If you’ve ever wondered whether attending High Point Market is worth the trip, this episode will give you the answer. Rebecca shares her personal journey from overwhelmed first-timer to seasoned attendee, and how market has completely transformed the way she runs her interior design business.

High Point Market isn’t just about pretty showrooms — it’s where you can:

  • Learn the difference in quality and construction by sitting, touching, and testing products.
  • Build vendor relationships that lead to better pricing and service.
  • Stay ahead of design trends and bring back fresh inspiration for clients.
  • Educate clients with confidence and justify your design fees.
  • See firsthand how margins and pricing strategies can boost your profitability.

Rebecca also offers practical tips for navigating the event — from planning showrooms to organizing photos — so you can make the most of your trip. Whether you’re a first-time attendee or debating your next visit, this episode will help you see High Point Market as more than just eye candy.

 

 

episode highlights

  1. Why catalogs and Instagram can’t replace seeing products in person

  2. How attending HPMKT elevates your sourcing and sales confidence

  3. Inspiration overload: how to capture and use it strategically

  4. Building relationships with vendors and reps to support your projects

  5. Using market insights to charge bigger fees and educate clients

  6. Pro tips for staying organized during your visit

 

Episode Resources

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

00;00;00;02 – 00;00;25;19
Rebecca Hay
Helps me make a more educated decision when I’m sourcing, and then as a result, it helps me sell to my clients better. It is truly the best way to understand quality level and construction differences. And these are things that you cannot gain from a catalog from seeing an influencer post. It is not the same thing. You are now doing the due diligence and the research for your clients.

00;00;25;22 – 00;00;57;21
Rebecca Hay
All right. I’m Rebecca Hay, and I’ve built a successful interior design business by trial and error podcasts, online courses. And so many freaking books. Over the last decade, I’ve grown from an insecure student to having false starts to careers. And now I’m finally in the place where I want to be. Throughout my journey, it’s been pretty obvious that I’m passionate about business and helping other entrepreneurs do the same.

00;00;57;24 – 00;01;10;14
Rebecca Hay
Each week, I’ll share tangible takeaways from my own experience and the experiences of other badass women to help you build your confidence and change your business.

00;01;10;16 – 00;01;31;16
Rebecca Hay
Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca, and you’re listening to Resilient by Design. So I want to talk about one of my favorite events in our industry. And that is High Point Market. And if you’ve never been, I want you to think of it like Disneyland for interior designers. Yes. It’s overwhelming sometimes, especially the first time. It’s massive, but it’s inspiring.

00;01;31;18 – 00;01;50;23
Rebecca Hay
It’s a lot, but it can be one of the smartest investments that you would make in your business. Planning to go to High Point. And when I say investment, it doesn’t actually cost you money to go to High Point. It is free, but you need to travel to get there and you need to pay for accommodation. So that part could be an investment.

00;01;50;24 – 00;02;14;10
Rebecca Hay
Here’s the thing. High point isn’t just about walking through pretty showrooms. It can directly impact how you design your projects, how you build your budget, how you educate your clients, and how much money you can make. So listen up. If you thought this was a fluff episode, it’s not.

00;02;14;12 – 00;02;35;18
Rebecca Hay
Okay, so let me take you back to my first market. I went with a group of designers because I was afraid to go on my own. My designer bestie, Jessica Kelly Design was with me. We got there and I was like, Holy heck, this place is massive. They give you, like, the booklet with all of the showrooms. It’s like, I don’t even know where to start or where to go.

00;02;35;22 – 00;02;56;18
Rebecca Hay
And as a Canadian, I can tell you I hadn’t even heard of most of the brands. I didn’t know brands at all because where I would shop in Toronto were retail stores, and the retail stores don’t advertise. That’s a Hinkley Light, that’s Hudson Valley lighting. I didn’t know anything. My first trip to High Point was an education on steroids.

00;02;56;20 – 00;03;19;13
Rebecca Hay
I learned, first off, the names of so many of the products that I had been using in my design projects, or so many of the projects that I had seen in showrooms lighting, furniture, you name it, carpets. And then I was exposed to things that I’d never seen before. I was blown away. The scale of the showrooms, the scale of the whole market.

00;03;19;20 – 00;03;34;21
Rebecca Hay
Honestly, it felt a little bit like being a kid in a candy store, right? It was like, oh, look at that. Oh, what about that? And I took thousands of photos like, oh my God. I had no system, by the way. I just took a million photos. And then later when I look back, I’m like, what showroom was that and where did I see that?

00;03;34;22 – 00;03;58;27
Rebecca Hay
Like, I was just not so. However, fast forward to my later visits. Years later, I realized market isn’t actually just eye candy. It can be a strategic opportunity for you to improve your business. I started to go to market. Every time I would go, I had a plan and not the same plan every time. And really, depending on where I was out of my business.

00;03;59;00 – 00;04;25;27
Rebecca Hay
And that’s when it started to make a difference in my project. So let’s talk about why high point market matters for designers. Sourcing. I think this goes without saying, but I’m going to say it. You can touch and feel and test products before recommending them to clients. You know that in today’s world, the showrooms in your geographical region are not carrying samples of every single item that’s on their website.

00;04;25;29 – 00;04;44;14
Rebecca Hay
It’s not like it used to be. You can’t see, touch and feel everything, even if you go to Crate and Barrel. What they sell versus what’s on their showroom floor is not at all representative like it’s the what’s on the floor is not representative of their website, and they might have fabric samples and things like that, but you get what I’m saying.

00;04;44;17 – 00;05;04;17
Rebecca Hay
And the reason I also picked Crate and Barrel, because it’s commonly known, is that when you go to market, you start to see, and this is one of the coolest things you see. Oh, they supply Crate and Barrel. Oh, they supply Pottery Barn. Oh, they supply McGeehan Co, you start to see which brands go to some of your favorite retailers.

00;05;04;20 – 00;05;23;20
Rebecca Hay
It is a very eye opening experience. So when you go you can sit in things, you can touch them, you can feel and I can tell you not all brands are created equal. Not every company at market is made with the same quality. They’re also not all at the same price point. And then you’ll see things that are at the same price point but varying quality.

00;05;23;20 – 00;05;40;21
Rebecca Hay
And that’s why it’s so valuable to go. So when you’re there, you don’t necessarily need to see market as an opportunity to go and select product for clients, although you could do that if that’s your intention. You could say, I have a project, I’m going to go on. I’m going to source for that project. You go, you connect with the showroom reps.

00;05;40;27 – 00;06;03;15
Rebecca Hay
They’ll pull the list for you like they’re super handy. They have these automated scanners that you can take around most showrooms on everyone. And you would scan it, and then it’ll just create like a shopping list for you that then they can email to you. They can send you pricing. You could do that specifically for a project. But what I like to do is more understand the brands and sit in things and test them and see what I like.

00;06;03;15 – 00;06;21;20
Rebecca Hay
So that when I get back to Toronto and I’m starting to source using the online catalogs, I’m like, oh, I sat in that chair. Yeah, that wasn’t very comfortable. Or oh yeah, that had a really high back that was weird. Or oh yeah, that fabric. I really like the feel of that fabric. And so it helps me make a more educated decision when I’m sourcing.

00;06;21;23 – 00;06;47;06
Rebecca Hay
And then as a result, it helps me sell to my clients better. It is truly the best way to understand quality level and construction differences. And these are things that you cannot gain from a catalog, from seeing an influencer post items in their home. It is not the same thing. You are now doing the due diligence and the research for your clients.

00;06;47;09 – 00;07;19;01
Rebecca Hay
It also allows you to charge those bigger fees to your clients because you can say, I’ve done this research. I’ve gone to High Point Market, which is the industry’s largest conference, and showrooms hundreds of thousands of square feet. It gives you a leg up as a designer. The next thing I want to say, which is why I believe high point matters for designers beyond the sourcing and seeing and touching and feeling and understanding the quality of the products and learning the brands, all of that honestly pure inspiration.

00;07;19;04 – 00;07;45;21
Rebecca Hay
It’s just really nice to go someplace where you can see, touch and feel and you can get inspired by something you haven’t seen before. Because let’s be honest, that doesn’t happen a lot. The showrooms there are styled like dream homes. You could pick up layering ideas, color palettes, maybe space planning tricks, details, a topstitch on a sofa you wouldn’t have thought to do the use of fabric in a certain way.

00;07;45;24 – 00;08;08;07
Rebecca Hay
Area rugs, styles that you didn’t even know exist. You see what the hot trends are. You see the new lines. A lot of these showrooms will collaborate with celebrity designers or influencers, and they will announce the new furniture line at Market. I remember being. There are a few markets ago. Julia, of course, loves Julia. She was launching a line when she was there.

00;08;08;09 – 00;08;32;01
Rebecca Hay
Then there was also. Oh, God, there’s another line up, Amber interiors. I went to see her launch of her line with four hands. Got to meet her and got to chat with her, but also got to see what was coming from her line with them, touch and feel it and decide if it was something I would want to source and specify for a client, and also just get inspired and say, hey, I love how she use the curve here on this hutch.

00;08;32;03 – 00;08;55;04
Rebecca Hay
Or look at that headboard. Isn’t that neat and different? And you can take those pictures back. You can use them in your mood boards. You can use them to inspire you to create something custom, which truthfully, as a Canadian is what I typically do, or I’m not typically ordering wholesale because it’s just a little bit different up here, and it’s a lot more of an investment and you need more volume and you need higher price points and all the things.

00;08;55;04 – 00;09;10;05
Rebecca Hay
And I have great custom suppliers here in the city that I’ve been using for years. And so what I would say is I take it to my customer upholsterer and say, hey, can you do a headboard like this? And he could do it for me, even if you don’t purchase anything, because I’ve never once purchased anything at market.

00;09;10;05 – 00;09;26;22
Rebecca Hay
So I don’t want designers to think I don’t have any money to buy things for my clients. That’s not what market is for, in my opinion. I know there are some designers who treat it that way. There are retailers who go and they are sourcing all the products they’re going to sell on their store. That’s a whole other use of market.

00;09;26;22 – 00;09;46;14
Rebecca Hay
If you are a retailer or if you have a retail store. But just for inspiration, I have gone where I’ve said, I just want to be inspired. If I look back at that first trip in market, it was really twofold. It was education because it was like, whoa, I didn’t know anything. But really, more than that, it was just inspiration because I really had no intention.

00;09;46;14 – 00;10;15;07
Rebecca Hay
I wasn’t sourcing for a particular project. I really wanted to come back feeling inspired and in the know, and that’s what I find. High point is the best for an admin. I’m going to talk about the people, but not only are you meeting people and seeing what people are doing and talking to them, but you are seeing what is the latest and greatest in our industry firsthand so that when you come back, you have a renewed sense of excitement and you can talk to your clients, say, oh, this is these are the hot trends that are coming this year.

00;10;15;07 – 00;10;34;16
Rebecca Hay
This is was all over market. There was tons. I remember one year I was like, everything was wicker, you know, and wicker was making a big comeback. And I was like, oh my God, there’s baskets galore and there’s wicker. And I’m so excited about it. You will leave buzzing with ideas. The third area that I think it’s really important to point out about market and why it matters, is the networking.

00;10;34;18 – 00;10;59;07
Rebecca Hay
This is where you get an opportunity to connect with other human beings in your industry. And I don’t just mean like make designer bestie friends, like, that’s nice if you do. And when I go to market, I always try to pick one spot where designers can come and meet, and I am there, and I like to do it early in market so designers can come together and meet and connect, and they might meet someone that they want to then travel the rest of market with.

00;10;59;07 – 00;11;20;23
Rebecca Hay
I find that’s really helpful to find a friend, especially because a lot of designers do go to market alone. But it’s also your opportunity to meet reps. These are the representatives of the wholesalers that are there. You can meet those vendors and meet other designers, plus some of the very best relationships that you will have with vendors. Start in person.

00;11;20;25 – 00;11;54;23
Rebecca Hay
And so isn’t it wonderful to be able to meet that person, connect right away so that when you’re emailing throughout the year, you already are eliminating that element of unknown because you’ve met? And I will also add, for those who’ve never been, when you go to market and you go to a showroom, they scan your lanyard. Your lanyard has your name, it has a barcode, they will scan it and it sends a message through the intro web in their system, and it pings the rep for your region.

00;11;55;00 – 00;12;10;21
Rebecca Hay
Because there are different reps based on region, that rep will come find you, or they’ll make you wait until the rep comes to find you. Sometimes they hound you and it can be a lot. And you’re just like, I just want to walk around alone. Leave me alone. Some of them are hard salespeople, but some of them are just there for information.

00;12;10;21 – 00;12;32;12
Rebecca Hay
They’ll introduce themselves like, hey, I’m Samantha, I’m the rep for your region. Some of them are also reps for multiple vendors, and that happens more in I think, more of the geographical regions that are either rural or more spread out. In Canada. That happens a lot. You’ll have one rep for like all of a province or southwestern Ontario or something, or Canada, depending on the and the company.

00;12;32;15 – 00;12;46;16
Rebecca Hay
But this is where you get to go and meet those people, those reps. Also, there could be companies that you’ve been working with, but you’ve never met them in person. And now you get to go and you get to meet the owner in person. You get to meet your rep in person, the person you’ve been communicating with, it’s really quite wonderful.

00;12;46;23 – 00;13;04;14
Rebecca Hay
The second time I went, I had been using flow decor for all of my table lamps and I love them. They’re Canadian. They’re one of the few wholesalers I that I found initially in my business that I just gave all my business to, and they’ve grown quite a bit, and they have a showroom in the main building at High Point Market on the ground towards the back.

00;13;04;20 – 00;13;21;09
Rebecca Hay
And I went and I was able to meet the owners who had been in email contact with, and it was so wonderful, and they’d even use some photos from my projects in their marketing collateral. And so it was so nice to put a face to a name and make that connection in person. I feel like it goes without saying, but I am going to say this.

00;13;21;16 – 00;13;41;22
Rebecca Hay
You could find your design bestie here. Whether you come to an event that I organize and you get to meet designers who are like minded because let’s face it, if you listen to me on the podcast and you come to the event, you probably have something in common. They’re probably good people, but you also make travel with someone that you don’t know that well and you end up forming a bond.

00;13;41;24 – 00;14;00;11
Rebecca Hay
The people who are with you, who really get the ups and downs of the industry, those are the designers that are going to be there to help support you on your journey. And so that is a really neat thing. Relationships begin. They’re formed. They’re strengthened. I think it was one of the first trips I ever went on with my designer bestie, Jessica Kelly.

00;14;00;14 – 00;14;22;17
Rebecca Hay
It was our first time where we got to, like, be together for three whole days and talk shop all day, every day. It felt like a dream. And the city we would meet for coffee. You get an hour or two hours or a phone call, but it was never enough. At market, you can talk about the interior design business and industry as much as your heart desires.

00;14;22;19 – 00;14;45;06
Rebecca Hay
Finally, I would say, and I did mention this earlier, but I do want to give this more emphasis. What my market matters as a designer is it provides you with education. High point. Yes. It’s inspirational. There’s people there. You can shop, you can take pictures, you can see what’s going on. You can go to lectures, you can learn.

00;14;45;08 – 00;15;13;09
Rebecca Hay
There’s podcast panels. There’s a tort. Like there’s all kinds of things to do. There’s music, there’s live entertainment, but it’s also about learning. And so some of those entertainment in the form of panels or going to the main stage to hear a talk, is actually quite educational. I did a panel a couple seasons ago at Chelsea House, and we talked about money, and I had three incredible celebrity guests.

00;15;13;09 – 00;15;34;15
Rebecca Hay
You guys are gonna have to go back and listen to that episode. Episode 256 live from High Point Market Money Matters. Expert tips from a profitable business. That was an incredible panel. Dino Holland was on that panel, Rene Barbieri was on that panel, and Jaime Mérida, and we had a really lively conversation about how to make money in the industry.

00;15;34;19 – 00;15;59;03
Rebecca Hay
So that’s just one example. I’ve also been to the mainstage where I saw Bunny Williams talk, and she gifted her book, her beautiful coffee table book, to everyone. There are so many wise mentors that show up, teach, and are there to help you that you can learn about business as well as you can learn about product. Of course you can learn about the construction of product.

00;15;59;03 – 00;16;22;26
Rebecca Hay
Your reps are going to educate you. You’re going to understand and learn the process for importing. If you’re in Canada or simply purchasing wholesale, what does that look like? What are the margins? You can actually get a better price when you buy in bulk. Like all of that is part of your education. You can also learn from other designers about pricing strategies, process marketing, whatever is relevant to your business where you are at right now.

00;16;22;26 – 00;16;49;09
Rebecca Hay
There is always an event or a panel that you can go to to further your business. Education. Even if just one session gives you a light bulb moment that helps you in some way, it is worth it. I also want to talk about making money and how high point market can help you with that, because I believe that high point is like your budget classroom, you’re going to see what a $2,000 sofa looks like versus an $8,000 for.

00;16;49;12 – 00;17;09;23
Rebecca Hay
You can compare across vendors in real time. You can literally go it can be dizzying. It’s like, oh my God, how many more posters do I need to go through? Like they are all starting to look alike, but if you pay attention, there are subtle nuances and differences that make one more money than another one. All of that knowledge is going to army with the confidence.

00;17;09;25 – 00;17;36;21
Rebecca Hay
So that when a client says, why is this chair so expensive? You can say, well, at market I saw this exact style range from 1000 to 15,000. And here’s why the investment makes sense. The construction it’s made from this, the fabrics, the quality. This company’s been in business for 50 plus years, their customer service, blah, blah, blah. Whatever it is, it isn’t about selling.

00;17;36;27 – 00;17;54;27
Rebecca Hay
And this is something that I learned early on when I worked in a restaurant. When I worked at rolls. It’s not about selling. You’re not trying to sell people into buying the expensive thing. You’re trying to educate them. It’s not about selling, it’s about educating. And that’s what’s going to position you as the expert. Sure. Can your client say, yeah, that sounds great, but I still don’t want to pay it.

00;17;54;27 – 00;18;13;21
Rebecca Hay
I’ve had clients say that to me. So like I see the value, but I don’t have the money. That’s going to happen. But eventually you do this enough times, you’re going to find that the clients are saying yes and yes and yes, because you are so confident in your knowledge of the product, and that is where you are going to be able to start making money.

00;18;13;26 – 00;18;38;17
Rebecca Hay
You’re also going to see the money that can be made, because you’re going to see the wholesale prices of things. Guys, you’re going to see what it actually costs. If I were to buy something wholesale at whatever tier level, I pay this here’s the mSRP, the suggested retail value. Wow. If I resell this product to a client and I keep my discount, wow, I could make a $1,000 on one sofa.

00;18;38;19 – 00;19;01;14
Rebecca Hay
What? It is totally eye opening. And this is why I believe High Point Market will help you make more money. Whether it makes you more confident and educated as a designer so that you can show up more professionally with your clients or you just fully see the value in reselling goods, which I hope everyone listening does, because you’re going to see what things really cost when you go.

00;19;01;16 – 00;19;20;13
Rebecca Hay
And then, a few last practical tips for anyone who is going this fall to market one, we’re comfortable shoes. You’re going to be walking for miles and miles and a lot of standing around. They can be stylish if you want. Everyone wears tennis shoes, trainers if you will. Also, before you go, consider if you know the showrooms.

00;19;20;13 – 00;19;38;02
Rebecca Hay
If you have a general idea. If not, do some research, but pick maybe your top five showrooms in advance that you want to make sure that you go to as a non-negotiable, because you could get caught up in the I don’t want to say rabbit hole, but like, oh, let’s just go here and then market can be over and you’re like, oh my God, I never made it to Cooper Classics.

00;19;38;02 – 00;19;56;06
Rebecca Hay
I really want it to go. I recommend you book appointments with reps if you really want to have a deeper dive. You do not need appointments. That is one thing that I’ve noticed has changed from before the pandemic market to after the pandemic market before the pandemic. It felt to me, you, I was pretty new, but that time with market.

00;19;56;06 – 00;20;13;13
Rebecca Hay
But it did seem to me that you really needed an appointment back then and you really some of the showrooms wouldn’t let you in without one. Post-pandemic, it’s been a little bit more fluid, I think, because market was a little bit less busy and they were really trying to get designers in. And so I’ve noticed the last few times that you can just go anywhere.

00;20;13;13 – 00;20;29;02
Rebecca Hay
You don’t need an appointment. They might want to match you with a rep, but you don’t need one. But if you do have particular people that you want to meet with, I would book those appointments and get those done first thing in the morning so that you can get it over with so that then you can wander or after lunch is a good time.

00;20;29;07 – 00;20;49;24
Rebecca Hay
The only last tip I’m going to share with you here, because I’m going to share, actually, I think it’s one podcast episode or two that I have that’s going to go deep dive into how to prepare for it would be just make sure that when you are there, when you take photos, you always first take a picture of the showroom you are entering.

00;20;49;24 – 00;21;10;05
Rebecca Hay
So there, each showroom has a sign above the door saying their name. Maybe it says dovetail. Take a picture of dovetail before you go in so that you know and your camera roll. Every photo following that goes to dovetail. There are a lot of other designers that will tell you a million ways to organize your photos. Feel free to do those ways.

00;21;10;05 – 00;21;26;24
Rebecca Hay
But the simplest way is that first, take a picture of the showroom door and then sign, and then all the pictures. After that, you’ll know how to find them and know where they’re from, and just take notes if you can. I’m not going to tell you to take notes at the end of the day, because at the end of the day, I’m too tired to do anything so it can feel like a whirlwind.

00;21;26;24 – 00;21;43;07
Rebecca Hay
I’m not going to lie. But if you approach it with the right attitude, with a strategy, you know you pick one event, you’re going to go to my event. Of course, if you want to come to see me, live recording of the podcast, Come Find Me. That’s going to be your highlight for sure. But then you’ll get to connect with other designers.

00;21;43;13 – 00;22;06;04
Rebecca Hay
But you’re going to walk away with new ideas, new connections, new vendors that you can trust, and tons and tons of inspiration. All right, I promised I would share the podcast episodes. I did a roundtable a few years ago with three designers, their designers, who are my power of process alumni. It was called High Point Market. Is it worth it?

00;22;06;06 – 00;22;26;21
Rebecca Hay
Part one is episode 131 and part two is episode 132. So I highly recommend you check out those two episodes, because they’re going to give you a little bit more information. And I also have a resource for you which we will share in the show notes here, which is how to prepare for High Point Market. And you can take it, you can download it.

00;22;26;28 – 00;22;43;02
Rebecca Hay
It’s really helpful. It gives you some of those nitty gritty tips. You know how I like to go really specific on some of my tips of like what to wear, what to pack, all of that jazz. So we’ll share that with you in the show notes. And if you’ve been on the fence about going, just consider maybe this episode is your sign.

00;22;43;05 – 00;22;59;25
Rebecca Hay
Maybe the universe put this episode into your feed this morning because you’ve been wanting to go, but you’ve been waiting for that extra push. If you are planning to go, please send me a DM on Instagram. I want to get you on to a mailing list to let you know. Or maybe do. And I did this last time.

00;22;59;25 – 00;23;13;18
Rebecca Hay
I did like an Instagram group where I just got everybody there so people could connect the whole time. We’re at market and let you know where I’m going to be, where we can meet up. So I’m not kidding. If you are listening and you’re coming to market, I want to see you. So send me a DM on Instagram.

00;23;13;18 – 00;23;25;06
Rebecca Hay
I would love it. All right, that’s it. I’ll see you soon.