“Only you and your will to learn will satiate you”

MMI Design, an award-winning boutique design studio, specializes in luxury residential design. As shared by Founder and Principal Designer Michele Merz, we specialize in full-scale residential design, encompassing projects in new construction, renovation and furnishings design. Often working alongside architects and builders, our goal with each project is to incorporate the lives and experiences of our wonderful clients. MMI takes great pride in their team’s balance of left and right brain skillsets, offering everything from intricately designed interior architecture to expert material selections and furnishings. Their attention to detail, collaborative approach, and unique design aesthetic sets them apart from the competition and brings back clients time and again.

Adding with an expression of joy, Michele shares that she can see how her past experiences guided her future. I could not have known it at the time, but hindsight makes it easier to perceive God's hand working in my life, she says. After graduating as an accounting major, she became an energy corporate accountant. Over the next decade, she moved internally and to other firms, seeking greater opportunities. Thereafter, she worked as a facilitator between financial and business groups, focused more on people than accounting. Working with both seems natural to her. After business school, she briefly worked in consulting for mid-sized companies experiencing rapid growth. Using her people skills, she trained others to scale their enterprises. She ended up serving as CFO for one of her clients for a number of years. She enjoyed the position, but she realized she wanted to start her own firm. Though design and architecture have always piqued her interest, she never thought it would be her next move. Eleven years in, she can't imagine not doing it, as her future was there and everything else was preparation for her current work.

When Michele launched the firm, her target clients, services, etc. were all over the place. Too tiny to compete with larger organizations, she intuitively realized she needed more than the talent to stand out. She used her passion for service to improve the client experience and service offerings. These changes facilitated their progress in the field of construction design. Since renovations and new construction were their specialty, they adjusted their focus to create strong relationships with builders, contractors, and architects. MMI proudly boasts a firm of highly technical creatives, a rare offering among design businesses.

As an entrepreneur, Michele wears numerous hats, so hobbies are a nice way to relax and promote a healthy work-life balance. She loves traveling to places with unusual architecture that may inspire future ideas. She also enjoys renovating as a hobby, which allows her to test new products before recommending them to clients. However, sometimes downtime should be merely restful, nothing more.

Michele's leadership philosophy emphasizes understanding people over merely leading. She feels the more one connects with people, the easier it is to foster true leadership. She sets an example by encouraging open communication both internally and with clients, and teaching emotional intelligence skills and understanding. As a service provider helping clients make one of their biggest investments, she believes in humanness and less textbook leadership. She understands that she must cultivate a culture that upholds this belief in everything they do. Each MMI employee brings a unique combination of former occupations and experiences that enriches their teamwork, viewpoints, and client experience. For many of them, this is a second career, doing it out of passion than for solely monetary gain.

As far as keeping up with their competition, in their view, small firms dominate the design sector, so social media is the best way to keep up with competition. People learn what they can, but the focus is on how a com pany can improve. That might be client feedback, internal process improvement, training, or technology solutions. MMI values excellence; thus, continuous improvement is more about their culture than what others are doing. Collaborating with clients is vital to their internal and external operations, as most clients prefer to be involved in the creative process. They promote it to reduce stress from the hundreds of decisions a client will make and to give them a creative voice. As a firm, they understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how much stronger they are together as a small firm. This method makes them more effective internally and optimizes creativity and pleasure as a creative organization.

Over a decade of construction experience has given them a lot of knowledge. They know what works, what to avoid, and what looks good. A Thought Leadership initiative is an important strategy for the firm. Michele explains that sharing their knowledge on social media is their goal, and who knows, they may just pick up a few new clients in the process!

Drawing on her own experience, Michele suggests that there is a tremendous payoff in one’s willingness to take a chance on reinventing oneself. If you want to do something else, do it. If you have checked all the boxes in one industry, take a chance on yourself and change industries. Life is too precious to not pursue your dreams or a new one. Your past accomplishments remain intact. It is all portable and will surprisingly make you that much more effective in your new pursuit, perhaps in a way that you would have never expected. You and your happiness are truly worth it!