in between, shaped by context, experience, and timing.

That’s exactly where this episode of The Trend Report lands.

In this Hot Takes episode, I sat down with Michelle Warren, co-founder of the Collaborative Network, founder of Catalyst Consulting Group, and someone who has spent years navigating the complexities of the public sector. We spun the wheel, tackled a series of questions, and let the conversation go where it wanted to go.

Listen to Episode 183.

What came out of our conversation wasn’t just a collection of opinions. It was a clear reminder that in our industry, very few things are black and white. Most of the conversations that matter live somewhere in the gray.

One of the first topics we landed on was whether manufa...

AI is everywhere right now. New tools. New headlines. Big promises about what it could do. But most of the conversation still lives in theory.

What doesn’t get talked about enough is what happens when you actually try to use it. Inside a real company. With real constraints. Real products. Real complexity.

In this episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Karli Slocum of 3form and Cosmo Kramer of Bitreel to unpack what it actually looks like when AI moves beyond the buzzwords and into the workflow.

Listen to Episode 182.

What 3form set out to do had nothing to do with AI at the start. It was a much more practical problem. How do you help designers accurately see, understand, and trust complex materials at scale before they are ever installed? Because when there is a gap between expectation and what gets built, it creates friction and delays. When you’re working with layered materials, embedded textures, shifting light conditions, and nearly endless combinations, a static image do...

There’s something different about unscripted conversations. No prep. No polished answers. Just real-time thinking. And sometimes, that’s where the most honest insights show up.

In this Hot Takes episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Larry Leete, General Manager of KiSP, to spin the wheel and react to a series of questions about innovation, marketing, design, and the future of how we sell in this industry.

Listen to Episode 181.

What unfolded wasn’t just a set of answers. It was a reminder that many of the challenges we’re facing are not new. We’re just being forced to confront them more directly. 

Larry believes that one of the biggest tensions in our industry today is how we balance innovation with distribution. It is easy to get excited about new products, new features, and new ideas. But without the right path to market, even the best innovation struggles to gain traction. He argues that it is not a choice between the two. It has to be both. Innovation without distributio...

The independent rep model has always been relationship driven. But today, it’s something more. It’s capital intensive. It’s operationally complex. And it’s evolving faster than ever before. From showrooms to staffing, from succession planning to increasing manufacturer expectations, reps are being asked to do more than ever.

Listen to Episode 180

In this episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Ed Eisaman, Principal of Eisaman Contract, to talk about what it really takes to stay relevant, competitive, and valuable in today’s environment.

Ed represents a third-generation rep firm with showrooms in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Manhattan. With decades of experience and a clear point of view on where the industry is headed, he’s not just talking about the future of the rep model. He’s actively building it. And his perspective might challenge how many of us think about the role of independent reps and the level of investment required to succeed.

The independent rep has always played a c...