COVID 2020

It was 2020, and the world had stopped spinning.

Planes were grounded. Offices were dark. The streets were quiet, and the word “event” had almost become taboo.

For anyone who made a living in business-to-business relationships — especially those in design, manufacturing, and retail — it was like someone had pulled the plug.

Tradeshows were canceled. Showrooms were closed. The way business was done — through handshakes, conversation, and in-person connection — evaporated overnight.

At the time, I was dating a real estate agent in Virginia who also ran a home staging business. Like so many of us, we were glued to the news, trying to make sense of what the “new normal” would mean for business.

And then, about three weeks before High Point Market — the largest furniture tradeshow in North America — she turned to me over coffee and asked:
“Are we going to Market this year?”

It was a fair question. High Point had always been the event — the place where retailers, designers, and manufacturers came together to set the tone for the year ahead. But that year was different.

Attendance was projected to be down more than 90%. Many of the industry’s biggest names had already pulled out. And yet, the event organizers were still requiring manufacturers to open their showrooms.

Worse still, many of those same manufacturers were being charged the same rent — and in some cases, higher rent — for their showroom space.

That part made my blood boil.


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The Breaking Point

I told her, “I don’t see the point.”

The numbers didn’t add up. Manufacturers were being forced to open their doors to a ghost town.

When we eventually arrived, the reality was even worse than the projections. Attendance wasn’t 10% as Market claimed — it was closer to 6%, even by optimistic counts.

And walking through the empty halls of High Point that year, I had a thought that stopped me cold:
“If Market is going to require my manufacturer friends to open, knowing attendance would be low, then they should have called in every blogger, vlogger, and influencer they could find. Because if you can’t get people in front of the products, you should do everything you can to get the products in front of the people.”



And that’s when it hit me.

Why don’t I do that?


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From Frustration to Innovation

Here’s the truth — I didn’t own a media company. I didn’t have a film crew, reporters, or a content production team. But I had something that mattered more: insight.

I could see the pain point clearly.
These manufacturers weren’t struggling because their products weren’t good — they were struggling because no one could see them.

They didn’t need marketing talk. They needed marketing action.

So, I did something about it.

I put out a call for volunteer news reporters.
I ordered filming equipment.
I booked flights and found an Airbnb.
And within days, I was on a plane headed straight for High Point.

No plan. No investors. No time to overthink it.

Just a belief that if I could help the people in my industry get their products in front of buyers — even virtually — everyone would win.


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Four Days, 52 Brands, 55 Videos

Over the course of four whirlwind days, we filmed 55 videos for 52 manufacturers.

We walked showroom to showroom, interviewing brand owners, product designers, and sales reps — capturing stories of resilience, innovation, and survival in the face of uncertainty.

These weren’t high-budget productions. They were fast, raw, and real. But they worked.

Each video averaged 178,000 website hits, with some crossing into six-figure view counts within days.

For manufacturers who had been staring into the void, wondering how to reach anyone at all, it was a lifeline.

And for me, it became one of the most eye-opening marketing experiments I’ve ever conducted.


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The Strategy That Changed Everything

The key insight came after the filming was done.

Instead of uploading the videos to YouTube or Facebook or sending raw files back to the manufacturers, I did something very intentional.

I uploaded all of the videos to my own website — The LIVE Broadcast Network — which, at the time, had been little more than a podcasting platform.

Then, I sent each manufacturer their personalized video link from my site, encouraging them to share that link on their own social media, email lists, and websites.

They owned the content.
But I controlled the platform.

That was a strategic decision, and it turned out to be one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made.


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Two Key Lessons in Customer-Centric Strategy

There were two main reasons I structured it this way — and both came directly from my Customer-Centric Marketing philosophy.

1. Cross-Pollination Creates Community

By housing all 52 brands’ videos on one platform, we created what I call the ecosystem effect.

When a viewer came to watch one manufacturer’s video, they rarely stopped at one. In fact, the data showed that on average, each viewer watched 14.7 additional videos.

That’s the magic of collective visibility.

One manufacturer’s audience became another’s audience. Buyers who came to see one brand ended up discovering several others. Instead of isolated marketing efforts, we built an interconnected system of discovery.

2. Let Your Customers Market for You

We didn’t spend a penny on advertising.

Each of the 52 brands already had their own audience. All I did was give them something worth sharing.

By sharing their video — something that directly benefited them — they also promoted me, my platform, and every other brand on it.

Every share became a marketing ripple, amplifying the project far beyond what I could have done alone.

It was an elegant feedback loop:
They got visibility.
I got traffic.
And everyone got growth.

That’s Customer-Centric Marketing in its purest form — a system where everyone wins by helping each other.


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The Heart of Customer-Centric Marketing

Customer-Centric Marketing isn’t charity. It’s strategy.

It’s about building models where your customer’s success is directly tied to your own.

In High Point, I didn’t set out to “build a media company.” I set out to solve a problem. I didn’t promise marketing results, but I designed for them.

That distinction matters.

Had I simply sent the videos to each brand to post individually, they would have each gotten a small, isolated benefit. But by hosting the videos collectively, I built an ecosystem that multiplied impact for everyone.

Their customers became my audience, and my platform became their megaphone.

That’s what I call strategic symbiosis.

It’s not transactional. It’s transformational.


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Lessons for Any Business

Here’s what I learned through that experience — and what I now teach every business owner, marketer, and startup founder I work with.

1️⃣ Your job isn’t to sell harder — it’s to listen smarter.
Most businesses spend too much time trying to push their message and not enough time understanding their customers’ actual pain points.

2️⃣ If you solve real problems, marketing becomes organic.
The best marketing isn’t forced; it’s shared willingly. When your solution truly helps people, they’ll amplify it for you.

3️⃣ Create ecosystems, not transactions.
Businesses that think in terms of single sales or one-time interactions lose sight of the bigger opportunity: building community.

4️⃣ Visibility is a shared experience.
You don’t have to own every spotlight. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is share the stage.


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The Broader Implications

Looking back, that four-day sprint at High Point became a living case study in how Customer-Centric Marketing scales trust, reach, and impact — even without budget or infrastructure.

It showed me that when you align your success with your customer’s success, growth becomes exponential.

The manufacturers got exposure during a crisis.
I built a network and a reputation for being a problem solver.
And the audience — the buyers, designers, and professionals watching from home — discovered dozens of brands they’d never seen before.

In the middle of a global shutdown, we turned a dead tradeshow into a digital marketplace of collaboration.

And it all started with one mindset shift:

> Stop marketing your product. Start marketing your customer.




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Reframing the Idea of “Customer-Centric”

Too many companies treat “customer-centric” like a buzzword. They talk about empathy in presentations, they map customer journeys, they design personas — but they rarely build systems that empower the customer.

Customer-Centric Marketing is different.

It’s not about just understanding your customer — it’s about elevating them.
It’s not about selling to them — it’s about building with them.
It’s not about adding another testimonial — it’s about creating a platform where they can share their story.

When you give your customers a voice, they don’t just buy your product. They champion it.

And when your customers champion your product, your marketing evolves from effort… to energy.


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The Takeaway

COVID forced every industry to rethink survival. But for me, it became an awakening.

It proved that innovation doesn’t always mean invention — sometimes it just means looking at the same problem through someone else’s eyes.

When you start building systems that genuinely help your customers succeed, they’ll carry your brand further than any ad campaign ever could.

That’s not a theory.
That’s what I lived in High Point in 2020.

That’s Customer-Centric Marketing.

So I’ll leave you with this:

👉 How has your business structured itself to leverage your customers’ self-promotion — not just to help them, but to help everyone involved grow together?

Because if you don’t know how…
Let’s talk.


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Want to Learn More?

To dive deeper into real-world examples of Customer-Centric Marketing — and how to build systems that turn your customers into your marketers — connect with me at:

https://www.opentoworksocial.com/profile/joseph-haecker/653e67d6-3b87-4d50-9e19-01badc9e98ae