“I’ve been very blessed and lucky in my career to find people that believe in me and give me an opportunity to do what I like to do.” – Phillip Burton

Phillip’s story starts in finance, chasing the Gordon Gekko dream but it never felt right. He found his stride when he returned to his roots in flooring, carrying carpet samples into leasing offices and learning that the real differentiator wasn’t the product, it was the people who installed it. Listening to him, I realized how often we assume success comes from the thing we sell when in reality, it comes from the people behind it.

“Almost always when we are interacting with a customer. They need it better, faster and cheaper. Usually you can’t get all three together. We try to produce all three but the better part is what we focus on.” – Phillip Burton

The complication in Phillip’s world is that flooring seems like a commodity. Everyone has vinyl plank or carpet, and prices can be compared at Home Depot. However what customers actually want isn’t flooring, it’s peace of mind that their unit will be ready for a resident on Saturday. In property management, the pain isn’t always in the product, it’s in the delays, the unproductive trips and the resident experience when promises are broken.

“If I don’t make your life easier, don’t use me.” – Phillip Burton

Rather than pitching the lowest price or longest list of SKUs, Preferred Floor & Tile positions itself as the easy button. I loved this framing, it reminded me to ask myself in every deal. Am I making my customer’s life easier? Or am I just transferring my complexity to them? Phillip’s standard isn’t about shiny sales language. It’s about operational follow-through that de-risks the buyer’s decision.

“Technology has to play a part but in the end, the service is the value.” – Phillip Burton

Phil explained how laser measuring, scheduling tools and process optimization is changing flooring opened my eyes. Technology is an amplifier not the end product. I’ve been guilty at times of pushing tech as the “solution” but Phillip’s reminder was clear: tech only matters if it helps crews show up on time, makes installs smoother and creates trust. That’s a powerful filter I’ll carry forward.

“Just be authentic to yourself. Show up that way in everything you do and all of it will come.” – Phillip Burton

Phillip closed with a piece of wisdom that landed hard for me. He admitted that earlier in his career, he chased money and status to prove something but his true success came when he stopped playing the zero-sum game and leaned into authenticity. For me, that’s the reminder that “Hell Yes!” moments don’t come from over-promising or posturing. They come from being real, consistent and deeply committed to solving problems that matter.

Action Items & Follow-up Questions

From Phillip’s journey, I walked away with both a challenge and inspiration for my own work:

• Reframe what I sell: am I focused too much on features and products instead of the actual problem solved?
• Ask: how can I make my customer’s life easier today?
• Audit technology use: is it amplifying service, or is it noise?
• Lean into authenticity: where am I negotiating against myself by trying to be someone I’m not?
  

And here are the questions I’m still thinking about, and I’d love to hear your take:

• How do you know when you’re competing on the right factor: price, service or innovation?
• What’s your version of “If I don’t make your life easier, don’t use me”?

Where do you see opportunities to use tech as an amplifier, not a distraction?