We were lucky to catch up with Josh Cox recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Josh thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

The furniture industry is an interesting and ever-evolving beast. In many ways it’s like the fashion industry, or even Hollywood, in that it’s often separated into several groups – involving both “professional critics” and the “regular people.”

We’ve all seen those fashion shows where the clothes being modeled are eye-rollingly eccentric, or the film that scores a 95% from professional critics, but is as dull as a trip to the DMV. In the same way, different people ascribe to different philosophies on furniture design, and furniture trends tend to fall within two main categories – those that appeal to the professional design nerds, and those that appeal to regular people.

Our goal has always been to design furniture with elements of both, aiming to offer details from high-design in approachable pieces that go well with a variety of spaces.

With that in mind, we’re starting to see the slow demise of the “rustic barnwood” that was so popular for the past decade, and see a shift toward pieces with a more unique, and somewhat softer, aesthetic. People are shying away from copious amounts of reclaimed wood, and are opting for pieces with a cleaner feel – often wanting pieces with rounded corners or sweeping curves.

To this end, we have begun to introduce pieces like our Oliver and Huxley coffee tables which cater much more to this soft-edged design trend, and are planning to release a handful more over the next few months.

Josh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For those not familiar with what we do, we are a small-batch furniture shop that specializes in marrying the beauty of natural materials with thoughtful, intentional design. We focus primarily on tables (of any sort), credenzas, dressers, and desks, but do accept custom commissions for pieces that fit within our wheelhouse.

By way of backstory, we started Bricker & Beam in 2014 full of excitement, anticipation, and just the right amount the naiveté of youth. I had been working full time, making furniture and other small goods on the side, for about two years, when I decided to branch out and formally launch the brand. As with most new endeavors, it took a few months to hit stride, but after our first two designs were unanimously well-received (our Evans coffee table, and our Braxton coffee table) I began to hone in on the direction we were to follow.

Before long, we had numerous signature designs that were becoming popular, and we were forced to start growing rapidly to fulfill orders – pieces like our Monroe Console, our DRIFT Coffee Table, our Mobley Console, and others. We had to figure out new things, like how to ship a coffee table to Australia, or how to deliver a 20ft conference table to the 14th floor of an office building. It was one of the most stressful and exhilarating times for our business.

As we continued to grow, we started searching for the most talented craftsmen we could find, and simultaneously looking for a larger space to house all the new smiling faces. We signed the lease on an eight thousand square foot workshop, and immediately hit the ground running – making tables for multiple restaurants on top of normal orders.

Fast forward to today, where we have a super talented team of five of the most talented guys and gals that I could ask for – a team that can truly make anything we ask of them. Every one of our pieces is handmade to order by craftsmen that genuinely love making furniture, and care about the quality and longevity of each piece they create. We routinely ship pieces all over the US, and frequently ship pieces internationally.

Today, we aim to offer high-quality furniture solutions for people that want something truly unique that will last forever. All of our pieces are made from solid wood, and each board is hand-selected by our craftsmen to ensure quality and beauty. Whether it’s a custom dining table for your new home, a media cabinet for your man cave, or even a corporate conference table for your new office – we aim to create pieces that will make a statement.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I’ll start by saying that I by no means have things figured out, but I’m happy to share a few thoughts and tips that have helped us along the way.

With that said, social media is an amazing tool, but one that needs really to be understood to reap the most benefits.

Each platform is different, with different “flavors” or “personalities” and so what works on one may not work on another. It’s important to find the one that works best for your brand, and go all-in on 1-3. Sure, there are some that prefer to try and post all the time on all platforms, but to me this is a losing battle that will lead to burnout. Just choose the ones that you’re gaining most traction with – the ones that make the most sense for your brand -and double down on those.

Be consistent and create memorable things for people to engage with. Give people something to remember you by, and things they can expect on a regular basis.

Be personable and/or have the same person or small group of people posting to maintain continuity. People want to feel like they’re part of the club, or “insiders.” Create a way for them to “take part” – what’s normal and boring to you can be super fascinating to your fans/customers.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Be intentional, take ownership for your mistakes, don’t let people settle for “good enough”, give credit for the business “wins” to your team.

Everyone wants to feel valued. Take time to ask each person about their life, and find common ground. You don’t have to be best friends (and that may get complicated anyway) but a little bit of intentionality goes a long way.

You’re the owner, everything is your fault.

You didn’t deliver a product on time? Your fault – you should have planned better.

An employee didn’t understand the directions you gave them? Your fault – you should have communicated more clearly.

A client is mad because they received an incorrect product? Your fault – you should have had a better system in place.

Are all these things truly your fault? Did you do them wrong? Nope. Is it your responsibility anyway? Yep.

The point here is that everything falls under your responsibility. It’s easy to get mad at someone on the team for screwing something up, but that rarely solves anything – it just drives a wedge between you and that team member – maybe even the whole team. Whenever bad things happen, ALWAYS take ownership of your role first, and then coach the team member from there.

Are there times when a team member just totally botches something and you had nothing to do with it? Absolutely. But it’s important to always look at your own responsibility first, and then address any issues with team members second.

Lastly, do fun stuff. Take the team out for lunch, go play putt-putt, have a (responsible) happy hour – whatever makes sense. Make the team feel like they’re more than just cogs in a machine, and more like valued human beings.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brickerandbeam.com
• Instagram: @brickerandbeam
• Twitter: @brickerandbeam