We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mercedes Austin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mercedes below.

Mercedes, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think it takes a lot of self-sacrifice, discipline, determination, passion and ultimately pursuing something much greater than revenue. It takes understanding that failure is part of building success. I began my company with simply the goal of turning my day job into something related to my art. What I’d later discover is that I found my calling through mosaic art, captivated by the beauty and complexity of working with 100% handmade ceramic tile. This love affair with tile grew into a lifelong passion, inspiring me to build a brand and foster a creative movement.

What started as humble projects for homes—like kitchen backsplashes and bathroom accents—grew into collaborations with iconic names like Disney, Whole Foods, and Hilton. This love of color and pattern has been the creative spark behind building a tile brand that thrives on bold shapes, endless patterns, and a rich spectrum of colors.

At Mercury Mosaics, we blend artistry with craftsmanship, transforming spaces like kitchens, entire bathrooms, corporate offices, higher education and award-winning murals into vibrant, inspiring works of art.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Mercedes Austin, I’m passionate about patterns. From a very early age, I was able to study the art of ancient mosaics in Ravenna, Italy, experience a working, operating craftsman studio on the other side of the world and wanted to create the entire feeling here in my own backyard. I’d pull from my inspiration through impressive global travels throughout my 20’s and build a library of patterns filled with colors that would transport me to different parts of the world through the magic design brings to life. I’m part woo woo and part realist and I do truly believe that art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life (thank you Pablo Picasso for the quote). I also believe that hard work and consistency makes it all happen. I constructed a studio that brings an old, industrial manufacturing plant to life in a new way while breathing new energy into our craft at scale without losing the charm of our handmade artistry. Leveraging the roots of being in hospitality for the early years of my life, the company is constructed in ways to take care of clients fusing hospitality & design with a foundation in manufacturing – making things to order in a way that brings excitement to the projects our clients are involved with.

The problem our tile solves is offering our client a collision with art and building material bringing a dimension to their blank walls that compliments or elevates the investment they’ve made to the entire environment. What sets us apart from others is that we are hand brushing our colors and offer the ability to curate colors into blends personal to the client while mounting the tile into simple to install, interlocking sheets.

I’m most proud of our custom mosaic work being a part of the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum of Art in partnership with artist Dyani White Hawk.

The main thing I want potential clients to know about the Mercury Mosaics brand and us is that we blend traditional craftsmanship with innovative design, ensuring that each tile we create is as unique as the space it inhabits. Our skilled artisans handcraft each piece, using eco-friendly materials and sustainable practices to produce high-quality mosaics and tiles that stand the test of time.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

For us, it’s very important to be active on social media: Instagram and Pinterest-specifically. This keeps our creative projects and process in front of our clients. We aim to meet clients where they are and for us, relative to catering to architects and designers, we make our samples available to them on Material Bank – the world’s most sustainable sampling website. Furthermore, we’ve developed digital tools that our designer clients can use, like downloadable files they can incorporate into their Chief Architect software. Additionally, I take an active role in the design community, from attending social events, participating in industry panels and constantly a part of networking or learning events and getting involved in community whenever possible.

On an annual basis, I ensure our tiles are being used in a community-centered project that is going to give back in some capacity and add a bit of a silver lining. This continuously pays forward the help my mentors have gifted to me over the years of building this business. I aim to participate in projects like this first through forming relationships versus “just tile donations”. It strengthens our investment into the person or organization our tile is going and fosters a long term connection and partnership. Through all of this, it also rallies a feeling within the team to build brand loyalty inside the walls of the company, which is just as important as building this outside the walls.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Recently we’ve been reading, adopting and self-implementing the EOS Traction philosophy. It has significantly impacted our ability to: focus, better align resources, simplify goals, quantify quarterly metrics, position a dashboard that’s easy to follow and make priorities just as clear as things that are not priorities. It’s helpful to break out a 3-year vision into an annual goal and then break that down into quarterly targets and piece those out into weekly metrics and isolate milestones to hit throughout the quarter. While this is a newer thing for us and we’ve been adopting and implementing in layers with the greatest intention since Q3 2024, we feel like we’ve stumbled through the rough, messy beginnings enough to where this is the 3rd quarter we’re forming quarterly goals that actually feel crispy (as a former, favorite colleague would say) that can be measured and observed versus being vague overall and you’re not sure if it was achieved. I think being able to fail through some things faster has allowed us to recognize when we’re making Traction and thus now understand why this system we’re implementing is called “Traction”. We’re just diving into the depths of the accountability chart and I think if you give yourself permission to make steady progress over time and that this whole thing takes 3 years to get fully-fully-in, you celebrate the victories along the way, since the work is truly very hard. Ending off, surprise, with another quote: “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” A good reminder from Mark Twain. Freeing and really gets to the heart of working hard and being passionate about something – it’s a journey, not a destination. ~Mercedes Austin

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mercurymosaics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mercurymosaics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MercuryMosaics/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1631772/admin/dashboard/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjatJH5UNjxOl3z3F2shUeQ

Image Credits

Images courtesy of Mercury Mosaics