We recently connected with Melissa Kite and have shared our conversation below.

Melissa , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

A friend who is a therapist once shared with me a succinct explanation of the fundamentals of wellness and it really resonated with me: to be seen, to be heard, to be known.

By being present and listening I give the other person the opportunity to be seen, heard, and known. And, I will add, what it is to be known is to be understood.

My business mission is to create environments that reflect the population within them. We create environments to hold and reflect the dwellers, and dare to say: “I see you, I hear you, I know you”.

Like “The Giving Tree”, the home should be forever holding and responding to the psychology of its inhabitants. I’m always motivated by that mission.

Melissa , 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?

My name is Melissa, and I am the Founder and Creative Director of Melissa Kite Designs. We specialize in Residential Interior Design.
In the world of Interior Design, I think there are two different kinds of Designers. 1. Designers whom you hire to put their mark in your home 2. Designers you hire to help you curate and cultivate YOU in your home. I’m in the second category.

I’m informed by my years of experience both as a Dancer and Actor in which the somatic experience (how your body feels) is so important. We talk a lot about “visceral” responses to aesthetic choices to get closer to what is true for you and your family.

When I listen to you as a client, I listen for more than you stating what you want. I listen for many things, including why you want what you want, how your family interacts and communicates with each other, what your stress level is, how tight or open your time and budget is, and I watch your body language. I am trying to attune so I can design for your family’s care through the art of interior design. My habit is to listen for what’s underneath something – the why.

This listening goes a long way to building trust in our developing relationship. Trust is crucial. Active, deep listening helps me get closer and closer to an interior that truly reflects you. If I listen only for “dimensions of room, Pinterest board, and practicality” the resulting design won’t convey the psychology of your family and what will serve that interconnected system.

Working with an Interior Designer is intimate. We are all up in your personal space and your wallet. It’s a collaborative experience, and there must be trust to have frank conversations about money, what you like, don’t like, and why.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’ve been inspired by Dandapani, and specifically his conversation about Conscious Accounting at Xerocon in San Francisco, 2016.
I asked my team to watch it, and we shared our feedback. My bookkeeper, whom I have learned SO much from, succinctly (I like succinct!) stated, “Honesty matters.” Yes. Yes, it does! I think that no matter which way you cut it or what your motivation is, honesty is the best way of getting what you want.

If you’re trying to sidestep something because you’re afraid of how someone might react or respond, it doesn’t help anything in the long run. Straightforwardness is an effective use of energy and resources that ultimately sets up more trust, more care for everyone’s boundaries, and more trust and more trust and more trust.

In that conversation he speaks about a lot of things, but particularly discusses how to build focus and concentration. Just like training any other muscle, you must practice. And by using direct and honest communication, we each aid our ability to focus and concentrate on what really matters to each of us. Which I feel serves everybody at a much higher level.

My years of meditation practice also support this and have been fundamental in learning to navigate my internal world and overcome and re-metabolize areas of weakness to strength. Wellness and design go hand in hand to me.

We are a customer service business. To deliver great service we nurture an office environment that also allows truth-telling and direct communication. I coach my team, and therefore we coach each other, to this end.

If someone on our team is afraid to tell me something, or worse, doesn’t feel their input is valid, we are stagnant and unable to function as a team. Mistakes happen, changes happen, and we all have to work with each other to balance the challenges with the successes and ultimately serve each other first, and then, as a team, serve our clients.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I will first say that I am still learning this. In the past few years, I have been able to hire an operations manager and a design assistant, with independent contractors here and there. Learning to delegate has been tough, but as we continue to grow, a requirement.

With that, the above topic of honest and direct communication ultimately serves my team. Even if it doesn’t feel good in the moment, their honest voice matters. I watch their morale rise and self-empowerment take place. A really cool thing to witness!

Work in progress: I try to stay mindful and conscientious of whether my wanting something specific is for the highest good or me being a demanding perfectionist. I work on myself as an individual and a leader. I’m constantly learning how I can reframe things for myself and others to make sure my requests are about a specificity that I have a vision for vs the requirement for perfection. Learning…..

If I could advise about morale, it would be to balance the seriousness of running a business with a sense of humor and a sense of fun. I usually lead with those in my personal life, and I notice that when I bring my humor and joy to the office, it permits others to do that as well.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a leader is that I set the tone with standards and in terms of morale. If I’m stressed, others will be too. I’m not going to lie about how I feel, but sometimes I need to shake it off to return to the stressful thing re-regulated.

Moments with my team of kindness, moments of laughter, moments in the office of watching nature out of our office windows together – a squirrel or a butterfly – when we let ourselves connect with something non-human, non-computer, non-challenging – we all re-regulate into a better state of being.

We even schedule a weekly call where our operations manager leads us through what’s called a Heart Lock-In. I recognize that, as a leader, my wellness is paramount to my team’s work experience.

A great contractor I work with always says the following, and it is supremely comforting: “We are all in this together.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.melissakitedesigns.com/

Image Credits
Eleanora Barna Photography Melissa Kite