The Thursday Show: Ethan Allen's corporate drama. Plus: Christine Gachot and the art of the perfect gift

20:07Fred Nicolaus:Yeah, it's funny. I feel like it's been a while since anyone said anything positive about estate sales, which is kind of weird in our world. I feel like the dynamic that they're talking about in these two excellent articles is just influencers are starting to come to estate sales or not starting to. They've been coming to estate sales and making a lot more content. And there's also been this rise of the professional reseller. Certainly that happened a lot during COVID. And so estate sales have become swarmed by people who drive up prices because they're competing with each other. They get in line earlier, and they're not just there to buy an old lamp.

20:41Fred Nicolaus:They're there to make content. And so that's a very different experience when there's like 10 people in estate sales filming themselves with a GoPro than it used to be when it was maybe a little more naive and people were just selling to deal hunters and local antiques enthusiasts. So it really has changed the game. It's sent prices up. It's made the actual experience of going there maybe more unpleasant for the average estate sale shopper. All of this seems kind of maybe negative is the wrong word, but it seems like, oh, this is bad. Estate sales are kind of ruined. But I don't know. I feel like there's sort of a silver lining here to all this estate sale drama.

21:17Well, I mean, there is, right? So we see all of this user generated content today. UGC. Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of what we're seeing is people who are very savvy estate sale shoppers, and they're sharing their experiences. And they're also sharing things that you can go and be on the lookout for and maybe build a business around. There seems to be an entrepreneurial wave coming out of all of this and changing this market in perhaps a positive way for the people that are finding success in creating these businesses.

21:56Fred Nicolaus:Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. Sort of two threads to pull on there. I mean, one is that like a lot of the appeal of estate sale content on TikTok and Instagram is about design, right? You know, it's about it's not just I found this on the ground and it's actually worth a thousand dollars. I went to this beautiful, interesting home and look at that. And that becomes sort of the background for the financial part of it. One of the more successful TikToks or Reels that was pointed out in one of these articles was this famous sort of all pink bedroom in LA that became a darling of TikTok. And that's a design moment.

22:28Fred Nicolaus:So this is people getting into design. And so even if estate sales themselves have kind of become a cluster F, I think that people are appreciating these things online, which makes them appreciate design, which maybe trickles down to our world. And then, as you said, it has created this whole new class of entrepreneur, this professional reseller. And while the rest of us can kind of grumble about how they send prices up, and I think that's fair enough, it is kind of cool that there's this, I don't know, maybe a new job is the wrong word, but there is this interesting hustle out there. And maybe we should have some of these people on the show to talk about what it's like being a reseller because it's really very different than it was even five years ago.

23:02It is. And there's so much opportunity and we're seeing a repricing and a restructuring and a reorganization around all of this. And things that had gone out of fashion are suddenly back in in a meaningful way. And the whole resale market in general just has a very new energy to it. You and I were talking about Facebook Marketplace before we came on there. And that comes up in conversation all the time with designers. So it's fascinating to me that there is a renewed interest in resale. And listen, who doesn't love to go and just rummage through someone's home, see how they were living, see what they were holding on to for decades that they're finally getting rid of in a sale?

23:51and it lends itself to so many of the stories that we've been talking about with the baby boomers and whether they're finally going to be moving, as it turns out, into even bigger homes. Who knew? But they've got a lot of stuff and you go and you get to see it and maybe some of it is going to have a renewed appeal and interest. So it's an interesting story from a lot of different perspectives.

24:15Fred Nicolaus:Yeah, who would have thought that Facebook Marketplace would be the place to get like deals? Like, think about think about how absurd that would have sounded even 10 years ago. It's like you want to get a cool antique at a great price. Don't go to this vintage sale in the middle of the country. Go to Facebook Marketplace. It's weird how like, you know, an estate sale you have to wait in line for for four hours is where prices are high. And, you know, an online marketplace run by Mark Zuckerberg is where prices are low. But that's that's where we are now. And it's an interesting world at the very least.

24:45It's interesting. It's definitely a change dynamic. and your point about maybe having some of these people on the show to sort of talk about it might be fun, and we might have to explore that. In the meantime, we've got to talk about color, Fred.

24:58Fred Nicolaus:We do. We do have to talk about color. For The Atlantic, Amog Dimery explored why American consumers are all in on shades of white, beige, and gray, part of a so-called color recession. We've talked about it before. Now we're talking about it again because The Atlantic is weighed in. Are we in a color recession, Dennis? I thought we were coming out of that. That's right. When the Atlantic weighs in, what do you think the message is? When the intellectual heft of the Atlantic weighs in on the color recession, I sort of feel like it's inarguable at that point. This is kind of a sad story for me, the fact that even that some of these colors exist, which we'll get into.

25:37Oh my God.

25:38Fred Nicolaus:The names of these Sherwin Williams colors are just so sad. It's crushed ice, agreeable gray and passive. Who says passive? I hate my home passive, please. But these are all incredibly popular colors for Sherwin Williams, and they continue to be. And this article was an interesting exploration of a phenomenon that I think most people in the industry will be relatively familiar with. But it was interestingly done is, you know, there's a lot of focus on the resale value of your home. That's one big, you know, push that makes people paint their homes gray and beige and all that. And also homeowners associations, apparently, because so many homes were kind of, you know, in a big housing construction boom, a lot of them were built in these developments where there is strong HOA and there's a lot of overt and subtle, you know, enforcement of, I don't want to call it a dress code, but like a color code for a neighborhood.

26:31Fred Nicolaus:And so that's how you end up with a lot of gray, you know, homes. But, you know, I think some of this is just simple, you know, consumer group think. And it's tough. You know, I think we live in an era where there are, you know, if you look at Instagram, it feels like a kaleidoscope. There's all kinds of interesting colors there when people are choosing to share, you know, their lives and, you know, being influencers and creators. But if you look at the actual real world, it is pretty gray out there. You know, it's pretty beige. Yeah. I mean, I think the fact that the color passive is so popular is just such a sad, sad statement about all of this.

27:04But as you say, it turns out there's a real economic connection to it. So still, obviously, all of these realtors are telling homeowners, listen, be safe. If you want your home to sell quickly, if you want you to have a wider audience, you need to neutralize it. And that has been the advice that has been given for for ages. We got all excited thinking that there was a boom for color and thinking that we had seen this big shift in everyone being much more fearless in their choices. But it turns out, perhaps it's, we're kidding ourselves about it, unfortunately. Well, the funny thing was,

27:45Fred Nicolaus:the article pointed out is that actually like having a, you know, yellow colored car or like a navy colored kitchen is not an impediment to re-assault. So on some level, it's actually just people thinking it is. It's less the hard economic data and more people's perception that enforces this. I'm just really curious because we've been through so many color eras in America. You think of the 60s and 70s. Those were relatively long periods of very vibrant colors, maybe too vibrant in some cases. I got to feel like something is going to come along to change all this. I do feel like when you talk to retail furniture people, they say their fall collections in 2027 is going to look a little more colorful, probably not avocado green, but just a little more colorful.

28:27Fred Nicolaus:You know, designers say their clients want more color. I feel like it's bubbling up a little bit. And maybe, you know, maybe the Atlantic in five years will write a very chin stroke-y think piece about, you know, the year that color came back. We may be on the verge. Well, so maybe the Atlantic then is the last article to be written about this. Yes. The bottom is in. The color bottom is in. There you go. That's our call from the Thursday show. The color bottom is in, if not the bottom in the home industry, but at least in color. And hopefully we'll see signs of that at High Point Market very soon.

28:57All right, that's it for the news, but there's plenty more to check out on businessofhome.com, including September's can't-miss design events and a profile of a summer camp for aspiring designers. We'll be back in a minute, but first, a quick break.

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30:18And we're back. I'm joined now by interior designer, columnist, and now author, Christine Gachaud. Christine, oh my goodness, I can't wait to talk about all of this. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you today. I am delighted. And I want to just quickly have you tell people about Gas Show who might not be familiar with your firm and the work that you do and how long you've been at all this. Yeah. Tell us. We are Gas Show. We are an interior design firm based in New York City in Soho. We are about 50 folks on the team these days. I know. It's such a big crowd.

31:02I always say, I've got a really deep bench. And I am partners with my husband, John. And we came together about, it's about 15 years now. And, you know, his background is in super high-end, fancy, residential, and mine's in hospitality and commercial. And so we do everything from hotels and restaurants and super fun bars and Glossier and Shinola and kind of all these things. So it's really studio-based, and everyone kind of works a little bit on everything. and when you have team members that have been here for, I don't know, 15, one's been here for longer than I have and full time. And so you have to make sure people get an experience, different situations and different types of clients and, and some business.

31:59You know, we have a few people here who are a little bit of unicorns, like I am designers, but they enjoy business too. So they get to, you know, work with me on development and business. And we have the marketing PR people. So it's really nice that cross population of ideas that, you know, 50 people is just kind of a sweet spot for us today. Well, tell me a little bit about development and what you focus on and what you do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we're retained often to do the front and discovery of a project. Just my background lends itself to that. We're not very good at staying in our lane at Gashow.

32:39I wish we were, but we're really not those people. That sounds like the secret formula, is that you don't seem to stay in your lane. Yeah, it's the secret sauce a little bit. I certainly, I was just touring a site last week in upstate New York, and I, you know, like rearranged their programming. And I think these people are looking at me like, aren't you the designer? Yes, I am the designer. But I think that fruitful knowledge and background coming from hospitality development at Andre Bellagio's, it was the best 10 years of education that one could ever hope for. coupled with being at Bill Sofield's for 10 years.

33:22It just, it really has been incredibly, incredibly helpful. And John and I are very grateful for those experiences, both of us. Well, so often different periods of time, we feel as though hospitality is driving residential and then it swings the other way, right? And there was this sort of resumersial moment that we went through and thankfully got rid of that word from our vocabulary. I didn't even know that was a thing. And I'm very, I love the gray area. So I didn't even know about that. Well, yes, there was this, there was a moment where everybody thought, oh, we'll get everyone back to the office by making it feel much homeier, right?

34:01And that will make them want to come back and we'll fill the place with snacks and comfy sofas, right? And I'm not sure that really worked out as they had hoped. But I wonder, from your perspective, where we are in that moment right now. I do believe as far as, well, people coming back to work, like we're very studio-based. Does my floral budget get a return on investment of getting people here? No, it does not. But I do believe it promotes the culture of my business. Everyone does flowers on Fridays. They take all the flowers apart, wrap them up, and bring them home to people. We're highly collaborative, although we do have an amount of remote work that's certainly encouraged and allowed at this studio.

34:49But it's a collaboration. Most people actually want to be here. It's shocking to me always. How many people are here? You and I are speaking on a Friday in August, and everybody's here today. And there's a bunch of people in the office. Right, yeah. So it's nice. And then as far as hospitality, wellness, right? Certainly that's just blown up and people are spending so much of their resources on the experience and as opposed to a material item. And that's really, you know, been a conversation for a long time. But I think that hotels that have a history, hotels that have the team, the people that make it very special, that's the magic.

35:34You know, that is really what keeps me interested in coming back time and time again. And then, yeah, I kind of love staying in someone's home. You know, it's like being at your best friend's house, only everyone's kind of catering to you. You don't even have to chip in and do a dish, you know. So I think, you know, I think it's a bit of both. It's a bit of both. Well, and you mentioned wellness, and there's so much talk about how wellness is informing both the hospitality side of the business. And residential. And residential in a huge way. And people seem to want to have wellness centers of various kinds and snow rooms and all sorts of, right?

36:16And recently there was even this conversation around GLP-1s and how much all of that is changing, how people are feeling about their space. And I wonder, what are the changes that are really taking place as a result of this wellness awareness and interest? Yeah, I don't know about the shrinking home per se. although we are New Yorkers, so you get what you get. But fitness and wellness, the way that people are designing home gyms and cold plunge and various activities and saunas. And people have these spas in their homes that I would pay to go to. It's really, really incredible. So that certainly has been out there and continues to evolve.

37:12Exterior activities, ski in, ski out, all of that from my home. Everybody wants that. Everybody wants to be outside. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and again, though I do think that goes back to the idea of experience that people are so interested in, you know, even if it's going to their second or third home, they are fly fishing, they are golfing, you know, they're out there doing things. So it's not just about wellness or fitness, it's about getting outside. It really is. No, no. And I'm so glad. And I'm so glad that this whole sort of experience wave has happened. It was a concern for the home industry in the beginning when everyone was just traveling and suddenly they were less focused on their home, but now they seem to be coming back and they want to bring some of the things that they've experienced.

38:05For sure. Yes. Yes. Everybody, myself included, leaves a hospitality experience and comes back and says, I want to do that in my home. I mean, I have people that travel all over the world and have that privilege and come back from, you know, custom sea towels that are stolen, you know, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. I appreciate you confessing that on the, yeah, I appreciate that. It's, you know, good that everybody knows. I have friends that actually get me stolen sea towels for like holiday gifts. Excellent. Okay. Yeah. From various hotels. Do you find that that's, that's a perfect segue to talk about your book.

38:49Do you find that's a nice gifts, some stolen towels from a lovely... I do. Well, I think it's the thought that counts, right? That's the name of the book. And one person's kind of stolen sea towel from an exclusive hotel or private members club is another person's great bottle of wine or a wonderful vintage book. And so it's really about getting to know what people are interested in and love and things that you know, are, are meaningful. That's the most important thing, right? That they're meaningful. It's not a cost. It's a sentiment really. Well, so you mentioned the thought that counts and, uh, this is, this is your new book that's coming out October 21st.

39:33It's available for presale right now on Amazon. Oh, and look at you with a hot issue in your hand. I know, very excited. Yeah. I'm super excited. I mean, this is such a passion project and never written a book before. I've dabbled and always loved to write, but I've never done anything. I write a column and that's something short and quick, but this took a little bit longer, this project. So it was wonderful. It's incredible. I'm giddy. And why not? And why not? I mean, how exciting. And a book, especially a sizable one like the one you just held up, that's a heavy lift. But I'm curious, and you mentioned the column, And let's talk about that for a moment and have that segue into the book, because it seems like you were eager to write and to share some things with the world.

40:23So tell me what was going on for you and what led to all of this. I was having dinner with Jacqueline Terrebonne, who is the editor of Gallery Magazine, and we're friends. And I was at a dinner that they were hosting in Milan a couple years ago, and we were talking about hospitality. and I was also with Bill and the gallery team and just started talking about it. And they said, wow, you have a really unique perspective on visiting a hotel. And they said, you should write about it. And I said, great, I would love to. So we all got back and months happened and I started the column. And, you know, I thought it'd be a kind of a one thing I would write about a hotel.

41:06And then it was two hotels. And now it's been going on for quite some time now. and it's just such an absolute pleasure. And it's called Design to Travel, but it never is about the design. I mean, really, I rarely talk about the design. I talk about the people and I talk about the experience and I talk about who I've met and what I've had to eat. It's really such a special thing to go and experience a hotel that encourages you to almost get out of your comfort zone a little bit. I always find that so intriguing. So the column, although yes, I do describe a little bit of the design, it's always about the team, the offering, the special little things that they give to you as a gift, really.

41:56But even if it's just a few days, you can get so much value added to your life. I truly believe that about that experience and travel. Well, exactly. Exactly. And you come back often with so many things that you want to incorporate into your life moving forward, right? Or little habits or things that you experienced or some level of service that was provided to you that you want to add into your daily life. And as you say, it seems that gift giving was something that you were already very thoughtful about. And so it seems to have been a natural progression to lead to the thought that counts and the book.

42:39So tell me about that progression. You know, I was raised by somebody that was extremely thoughtful. I really was raised by a very thoughtful mother, grandmother, and they were wonderful at giving the gift of encouragement and giving the gift of freedom. And that just always really followed through my life. I believe in the written letter. I believe in writing a thank you note. I always talk about that when my grandparents passed away, my mother handed me this box and said, you know, you're thinking, what's in there? Or who? You know, oh my, oh my God. Like, what's happening right now? And it was every letter or note that I'd ever written them since I was a child.

43:30So, you know, I was always encouraged just that being thoughtful to others, whether it's, you know, a small compliment along the way to someone you might not know that well who, you know, it looks like you're having a bad day and, wow, your shoes are great, you know, or little things just to make people perk them up. And I really refer to it as the lift. Like I believe in the lift. I believe in lifting up others, friends, community, people I don't know, and encouragement and encouraging others. And the gift giving, the book came about, I think I'm a good gift giver. I will admit, I believe it is a superpower.

44:13My friends say it is. I enjoy it tremendously. I practice it. I find things that I might not know exactly who they're going to, but that I feel like they will be appropriate because I find them special or unique at the time to then gift to someone that I care about. Or maybe someone I don't even know that well, but I owe them gratitude in some way or thank you. So it's much more. There's a lot more depth there than sending somebody flowers. although it's probably one of the biggest joys of my life to receive. Well, and so I'm so glad that you mentioned that because so we're often told, especially by the Parisians, I gather, that we shouldn't be showing up for dinner with flowers or we shouldn't be showing up with a bottle of wine, right?

45:05Because Sacre Bleu, of course we have the wine planned. 100%. And we don't need to run and find a vase and go to all that trouble, right? I write about that in my book. I don't think you should show up with flowers. I don't think you should show up from wine to a dinner party. I'm really about either the pregame gift going into it. I often will send something either two weeks before to somebody at a dinner party to say, it's kind of like the Julia Roberts, like, before I forget, let me thank you. I had a wonderful time tonight moment. or I wait until I give a host gift that's something that they can, you know, kind of use a day after package, you know, eye patches, some casual joggers for a very good friend and, you know, all of those things.

45:57So no, I tend to show up empty handed. I am that person, but rest assured it's either before or after that something has been given. And I don't think there's a time limit on a gift or a thank you note. I never find that there is a time limit on being generous. I just don't, you know, and it doesn't, you don't always have to be generous in that moment. Well, and it's interesting because many designers struggle with a way to sort of keep the relationship going with their clients and can they come up with sort of appropriate gifts or presents to sort of stay top of mind or all of that, right? I mean.

46:37Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do, I mean, as a studio in gift giving, we do these kind of community drops, and that started very early on. Tell me about that. Oh, God, even when we had no money, we would do it like candy, bonbon boxes from Halloween that we do custom that John draws. Back in the day, it was economy candy. You know, we couldn't stretch the – we would go to economy candy, fill up bags, and drop them off. I make pool floats for absolutely no good reason. I mean, people – Yes, I saw the pool float post. And I was like, that's so fun. Why do you make these pool floats? It's like you would live in New York City, but they're just fun things to connect people, to just, you know, have a good time with it all, kind of almost make light of it and not take it so seriously.

47:33Just have fun with it. You know, if everybody did that, it would be wonderful. One of the things we haven't yet talked about that I'm eager to learn more about, I've seen images but haven't seen in person. So in Milan with Artemis, you launched this furniture collection, and we got to chat about it a little bit, but I want to hear about it. Yeah, it's, well, complete bucket list for John, certainly. And so he and I had a lot of material to work from. We are designers. We are a real company, I promise. But we are designers. And so we've been doing this for a very long time. And when I first met John, I met him.

48:19I was the receptionist at Bill Sofields. And he came in and sheepishly handed me this little notebook. And it was furniture drawings. And so he's always really been an industrial designer, a furniture designer at heart, I believe. And so this was just a natural progression. And we met the folks at Artemis. We had done an event with them at Salone. and we all kind of got along. It just seemed like a natural thing to do. And probably the best moment of my life was India Madabi came to see the collection. And of course, I'm like fainting now. And so she sat for a while with me and she was very complimentary.

49:02And she said, look, it's, you know, it's American Liag. Like you've done something here. And I was like, whoa. And, you know, I've known Christian. I knew him when back in the day, of course, the Mercer and Andre. And, you know, it's just like, okay, this is good. Alberta Ferretti came. That was another good one. It was in her, in her atelier. I mean, they were just some David Rockwell was a big supporter. My gosh, he's such a, he's such talk about a gentleman who recognizes other designers and steps in for them and, you know, is there to support. It was really great. It was really, really wonderful.

49:41I'd say the experience was as good as the furniture. Well, it's fantastic. I mean, the American liege, I mean, that's pretty amazing, right? Oh, please, God. Please. Yeah. I literally was like, I'm retiring. Exactly. Hang it up. Never design another thing. We're done. Thank you. Yeah. No, exactly. Well, and the point that you raised, and it's interesting, Christine, because so many furniture people say this to me. You know, they say all these designers say, oh, I want to do a furniture line. I want to do a furniture line. Don't show up to say you want to do a furniture line unless you've got notebook after notebook, design after, right?

50:18Drawing after drawing that you've done that just shows that furniture is just something that needs to get out of you somehow, right? And that was John. He had – He really had to get it out. From the first time you met him way back then. From the first time I met him, yeah. And I also think it's a lot of, we all take experience. We all take nods from the past, what we've seen, what we do. It's normal. But this just wasn't a copy clip situation that we wanted to do. I don't even know if we'll do it again. Like, who knows? You know, if we did it, it was wonderful. We're both very proud of it. Are there things that we would change?

50:55Of course, every designer would change something. Um, so it was, it was a very, very special experience that I think, you know, our entire team, we learned so much and, you know, that's a gift, right? Wrote this book, learned so much this year. John and I did the collection. We learned so much this year. So I would say the best gift that we've received in this past year have been learning experiences. Often when I have, I talk about mentoring and I talk to young people, younger, you know, I do something even at the high school level on occasion. And they'll say, well, what would you say that you should learn if you want to be a designer?

51:39Like, what am I doing? Am I looking at images? I'm like, no, learn math. And everyone's like, learn math? It's like they don't want to hear it. You know, they're creative souls and spirits. And, you know, everything's about math. It really does come down to that. And I talk a lot, as you know, about learning to run a business because, you know, often, so often people think that this is such a, you know, creatively glamorous lifestyle and all that. And you're like, it's a business. At the end of the day, being a designer is also about having a good sense of business and how to run a project and being a part of a team and what your role is and understanding that and understanding where you will get to the next role if you wish to, or maybe not.

52:27You like what you're doing. So I often encourage people, math and business, I think, are the pillars of design. It's so boring. So, yeah, there's that. Well, I'm so glad that you mentioned that because we talk so – I mean, this is the business of home, and we talk so often about the business side of design. And to your point, it's a choice. Not everyone has to run their own firm, right? Not everyone has to take all that on. But if you have some of those skills, if you have a comfort level with math and just a business mindset, which you came up in the industry acquiring and turned out to be invaluable today to everything that you do.

53:14Yeah, invaluable. And I always also encourage people get different experiences. You know, design is not limited. It's limitless. You can go into, I have somebody who is the director of operations here. He's a very well-trained architect. It's just not what he wanted to do anymore. So he runs the company. You have people that are writers for magazines, editors. Their backgrounds are in architecture and art. And so you really have, you can go into hospitality. You can do all kinds of things with that skill set. It doesn't limit you to picking the fabric. It really doesn't. Well, and we're in a time right now, AI and technology is making many people feel uncertain about their future.

54:10And everyone is grasping for, oh, what are the skill sets that I should be acquiring? And what should I be leaning into? And I think it's a, in design, that particular skill set, that training can prepare and equip you for so many opportunities in the future. Yeah, I agree with that. And I also, I think that people need to, I always have the philosophy of, you know, don't, I'm not very intimidated. I, you know, I've always kind of known my self-worth and I enjoy being with people who are better than me and more creative and smarter and younger. And, you know, even when I was at Andre's, like I was never really threatened about someone taking my post or my position.

54:59It was more, you know, just, or at Bill's for that matter. It's always just been like, I know what I'm doing, so I'm not intimidated by AI. I know my worth and I know my team's worth with that. And I think that having good basic skill sets, like one would at anything that they are setting out to do, even a doctor goes to undergraduate college and just learns the basics, like learn the basics always on everything. You just said something earlier that jumps out to me. You said you're confident about your self-worth and you learned that somewhere along the way. Often that is one of people's greatest struggles is they don't appreciate their self-worth and they're undercharging or they're insecure about sort of putting all of this out there.

55:57How did that come to you? so many wonderful people supporting me. That's it. Really believing Bill Sofield, gosh, in this industry. I mean, come on, we all know Bill Sofield. You can do this. You can do it. So people helped build you up. People helped instill confidence in you. Oh, yes. The lift, right? That's what we were talking about earlier, the lift. Giving someone the lift, giving someone the support, encouragement that they need to believe in themselves is, look, Again, greatest gift, right? Greatest gift that you can give to anybody. And I think people often do it with their families and their children.

56:34It's really nice to do it for others. And I think that inspiring people, no matter what age you are, everyone could use a little help, a little lift, a little encouragement that they are good. We try to do it here with people. when I see people who I think are really talented. I did it last year with a few folks. I just pulled three people and I'm like, hey, I think you're really the future. I know you're at a more intermediate level, but I want you to know, I think you're doing great stuff. And so I do try out of being a 50-person team that I do try to connect with as many people as I can. And I do try to let people know that I recognize their talents and their hard work and their effort.

57:26And I think that could just, it goes so far and it went so far for me. It really went very far for me in life. I also, you know, I have an incredibly supportive family. You can do this, you can do it, you know? And so it's, it's very encouragement again. What a gift, what a gift. Yeah, I don't know. I love that. I love all of this messaging that you're putting out into the world, Christine. This is an uplifting conversation. I really appreciate it. So the book is The Thought That Counts. It's out October 21st. It's available for pre-order on Amazon right now. Christine, thank you so much for talking with me.

58:05Thank you so much. I'm so thrilled to have this opportunity to talk to you first about the book, one of my favorite people. So thank you very much.

58:19And we're back. We're getting to the end of the show here. But before we go, we'd like to take a second to highlight anything going on in the industry that might have caught our eye. Fred, what caught your eye?

58:27Fred Nicolaus:Bed, Bath & Beyond caught my eye, Dennis. There's a company that's not just sitting still and waiting for the market to turn around. They're not just doing one thing. They're doing a hundred things. And the most recent thing they did was change their corporate identity, sort of following along Facebook, changing its name to Meta. Bed, Bath & Beyond has changed its name to Neighborhood Intelligence. What do you make of that not at all creepy? Just the surveillance state. I mean, it's part and parcel of their desire to become more than just a place where you buy discount toilet paper, but a place where you have all these home services stacked up.

59:03Fred Nicolaus:And this is a place where you go to get your mortgage service and you can hire a plumber on their various sites. So I think they have this idea of being a super app for the home. And it's interesting. And I, you know, can see what they're what they're, you know, aiming at there. But Neighborhood Intelligence just it does sound kind of like your nosy neighbor, you know, commenting on the color of your house. I don't know. Maybe maybe I'll be proven wrong, but it feels like a misfire. Well, it's interesting. I mean, it's a big brand roll up and they've got everything from the container store and lumber liquidators and all these brands.

59:38And and frankly, Bed Bath & Beyond was a pretty well-known name. So I don't know. Interesting. We'll see how it turns out. But that is a story to watch for sure.

59:48Fred Nicolaus:Yeah. And they've also gone. They started out with Bed Bath & Midland. They went to just beyond, which is apparently not quite right. Anyway, what caught your eye this week, Dennis? A couple of things caught my eye. The Philip Jeffries boys were on CBS News and they were given a little tour of the facility. And Philip and Jeffrey and the family are celebrating 50 years in the business. I know they've got a new book coming out, and it's all part of celebrating the history of the company. But it was fun to see them on CBS News. You can go online and watch the clip and the fun story about how they thought every kid had a bunch of wallpaper samples in their garage because there was their dad starting the business that way.

1:00:32It's a great story. It's a fun family story, and I love that the father named the business after his two sons. And so it was fun to see them on the CBS News.

1:00:43Fred Nicolaus:Well, once again, we've scooped CBS Morning News by a good three years. We had the boys on the podcast a long time ago. So, yeah, eat our dust, CBS Morning News. But yeah, but good for them and fun for, I'm sure, a lot more people learned about Philip Jeffries. The other interesting thing that we learned about just before coming on the air is that the ticking tent is coming to high point. A lot of talk about maybe doing a road show, and it seems they're pulling the trigger. They're going to set up a tent at the 313 space, the hot, cool 313 space in High Point. And it's sort of a road show version of the Ticking Tent.

1:01:25So I think they're bringing about 20 different vendors with them. And my conversation with Cristina Juarez before we came on air was they're putting together the final list now. Reach out to her if you're keen to be one of the vendors that wants to go to High Point because she's got a few more slots open. But it'll be fun for the folks coming to High Point to get to see what the Ticking Tent is all about because Ben Reinhardt and Christina Juarez have put together quite a show.

1:01:53Fred Nicolaus:That'll be great. Really fun. Yeah. Another fun thing going on at 313. Good for them and good luck to Christina and Ben for pulling all of that together. We wish them well. All right, that's all the time we have today. Thanks so much for listening. If you want to keep up with the latest news, browse job listings, or take a workshop, visit us online at businessofhome.com. If you want to get in touch with the show, write to us at podcast at businessofhome.com. This episode was produced by Fred Nikolaus and Caroline Burke and edited by Michael Castaneda. I'm Dennis Scully. Have a great weekend, and we'll be back with you on Monday.