We recently connected with Mackenzie Collier and have shared our conversation below.

Mackenzie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

When I first started my company, I hadn’t come out yet. I had long hair and wore dresses, skirts and heels. A few years in, I did come out as a lesbian. I cut my hair short, started dressing more androgynous and carried myself in a more masculine way, which felt more natural to me. Something incredible happened. Male clients started to treat me differently. Negotiations, which used to be round after round of them pushing me to wear me down became far easier. They started to push less, they threatened less, and they complained less. They also stopped disputing my pricing. I think by signaling “I’m not here for your consumption,” men began to take me more seriously in business settings. I even played with it a bit — some days I’d dress more femininely and some more masculine and the results were consistent. I recently grew my hair out and I’ve already noticed a shift backwards, but I’m focusing on my posture and my confidence because my hope is to cultivate a business world where women can be taken seriously regardless of their appearance.

Ever since the beginning of MCI, I have really focused on cultivating an inclusive, safe space for women to launch their design careers. Once I became established in the design industry, I took on the responsibility of holding the door open to let others who don’t fit the traditional mold of “straight, white, married, supermodel-looking, female designer” come in behind me. I wanted to make space for more diversity in the design industry. I wanted to create a safe, inclusive space for members of marginalized communities, like the LGBTQIA+ community or women of color, to thrive. If there are five equally qualified candidates when I’m hiring for a position, I will always hire the one who had to climb the highest mountains to get to where they are today. I will always fight for the underdog. My team is composed of a powerful group of women who bring unique perspectives to our projects and I encourage them to use their voice as often as possible.

Mackenzie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Throughout my career, I have gained a reputation for taking a unique approach to creating spaces that reflect my clients’ distinctive styles & interests. With a diverse portfolio of both residential and large-scale commercial projects, I have honed my skills in space planning and project management, placing emphasis on universal design practices and sustainability.

Prior to graduating with honors from Harrington College of Interior Design in downtown Chicago, I earned a B.S. in Psychology from Michigan State University, where I focused on child and family psychology. The marriage of these educational backgrounds gave me the uniquely adept ability to communicate with clients and interpret their specific needs, and to understand the distinct ways individuals use their various spaces.

I have worked to build my business with my core values of community building, positivity and integrity in mind. I teach and speak nationally about business practices and interior design and am part of an ever-growing community of business owners who are expanding beyond the traditional business model.

I am passionate about interior design, but I am even more passionate about changing as many people’s lives and aspiring entrepreneurs to see them thrive in their businesses. I am constantly searching for new inspiration through travel, art, music, and nature. I love highly functional spaces that have clean lines and natural light pouring in and I am a firm believer that the best design solutions are also the simplest and that kindness always comes back to you.

I graduated from one of the top interior design programs in the nation, and even though I had a world class education, I had absolutely no idea how to run a profitable interior design business. When I first started, I struggled with pricing, setting boundaries with clients, and achieving a work life balance. I learned early on that the key to financial success in interior design was going to be streamlining my business systems and processes to be more efficient. I am obsessed with data, so for a decade, I tracked everything I did and then set aside time to review the data quarterly to make sense out of it, and would adjust my business as-needed. It has always been important to me that both me and my team have a good work/life balance, so I needed to build systems that made that possible.

I’ve been able to streamline the interior design process to make it easy and fun for both the designer and the client. In scaling my business and growing my design team over the years, I’ve been able to increase our ability to generate creative solutions through collaboration, while also maximizing efficiency and minimizing mistakes and oversights. Having a large team means we are well-equipped to handle large scale commercial projects as well, which is always really exciting. We specialize in adaptive reuse projects in commercial spaces.

When COVID-19 hit, many of my fellow interior designer friends were struggling to keep their doors open, and many of their businesses did not survive in 2020. During conversations with them, I realized how much other designers might benefit from my own expertise in running a profitable interior design business. So I spent 2020 developing the course and getting some practice runs in with coaching small groups of designers, then last year I launched the business coaching aspect of the business. I started with the course Groundwork For Growth, which is designed to help solopreneur interior designers get ready to grow their team. I also do a lot of one-on-one coaching with business owners from a variety of service-based industries. I’m deeply passionate about helping women-owned businesses succeed.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Once I started working in the Interior Design industry after graduation, I immediately discovered that there were so many sketchy business practices that were “normal” and I knew if I was going to stay in the industry, I’d have to do things differently to be able to sleep at night. I have spent the last decade building a business that leads with integrity as its top value. We offer transparency in our pricing, policies and practices. We also prioritize making business choices that benefit our local community (i.e. sourcing from local fabricators and vendors, prioritizing sustainability & inclusiveness, and offering career development events for young professionals). I think our reputation was built on doing things differently and opening up the design industry so that more people have access to it, both as design clients and interior design professionals.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2019, we were starting to expand and work with clients outside of Phoenix. While we were set up to work virtually and were confident that we could do it, our clients were resistant and wanted us there in-person. So we developed a business plan that would put Mackenzie Collier Interiors offices in Portland, Austin, and Denver. In June of 2019, we opened our Portland office and I had planned to travel there one week per month to work with the employees there. Then, the pandemic hit and I couldn’t travel. We were lucky in that we were already fully equipped to work virtually, but it became increasingly clear that our client’s attitudes toward virtual work was shifting. We quickly realized that the need for physical offices in other cities was no longer there because our clients had learned to be comfortable with working with us virtually. So in 2022, we modified our business plan to eliminate the additional offices in other cities and have fully embraced Phoenix as our headquarters and main office. While the pandemic has been super challenging to navigate, it has also helped streamline our business and make it far more efficient, so we are grateful for that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mackenziecollierinteriors.com/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mci.phx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MackenzieCollierInteriors
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mackenzie-collier-interiors
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mackenziecollierinteriors
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mackenzie-collier-interiors-phoenix

Image Credits
Heather Kirchhofer – @agnesartandphoto