Ep. 412: How We Make Our Products at Ballard Designs

Summary

Summary of "Ep. 412: How We Make Our Products at Ballard Designs"

Release Date: May 6, 2025

In Episode 412 of How to Decorate, hosted by Ballard Designs, the team delves into the intricate process of creating the brand’s renowned home décor products. This episode features insightful discussions with key members of the Ballard team, including Patrick Farrell, Vice President of Merchandising and Product Design, and Sarah Hall, Senior Manager of Sourcing. Together, they shed light on the journey from initial product conception to the final item that adorns customers' homes.

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1. Introduction and Team Insights

The episode kicks off with hosts Caroline, Taryn, and Liz introducing their special guests from the Ballard team. They set the stage for an in-depth exploration of product development, emphasizing the importance of understanding the complexities behind designing and sourcing high-quality home furnishings.

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2. Conceptualizing and Designing Products

Patrick Farrell explains the genesis of product ideas, highlighting the diverse sources of inspiration:

“We get input from everywhere, and we're always looking for influence as well... from our customers, from our retail store team, from our customer service team, from our designers...” (01:56)

The brainstorming process involves gathering ideas from trade shows, competitor analysis, trend reports, and even nature. Merchants consolidate these inputs into product requests, which the design team then transforms into unique Ballard Designs products. Patrick reveals the sheer volume of creativity:

“Our product designers last year designed about 250 unique products for Ballard.” (04:05)

The design timeline is meticulously planned up to 18 months in advance, ensuring that Ballard stays ahead of market trends:

“We're working anywhere from six months to 18 months in the future.” (04:37)

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3. Sourcing and Vendor Partnerships

Sarah Hall discusses the critical role of the sourcing team in selecting the right vendors:

“We have specific vendors who are good at that type of process... what is important about the piece to the merchant and the designer.” (06:08)

Ballard collaborates with approximately 75 international vendors and an additional 25 to 40 domestic suppliers. These partnerships are pivotal in maintaining the quality and uniqueness of their products. Sarah emphasizes the collaborative nature of these relationships:

“We call them our partners because they really are our partners. They work very hard alongside of us...” (09:25)

Vendors often contribute innovative ideas, extending successful product lines or introducing new materials and techniques:

“Our internal experts on the topic.” (08:48)

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4. Prototyping and Quality Control

The design process transitions into prototyping, where designers create rough drawings and 3D CAD models:

“It usually takes about six to 12 weeks for the designers to take the ideas and turn them into a rough drawing...” (05:09)

Sarah and her team then evaluate the construction drawings, materials, pricing, and manufacturing feasibility. This stage involves rigorous collaboration to ensure the product meets Ballard’s high standards without compromising on quality or functionality.

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5. Packaging and Drop Testing

A significant portion of the episode focuses on packaging and the rigorous drop testing process to ensure products arrive safely:

“We're constantly working with our vendors to make our packaging more sustainable... we do have to sometimes use Styrofoam.” (19:48)

Taryn explains the drop testing methodology:

“We're literally dropping the package on a corner and then you do all of the leading edges meeting that corner... we drop it 20, 25 times.” (24:54)

This meticulous testing adheres to enhanced international standards tailored for furniture, ensuring that even delicate items like glass mirrors withstand the rigors of shipping:

“We are following an international standard for drop testing... enhanced that standard to fit furniture.” (26:37)

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6. Logistical Challenges in the Supply Chain

Patrick Farrell addresses the current logistical challenges, particularly the impact of tariffs and supply chain disruptions:

“We faced a tariff situation where everything is being taxed... it has a spillover effect into the supply chain.” (44:12)

He elaborates on how tariffs affect shipping container availability and costs:

“60% of the volume coming out of China has halted in the last three weeks... shipping containers being in the wrong places.” (46:17)

The team is actively strategizing to navigate these uncertainties, emphasizing the importance of strong vendor relationships to mitigate disruptions.

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7. Artisanal Craftsmanship Behind Ballard Products

A highlight of the episode is the emphasis on handcrafted quality. Taryn passionately describes the artistry involved in products like hand-knotted rugs:

“Each knot is done by hand... specific workers who do the entire rug.” (33:15)

Patrick adds that even the materials undergo meticulous processes:

“The yarn is hand twisted and hand dyed... they go through a washing process depending on the finish.” (34:13)

This dedication to craftsmanship ensures that each Ballard product is an heirloom piece, embodying both beauty and durability.

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8. Pricing Strategies and Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ)

The discussion shifts to pricing and the significance of MOQs. Taryn defines MOQ and its importance in the production process:

“An MOQ is a minimum order quantity... it's based on the effort it takes to set up a line and produce that item.” (28:41)

Patrick emphasizes their strategy to maintain inventory turnover without overstocking:

“We want to buy in small batches so that we can sell the product really, as the customer's ready for it.” (29:25)

Successful products, like the Orleans Hook and Bunny Finial, often lead to renegotiated MOQs to accommodate high demand:

“The Orleans Hook has hit it out of the park... we're now expanding it into a smaller size hook...” (30:29)

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9. Team Collaboration and On-site Visits

The episode highlights the collaborative spirit within the Ballard team. Taryn recounts the experience of visiting manufacturing facilities:

“We are factory or manufacturing facility floor people... seeing how they're doing certain processes.” (35:09)

These on-site visits foster a deep understanding of production techniques and strengthen vendor partnerships. Patrick shares anecdotes about the team's adventures and camaraderie during these trips, underscoring the blend of professionalism and personal bonding:

“We spend a lot of time in cars because many of these manufacturing facilities are way out of the big cities.” (35:34)

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10. Conclusion and Company Philosophy

The episode concludes with reflections on Ballard Designs' commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Patrick summarizes the meticulous efforts behind each product:

“Everything that we make is a handicraft type of product... touched many different times throughout its manufacturing cycle.” (32:47)

Liz and Taryn express pride in Ballard’s processes and the joy of seeing products successfully reach customers’ homes. The team reiterates their dedication to maintaining high standards, ensuring that every Ballard product is both beautiful and functional.

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Key Takeaways:

• Comprehensive Product Development: Ballard Designs employs a collaborative approach, integrating inputs from various departments and external influences to create unique products.

• Strong Vendor Partnerships: By maintaining close relationships with a diverse pool of international and domestic vendors, Ballard ensures high-quality craftsmanship and innovative designs.

• Rigorous Quality Control: The company’s thorough drop testing and quality assurance processes guarantee that products withstand the challenges of shipping and handling.

• Artisanal Excellence: Emphasizing handcrafted techniques, Ballard produces heirloom-quality items that blend beauty with durability.

• Adaptive Strategies: Faced with logistical challenges like tariffs and supply chain disruptions, Ballard navigates complexities through strategic planning and robust partnerships.

• Customer-Centric Philosophy: From design to delivery, every step is geared towards providing customers with functional, aesthetically pleasing, and high-quality home décor solutions.

This episode offers a transparent glimpse into the meticulous processes that underpin Ballard Designs’ commitment to excellence, celebrating the artistry and dedication that bring their stunning products to life.

Transcript

[Caroline]

Welcome to how to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.

[Taryn]

I'm Caroline.

[Caroline]

I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer.

[Liz]

I'm Liz. I head of the creative team.

[Caroline]

We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each episode.

[Liz]

We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email [e-mail] now, on with the show.

[Caroline]

All right, welcome back to the show. I'm Caroline. I've got Liz here.

[Liz]

Hi.

[Caroline]

And we have two very special guests today from the Ballard team. So it's been a minute since we've had a conversation with some of our Ballard family members, but we thought we could talk about how we make our products. So we've done some similar episodes a while back, but it's been a minute. So, you know, in light of the news, I know there's a lot going on in the world of retail, and we thought it was a great time to kind of share our perspective and give you our lovely audience some insight into how we make our goods. So we've got Patrick Farrell here. He's our VP of merchandising and product design. We've got Sarah hall, who's our manager, senior manager of sourcing, then have decades of experience and are our internal experts on the topic. So thank you so much for joining us.

[Taryn]

Thank you, Caroline.

[Patrick Farrell]

Thank you. It's great to be here.

[Taryn]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Yes. So, you know, Patrick, your team, you're. You have both the merchandising team and the product design team. So Taryn's team and y'all are really kickstart this whole process. How does a product, in the initial idea, like where does it come from and what is sort of the beginning steps to having it turned into something that we sell on the website?

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah, well, we start with a lot of input. We get input from everywhere, and we're always looking for influence as well. So some of the inputs can come from our customers, from our retail store team, from our customer service team, from our designers, from our partners in marketing and other parts of the business. And then we're looking for influence. So we go to trade shows, we go to different markets, we go in retail, other competitors, we look at trend reports, we look at paint colors, all kinds of different places. To kind of get those inputs. And then our merchants take all the inputs and they put them together into product requests. And those product requests go to our design team, who ends up kind of listening to all of the inputs from the product requests and creating unique products for Ballard Designs.

[Caroline]

So someone might say, you know, we don't have a table, a dining table. That's this dimension, and we have a need for it. And then your merchant team kind of takes that and runs with it and goes to explore whether we need it. And so how specific are they getting with the product designers? Are they giving them, like, dimensions? Are they giving them finishes? Are they giving them just broad ideas?

[Taryn]

It.

[Patrick Farrell]

It really depends on the merchants. So some merchants are very specific. They'll come with a really crystallized idea of what they want, and in turn, they'll provide dimensions. They'll provide finished swatches, sometimes, you know, photographs of, like, something that's aspirational for us to be influenced by. In other cases, it's very loose. Like, we might be, you know, intrigued by a stripe on a dress and a color from nature, and ask the product design team to put those two things together on a piece of furniture. And that's where it becomes a real fun design challenge for the design team to kind of figure out the puzzle pieces.

[Caroline]

Yeah. So the product designers are literally drawing this. Not. Well, not literally, but, you know, in cad, and they're designing the whole thing.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yes. Yeah. So our product designers last year designed about 250 unique products for Ballard. Wow.

[Caroline]

I didn't know that number.

[Patrick Farrell]

That is a lot. I know.

[Caroline]

And there's three of them, by the way.

[Liz]

They're very busy.

[Patrick Farrell]

I think our listeners have met everybody on the team. So Taryn, Hillary, and Will. Yeah. This year, we're four months into the year, and they've designed about 100 products so far. And those are all for future seasons. So we're working anywhere from six months to 18 months in the future.

[Caroline]

So you're working up to 18 months ahead. So right now, it's April 2025. You're already working on, like, spring? No. You're working on fall 2026. Yeah, yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

And then next month, we're going to kick off spring of 2027.

[Taryn]

Wow.

[Patrick Farrell]

So that's really how far out we're working.

[Caroline]

Okay, so how long is the design process when the merchandising team presents their product requests, how long until it then goes over to Sarah's team?

[Patrick Farrell]

So kind of rough timeline is. It usually takes about six to 12 weeks for the designers to take the ideas and turn them into a rough drawing that they show the merchants. And then another maybe four to six weeks of design process back and forth with the merchants to get it into a finished design. And by finished design, we usually provide a 3D CAD drawing. So it's a pretty good representation of what the product is going to look like. And then dimensioned flat drawings, and those get turned over to our sourcing team. And that's when Sarah and her team really take over the process. And they look at the construction drawings, they look at the materials that our merchants want to use, and they also look at the pricing and timeframe parameters. And then they make some decisions about where we're going to place that, which manufacturer, which country might be right for it. I think, Sarah, that's where you kind of take over the process.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So we have a conversation with the design team, with the merchant team, and talk about what's really important about the item. So is there a particular substrate or species of wood that we want to use? Is there a specific metal or process? Is there a glaze? A specific kind of glaze? Is it a reactive glaze? What is important about the piece? Do we want our own hardware? Because we do a lot of designing of our own hardware. That's true.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So we have specific vendors who are good at that type of process. So we want to figure out what is important about the piece to the merchant and the designer. And then we go about looking at our vendor base to pick who would be the best or what region would be the best. What country has the specific material that we need.

[Caroline]

How many vendors would you say we have? Like, is that a. I know I'm springing this question on you. I don't know that I told you I was gonna ask you, but I'm just curious. Like, is it 20? Is it like a hundred? How many people are you. Would you reasonably look at?

[Liz]

Yeah, it just seems like a big pool.

[Taryn]

I would say it's in flux. Like, it's always kind of shifting and changing depending on what's going on. So I would say we're typically using maybe 75 vendors. And I know that sounds like a lot, but a lot of things are really specific. So, for example, porcelain. Like, if we want something in porcelain, we have one vendor who makes porcelain out of the Philippines. So we would go to that vendor. Some things are a little bit broader. We have several furniture vendors around the world who we go to based on maybe a specific wood species that we want to use or a specific finish type. So is it a painted finish? Is it a layered finish? Is it a raw wood finish, anything like that? So, yeah, it's probably around that.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. In addition to that, we've got 25 to 40 domestic suppliers that we also work with. And the domestic suppliers do manufacturing in the US and they also. Some of them do importing themselves. So we use a lot of the resources that we have kind of globally available to us to source these unique products. And then all of our suppliers have their own design teams. So typically they'll take our designs and they'll redesign them based on their technical capabilities and the machinery that they use for production and the materials that they have on hand. And so that process is a lot of back and forth between Sarah's team and my team.

[Taryn]

Yeah, they're also great, too, about seeing winners that we have. So we've had a couple of collections recently that have been winners and performing really well, like our Newberry collection, for example. So in that instance, when a vendor sees that something's a winner, they're actually coming to us and saying, hey, we actually think that here are some line extensions that you'd be really excited about as well. So we can utilize their design team as well for those types of things.

[Patrick Farrell]

And that's another source that we listen to because they're also working with a lot of different retailers around the world. So they may see a trend from one of their customers in Europe and bring it to us and say, hey, this customer in Europe's having success with this type of item or this color or this finish. Would you guys be interested?

[Taryn]

Or even a new capability that they've developed within their factory that they think they can put on an item that we already run. So maybe they've just started using a new stone in their factory. You know, they try to put that on an item or a new finishing technique that they think would work really well with something we're already doing.

[Liz]

So they're really partners with everything that you were creating?

[Taryn]

For sure. And I would say that's usually how we refer to them. We call them our partners because they really are our partners. They work very hard alongside of us to make sure that our product is as successful as we want it to be internally.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Okay, so how long is the sourcing process, like, because you're. It's not just finding the vendor, then you do sampling. So can you kind of walk us through start to finish?

[Taryn]

Yeah. So start to finish, we'll get a project, and once we have the initial conversation about where we want to place that item. And sometimes we actually place it multiple places because we want to get a feel for pricing and who might be the better suited for that item. So sometimes we're working with multiple vendors at one time on one item. We go through the art stage, which is what Patrick was describing. So we generally provide art based on what we want the item to look like. So aesthetic art, for the most part. And so then we really rely on our partners to take that art and make it functional.

[Caroline]

Like they engineer it.

[Taryn]

They engineer it, exactly. So they make. They tell us, you know, we know you wanted this dimension, but really it needs to be this or to make it more production friendly, which would also impact costs. We suggest you do X, Y or Z. So we lean in there and then we bring that art from the vendor back internally and have our design team and our merchants review that as well. We want to make sure that everything still meets their specification, even if it's coming from the vendor. Once art is approved, we move to the quoting phase. So we get our pricing and we have internal discussion as well as far as whether or not that pricing is going to work. And if we get to a place where we feel comfortable, we give the approval on that and we move to what we call our unfinished digital stage. So essentially, this is the vendor doing a first kind of mock up of whatever the item is. So it's in its unfinished stage. We can really look at the inner workings of the piece without, you know, a paint on it or anything like that. We're just looking at the bones of this, of the piece to make sure we're happy with it.

[Caroline]

But is it a wait, is it a physical good?

[Taryn]

It's a physical good.

[Caroline]

At that point, they ship to us.

[Taryn]

No, no, no. We're just, We're. Yeah, we're still looking at pictures.

[Caroline]

Okay.

[Taryn]

Yeah, we're just looking at pictures. And the.

[Caroline]

For them, it's a finished good. For us, it's a picture.

[Taryn]

Correct. Got it.

[Caroline]

Okay.

[Taryn]

Yes, it is a 3D item, a fully functional item, just not with a finish on it.

[Liz]

So are you facetiming it? Are you looking at pictures? What are, what is the process?

[Taryn]

Most of the time when we say digital, it's really just pictures that we're looking at. But saying that we also have calls with vendors if we need to review something very closely. We also have them send us videos if we need specific call outs. So if we want to really see how a hinge functions or see how a drawer functions, does a glide work properly, we can get videos of Those sorts of things from the vendors as well. So, you know, our eyes aren't always there. So we work with what we can to get alternate eyes on our items.

[Caroline]

Well, because they might be making multiple of these and they can't necessarily ship a dresser quickly or economically enough to where it makes sense.

[Taryn]

Yeah. It is expensive to ship a piece of furniture.

[Caroline]

Right.

[Taryn]

It's not like forever in the world. Yeah, yeah.

[Caroline]

That you can put on an airplane.

[Taryn]

Yeah, exactly.

[Patrick Farrell]

We rely on the vendors to be our eyes and ears where we can't be there. And, you know, recent example, Sarah and I were traveling to Asia together and we had designed a cabinet that had these fold back doors so they fully fold around the item. The vendor made the sample. The way we designed it, it had a lot of hinges. Many hinges.

[Caroline]

A lot of hinges.

[Patrick Farrell]

Two dozen hinges.

[Taryn]

Many a hinge.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yes. And the vendor made a counter sample that had hidden hinges. So the primary hinges still were exposed, but the interior hinges that kind of make the mechanism that fold the doors back were hidden. And it was a really good aesthetic call that they made on our behalf. And they showed us both and said, which did you like better? And hands down, all six people on our trip said, oh, the hidden hinge is much better. Um, but we wouldn't have gone there had the vendor not been our eyes and ears and, you know, made that suggestion for us.

[Taryn]

Yeah, exactly. So once we get through the unfinished part, we then see finished digital. So that's where we take whatever finish we've chosen for that item, whether it's a painted finish or a layered finish, or, you know, maybe it's a garden stool with a glaze, anything like that. We then look at the item in its finished glory. And from there, based on, once again, images and digitals, we either ask for changes or we give it our approval. And from there it then does get shipped to us for review, or alternatively, we will see it on a trip if we plan to travel. So we also do our own package testing. So that is a big part of what we do as well, is we make sure the vendors are packaging our items super safely. And then we do internal drop tests once the sample arrives here. Before we even review it, we have to make sure that it's going to get where it's going safely.

[Caroline]

Yeah. Okay, we're gonna have to revisit the drop test because I have that. I feel like it's gonna have to be a whole because it is really interesting. So I don't. I don't wanna get there just yet. Um, I did, actually. Wanted to go back real quick. You were talking about pricing. Could y'all talk a little bit about, like you were saying before the digitals. You get to the digitals, you discuss price internally. So, like, what are. What is that? Like, are you. Is it. You know, we think that this is a fair price for this item, and so we can't go over that. Like, where does that sort of knowledge and con happened?

[Patrick Farrell]

So a lot of this is the merchants work and the merchants are thinking about the customer. So, you know, what is the customer looking for? What are the price constraints the customer might have based on other items that we have in our product mix? They look competitively. What are our competitors doing? Are there areas where we need to be more competitive and have, like, an opening price point, or are there areas where we have a little bit more elasticity, so to speak, where we could stretch into a different price point that we haven't had before? So the merchants are really thinking about the business aspects of the product in addition to the aesthetics and the functionality. And that's where the pricing conversation starts. And then as part of our handoff process to the sourcing team, we have a conversation with sourcing about what the price cost parameters are around the item to make sure that it's going to come in with a good value, where we feel like we can charge a high, a fair price to the customer.

[Caroline]

Like, if. If a merchant wanted a really specific finish and you got through designing it and then you were like, this chair is going to cost $10,000, you're like, okay, well, that's not. We can't do that because no one's going to buy that item. So it's. I always find that part interesting because the merchants are so specific in the, I think, like, sort of bracket, I guess. I don't know if. Or threshold, I suppose. And they know so much about how much their item that they, you know, they're focused on should and can cost. And I always just think that's really interesting. Yeah, well.

[Taryn]

And we partner with them closely to find an alternative. If something does come in, it's going to cost $10,000. Obviously, that's not viable. So we partner really closely with them and say, well, I know you wanted this finish, but. But if we change this, the step in this process of finishing, maybe it's less layers or maybe it's not a lacquered finish or something like that. You know, we can look at different options to reduce the price. Our goal in reducing the price is to never reduce the quality of the item. So we want to look at the item and see how we can cost engineer it without impacting the quality for our customer.

[Caroline]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taryn]

So there are a lot of. There's a lot of conversations like that. Sometimes merchants are sticklers, though, because they feel something is really important for the aesthetic. And then once again, it's our job to, you know, to go to bat for them and figure that out. Yeah.

[Liz]

Are there things that go through that you're just like, okay, there's no way we can actually ever produce this item. We love it, but we just can't do it?

[Taryn]

I would say there's. It's really slim. I think that our team has a good idea of what is possible and what is not possible at this point. But, I mean, sometimes there are things where you just don't know until you get into it and you realize that there's a lot more involved in the manufacturing process than what you thought. So a lot of it is more just, okay, I know you wanted the moon, but let's. Let's rein it in a little bit and maybe we just get the stars and not the moon. So there's a lot of conversations like that that happens. But we have a great team who really works together to figure that out. We partner together to figure out what's best for the. For the item and for the customer.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

And we don't want a lot of waste in the process, too. And the waste can come from a lot of different areas. And you think about maybe the most expensive part of waste would be shipping a sample over to the U.S. it costs labor on the manufacturer side. It costs a lot of time and a lot of money to get it here. So one of the things that I asked as part of my recent onboarding process is what is our acceptance rate? And we have a very high acceptance rate from design to finished product. It's in the 90s. Like 90 plus percent of our product gets all the way through the process into the final catalog, the final website, the final retail sales floor. And that's pretty impressive, huh?

[Caroline]

I didn't know that well. And I wouldn't know what it would be at other places. So it's not 90%. Sounds good.

[Taryn]

Yeah. It's not always that high. And I will say, too, that's actually one of the things that Ballard, as a company in our manufacturing processes, is known for. So when we're looking for new vendors, we kind of have a reputation for actually placing orders for all of these items that we work through the development process. So because of that, we do end up sometimes with better pricing or better partnership.

[Caroline]

I didn't know that. So, like, you go, if you're bringing in a new vendor, you might say our completion rate is 90%. So you really want to work with us because we're not going to waste your time trying to design stuff that will never happen.

[Taryn]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Huh. I didn't know that. That's really cool.

[Liz]

You guys are awesome.

[Taryn]

Yes.

[Caroline]

Good job. You okay? So, yeah, let's go. Let's talk about shipping, because you kind of touched on this a little bit. What about packaging? So I think so many people have probably gotten a thing from anywhere they're shopping from, and it's, you know, gobs of packaging. Yes, gobs of packaging. And talk us through. You feel like, okay, this is a lot, but, yeah, talk us through that.

[Taryn]

So we're constantly working with our vendors to make our packaging more sustainable. That's been a recent push, so we're doing more honeycomb packaging. We're going to vendors who have that capability. Honeycomb packaging is. If you haven't seen it, it's kind of like you get that corrugate and it. It looks like a honeycomb. So it kind of takes the place of a Styrofoam and it's equally as strong. That said, there is still a time for Styrofoam, unfortunately.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

But, yeah, so we. It's important that our items arrive in one piece for a number of reasons. Obviously, for business, like a customer wants to get their item in good order. Also, when we have breakage, that affects our business as well, because we're having to get that item back or whatnot. But, yeah, so we put a lot of effort into our packaging, and it's kind of a dance of making sure an item is really safely packaged, but also that we're not spending an arm and a leg on the packaging, because the larger the box size of an item is, the more we're paying to get it here. Because we calculate that into part of our pricing that, you know, when we're landing a quote, we have to know how much it costs to get that item to the United States.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

So, yeah, so it's a dance of what's safe but what's not crazy expensive to get here. And we have a whole drop test process that we do. Yeah.

[Caroline]

Walk everybody through that.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So part of being on our team, on the sourcing team, is you have to know how to drop test. So when you're onboarded with Ballard, you have to go in the back with Daniel works in our warehouse here. You have to sit with him and learn how to drop test her items. So it's. It's dropping on different corners, dropping on leading edges of the packaging, all of that to make sure the item passes.

[Caroline]

You're literally dropping the item in the packaging that it comes in.

[Taryn]

Yes.

[Liz]

Yeah. And sometimes this is the only sample that we get.

[Taryn]

Yes.

[Liz]

And we're supposed to be putting it in photography.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So where.

[Liz]

So this is where I'm praying.

[Taryn]

Yeah, all of us are. Because then if it arrives and it's damaged, we can't review it, the merchants can't review it, we can't approve it. So we start that process all over again. We have to go back to making another sample. They have to completely revise the packaging. And then we once again hope it arrives in one piece for photography. So the Liz doesn't get all the.

[Caroline]

Email that goes out to the photography team that's like, no, you really wanted to put this, whatever it is in that room, but it didn't pass drop test. And everyone's like, no.

[Patrick Farrell]

And, you know, we're talking about the samples right now. So these are just the samples coming into us in the final production quality packaging. But you think about final production. So that product has to travel all the way to the final customer through many, many different stops in order to get there in one piece.

[Taryn]

Right, right.

[Patrick Farrell]

And it starts, you know, at the manufacturer, goes from the manufacturer to the port, where it gets unloaded from a truck and put onto a shipping container, and then it travels across the ocean for 6,000 miles on a shipping container, gets unloaded at the next port, travels on a truck to our warehouse, gets unloaded in the warehouse, gets back on a truck. Gets back.

[Liz]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

Pulled from the warehouse, back on a truck to the final customer. So it goes through a lot of stages and steps where it can easily get damaged. And are we perfect? No. Occasionally we will have damage because we're relying on freight companies and other third parties to kind of handle the product on our behalf. But we do everything upfront to make sure that the product is well packaged so it can take that whole journey and arrive to the customers in a really good position.

[Liz]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Where did the drop test process? Is that something that everyone does, like every furniture maker?

[Taryn]

Well, I think a lot of companies do have transportation testing. They do something.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

Do they do it as rigorous as we do? I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, we have pretty intense process and a lot of people actually rely on Third parties to do their. Their drop testing as well or their transportation testing. So they'll have a third party company come in and perform it. But we do that all in house. So we actually bring it here and literally our team members drop test it off of the. Off of the dock. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you've seen it. We actually just got a brand new drop testing machine which is very nice.

[Liz]

This is not seen it in. In progress.

[Taryn]

I haven't either.

[Caroline]

Daniel showed it to me. He was like, look at our new drop testing machine. Yeah.

[Taryn]

Because I mean, we're. You think of it as little items, you know, small accessory items. Like that's not that challenging. But we perform transportation testing on huge pieces of furniture as well. Dining table. Dining table, bookcases, Bookcases, chandeliers. Yeah. All of our lighting and in fact, items that are made of glass. So if you think mirrors or like other. Other items into class, they actually have to be passed twice. So if a mirror passes once, great. But we have to do it a second time because we really want to make sure anything that's glass is really super ultra safe.

[Caroline]

Can you just paint a picture of us for what this looks like? Like how many people is performing the drop test? Where are they?

[Taryn]

Like in a, in a facility or like here?

[Caroline]

Yeah. Describe it for our listeners.

[Liz]

Really hanging off the dock.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So if it's me. So, you know, for the more newbies like me, like, I don't do it all the time. Daniel has a great little thing that it measures how high it has to go. And so you can show like, okay, you have to raise it up at least this high before you drop it. But yeah, it's literally someone. We drop the package on a corner and then you do all of the leading edges meeting that corner. And then you pick the alternate corner and you literally turn around, drop the item from. I think it's 36 inches or so on its corner. And then all the leading edges again. And then you do every flat side on the box. We drop it. So I mean, we're dropping this thing 20, 25 times. And then with.

[Liz]

You would think that it would get compromised, but it. But it doesn't.

[Taryn]

The goal is to. Yeah. And then we're taking pictures of each of those steps as well. So as we open up the package, or I should really say Daniel, as Daniel's opening up the package, he takes images of all of every step as well. So if there is a failure, we can see based on the images where their failure happened. So we can give that direction to our partner as well and say, hey, it broke. At this stage or in this area, we need you to improve X, Y and Z about the packaging.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And this is not something that we made up ourselves. So we are following an international standard for drop testing. And that standard was originally created for small parcels. So think about packages that go by FedEx, UPS, the United States Postal Service, they created the standard for small parcels. But we have enhanced that standard to fit furniture because furniture doesn't go by the small parcel carriers, it goes by truck. And the trucks are sometimes more aggressive in the handling. So we are more aggressive in our standards to make sure it passes that handling test.

[Caroline]

I just find the whole visual of this, I've never actually seen it, but imagining it so funny.

[Liz]

And we need to.

[Taryn]

Interesting.

[Caroline]

I know we need like a live cam, a webcam of our drop testing.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

It's pretty intense when it's a large piece of furniture. I mean, because it's like three guys.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

Knocking it around and they're heavy.

[Caroline]

Some of them are heavy.

[Taryn]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Well.

[Liz]

And you know, if you've ever received something that has been broken, like I'm now thinking like, wow, that somebody really must have done a number on it for it to come arrive broken.

[Taryn]

They just like threw it out of the truck.

[Liz]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

On your doors app.

[Liz]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

Once you've approved the sample, then it comes back here. Then what happens?

[Patrick Farrell]

Well, then it also takes a village to review the samples. So after Daniel's done his drop testing and unpackages a sample, we fully assemble it and the merchants, the product design team, the sourcing team, and our compliance team all review the product together. And our compliance team is there to really review safety and quality standards and make sure that it's meeting all the specifications and the US based safety standards for the product. So we have another village here that's really reviewing every aspect of the product and making sure that the doors of the furniture are functioning right, the drawers are even, the furniture levelers are in place, the finish looks good, the hardware fits.

[Taryn]

I'm sure there, I mean, it matches the dimensions we, we specified. Like, you just want to make sure it is what we asked for.

[Caroline]

So then. Well, then I know it goes to photography. Right, right.

[Liz]

This is where we, we know what happens there. Yeah, this is, this is our end of it.

[Caroline]

Yeah. We were talking about price a little bit and I wanted to talk about the pricing with the vendor because there's a term that I know we use a lot internally that I had never heard before. Coming to Ballard. But moq and I find moqs to be so interesting. Can you. So can you tell everybody what an MOQ is? And, like, why does. Why is this a thing that matters?

[Taryn]

So an MOQ is a minimum order quantity. So part of approving our quote is also approving that we are okay with the minimum order quantity specified by a vendor. So usually that quantity is based on the effort that it takes to set up a line and produce that item. So while we can negotiate down fairly low, it's really hard to order a super tiny quantity of something because there, it's just impossible for a line, a production line to run smoothly if they're trying to make five of something. I mean, it's just not worth anybody's time. So we're negotiating that. But it's really based on the turn of our product, and we have goals as far as how often we want our product to turn.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And by turn, she means how frequently we turn over our inventory.

[Liz]

Okay.

[Patrick Farrell]

So we want to buy in small batches so that we can sell the product really, as the customer's ready for it. We don't want to stock a warehouse with 2,000 pieces if we're only going to sell 200 in a season. So we're really negotiating to buy a small quantity in a small batch so that we can sell that quickly and then buy the next small quantity in a small batch.

[Taryn]

It also helps us make sure that, well, we can order things and kind of test them if maybe it's something new for us, and we're not sure if it's going to take off. So it helps us kind of test new product out. But we've had a lot of. Or we've had some instances lately where our expectations have kind of been blown out of the water. So in the reverse of that, if we have an item that's really performing well for us, we can go back and renegotiate that price and say, hey, I know we negotiated based on 50 or 100 pieces, but. But we're actually. This item is really resonating with our customer. Can we talk about increasing that minimum order quantity, making the production line more efficient for you and then maybe reducing the price as well.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Liz]

What's a product that has just kind of hit it out of the park lately?

[Taryn]

The Orleans Hook has hit it out of the park, actually. Yeah.

[Caroline]

Oh, cool.

[Taryn]

That one has.

[Caroline]

Wait, is that the one that's like. It's floral and it, like, turns and brass.

[Taryn]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

With the glasses, beautiful flower design. And I think it's got six articulating hooks that turn, and it's absolutely beautiful. And it was super popular out of the gate. So popular that we're now expanding it into a smaller size hook and some other wall decor items.

[Caroline]

Huh.

[Taryn]

Our Bunny Finial is another one that's actually really taken off as well. The Bunny Finial is doing great. So that was one we. We actually went back on and said, hey, this is doing really well for us. Can we renegotiate price with you?

[Caroline]

Yeah. But there's some times where their minimum order quantity that you want you to. They want us to buy is too high, and so we. Wouldn't that ever happen? Or.

[Taryn]

I mean, sometimes it happens. But that's also kind of the sourcing team's job in setting up a new. A new vendor.

[Caroline]

Right.

[Taryn]

We make sure that our vendors know our expectations as far as minimum order quantity, really upfront. Because sometimes you'll go into a facility and they need to be efficient. They need a thousand or something. And unfortunately, that's just not how we operate. So. So we just know that wouldn't be a good fit for us.

[Caroline]

Right. Like, we have to work with people who have a size and scale appropriate to the amount we want to create.

[Taryn]

Exactly. Yeah. Not every vendor is going to be a match for every company.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And keep in mind, everything that we make, everything that we sell is a handicraft type of product. So this isn't like a factory where raw materials go on one side and a finished product comes out the other side. This is really like a handcrafted production line, and the product is touched many different times throughout its manufacturing cycle. So the raw materials are quality inspected. Sometimes they have to be finished by hand. Then it goes into a whole process of different people touching the product at different stages of its journey. And that's another reason where we're not buying, you know, this high commodity product. We're buying a heirloom quality product that is really lovingly touched by hand and as. As part of its creation.

[Caroline]

Yeah. Yeah. Could y'all give us some examples of that? I think so many people like you, if you've never been to one of these spaces, it's hard to imagine what it's like. And you just think, oh, okay, vendor, manufacturer, whatever you picture. Yeah, like a machine and, you know, little doodads coming out. And like, that's not really what.

[Liz]

There are no Oompa Loompas in our process.

[Taryn]

It's not like a cartoon. Yeah. It's not like the machine going, it's not like that at all. Yeah, a lot to. To speak to what Patrick was saying, a lot of it is handicraft. I mean, really, you have a lot of hands touching your products. So I mean, one of the ones that's so impressive to me are hand knotted rugs. When we say hand knotted rugs, it is. Each knot is done by hand.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

I mean, and also, you know, you have specific workers who do the entire rug. So whoever starts working on the rug, their hands are the only hands that touch that one rug because they have a process between, you know, their partner working on the rug and they have to complete it the exact same way. So, I mean, that is truly by hand.

[Caroline]

Yeah, yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

And even the materials for that, the yarn is hand twisted and hand dyed, which gives it that beautiful tonal or modeled effect. So even before it's turned into the rug, it's still like a complete handicraft.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

And they're hand washed too. I mean, they go through a washing process depending on the finish that you want on the rugs. I mean, they're literally out there hand washing that. So I mean. Yeah, a hand knotted rug is one that is truly hand handmade.

[Caroline]

Yeah. And that's. That's not something you could get anywhere. Like it. You have to learn the. The art.

[Taryn]

Oh, yeah, it's an art. It's. It's definitely an art. And they have, you know, specific studios set up to teach women typically, how to do that and to give them. It provides them a way of working too, in a safe environment. So. Yeah, hand out of rugs are really special to me.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

I think in general, like, one of the best things about doing what we do is you take such pride in product and you have such appreciation for how things are made. So I don't know. That's one of my favorite things about doing this, just to be honest.

[Caroline]

Yeah. Because y'all. Y'all do visit all of the factories in person. So what is, what is that like?

[Taryn]

Yeah, I think one of the things we tell people when we're onboarding a new employee who we know will be part of the travel process is, you know, we, we are not showroom people. We are factory or manufacturing facility floor people. We like to be out there seeing what's going on and learning, too, because a lot of being in a facility is learning how they're doing certain processes and then taking just that learning back to make a new product for ourselves.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah, yeah. We spend a lot of time in cars because many of these manufacturing facilities are way out of the big cities. So we may have a two hour car ride to get there. And so that car ride is sometimes fun and sometimes sleep time and sometimes.

[Liz]

Work time, sometimes karaoke time. I saw on Instagram.

[Taryn]

I don't know who instigates that, but yeah, Patrick and I just got the chance to travel for the first time together. And I think traveling with your co workers is a unique experience because, you know, this isn't like a little two night getaway. We were together for about 14 days and.

[Liz]

Long days, long days. You've seen the schedules like you guys are on for a long time.

[Taryn]

You really get to know your, your people. But yeah, we, on this last trip we actually ordered a microphone and Karen Mooney was with us. She had, she always travels with a speaker and she is our dj. She was our DJ and had our music on for us. Then we, we did karaoke at the end of the day.

[Caroline]

Yeah, These are not especially glamour strips.

[Taryn]

No, no.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. We like to say close toed shoes. So you're not on the beach and you're not on vacation. You're going to, you know, a facility where products are being made and there's some danger in that facility. They're using heavy machinery. Sometimes, sometimes you know that you have to be quiet because they're doing a hand process that involves concentration. So you're getting dirty, you're seeing how things are made.

[Taryn]

You're sweating a lot.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. There's a lot of heat involved.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

And you look for times where you can also have a little bit of a break and a little bit of fun because you're together from 6:30 in the morning for breakfast until sometimes 10 or 11 o'clock at night. So you have to get to know your friends and your coworkers pretty well.

[Taryn]

And hope that your coworkers become friends. I guess though, you do get kind of home and you're like, all right, well I've seen enough of you, so we're done. Thank you so much for your time.

[Caroline]

Oh my gosh, that's funny. So, okay, yeah, tell us some. I love, I like the story about the hand on rug. Are there other, I guess maybe specialties around the world that people may not understand? Like, I know we've, we talked a little bit about natural fiber rugs as an example. There's particular materials that come from particular places. So kind of paint a picture for us for that.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yes.

[Caroline]

Even in, even in the US too.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

So that's one of the things that we really like to lean into because you're going to get efficiency, number one, if you're going somewhere where a specific. A specific raw material is located.

[Caroline]

Right.

[Taryn]

And you're also getting the efficiency of generally, the people working on your product have a clear understanding of that material. So all of that helps with pricing and quality, sustainability in some cases as well. So. Yeah. Natural fiber rugs, for example, that's a big industry in South India. That's where a lot of the natural fibers are coming from. So typically you lean into going there because that's where the raw material is. Yeah. The same with, like, coir mats. That's a big region for that. I was telling Caroline and Liz that they're actually made from coconut husks. I don't know if a lot of people know that.

[Caroline]

I did not.

[Taryn]

Yeah. So other things, like pottery, we do a lot of pottery. Our ceramics that are, you know, once again thrown by hand, glazed by hand. We're doing that over there. What else? Oh, rattan. We have a big collection right now, the Newberry, where it uses a lot of rattan. And rattan is a natural material for the Philippines. So, you know, we go there for that sort of material as well, because the material is there and they have a clear understanding of how to use it in a way that produces great quality product.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And, you know, even the United States, we work with a lot of fabric mills for our fabric by the yard program and our custom upholstery. And those fabric mills are all based in the North Carolina. South Carolina areas where, you know, that industry has existed couple of hundred years, and we do a lot of upholstered furniture. All of our custom upholstery is done in North Carolina, which is known for the quality of handcrafted upholstery made in America.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

So it's really interesting to see, you know, which region of which country is best at doing a certain technique or a certain type of production.

[Caroline]

Yeah. Well, I do love that about our upholstery because it is made to order. And I think, you know, when you're on a website and you're shopping for something, it's not always clear to you, like what. What the production process is. You know, we don't have, like, all. We don't have that chair and all 300 fabrics just sitting in a warehouse. We have to send the fabric to the manufacturer and then they create it for you. Yeah, specifically. So we couldn't do that overseas. And the artisans and craftsmen do it here in North Carolina. I think that's really cool.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And I Think that's something, you know, Ballard is known for and Ballard's really good at is those custom products. You know, we can make upholstery for you in a relatively short window of time, four to six weeks, sometimes eight weeks. But, you know, it's very quick to make something that you choose the fabric on, you choose the design style, you choose the leg finish. And similarly, we make custom pillows and custom drapery panels and all sorts of other types of items specifically made to our customers requirements. And I think that's super exciting and something that maybe our competitors don't do as well as we do.

[Liz]

Yeah. And I think that that's because of our partnerships that we've built over the years with, with each of these manufacturers and their teams.

[Caroline]

What about Europe? I know we have, we have a lot of stuff that we get from Europe, but what are the types of things that are, I guess, special to those areas?

[Taryn]

So we are doing a lot of hand blown Christmas balls out of Poland. That's something that they're really good at. Mouth blown ornaments, both just regular balls and also kind of like decorative. We have some really cute dogs maybe coming out later this year.

[Liz]

They're really cute.

[Taryn]

They're really cute. But yeah, so they're made in Poland. That's an industry that they've been really great at for a really long time. Furniture, of course, wood furniture.

[Patrick Farrell]

Our Casa Florentina line, handcrafted in Italy. You know, this is something that has existed with Ballard since almost the beginning of, you know, Helen Ballard's love of traveling to Europe and finding antiques. And so we've partnered with manufacturers in Europe that can recreate those traditional techniques in the same sort of production, same sort of quality, so that it will last for a generation or. Yeah, maybe more.

[Liz]

Well, I volunteer as tribute to go on that manufacturing trip.

[Caroline]

Yeah, everyone wants to go on.

[Liz]

Everyone wants to go to Florence for that one.

[Patrick Farrell]

Oh, and from my mother country, our new Cotswolds collection of matching fabrics and wallpapers from the uk, which we're so excited to have launched earlier this year and is doing really, really well. The UK has such a rich, deep history of furniture manufacturing and textiles, you know, and pattern making. So, you know, bringing that to life through a partnership with one of our manufacturers in the UK was super exciting for Ballard.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Liz]

And they've been at it for over a hundred years now.

[Patrick Farrell]

Over a hundred years, yeah.

[Caroline]

It's very cool. Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

Literally a cottage industry that supports the whole cottage design style that we've seen such a trend on for the past five or six years.

[Caroline]

Yeah. Your teams have the crystal ball. You always know what is going to be in, you know, coming onto the website in like 18 months.

[Taryn]

So we're already shopping. We're like, we're like, working on projects, and we're like, okay, when does this launch? Because I know I want to own it.

[Caroline]

Yeah, I know. But that's hard.

[Taryn]

Because it's hard. Yeah.

[Caroline]

By the time you can actually buy it something else, there's already something great.

[Taryn]

That'S in the like, oh, wait, you.

[Caroline]

Guys should wait for that one.

[Taryn]

I know.

[Caroline]

Patrick, you were talking about getting the product. It goes into a truck, it goes to the port, it gets on a boat, it gets on another truck, gets on another truck. What about the, like, is there anything, you know, around logistics of a product that you think people need to know? I know that there was a lot that happened during COVID that sort of upended the supply chain, but how is that looking now? Like, have things changed? Is it better? Is it worse? What's going on?

[Patrick Farrell]

You know, I think we face challenges all the time. So the challenge of today is we were traveling at the end of March, early part of April for our sourcing trip, and we came right back into this tariff situation. And, you know, for our listeners that maybe don't understand what a tariff is, a tariff is essentially a tax on a product that comes into the United States. And traditionally, there have been very specific kind of buckets of those taxes that apply to certain codes that the US Customs team uses to determine how to classify that product. And so normally we're used to tariffs on specific codes, but now we're looking at tariffs on everything. So that becomes a challenge for us. It's kind of a creative challenge and a financial challenge of how do we pay for this expense that didn't exist three weeks ago. So we're looking at all sorts of different alternatives and options. But that also has a spillover effect into the supply chain. And what we saw in Covid was a raw material scarcity due to factories that created the raw materials being shut down for a period of time that led to a product scarcity that led to higher shipping rates, that led to a lot of out of stocks. And so we're anticipating this tariff situation will also have a similar effect. It starts with a tax that's applied to the product, and it ends with some supply chain challenges. And so right now we're trying to anticipate what those are and how we navigate our way through those. And we're not in the boat, quote, unquote, by ourselves. Everybody that imports in the US Is in that same boat.

[Caroline]

Yeah. I remember during COVID there was a whole thing about a shortage of shipping containers. What really goes into that? Like, why does that happen? I guess, could that happen because of the tariffs?

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah, you know, we're hearing about it happening right now because of the high tariff rates in China. I just read an article yesterday that said that 60% of the volume coming out of China has halted in the last three weeks. So what does that mean? It means that there's going to be shipping containers in China that would normally come to the United States. And so there's going to be a misalignment of equipment. There's going to be equipment in China that needs to be in the US and equipment in the US that isn't going back to China. And that will certainly lead to some supply chain issues of, you know, different equipment being in the wrong places, different shipping containers being in the wrong ports. And that'll all have to self correct and it'll take probably a year to self correct.

[Caroline]

Yeah, it's definitely something that you don't even think about. And I don't think it ever occurred to me to think about a shipping container until Covid and then because yeah, you, you can't just get them to the other part of the world quickly. It's a month, you know, months process. And you can't also make them just right. Like you can't just make a shipping container one day.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah, they're very expensive to make and you know, it takes a lot of time to make them as well. So it's not like something that can just be, you know, automatically created from scratch. It takes time, it takes money, it takes effort. And similarly, you know, if that equipment, those containers are trapped on the wrong side of the world, then that's going to also cause delays on the US of getting the product from the port to the warehouse and from the warehouse to the customer.

[Caroline]

Right.

[Patrick Farrell]

Because it all has a very big spillover effect.

[Caroline]

And then there's a like supply and demand issue where then the shipping container becomes more expensive because there are fewer of them. So then it costs more to get your good to wherever you're trying to get. Like it just the complications are even.

[Taryn]

The rails domestically, like if things, if channels open back up and things start moving again out of China, once it all gets here, it all has to go to rails to go somewhere else in the US So then now the rails are overloaded with product as well.

[Caroline]

Yeah, yeah. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of like Snowpocalypse in Atlanta, where we have this very delicate system of traffic. And then all of a sudden, everyone is like, okay, you have to go home right now because the snow is coming. And then everyone gets on the road, and then there's a ginormous traffic jam. And so it's like.

[Liz]

And only three salt trucks for the entire city.

[Caroline]

So it's just a very delicate dance that you don't even really think about. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taryn]

I think everyone here is doing anything in their power to help mitigate the impact on our customers, but it's a.

[Patrick Farrell]

Challenge, and it's an unknown, too, because it could all change tomorrow.

[Caroline]

Right.

[Patrick Farrell]

So I think Sarah and I.

[Taryn]

Or an hour.

[Patrick Farrell]

Sarah and I are exchanging IMs all day long. Did you read this? This happened. Did you read that? That happened. And we're trying to anticipate, but, you know, our job in general on the merchandising team is to have a crystal ball and anticipate what the future is. And I think overall, we're pretty good at predicting the future, but there's always something that you can't predict. And right now, we're dealing with the complete unknown. We can't predict what's going to happen. And so it's frustrating. We have to use all the information and resources that we have available to us to kind of keep our ear to the ground and determine what we're going to do.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Taryn]

And it also helps when we talk about how we have good partnerships with our vendors because we're also looking to them for help where we can. So whether that's on holding a container for us while we figure some things out, or maybe giving us a small reduction in price to help cover these additional expenses. Whatever we can do. But once again, because we're. We try to be a really good partner, we get good partnership in return from our vendors as well.

[Caroline]

Yeah, yeah, I know.

[Taryn]

Yeah.

[Caroline]

It's. It's a lot. What a, like, puzzle. It's a very complicated and interesting.

[Taryn]

While it's so challenging, I do think that, like, one of the things I enjoy about what we do is the problem solving aspect. So while none of us want to be in this, it is interesting to really kind of flex that part of your brain every day and figure out, okay, we got this huge thing in front of us. How can I flex my brain a little differently to maybe figure out some small piece of it today?

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. And, you know, our job is to design and produce these lovely Things that we want people to enjoy for years to come and hand down to the next generation. But, you know, we also have to think about all the little tiny aspects that go into making those lovely things. There's a huge technical aspect to it. There's a huge financial aspect. There's a huge logistical aspect. You know, there's testing and quality control and package drops, tests and all of those things.

[Taryn]

Instruction sheets to make sure you assemble.

[Patrick Farrell]

It that I think most people don't think about. You know, when you're out shopping or working with the designer, you're looking for this lovely new chair that you want to put in your home, and you don't think about all those little technical aspects that go into it. And that's what our job is, to think about those things for you.

[Caroline]

And hopefully they have a great experience because y'all have thought through all of those little details like drop testing so that it actually arrives to. To you and, you know, how it's packaged and all of that.

[Liz]

I think that's one of the most wonderful things about working at Ballard is knowing that there is someone at every step of the process that really cares about what we're making together.

[Caroline]

Yeah. And you'll do an amazing job. Thank you so much. Absolutely love it. Yeah. And just always designing such amazing stuff. I actually. That is one thing I love about Ballard, too. Like, the thought that goes into the design process is really so thorough. You know, I remember many conversations where Sarah, Stephen would say, like, I measured to make sure the cereal box would fit in this pantry cabinet. And, you know, can it support my KitchenAid mixer? Or, you know, all of those, like, really very specific and real. Yeah. Like, okay, we designed the shoe cabinet. Can all of my shoes fit in here? And how many pairs of shoes can I fit in here? It's, you know, just really functional and practical choices, but trying to make them as beautiful as possible.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah, that's really cool. I think that level of care spreads beyond us. So after our work is done, you know, you mentioned, we hand over the samples to the photography team. And our creative team does such a lovely job of inspiring our customers, inspiring our designers through the photography and the videos and the content that makes the product really come to life. And you can see how it exists in different rooms, settings, and different environments. And then, you know, think about our web experience and all the people that actually design our website and touch that product, the product's images and the products descriptions, and put them together in a way that appeals, you know, to the final end user.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Patrick Farrell]

And the same thing for our retail team who creates these lovely displays.

[Caroline]

My gosh.

[Patrick Farrell]

Yeah. Are so knowledgeable about how to put together, you know, a room and coordinate fabrics and finishes. And so that level of care and thoughtfulness just spills all the way through the company to the final delivery into somebody's home. And I think that's just what makes Ballard so special.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Liz]

I get so much joy going to each one of our stores. Each one has a little bit of a different flair because of its layout, but they're just. It makes me so happy about what we do.

[Caroline]

And, like, everyone in the store is really happy and excited to be there and gets, you know, excited about the new floor set and all the fabrics and all that.

[Patrick Farrell]

It's cool. Yeah. And I think we're, you know, truly customizing the store to its local environment. You know, we just opened our Birmingham store, and that's truly unique to the Birmingham area. We're working in partnership with other stores and designers that are on the same street that we're on, and we just had an incredible event there last week to just kind of showcase the store and talk to our local design community, and we do that locally across all of the store locations.

[Caroline]

Yeah.

[Liz]

I like us. Yay.

[Caroline]

Well, thank you all. I know you are very busy right now, so we really appreciate you spending your afternoon with us, sharing all the behind the scenes with the audience, because they have always. They always love these episodes, and I enjoy getting to pick your brain. Yeah. So thanks.

[Taryn]

Thanks for having me so much.

[Caroline]

Come back anytime. All right, that's our show. And that's our show. You can find all of the show notes on our blog howtodecorate.com podcast to send in a decorating dilemma, email your questions to podcastallarddesigns.net so we can help you with your space. And, of course, be sure to follow us on social media. AlardeSigns.

[Liz]

Don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcast, so you never miss an episode. And please leave us a review. We'd love to hear your feedback.

[Caroline]

Until next time, Happy decorating.