Episode 14 - Mercedes Austin of Mercury Mosaics
Mercury Mosaics the Tile Bakery: Mercedes Austin takes us through the Artistry of how handcrafted tile comes to life through the "tile bakery"
Mercedes Austin takes us through her intentional crafting of tiles by hand in a "tile bakery" located in Northeast Minneapolis. Mercury Mosaic's tiles tell a story, sharing the artistry of the handcrafted approach to a community-based industry and highlighting what sets her tiles apart. Starting off with mosaic art using tiles led her down a path of creating unique, one-of-a-kind tiles that delight those who see them. Playful, fun, and interesting, the bespoke nature of handcrafted tiles shows how even simple things can elevate a home and increase the joy within. Mercedes shares her experience of being an optimist while facing difficult situations such as downsizing and letting go of people she cares about to meet the financial challenges all business owners face. Prior to the pandemic, the team consisted of 29 people and grew to 50 to meet the demand, but had to downsize to achieve balance once again. Mercedes possesses a wealth of knowledge, charm, and intelligence.
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About Mercedes Austin
I’m Mercedes Austin Chief Idea Baker, Founder & CEO of Mercury Mosaics. Born and raised in Minneapolis, the interplay of industrial, historic & modern architecture is a big passion of mine. Of course, I’m a huge fan of tile and patterns and thus Mercury Mosaics has been a guide for people coloring on their walls (with tile) since 2002. We’re like a bakery for tile and with a robust team, we take you through the selection process concierge-style.
Through unreasonable hospitality, we turn our craftsmanship into art for your space. We’ll bring your brand, your vision or simply a vibe you want to live with every day to life with our guided system. I believe art, construction and industrial design can all exist in harmony, and wake up each day with this purpose fueling me.
When I’m not working on Mercury Mosaics, I’m building a sister brand Mosaic Candy Shop, creating in my personal studio, cooking with my husband, and most definitely sharing a coffee with fellow passionate creatives and entrepreneurs around town.
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00:44
On today's podcast, we had Mercedes Austin, and it was a real treat to talk about her passion that comes through very clearly, it was very interesting to hear about kind of the surge of the post pandemic staffing up and just how difficult was then to scale back down. So without further ado, let's get into this podcast and let's hear what Mercedes has to say about Mercury mosaics. Welcome to the curious builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams are hosts and today we are joined with Mercedes Austin from Mercury mosaics. Welcome, Mercedes.
01:13
Thanks for having me here. How exciting.
01:14
I am very excited. So it was really fun yesterday, I got to do a tour of your studio. And I now kind of want to do this before I bring on every guest because I had like an hour tour, an amazing facility. And we'll get into it and a little bit. I just want to hear about everything all at once. But I thought it'd be really funny to talk about how we first met because you're kind of a big deal. And I had no idea who you were. And so I kept going around after I met you like oh, do you know about this place in Northeast Minneapolis called Mercury mosaics? And like, yeah, we've known about her for years, like forever, like, Where have you been in a dark cave? And it's like, literally, I must have told about seven or eight designers. And they're like, Yeah, we know Mercedes. Yeah, we don't say so. Evidently, I just don't know anybody. So I'm now I'm late to the party. But I'm a very enthusiastic supporter of your of what you do?
02:01
Well, I find that hard to believe that you are late to the party, because you have all these reels. And you, you act like you are the party. So it makes me really understand though, that you don't necessarily focus on those little details that I consider my tile becomes like the earrings of a design, and you're thinking about the entire outfit. So I think it kind of makes sense why we didn't cross paths.
02:24
I think also too as my career as progressed, like I ultimately depend on the designers to pick everything out with my clients, you know, as we build homes. And so I actually camera last time, while I can, yesterday was the last time I was in a tattoo shop. But before that, yeah, it's been a long time, I just don't get called out a lot to go to those places. But ultimately, I have a relationship with the design groups. They're the ones specking it designing it, the architects. And so as I've gotten further my career, I get further away. But now, that's one of the real benefits of even why I started the podcast because I'm so interested in businesses, and I'm a huge fan of our industry. And I want to celebrate the craftsman and the artistry of what we do. And so now it's like now I'm going for different reasons I'm in now it also I guess re engages me because now I want to put your product in my home. And you know, evil plan evil plans, but we jumped the gun here. For those that don't know who you are and what you are, like, if you're ignorant like I was up until a couple of months ago. Why don't you give us just a brief intro of of who you are and what you do.
03:24
Yeah, the pressure of that elevator speech. So I'm merged with Mercedes, Austin, and I founded Mercury mosaics in 2002, which is 20 years ago. So a lot of people don't like to just start it when you were eight. And I'm like, Thanks. That's amazing. And I really wanted to have a day job related to my art. And at that time, this was before social media. And when it was cool to be an entrepreneur at that time, it was a concern. If you're gonna start a business, like we're concerned about you, you should have a, you know, a logical path forward to
04:01
be considered therapy before you do entrepreneur, right. Yeah.
04:04
And so I'm kinda I think one of the common threads of being an entrepreneur is usually when people question you or warn you, it makes you want to do it more. And so I was very all in to starting this whole thing. I couldn't have articulated what it is today. It's definitely grown beyond what I had originally envisioned. But I like to summarize what we do is we're like a bakery for tile. So we're not just tile, we're so much more than tile. But and we're not a manufacturer. We're not a designer. We're not an artist, but we're, we're all of those things together. And we are just so darn detail oriented, that we also form really cherished relationships with the people that we repetitively work with. Because if you were to put us on a shelf next to other tile with no context, a lot of times people are like, you gotta be kidding me like price points, if you're just leading with that we're very Different, we're definitely on the higher end. But when you take us into context of like the feeling that you're trying to curate for a space, people that are building thoughtful interiors that are wanting to really elevate their brand amongst their peers, those are the folks we're generally hanging out with the folks that are just like value engineering things and want to cut corners and aren't really honoring or cherishing craftsmanship. We're not usually hanging out in those circles, we definitely want to break through those barriers. But as a small, very, like, intentionally built bowtique, tile manufacturer, we like to really hang out with the people that can honor our imperfections and like, want to build a valuable visual story in the spaces that they create. So yes, I set out to do that 20 years ago, I definitely try to like, remain humble because I can articulate what I wanted to do now that I can look back on it and like tell the stories like it kind of feel like I'm in like grammar vibes and like looking back and like in the early days, but it's really fun to look at the progression of how we started and where we are. So that's it in a nutshell, we're in Minneapolis as the first location. And I now also have a 20,000 square foot location in Indiana, Minnesota. Yeah, so everything that we're making in Northeast Minneapolis is custom, or it's our made to order. And then everything that we're making them with, Deena are the things we've taken a bet on that are in stock. And so the manufacturing process out there is creating the tile to replace inventory that ships out. So we have this whole like ready to ship program on our website, if you need luxury tile. In an instant, we have a very select amount of skews available, and we kind of think about it as our seasonal and we hope it's more than a season but we do have to rotate it out. But it's like our blue jeans or white t shirts and little black dresses of tile that are pretty basic. But people want them and
06:59
dress them up, dress them down. You can use it pretty much in every project, you know that they're you're kind of your go to.
07:04
That's right. Yeah, yeah, like right now one of our hottest items is medium diamonds in the tone emerald. Like we can't keep enough in stock.
07:12
Right? Yeah, interesting. I've actually brought some chips in which if you go to our YouTube channel, for Mark delivers Custom Homes, you will see the curious builder, YouTube of what we're looking at. So you can see these sweet, different colors. You can also go go to your website, obviously and better yet go in person schedule a tour because it's an amazing tour. But going back to your bakery comment, that's funny, he said that I didn't think about it until just now because you know the drying racks and you walk me through the kiln process and the glazing and any of these big drying racks and after I left I was a little early coming home because I live in southwest Minneapolis. So I stopped by a my favorite Bread Company. And I usually don't stop there my wife usually goes and gets it and so I got my Oregon herb fret fresh out of the oven. And they had the drying racks so it's so funny you said that because that reminds me very much of your tile floor of your drying racks that you add on. Yeah, so funny analogy.
08:03
We appreciate the restaurant industry and definitely use a lot of their tools and haven't reinvented that wheel so they've worked really well for our I mean we're essentially baking cookies but you don't eat our clay.
08:14
Yeah. Before we get too much into it, it's kind of interesting. So we first met at biz COMM And Morgan Molitor construction to style introduced us and I was at your roundtable discussion. You know, I think an hour or two before at your studio and I was just you know, we're supposed to be talking about businesses and solving each other's problems. And I was just warmed up that day for me. Because normally I'm super mellow. Yeah, that's what I have a testimony of one for a mellow but the your studio was so impressive. And you're like, well, we can't look at it right now come back again. And of course that night was really interesting just to see the whole event be put on and but turns out, does the name Carl Albert ringabel to he's an architect. He works with collage architects now. So he's always with collage. No, yes. But he's my next door neighbor. Oh, he's great. He does a lot of my freelance architecture and design work. And so I told him, so he was the one person right as I came back from Blizzcon the next day, we're out shoveling snow. And I was like, Hey, Carl, he comes across the street and we're chatting like, you know, I have some you know, you know, I don't know crankshaft or something like that. I don't like crankshaft. He's really happy guy. But yeah, I just picture this image of a comic book character. And he's like, oh, yeah, I know, Mercedes. Like right when she started like, way back when he's like, and he brought me up to his front hall entryway. He has your tile in his foyer. And so I've walked on it many, many times. So did he know you when he I know he's been with a number of architecture firms or how did you know Carl beforehand?
09:34
Yeah, so he was practicing on his own. And I would credit Carl to coming to me to not order what we were doing at the time, which was great. And he really helped me focus in on just being able to celebrate one color of glaze on one shape, what a concept, but to really appreciate the subtleties and the nuances of variation. It seems so obvious now. But at the time, it was like, how many colors can I throw into this thing and like more is more as more which, depending on the project, I will tell you more, it's more, but Carl kind of opened the door of like, less is more. And you could actually make something that is this simple, but be that, like bespoke and intricate, because you guys are hand applying the colors, which is something that we still, I have really stayed away from creating spray booths and those kinds of environments. And yes, it does make my tile cost more per square foot. But just the fact that we're brushing on the colors creates that dimension. And that magic that I think machine made tile try to get the look.
10:40
Well. And what I was impressed on when I did a tour is just the the artisan quality and you know, meeting your people that were doing everything by hand. I mean, you have machines, obviously that are helping you but to a large degree most of its hand. And you know, what's that machine that pushes it out, I want to say pug, but good memory pugmill pugmill. So I was close. So as you have that in the different colors of your clays. And I mean, it reminds me honestly of like Plato as a kid pushing it through. And then I took a slow mo video that will post later, where, you know, we're one of your technicians was cutting it off. And it was just it's very cathartic watching it, you know, happen. And I was like a little kid in a candy store just watching this, or I guess bakery store. And just watching it go through that process was just really cool. And then the lady I met was taking your triangle punch out. And it was just, I don't know, it kind of brought an element of like childhood Glee back to me as I'm walking through it. And seeing this level of intermediate like storytelling, I think, as someone who builds, you know, try to try to build really high end homes. But I'm, I really love a story. And I think people gravitate towards to a story. And I think it's always been part of our culture, just as humans, right. And if you tell someone a story, you remember things differently than if people just give you facts. If you put facts within a story, it's like, amazing, right? And your product, your what you're producing. And creating has such a beautiful story that I think people would want it like I want it in my home, because it tells the story in some ways. And it is beautiful. It's not to take away from the craftsmanship. I'm actually more interested in the story. And then I could talk about it then am about like the actual tile itself. Me specifically because I just like stories. And then if I could create a tile that did both. Oh, man, it's not even a competition.
12:24
And if it could tie in a dad joke then like, game over game over those
12:27
just come? Yeah, sorry. All the moms listening. I think it's probably mostly dads. So they get they get they get what I'm putting down? Yeah,
12:35
no, I appreciate at this point. But a lot of parents and definitely a dad. So he would appreciate y'all.
12:41
We should look into that. I have to google that sometime. Like where the you know where that phrase came from? Like, how can we never hear about mom jokes? Why is it dad jokes? I
12:49
don't know. Yeah, my husband is great at dad jokes as
12:52
well. So how many children do you have?
12:53
So this is my second marriage. He had his children. So he's got a son and a daughter fully grown, and they definitely appreciate his dad jokes. Yeah, to you. Most of the time. Yeah, he's actually he's been a very good balancer of me. I've definitely feel like I'm more chill as a person because he doesn't take things so seriously, which is why I can appreciate you as well as I think like, I can be a pretty intense person, but this phase of my life, like I don't have time for that level of intensity all the time, which is why I can appreciate dad jokes. Like, I tell people like for my own therapy, I love watching Def Jam comedy, which is definitely not dad jokes, but it's like dad jokes like really elevated, right? Yeah.
13:41
Funny. Your How would you say kind of just piggybacking a little bit on the personality of yourself into your business. You'd mentioned earlier on I was looking at your website to you because you have another business. It's, it was Mercedes, Austin art. So walk me through like how you got into clay and how you got into tile people were telling you, hey, this entrepreneurship is a bad idea. I'm guessing you are an artist first. And then this was a passion that was you were able to figure out how to make your passion and artistry work on a commercial level. Is that kind of how it developed?
14:13
Yeah, it was like, again, I couldn't have articulated this in the beginning. So it sounds like really nice and polished now. But so I started for us as an artist and then a mosaic artists and the mosaics that I was making from my family's leftover home improvement project tile, versus the mosaics that I was making with handmade tile
14:33
old were you are you doing this?
14:35
When I was doing this? I was approximately 21 Okay, so I've been in this for almost 24 years and Mercury mosaics is 20 I gotcha. So almost a quarter of a century that's a really weird thing to say. So I was really all about these mosaics that were totally made a handmade tile and I like a course this is the thing I like the best so I say like mercury mosaics was me going like I'm gonna start my own supply chain of the tie all that I love the most, like, how hard could that be? And I think that's what is probably good for me is I probably wouldn't start a lot of things if I really knew how hard they were, I'm like that personality, right? I would rather just put one foot in front of the other than have a well fleshed out plan, which I've definitely been, you know, criticized about, I could be better in business, but like, Listen, I've been going for 20 years. So Am I perfect? No, but I would rather learn by doing than learn by like, that's like, once you figure out an entire plan, by the time you're six months to a year into it, that nothing's gotta be reordered anyway.
15:36
Right? It's funny you say that, because I've been building for 18 years now. And just the other day, you know, I asked, you know, our employees as we ever your reviews, you know, what are your what's your one year, what's your three year and certainly have goals, but like, as a and I'm guessing this is classic, you told me if we're not but I'm in such a hurry to get from point A to point B. And I've got so many ideas that I'm trying to capture that rarely do I in I would say that introspection is not a great strength of mine. So like to sit down and like self analyze, and like, ask some of those questions to myself is something that I need to do a better job of, in fact, you know, we're, we're kind of this year, not radical, but we're taking we're making sure that everyone the company is off between Christmas and New Year's. That being said, I'll probably work a ton during that time. And it'll be on these types of things like goal planning, and some of that, and but like what you just said, I'm much better at just, hey, here's my idea, I'm gonna go with it. And ultimately, kind of figure out on the fly, you surround yourself with good people, and you have a lot of energy. And I think that energy is very captivating, and very, you know, energizing to I mean, the people around you, it just kind of happens. And I've heard of people that like, oh, have a plan, have this really exhaustive plan. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't plan like, certainly can't build a house on just energy, deliver a bunch of two by fours and a bunch of tile. I mean, if you don't have a plan, there's no way you're gonna construct that house. But it's funny why I don't apply that more to my own business. That being said, you could plan yourself to death and never do a single thing. And I sometimes think about, like working out, like people say, Well, how do you get in shape and like, well, just start by walking, or just start by running, I used to be a cross country, high school coach, and some of the kids had never run a mile before in their life. And I'm like, Well, I'm not gonna make you run five miles on day one, right? Now, we're just gonna start with, you know, let's run from here to you know, the end of the trail. And back, you know, and let's just, let's chunk it out. I think just one, if people are listening, that haven't started a business and you want to, I mean, it's really that it's not easy. So it's not, but the concept is that easy. Just if you believe it, just start doing it.
17:33
Right, exactly. And with Mercedes, Austin art, let's consider, like I call Mercury mosaics might like 18 year tangent to build the supply chain. And returning back to the art is just that it was first work on pieces that are like eight inches by eight inches. And instead of putting so much fixation on selling them, like I was appreciating the privilege in the position that I was in that I didn't have to put the pressure on my art right away, to pay my rent. And so just like having a little more freedom to donate them into silent auction things and getting that stuff more well known in that way. So Mercedes is an artist still in pre revenue, but also like what I work on, as part of my art, it really right now is becoming where I do r&d for Mercury mosaics, like it's still a goal. Like it's not a company that's producing revenue yet, but I did. For myself, it was very important for me to develop the brand and the website and what I want it to look and feel as I because I plan to have this be a very long game. And so if I'm going to make mosaic art, from tile that I love, so much like I want it to be set up how I would have envisioned it 20 years ago, but just never had any resources to put it together how I envision so it's, I'm putting all the effort into all the details. Now before I really like, right now I dedicate eight hours a week to it. So it's also been a very humble reminder of how much business takes to get off the ground. Because you're like, Oh, I'm just hearing about you. Now. I think that happens for a lot of entrepreneurs, as you've been hustling, you know, for five years, 10 years and people like start noticing you once you've been like at it for a while. So I think too, there's a big importance. I think we need to emphasize the work speaks for itself versus you telling everybody about it. That translates Yep.
19:29
Yeah, I think you no had been. I'm 42 It'd be really nice to know some of these lessons when I think I started when I was 23. So thank you. It's just, I was just mentoring. I mentor some high school kids from Minnetonka High School as part of this vantage program. In fact, I hope to bring them on the podcast or their their teachers in the program. But you know, we invite them in and we have them do a project and you relate with these young kids and it's just it's it's amazing experience to work back and forth. But I wish they had something like that when I was in high school, too, or college or really at any point in time just to get give that kind of that feedback. And I feel like, you know what they're gonna talk a little bit later about social media and how that's maybe helped or just what that community has done for you. But I feel like on the outside of it, you know, I think social media connects people, or it can I mean, it can be obviously divisive, too. And it can be it's a tool like anything, tools, or I mean, like a gun. For instance, a gun can be a defense weapon, it can be, you know, a murder weapon. I mean, there are pros and cons, it just depends on how we use it if you've ever associated social media that way, but it's somewhat applicable in the day and age we live in. But, you know, I never would have met you without a social media platform of how I connected to the people that knew you. And so I feel like it's amazing and how the community keeps getting smaller and smaller, the more attention that we pay. And I think you're right, that we spent so much time promoting our brand. And now once you get a little bit more stable, a little bit more aged in your career, now you start looking around, like how can this community now it's almost like you've been looking down for so long, you look up and you're like, wow, the scenery around here is beautiful. And, and I'm finally at that point where I'm like, looking around, I'm like, there's so many I've always appreciated that craftsmanship. But now I'm like seeking it out because I just have a thirst for knowledge. I want to know what they know. And it's just really fascinating to me, people like yourself, it's inspiring, regardless of your business. It I love the stories I love hearing about, you know, kind of this coming of age story now. So are you saying that like so Mercury mosaics I saw when I was in your studio, the person that was giving me the tour, I forgot what was her first name again? Elise Elisa. Earliest, yeah. At least was giving me a tour, there was two blocks on your work tables as you came out. And she said, Oh, yeah, Mercedes just did those, like in the last day or so. So I think those were probably what those are 14 by 14 inch, little squares. Now that's going to be wall art, or where do you envision because I saw on your website, you're going to sell? You're thinking like these will be large wall hangings, they'll be walking me through some of the things that you'll that people would want other than than just the beauty of it. Is there some utilitarian value? Is it mostly like, you know, wall art? Like, what is this going to become?
21:57
The artwork that I work on? So some of the artwork that I work on, like I've tried to differentiate some of the things there's like varying degrees. So I, there's some things that I love working on that I call the runway looks that I'm like, I don't know how to sell that yet, but I'm not gonna afford, you know, make myself wrong, but I spent 173 hours on it. And it's got to be praised. I know, not everyone could get that sorry, yeah. And then there's some things where I kind of treat them like a like a quick sketch. And it is something and a simple frame. All of my pieces are all repurposing something that was rejected in our quality control at Mercury molds. It's amazing. And we have a situation because like with all the supply chain turnovers, like our clay recipes are all changed. Our glaze recipes were all changed. So thank goodness, I had this second location of 20,000 square feet. So we could send really large pallets of like, what are we going to do with this out there, and we're slowly repurposing that into art. So part of this, like, I could never make a dent in this with my art. So the purpose is to create accessible moments of our patterns where I'm not requiring you to rip up your house that was kind of this, like, comedy that I looked at as like, no one has a way to like purchase stuff from us unless they're gonna rip up their whole house or they purchase another property. But wait a second, I literally started as a mosaic artist, and why aren't we making frame mosaics? Well, Good golly, it took 20 years to kind of figure this out or to just go back to the roots. The fun part. That's right. That's like the irony of it is I'm, I'm just like going back into my old playbooks and going like what would be really, like, what would I enjoy working on because when you're this far along in business are certain things that you have to work on, because it's smart business health, and it doesn't mean like, it's that pretty Instagram thing that you're working on. So I'm like, I'm going to find some things that I really enjoy working on. Because this is hard. It's hard to run a business right now and especially a manufacturing business. Like, I get it. I get why places sell or closed down. But I'm like, I'm not. I'm not a quitter, right. I want to give me some mosaic art, please.
24:11
You're listening to curious builder podcast. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Pella windows and doors. They've just been an amazing partner over my entire career. I've been building for 18 years and I've pretty much built every single home with Pella being installed in my homes and whether you're doing a small remodel, whether you're doing commercial or high end architecture, they have a product and a service that can fit any one of your needs. And on a personal level. And and Peter over and management have just been incredible mentors to me, both as a person and as a business owner. It's been a very special relationship and their team, their general manager, their sales department and their service. I mean you call them they're there. They backup what they say and they're the only window company that has a lifetime warranty. on their windows, so when it's time to do a remodel or build a new home, Pelle is the brand that we trust and we support, please reach out to them at Pella northland.com or on their Instagram at Pella Northland. Give them a follow give them a like, be sure to follow what they're doing. And be sure to tell your Pella rep that you heard about him from the curious builder. This episode is brought to you by NRD. Landscaping, they're just a tremendous company. They are located off a one on one and highway seven, and the western side of Minneapolis met Eric and his team about five, six years ago and have just been absolutely blown away at their design capabilities, their value, and they're just a trusted partner that we introduce to every client that we build our custom homes with. So if you have a small project, a large project, if you're an architect looking to bring in a landscaper, I highly recommend Eric Worre energy landscaping, you can check them out on his Instagram handle and rd landscape or online at energy landscape.com. All of our episodes and video are available at curious builder podcast.com. And now back to our guest
26:06
Well, that's beautiful that you've been able to, even though it's not profitable yet, but the size of it. Yeah, but that it's still energizes you
26:12
joy is a priority, man. Yeah, yeah. 100%. And I like a friend of mine, I'm friends with one of my competitors who's like, way huger than me fireclay tile out in California, Eric, the CEO, he's like Mercedes, you just gotta handle hard better, I got a video for you to watch. So, you know, I'm not somebody who wants to throw myself a pity party, but I hit my walls, I'm human. And some days that would be the logical thing to do is just like Poor me. And so just finding and surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs that know that the struggle is real, but also like really honoring, like, I am an optimist. I'm a serial optimist, but man do I deal with some hard things, but I have to really like bet on and like really intentionally bring things to me that fill me up so that I can handle hard better, because I don't want to be like a bummer.
27:00
I think most entrepreneurs have to be an optimist. Your earlier call was hilarious. Like, before it was encouraged, it was discouraged. Are you sure you want to do this right?
27:08
I'm like, well, then I really want to do it. Because like, everyone's questioning me and I can't stop thinking about it,
27:14
or how there is I don't know if it's, I mean, it is competition. And people throw out the word like type A, or there's all these different things. But I think at the end, it's summarized by like, drive, like you have a drive either to prove yourself, prove somebody wrong. You just have a desire, sometimes just the feeling of I don't know if success is the right word, but like the feeling of accomplishment, right? Like when you complete something, you're like you it's a huge feeling of accomplishment. I know, like when we build a home, like even now 20 years later, 18 years later, to drive my kids now past a home that I built all those times ago, it is kind of neat to be like, Yeah, we as a team built that somebody lives there. There's a family there. Yeah, it is really gratifying imagine when you see photos, you know, whether it's in a magazine, or social posts or whatever, it's up here, like I that tile would not be in that home. Without this history in this creation, and its collaboration. I mean, it's your entire team. And so while we tend to be, you know, as owners of our companies, we might be, you know, the face of the company. That doesn't mean we know that our company does not exist with all the people around us. 1,000,000%. I want to come back to that. But one thing I wanted to pick up on when you mentioned about fireclay is, you know, just the last couple years have been more focused on, you know, builder, groups and networking. And someone had used this analogy that really like that, you know, you're not a bunch of silos. I mean, it's a it's a it's community, it's a farm where everyone needs to interact. And I think in sharing those experiences, it removes the walls of separation that you said, this is really hard. This is this is great. There's no reason why you can't apply those to your business. Is there communities like that within the clay industry? Or tile industry? Or do you differentiate the two?
28:53
Definitely, you know, I look, I say like a lot of people are my brother or sister in business, but I speak to Eric a lot. And sometimes he's funny because he's somebody who puts a high priority on working out so I'll I can tell sometimes when he takes a call, and he's like jogging, yeah. Yeah, and definitely within the maker community. I haven't like dove into the clay community because to be perfectly honest, there's several several several people on my team that are much more qualified experts in ceramics than me. So interest. Interestingly enough, I connect more with makers in general and entrepreneurs versus the ceramics community because I have such a light education in ceramics. I didn't wait to know all the forensic science behind ceramics is I learned as I went, and I brought people on my team with the expertise to help me focus on marketing or sales where I'm strong, and find people that could complement my strengths rather than wrack my brain. So I have a lot of code in the ceramist community I would love to but I think, yeah, there's been that like hesitation of like, oh my god, are they gonna find out that I don't really know what I'm doing. It's not like, I've been like that. But I've noticed I've like connected more with people that have a lot of different like business ventures going on, because that's like a wish and drive that I have,
30:16
right? Interestingly enough, it's you, you find energy and knowledge within your own team, which is really, which is really kind of neat. So in some ways, you've answered the question by saying a lot of your I'm gonna say networking, but a lot of your knowledge base and running stuff by I would imagine that probably brings your team very close together, I'd imagine it's very unifying thing, especially, you know, as you as the owner and founder is coming to your team and saying, Hey, what do you guys think about this? There's got to be a huge buy in and ownership.
30:41
Yes, yeah. 100%. Yeah. And I trip up, and my ego gets in the way from time to time. But overall, I think I might err on the other side of like, not moving forward confidently, and like second guessing you're questioning things more? So that's one thing I want to work on. In the new year. Definitely. But for sure, I think that I've created a team of owners and builders versus employees.
31:05
I like that. Yeah. How? Walk me through. So how many people do you have that we're creating now? And I have another whole plant or another? Offside, but what's your total? employee count right now?
31:16
Um, so there are 34 of us right now. There's four people in Medina and the rest are in northeast sprinkled on various teams between manufacturing design sales administration.
31:27
Yeah. And how is that evolution of, you know, people onboarding, I always think it's interesting to talk to people, I think I'm really bad at scaling and growth. I've kind of always oscillated between like two and five people. And I feel like, in my mind is like I hear, you know, listen to a podcast of a builder who has like, oh, we have framing in house, we have trimming in house. And, you know, they're like, 17 to 20 people. And like right now from five and 20 is just like mind blowing, because I think of course, you know, the cost, you know, the overhead and it's you know, it's a little bit chicken and egg, do you get the sale first and then build up your team around it? Do you build your team first and then get the sales? It's I know, this is a, it's a just a very interesting question. For me, I'm kind of in the middle of it. How have you found your evolution of knowing when to hire people and when to let people go? How have you navigated that?
32:12
Such a loaded question? Yeah, because I'll leave now. And you can just talk for an hour, I'm just gonna just like mumbled myself for an hour or so before the pandemic, we are a team of 29. And during the pandemic, I would say, we started growing our team, we actually reached 50 employees, and had our largest year in history in 2021. And we could never have predicted what would have occurred this year, until we are in it. And there was something I have, again, I have to be an optimist. So in reading about corporations, like Target or Wayfair, and feeling like I was reading about the exact problems that I was having with inventory, too much inventory and high over hiring, but not knowing that we were over hiring because we were like really answering like how exhausted our team was getting, like, our lead times. Were
33:04
you reading my brain? Right? Yeah.
33:05
See, that's what I mean, I realized, like how many people hit this, you know, hit these walls are like we had never had 16 to 18 week lead time. So we were hiring to manage that and get us ourselves back down to normal four to six week lead times. But to have such a shift, and what was being demanded of us was such it was there was so many like layers to it. So to answer your question, I think there's part like where you can predict business based on trends. And for us, you don't just like find someone who knows how to make tile walking around on the streets. So it's not, I don't want to like undermine it. But it's not like that. You we like have to train people from scratch. So we were taking very calculated guesses in terms of our trends from a 19 year continuum. We weren't thinking of isolation of 2020 2021 just saying that out loud. There's probably people just like rolling their eyes at me, like how could this lady have not even thought of that, but I was really looking at like this 19 year story of how we did things. So you went to 50? To not like yesterday.
34:15
But then you obviously now you're at 33 So you let people go. How did how did that transition happen? So you you ramped up here this in everyone dealt with it? I mean, nobody had a playbook for post pandemic, right? I mean, between shortages and then the DI nobody could have predicted everyone staying at home and now your tiles I assume a huge part of it as people are doing it themselves. And so there's this massive crush of of just any home improvement product, and well, anything regarding homes, if you're in your space, you're like well, I'm at home, you know, what am I going to do now? I might as well do this right? How did you then so you scaled up? How did you scale down or what was the reason how that all fell out?
34:51
That was so that's why I deemed like this has been the hardest year in business for me because it doesn't mean I shouldn't have done this in past like five year pa gets some mercury, it just means it's the first time I ever had a reduction in workforce and laying people off. I've never done that before. And I don't ever want to do it again. But I also don't want to become so conservative and how I grow the business forward. That's why I didn't get a chance to talk to you yesterday, because I was like, deep in conversation with one of my business mentors, because I'm like, oh my god, I realize how like, I'm predicting and creating a budget and like coming up with a plan. And this is a really conservative and safe and it's not creating a lot of abundance and prosperity for people and growth. But I also noticed that I'm still super stoked on like what occurred, right, in this year, like, I have to strike a balance. So just like, looking for that balance,
35:42
hearing you say, that's actually very comforting. So this last year, we hired so I mean, I think I was about six months to a year late in hiring another project manager. And I just was responding to my team. I mean, I was maxed out, my team was way maxed out. Yeah. And, but um, you know, I was thinking, like, what's coming down the road, and, you know, most of the homes we build, they're probably, you know, maybe four to six months in design, and maybe a year to two years in building, right. So you have some, some runway on and off to kind of predict some of the stuff. So anyway, we heard this individual and then like seven months later, you know, you've got inflation going up, and I'm looking at the future. And I'm like, Man, I think I think my overheads uncomfortably high right now, I just hired this person six months ago. Now, I feel like I need to let them go. And it was the right decision. We let them go. And but that's actually the first time I've ever let somebody go in 18 years. I mean, it does not feel is not an enjoyable process. I want to there's another old Brad, well, you know, Brad, love it from AFD. He always talks about the Disney process, you know, he's told this 100 times, and it's, you know, it's hire, hire slow fire fast. And I'm convinced I do it the other way around. When I haven't need super fast, and I'm so loyal to people. And I just like people that sometimes I put up with stuff that I probably shouldn't, because I just I believe there's a yin and a yang. I mean, I guess you can't go through life thinking the worst of everyone either. But you know, I probably, you know, the optimism in me just as like, they're gonna figure it out, they're gonna do it, they're gonna get it. And, you know, sometimes letting people go actually kind of, I'll have people come up to you later. And they'll be like, oh, you know, this, this. And another thing you're like, really? I didn't know that. And like, oh, yeah, you're doing you know, you're doing better now or like, they're, I guess, understanding that if somebody leaves, your businesses are going to collapse, and then bringing on somebody new, there's new ideas, there's new energy. And the training process is a little painful. I'm going through a right now with a new position that we're that we are hiring on. And it's not enjoyable, but I can already see there's some huge advantages to it. And so it's also exciting, because it's like, this is new. And so
37:43
yeah, and again, it goes back to that like handling herd better, because sometimes when you have to make decisions for the health of the organization as a whole, it totally goes against how you started things and what you wanted to do as a very small boutique company. And it it's uncomfortable. And my mentor, Glen yesterday just reminded me because I told him, I was like I removed CEO, from my email signature, I only say like, founder and mosaic artist, he's like, put that back on there. I said, I don't know. Like, I just don't feel like I've really been like the CEO this year, like based on what's happened. And he said, just because it's not the banner year, every year doesn't mean you're any less of a CEO. But it's very important, like anyone that has the title of CEO has had to make really tough calls, that doesn't necessarily make you the most popular person in the room. But at the end of the day, you're responsible for the health of this organization. And that's
38:39
we talked a little bit about so you know, you had to let people go, you had to come back to the sizer now it was not comfortable this year. So how do you how does how did the team employees that are still there? What are they? What's their feeling? Or, you know, I know that you depend on your team, we already talked about earlier, just, you know, in some ways, they're there, you bring them in as kind of ownership, if you will, in their commitment to their craft, and they're very much a part of this family, which is why it's so difficult to let people go because their family, where are they at now? And I guess, what do you do to promote? You know, you have a still have a lot of people. And so how do you promote kind of this collective culture where it's a very positive energy? Yeah, I'm
39:19
kind of figuring that out. So there's a small group of six of us that meet weekly in this meeting titled The L 10. Meeting. So it's our very scrappy way of implementing traction where we have we don't have all the things but we have this regular weekly meeting pulse, and we have a very visible dashboard. So the nice thing is when it's very clear where the numbers are at, with everyone, it removes that emotion and how you feel about things and you start to make objective decisions. You're not cold, but it makes things more visible. And so it makes it
39:53
just pause you there. Again, so l 10. What does l 10 mean?
39:57
Yeah, so it's it's a weekly meeting based on on all of the like key important things that you're working on in business on a quarterly basis, which I think annual strategic plans are, okay, but even better if you can focus down on like objectives for each quarter to get you to the end of the year with your goals, darn it, I wish we had started at the beginning of the year. But we started this in August. And we're still consistently doing these meetings, and it's gonna be absolutely vital to continue with them. And this whole, like philosophy of traction is genius, because we are actually making traction. So when we I'll kind of get back to your question. But when we started everything, and when we had the reduction in our team, we needed to increase our weekly sales average by 58%. And people were like, good luck with that. Wow, we've achieved 39%. So far, rock solid. So let's go. Yeah, and Mercury mosaics is 100% bootstrap business, and it's still owned by little old me. And so we're doing this with our own natural resources, which I question sometimes, yeah. But I don't have a lot of experience in that other world.
41:09
Or when you say that other world you're talking about basically like
41:11
working with investors like Angel, like, Oh, my God, see on TV.
41:18
Angel investor, I've always a picture you like someone walking around with like a halo and a briefcase full of cash. And like, you know, these people aren't idiots like, they want return on their money and you hear stuff like 20 30% or 80. It's hard to know. And, you know, there are certainly, you know, I've heard of builders and like, at some times, I think if people can't explain where someone gets money from, they'll often say, Oh, I think they work with an angel investor. They might not, it might just be like, they're really good at business do. And so, anyway, someday anyone out there who's an angel investor and wants to invest in either a Mercury mosaics or mark elevens custom homes are the curious builder podcast for this matter. You know, we accept angels anytime. That's right.
41:53
Yeah, we love angels. Charlie's Angels anyway. So there's a few folks out there are like, good luck with that, you know, like, they were gonna just plan on our imminent demise. So again, you know, that entrepreneur in me is just like, I kept like, here's how I kept getting my mind straight about it. I'm like, this is, this is rough, but we're gonna get through this, I kept replaying the scene from Toy Story, when they were like, gonna go and rescue I don't remember what he was like. Like, I remember washing my hands, like 9 million times, I look in the mirror, and I would just like picture this damn Toy Story scene, when it was like work. Like, there's no way this isn't gonna work. This is like, this is supposed to be my 20 year in business. Like I had all these ideas of what my life would look like. It was like Google's in it. And as my friends like, handle heart better. And I'm like the time started saying, like, that's what got me, q2 and q3. So I'm getting everyone back together after a reduction of force. I mean, I actually cut out our quarterly meetings, because I was like, I don't know how to do a quarterly meeting when we're in this crisis. So someone's like, Oh, so you're not like a performative CEO. I'm like, I guess I'm not. And I think we should focus on the work rather than like focusing on like this quarterly meeting, but at the same time, there's, you know, over 30 of us, it would be great to have like coming together and giving updates, but I kind of wanted to get some work under our belts and be like, you know, when you gotta raise a quota by 58%, that's kind of legit. So it's like, it's kind of neat.
43:28
Is that a sales thing or deliverable thing? Or what? When you say you have to raise it by 50%? Like, what What metric? Are you following?
43:34
weekly sales? Average? weekly sales? Absolutely. Sales average? Yeah. Yeah.
43:38
I mean, don't have a frame of context. Just the number sounds aggressive. So it sounds daunting. I can see why people would say that, but at the same time, you're, you're at 30%, which if you had said 30%, I was I mean, so it's sometimes having the bar high or being forced to it sort of makes you and then I'm sure you're learning a lot of things about either productivity or time. I'm cash management. Yeah, no cash flow. It's
44:00
trimming the expenses scrubbing the budget. Yep. Yep. How can you make that thing happen by spending $1 instead of three? Oh, my gosh, we didn't know that. That window was wide open and the heat well, you know, like, we were losing money on shipping, hadn't done a another analysis, like so many things. Nothing left unturned, right. Yeah.
44:21
Yep. Do you? Do you hire outside consultants to come in and kind of analyze business and kind of, I mean, you have your mentor, obviously. But I mean, how do you get kind of like a bird's eye view because sometimes just an immune year in manufacturing, and some some, not one label, but let's just say from that standpoint, like how you structure different things in your room, like, you know, time, right, like if they had to walk all the way across the other side. Does that make sense when I got the tour was kind of neat because they're, in one fact I skipped over, which was one of my favorite things to talk about is that your building was the former site of the development of the Norgren bomb site. Correct.
44:56
Norden bombsight. Norden Yeah, it was one of the most heavily arted buildings in the United States by the FBI and CIA at this time, and it was all headed up by General Mills. So they had switched over the manufacturing in the building from fireproof doors to this top secret Norden bombsight operation,
45:14
which is so cool. And the reason I bring it up now, people are listening up here like, dude, that guy can't keep on a single topic, which you're right. It's hard for me to stay on topic. That being said, we all get back to that being said, Well, yeah, we'll close, you know, a few doors here. No pun intended. But when I was walking through your factory, you had that internal space where Elise was saying that that's where they sprayed the bombs in. So like, literally, I mean, it's such such a cool fact. I mean, it's not really applicable to anything other than it's just my office is just an old house, I love the idea that you developed like a turning point or World War Two in your building. That's pretty cool. And you should have, you should have, you should do like a see a line of tiles that like, you know, goes back to a World War Two, like some sort of a theme or like independence, or you can almost do like a theme around it. You can
45:57
help me around that because my audience slants toward the female buyer. And I've been just trying to figure out how to crack into the male audience and maybe your insights can help. What about what about camel and camel?
46:10
Camel blend.
46:11
Didn't even think of that
46:12
camel blend in. Let's see, you'll be cool. You could do like a Heritage Program. And even within your building that cool Lego brick
46:18
mania, where they're taking Legos and assembling like military kits. Yeah. Why not? They're bossing out like they have a huge market in Europe. Yeah, I mean, Tattersall are the largest tenants in the building, like brickmania has taken over the world.
46:34
I don't have to look it up. My son is certainly in the Legos. And so I want to come back to our time because I was doing retail space too. That's what she said. Yeah. And I really want to go see it. But my going back to on brand here. For your time, I can't believe I'm the one bringing something back, says Mr. ADHD is your tile. How cool would it be to do like a camouflage tile with brickmania You could actually supply all the tiles and when they give when they send everything off? It comes with like a little set of camo. Yeah,
46:59
I'm just we could start small with like specific gifts to your clients. I like that the camo or just like the heritage collection. Yeah,
47:06
yeah, that'd be but it is fun. I mean, your colors I'm we're looking at these, you know, there's just I love how the pop of color. It's just, it's really fun and vibrant. I think the shapes that you do are also very atypical from what I see, you know, in the housing industry, everything's like rectangle, and which is great. I mean, it's still beautiful work. But you have such interesting shapes. And my little tangent here, my sister in law was a ceramics major. I don't know. Do you know Justine and I? She went to Santa Monica St. Olaf.
47:34
We just did a mosaic for the new St. Olaf student house. Oh, really? Yeah.
47:37
So she's been graduated there for a while. But for a long time, she has JNI Studios, which does all my flowers. She has a little northeast studio at her house, and she does incredible stuff. But she was estranged as a ceramic artist. And so she's probably gonna be mortified that I said her name on this. But anyway, she's very private, but she does beautiful work. And so when I walk through, I've seen her she does, you know, some beautiful clay work, you know, pottery and, you know, cups and all these things. And I wanted her to make custom one offs for all my clients. But they ended up being a pretty big order. Because if I do, you know, let's say I've eight to 15 clients a year between remodels and new homes I want my idea was to have like a set of plates, a set of cups, and like, that was my closing gift to the client. And I don't have to come up with something new with you. Some mosaic art or something. But anyway, just walking in there reminded me that I was expecting something totally different when I saw a tile. And it just reminded me of what I've seen in like, artists studios. That's why I think again, that the storytelling of what you do is so powerful, and so impactful. You know, if anything, you could raise the price on all your products by $1. And there you just solved your, your 58% No problem. 180%.
48:43
Everybody hear that? Mark D. Williams idea?
48:48
Does he buy any of your products? I don't think so. But he just said double the price.
48:52
Yeah, I heard through the grapevine that you were like, I don't know how I can't figure out how to work with her. And I'm actually kind of surprised with the colors you have laying here. These are very kind of off the beach. This is not a common combination of colors. So we'll help you with that. Even I can say like, I do feel like I'm looking a little bit at an Easter basket over here, Mark.
49:11
But do you know why pick those? No, I
49:12
don't because I was gonna give them
49:13
to my daughter. I understand she and she loves color. I didn't do but I did pick up this what she said this Garnet 92. But my favorite one was on the floor was the seamist. Yeah. which oddly enough looks a lot like your cards.
49:26
So it's not odd. It literally is. And this is definitely one of the blue jeans like so let's go back to one of your nine questions that we didn't answer. And that is like the social media and connecting you know, it's interesting is one client sent us a photo from their iPhone and we posted it on Pinterest and that is still like this highly sought after feature shower wall, which is this shape and this color. And I think that was in 2016 Wow. Yeah. So I'm like, constantly on the hunt of like, what's the next here? There's a lot of pressure for that. Like I like to use the example of like John Legend he'll, you know, create an entire album and identify what he thinks is going to be the hit. And it's not always what he thinks I'm like, Well, John Legend can't figure out what his, like the people tell you what your hits are.
50:14
That's true. Well, like, I mean, at the I was at the Grammys or the Oscars where they did. So obviously I have young kids, but in condo, which is a great movie, but they have that song that everyone knows, we don't talk about Bruno. And it was like number one on pop chart, every single chart in the world, it was number one in every language possible. And they submitted a totally different song, they had no idea that that song was going to be and then it didn't win the Grammy. But that song was definitely the most popular song of the year. Yeah, and I guess the point is, is even when you that's why I've actually never been a good spec home builder. Because I'm not good at predicting what the people will want, I'm much better at building what they want, and then making it better and better. You know, once you engage with them, and you can extract their personality going into the custom nature. Who is your ideal client? And, you know, walk me through, like, what percentage of your clientele is direct to consumer versus like, through designers and builders? And I guess, you know, a B versus C ago. Yeah.
51:11
So right now 44% of my business be okay. It is because I literally remember I told you I was throwing together report before I was coming over here. So my November results 44. I say it's generally like 5050. But it does like at the beginning of the year 35% of my business was b2b. So that actually, that serves as the answer to like what happened for us in this year, we we really experienced a leg in our trade business, which produces the level of sales that we've labeled internally as our whales or our blue whales. Like we try to make it fun. Like we have blue whales, we have whales, we have dolphins, we have walleyes. And we have minnows and we don't discriminate, like we're not going to give you less service because your job is minnow size. But we just we try to kind of have this like, bucket of relative sizes of jobs, our marketing attracts certain ones we want, you know, certain size jobs to be able to self serve on the website, we want to be able to support the customer. So in the custom, like, Are you wondering like how our process goes of like, executing that work or like
52:11
a little bit like so, you know, we use a particular river city town. So Mike smellin, he's on our pot, or he was on our podcast earlier. And you know, that was obviously the major tile names. So let's say my designer, so I'm a company here's basically a how to steer more business towards your way because I could sell this from a story and I think people would be really gravitate towards it other than of course, me talking about it telling me designers come to your studio, which is a logical next step. But walk me through the actual procurement process. So designers bring my clients to your studio to cure me. Yes, that was very efficient. I don't know if I've ever used the word procurement before. Did I pronounce it right?
52:48
I like feel like you need to follow it up with like, the whoopee cushion, because it was just like so polished, just not you know, school. Okay, so yeah. So I've learned that people's definition of custom is totally different. So maybe I could tell you like, there's two most common ways that people customize with us. So let me walk you through the simplest way. So the simplest way we've been like campaigning is like blends designed by you for you where you are in love with like a pattern that we already have. But you want to pick out the colors. And so we can customize that pattern to the colors that you pick out. And that is a very popular way that we've been customizing. It's also not that overwhelming. Because there's some people where if you give them any choice that they want peace out, like it's just way too much. So I get that. So this gives someone like a way to customize without it being like so many decisions that they have
53:41
to almost like color by numbers, or like pick a color chart, right? Here's like a recipe like,
53:45
I love this seamless color. I want like 90% of that, but just give me a few pops of these blues and I'm in heaven. Okay, great. We can make that up for you. It's not on our website, but we can make it for you. How many square feet do you need? So that's one way.
53:58
And that's now that straight to consumer. Usually in that scenario? No,
54:01
both the trades and consumers are doing that? Absolutely. Yeah. And then the other I like to describe it as like creating a custom tailored suit. So your wall is the body. And we need to know like the measurements of that wall. And then we generally kind of how we walk through it as learn like, are you inspired by something else we've made, which is pretty typical. But in the case of like our custom mosaic for St. Olaf, which I'll send you a link, that architect had a vision of very specific vision. And we have a very, very, very bespoke way of coming up with custom that I don't think any of my competitors would touch because it's not a very smart business decision. It's definitely like an artist leading a company, which I would love to work on more of that stuff. So that's why I kind of balance it out with like, the more basic things that we do so can allow for us to work on the magic because I'll like never get rid of it. I can never like get it all to line up on that p&l and balance sheet ever. Yeah, because you're not going to repeat it again. And but we have some pretty good inputs. But we really liked that work the most like, of course, the most of course we do,
55:07
right? It's also, I mean, yeah, it takes a lot of time, but it's also very from your artistic scratching the joy itch, right? I mean, you really energized by it, I would imagine,
55:17
you know, and I was just watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's, and like, Lionel Richie is one of my favorite people. And it gave this analogy about there's created artists, where it's like, then the record producers, like, Oh, my God, you had this hit, okay, give me another one of that hit, and then whatever. And then there's the creative artist who like, here's the record producer knows what all the best hits are. But he's still they're still out there taking a risk and creating their art. So we're like, we're doing both like I'm doing. And that's what I think is the hard part is like, because I've got that payroll, I've got all the things going. And I want to keep building this, but I also want to be the creative artist and title company. So we're like creating both, which is why and like, you know, my 18th and 19th year, I really got intentional with like designing a well laid out production line. And going like these production processes are very different. Like, I'm going to separate out, the things that we repeat over and over again, from the things that
56:15
I mean, that makes sense to me, it seems like you're doing that with a Medina factory to kind of hedge that I mean, that'll kind of be, you know, your bread and butter, if you will, and then that can kind of pay for the artistry side of it, or at least stabilize, I assume the cash flow, because you have you know, this couldn't handle 80% of whatever that p&l is, and then you can enjoy the other, which, oddly enough gets, you probably didn't know what he arrived at. And the engagement and the social and all these things are really captivating that it continues to drive. But I think, you know, I was just talking to a designer the other day. And like, as a builder, myself, it's like, I would love to push the clients envelope sometimes like as a, as someone who's a part of the creative process. I personally, myself and my drawing the plans, but obviously have a hand in it. And like I would love to do this, or I'd love to do that. And sometimes I hear designers, you know, say that I wish my client would trust me to do this. But you know, they want to do something that they've seen that's already been done. And not that everything has to be brand new. It's like you love it. It's your home, you're comfortable. Like okay, that makes sense, right? But as an artist like you, you kind of want to keep on pushing stuff. But I think every artist struggles with us, at least the ones that I've talked to, because how do you make money? How do you run a business? If you're always inventing something new all the time? They're not all going to be hits, obviously. And so I think what you're doing there makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Not surprisingly, we could talk for about three more segments. But we're running up. I had a few few follow up questions here before we left and one was. So you have a kind of a custom line with construction to style, right. And I hear you guys are coming. You got some new stuff coming up that you guys are collaborating on?
57:45
Yeah. So her kitchen is the most asked for like when people see that they want to then tailor it to their wall.
57:54
And that's what we call the river. Someone said that was the river. Is that really what it's called?
57:58
Yeah. And Morgan actually started by simply wanting to do white diamonds in her kitchen. So I actually had to take the time. And I wanted to take the time because she's amazing to educate her because people don't naturally think about tile as what I do. And so it took it was and she'll say Mercedes is so deep, but it's like an eight month process to walk her through and get her to that. But thank goodness. So I really think these out of the box tile ideas really help construction style also build their brand because would you remember that kitchen if it was just some white tile that in the shape of diamonds? Now
58:34
it's a comic let me see it everywhere. I thought it was at the bachelor farmer I think I saw it or the in the kitchen, that they had a little cafe that's closed now. But I was
58:42
before that was that was popularizing how we made
58:46
shapes. I think that's what I'm gravitated to just like that. And someone in the industry. I just like looking at like, wow, that's fun, that's different. And whether I wanted it in my own home or not, like I just loved it. And it's funny because I brought my wife like, you know, this would be kind of fun. She like Yeah, but not that's not gonna happen our house I'm like, oh, okay, I guess I'll see if someone else wants to their house.
59:03
Yeah. And shout out to the visionaries at James Dayton design because they are behind the bachelor farmer and that project in and of itself put our diamonds pattern on the map. Yeah, yeah. So that like kind of set the tone Morgan shout out to her for trusting like what your designers are saying like, she wasn't rushing her kitchen. So she trusted me to take her through the process. And given that I was like the founder and CEO and like trying to convince her on something that like she had never seen before. It wasn't like the super quick design process because my to do list is a little longer than the usual designer. So shout out to her for her patience. But now I understand doing my own project that your own project takes a little longer than the client timeline. So yeah, so we we are envisioning another line yet to be determined. Morgan is a wild stallion. So we will see what that looks like but we've wanted to put together line in, I think,
1:00:01
call it wildstyle. And I mean, you got the name already figured out.
1:00:06
Maybe you can tee up like the the sound bites for it and sing with your children.
1:00:11
I can make music could have a very talented Blake Thomas, he's up in Duluth shout out to him. He has the intro. I went to high school with him. He had a podcast for a number of years kind of a Prairie Home Companion style, and phenomenal at writing. He could write a jingle to anything, you do wild stallions, he'd be able to figure that out. No problem. He'd worked Mercury mosaics into it. No problem. Maybe that'll be my Christmas, give it to you. I'll just go ahead and have him write it. And then you guys have to create the tile around it. You know, let's do it. That would be a good story. Yeah, write the music before we have the tile. Now you guys have to match the tile to the music. You know,
1:00:40
putting sound to a product is another like genius way to differentiate it and like make your brand stand out. And that's like, that's, that's my dream with tile is honestly like I put myself in a category that is full of commodities. And I think one of the most gratifying things when I started out, I was worn so many times like, I don't know about the resale value. I think about the resale value that's color. And so like, Can you swear on your podcast? Like sometimes I just want to be like to see this. Because
1:01:14
it's the first we'd like to mark this as the first time we've ever heard a swear word on the builder. Yeah.
1:01:21
Because now we're listed regularly as an amenity on real estate listings. And I every time I read that, like I kind of want to tee up like some Dr. Dre or whatever on my reels me like no other one where we're listed. I see you like people warned us for five to seven years that were too much color, too much color and I was just like, oh,
1:01:43
well I've got one free since you seem to love challenges and people what not to do. I don't think you can hit 100% sales quota for the week. Oh 58 You're gonna slam dunk 100
1:01:56
white guys trying to tell me what I can't ignore the fact that your first name is Mark Two is a trip because that's my brother's name. And so I always like I'm talking to you anyone named Mark. It's like I think of my cool older brother. But you know,
1:02:11
you'd be awesome sister. I would love to have you back on again. And now that I think I have more questions now than when we started actually which is gonna be a problem. So I'll write them down. Yeah. Where can our listeners find you?
1:02:24
You can find my company at Mercury mosaics.com And we're looking for your home address in case you want to like actually the angel investors where they arrive and then on Instagram at Mercury mosaics and my other handle is at Mercedes Austin art check it all out because it's a lot of great eye candy.
1:02:42
That's great. Well it also I'll be in the show notes as well. And if you want to watch this video, you can see us laughing and see these tiles you can check us out on our YouTube channel at Mark D Williams custom homes. And thanks for listening to the curious builder podcast. Thank you Thank you for joining us today on the curious builder podcast. I'm your host Mark Williams signing off. Check out all our show notes and other videos on our website that curious builder podcast.com. If you enjoyed what you listen to please leave us a five star rating and share with your friends
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