Quarterly Podcast: The Future of Window Treatments: Trends, Tech & Marketing Secrets!

Guests Profile: Joe Kendall President - Made in the Shade Eastern Shore Owns Kendall furniture , Made in the shade dealer went from 58th place, to 5th place, to second place and in 2024 #1 Volume dealer in North America Ryan Gilberts Owner of Shaded Window Coverings With over a decade in the window covering industry, Ryan launched Shaded Window Coverings in 2022 to bring his vision to life. Starting as an installer and moving into sales, he quickly mastered the business and took the leap to entrepreneurship. Now, nearly three years later, his company is thriving, recently securing a six-figure project for 1,900 shades in a new apartment complex. Other Notes/Links: To learn more about Joe Kendall visit: MITS Eastern Shore Ryan Gilberts visit: Shaded Window Coverings pssst.... want to be a guest on the show? Listen to other episodes Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhI2cJpxIu8&ab_channel=WindowTreatmentMarketingPros Click here to display Transcript Transcript Will Hanke (00:00) All right, everyone. Welcome to another episode of marketing panes, the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their strengths, about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. Today is our Q2 preview. We’re going to talk about what happened in Q1. We’re going to talk about what we think is coming up in Q2. I’ve got two guests with some great insights that I’m excited to interview. First of all, we got Joe Kendall, president of Made in the Shades Eastern Shore. Joe owns Kendall Furniture, a Made in the Shade dealership. He went from 58th place to fifth place in the Made in the Shade franchise, then second place, and in 2002, 2024 became the number one volume dealer in North America. Joe, thanks for being on the show today. Ryan Gilberts (00:31) Okay. Joe Kendall (00:40) you You’re very welcome. We’re happy to be here. Will Hanke (00:57) Thank you. We’ve also got Ryan Gilbert’s Ryan owns Shaded Window Coverings in Montana. Shaded Shaded Window Covering started in May 2022 after Ryan was working for some other businesses in the window covering industry over the last 10 years. He wanted to. He first started in the industry as a part time installer, then moved to lead installer position and eventually a hybrid role of installer and salesperson. Ryan Gilberts (00:58) you Will Hanke (01:27) Now almost three years later, there’s really no turning back. He’s just started his largest sixth figure project, 1900 shades for an apartment building under construction. Ryan, thank you for joining as well. Ryan Gilberts (01:39) Thanks, Will. Will Hanke (01:40) 1900 so you’re going be a little bit busy I guess for at least the next couple days right? Ryan Gilberts (01:44) Fortunately, it’s being built out in stages. Will Hanke (01:46) Awesome. Yeah, that’s great. Congrats on that. So I want to start by talking about some different industry trends. What emerging trends are you guys seeing in the industry right now? And how can other window treatment dealers kind of align with these trends to stay competitive? Joe Kendall (02:02) Ryan, think what you’re doing is, Ryan and I spoke a little bit beforehand, Will, and we really love that the exterior market is exploding. you need to make sure you’re talking to your clients because they don’t know all the cool things you know as far as that goes. I was talking to Ryan and we were discussing how you might go into a customer wants to get some roller shades up on four windows that are consecutive. Ryan Gilberts (02:12) Yeah. Joe Kendall (02:28) And you leave the house with an exterior roller shade motorized. their beautiful in-tort, their trim on the inside is left alone. It’s gorgeous. And they can have that true builder look, but yet get the results they need when they need them. I think the exterior, and people, great too.