At the recently concluded Syzygy in San Diego event for Azione Unlimited, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with the new Executive Director Patrick McCarthy. Having formerly been an editor for Dealerscope when he first entered the industry and hailing from Worcester, Massachusetts, it’s hard not to see parallels between McCarthy’s own beginnings and my current position within the industry. 

Of course, as McCarthy tells it, the trajectory of his work was forever changed when he had the opportunity to cover an Azione Unlimited event and interview Richard Glikes, then President of Azione Unlimited, not only for general event coverage but also in recognition of Glikes’ Dealerscope Lifetime Achievement Award. 

“I sat back down with my boss, Maryellen Oswald, and I was like, ‘All I want to do is have that guy’s life,’” McCarthy stated. According to him the moment was like a proverbial closing of the monkey’s paw, though, he said it in a far more joking tone than transcribed here, one that relishes in all the stress and excitement that comes with such a career move. 

Now, having the opportunity to speak with McCarthy on his new role and what he has planned for not just Azione, but the industry at large, there is the notion another digit could be curling up into that ape’s palm. For now, however, I’ll content myself with mostly being a fly on the wall that comes down to chat every now and then.

Transcribed below is not the entirety of the conversation I had with McCarthy (I get far too conversational for that) but a selection of topics addressing the state of the industry, the future of Azione, and the role buying groups play in the lives of integrators. 

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CE Pro: How did it feel receiving the call that you got the Executive Director position? 

McCarthy: Ever since Richard stepped away, Azione has been on this journey trying to figure out what’s going on, so there’s been a bunch of candidates and interviews and talking with the board and talking with the executive team. You know, just trying to figure out who is the right fit.  

I’ve been here for almost six years, building relationships across both our vendor and dealer communities, and that’s something I’m really excited to keep growing in this new role. Working closely with everyone has given me a unique perspective on how we can keep driving success together.  

This role is about bringing people together in a way that supports everyone, and I’m thrilled to continue building on the work we’ve done with the incredible network we have here. We’re in a unique position as a buying group, and I can’t wait to keep pushing forward with everyone. 

CE Pro: It must be a unique challenge for you guys as well considering under the Nationwide umbrella you also have Oasys. It’s kind of a competitor, but not really one. It’s an uncommon relationship. 

McCarthy: Right. It’s not a competitor because I can call Hank right now, and we can discuss anything because we’re on the same team. The situation that we have is that we both existed, right? And now we both still exist. So we’re learning to work side by side and share resources and share things the correct way without acting like competitors to one another. We’re fishing from the same pond, but we have two different directions. 

Oasys is currently in an exciting growth phase, focused on expanding its membership base, while Azione has reached a stage where we’re concentrating on nurturing our existing community. Our goal is to deepen connections, encouraging members to support more vendors and be part of a truly special network that fosters strong, lasting relationships. 

CE Pro: This is an obvious and boring question, but given the economy and it being an election year, how do you see the remainder of 2024 into 2025 shaking out for business based on member input? 

McCarthy: We’ve had a bit of an upswing but otherwise we’ve been mostly flat. Which flat was good. Flat was a positive indicator that we are being consistent.  

The problem with flat is that doesn’t tell the whole story. Middle market business, jobs in the $80,000 to $120,000 range, is still very dry—it’s very slow—and low end business is almost nonexistent. And when I say low end, I mean upgrades to media rooms projects that range from $20,000 to $40,000. They are not flowing like they used to. Those are the people who are affected by this slowdown. 

Meanwhile, the big money has been here the whole time on these luxury projects. So, with the vendors, the ones that are focused on high-end performance are moving up the ladder to the top with astronomical growth. Meanwhile, the dealers who only deal on the high end are like, life’s great. 

CE Pro: It reflects a lot of what I’ve heard. It seems like if you can hack it doing luxury jobs, that’s where a lot of job security lies. 

McCarthy: It’s definitely consistent if you’re able to do it. One of the most shocking things I heard from one of the vendors who used to do a class on business development was that half of all dealers who get their first million-dollar job go out of business. And that’s because integrators just don’t know what you need to handle a job of that scale. You need lawyers and you need all these different types of safety nets and precautionary, you know, so money doesn’t get tied up, the cash flows stops existing, and then you can’t pay your people and everything goes sideways. 

That’s a big reason why we’re putting out this Core Four Framework. We have a lot of people in the group who are survivors of these jobs and can talk about it, and one of the big things that everyone has told me is that they want better mentorship in the group.  

Members want to talk to these survivors not just to learn how to take a million-dollar job, but to just get themselves into a position to be able to offer it. For some people it’s hard to fathom how they can even sell or succeed with that. 

I think being able to offer that in some type of Big Brother, Little Brother program where they meet on a regular basis in combination with what we’re doing with the framework will allow us to better explain the future and how to get there. That way it’s not like we’re just throwing out tools saying this is going to take you to being a multi-million dollar business. 

CE Pro: Going back to what you said about understanding the role of a buying group—where do you think Azione sits when discussing the labor market issue? I feel like awareness is such a big component of it.

McCarthy: I think in terms of generating awareness, it’s not something that’s our direct responsibility. Right now, awareness and advocacy is such a massive undertaking that you need someone like CEDIA or another more established organization to bring in all these bodies and campaign for integrators in front of the government to get this to be a recognized job title on a national scale. 

We barely know what to call ourselves. Smart home experts, tech home consultants. There’s so many question marks. Ultimately it’s an industry problem, and I think CEDIA is addressing it perfectly with what they’re doing, and Azione Unlimited is positioned to be a great secondary support system. 

Once you start making some barrier of entry, something that can universally define our work, just like every other trade where there are certain things you need to know in order to be qualified to do your work, that’s when you can start building momentum. Once we have that base, then groups like Azione can step in to be those momentum builders. 

We don’t have the answer from 0-10, but we do have everything from 10-100. 

CE Pro: Last question, and I know it’s a boring one again, but what do you want integrators to take away from events like Syzygy? 

McCarthy: You know, I think that’s more interesting than you think it is. Because Azione needs to identify what makes it unique, right? And what makes us unique is community. I think it is such an incredibly cool thing that we do that can’t be replicated anywhere else. 

When you have an iconic person like Richard Glikes take a step back from the group, and you don’t lose vendors, you don’t lose dealers, I think that’s a sign that they all believe in this thing, and they should because they built it. 

The DNA that Richard left in Azione is community, and leaning into that, there’s a lot you can build off a strong community. You want to have a lighting or an energy or a shading or a labor training initiative? You can do that with good community, our ability to host events that sell out, that are not even for owners, shows that everybody is trusting and believes in the process of build a strong community in this wild west of an industry.  

That is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever seen happen. So I think it’s a great question, what should people take away from events like Syzygy? Community, community, community. It’s the one thing that isn’t changing, and it’s driving everything that we do. 

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