What's Underfoot: A Flooring Podcast
What’s Underfoot is a podcast about the conversations that shape the flooring industry—before they ever hit the showroom floor.Hosted by Tony Wright, President of American Home Surfaces Group & Commercial USA, What’s Underfoot brings listeners inside candid discussions with the leaders, innovators, and decision-makers driving our industry forward. From manufacturers and suppliers to retailers and thought leaders, each episode explores what’s really happening beneath the surface of today’s flooring business.This isn’t sales talk or surface-level trends. It’s an honest perspective on relationships, strategy, innovation, and the challenges—and opportunities—facing independent dealers in a changing mark...
Building Through Uncertainty: Entrepreneurship, Technology, and the Future of Estimating with Maksim Nazarchuk
In this episode of What’s Underfoot, Tony Wright sits down with Maksim Nazarchuk, founder of Modern Estimates and the MEasure platform. Maksim shares his unconventional path into entrepreneurship, from studying in the medical field to building construction and installation businesses, and eventually launching a technology company serving the flooring industry.
The conversation explores the lessons that come from starting and scaling businesses, learning through failure, and adapting when life takes an unexpected turn. Maksim also discusses how technology and AI are beginning to reshape how customers research projects, how companies respond to leads, and how businesses ca...
Solving Flooring’s Workforce Shortage with Kaye Whitener | FCEF
In this episode of What’s Underfoot, Tony Wright sits down with Kaye Whitener, Executive Director of the Floor Covering Education Foundation (FCEF), to discuss the skilled labor shortage impacting the flooring industry.
Kaye shares how FCEF is building career pathways, recruiting the next generation of installers, and elevating the perception of skilled trades. She also reflects on her personal journey in the industry and why workforce development has become a mission-driven focus of her leadership.
This is a conversation about responsibility, opportunity, and the future of flooring.
People Over Process: Scott Humphrey on Leadership & the Future of Flooring
In this episode of What’s Underfoot, Tony Wright sits down with Scott Humphrey, CEO of the World Floor Covering Association, for a candid conversation about leadership, legacy, and where the flooring industry is headed.
Scott shares the lessons that shaped him — from working in his father’s carpet mill to 25 years at Shaw Industries, and ultimately leading the WFCA. He reflects on a defining leadership failure, why “people matter more than process,” and the tough decisions that test great leaders.
They also discuss AI’s impact on flooring, rebuilding manufacturer–retailer relationships, and the workforce chal...
What's Underfoot: EP. 1 - Scott Maslowski, Daltile
Great leadership isn’t built overnight. It’s shaped by experience, perspective, and the lessons you learn along the way.
In the inaugural episode of What’s Underfoot, host Tony Wright, President of American Home Surfaces Group & Commercial USA, sits down with Scott Maslowski, Executive Vice President of SSC Sales & Operations at Daltile, for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, growth, and the human side of the flooring business.
Scott reflects on the career moments that shaped how he approaches customers and teams today, what he’s learned since his early days in the industry...
