Alex Shuford III on 170 Years of Grit, Debt-Free Growth, and Knowing When to Buy

Alex Shuford III on 170 Years of Grit, Debt-Free Growth, and Knowing When to Buy

What does it look like to steward a family business that started with a man who walked home from a POW camp and opened a general store? Alex Shuford III is the CEO of Rock House Designer Brands, the family behind Century Furniture, Hickory Chair, Hancock & Moore, and several other pillars of the American furniture industry. The first Alex Shuford survived Gettysburg, walked back to Hickory, North Carolina, and started trading. His grandson may or may not have won a textile company in a poker game. Three generations later, Alex is running one of the largest private furniture companies in the world—debt-free, by design. Alex talks about growing up pushed away from the family business, buying a struggling fabric store in San Francisco in his 20s, and learning every brutal lesson small business has to teach—writing checks out of his personal account, deciding which vendors got paid that week, laying people off when the dot-com bubble burst. That experience, he says, is why the 2008 collapse didn't break him. He'd already been through it at a smaller, more personal scale. He walks through the disciplined acquisition playbook that brought Hickory Chair and Hancock & Moore into the fold—always taking on debt, always paying it down aggressively, always staying ready to move when others can't. And he shares how Rock House is thinking about AI not as a threat to their craftspeople, but as a superpower for the humans who answer the phone. The prepared are often lucky. Alex has been preparing for a long time. Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.

David Quarles on Seeing Music, Designing Emotion, and Turning Hardship into Joy

What if you could hand your designer a playlist and they could build your entire room from it? David Quarles IV is a multi-hyphenate creative—interior designer, jewelry maker, content creator, and Zumba instructor—with synesthesia and chromesthesia, which means he doesn't just hear music, he sees it. Colors, patterns, textures. A full kaleidoscope. And for David, that's not a condition. It's his design language. He talks about the second-grade teacher who recognized what was happening in his brain before anyone else did, how growing up in a household of musicians, jewelry makers, and perpetual redecorators shaped everything he does, and why he asks clients to make him a playlist before he ever picks a color. He explains color drenching, the emotional logic behind every space he designs, and why he wants people to feel saturated in joy the moment they walk through their door. David also opens up about the corporate detour that took his creativity away—and why losing it gave him a deeper love for it. He shares what's next: Puerto Rico, Studio 417, boutique hospitality, and a slower chapter that, knowing David, won't be slow at all. He only remembers his childhood in summer. No winters. That's the world he's trying to build for everyone else. Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.

Natalie Papier on Why Every Room Starts with a Piece of Art

What if the design philosophy that built your entire career started with a bug up your butt and a blue oil painting from a vintage market? Natalie Papier is the designer behind the book, Start with the Art, lead designer on Magnolia Network's Artfully Designed, and the woman who turned Saturday morning estate sales and a house full of agreeable gray into one of the most recognizable design voices in the country. No design degree. No formal training. Just a crumbling Oak Park Victorian, two napping kids, and a paint can. Natalie talks about growing up watching her dad—a true artist turned contractor—transform a worn-down Victorian by seeing its bones instead of its problems. She explains the philosophy that became her signature: start with a piece of art, pull the colors, and let the room follow. She even asks clients to go into their closets and find the dress that makes them feel like a million bucks. Nine out of ten times, it's a color. She shares what it was like to move to Charlotte two weeks before COVID, build a new client base through Instagram all over again, and why she keeps saying yes to things she's never done before—Airstreams on marinas, a flat in Lisbon, whatever comes next. Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.

Amber Guyton on Soulful Maximalism and Listening to Your Mom

What if one question changed the entire direction of your career? Amber Guyton is the founder of Blessed Little Bungalow [https://www.blessedlittlebungalow.com/]and a designer known for bold color, soulful maximalism, and black art in every space she touches. She grew up in Pineville, South Carolina—a town so small there were no stoplights and her graduating class had 57 people. She had two corporate careers, an MBA, and was climbing the ladder when she bought a house in San Antonio and decorated the entire thing in one week. Her mom showed up expecting boxes. Instead, she found a finished home—and asked the question that changed everything: "So when are you gonna do this for real?" Amber talks about being the kid who begged to paint her room lavender, then blue, then Mickey Mouse borders—always making her space her own. She explains how she gave herself 90 days to launch a blog that became a business, why her first client was a nursery she refused to let pay her, and how she paid off $100K in debt by throwing every side hustle dollar at it for 22 months. She shares what soulful maximalism really means (intentionality, not clutter), why she sees every ceiling and corner as an opportunity, and how supporting black artists became a signature of her work. Now she's expanding into investment properties—dealing with termites, foundations, and roofs—while still doing what she loves most: helping families blend styles and create spaces that feel like home. Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.

From Turning Down TV to Winning It All: Michel Smith Boyd's Unlikely Path

What if everything you needed to succeed was already there? Michel Smith Boyd is a two-time HGTV Rock the Block winner and one of the most recognized designers in the country. He grew up in Thibodaux, Louisiana, a small southern town where he thought his lack of exposure would disqualify him from the life he wanted. Turns out, the architecture he loves, the hospitality that defines his work, and the music that scores every room he designs—it all started right there. Michel talks about being a little gay kid named Michelle in the deep south who didn't have a word for what made him different, just a feeling of not fitting in. He found refuge in magazines, fashion, and a sixth-grade English teacher named Miss Lagard who made him feel seen. He explains how a trip to the D&D Building in New York merged everything he loved—textiles, architecture, presentation—and finally gave him a name for what he was supposed to do. He shares the weight of winning Rock the Block and how it changed his client base overnight, why he turned down TV for years before finally saying yes, and the tension between being a public figure and the private, nurturing designer his brand was built on. Michel wraps with where he is now: no longer chasing traditional markers of success, but feeling empowered to define what's next for himself—without needing anyone's approval. His daily job? To become more of himself. Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.