When the market around us is being shaken, we should view it as an invitation to look at companies in a way that simply isn’t possible when things are stable. For the companies who are willing to do this, there are tremendous opportunities—I would argue more than we’ve ever seen in our industry before.

• How do customers feel about their journey of researching and buying fireplaces—and what can we do to make that as easy as possible?
• Why don’t we create lead generators on our websites to start turning active web traffic into tangible sales opportunities?
• What would it take for our teams to ensure every customer who visits our showroom leaves with an understanding of which fireplace would work best and a project estimate for what it would cost?
• Where have we been blind to what our customers want because we’ve trusted that the way we’ve done it is the only way?

Questions like this are incredibly difficult to confront when you’re sitting high on the hog. But now that things are being disrupted, we can channel that desperation into humility and ingenuity. Laying aside our ego and acknowledging where we’ve failed, we can seek a new path—the small and narrow one—that many simply miss as they distract themselves with the quest for the next big thing.

And, while it’s not everyone, I’m seeing companies adopt a posture of humility like never before—using fear and uncertainty to ask the difficult questions and confront the brutal facts as they hone and innovate the amazing services they offer for today’s world.

Our businesses aren’t owed new customers, and I would argue that we haven’t earned the right for our existing customers to keep buying from us either—all of that is a gift. Our job is to steward it well.

While things are difficult for many companies right now, I’m seeing pockets of sustainable growth for companies who are willing to humble themselves and ask questions that they may not have wanted to ask previously (I know that this is the case for us).

The uncertainty of the market is a fact. The change in the customer experience is a fact. The impact of tariffs is a fact. Our job is to deal with those facts—and unpack what they expose about our companies.

While many will run like headless chickens with the disruption of the status quo, I believe that there’s a path to sustainability and growth for our industry if we’re willing to hold our preconceived notions with an open hand, leave behind the skepticism and cynicism that stifles new ideas, and do whatever it takes to give our clients—and our team members—lasting value.