Up to 13 homes each week in five cities across the country are furnished and decorated with care, love, and empathy thanks to Humble Design. In 2009, Treger Strasberg created this nonprofit and established a system to help thousands of veterans, women, children, and families stop the revolving door of homelessness. The belief is simple: individuals emerging from homelessness deserve to come home each day to a clean, friendly, and dignified home.  

I can’t think of a more beautiful way to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving than by realizing we are all so incredibly blessed. And the responsibility and privilege that comes with that blessing is giving back to others through corporate social responsibility. What is corporate social responsibility? How does the 99% success rate of Humble Design really impact a family and a community? Hear all that and more in today’s colorful conversation. 

In this episode, we cover:

• What corporate social responsibility is 

• How Humble Design got started and what work they do 

• What the 99% success rate of Humble Design actually means for families 

• Hear some of the touching stories of Treger’s clients 

• How corporate social responsibility and give back opportunities help with employee retention 

• 3 ways to work with Humble Design as a designer 

• Reasons you should consider being a part of this dignity and design solution 

• The ripple effect of families having stable environments (for jobs, kids in school, etc.) 

• How having a beautifully designed space of their own creates success for homeless individuals 

• How designers can impact their own communities with volunteer & nonprofit opportunities 

• Reasons business owners should get involved with corporate social responsibility organizations 

• What a Day of Joy looks like with Humble Design 

• How to work with other contractors on a design project to give back to your community 

• How you differentiate yourself & your firm by leaning into corporate social responsibility .

What are you feeling most inspired to do to give back to your local community? Share with us on social! It would mean the world to us if you shared this episode on Instagram and tagged us. 

More about Treger Strasberg  

Back in 2009, Treger Strasberg did not plan on establishing a system that would help thousands of veterans, women, children, and families to stop the revolving door of homelessness for them. She just wanted to help a friend in need.  

To date, Humble Design has furnished over 3,200 homes for over 9,100 hard-working moms, dads, kids, and veterans exiting homeless shelters.  Families who have benefited from the home furnishings from Humble Design have had a 99% success rate of remaining in their homes. Humble Design was born of the belief that families emerging from homelessness deserve to come home each day to a clean, friendly, and dignified home. Today, up to 13 homes a week in 5 cities across the country are furnished and decorated with the same care, love, and empathy that her very first client received. 

Links and Mentioned Resources

Humble Design 

Fast Company article 

Humankind by Rutger Bregman 

Connect with Treger Strausberg

Instagram 

Facebook 

LinkedIn 

Connect with Katie Decker-Erickson

Book Your Coaching Strategy Session with Katie!

Business Coaching for Interior Designers

Facebook

Instagram

Subscribe to Colorful Conversations with Katie Podcast

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

More about Colorful Conversations with Katie

Welcome to “Colorful Conversations with Katie”! Join us for a vibrant webcast where we seamlessly blend the realms of design and business in a fun and professional setting. Available on YouTube or any of your favorite podcast platforms!

Hosted by the dynamic Katie, a seasoned expert with nearly 20 years of experience in both fields, this engaging series promises to ignite your creative spark and sharpen your entrepreneurial acumen. From exploring the latest design trends to uncovering strategies for building successful ventures, we dive deep into the colorful world where aesthetics meet profitability.

Whether you’re a budding designer or a savvy entrepreneur, this webcast is your go-to source for inspiration, insights, and a dash of lively conversation. Tune in and let your imagination, business and life take flight!

This post may contain affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on my site at no additional cost to you. 

This episode of Colorful Conversations with Katie is brought to you in partnership with Leah Bryant Co.

The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of the Colorful Conversations with Katie podcast follows

Katie Decker-Erickson (00:00.802)

Hi Trigger, welcome to the show.

Treger Strasberg (00:02.781)

Thanks so much for having me.

Katie Decker-Erickson (00:04.65)

We are so excited you are here on this day after Thanksgiving episode to specifically talk about giving back. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be buying things this Black Friday and they're going to go, why did I buy that? And then they're going to have to get rid of things. And needless to say, this is why we wanted you on the show to talk about how giving back is not a not only not a bad idea, it's a win-win for the organization receiving and also for our firms. Whether we're a solopreneur or you have a big firm.

The term is corporate social responsibility and it has so much value to what we do and to what you do. So let's start with what you do. Tell us about Humble Design because we're so excited to find you guys.

Treger Strasberg (00:45.757)

So Humble Design is a non-profit. We furnish homes for families who are leaving unhoused situations coming from homeless shelters, veterans, families, children aging out of foster care, and usually they move into their first home or apartment and are sleeping on the floor. So what we do is we provide everything that family or individual would need to restart their lives by way of decorating and furnishing their entire place.

Katie Decker-Erickson (01:09.738)

which I absolutely love, and you have a ridiculous success rate, 99%. Is that really true?

Treger Strasberg (01:15.961)

It is really true and it's kind of hard to get our head around and we can talk about what that means and why us and why that is so successful, but there's a lot of different theories on that.

Katie Decker-Erickson (01:18.158)

That's incredible.

Katie Decker-Erickson (01:27.254)

That is interesting. Let's go down that path for a minute. Why do you think? Because a lot of people would say, oh, that's so great as designers. You're going to give us a painting, or an extra bed frame, or something that came in with a little ding or a scratch. And it's not just that. You're fundamentally actually changing the outcome of someone's life. Tell us about that.

Treger Strasberg (01:48.093)

Yeah, and people, well people don't, some people have great value to the things that they're giving away, which is why it's so hard to give away your kid's crib or your grandma's Thanksgiving table, but most of the time when we're giving stuff away to Salvation Army, Goodwill, the Veterans Association, we don't really, we're ready to let it go, right? We're ready to Marie Kondo it, like get it out of my life. But.

Katie Decker-Erickson (02:07.954)

Yes. Oh, I love Marie. Now you're speaking my language. Yes. Goodbye.

Treger Strasberg (02:12.645)

Doesn't bring me joy. Goodbye. But really that item is somewhere in the United States somebody really needs that in that moment and it would It would be impossible to be able to purchase that with their current condition and where they are and so what

is not built in this country yet, which we're trying to do is that bridge between what you no longer need and what someone really does need. And we haven't changed that bridge since World War II and Salvation Army and Goodwill, but there's so much more stuff now. So I would just say that it's not just furniture, it's not just stuff. It's actually a foundation for a...

Katie Decker-Erickson (02:39.554)

Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (02:45.419)

Yes, there is.

Treger Strasberg (02:52.317)

a better life and stability and moving from short-term temporary emergency thinking into long-term planning and processing. So, we have, for your listeners, we have a 99% success rate of families who stay in their homes and according to HUD, which is the national numbers, about 50% of families go back into homelessness within 12 months. So we've had articles written on us by Fast Company and we've had some...

data sets done, like why is this working and why does this actually put a foot in the revolving door of homelessness? And it really comes down to, if I can be succinct, it comes down to empathy and dignity and finding pride in where you live. And designers know this intimately. They can live this.

Katie Decker-Erickson (03:23.473)

Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (03:32.942)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (03:39.274)

Absolutely, I mean we talk about that so much when we talk ontological design. We are not just designing spaces, but spaces are designing us back and science shows over and over again people rise to the level of their surroundings. And so when you can give them that space and to your point give them the dignity and the empathy and see them as someone who yes, you deserve a home and we're gonna give it to you. They rise to the occasion and that is an amazing thing to watch happen if you've never seen it. It is breathtaking to watch.

Treger Strasberg (04:09.253)

We treat all of our clients just like that, just like interior design clients, and we ask them all the same questions. What do you like, and what do you see in your home, and what do you wanna use this room for, and what do your kids like, and what are they into, and what's been your dream, and do they have asthma, and all these questions, instead of, when we meet our families who come directly from the homeless shelters, they are expecting little to nothing, and so when we see them, their shoulders are rounded, their chin is down,

Katie Decker-Erickson (04:17.314)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (04:25.91)

Mmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (04:32.383)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (04:39.547)

by the emptiness of the place, they've had the worst year of their life. 84% of our families are single moms with kids because that's what's in the shelters. That's not who we choose, that's just what comes to us. And so the mom is usually like meek and quiet and embarrassed, but after we come in, three or four days later, we ask the family to leave. We move everything in with volunteers and we introduce them back into their space, almost like a move that bus moment.

Katie Decker-Erickson (04:44.195)

for real.

Katie Decker-Erickson (04:51.97)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:08.803)

I love it.

Treger Strasberg (05:09.087)

to come back in and you can see the chin goes up, the chest comes out, the shoulders are back, and all of a sudden there's pride in your surroundings and the first thing out of most people's mouth is who they're going to bring in. They wanna call their mom, their cousins, their aunts, and show them their house, because not only is it fully furnished, but it feels like them. It feels like somebody saw them and then gave them what they could have if they had the resources to build. And that is probably more

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:13.902)

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:24.981)

Oh, yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:30.803)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (05:38.987)

important than just the bed and then just the table. It's feeling seen and I think that's just a fundamental truth with all designers.

Katie Decker-Erickson (05:46.982)

I so agree with you. I feel like you see it on a much grander scale, because that's our goal, right? But when you start at nothing, and then you get someone listening to you and giving you your everything, I cannot imagine how many tears and how much joy and how many emotions go along. And back to Thanksgiving, the immense amount of gratitude these people must feel and how fulfilling that must be for you and your team.

Treger Strasberg (06:15.479)

But the gratitude that I feel to be part of their story,

Katie Decker-Erickson (06:16.852)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (06:22.525)

When we go in, I tell people don't say thank you because we're so grateful to come down and be and show you that your community cares about you and be able to do this. Like thank you for allowing us into your space, into your heart, into this hard time in your life and you've worked all this time to be to get this place. It's really hard to get out of a homeless shelter so you've done the hard work. We're just here to celebrate you and honestly like I don't know.

Katie Decker-Erickson (06:30.254)

Hmm

Katie Decker-Erickson (06:41.661)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (06:47.165)

who gets more out of it, the client or me, because I have done, we're gonna be coming up on our 10,000th client soon, and I cry, I ugly cry, every single time.

Katie Decker-Erickson (06:55.223)

Oh, that's so exciting.

Katie Decker-Erickson (06:59.63)

I ugly cry. Yeah. I love that. Well, and I think that's what's so interesting when we talk about corporate social responsibility. I think a lot of people think, wow, that's a really heady term. And

Oh gosh, like where do I start with that? And what does it mean? It just means showing up and caring. Like one thing we've done on our team is we have said to each of our teammates, go find a nonprofit in your backyard and we will pay you for a day's work while you go volunteer. Because it is such a morale booster, it's such a gratitude builder for our team to see what's really going on out there. And not just working from the confines of our computers and our offices and whatnot, but to see the difference you can make.

is huge and not only to your point, not only affects the people we're working with, it's so dramatically impacts us. It is such a morale booster for our internal stakeholders on our team to go, Oh my gosh, that was the best day ever. It's a game changer, which is one of the reasons it's a win. Another reason I think it is a total win is from a marketing standpoint as a company. I think it's very easy as a firm to be so caught in the perpetual

We have this that we need to do, and what are we doing in marketing? What I love about corporate social responsibility is it fulfills itself, and that it will take care of marketing for you. It gives you all of the content. It sets you apart from your competition in a really meaningful way. And it really does add value to your firm, which is a great thing to be able to say to so many designers, because I feel like they're missing that. They see what it's going to take away rather than what it's going to add.

Treger Strasberg (08:38.533)

And a lot of the larger companies that we work with claim that what we do is retain their employees because there are so many young people coming up in the world right now that won't get involved with the company, that doesn't have some sort of presence in their community, it's almost worth more than a raise or than a bonus. And so when you say to the young people coming to the company, like, we also have this added bonus where twice a year we go do this as a team, it actually retains employees in a real way. And then we call it going to the top of the mountain

Katie Decker-Erickson (08:45.093)

Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (08:52.279)

Yes.

Treger Strasberg (09:08.447)

you put everything in perspective. And so when there's little like bits of infighting or something like that, it just removes that. You have a team building exercise where you actually get out of your space.

Katie Decker-Erickson (09:10.9)

Yep.

Treger Strasberg (09:18.789)

And we've had amazing, amazing results from small companies to very large ones that we book these, they're called Days of Joy, which is like exactly what they are. But we did a 360, yeah, we did a 360 and we did all of our clients and we did a 360 and we interviewed them. But then we also interviewed the people who were volunteering. And because we got such a great feedback from what it meant to the people volunteering, we changed our tagline. We changed our, literally underneath our name, it used to say furnishing homes,

Katie Decker-Erickson (09:28.37)

I love it. For everybody. Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (09:48.723)

for the homeless, and now it's togetherness to end homelessness because it's both sides of the equation that are benefiting from this.

Katie Decker-Erickson (09:56.022)

I love this. And you started out back in 09 with no intention of doing this. You're now in five cities.

Treger Strasberg (10:03.301)

Yeah, five cities, 10,000, we're edging up on our 10,000th client, and we've had, I don't know, TV show, and we have like 13 homes a week now that we furnish, it's incredible. It's like, it's bananas. Ha ha.

Katie Decker-Erickson (10:17.418)

It's bananas. So if I'm a designer and I'm sitting here and I'm going, but I take anything that is leftover or that we don't use anymore, or we clean out our warehouse, studio, whatever it is, and we usually give them to a furniture bank. Why not give them to you? Or why should we be giving them to you?

Treger Strasberg (10:37.341)

So furniture banks are great and they're really an old institution in this country, which we need. The difference between a furniture bank and what we do is that, let's just play pretend, that you are a single mom who has come out of a homeless shelter, you've lost your last home, and everything that you own has gone to the curb. Chances are a large percentage of our clients don't have.

Katie Decker-Erickson (10:49.079)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (11:00.077)

a car or transportation or don't have a large enough car to put anything in. So imagine being a single mom with two kids and trying to get a dresser from the furniture bank to your house. Like, it's like learning how to fly. Like how are you going to put a dresser on a bus, right? So then you either have to pay the furniture bank to get it to you or you have to then rent a truck to get it to you. Or the furniture bank gives you a voucher and you get one chair, one table, one bed, one desk. And so you get everything.

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:05.071)

No.

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:10.449)

Mm-hmm. How?

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:15.441)

Yep.

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:22.314)

Mm.

Treger Strasberg (11:29.931)

it is they have, that's kind of what you get. And that doesn't feel at all like something that's going to remain in your house, something that you feel proud of, something that you feel, so you're gonna invite people into your home and you have a chair and a table that don't match, you've got a, you know, maybe a bed and a dresser and a couch that has a stain on it. And you're like, hmm, this doesn't feel like home to me. No, and so it...

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:39.758)

proud of? Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (11:54.494)

Yeah, doesn't feel like home. Yeah, why would I ever stick with that?

Treger Strasberg (11:59.045)

The same stuff in our hands, we're going to wait for the right person who wants that table and who has the matching chairs. And we have designers in there to make sure that it feels dignified. And that's where the dignity and design go hand in hand.

Katie Decker-Erickson (12:04.418)

Mmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (12:14.154)

I absolutely love that, the dignity, not only for the alliteration, but dignity in design. That's absolutely critical. What if our interior designers are listening or watching this webcast and saying, oh, Traeger, I want to be a part of this. I love every part of this. But those five cities, I'm not anywhere near them. I'm in suburban wherever. How do they still get to work with an organization like yours?

Treger Strasberg (12:38.289)

We have many different paths. We have a grassroots organization called Hometown Humble. And it's just for people who want to do good.

Katie Decker-Erickson (12:45.276)

Mmm.

Treger Strasberg (12:47.389)

but who don't have, we have a huge warehouse with thousands of volunteers organizing all of it and who don't have that footprint in their city. So we give you the tools and encourage you on how to just do one family. Let's just say around Christmas, you and your friends wanna get this done. We'll give you the checklist. We'll show you how to get the shelter to make contact with the family that you want to help. We'll show you how to walk you through it because we have not cornered the market on doing good and we don't have any proprietary information that we don't wanna share

Katie Decker-Erickson (13:08.631)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (13:17.363)

I love that.

Treger Strasberg (13:17.463)

everybody in the world to make sure that you can do this even if it's overwhelming the size of Humble. I started my garage, you can start in your garage too. And I recommend it because it does it may not be 13 homes a week but I guarantee you will make a difference to that one person for the rest of their life and you will remember it always. The other way that you can get us to come to your city is to help us.

Katie Decker-Erickson (13:33.825)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (13:43.117)

actually move into your city. So if you have a large corporation or lots of friends who are interested in bringing us there, I will fly in, I will take all the meetings and I will raise the money to make sure that we have a warehouse, a truck and employees to start up in your city. So those are two very distinct paths. One takes a lot of planning and investment. The other one you can just get going tomorrow.

Katie Decker-Erickson (13:45.595)

Oh.

Katie Decker-Erickson (14:05.922)

That's absolutely amazing that you've run the gambit as far as options available to anyone out there, wherever you may be. I love it, Trigger will come find you. If you show an interest, she's gonna show up or get you documentation or go make it happen in some significant way. You know, the human element of this, I think, is everything, especially because when we donate to a goodwill, it's often resold at a profit to someone who wants it. Don't get me wrong. But the idea of giving to someplace that's actually putting together

designed for someone who actually needs it. It really is breathtaking. What are some of the do you have a standout story in your mind that was there a tipping point in the words of Malcolm Gladwell? Was there a tipping point for you when you went this isn't just going to be a one shot wonder and helping this one family from my garage? Or was it further down the road when you said, Okay, I now understand my life's calling. This is what I'm destined to do. And I'm part of a bigger picture. It was a one family like that.

Treger Strasberg (15:04.869)

Yeah, so my favorite families change from month to month because there's always a new story and so I have my current family that is my...

Katie Decker-Erickson (15:11.744)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (15:15.337)

my favorite one right now, my story, but the one that changed me or the moment that changed this from us after school project or a weekend project with friends to... So at the beginning of this, I would gather the furniture in my garage and my friend and I would go through it. We would look at like, I think we have like a three bedroom with a little boy because we have like a crib. So we would call the shelter and we'd say, who do you have that fits his profile? And they would

Katie Decker-Erickson (15:25.505)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (15:38.264)

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (15:44.771)

other families that we don't, you know, that doesn't necessarily fit this, just have them fill out this paperwork and we'll get to them when we get to them. And so we, about a year in, we had a hundred families who had filled out the paperwork that we couldn't get to. That's 400 people approximately that I couldn't help. And so I had a moment and I sat down with my husband, I remember like it was yesterday, and I said

Katie Decker-Erickson (15:52.587)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (15:59.514)

Wow. Ooh, that's heavy.

Treger Strasberg (16:11.813)

either we're in or we're out. And we can invest our money in the market, we can invest our money in real estate, or we can invest our money, this is not gonna pay the same dividends, but it will pay us back in the amount of love and karma and tenderness for our community. So we, is that done?

Katie Decker-Erickson (16:14.645)

Mm hmm. Yep.

Katie Decker-Erickson (16:34.018)

Yep. Those are higher dividends than any real estate investment can give you.

Treger Strasberg (16:39.413)

I have, I mean, if it, you know, money doesn't buy happiness, but certainly this amount, this money that we invested has bought me so much happiness. And so we didn't get any money back out of it. Clearly the opposite, but that small investment that we made at the beginning that helped us grow has...

Katie Decker-Erickson (16:51.984)

Hahaha. Ah... Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (16:58.205)

created multiples of joy. And then I will say, so we started to work on doing one family every six weeks, two family every six weeks, then we got up to one family a week, two families a week, three families a week, and then we spread to the other cities.

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:01.314)

Mm.

Treger Strasberg (17:11.833)

And every time I go and I visit all the cities and every time I go I go, oh well this family is the epitome of humble. I'm going to tell the story and then I get to another one. But most recently I went to a day of joy and the designer gives us the lay of the land. She says at the beginning, okay so this family is made up of a mom and an 11 year old boy. They were living in a tent across from his school so he could go to school every morning and not be late. And they just got their

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:11.929)

Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:20.75)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:24.738)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:32.778)

Mm.

Oh wow. Mm-mm, mm-mm.

Treger Strasberg (17:41.927)

and she is 26 and she's lovely and she's all she wants for the boy. She doesn't want anything for herself, so of course we're gonna get a lot of stuff for her. And the boy's into books and he wants a typewriter and a bow. So okay, so we do this whole house and it's beautiful. And we...the mom and the 11-year-old boy walk in.

Katie Decker-Erickson (17:53.235)

I love this.

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:01.382)

Uh, it's okay. We allow tears around here and you know what? We go down quick with tears. Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (18:02.263)

and she.

Treger Strasberg (18:08.949)

She says, this is amazing, and she gets real quiet, and I said to her, how long has it been since you've had a home? And she says, never. And I go, oh, I know it feels that way, like, uh, that it feels like forever, but like, how long has it been since you've, you know? She said, I've never had a door that locked.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:11.298)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:17.919)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:21.45)

What?

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (18:31.633)

I've never had my own place. I was brought up in a homeless family and we've been living on the streets and on people's floors for 11 years since he was born. And before that I was on my own.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:34.46)

Oh.

Treger Strasberg (18:45.333)

And I...

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:45.598)

I have never heard a story like that. Ever.

Treger Strasberg (18:50.809)

So she has two jobs and she worked very hard to get to where she is and she saved up enough money and now they're in this house. And she doesn't wanna repeat the same story with her son. But people ask me all the time for like, cause I claim to be a motivational speaker, which is like, I don't know, take that for what you will. And so people expect me to come and motivate them. And I said, I'm such a fraud. It's such a fraudulent thing for me to do because I don't understand what that level of.

Katie Decker-Erickson (18:55.789)

Oh gosh, shaker.

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:00.97)

Sure.

Treger Strasberg (19:19.433)

climb is. I don't understand what that level of overcoming is. And so yeah, like we had hard times like and it was hard to get it going and I didn't make payroll for a couple of years and like I have those stories but like I don't know what it is to be homeless for 26 years. I don't understand that so she should be the motivational speaker for me in the morning. And so they walked into their

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:21.098)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:29.377)

Sure.

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:35.762)

No, no. Right. Oh, what a story.

Treger Strasberg (19:44.785)

their rooms and she sat on the edge of her bed and just cried and cried and you know, it's such a raw emotional moment. You feel like, should I leave, should I stay? And so I just usually just sit down next to them on the bed and put my arm around her. And she said.

Katie Decker-Erickson (19:53.302)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (20:02.449)

We're never leaving here and my son will never be homeless. And so she's just hasn't determined now that she's gonna stop this generational poverty and homelessness and I 100% believed her. Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (20:08.494)

Mm-mm. Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (20:16.308)

Yeah.

Yeah, that's absolutely unbelievable. You don't, I think about generational poverty, as we said here, dabbing away. You think about generational poverty, I've never thought about generational homelessness. That's really breathtaking, and it's shocking in so many ways to have a baby, a little boy who's now 11 and has never slept in a bed that's his own. I mean, that's just, that's absolutely breathtaking.

Treger Strasberg (20:26.618)

Ha ha ha!

Treger Strasberg (20:48.038)

But, you know...

Katie Decker-Erickson (20:48.042)

to even think about. I don't think most of us have any context for that.

Treger Strasberg (20:52.513)

It comes along with so many other things like we provide toys and books and like everything that a kid would need but I've never seen a kid go to their toys they go straight to their bed every time because They haven't had a place of their own we put their names above their beds so they know which one the safe space is theirs and it's important because the bed is representative of

Katie Decker-Erickson (20:57.207)

Uh...

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:04.125)

Uh...

Treger Strasberg (21:14.093)

stability and home and a good night's sleep and then for a good day at school and therefore they can have a sleepover for their first time ever, which means socialization. And my son is going to college and he wrote his college essay about an eight-year-old boy when he was eight asking him for a sleepover, a boy who was homeless before, and my son not realizing that he had never had a sleepover before because he's never had a bed before.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:17.741)

Uh...

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:21.161)

Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:29.051)

Mm-hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:34.135)

Mmm.

Treger Strasberg (21:42.529)

and just the loss of like those memories of popcorn and movies and childhood. It just, he never had that.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:42.813)

Oh.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:46.19)

childhood.

Katie Decker-Erickson (21:50.114)

That's just breathtaking. That I can see, wow, yeah, that leaves me speechless. It also makes me entirely realize why you did, what you did, and how you haven't looked back or shied away from the challenges before you to go make this happen. That's absolutely incredible. And I think too as designers, say that again.

Treger Strasberg (22:05.957)

My families are insane. And my families are insane. They are the gift to me, the families that I get to meet.

Katie Decker-Erickson (22:13.314)

Mm-hmm. I love that because we've talked about this a lot We talked about it specifically back on the wingnut podcast with Darla But just saying to so much of what we do is for the top 1% as designers And saying wait a minute. How do we? equalize and provide diversity equity empathy dignity all of these terms

across a broad demographic. 80% of what our firm does is multifamily. And the reality, especially with 8% interest rates, is that for a lot of these people, they're going to be renting for the rest of their lives. Like, homeownership and the American dream of homeownership is quickly becoming a fading thing, at least for the foreseeable future, and arguably for long after.

And so saying, how do we provide a space? How do we create a place that feels like home, whether you're coming off the streets, whether you might never own a home. The dignity of design is something I love that term and I'm going to steal it with your permission. But I think it's so valuable that it's not just the top 1% and there's nothing wrong with being the top 1%, but that we move it down.

through every last tier of socioeconomic status, even those who might be in a car or attend across the street from school. That's an incredible conversation to be able to have.

Treger Strasberg (23:39.517)

Beauty matters and surrounding yourself with beauty, it uplifts, it uplifts your mental health. Having a place that you're proud of and then looking around you at depressing, I mean, really poor neighborhoods are depressing. They're not well built or well maintained. And so when you wake up in a home that feels like you have just a flower in a vase, it is different. It changes, it changes you. And I think that your value, your self-worth and self-value are mirrored and reflected in that.

Katie Decker-Erickson (23:52.011)

Yeah, they are.

Katie Decker-Erickson (24:00.13)

Mm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (24:09.162)

Very much so. What else do you see change for these families beyond their retention and we don't have recidivism or them bouncing back into homelessness? What do you see change for them as far as family dynamics and careers and what, let's flesh out the whole person and how back to ontological design, how and what you're saying, the space doesn't just, we don't design it, it designs us back. How else are these spaces designing these people back for the better?

Treger Strasberg (24:26.642)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (24:37.837)

In the first night, let's just start there, the very first night that after we leave, we walk away, the family has dinner around a table. The night before they were on the floor or in their rooms with the door closed on the floor. So now they're sitting down at the table. We always set the table for dinner because we want to set the stage, right? And think about what happens at a dinner table. You talk to each other, you look at each other, you tell each other about your day. So just like that basic step. Then...

Katie Decker-Erickson (24:46.404)

Ugh.

Katie Decker-Erickson (24:55.789)

Aww.

Katie Decker-Erickson (24:59.041)

Ah.

conversation. Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (25:07.389)

There are families that are sleeping together because maybe there's one bed or one air mattress. So there's like three kids, two kids, and a mom and a bed. So now everybody has their own beds and their own safe space. And then a good night's sleep, I mean, every one of your listeners can understand what a good night's sleep does to an individual, right? And then in the morning, their clothes are in the drawer, not on the floor, not in the trash bag. Their clothes are put away in a drawer, hanging up. So getting dressed for school, getting out to school on time becomes infinitely easier. The pots, the pans, the spices,

Katie Decker-Erickson (25:18.766)

Mm-hmm. Mm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (25:24.394)

Yep, absolutely.

Katie Decker-Erickson (25:30.55)

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (25:37.683)

the eggs are all where they're supposed to be, up in out the door, making it to school, making it to your job. Then let's build out six months.

Katie Decker-Erickson (25:37.831)

Ugh.

Katie Decker-Erickson (25:45.815)

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (25:46.525)

A lot of homeless children have been moved from school to school when they move homeless shelters or when they move they're sleeping on someone's floor. That person gets tired of them crashing there they have to move somewhere else. So they're moving school to school to school. Now they've been in the same school district six months one year. We've had clients whose children have been diagnosed with profound hearing loss but only after they've stayed in the school district for long enough for the teacher to understand what was going on and why they weren't learning. So that matters. Now they meet their neighbors.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:06.667)

Mm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:12.883)

Ah, we get continuity of care. Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (26:16.781)

Now they met their neighbors and they have relationships with their synagogues, their churches, their community services. They have people that they recognize and it changes entire communities. When you stay and you feel part of a larger group, it changes everything. So we've had families who have...

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:21.206)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:25.431)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:29.006)

Hmm... Hmph.

Treger Strasberg (26:36.421)

definitely gotten off government subsidies. We've had families who have increased their education. We've had families who have increased their profitability at work. We've had families who have been able to give back to start nonprofits, which is like, I think that's the pinnacle, right? That's the huge win.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:47.007)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (26:53.022)

Oh my gosh, that's the 360. I mean, that's just life coming full circle right back to where you want it to be. I think that's absolutely incredible. What do you say to the designers out there that may be going trigger? This sounds amazing, but like...

I don't know. It sounds like a lot. Am I going to have to hire more people? Even if we do one family a year, I'm just not sure. And I'm sure you run into these organizations that are just hesitant, because once again, it's very much easy to see what we're going to be giving rather than getting beyond the emotional. What are the brass tax business reasons why? I know we've talked about a couple of them, but other ones that you're missing this, because this will not just help your employee retention.

Treger Strasberg (27:09.725)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (27:37.264)

not just going to help morale. It's not going to help just help team building. It's going to do X, Y, and Z. What are we missing in that list?

Treger Strasberg (27:44.665)

If you're in a city where Humble exists, it's so easy. You sign up, you sign up for a day of joy with your company, we take up to like between seven and 10, depending how large the house is that we're doing, and all you have to do is show up. And then everything is done for you. So the great part about this is that sometimes when you sign up for a volunteer day, you're packing food, which is nice, or you're doing something, but you don't get an interaction with the family that you're helping. It's not really a safe space. So what we do is we've curated this day

Katie Decker-Erickson (27:56.297)

Mm.

Treger Strasberg (28:14.719)

to come in, you don't have to think about anything. We provide all the furniture, everything that you need to actually go in and do it in a couple of hours, and then you get to watch the family walk in and experience that joy and change their life forever, and you'll be changed. And then you get to go home and have a glass of wine, like day over, right? So that is a really fantastic package, wonderful thing that you don't have to think about, that you don't have to reinvent the wheel, right? So if you're in one of our cities, please sign up for a day of joy. It will change you forever.

Katie Decker-Erickson (28:32.854)

Great day.

Katie Decker-Erickson (28:36.799)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (28:44.739)

We have companies with two and three employees, companies with thousands of employees. So anywhere in that gamut. And if you're not in our city, and this is something that you wanna do with your employees, we have a call once a month where I get on, it's called the founder call, and it's a Zoom call like this, and I will just tell you.

Katie Decker-Erickson (28:49.664)

Mmm.

Treger Strasberg (29:00.957)

how to do it and we'll walk you through it and we'll hold your hand. And it is, it's not as hard as you think it is. And for designers, it's even easier because they know where all the furniture is. But I will tell you the dividends that you will get back to your company and to you can film it on your phone and you can ask the family, hey, can I put this on my social media? And if they say yes, like you have written your holiday campaign and writes itself, right? That's all you have to do is just.

Katie Decker-Erickson (29:04.022)

Mm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (29:10.552)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (29:20.534)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (29:26.022)

Yeah, that is so well said. Yes.

Treger Strasberg (29:29.353)

Put that out. And it does it such a heavy lift of showing how invested you are in your community that it's really all you have to do.

Katie Decker-Erickson (29:40.114)

So what if I say to you, Trigger, I want to do joy, or joy, day of joy, that's a mouthful. I want to do a day of joy, but I also have like leftover pieces and all these things. Can I just donate materials to you if I'm in one of these five cities, or I'm happy to hold them back and then work on creating our own day of joy as you've talked about? Do you just take raw material donations from I don't like it, I don't want it, it has a slight scratch, the manufacturer doesn't want it returned? How do you approach items?

Treger Strasberg (29:55.29)

Yes.

Treger Strasberg (30:07.845)

Well, let me tell you, we'll take it all. We'll take all your good furniture, especially if interior designers have something that's returned to them, because a lot of our stuff is donated from the community. Some of it is donated from like articles, CB2, Casper, but most of it is donated from the community. So if you have stuff in good condition, or even with a scratch or two on it, like we would love that. If you wanna hold it back and do a day of joy with us in your city and you wanna use some of the stuff, again, like we would entertain that as well. If you just wanna come down

Katie Decker-Erickson (30:10.142)

Okay.

Katie Decker-Erickson (30:28.523)

Mm.

Treger Strasberg (30:37.799)

and give us fabric, we craft. We build pillows. If you wanna come down and help us build those pillows or paint over canvases, we have days of crafting. So I would say the possibilities for designers in particular are endless.

Katie Decker-Erickson (30:46.145)

Yep.

Katie Decker-Erickson (30:54.898)

I love that. And I think too, a lot of people don't realize, especially as designers, cost savings. One thing we do at our firm is we will a lot of times partner with whoever our installer is and say, Hey, we have a duplicate or this is going to be a donate item or whatnot. And your partners within your own organization and that you're relying on will often they'll often say to us, yeah, I'm happy to drive that to the appropriate donation site. There's no additional charge. They are happy to partner with doing a greater good. And so relying

even on your installer or that art hanger or whoever you're working with to say hey will you partner with me on this so we can get this to a donation and get this over to humble we can get it to somewhere where it's going to be used for a greater good beyond just resale and i think that's something we often forget about

Treger Strasberg (31:39.877)

And then if you go on the social media and you see your couch or your...

chairs in there or your clients counter chairs and you send it to them and say look what your donation, look the happiness that your donation made. That's a great retention tool for clients. I think and they want to know that their stuff went to a place, you know, you had mentioned Goodwill and Salvation Army and it gets resold. But can you, anybody explain to what end, for what programs? Like what is, what's happening? Like we sort of know, I'm telling you this is one to one. You give your furniture.

Katie Decker-Erickson (31:54.102)

Yeah.

Katie Decker-Erickson (31:59.869)

Huge.

Katie Decker-Erickson (32:12.179)

Hmm.

Treger Strasberg (32:17.259)

directly to a family in need. Like, that's...

Katie Decker-Erickson (32:20.022)

Well, and you mentioned this too. This is how it works in Europe. And I don't know why in America we haven't figured this out yet, but in Europe, if you have to dispose of something in a landfill, it is a significant cost. So people are so happy to trade furniture because cabinets don't stay in a kitchen in Europe. Those either go with you or they go with somebody else. Like they're not intrinsic to the value of the home per se. And so the idea in America that we're just starting to latch onto this idea of keeping it out of the landfill,

There's a huge environmental component to this too, of not only are you making somebody's life better, but my gosh, let's stop throwing everything in a landfill and dozing it, when to somebody else, one person's trash is another's treasure, absolutely in this situation. And that can save the environment in a very significant way.

Treger Strasberg (33:07.161)

Nine and a half million pounds a year, that's what we recycle.

Katie Decker-Erickson (33:10.514)

Is it really? That is insane. 9 and 1 half million pounds. Absolutely breathtaking. Talk to me also about. Um.

the competitive advantage. We alluded to it earlier. What do you think firms are missing in the competitive advantage, not just from a hiring standpoint, but from their client standpoint, when it comes to being a good neighbor and jumping, not just putting the toe in the pond, but jumping full tilt retail into CSR, corporate social responsibility.

Treger Strasberg (33:42.381)

I mean, everybody who is watching what's happening on the TV, the ads, or even on the shelves at stores know that this is becoming more and more important. There's more visibility into homelessness now because it's out on the streets more and everybody who lives in a large city will tell you, oh my gosh, it's gotten out of control. So there's a lot of visibility. There's also a lot of...

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:01.825)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (34:05.493)

I think the shift has happened in retail where you go to a store and you used to be like Newman's Own was the only one on the shelf that was giving back and now you will not find a large brand that doesn't have some sort of corporate responsibility attached to it because they know that it moves the needle for them. People will pull things off the shelf if they know that at least part of it is going to a good cause. So when I personally am looking at hiring somebody or working with somebody, I want to know what connection they have to their community.

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:15.474)

everybody.

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:34.665)

Hmm

Treger Strasberg (34:35.608)

and I want to feel really warm and fuzzy about the company. It's weird, right? We didn't have that 20 years ago, but I have to have that. I have to feel warm and fuzzy about my insurance company.

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:40.922)

No. I agree.

Treger Strasberg (34:47.537)

About my car. I have I just part of the exact guys now So I will say that a lot of the thing that week that we can offer is I come from advertising and marketing and I understand This intrinsically so the amount of content that we provide is Wonderful and telling the client story and by the way, we only tell client stories that want to be told We never tell domestic violence stories. We never put anyone in danger

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:47.63)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, that's it for this week.

Katie Decker-Erickson (34:59.906)

Yep.

Katie Decker-Erickson (35:08.958)

Yeah, back to dignity. Yep.

Treger Strasberg (35:11.933)

However, if they want their story told and there is a corporation or a small company out there that wants to project that they're doing good things in their community, that's a win for both sides. And it does retain clients and get new clients for people who are interested in the space. And more and more, especially younger and younger people, find this at the top of their list.

Katie Decker-Erickson (35:18.766)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (35:32.31)

Yep. Yeah, and I think there are two key points I think you alluded to there. One was this is becoming the expected.

This is not the exception to the rule. This is what millennials are looking for. As a woman sitting here on the end of Gen X, looking down the pipeline, who's going to have the spending power? Who's going to have the decision-making power? And when you look at statistically Gen Z and what is coming, it is expected that there will be some element of CSR in this. Like you said, the feel goods. We have to have the feel goods. And not only is that from a client perspective, being your point one, but point two,

Like, if they're gonna come work for your organization, they don't wanna come in and get a paycheck. The boomers were happy. I come to work, I get a paycheck, I have healthcare for my family, this is beautiful.

whole different level of expectations in the workforce now as we see up to five generations in the workforce, especially after COVID, after generational compression, people are living longer, they're working longer. We still have new generations coming in. And as we work to create this melting pot where everybody's needs and wants are met, it's easy to focus on what we know, but cracking the nut on what we don't know, such as those Gen Z and millennials and saying, wait, no, they're expecting this. They're expecting to come work for the organization

that's giving back, they're expecting to buy from the organization that's coming back. And if you think this isn't a big point.

Katie Decker-Erickson (36:58.262)

Those millennials are quickly becoming the decision makers in companies. They're not the first line employee. They're working their way up doing the hard work and they're gonna be deciding where those capital dollars are going to be spent. And dialing into that I think is absolutely critical for all companies, but especially as designers. I feel like we have a disproportionate advantage for something like this, because we have access to the furniture. We have access to all the trade accounts. We have access to this. And so to turn it around

I just feel so intuitive to me.

Treger Strasberg (37:30.693)

and you can come and be a guest designer. Like if you, you know, there's a designer on your staff that actually wants to get more involved, we have guest designers that actually plan the houses, which I will say this, if every company decided that a small piece of whatever it is they do was gonna give back to the community, that may not feel like a huge lift or give back, but exponentially think about how that would affect the entire world. It would, so, and if you don't think that this is a trend, look at the big guys.

Katie Decker-Erickson (37:33.846)

Mmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (37:55.401)

Huge.

Treger Strasberg (38:00.587)

Like look at Progressive, look at U-Haul, look at Clorox, look at Subaru, look at these big, they already are way ahead on this curve because they have seen the data of what the next generation of workforce wants and they want to feel good about the company they work for.

Katie Decker-Erickson (38:19.402)

120% and that means giving back, keeping stuff out of landfills, changing people's lives, and not just punching in and out on a time card or some computer somewhere. It's so much more than that. This is a beautiful conversation trigger. I so appreciate it. Are you ready for our lightning round?

Treger Strasberg (38:28.445)

That's right.

Treger Strasberg (38:34.453)

Oh, okay, hold on, adjust, all right, yes.

Katie Decker-Erickson (38:37.182)

Okay, we have everyone gear up for the lightning round. Looking back, knowing what you know now, what would you have told your 20 year old self?

Treger Strasberg (38:46.409)

It's gonna be okay. You'll find your place and you will find a purpose in life that will meet every and exceed every expectation. I was so worried when I was 20 that life wasn't gonna work out. I just wanted to be like, just you're fine, you're gonna be okay.

Katie Decker-Erickson (38:59.869)

Absolutely.

Katie Decker-Erickson (39:06.31)

I know. I wish I could tell my 20 year old self, just calm down. Calm down now. Like sit down, have a moment. It's going to work out.

Treger Strasberg (39:12.117)

Oh, and invest in Apple.

Katie Decker-Erickson (39:15.35)

And invest in Apple. Yeah, it's funny. We once had one guest say invest in Amazon. Yes, either of those. Yes, invest in those for sure. Tell me one book that has changed your life either personally or professionally.

Treger Strasberg (39:28.853)

Most recently, Rudger Bregman, and it is called Humankind, and it is a scientific, really just exploration and data sets of why people are good. And he backs it up with science and he proves it out. And for everybody who's feeling awful when they turn on the news and when they see what's going on around them, read this book. It will prove to you that people are inherently good, and I believe that at my very core.

Katie Decker-Erickson (39:34.551)

Mm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (39:48.319)

Yes.

Katie Decker-Erickson (39:53.81)

I love that and we'll provide a hyperlink to that in the show notes. And then I think this one especially applies to you, but we always ask, what is your greatest time hack? Because I think it could feel very overwhelming. As you alluded to earlier, the amount of homelessness, it doesn't matter if you live in a city of 30,000 or 6 million, it's knocking it every one's door and I imagine you feel like you're drinking out of a fire hydrant. Most days. How do you manage that given that there are 24 hours in a day?

Treger Strasberg (40:24.03)

Well, I want to help everybody. I do. But I also realize that it's not my...

Katie Decker-Erickson (40:26.209)

Yeah.

Treger Strasberg (40:29.585)

sole responsibility to solve homelessness and why I want, I learned so much and I have so many opinions on how we can move forward. I also realize that I can only do what I can do and if I can do that to the best of my ability then I trust that you will do what you can do to the best of your ability and it has to be enough. I have to be enough.

Katie Decker-Erickson (40:32.544)

I love that.

Katie Decker-Erickson (40:41.036)

Sure.

Katie Decker-Erickson (40:44.291)

Hmm.

Katie Decker-Erickson (40:54.858)

Yeah, that's beautiful. Trigger, this was a fabulous conversation and what a beautiful way to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by one realizing we are all so incredibly blessed and the responsibility and privilege that comes with that blessing and giving back to others through corporate social responsibility. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Treger Strasberg (41:13.533)

Thanks for having me. Amazing, thank you.