The Trend Report - Insights on Office Furniture, Contract Interiors & Workplace Design

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I share a discussion that I had with my Coaches Roundtable. Jonathan Howard, Russell Eubanks, Loubna Zarrou, and I speak about an impactful book that solidifies principles in our industry to create a memorable customer experience. A key point for us to remember is that you don’t have to work in hospitality to create a hospitality-grade experience. The most success...

Send us Fan Mail Content is all around us, and we are consuming it nearly every second of every day. For those of us who don’t know exactly what content is, it is the concept of sharing original thoughts with a call to action to get consumers to take action in your field of expertise.  Creating quality content allows you to leverage your expertise to build trust in your industry and create content...

Send us Fan Mail So much about our growth and development within the industry hinges on the relationships that we build and the mentors that we have. I have had the opportunity to make some wonderful friends within this industry, and the journey that these relationships have provided me is one that I could have never imagined. I share in this solo episode today about some of the meaningful relatio...

Send us Fan Mail The world as we know it has changed so much in the past several years. With the evolution of technology and the curveball of the pandemic, the culture of how our society operates in many industries, including that of commercial interiors, has shifted. And we have to shift with it. In this climate, our industry demands innovation and thinking outside of the box, which I think that...

Send us Fan Mail The age of the independent rep is changing. The role that an independent rep played that we were familiar with up to the year 2015 doesn’t really exist anymore. So what does it look like now, in the wave of a digitalized era? Coming from a background at a tech startup, Kurtis Michela was able to bring a new perspective on how to approach, monitor and track communication, bookkeepi...

Send us Fan Mail Social media and other digital marketing tools play a significant role in the commercial interiors industry. By developing a key strategy to show up for our audience with authentic content on social media, we can interact with our customers and generate engagement for our businesses.  While social media can allow us to show our personality and how we can solve our customers'...

Send us Fan Mail Staying ahead of market trends by educating yourself is key to providing an outstanding customer experience and achieving success in the office interiors industry.  The future of the dealer in the office furniture industry is evolving in the face of how much technology has integrated itself into our lives post-pandemic. While we can leverage technology, we must also become experts...

Send us Fan Mail There is a dirty little secret in the contract interiors industry and it is how much waste our industry contributes to landfills. Over 50% of landfill waste comes from building materials or used furniture from office spaces. 98% of all furniture that is manufactured for contract interiors is destined for a landfill. These are insane statistics that demand a serious shift in our in...

Send us Fan Mail We are spending more time than ever on social media and, as business owners, there is an untapped potential that can be unlocked by promoting your business on social media platforms to bring awareness to you and your brand. I got the opportunity to chat with Jonathan Howard this week specifically about Instagram and how it can be such a useful tool for promoting your business if y...

Send us Fan Mail The pandemic presented the contract interior industry with many challenges as it shifted the way we do business with our clients and end consumers.  I had the opportunity to talk with Amanda Schneider of ThinkLab who hit me with a ton of insight on the best ways our businesses can shift to meet the challenges that we are faced with. By developing personas for our consumers that ar...

Send us Fan Mail When we look at glass manufacturing in commercial business spaces, we often don’t realize the process that happens behind the scenes to bring a beautiful, functional piece of architectural glass into a business or healthcare space. I had an awesome interview with Vipul Bhagat, the COO of Skyline Design glass manufacturing, who shed a fantastic amount of light on an industry that m...

Send us Fan Mail I'm speaking with the Dopamine Dealer of Linked In - Joshua B. Lee who is well seasoned in online advertising. He currently owns Standout Authority which brings human components back to the face of marketing. They specialize in personal branding and success utilizing LinkedIn Despite the fact that LinkedIn has been in use for over 15 years, current data shows that the platfor...

Send us Fan Mail One of the things I love most about having a podcast is the amazing connections I make because of it. I met Matt Spaulding of Spaulding Communications at NeoCon this past year and it was because of this podcast. Listen as he shares his story and why thought leadership is so important to building a brand and business that people trust.  As with most of us, Matt happened into the co...

Send us Fan Mail Before Covid happened, there was a major push toward open-concept, collaborative workspaces that increased teamwork and transparency. The problem then became, what do you do when you’re taking an important phone call and need a private space? Enter Pillar Booth, the leading manufacturer of freestanding phone booths designed to create private areas in open office spaces.  Ryan Leav...

Send us Fan Mail What does it truly mean to build a post-Covid company? Chris Smith of KFI Studios is the perfect person to ask. Listen as he shares how he got into the furniture industry and what he’s done with KFI Studios to prepare for the future despite the uncertain present.  Chris started his career in the medical supplies industry. He was selling medical supplies when an opportunity present...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the show Rob Kirkbride. Rob joins me to chat about NeoCon 2022, Fulton Market, industry trends, and most importantly, the new ventures he has started in the past few months. As usual, Rob and I had an amazing conversation full of fantastic insights you won’t want to miss.  Rob and I both attended NeoCon this year but he got to experience more of the show. What it r...

Send us Fan Mail The office furniture industry desperately needs more e-commerce solutions. We need to break down the lines of competition and start collaborating in a way that benefits not only us and our businesses, but also our customers. Both Kurt and Matt of No Mondays are working to do that with their innovative platform and solution.  Kurt and Matt both entered the office furniture space th...

Send us Fan Mail I cannot believe that we’ve made it to episode 100. In many ways it seems like it has taken forever to reach this point but in others, it was just yesterday that I released that very first episode. Rather than simply share my thoughts on the state of this podcast and the industry, I decided it would be more fun to have Trevor Bloch ask the questions for a change.  Honestly, it has...

Send us Fan Mail The greatest gift you can give to yourself, your family, and your friends is your undivided attention. Being present is harder than ever, but so important. Listen as I share my thoughts about why being present is so important and how your brain actually processes all those tasks you’re working on. Being present is NOT simply being in the room with people around you. It’s not exist...

Send us Fan Mail Data is king. Being able to make better data driven decisions both in purchasing and in design is unbelievably important. Brian Chiou of Hello Raye realized this while purchasing his own office furniture. He soon noticed a gap in the office furniture market and is working to fill it.  Brian has not been in the office furniture space for long, but he’s bringing fresh ideas and eyes...

Send us Fan Mail So often when a company talks about the good deeds they’re doing in the world, the goal is to boost their marketing efforts and expand their bottom line. It’s a gimmick. This is not the case at Special-T. Listen as Brandon Rayburn, the new president of Special-T, shares all about the little table company with a BIG mission.  Early on in his life Brandon found himself traveling dow...

Send us Fan Mail When you’ve spent years in the industry, you get a handle on the ins and outs, good and bad, and figure out how we can make lasting and impactful changes in how we do business. But for many of us in the US, the status quo is perfectly fine. Not so for Jeff Thompson, which is why he’s ecstatic to introduce the US to Schiavello and all the ways they’re breaking the rules.  Jeff, lik...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes those clients who seem like they’re too good to be true, really are just that amazing. When Barbara and Anthony Brandt, a mom and son team, came to Bill Grant to help them build a new brand, he didn’t think they were real.  Together they were able to build and launch an entirely new brand all while exclusively using Zoom to communicate. They believe in creating real, han...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the Trevor Report. This is the final installment of this podcast takeover and I hope you’ve taken away some fantastic insights about the next generation of the industry from our second, third, and fourth generation converts.  This week Trevor is chatting with Justin Wendholt, owner and president of Stemle. Not only is he sharing how he came to acquire Stemle, he’s...

Send us Fan Mail Trevor continues his takeover with a discussion about the sales and dealer community. Will Dvorak is a second generation industry employee who is making waves in his niche. Listen as he shares his thoughts and insights on the industry as a whole and how we can attract new blood.  Will’s family owns Workscapes, but knew that it would be better for him to experience the industry out...