I’ve never been the celebratory type. My usual request for my birthday, as my wife knows well, is “I want nothing and I want to do nothing”. In keeping with her tradition of not following through with what I ask, she had her owns plans for my special day.
Reflecting on my typical birthday wish, I remembered years ago my 33rd birthday turned my life upside down all because I vocalized something that I wanted to do for once. My big request was to take what little time I had off from work and visit the Design Galleria showroom in Atlanta and spend some time with the Principal Designer, Matthew Quinn.
Why you might ask? Well, I had left the safety of my decade-long cozy co-ownership of my family’s kitchen design firm the year before and was off fighting to make a name for myself in the luxury market. I had been writing back and forth with Matthew for a couple years at that point picking his brain about how he got his start, how he grew his business, and what choices he made to make him who he was today. Matthew graciously obliged to giving us a tour of his flagship showroom and taking him out to lunch. Little did I know we would start talking about my business and end talking about his.
Brandy and I spent the morning driving down to Atlanta from our area just outside of Ann Arbor, MI to arrive at ADAC (Atlanta Decorative Arts Center) where Design Galleria had been based out of for more than four decades. We met up with Matthew and went to lunch so I could begin my business strategy interrogation. Somewhere along the conversation, we talked about how I was going to open my showroom in SE Michigan and he told us about how he had recently opened another showroom in Nashville, TN. He also mentioned that it was growing faster than anticipated and at the time, I thought nothing more of it. We later met up with his business partner, Ric (who happens to be the nicest man ever born), and was introduced to a lot of the team at both the DG showroom and their decorative hardware company, the Matthew Quinn Collection. Everyone was very welcoming and honestly it looked like an incredible place to work. All I kept thinking was “one day, my firm will be like this”.
The decision to join Design Galleria was a difficult one for me. I had been a business owner my entire adult life. It came down to one thing: time. I could either climb the staircase one step at a time or join Design Galleria and skip ever second, third, and fourth step. Looking back, I wonder if Matthew had an idea that things would end up that way from the start. He’s a smart man – I think he did.
Snap back to reality and my life is nothing like what I pictured it. I travel the country doing what I love. I get to create unbelievable spaces for unbelievable clients. I get to compete with the best of the best in kitchen and home design. I live in a wild city where I can listen to Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks from my back deck overlooking the city. I mean, where else would Brandy have had the chance to plan a Barbie themed birthday party for me?
