- I've always had a very inherent respect for somebody who
if they've got $50 at the end of the month
and they've paid all their bills and all of that,
goes out and has an opportunity to buy a product,
and if it has my name on the tag,
I want it to deliver.
(upbeat music)
- At just 24 years old,
Nate Berkus formed a one man design firm,
and set about making a name for himself
in the city of Chicago.
It's now 25 years later
and he's managed to build a design empire.
From product collections to brand partnerships,
and there was one moment in particular that really changed
the course of his career.
You were a young designer and then all of a sudden
you were kind of thrust upon the nation,
thrust into this new stage,
because of Oprah right?
I mean how did that opportunity come about?
And how did you kind of get ready knowing
that what you've done before was all gonna change
from that point on?
- I got a call from Harpo from Jenna Kastelnik.
Then she said, we would like to try to work with you
if you'd be interested in coming on the show,
we have a small space makeover in Boston in the Back Bay.
I need you to bring your plumbers, and your painters,
and your drywallers,
and everyone this afternoon in a truck to Boston
and we'll all meet there tomorrow afternoon
and we can walk through the project.
And I said I'm gonna need to call you back
in like 10 minutes.
So I sat at my desk, I'll never forget the moment,
and I thought there's no way I'm gonna gather
all those people, put them in their trucks,
and require them to go to Boston,
they won't do it.
So I called Jenna back and I said,
we can do this, but we can't use the tradespeople
that I work with here in Chicago.
What Harpo has to do is reach out to a national retailer
that has these people in every major market,
and they need to do a deal with them.
That was actually the formula that we used for 12 years
of Harpo makeovers.
But it was terrific,
and the makeover went really, really well.
And she loved it.
She loved the makeover.
She loved the ideas,
and she picked up my hand kind of like this, may I?
- Yeah.
- She goes "Nate Berkus, remember his name."
And that was the moment.
- [Chris] The Oprah.
- That was the moment.
At the time,
I wish I could tell you that I had all my ducks in a row,
and that I was this brilliant business strategist
and I was like, that was the moment,
I'm gonna capitalize on that,
and I'm gonna do publishing and licensing,
and product endorsements, and I'm gonna travel the world,
and I'm rich.
It wasn't.
At that moment, I was very much in that moment.
And I also made a decision in that moment that no matter
how many times I was invited back to the Oprah show
to do what I loved,
I would always treat it as the very first time.
I never rested on any laurels.
I never changed as a person.
How can I be better?
How can I work harder?
How can I be more creative?
- Your company grew so much after that experience,
what did you learn about yourself as a leader
during that time?
- It was very important to stay consistent and true
to my character as a person.
I'm not perfect.
I would come to work in a bad mood sometimes.
I would get run down and super tired,
but I tried to always be really consistent and really fair,
and really stop and listen to what the other person
was saying and what the problem that was being presented
or the opportunity was really about.
I had a really good group of people around me since day one.
A group that I felt had my best interest at heart,
and would keep me in line when just because we received
a call from a big company that said,
"Would Nate be willing to do this?"
And "This is worth x amount of dollars."
We said, "No" a lot.
The best thing you can do is get out of your own way.
Lead with empathy.
Lead with kindness.
Don't be an asshole that no one wants to meed with.
So we're in my booth in the 1stdibs showroom
in New York City.
1stdibs is the leading global online marketplace
for vintage, antique,
not only home,
but jewelry, fashion, all of that.
This opened a little under a year ago,
and all the things that you see in here,
like these bowls that I brought back from Mexico,
that I had to have.
So basically I sell stuff that I don't want,
that I've moved on from.
And also things that have belonged to clients
that they've either moved,
or they don't wanna keep the things any longer.
- How important is travel to design?
- I think it's the most important thing.
And I think that when people who are just starting out
in design ask me the thing that I find the most important,
about being a good designer, not just a okay designer,
and that thing is references.
And if you can't afford to travel,
you need to be in the library.
You need to be online.
You need to study different cultures.
and what the crafts are from those cultures,
and how you can apply them and mix and combine them
in a way that's very singular
and unique to what you're doing.
(upbeat music)
- You're having this 25th Anniversary of your business,
what have you found to be the key
to longevity and reinvention?
- One thing about the way that I run my business
is that it's not ego based.
There's not one right way to design a room.
There's not one solution to a problem.
There's always a solution in design.
There's a million ways you can sort of cut that pie.
And what I've learned about collaboration,
and what I learned initially about it is that there's more
than one good idea in this space.
Nothing ever goes according to plan.
Our exercise regime doesn't go,
our diet doesn't go according,
nothing, nothing does.
What I've learned in those moments of crisis is that,
that is a really huge part of being in the service industry
and a really huge part of being a creative in that industry.
You have to face it, like just,
you have to step in front of the bus.
And the bus is typically the client's fear, anger,
the situation that you found yourself in.
And you have to own your mistake if there is one.
You have to own the accountability.
You have to be a 100% accountable.
And I've made some very expensive mistakes over the years,
and I have navigated them well.
And I've made some very expensive mistakes over the years,
especially in the early years
where I navigated them very, very poorly.
And I will say no matter how horrible
and fear based that situation is,
there's no way around it.
You just have to go right through it.