With a major bedding industry recognition on the horizon, Sean Hathaway, owner of Mattress World Northwest sat down to reflect on his time in retail. While it’s something he never envisioned getting into, Hathaway has seen massive success, growing to more than 20 locations in the Pacific Northwest.

HTSN Director Hank Alexander sits down to recap the first HTSN CI Summit in nearly three years. We talk themes that came out of the show, giveback efforts and CI trends and opportunities.

If it were up to Ashley Gorrie, her company, Unwasted, wouldn’t have enough raw material at its disposal to even exist. But, until we can stop pulling plastic from our oceans, Unwasted will work to use them to manufacture its product. Gorrie jumps on the Independent Thinking Podcast to share the brand’s inspiring story.

These first few weeks of 2022 have been some of the busiest for the Nationwide Marketing Group Furniture and Bedding division. After Las Vegas Market and PrimeTime in January and February, the F&B team quickly turned around for High Point Market in April. We recap it all with Mike Derro and Jeff Rose.

Just days removed from her attendance at the 2022 HTSN CI Summit in Dallas, Vanessa Zitzmann, senior managing editor at Connected Design, recaps her experience. We also dive into some home technology trends that she’s keeping an eye on and more.

Azione Unlimited is fresh off of its New Dreams in New Orleans event, and Patrick McCarthy, the group’s director of new business and member services, jumps on the Independent Thinking Podcast to recap what went down. We also dive into some of the latest custom integration trends, how the business has evolved and more.

After their acquisition of Nortek Control in October 2021, Nice North America has big plans to help custom integrators simplify the story around the smart home. Paul Williams, Chief Product Officer for Nice, jumped on the Independent Thinking Podcast to share that vision and talk through the benefits the company can provide to integrators.

Greg Simmons, Vice President of industry partnerships for Snap One, spent the bulk of his career on the custom integration side of the business. He shares what it’s like being on the brand side and more on his push to train and educate inspiring technicians.

Whether it’s new partnerships like that with Snap One, or upcoming programming with CEDIA Tech Summits and the HTSN CI Summit, education is at the heart of everything Hank Alexander is doing for Nationwide Marketing Group’s network of custom integration dealers.

Damon and Lu Holter were never supposed to own a steak sauce and spice brand. But thanks to a single homemade steak dinner and a passion for flavor, the two have gone on to build Croix Valley Foods into a household name around the globe. They hopped on the Independent Thinking Podcast to share their story, which shares roots with the independent retail world.