SPEAKERS

Sid Meadows, Host of The Trend Report

Alexandra Tseffos

 

 

Teaser

Alexandra Tseffos: It's gonna really mean that designers have to partake in that communication piece in the meeting and showcase their skills. And I love that idea because they have so much knowledge to be able to harness and those personal interactions but said, you and I both know that isn't something that we focused on. In training holistically as a part of our industry. We've really divided and been like, hey, salespeople, you focus on communication skills, designers, you focus on technical, and I think we're gonna start to see more of that convergence.

 

 

Intro

Sid: Hey, friends, and welcome to the Trend Report podcast, where we have real conversations with real people about all things contract interiors. My name is Sid Meadows, and I'm your host. I'm a Business Strategist and Certified Professional Coach, and a longtime student of the office furniture industry. And I'm excited that you're joining us today. And my hope is that you will gain some insights, inspiration and motivation that will help you grow and your business growth. So let's dive into today's conversation. 

 

Sid: Hey, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of The Trend Report. I'm glad you're joining me today for another returning guest. I'm excited to welcome Alexandra Tseffos back to the podcast. Hey, Alexandra, how are you?

 

Alexandra: I'm good Sid, how are you?

 

Sid: Oh, I'm doing great. Thank you very much. I was listening to our previous conversation earlier. And it's so great to have you back. You were on literally two years ago and 2021, episode 67. And now here literally almost two years later for a month from when this will actually publish. Now your episode 123. So I'm excited to hear all that you've been up to?

Alexandra: Well, you too. I mean, that's a lot of progress in two years. And I was thinking about that as well. I think it was just as hot out the last time..

 

Sid: It was you know, August. That's correct. August when we did it. So. So Alexandra, for those people that maybe don't know you or haven't listened to Episode 67. And by the way, we will drop that down on the show notes for anybody that would like to go back and listen to it. Please take a moment and introduce yourself to our community again.

 

Alexandra: All right. So the fast introduction said because someone can go and listen to the long one. I have been a dealer designer, that was where I started my career worked for Configura as a training and sales person, that position now is more for them. And through that training position, I really realized that I wanted to go back to a dealership, worked in business development. I've also worked as a tenant rep business development person and at CBRE. And throughout all of those experiences, I realized I just love this industry. 

 

 I want to be working in the industry that I love that I'm so passionate about. And for me it's really about furniture and technology. And where do they merge?  And so five years ago, I started my consulting practice on how we focus on technology that dealers and specifically designers utilize every day and create best practices around those themes. And so I did that. But in 2021, it was this big deal for me. How do we make that affordable? And how do we make that a bit more tangible for everybody? Because my schedule was packed. I had a lot of requests from people saying we're still working from home. How do we work with you? How do we record that content? And you and I both know, not many people are watching recorded webinars that are over an hour long. 

 

So that was when I launched TheDesignPOP.com.  And that is really trying to figure out how do we create three different segments: number one, searchable content for people that need it when they need assistance? Because sometimes that coworker isn't sitting next to you anymore. So how do you just say, hey, I want to search for part tagging that relates to CTE and have a five minute clip about it, we do that. We also stimulate a designer book club type of engagements through our short personal professional development content. And also now you know what's really new since last time you and I talked is that now we have courses.  So now we offer CTE beginner, intermediate and advanced courses. We also offer Spec previously project spec as a course. And all of it is included in one subscription. So people don't have to come on and say I just want that course, it's not a la carte. It's here, you get everything. 

 

Sid: Sure. 

 

Alexandra: And of course we have a podcast right. So now, I guess we can add that to my resume if I'm an official podcaster now and it's not something I thought I was going to do at age 18 or even a year ago, but here we are. 

 

Sid: But we're going to talk about that too. So one of my questions was going to be to give us an update on The Design POP because you've been growing in two years. When you were here we talked about how it was just a few months old. And you launched with 35 videos, if I recall correctly. And then by the time we record the episode, you'd gotten up to 165 videos and I love how you just described the three things that you're doing. So searchable content, the videos professional development courses And then of course, the podcast. So where are you now? Give us an update, because you just brought on the first manufacturer the last time we were together. So tell us what's happening at The Design POP.

 

Alexandra: Yeah, so now we're at I mean, it changes all the time, I want to say we're just under 500 searchable videos. And so that includes technology that includes personal professional development. And so we're expanding on that front. I've just talked about a lot of, you know, the Configure based courses that we offer, we also now have a partnership with SYNC Lee previously 2020. Because they, you know, really, there's a lot of people out there that are utilizing CET to worksheet. And so we realized that we had to focus more on that. So while we don't have courses yet, on that front, we are partnering with new and different technology companies as well. I've worked with Kimiko Designs to create a course on Bluebeam. So we do have a

 

Sid: Hold up hold up. I know who Kimiko design is? She just published a book, I believe,

 

Alexandra: Can You Go Green? Yeah. 

 

Sid: And then you just said that you're doing something with her on something I've not heard of. So say the name of that, again, it tells what it is.

 

Alexandra: Bluebeam is what it's called. And it's really you know, a lot of dealers are using that technology as a way to mark up plans, even things like just rearrange pages, or as a PDF editor more or less. Well, a lot of times Bluebeam is also packaged in with other subscriptions, technology subscriptions that people already have. So it's a great thing to be harnessing and utilizing. It's almost a replacement for Adobe PDF. 

 

Sid: Okay. 

 

Alexandra: And they know how dealerships are using it. They're using it internally. And so I tapped Kimiko on that. And that's where we've really started to look at who can we utilize, who's the best, I'm not going to be able to personally train everybody on everything. 

 

Sid: Sure. 

 

Alexandra: And that's something that's a realization I've had to come to the last two years is that it's not just one platform that dealerships are using, there are multiple out there. And I personally don't want to train on it unless I've also used it in the field. So for me, CET, and Spec are so logical, because I've utilized those in the fields. But if I haven't used some of these other ones, I want to find people who are the best to be talking about them and to be talking about their level of utilization.  And so that's been a big part of growth, both and you know, introspection on my part, too. I've had people say, Hey, can you train me on XYZ? I'm like, can I physically learn that system? Yes. But I'm a firm believer that just because you can doesn't mean you always should. So hyper focusing time and experts is really important.  

 

On the manufacturer side, you mentioned that we just launched our first manufacturer, which was OFS. We now have AIS and GSI content on The Design POP, and what shouldn't? Yeah, it's, it's very exciting to me. And I guess you know, if I could say anything to anyone, I think we need to think a little bit more about how training is handled for open lines.  Aligned manufacturers have a lot of time training courses or plans that are worked out. But as it relates to the open line manufacturers, one of the struggles I find is this. We have for years crammed a training down the throats of every dealer. I know that's new, it's like, okay, great. So we're going to train you on CET, we're also going to train you on your line to manufacture. And while you're at it, let's just add in a whole bunch of other coursework for open line manufacturing. And yeah, like, Here you go. 

 

But here's my thing. If you don't utilize that knowledge every single day, you can't retain it, it's not physically possible. So instead, if we have it out there, and it's searchable by product type, and by product name, and we go, hey, I want a spec, let's say it's an OFS you know, Kintra product, you can search for Kintra You find that video and you're able to go through then and watch it and five minutes later put that learning into action, chances are you might retain it or you know that you can come back to it as you need to in a week or in a month or whatever that time span is. So

 

Sid: Let me ask you this to clarify the question.. 

 

Alexandra: Yeah. 

 

Sid: So OFS creates their own training on their products, and then you collaborate with them. And that training is inside of your platform that The Design POP so that the dealer designer can search for it there as well. So they're getting it potentially in two different locations.

 

Alexandra: Absolutely. And that's just like, you know, some open line, well, I should just say, in general, some manufacturers have learning management systems, or they're publishing their videos, you know, elsewhere. And that's why in that 500 approximate video count that I have, I never include manufacturer content in that number. Because, you know, you can maybe maybe find it in multiple places, or you're finding it just Design POP But I like that it is in the one place. So that way if we have somebody who's going through like let's say CET beginner training, and all of a sudden that dealership was like hey, we'd have a really quick budget on XYZ product. Can you specify whatever they can do from their beginner training, click on the manufacturer, go straight to it, find it and maybe on like day five of the job, they can be somewhat productive versus having to wait for that training module until they finish a previous one.

 

Sid: Sure, Yeah, no, I'm a big fan of this, and especially the searchable content, we talked about that in the last episode and the power of finding the right content at the right time. But I love that the manufacturers are coming in and giving you their content as well, because it is important, I think, to be that one stop shop that you're becoming for training, and the fact that you've got 500 videos that you and or your other collaborators have created. That's a lot of videos,

 

Alexandra: It's a lot of videos and, and right now, I feel like I'm in that, you know, it's almost like this honor and privilege. It's also a little bit of a pain, but I have to go back now and go through and check my tags and make sure that we are keeping everything as up to date as humanly possible. And that's something that I only dreamed of, you know, two and a half years ago, when we launched was like, Okay, if this thing takes off, we have to think about maintenance. And so that's the phase that I'm entering into now is making sure those 500 videos are still as relevant. And is, is ever changing world relevance is like the number one thing.  So I'm looking into that. I also feel that one of the greatest opportunities of growth is this collaboration with other manufacturers, for the benefit of the designers that are living in this world of specification where they're specifying more products than ever before, we're adding even more into their expected knowledge set, and really without realizing it. And so we need to be able to better support them.

 

Sid: So you're focused so much on technology, nothing, which is great, because if there's one thing that we know, technology changes, like Blink your eyes and technology is changing and advancing, how are you keeping up with all of the new technologies that are coming out there that are seem to be targeting our industry to some degree? Because there's this one, and then there's that one? So how are you keeping up with it?

 

Alexandra: So that's what's been really fun about this. And I think that the podcast has helped it as well as that now. It's very fun that I have people who are emerging in technology coming to me and saying, like, Hey, I just wanna show you what we're working on. You know, I want you to take a peek at this, give us your thoughts. So I am aware of a lot that's emerging. But I'm also feeling like, while I'm keeping an eye on that, we still need to focus on what the core center of whatever one is doing. right this second is, and that still remains with some of the more I don't want to use the word legacy because it seems like it's negative, that's not negative. You know, because even our legacy technologies are evolving very, very rapidly, too.  

 

But I still think that there's so much about the design process that is staying the same, but it is that upfront 20% that I'm seeing as the most evolving on a daily basis, right. So we have that kind of a design shortage. And I don't want to again, I mean, that sounds really doom and gloom. But it feels to me like in the last three years, there's been so many designers who either want to work from home and can't work from home, or we have people who are just leaving the industry because they're stressed, they need to change. They think maybe the grass is greener, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm not here to say one way or another. But every single week, I'm getting phone calls of, hey, I think I'm going to leave or is there something that I can do better? Or what can my company do better? What can we as a company do better on behalf of our designers?  

 

And these are just these perpetual themes that haunt me a bit Sid and make me worried because I feel like every time that we leave a gap in employment, it will be filled by technology. And so a lot of these emerging technologies are trying to fill these gaps. And some of the gaps that logically are existing right now are that we don't have the design capacity to always send a designer on an upfront meeting, which is then stressing at the salesperson because they have to know even more than ever before as well. So I'm finding that that's where that 20% of the upfront typical design work is kind of being pushed into some of these emerging technologies of how do we better support that design and sales process on the front end, knowing that we still have designers on the back end that maybe can handle the technical but what in my mind, what are we giving up in the process? Right.

 

Sid: Such a great question. So let me ask you a couple other things about this as it relates to technology. And then I want to come back to something you just said, but how closely are you following artificial intelligence or AI? And how do you see that potentially impacting technologies that our industry is using? Is it going to help and isn't gonna hurt? I would love your thoughts about AI.

 

Alexandra: I've been following it for a while. I don't feel like it's new. And that's what I think that's very stressful to me right now is that everyone's acting like this is a brand new theme, and very few are knowing how to utilize it. And I can't say that I have all the answers that are right, it's changing very quickly. I think I heard some sort of an estimate, like, every 30 days 1000 new AI platforms are being released. 

 

Sid: Whoa, that's a lot.

 

Alexandra: It's something massive and I mean, don't for anyone listening don't quote me on that. 100% But I'm pretty sure that's a statistic that came out and that was in my inbox about a month and a half ago. What worries me is that so many people are just thinking, Oh, that's the future. Oh, that's not for me. Therefore, they're not trying to figure out how it fits into their daily life. And I find that many of my customers are just kind of ignoring it. And when I say, you know, because that could be dealers, it could be, could be manufacturers, it could be anybody, but it just feels like there is this gap of like, okay, it's the future, it's not happening.  I mean, I just used it actually this last week to write a training course. And it gave me this 10,000 foot level of what a training course could be. And of course, then I had to utilize my brain to come in and be like, this isn't relevant, this is relevant. But that outline used to take me, I don't know, three weeks to put together. And now that I have kind of a shell that I can plug and play with and make it my own and make it feel like it's mine. You know, that's really powerful, because now it is taking an hour.

 

Sid: So a couple of weeks ago, I had two of my friends, fellow podcasters, but also really, really into artificial intelligence. We did a two part series about AI and business. I literally left that conversation amazed at what was possible with artificial intelligence and helping to not replace people but be more efficient, more effective, and that they get things done faster and easier than maybe we had done in the past. So I haven't, I haven't played around with a good job.

 

Alexandra: Its' awesome, cut that part out, it's really good, actually.  Yeah, I, I would say that I've used ChatGPT a couple of times, like I actually had a customer that wanted, actually I was doing a presentation. And we wanted to survey people before the presentation was given. And we actually use ChatGPT to find kind of like the median results so that people could then write in more of a short answer versus just saying, here, you here's your prescriptive, like, you know, five or six things that you normally get in a survey, and it was really beneficial for that. So I've used it in that sense, too.  But yeah, I think what worries me more is that people aren't experimenting with it, versus experimenting with it. I do think on the visualization side, you know, we need to keep an eye on it. And that's something I haven't commented on since I've used it. Yeah, we've talked about it now in relation to content creation, that is maybe part of a presentation or as part of you know, a course, but for me, it's a little bit different. Because I feel like as it relates to visualization, that is probably going to be the first thing that we see as an industry be really, really impactful. At least that's the speculation out there.  And for designers, I don't know if that's exciting or not that, you know, I kind of say that on the rendering side, I used to actually quote all the time, like CET will save you X amount of time, here's the challenge, it does save a ton of time, it's a phenomenal platform. But when CET came around, whatever it was 15 years ago, 17 years ago, in the US, it also though added more on a designer's under their plate, because before that, it was like, Hey, we're gonna outsource rendering, or you're gonna handle you know, hand render really color things in whatever that looks like. And then it allowed them to create and me to create these amazing renderings very, very quickly. 

 

Sid: Sure. 

 

Alexandra: But when some of the AI stuff is going to come in, and if that takes over or assists in part of that, you know, it will free up some of our time, I think, to focus more on the human elements, on being present in meetings and on really being involved. But then that's going to force in my opinion, I hope this happens, it's going to really mean that designers have to partake in that communication piece in the meeting and showcase their skills.  And I love that idea because there's so they have so much knowledge to be able to harness and those personal interactions but said You and I both know that isn't something that we've focused on in training holistically as a part of our industry, we've really divided and been like, hey, salespeople, you focus on communication skills, designers, you focus on technical, and I think we're going to start to see more of that convergence.

 

Sid: So there's a lot to be said about that. And I have a couple of ideas I want to throw out. I may not get to them. But I want to go back to something because the second leg of your stool, if you will, that you talked about was professional development. And, you know, I really discovered professional development in the way that I know it today, after I left my corporate job and really got into it and now I would consider myself a junkie, literally reading listening to podcasts, going to conventions are not trade says but go into, you know, events and things like that, and really working on me as a person to get better. And it's a journey. It's an everyday journey.  And I think that's what people have to understand: professional development does not have an end; you don't cross the finish line. You just keep growing right? Yeah. What made you want to focus on professional development specifically to the interior designers in the dealership world.

 

Alexandra: I mean, that was an idea that I had in 2020 I talked with. I think he's a mutual friend of yours, too, rambling on Yep. And I chatted. And we really started to think more about this, because I had been through some of the courses that he had done when he was at Hayworth as it related to sales. And as an ex designer who was then like transitioning into a sales role, a lot of what he was talking about was really impactful. And so I had a level of trust with him to explore the topic.  And so when he had started consulting business, I made the comment to him that I feel like all I do is train people on, hey, here's how you can execute on, let's say it's live design, or it's whatever you want to call it, right? co creation, whatever we're gonna call these themes. But I can't just technically train someone on those things, without them having a little bit of a base of presentation skills, or knowing how to be utilizing your words or knowing how to utilize your hands. I mean, you can't just cross your hands in front of you, and give a design presentation like, Oh, hey, you know, crossroads, I really think you're gonna like this, Sid, you and I both know, it doesn't come off well.  

 

And at the time, I had relied on Strengthsfinder, I remember reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. And she had this line in our book about like, you don't have to be, you have to quit your corporate job and be like a vagabond, you know, to rediscover yourself. But think about how you can harness yourself and look for those clues kind of in the universe that and so not to get super ethereal. But it was some of that reading that really got me thinking about my own personal development and the fact that I was seeking it, and I felt like others aren't gonna go on that journey, unless they're really outside their comfort zone. And without them making a major life change. And for many people, that's scary. 

 

How do we bring these ideas to them to maybe spark an interest to And so it was some of those things that just really got my brain spinning, as well as when I became a consultant. It was something I finally had to focus on, you know, I had had training like with Rob, you know, at Haworth, and then in different places, thanks to Fluid Interiors and other employers that I had. But I remember reading, I had like, kind of a repertoire of books that I read. And it was on my own self discovery of okay, how do I just figure out who I am and where I can go and what my superpowers are. 

 

Sid: So it's so important to understand the areas you need to grow in, and I honestly feel like they show up every day, like things happen in your, in your life, you're like, Man, I wish I would have made a better decision on how I responded to or what I said or in. So for me, when that happens to me, I go on a quest to learn more to listen to something about that topic, or find a book about that topic, and then engross myself in that until I feel like I've made the necessary forward progress so that whatever happened before, doesn't repeat itself.  And the thing I will say about this is I wish I had really, really discovered this 10 years before I actually did, because not that it was too late because it's never too late. But now I love it so much. And I realized that I am literally even still today a piece of clay that's being molded to the best version of myself. And if I can be 1% Better Tomorrow, than I am today, that I'm doing exactly what I need to do to continue my growth. So I love that you're doing

 

Alexandra: Yeah, and I, I feel like I'm the worst ever, because I start a million books at once. I don't know if you do this, but because I'm kind of on that quest all the time, too. And I tend to have a lot of energy, sometimes I will just flip through and read something and like, that's super impactful. And I set it down. And I come back to it.  So I've started doing this weird thing where I read books the same time that I listened to them on Audible, because sometimes I pick up different things. So there might be days where I'm literally brushing my teeth listening to one book, and then I pick up another book that's behind me, you know, like 30 minutes later. And I kind of pick and choose a little bit, chapter to chapter. And I mean, maybe I had somebody recently say, Are you undiagnosed ADHD? And I was like, Yeah, I probably.

 

Sid: Okay, so I'm laughing and smiling. If you're watching on YouTube, you see me kind of laughing and smiling at this because Alexandra, I do exactly the same thing.  I listen and I read the book, at the same time I make notes in the margin, the book was really, really, really good. I will actually go and either write about it, or I'll go and find a summary of the book and I'll print the summary and put it with it as well.

 

Alexandra: Okay, good. Yeah, I actually do that too. And a lot of times, it's just because I start to fester on certain themes. And after a while I'm like was that even like the theme of the book? Like I don't know, like, I remember reading recently about the importance of decision making. And, you know, I started to really dwell on this whole theme of how do you avoid revisions? How do you avoid it since in our industry that's so impactful? It was like how did you avoid those things? So I started to fester in this one chapter.  I've literally reread this one chapter like four or five times and I haven't even gotten beyond it. And now I love that but I literally started to Google like free cliffnotes of the book only because Sid I wanted to see like, well okay, what did other people take from this? Am I the only one who stuck on this chapter

 

Sid: It's so good. So I have another question about that, but I want move on just a little bit. And I want to take a moment and welcome you to the world of podcasting and congratulate you for stepping out into this adventure of podcasting. So, I want to talk about it. And first I want to know is what made you decide to take this step? What was the thing that said, because you mentioned it earlier? Like, don't do it now never gonna do it? What was the one thing that said, Hey, I gotta go do this.

 

Alexandra: So it wasn't intentional. I'm just gonna put that out there. This was like, again, not my intention. I did not see this necessarily in my future. Obviously, I am an expressive personality in general. So I don't know why I didn't envision this for myself. But honestly, Doug Shapiro, and I did a podcast about a year ago. And it was really fun, just very conversational. And I had him and the Imagine A Place team call me and say, Hey, would you consider this and it was a few months later, and I don't know Sid again, like, I'm gonna go into this ethereal place.  But I just feel like sometimes you have to say yes. And it terrified me. I think I had this whole thought that I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. And actually, what was even crazier is they had said to me, we want you to see if you can do a solo episode to kick this off. Because we think you can carry it for just 15 minutes.  It was weird in episode one. I want to say it's like 35 ish minutes. I don't know, off the top of my head. But I recorded like 90% of it in one take. And at that point, I was like, Okay, I guess maybe I do need to express some of this part of it, or whatever.

 

Sid: So first off, the name of the podcast is called The Design POP. And it is an Imagine A Place production, which is with OFS. She mentioned Doug Shapiro, for those of you that don't know, Doug, he hosts a podcast called Imagine A Place. It's a great podcast. And now they built out a network of podcasts and Alexandra's is part of that. So just for a little clarification, for those of you that don't know, all those people in there, but when you told me you were doing it, I was so excited. I saw it. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be epic. And I listened to the first episode twice.  Oh, and I actually posted about it on LinkedIn. It was absolutely spot on. Amazing. I love everything about it. I love the story that you shared, because so much of what we do as a podcaster is storytelling. And you had me captured like I was there. I was listening. I was like wanting to know all I'm not going to spill the beans on it. We'll drop a link to the podcast down in the show notes. But yeah, congratulations. Because doing a solo episode is really hard. People understand how hard it is.

 

Alexandra: Did you really? It's hard. It's funny, because I didn't realize so I knew it was gonna be hard. But I did it. And I had kind of I'm not somebody who can script I really wish like now i Listen Why listen other people's podcasts, I'm sure you do the same thing. I'm like, Yeah, I think they probably read a script. But they did it really well, by the way, but they read this script, and they wrote it and still their story. And so I don't want to take away from that.  Anytime that you're sharing a story and self expressing it's scary, and it's hard. But for me to just kind of have this outline. And ad lib was a challenge. And I didn't know it was a challenge. Until then I started to release interviews. And then I was like, Boy, these interviews are actually kind of easy, because you can ask a question, you don't know what you're gonna get yesterday, jive with that. But as far as editing them and everything else, it felt like it was a simpler process than doing a solo.  So, but I liked the idea of challenging myself, because sometimes you don't know, you don't know how hard something is or how easy it's going to be going forward unless you just throw yourself into the deep end. And that was going to be a very sink or swim thing. And so I'm very thankful because Imagine a Place listened to it. And they were like, yes, we think this is actually good, where, you know, they did a great job of saying give me critical feedback. You guys like to tell me if this stinks, tell me like, Let's redo the whole thing. And I have been really a great collaborator for me working with them, because they are very honest with me. And that's something that fuels me if I feel like something isn't authentic, I just can't put my time and energy into it.

 

Sid: So tell us what the podcast is about and the first episode is about you and a little bit about your journey, which is always great to set up where the listeners get to know you a little bit. So what's the show actually about?

 

Alexandra: Yeah, it's not. I hope it's not about me saying it's really in my mind bringing a voice to dealer designers, because I feel like they are this very underserved community of many people who don't know how the work gets done.  And I think about simple things. Like, I remember being in the sales seat and having somebody say, hey, so you can get this back to me tomorrow, right? And it's my job to set that expectation of tomorrow? Or is it next week when in reality, we know it does take a lot of time to actually get an exact specification. And trying to explain that to people outside of our world is so hard. And it also tends to eliminate that voice of the dealer designer for not sitting in that meeting explaining how hard it actually is.  

 

So I wanted to make sure that we're bringing awareness to the position and provide a voice. One of my challenges has been, many designers don't want to share, because they're scared, because they don't want their boss to know it was them. Or they feel like maybe they are alone. And so to me, this goal of the podcast is evolving to the point where you may hear my voice, and maybe I'm quoting someone else's story. Or maybe I'm reading an email that I got from someone trying to give back that voice and to show that they are not alone.  A lot of these problems are actually things that are not problems, I would say challenges are things that the industry deals with. Sure, but I hope I'm doing it effectively every time. And that's where I'm also realizing it is taking literally a community of people to help support the podcast, it can't just be me, even though it is maybe my voice you're hearing.

 

Sid: So you did that very, very well, on a couple of episodes, the episodes about stress, I believe you read comments on and you've said very clearly this person asked not to be revealed, as I think it was that those episodes because I've listened to all of them, right? And you did a great job with it, like, you pose their question or their statement.  And without revealing who they were, or without revealing where they work or anything that could get people guessing, like who it was right. And they responded to it very effectively, I thought so I think it's great to be able to keep that anonymity to that person, but yet helped to move the industry forward by addressing the issue that if that person had it, you got to be guaranteed that another designer at another dealership or another manufacturer has had a very similar issue. And now you're helping collectively solve the problem.

 

Alexandra: That's it Sid. And so that's my goal is how do we raise awareness within these organizations that maybe hopefully, they can help with some of this, or at least maybe the designer now says, Hey, listen to this, you know, to their boss, or to their leadership, or to whomever, so that way, they can bring it up, and it's not their voice, either.  We have the awareness going, hopefully, that means improvement, I hope, also togetherness there, you know, these, these themes of Hey, are we alone, just keep coming up. And so I'm hoping we can create some togetherness throughout the community. And if that's between I don't want to say competitors. But I just, I never really knew who my competitors were, I knew who the salespeople were, because that was the voice of the street. But from designer to designer, sometimes you don't even know. And well, if we can, you know, it's tough. It's a tough landscape that way.

 

Sid: So the listeners have heard me say this. And you've probably heard me say before, but I believe in what I refer to as coopetition. Let's work together, just because we may sell the same product as a manufacturer or similar products, or maybe we're competing with each other as a dealer doesn't matter. There's such a thing as cooperating and working together. coopetition, as I call it, because as you just described, if you help one person solve a problem using your podcast, and someone else hears it, and it solves their problem, or they share with their boss, or maybe they share with their friend, and that problem collectively being solved. Alexandre, a rising tide raises all ships, so your head does try to get better. And so I think that's the lens that we as an industry need to be thinking about helping our industry get better, rather than Oh, they're my competition, I can't do that. 

 

Alexandra: Well and I don't know. I mean, at some point, we, I just believe we can all do better together, right? I remember working as a co-working space in Minneapolis here that I worked out of, for a very long time. And on the wall, it said, we all do better, when we all do better. And it's actually owned by an AMD firm. And so is this very, like a fun space. But I just remember that slogan on the wall, I think about it constantly. Because it is so impactful. And it's something that I think of every day as it relates to design, you know, and as it relates to sales, like when sales that's designed up for success, then everyone jointly succeeds. 

 

Sid: So what you just said was, we all do better when we all do better. Yeah, that's such a powerful quote. And I have a lot more questions that I want to ask you. But I'm not going to because we're out of time. Which means you're gonna have to come back for a third time, be the first guest to come back, for the third time.

 

Alexandra: Listen Sid, I obviously like being thrown to the wolves and being the first so let's do this. 

 

Sid: Well, I think what you're doing is amazing. I love how you're focused on helping a segment in our industry really, do better, be better, grow and improve. But by doing that, you're helping our industry be better and do better.  And I absolutely love that you're doing podcasts as obviously a podcaster myself, I love to see our industry expand with podcasts and more people sharing their voice.  So congratulations, Alexander to you and to sharing your voice and putting it out there and I know it was scary, but you're gonna do great things with it. So well. Thanks that

 

Alexandra: And thanks for all of this collaboration because I feel like this is when people understand you know that. Again, we all do better. We all do better like this right here. This is a prime example.

 

Sid: 100%. So Alexandra, thank you again for being here for sharing your insights, always great to Have you? If our community would like to get in touch with you? What is the best way for them to do that?

 

Alexandra: You know, you can always go to thedesignpop.com click on the Contact Us button. Otherwise, just go to LinkedIn. I am probably the most prevalent on LinkedIn if I'm honest, and I know that sounds like it. I'm an old lady when I say that, because most people are like, hey, hit up my Instagram. Yeah, okay, I'm there wherever you want to find me. But if you want a pretty much immediate answer, go to LinkedIn and ping me because I'd love to hear from you.

 

Sid: Well, thank you again for joining us. And thanks, everybody, for being here today. We appreciate you all listening, and thanks for being the best part of our community. Take care. We'll see you in a few weeks. Thanks for joining me today on this episode of the Trend Report Podcast. I'm glad that you're here. And I hope that you got some amazing value out of today's conversation. For more about our podcast and this episode and our other episodes, please visit my website at Sid meadows.com. We look forward to seeing you next week and go out there and make today great