As home improvement companies grow, the problems around them can change fast. Hiring gets harder. Marketing shifts. Customer needs change. New markets bring new risks. Sales teams need stronger training. A problem that once felt small can become much harder when a company adds more people, more customers, and more locations. Many leaders respond by trying to solve every issue inside their own business.
But Tom Goldsmith, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Infinity by Marvin, believes strong business networks can give leaders another path. Through relationships with experienced partners, owners can learn from people who have already faced many of the same problems.
That idea became a key part of Goldsmith’s PowerChat with Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100. The conversation examined how owners across the Infinity by Marvin partner network learn from one another and bring real lessons back into their companies.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. By giving leaders space to talk openly about growth, challenges, and lessons learned, these conversations help show how business owners can improve by listening to people who have already faced the same problem.
One of the hardest parts of leading a growing home improvement company is facing a problem you have never seen before.
A leader may know how to run a strong sales team in one market, then struggle when the company enters three more. A hiring plan that worked with 20 employees may not work with 100. A marketing idea may stop working as customer habits change. Even companies built around trusted products, such as Infinity by Marvin replacement windows, can face new questions as their teams and markets grow.
The usual response is to go back inside the business and search for the answer.
Goldsmith’s comments point to another option.
Someone else may have already solved it.
Tom Goldsmith, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Infinity by Marvin,
During the PowerChat, Goldsmith described the Infinity Executive Forum, where owners from across the partner network come together to discuss the problems they face. For Goldsmith, the value comes from leaders being willing to ask each other simple, direct questions.
“How did you fix this?”
“How did you solve this?”
“How could I do this?”
“Will you help me?”
Those questions show a kind of leadership that does not depend on pretending to know everything. Instead, leaders use the experience already around them.
Goldsmith said some partners become companies that others look toward because they have already worked through hard stages of growth.
“And Lifetime (Lifetime Home Remodeling) gets looked up to as that partner that has done it, along with the North Georges and along with the next door windows and along with several others, and they share that together,” Goldsmith said.
That kind of learning can help a leader avoid starting from zero.
One owner may have already worked through a hiring problem.
Another may know how to train a growing sales team.
Another may understand the risks of entering a new market.
Another may have already learned which idea failed and why.
The answer still has to fit the company asking the question. But hearing from someone who has already lived through the problem can give that leader a better starting point.
Goldsmith described the executive forum as a “launching pad for the next year.”
That phrase matters because the goal is not only to talk about what happened in the past. It is to use past experience to make better choices about what comes next.
For home improvement leaders, the lesson is simple.
Good leaders search for answers.
Strong networks help those answers move faster.
As the PowerChat moved deeper into the value of the Infinity Executive Forum, Tom Goldsmith, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Infinity by Marvin, showed why a strong business network can become useful long before a company reaches a crisis. The value is not that every owner follows the same plan. It is that leaders can bring real questions into a room filled with people who have already tested ideas, made mistakes, solved problems, and grown. That gives owners a chance to learn from experience before making the next important decision inside their own company.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100
Growth can put a leader in situations that past success did not prepare them for. A company that knows how to run one strong location may face very different questions when it opens several more. A leader who knows how to manage a small sales team may need a new approach when that team becomes much larger.
Goldsmith’s description of the Infinity Executive Forum offers a simple way for leaders to respond.
They ask.
“How did you fix this?”
“How did you solve this?”
Those questions do not make a business owner look weak. They show that the owner cares more about finding a useful answer than pretending to already know one.
That matters because guessing can be expensive. A leader may spend months testing an idea that another owner already tried and changed. A trusted conversation can give that leader a better starting point.
The goal is not to copy another company. Every business has different people, customers, markets, and goals. The value comes from hearing what another leader saw, tried, and learned.
That same mindset can help companies serving homeowners who are comparing fiberglass replacement windows and doors for homeowners. The product may be important, but the business behind the product also needs leaders who keep learning as the company grows.
A strong leader does not need every answer in the room. Sometimes the stronger move is knowing which question to ask and who may already have useful experience.
Advice becomes more useful when the person giving it has already lived through the problem.
A book can explain a business idea. Data can show a pattern. A consultant can bring an outside view. All of those can help.
But another owner who has already opened the new market, rebuilt the sales process, trained the larger team, or worked through the customer issue can offer something different.
They can tell the story behind the result.
Goldsmith said certain partners become companies that others look toward because they have already done what another owner may now be trying to do. Lifetime Home Remodeling is one of those businesses within the network. Other partners can become strong examples in other areas.
That is why the questions inside the forum can go deeper than, “What worked?”
A leader can also ask what failed.
They can ask what took longer than expected.
They can ask what they would change if they started again.
They can ask what warning signs appeared before the problem became clear.
That kind of answer gives another owner more than a finished success story. It gives them some of the lessons hidden behind it.
The same kind of learning can matter when local teams explain products to homeowners. A company may know its product well, but experienced partners can also share how they train people, explain the value, and build confidence in customer conversations.
Goldsmith’s point is not that one partner becomes the model for everyone. It is proven that experience becomes easier to use when leaders are willing to share what really happened.
Goldsmith called the annual Infinity Executive Forum a “launching pad for the next year.”
That description gives the gathering a forward-looking purpose.
Owners are not only meeting to talk about what has already happened. They can use what they hear to prepare for what they plan to do next.
A company may be thinking about a new market.
Another may want to build a larger sales team.
Another may need to improve marketing.
Another may be trying to understand why service problems increase as the business grows.
The cost of making a weak decision in any of those areas can rise quickly.
A mistake in one small office may be manageable. The same mistake across several locations can become much harder to fix.
That is where learning early becomes valuable.
If another owner has already faced the same problem, the first conversation may help reveal a risk that was not yet clear. The answer may not solve everything, but it can help the leader ask better questions before money, people, and time move in the wrong direction.
Goldsmith described owners asking one another, “How could I do this?” and “Will you help me?”
Those questions turn past experience into future preparation.
For a company helping homeowners, strong product knowledge matters. But strong business decisions behind the scenes also matter. Training, marketing, staffing, service, and local growth all shape how well the company serves its customers.
The lesson is simple. A useful conversation today may help a leader avoid a much harder correction later.
The Infinity Executive Forum also shows how Goldsmith thinks about the role of a manufacturer inside a partner network.
Partners from across the U.S. went behind the scenes at Infinity’s manufacturing facilities in Fargo, ND.
Infinity brings owners together. The company can share new products, marketing services, programs, and other support.
But Goldsmith does not describe Infinity as the only voice in the room.
He says much of the value comes from the owners themselves.
“It’s really about them connecting and helping each other be successful, which we get to ride along for that,” Goldsmith said.
That idea gives a partner network a wider purpose.
A manufacturer can supply products.
It can provide training.
It can support marketing.
But it can also create a place where one strong leader meets another and discovers that the answer they need may already exist within the network.
That matters because no manufacturer has to claim expertise in every problem a contractor may face.
Sometimes another owner is the better teacher.
One partner may know more about opening a new location.
Another may have a stronger hiring process.
Another may know how to train a team around customer service.
Another may have already learned what homeowners expect when searching for an Infinity by Marvin dealer.
By connecting those people, the network becomes more than a path between a product and a customer. It becomes a place where knowledge can move to.
That can make each business stronger without asking every company to become the same.
Learning becomes most valuable when a leader can take it back into the business and use it.
Infinity by Marvin and the Lifetime Home Remodeling leadership team together
Goldsmith said Infinity partners often reach a point where they understand that they truly have something different to offer homeowners.
“They really understand they have something different to offer the market and homeowners and consumers that they’re working with,” Goldsmith said. “And then they just put their shoulder in and lean into it going forward.”
Confidence like that does not have to come from one source.
It can grow from product knowledge.
It can grow from customer results.
It can also grow when leaders see evidence that another company has already worked through the challenge they now face.
That does not mean the second company follows the same plan.
A business in one city may have a different team, different customers, and different needs from a company in another state. But the lesson behind a proven result can still help.
That is the difference between copying and learning.
By the end of the PowerChat, Goldsmith showed how far a trusted relationship can develop. Infinity and Lifetime Home Remodeling are now thinking beyond the markets where they already work together.
“We’re actually planning growth with Lifetime beyond where we’re at,” Goldsmith said. “Where else can we be successful together?”
That question is very different from “How did you fix this?”
But one can lead to the other.
A leader asks.
Someone shares what they learned.
The business applies the lesson in its own way.
Confidence grows.
Then the next opportunity starts to look possible.
For companies serving homeowners, that kind of growth still depends on strong local execution. Better decisions behind the business can help teams prepare for the customer experience in front of it.
Goldsmith’s message shows that the right answer does more than solve today’s problem. Sometimes it gives a leader enough confidence to ask what the company may be ready to do next.
Leadership will always require hard decisions. What it does not require is facing every new challenge with no help.
Infinity from Marvin ranked #1 in customer satisfaction
As companies grow, new questions will keep coming. Some will be about people. Some will be about markets. Others will be about sales, service, or what the business should do next. No leader can know in advance how every one of those moments will play out.
That is why the relationships around a leader can matter so much.
Tom Goldsmith points to a simple truth. Someone else may already have faced the problem you’re facing. They may know what worked, what failed, and what they wish they had known sooner.
The value is not in copying their answer. It is in starting the next decision with more understanding.
That is what makes the Infinity Executive Forum meaningful. It gives owners access to people who have already walked through many of the same hard moments. The forum cannot eliminate risk, nor can it make every choice easy. But it can give leaders a better starting point.
Over time, that can change the way a company grows.
A leader no longer has to see every new problem as something they must solve alone. They can ask a better question. They can listen to someone who has already been there. Then they can take what fits, leave what does not, and make the decision that is right for their own business.
For the next generation of home improvement leaders, that may become one of the most valuable parts of a strong network.
The strongest business network is not the one where every leader already knows the answer. It is the one where leaders trust each other enough to ask the hard question, share what they learned, and help one another move into the next stage with greater confidence.
Power100 uses a large contractor database to create a broader view of the home improvement industry before publishing its national rankings. Its website currently lists more than 364,000 contractors in its database, while its National Power Rankings publishes 100 CEOs. Power100 says its five-layer system studies areas such as growth, customer sentiment, partner strength, community impact, and company culture. The larger database gives the platform more context when it studies which leaders rise to the top.
No. Power100 clearly states that it does not promise a ranking, an AI citation, a search position, a lead, a customer, a media result, or a revenue result. Its role is to study leaders, publish its findings, and tell their stories. That matters because recognition should not come with a promise that media coverage will automatically create business results.
Yes, when leaders use the advice as a starting point instead of copying it. Tom Goldsmith describes Infinity by Marvin partners asking each other how they solved real problems. One company may serve a different market or have a different team, but another owner can still explain what failed, what worked, and what they learned. The leader receiving that advice can then decide what fits their own business.
No. Goldsmith’s description of the Infinity Executive Forum shows the opposite. Owners openly ask questions such as, “How did you fix this?” and “Will you help me?” They use the experience in the room to make better decisions rather than acting as if they already know all the answers. A strong leader still makes the final choice, but with more information.
Infinity by Marvin says it matches homeowners with independent local partners who understand their local climate. Those consultants can help homeowners choose window and glass options that suit their living conditions. That local knowledge matters when customers search for energy-efficient fiberglass replacement windows that need to perform through heat, cold, and changing weather.
Infinity says it submits its windows and doors for independent testing tied to ENERGY STAR requirements. Those requirements change by geography because a window needs to perform in the climate where the homeowner installs it. Infinity also offers various glass options to help homeowners meet energy-efficiency, privacy, style, and safety goals.
Infinity says Ultrex fiberglass gives its windows strength and stable performance. The company states that the material expands at nearly the same rate as glass, which helps support a tight seal. Infinity also says Ultrex resists warping and cracking over time. These features give homeowners another option when they compare Ultrex fiberglass windows with other replacement window materials.
Replacement windows allow installers to work within the existing home without exposing the unfinished wall surface as a new construction project would. Infinity says this can reduce disruption outside the home during replacement. Homeowners can work with a local replacement expert to review the frame material, glass, window style, customization choices, and warranty before deciding what fits their home.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Led by Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, the platform examines leadership, growth, culture, customer impact, and the companies driving home improvement forward. Through national rankings, PowerChats, company visits, interviews, and industry stories, Power100 gives experienced leaders a platform to share what they have learned while helping contractors, partners, and homeowners better understand the people, ideas, and businesses shaping the industry’s future.
Membership unlocks every Power100 interview, PowerChat episode, and expert playbook - free for industry leaders.
Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
