We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt & Adam Schroeder Ross. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt & Adam below.
Matt & Adam, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career
There’s a strange myth that the American educational system continues to put forth. This myth tell students that so long as they do well in school, go to a conventional college, and then apply for a job in their “chosen” field that they will then be on a sure-fire path to fulfillment. This myth is heavily-embedded in our culture and society on many levels. The end result is that it encourages a ton of creatively-minded folks to choose traditionally-accepted, “stable” paths that frequently leave them feeling disillusioned years later. Moreover, when folks who do follow that conventional track wind up dissatisfied with the path they’ve chosen many years down the line, it can feel like a heavy burden to try then to change course. Our educational system would do so much better were it to embed a different myth, one that is much-closer to reality: that one’s career is likely to evolve bit by bit, rather than to continue down a linear track. We should share the wisdom that it’s nearly-impossible to predict where one might land in a decade’s time, much less-so to predict a career journey over the course of a lifetime. The life of the entrepreneur is never a simple one, nor a predictable one. But it is oftentimes the starting point of a delightfully full life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Life-long creatives and performing artists for our entire lives, we entered into the world of interior design almost accidentally when we moved to Denver in 2020. The pandemic brought us West from New York City, and within 48 hours (literally!), we transformed a blank-slate two-bedroom apartment into a contemporary, vintage-inspired loft. We showed the results to a friend in real estate, and he asked us, amazed, “Have you ever thought about home staging?” In that moment, Schross Haus was born! Over the past several years, we have built our business bit by bit, keeping an eclectic approach and an eye for spontaneity at the forefront of our minds. More recently, the residential interior design side of our business has taken off immensely, and we couldn’t be more-excited about it! We’ve had the chance to conduct full-scale design packages that have genuinely improved the lives of our clients in more ways than we could have ever imagined. In short, what makes us different from others in our industry is our belief that everyone has the right to live in homes that feel inspiring and beautiful, and it’s our privilege to bring our skills to the table to help breathe new life into a home.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
As the Denver real estate market took a serious dive in the Fall of 2022 into the Winter of 2023, the home-staging side of our business went from a constantly-bustling, ever-expanding portfolio into a suddenly-frozen tundra. In essence, we went from staging 6-8 houses a month to zero, with essentially no time to adapt. As two deeply-creative individuals, we knew instinctively that a pivot was essential if we were to survive this sharp change in our business. We made the choice to lean-in heavily into the interior design side of our business, offering extensively discounted rates for our premier packages, farming our market, and continuing to pound the pavement in-search of new clients. The result was a newly-blossomed segment of our business in the form of some very exciting private, residential interior design opportunities. As a small business, our options were either to fold or to adapt, and we are not known for quitting!
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
We are – in addition to being passionate about design – lovers of a good, ole-fashioned party! We love to host client-recognition events at our home at least twice a year, and ideally every quarter. We aim to host these events at times of the year when many other businesses do not, to increase the odds that our clients will be available to attend our events. Ie: instead of throwing an annual Holiday Bash, we throw a Harvest Party each Fall! Moreover, we make a point to simply invite our clients and sphere out to exciting events in the Denver Metro that we’re excited about attending regularly, to continue fostering a sense of loyalty, trust, and – most importantly – fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: schrosshaus.com
- Instagram: @schrosshaus
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/schross-haus-denver