We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Humphrey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My team and I learned how to use power tools, build and renovate by working on projects in my home during COVID. Once it was safe to interact with others during the pandemic, I recruited Kristina, my friend/house cleaner to help construct a basic shiplap wall. She was as new to DIY as I was, but she was fearless and encouraged me to try more projects once the wall was completed. Our second project was a custom built-in breakfast nook and it turned out so well that we decided to renovate every room in my home. We built barn doors, tables, beds for my kids, including stairs and a slide platform for my son’s loft bed, and an indoor, two-story playhouse. Once the remodeling projects became more complex, we added a new team member. Cassidy, also a part-time babysitter for my kids, learned quickly and has become such an important asset to the team.
We were so proud of and even surprised by the transformations we created, so we decided to showcase our work on social media. People reached out to us to build custom items for them and even renovate their homes, but we quickly learned we work best as a team on our own projects. Now we’re renovating investment properties and having a great time working together and creating beautiful experiences for future buyers.
The best part of doing this work is how we get to interact as a team. Everyone brings a unique style and skill set to the job, and we love the gratification of working with our hands and turning something basic and outdated into a beautiful and creative space.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My background includes structural drafting and life coaching. These skill sets proved helpful in home renovations because we use a lot of sketching and design boards before moving forward in a renovation project. My life coaching business taught me how to work with a team and help everyone thrive, plus it gave me basic website constructing and social media marketing experience. The idea was formed from a strong desire to renovate my own home. Once we learned those skills, the natural instincts and abilities we each were born with: the ability to “see” a room/home’s potential of what it could be even if it’s covered in garbage, the ability to build basic structures and furnishings without needing a set of plans, the ability to bring design elements together intuitively. These are things Kristina, Cassidy and I bring to the business and have been our key to creating beautiful spaces and taking on any project others would shy away from. The learning curve with power tools, demolition and basic DIY were skills we had to learn and are still learning! That’s the fun part: once we’ve mastered an area of renovation, we usually find ourselves taking on a new challenge. For instance, we had some experience laying tile, but by the time we began renovating my master bathroom, we had to learn how to install cement board and use a different thin set for the shower tile. This one project took us WEEKS and we made more mistakes than we have on any other project. We had to call in a tile expert and his knowledge helped us tackle our next two bathroom remodels with no problems. We probably “fail” more than we succeed when it comes to getting it right on new projects, but that’s how we learn and it’s what keeps our work interesting and quite funny!
We are most proud of the beautiful design work we’ve done in our hand-crafted barn doors and in total room transformations.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we first started sharing our renovation projects on social media, we had a lot of people reaching out for various services such as custom woodworking products, renovation projects and interior design. Since we hadn’t really considered what we wanted to do to earn revenue with the business, we said “yes” to basically everything. And very quickly we realized we either weren’t equipped for or didn’t enjoy the work we did with clients. The people we worked with were wonderful, but the work itself wasn’t inspiring or fun. So it was at that moment we decided our work had to include three factors, or it was a hard “no”: it had to be fun, easy (or within our scope of experience) and profitable. The interesting thing is that the work we didn’t enjoy always ended up costing us in the end or just wasn’t worth the money. We then set out to open a local warehouse to showcase our custom designs (barn doors, tables…basically anything we were inspired to create) and also teach “shop class”. When the warehouse idea didn’t pan out, we yet again set out to decide what we wanted to offer. That’s when the idea of renovating investments properties to flip came to us, with the unique idea of turning each home into a potential “Airbnb” investment property for buyers. It’s fun, relatively easy for us, and the margin is there. And while things can always change, we realized through the last couple of years if one idea doesn’t pan out, something else will come along.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team comes down to hiring the right kind of people. I once had a business mentor who said, “You can teach new skills; you can’t teach a new personality.” For me, hiring people I’m compatible with who share the same values is key. Learning how to use a power saw and lay tile can be taught to anyone willing to learn, but being dependable, honest and having integrity is something you have or don’t. Our team is strong because we care about each other, and it’s my job to understand everyone’s personal and professional goals and help them reach them in any way possible. The business isn’t “mine”, it’s ours and I treat it like a living organism that needs attention, positivity and care. This is supposed to be fun and even when it’s not, we support one another. Everyone pulls their weight and everyone looks after each other. When we’ve had disappointments or other setbacks we’re open and honest about our frustrations, then we regroup and make a plan to move forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://zenandgritty.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/zenandgritty
• Facebook: facebook.com/zenandgritty