Meet Michelle McKoy

Transcript:

Narrator
Welcome to The Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week, we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us, enjoy the show.

Jeff
Welcome back to The Best of LKN. This is Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast where we work each and every day to elevate the Lake Norman small business community and introduce you to the best and brightest small business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and leaders of local nonprofit organizations. I want to first give a shout out to our sponsors who make the work we do here at The Best of LKN possible. I encourage you to get to know these exceptional local small businesses by going to our homepage at thebestoflkn.com. There you’ll find a list of all of our platform sponsors with links to follow to learn more about their businesses. We’ll also have links to our sponsors in the show notes for this episode. Welcome our newest sponsor, The Sarver Group powered by Keller Williams Realty Lake Norman. Matt and Britt Sarver were featured in our article listing the Top 10 Real Estate Brokers in the Lake Norman area, and they recently sponsored our second anniversary Happy Hour and small business mixer at Eleven Lakes Brewing Company in Cornelius. Big thanks to Matt, Britt, and the entire team of real estate professionals at the Sarver Group for their support. While you’re on our homepage, go ahead and sign up for our free weekly email newsletter. It’s packed with links to all of our latest podcast episodes, blog articles, and newest YouTube videos. We’re also including local upcoming events that we think might interest you. So, hop on over to thebestoflkn.com after you listen to this episode, and sign up. Check out our latest video on YouTube featuring our friends at Lake Norman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Cornelius. The owner of Lake Norman Jeep, Robin Salzman joined us back in Episode 55 of the podcast. Please consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. We need all the encouragement we can get over there. All right, in this episode, I sit down with one of Lake Norman’s most successful interior designers, Michelle McKoy, the owner of Michelle McKoy designs. Michelle shares the story of her small business journey, which like most small business journeys began in an unexpected way. Michelle gives tons of shout outs to local small businesses in this episode, and I’m going to do my best to make sure there is a link to every single one of them in the show notes for this episode. The complete show notes with clickable links will be right here at thebestoflkn.com. And finally, before rolling this episode, I want to thank our sponsor, SoundVision in Mooresville for hosting this interview. I recorded with Michelle in person at the SoundVision headquarters in Mooresville, where they have a custom podcast studio right in their showroom. SoundVision is the Lake Norman area’s number one source for custom audio, video, and home automation systems. Alright, my friends, let’s get right into this episode. Enjoy getting to know one of the area’s premier interior designers. Michelle McKoy.

Jeff
Michelle, welcome to the podcast.

Michelle
Thank you for having me, Jeff.

Jeff
Great to have you. I want to give a shout out real quick to SoundVision in Mooresville. We’re recording and their super cool podcast studio, custom podcast studio. Michelle, what do you think of this space?

Michelle
I am over the moon on this space. This is beautiful. I’ve used SoundVision with a couple projects personal as well. And the guys do a fantastic job, and this space is unbelievable. In fact, I plan on getting a tour of it after the podcast today.

Jeff
Absolutely. Very cool. Appreciate that plug for SoundVision that was not planned so thank you very much. Michelle, you’ve been recommended as someone that I should connect with for quite a while. As you know, I have had a conversation on the podcast with Renee Roberson, the editor at Lake Norman Currents magazine, and I’m a big fan of their publication. It’s really well produced; the content is really good. And it’s just really high quality. So, I’ve always been a fan of theirs. You’ve been featured, your work has been featured in Currents quite a few times. In fact, this is May of 2022, and you are featured in the May issue.

Michelle
That’s right. And I’m so excited. I was not expecting as many pages and that kitchen renovation that I did. Just, they did a fantastic job featuring it and I appreciate Renee doing that and Bek did a great job writing the article.

Jeff
I want to circle back to maybe some details about that project in just a little bit. But before we get into the work that you do in Michelle McKoy designs, share a little bit of your background, Michelle. How did you get involved in interior design? And how did you end up starting your own business? There’s usually a story behind these things. It’s usually a windy road, so share that for me.

Michelle
It is windy. I actually went to school at Brevard up in the mountains, and then High Point College, which is now a university, which is very different from the college that I went to, I just got to add that. I’ve had basically three careers in my life. I started out when I graduated, I was a juvenile probation officer for quite a few years. And changed gears after about eight years and then decided to get into account executive, which I was a shoe rep, and travelled the road for 25 years. I worked for Easy Spirit, and I also worked for UGG Australia, and always had flipped houses. I actually flipped about 12 houses since I graduated from college. So, I’ve always had that urge. And seven years ago, my husband and I were both laid off the same day, the same hour. We had new management come in. And it just sort of threw me for a loop and decided, you know, I was getting burned out on traveling, I was getting burned out on corporate. So, maybe this is the opportunity that I need to go ahead and start a design business. But, you know, the confidence wasn’t really there because I’ve been doing it for a hobby for so many years. You know, is that going to be something somebody’s going to want to hire me for? And about a month after I was let go, I was at my mailbox, and I had one of my neighbors come up to me. And Gretchen came up and said, hey, Michelle, she goes, I saw that you and your husband had just built a house a few years back, and we’d been admiring it. And we need somebody to renovate our bathroom. Would you be interested? And I looked at her and I was like, okay, why not? I’m not doing anything else anyway. So, I must have done a great job because from there, I ended up doing their kitchen. And then I just recently, the last six months, finished their two guest bathrooms upstairs. So, it just told me that, you know what, that’s something that maybe I need to start my third career and feel more confident about it. And I actually felt really good about that renovation. And it was a renovation that was also featured in Currents magazine, that was one of the first ones that I did. And it featured the couple. And I was sort of on the sidelines of the renovation, but it was cool. It was a good experience for me. And from there, I opened up a small retail space and got some feedback from customers that would come in, they liked my style, got a couple jobs from it. And once again, it was definitely a confidence booster because, you know, people always have hobbies, but you just don’t know if that’s something that you can make a living at. Is it something that, I mean, there’s so many designers out there, you know, how are you going to stand out? And I realized that the retail part of it wasn’t for me. So, I am full-time renovating and design.

Jeff
Yeah, I’ve found definitely in the last 10 years of another business, a small business I started 10 years ago, that you learned a lot through trial and error when there’s not a formula that you purchase, like we’re not starting a franchise here or we’re not purchasing a franchise. So, you kind of try different paths and see what fits. What’s a good fit and what’s not. So, I can totally relate to that. So, you were you and your husband with the same company?

Michelle
We were.

Jeff
Okay. I was gonna say ’cause that would be way too much of a coincidence.

Michelle
Yeah, putting eggs in one basket wasn’t a great thing. But, you know, I am thankful for that experience. I met so many wonderful people. I still talk to my old accounts all the time. My husband is still in the business. He sells for Mephisto Shoes and he’s enjoying that. So, I’ve kept in contact with everybody. And they follow me on Facebook and other social media platforms and comment and tell me, you should be glad you’re out of shoes. This is what you should be doing. So, it’s just once again reassurance that that was a good decision for me to do.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I joke sometimes that when people ask me why I started my own business 10 years ago, I joke, sort of joke, that it was a result of a midlife crisis.

Michelle
Yeah.

Jeff
I had one of those. Was a Jerry Maguire? A Jerry Maguire moment.

Michelle
Yes.

Jeff
And off I went, so. Yeah, I thought it would have been a really weird coincidence if you were both with different companies but laid off the same day.

Michelle
Yeah. Well, we were both with different companies for several years, and then my husband, Chris, came on board with me, for the last 10. And we make a great team. Actually, there’s a lot of husband and wives that, especially when I do renovations, find out that I used to work with my husband, and they’re like, how do you do it? So, we were able to manage that, so it was it was a good experience and I loved it. But, you know, always got to look forward and look to the future and how I can change.

Jeff
Yeah, absolutely. My wife and I laugh, we have friends and acquaintances who, you know, especially in the last two years with remote working, working from home, have actually shared office space in their home with each other. And my wife and I just laugh, we’re like, yeah, that’s not gonna happen at our house. Like, you know. And I make that comment all the time. Although we do love each other deeply. We don’t want to work together.

Michelle
Well, Chris and I still do work out of the same office. But if one of us is on the phone, you know, thank goodness, the phones aren’t connected to cords anymore. Okay, I just dated myself. But anyways, I’ll leave the room if he’s on a call with one of his customers. And so, we’re very polite in that aspect where we honor that.

Jeff
Yeah.

Michelle
But gosh, we’ve always had an office together. I think there’s one house that we lived in that he was down in the basement, and I was upstairs. So, we work really well together.

Jeff
That’s awesome. I’ve had several husband and wife teams on the podcast. And I admire that, I envy that in a way. But yeah, that’s really cool when there’s that kind of cooperative spirit, and especially these husband and wife teams that team up on the same business.

Michelle
Oh, yeah.

Jeff
So, that’s really cool, too, that they can share in that passion for that business.

Michelle
Now, I have to say, we do have the signals, like if I’m talking too loud, he’ll give me that look. You know, it’s not perfect. Okay. I’ll admit to that. But yeah, it does take a certain couple that is able to work close together. Especially I know that there’s some husband and wife teams out there that do interior work and renovations. So, it’s a good thing.

Jeff
I brought up the remote working that we’ve seen. It was a big part of a lot of different industries leading up to 2020. But obviously, there was a lot of working from home in the last two years. That must have had an impact on the interior design industry.

Michelle
It did and it still does. I have probably renovated four dining rooms into home offices or entertainment rooms. So, a lot of that has changed. Yeah, I think there are, you know, the only thing that hasn’t changed, which is really funny, are the built-in desk in the kitchens. I’m ripping those out all day long. Okay. In fact, the kitchen design that is in Currents was a desk that was ripped out, and we converted it into an armoire that is now their pantry. So, I’m doing a lot of that. But yeah, the office, living, and working from home definitely has changed the interior design world one hundred percent.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, I would imagine. We’ve done a lot of renovating at our place in the last two years. A lot of that is, we’ve mentioned on the podcast too, that spending so much time at home over the last few years, people have had a chance to kind of take a look around at their space, and a lot of it may be boredom, like we just want to change it and make it more comfortable and we’ve made a lot of improvements to our place and spend a lot more time at home now. Even after, you know, reopening, so to speak, but so I imagined that that had a lot to do or a big impact on the industry in the last couple of years.

Michelle
Oh yes, definitely.

Jeff
Yeah, we’ve removed certain pieces of furniture and cabinetry and replaced it with coffee bars and bourbon bars. And wine racks.

Michelle
Yeah.

Jeff
Okay, and I appreciate you sharing that about the, you know, the way that the industry kind of was affected during the pandemic. What are some other issues or other changes that you’ve seen in the last two years with the interior design industry?

Michelle
I think that a lot of clients are looking for someone to get them started to follow through with the project. I think that’s where I’m different from a lot of designers. There’s a lot of designers that will walk in and do a fantastic job, plan out a room, pick furniture, colors, everything that’s in trend, and accommodate the clients that way. For me, I don’t mind doing that, but I love the renovating part. I like maybe it’s the smell of sheet rock dust. I don’t know. But one of the things that I find really interesting is people don’t know where to start, they don’t know who to trust. And I have a group of subs that I work on a regular basis with, and I sit down with the clients, we come up with a contract of how they want to run the job, I’m very honest with them. Not that that’s a bad thing. But I spend money the way I would spend it. So, I get high fives from the husbands a lot because sometimes you have the wives or sometimes you even have the husbands that want to rip out the cabinets. And my comment is, these cabinets are in great shape, let’s paint them. If they’re in great shape, maybe they just need a new color. And I have teamed up with Amy Huggins with EMI Master Finishers, she and her team are spectacular when it comes to painting cabinets. And once again, they are also featured in Currents with me on that. I just got a review from that same client who said, Michelle McKoy did a fantastic job for us, but never one time did she hesitate to say, oh no, you are not going to do this.

Jeff
I love that.

Michelle
And isn’t that, that’s why you hire people like us. You know, you don’t want a designer or somebody who renovates to come in and just think of the money. Oh, you know, I can, oh my gosh, I can rip out these cabinets and charge that client fifty grand when I can repaint those and maybe add countertops or a backsplash or maybe now they can afford that extra furniture that they wanted. And I feel like my honesty has really helped and has spread with a lot of these referrals because you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to flip a kitchen. Now, if the cabinets are bad, I’m going to tell you, okay? Listen, we need to rip those out. I wish I can salvage them. But maybe we can move them in the garage, and you can use those as storage. So, I’ve just created I think this niche that, it’s turnkey. Now when it gets to be a project that’s over a certain dollar amount, obviously I’m not a contractor. So, that’s when I’ll collaborate with contractors. I’m doing one right now with Sam Meritt with Cypress Builders, and he’s awesome. In fact, Sam and I just did a big renovation in Cornelius. And we’re doing photography for it tomorrow. So, we’re excited about doing that and the drones and all that other stuff. But Sam and I are doing this basement, and I’m basically helping him run the job. And the client is just like, do it. You pick everything. I’ll have a little say so, she says to me, but ultimately, I want you to do it like it was your basement. And so far, everything’s moving smoothly. She’s happy with everything. And then we know that that will lead to a major renovation upstairs, which is going to be ultimately the kitchen. So, that’s how my business has been built. I just feel like honesty is the best way to go. And if it’s something that I feel like they need to do, I’ll tell them. If they’re like, you know what, money’s not an issue, which by the way I haven’t really run into that client yet. But, you know, Michelle go ahead, we don’t want these cabinets. We want a whole new kitchen, and I’m down with that. I’ll do whatever they want.

Jeff
Yeah. Well, I mean, even when money isn’t an issue, it still is an issue, right?

Michelle
Oh, it is, it is. And, you know, I have one client that I worked with in South Park, and she told me, she’s actually a sorority sister of mine, and Kathleen says, you know, Michelle, I want KitchenAid appliances. And I’m like, okay, well let’s go over to the Ferguson showroom, who I love Ferguson’s by the way. Let’s go over to Ferguson showroom, and let’s go look at the appliances. And then she starts opening and touching all of the doors, and she ended up going with Thermador. I was like, yeah, that budget you just had, you just blew out of the water by ten grand, but that is her favorite room in the house. And I want my clients to be happy. And when I have a happy client, I get referrals. I get good reviews. And it just makes me feel good.

Jeff
Yeah. How much, would you say most of your business is referral, repeat and referral?

Michelle
It is 100%.

Jeff
Yeah.

Michelle
Now I do get a lot of business from Houzz. That’s actually a platform that has every single one of the pictures on there are professionally shot by either Serena Apostal, who is has a company called Studioidesign. She is phenomenal. And then Tiffany Ringwald, who I know you have had on a podcast and she’s equally as talented. And has taken a couple photos for me. So, that is what I call my website. So, I do get referrals from there. And then Instagram is huge. I’ve got about 16,000 followers. That’s been cool because it’s a slow build. And if I’m working on a kitchen, then I will start doing inspirational photos from other designers or off of Pinterest. And give them credit, of course, and then I do videos. So, I get a lot of interaction from that. Michelle, what color is that? You know, what tile are you using? So, that’s cool. And I like that feedback, you know, and then Facebook is sort of a carbon copy of Instagram. So, those are my platforms.

Jeff
I’m glad you brought up Instagram, I had just written it down in my notes and circled it, so I didn’t forget to bring it up. But you have a great Instagram account.

Michelle
Thank you.

Jeff
I love interior designer’s Instagram accounts, they like, y’all just crush it. Like it’s just so well curated. And obviously you’re in a, your business, your industry, it’s a very imagery-heavy industry.

Michelle
It is.

Jeff
But yeah, the photography. You know, Serena and Tiffany are so talented.

Michelle
They’re unbelievable. And you know, there’s a lot of local designers that I love. Sara Brennan in Charlotte is unbelievable. She’s always in national magazines, Ally Whalen, who just moved to Florida. And she and I keep up with each other and we’ll hit each other back and forth. There’s Starr Miller, I mean, there’s so many talented women in this industry. And that’s why I find it interesting that there’s so much of it to go around. And if there’s something, Jeff, that I don’t feel comfortable with, I’ll refer it to another designer, hands down. My weakness is contemporary. I will admit that all day long. I do some modern, a lot of modern touches, but contemporary, I think it’s beautiful but, you know, is it for me? Not yet. Maybe down the road.

Jeff
Yeah.

Michelle
I love going into contemporary homes. Kelly Cruz does unbelievable, in fact, she’s working on a house right now that I can’t wait to see in Mooresville off of Tuskarora. But there’s a niche out there for all of us. And I am very supportive of other designers. I’ll give them kudos on everything, you know, because I want to be that good one day, you know. So, it’s just, there’s enough to go around.

Jeff
Absolutely. Yeah. That concept of community over competition, right?

Michelle
Oh my gosh, yeah.

Jeff
I always use the analogy of the craft beer industry. I see that a lot in the craft beer industry where these local independent breweries will often collaborate with each other on projects, either charity projects, or they’ll collaborate on a, they’ll team up on a new beer, you know, and they’re always like, helping each other out.

Michelle
You have to. This area is too small not to do that. And why wouldn’t you want to?

Jeff
I also have a lot of respect, and I’ve learned over the last 10 years to do this, also, to know your strengths and know your weaknesses. And when a client approaches you with a project that you know really isn’t one of your strengths, to have the honesty and the courage to refer that to someone who you know, that is one of their strengths, and we can stay in our wheelhouse.

Michelle
Well, I think they appreciate that more than, take it on and do a terrible job.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Michelle
And then say, man, I should have given this to somebody else. Because one, you’ve wasted their time, your time, and their money. So, one of the cool projects that I’m working on, and I don’t know if you’ve seen these before, but the man caves, the barndominiums on Brawley School, okay.

Jeff
I have seen those.

Michelle
Oh, my gosh, okay, so this is a big trend. There’s a couple going up in Raleigh that I just found out about. Willis Spivey with Spivey Construction has a phenomenal team. Jenny Pippin actually did the designs on all the barndominiums. Being in Iredell County, and I would imagine we’re going to be doing some in Mecklenburg, they have to be coded as residential. So, what that means is they have to look like residential on the inside and outside. So, they have to have kitchens, laundry rooms, bedroom, living space. And then they can have huge storage for cars and all that other stuff. So, I’ve been so excited about working with this team, I get to pick out everything from ground up. All the way to the roof, the interior stuff. And then we’re doing our sixth one on Brawley. And I’m excited because this couple is from Pennsylvania and they said to me, we already have an idea what we want to do and I was like, oh man, okay, what is it gonna be? Because I really had in my head what I want to do, and they’re like, we want to do a black one. I’m like, yes. So, all the finishes are going to be black. It’s going to have a modern garage door, front door, and it’s going to be right, it’s the last one on Brawley. So, I’m so excited about it. I’m jazzed. So, that project has been really, really exciting. And I know Willis gets people dropping by there all the time asking where he’s going to be building again. I finished another project that I’m really proud of too, Mooresville Dermatology, which they split. Eterna, which is their place where they do Botox, and they do fillers, and skin lasering, and all that. Nanette Robinson, who’s also an interior designer, she and I teamed up on that project, and we just were so excited the way it turned out. In fact, it was a two-year project because of COVID, so they shut down for a year.

Jeff
Yeah.

Michelle
And then we revamped it again. And that place, when you walk in, and I invite you to go there, it’s not just a girl thing, okay? It feels like a high-end hotel spa. You actually walk in and you just take a breath. There’s high-end finishes, there’s gold fixtures, there’s numbing stations. So, when you’re all numbed up, you could sit there. They have a beauty bar. We have flooring that looks like marble, deep and beautiful colors and there is high-end wallpapers, mirrored glass. And then there’s actually, Nanette Robinson is also a wonderful artist. She did a beautiful portrait of Naomi Simon, who is the doctor there, it’s stunning. I mean, it just actually made her cry when she saw it. That’s a project that was really a commercial one that I’m so proud of. And then one other that I was really excited about was a boat house that I did that was also featured in Currents, so they’ve been great to me over at that publication. I thank them again for everything. The boathouse is on a beautiful piece of land, owned by a dear friend of mine, Lisa Muesing, who she and her husband have done a great job with this mid-century modern home. And ironically, my husband and I always saw it from the water. And we’re like, man who lives in that house, it’s so great. And when I pulled up to take this project on, I’m like, I had to call him like, oh my god, this is the house. But they have an old boathouse that was cool, but they are so used to the Old Edwards Inn and they’re like, Michelle, we want that feel. And we did luxury vinyl, and we did shiplap walls and tapestry or, excuse me, window treatments that were created by Amanda Smith with Sew Unordinary, she’s got a wonderful business out of Cornelius. And then bought some furniture pieces from Robyn Ford with Lilly and Grace.

Jeff
Oh, yeah.

Michelle
She’s unbelievable. Robyn and I are two peas in a pod. It’s a little scary for our husbands. But anyways, but that project came out really cool. So, I’ve been able to do a couple things that I never in my wildest dreams would be, you know, thinking I would be involved in. So, it’s been a really, really good run for me. It really has.

Jeff
It sounds like an amazing journey.

Michelle
Yeah, it has been.

Jeff
It sounds like it’s been a lot of fun and really rewarding. Meaningful work, which is what we want.

Michelle
Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
We just want to do great work for people who care.

Michelle
We do. Exactly, exactly.

Jeff
I love that. You wait, that barndominium concept is going to be huge.

Michelle
It has been, yeah.

Jeff
We’re gonna see a lot of those.

Michelle
Everybody wants storage, which, you know, I’m like, okay. But they’re just unusual.

Jeff
Yep. They’re unusual. They’re a lot of fun. And, yeah, there is a huge demand for unique storage spaces. They’re not inexpensive, but they’re meant for, you know, the type of owner that has a collection of something.

Michelle
Right.

Jeff
So, we’re gonna see a lot more of those. There’s a big demand for that.

Michelle
Well, I’m begging for like a road called Wisteria Lane with a bunch of chick sheds.

Jeff
There you go.

Michelle
Not just man caves, okay? Willis Spivey, did you hear that? But anyways, yeah, it’s a great concept. And it is taking off. I mean, when that land was purchased, there was a little bit of reluctance, because you know, the vision was there, but is it going to take off? Are people going to understand it? And it’s on fire, it really is.

Jeff
The Mooresville Dermatology project, I caught some details of that project on your Instagram account and other places. And that looked like it turned out amazing.

Michelle
It’s very cool. It’s something that you would see in Charlotte, not in the Lake Norman area. I don’t know of another place like that around here. So, they definitely, they’re happy as clams over there. And the clients, we’ve actually gotten business from some clients, or their clients that have come in. So, it’s been good.

Jeff
That’s awesome. Lilly and Grace, I need to get over and say hi to Robyn some time.

Michelle
Oh, my gosh, they’re wonderful. It’s family-owned, very caring. Her husband needs to be a stand-up comedian. He’s quite the treat. And I do a lot of business over there. A lot of my upholstery comes from there. They design, they have their own line, they design several things. And they’re just easygoing, and it’s very, it’s just a really cool spot to get inspiration.

Jeff
I’ve heard some really, everything I’ve heard about Robyn and her husband and the team at Lilly and Grace has been really positive. I’ve heard such good things about them. So yeah, I do need to get over and meet her and check out the space. I want to ask you, I love to, I know that there are a lot of, we’ve given a lot of shout outs to businesses in this conversation so far. Do you have two or three more for me that we can give shoutouts to?

Michelle
I do a lot of business with A Cut Above Stone, once again, out of Mooresville and family owned. They are unbelievable. Carolina Tile & Stone, I do a lot of work with them. And also In Style. And you know, there are other places that I do business with, Kitchen Vision. Liz Steger over there is unbelievable. They’re out of Denver. She and I work very closely together on projects, and then Carolina Custom Kitchen & Bath. Ironically, the same brothers. So, one, Kenny owns that one, and then his brother, Doug owns A Cut Above Stone. And they look very similar. It was a little freaky when I first went in there because I forgot Kenny was his brother. And I walked in, I was like, dude, you look, he goes, I know, I look like my brother. I’m like, oh, my God, you guys do. Anyways. And then RMB Kitchens and Baths, Ronnie Brown has been, gosh, he and I have been working together for over 10 years. And the reason why I say 10 years and my business only been in operation for seven, is Ronnie was a sub over at Lowe’s, or a contractor I guess I should say. And he did our cabinetry in our Denver house. And I kept his card, I was like, I’m going to use you someday, I had no idea what I was going to be doing. I just thought maybe if I, you know, my husband and I bought another house, he would come in and do stuff. But he has been, he’s been a lifesaver in a lot of my renovations because he does everything. He puts tile on the walls. He helps me do a couple of designs, we’re doing a lot of islands that have, you know, the bar height, and we’re taking those down and flattening them out. So, he’s awesome to have on that. And Ferguson’s, Danielle and Burt over at Ferguson’s in Mooresville I tell you what, we gel very well together because those guys do such a great job for me. You know, they struggled this year, COVID has really kicked everybody’s butt. And there’s a lot of people that are mean right now. I mean, let’s face it, they don’t understand. Why isn’t my refrigerator in? That’s just the way it is right now.

Jeff
Yeah.

Michelle
Or sometimes I get calls, well, do you think the prices are gonna go down? You know what? I don’t think so. I really don’t. Supply and demand is crazy right now. And you just have to be patient, and they get the brunt of it. I mean, you know, communication is key with a lot of our work. And you have to communicate with clients. But sometimes you just get so overwhelmed. So, I just think those guys are unbelievable, and they just do a great job. And so, I give them a shout out because if it wasn’t for them, I mean, I would be, I don’t know, my job wouldn’t be as smooth as it can, you know, as it is right now.

Jeff
I appreciate you giving them a shout out, and mentioning that, and touching on that topic. Because I think it’s worth reminding people to be patient.

Michelle
You have to.

Jeff
We’re all in the same boat. And it’s really out of our control.

Michelle
Yeah.

Jeff
So, it’s just the way it is. And you see it everywhere in almost every industry, you know, car dealers can’t get new inventory, restaurants, food and beverage, of course, has just been such a challenging time, both during the social distancing and closing, but also coming out of it with the millions of people joining the gig economy and getting out of hospitality. Anyway, that’s probably a topic for another podcast episode. But we could go on and on. But yeah, that’s wonderful. And the fact that you definitely, you gave these shout outs to these amazing contractors, subcontractors, and local small businesses and family-owned businesses. And it just kind of reminds me of how we can’t do it by ourselves, right? We value our vendors and our really amazing contractors so much to be able to deliver the kind of service that we want to deliver our clients.

Michelle
Well, I’m only as good as the people around me. And you know that. And I respect everybody that I work with. And if I have a conflict with them, we talk it out. I mean, I’m like, okay, you know what? I’m not happy with the way that looks. Can we do better? Oh, sure. Let’s figure this out. Because ultimately, it’s for the client. And you know what? Referrals are important and word of mouth, and I certainly don’t want to hear, well, Michelle did a great job, but her communication was terrible, or her guys never showed up. So no, I’m not saying that the last seven years have not been a challenge, and I have gone through a couple subs, because communication is important to me. It was always important to me even when I was in the, you know, as a traveling sales rep. I always would return calls. And I do that to this day. It’s important, customer service is key. In fact, on Houzz, I’ve been very fortunate to get an award every year for customer service. So, one day, I hope to get design one day, that’s a goal. But I will take customer service all day long because I think that’s ultimately really, really important. And, you know, I do want to give a shout out to a lot of the real estate agents that I work with. They’ve been very patient with a lot of stuff too. Inventory being low, it’s cutthroat out there. And I try to make their lives a little bit easier by going in and doing pre-staging things for them. You know, Nanette and I used to bring furniture into some of these houses. But quite frankly, I’m so honest, I’m like, your house is gonna sell you do not need to bring more furniture in, just clean it up. Let’s change the color of the wall. But I do a lot of that for them. And they’ve, I don’t know of anybody that’s not going through something weird right now. I mean, COVID, even though it has slowed down, it’s affected everything. I don’t know of anything it hasn’t affected.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Michelle
And also too, I want to offer marriage counseling to a lot of my clients, because I have done a lot of that during renovations. You know, a lot of them said, oh, my gosh, if you weren’t here, my husband and I would kill each other, or we can’t make a decision. And I do not side with the husband or the wife. If I think that blue tile is hideous, and the husband likes it. I will tell him, hey, I agree with your wife, we need to pass on that tile. So, I don’t know. It’s just everybody just needs to be nice. That is the main thing right now. They really do.

Jeff
That’s really well said, Yeah, I couldn’t agree more, for sure. A good reminder to people, we just really need to slow down and be nice.

Michelle
Exactly.

Jeff
Michelle, before we close, I want to ask if you could share some advice for anyone who’s considering starting their own journey, their own career as an interior designer. Any advice?

Michelle
First of all, believe in yourself. I’ll be honest with you, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You know, I do not have a degree in design. Has not hurt me? No, you either have it or you don’t. In fact, there’s a couple of designers that are so well-known, I asked them specifically and they told me, I don’t have a degree. You either know what you’re doing or you don’t. Bottom line. There are people out there that have degrees. And they just don’t know what to do with that. Marketing is so important. There’s a lot of designers that I’ve talked to that feel like social media is not important to them. And their business is successful. For me, I enjoy it. It is a lot of work. Marketing yourself, I think is the hardest thing that you could ever do. I don’t like watching videos of myself when I post stuff. I won’t watch them. I don’t like the way I look. I don’t like the way I talk. And I’m like, okay, did I just really say that? And boy, do I sound southern. I don’t even know if I’m gonna listen to this podcast to be honest with you. So, those are things I think that are really important. If you don’t have a website, I suggest you’d be on Houzz. To me, that is clearly my website. And it’s done me well. I do get a lot of referrals from that. And you just have to be patient, it doesn’t come quickly. It really doesn’t. Word of mouth will. If you are good at it. And you follow through on things. And the money, you know, it starts out slow. It’s taken me a while to build my business and you just have to be patient. I don’t know if it’s realistic to say, hey, I’m a designer, and I’m going to make $400,000 my first year out. If you can do that, kudos. It has been a slow pace. But the more I do it, I realize what I like to do and what I don’t like to do. What I’m good at, what I’m not so good at. What jobs I feel like I can take on and which ones I think are going to be in need of a contractor. So, you have to, like you said, you have to know your strengths and your weaknesses. And I think that spells success, it really does.

Jeff
Yeah. And you reach a point, eventually where you can, you really can pick your battles. And you can pick your work and pick your clients. But I think it’s important too in the beginning to be cognizant of that, and not try to be everything to everyone and like, select your niche, or your niche’, depending on what you prefer.

Michelle
I’ll take niche, I’m sorry.

Jeff
In North Carolina, we pronounce it niche.

Michelle
I know. Tomato/tomahto.

Jeff
It’s correct both ways. So, just technically if anybody’s wondering, both pronunciations are correct. Yeah, it’s a grind. Would you recommend someone who’s considering starting out with their own interior design business, to start out as a side business? Nights and weekends?

Michelle
They can start out that way. Actually, that’s really how I did it. I mean, I actually had that retail spot while I was still selling shoes, and, you know, it never interfered with it. But it was just a space where I didn’t have to work. I just put stuff in. And it was exciting to see what would sell and what wouldn’t. But really, if they can swing it, that’s great. To me, it’s a little intimidating if you’re single and that’s your only income. You know, if your spouse has a job that you feel like you can rely on that income and you can do this full-time, I say, do it. There’s a lot of work out there to be had. I mean, it really is. The key is to get your name out there. And if people like you, they’re going to talk about you and say, hey, this is who I would recommend. This job that I just finished up, not the one that’s in Currents, but I just did a kitchen very similar, Julie has given me probably five referrals. And, you know, she has been incredible and she and her husband, Tony have loved everything that my team did. And by her doing those referrals really says a lot.

Jeff
Absolutely.

Michelle
You know, so that’s the thing. You got to get the referrals out there. You got to get your name out there.

Jeff
Yeah, it’s almost cliche, the greatest compliment you can give me is a referral, but it’s true.

Michelle
It is true.

Jeff
That’s when you know that you’ve done what you promised you would do, and the client is happy. That’s really the testament to a job well done is when they refer you to someone else that trusts them.

Michelle
Yeah. And I’ll tell you too, I would tell you that I’ve got, out of the jobs that I’ve done, I’d say three-quarters of my clients are very good friends of mine. So that’s another thing. That could hurt me too, because if I can’t fit in a job for them, but no, they, in all honesty that’s been really cool, too. It really has to develop a bunch of friendships along the way, not just business. You know.

Jeff
I can relate to that, too. That’s been one of the greatest byproducts of having my own small business over the last 10 years, has been the friends and the relationships that I’ve made along the way. It’s been priceless. It’s really been amazing. Michelle, this has been great. Is this your first podcast?

Michelle
It is. I was very intimidated coming over here. But, you know, I just appreciate the opportunity, Jeff. I really do, and I follow your podcast. There are several people I know that have been on it. And it’s just, it’s a cool platform. Thank you for having me.

Jeff
I appreciate the compliment. Thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun. I’m glad we finally were able to record and meet in person. Michelle McKoy Designs, the founder and principal, Michelle McKoy. Michelle, thanks again for joining the podcast.

Michelle
Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff
Big thanks to Michelle McKoy for joining the podcast. You can learn more about Michelle and her business on Houzz. I’ll have the link to her site in the show notes for this episode. And also follow her on Instagram @michellemckoydesigns. Thanks again to our friends at SoundVision in Mooresville for their hospitality, and for their sponsorship of course. I’ll have a link to SoundVision, and all of the local small businesses Michelle mentioned during our conversation in the show notes. As always, you can find the complete show notes for all of our episodes at the home for Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast www.thebestoflkn.com. Don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter. It’s totally free and a great way to stay up to date on all of our latest podcast episodes, written articles, and YouTube videos. You can find this signup form on our homepage and in the show notes for this episode. Welcome again to our newest sponsor, the Sarver Group at Keller Williams Realty Lake Norman. We’re currently working with the Sarver Group on producing some new content that is focused on the Lake Norman area real estate market. I’m looking forward to sharing those articles, videos, and podcast episodes with you beginning in July. We have more sponsorship announcements on the way for our platform, very excited to share those updates with you. In the meantime, that’s going to do it for this episode. Thanks very much for joining The Best of LKN podcast and for supporting the small businesses throughout the Lake Norman area. We’ll be back next week with another episode, same time, same place. So, until then, cheers Lake Norman. Bye for now.

Narrator
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our featured businesses, please visit www.thebestoflkn.com. We publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time, cheers Lake Norman.