I had the privilege of attending the Owner’s Retreat for Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate. It was held in Des Moines, Iowa at the headquarters for Meredith Corporation (the company that Realogy licenses the BH&G brand). It was great to see the test kitchens, studios and people behind creating the Better Homes & Gardens magazine.
Sherry Chris, as many of you know, is the CEO of BH&G Real Estate. I’ve followed BH&G pretty closely because they started that brand the same year that Dan and I started W+R Studios. In her opening remarks at the Owner’s Retreat Sherry talked about how crazy everyone thought it was to start a new real estate brand during those tumultuous times. It took a lot of guts to take that gig, but Sherry was thinking ahead, and she’s a fighter.
Another thing Sherry mentioned in her remarks, and the reason for this post, was that she was going to make a change to their “PAIGE” Core Values. The “I” in PAIGE previously stood for “Innovation”. Sherry announced that was going to change, going forward the “I” would stand for “Inclusion”. She wanted BH&G Real Estate to be the company of inclusion. She mentioned the LGBTQ community and the fact that a large part of the home buying market was hispanic. Inclusion was the future.
I thought about that. It was a small thing sure, but in these highly charged times I thought it also took a lot guts. I wanted to clap, but it didn’t seem appropriate at the time for a vendor in the back of the room to start a round of applause.
So I wanted to do that here.
Rumble Sherry, rumble.
