"BABE #312: MACKENZIE COLLIER - Owner, Mackenzie Collier Interiors"
We are excited to share that our one and only Mackenzie Collier was featured on Babes Who Hustle, a global media platform and off-screen community created to connect and empower hardworking women across all industries and professions! Take an inside look at how Mackenzie Collier Interiors was born, and learn a bit more about how our fearless leader made her dreams come to fruition.
We’ve included a sneak peak of the interview below; check out the full article at Babes Who Hustle!
Mackenzie Collier
Eight years ago, Mackenzie graduated from design school during a time when the economy was slow and her options for quality employers was slim-to-none. Unable to find a design firm whose values and aesthetic aligned with hers, she decided to open up her own. Today, Mackenzie Collier Interiors is a full-service residential and commercial interior design studio in the heart of downtown Phoenix, AZ, specializing in sustainable, functional design. As owner and lead designer, Mackenzie employs six hustlin’ babes, and together they provide quality interior design services rooted in transparency—from their process to their pricing and beyond.
Photo By: Agnes Art & Photo
The Hustle:
Tell us about your hustle. I’m the owner and lead interior designer at Mackenzie Collier Interiors, a full-service interior design firm specializing in both commercial and residential projects. I’ve been slowly growing my business for eight years, so I’ve really done every role in my business at some point. Currently, I oversee my business development and design teams every day, while also plotting the future expansion of our newest by-the-room design service called Scheme.
What does your typical workday look like? A typical work day for me starts with 6:00 a.m. coffee, greek yogurt, a kitchen dance party and then a couple hours of quiet meditation and/or scrolling through social media, depending how zen I’m feeling that day. I try to either run or do yoga before work whenever possible. At 10:00 a.m. I head into my office in downtown Phoenix. I work on a block schedule, so each day my morning and afternoon blocks are devoted to a different aspect of my business, like team development, financial planning, marketing initiatives, design meetings, etc. On Mondays I schedule all of my tasks into the appropriate blocks and it has really increased my productivity since I quit trying to multitask. At lunch time, I love checking out all of the restaurants and coffee shops in downtown Phoenix; there are new ones popping up every day.
Photo By: James Stewart
What inspired Mackenzie Collier Interiors? I started Mackenzie Collier Interiors eight years ago, right after I graduated from design school and the economy was slow. I couldn’t find a design firm whose values and visual aesthetic aligned with mine. All the firms had overly serious aesthetics (think, burgundy tassels on very heavy drapes) and made their money through sneaky markups, hiding price tags and withholding information from clients. It just didn’t sit well with me, so I decided to try to freelance while I also worked full time as a nanny for two years. Freelancing slowly and painfully grew into a full-time business, and now I have a team of six women who hustle hard to work on some of the coolest projects on the West Coast. I think we’ve had success because we’re diligent about acting with integrity and providing transparency within our pricing and design process. Because of our highly efficient design process, we can offer quality interior design services at a price point that works well for young families and people whose lives are in transition. This year we’re expanding to Portland, Oregon, and Denver, Colorado, which is a long-time dream of mine.
What have some of your favorite projects looked like? I have really loved working on some of our adaptive reuse projects where we take a crumbling old building that’s nearly condemned and bring it back to life while honoring its character and history. The city of Phoenix has a bad habit of allowing developers to come in and knock down all of our charming old buildings to build high-rise condominiums, so I’m always so excited when we get the call to help bring an older building back to life. We’ve completed some large commercial design projects in the Warehouse District as well as on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix, and I’m very proud of the results. We also love working in the many historic neighborhoods of downtown Phoenix. Architectural charm is hard to come by in the Southwest, so it’s really important to me to help preserve it whenever I get the chance.
What does your approach to work-life balance look like? This has always been a huge struggle for me. I’ve been driven and achievement-focused since I was a little girl. For many years, my self-worth was tied up with my productivity and achievements rather than who I was as a person. Looking back now, I can see that life just kept serving up bigger and bigger challenges every year (serious illness, break-ups, financial setbacks) until I had no choice but to stop working 80 hours a week and come to the realization that even when I produce nothing at all, I have so many other intrinsic qualities that deem me worthy of happiness and love. Who knew?! These days, I work from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (regularly). Having an office outside my home really helps with that. Of course, occasionally I need to play catch-up on the weekend, but overall I prioritize my life outside of work: my adventures, relationships, friendships. I’m able to do that because I finally got over the fear of delegating important tasks to my team.
Career and/or life advice for other babes? If you own a business, work backwards financially. First figure out how much money your ideal lifestyle would cost (don’t forget to add taxes). Dream big. Then, divide it by the number of hours you want to work every year. If that hourly number is too high to be competitive in your industry, with your experience, then either learn to delegate nonessential tasks to someone who can work at a lower rate or go earn the credentials (or hire someone with those credentials) that could launch you to the income level you want. Don’t wait. Go for it. The only difference between people who are “successful” and people who hope to be successful is action. I like to remind myself there are successful people out there who are dumber than me, with worse ideas than me who simply got out of bed one day and went for it.
