149. Growth, Team, and Leadership Lessons from Katie Kath
What does it take to run a multifaceted design business that balances creativity, leadership, and growth? Katie Kath, CEO and Creative Director of Jkath Design Build, has spent years developing a business model that integrates interior design, custom cabinetry, and renovation management. Her journey from joining a two-person operation to leading an 11-employee team offers invaluable lessons for designers looking to scale their businesses strategically.
In this episode, Katie shares her approach to building a team that supports both the CEO and the clients. She offers insights into hiring, delegation, and team alignment. Katie explains how starting with part-time or trial positions allowed her to find the right fit for her growing team, all while maintaining control over the quality of their work. Katie’s strategy of staying involved in the first and last 10 percent of each project while empowering her team to handle the middle 80 percent ensures both autonomy and exceptional client results.
Katie also shares how she identified the “sweet spot,” an optimal business size that allows for continued growth, strong collaboration, and consistent work quality. She discusses how internal review systems, setting clear expectations with clients, and maintaining team cohesion contribute to her company’s success, and how you can apply similar principles to your business.
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What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
How starting with part-time or trial positions can ease the pressure of hiring while ensuring a good team fit.
Why test projects during interviews provide real insights into candidates’ true skills and fit for your team.
How to effectively sell your team to clients and set clear expectations for their experience.
The benefits of maintaining in-office collaboration for quick problem-solving and team cohesion.
How to balance creative direction with team autonomy through effective internal review systems.
The importance of finding your company's ideal size for sustainable growth, rather than constantly pushing for expansion.
Practical ways to delegate day-to-day management while staying deeply connected to your clients' needs.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you're listening to episode 149. In this one, I'm sitting down with Katie Kath, designer, creative director, and CEO at Jkath Design Build. In this episode, Katie shares so many insights, tools, and perspectives when it comes to hiring, growth, and finding your sweet spot with an aligned team that is there to support you as the CEO and your clients. I can't wait for you to listen to this one.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Desi Creswell: Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited. Today's a special day. We have a guest for an interview, and today I'm here with Katie Kath of Jkath Design and Build. And Katie and I met for the very first time in person, although I was definitely aware of her prior to meeting at the Midwest Design Retreat, and after hearing her speak, oh my gosh, she has so much to share with you in terms of the multifaceted business that she's running with various revenue streams, different parts of the actual design business, and her team as well. So I know she's going to have so much to share with us. Welcome, Katie. So glad to have you here.
Katie Kath: Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited.
Desi: I'm excited too. Before we dive into the topic of all things team hiring, management, leadership, I could give it so many words, would you mind sharing a little bit about who you are, what your business is like, and the types of projects that you work on?
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm a partner. My husband and I own Jkath, and we've been in business for 15 years. I have not personally been with the company for 15, but we'll just say a good portion of those years. And I currently sit as the creative director and partner of the business alongside my husband, but he manages a lot of the field. So we have the renovation side, so he manages oversees the field, and then we have a custom cabinetry shop. So we do all of the work in cabinetry in-house. And then I lean more on the design side of overseeing the designers, a lot of the space planning.
We do enough architectural in-house to be dangerous, but then we do partner with engineers and outside support on larger projects where things get beyond load-bearing. If we're doing additions, any exterior elevations, we'll bring in some outside experts. And then I handle, just like every small business, sales, marketing. I do all the client engagement from the very first email to the very final photography of their home walkthrough. I'm kind of there. I bookend. So the first 10%, final 10%, and then I work really hard to delegate the middle 80% of all projects.
Desi: Wonderful. And can you tell us a little bit more about what your team makeup is?
Katie: Yeah, so we have staff on the interior design side. We have the cabinet shop, so we have, we're actually adding two new folks into our cabinet shop here in the month of July, which is exciting and also a little bit scary just as we're continuing to evolve and grow the team. And then the field would be our third facet of the company as well. So that's our a few employees, but then mostly all the subcontractors that we oversee as well that do the actual renovation work out in the field.
Desi: Amazing. And when I was poking around on your website, I saw too that it looks like you've got a vanity line happening. Is that something new? I don't think that I've seen that before.
Katie: We launched that in the pandemic. We, in the past, had, if we were doing say a whole house, and certainly all of that cabinetry is ours, there might be a kids' bathroom or, you know, guest bathroom or certainly lower-level bathroom that may not have been as high design as some of the other main living areas. And so often clients were selecting vanities from retail partners, Pottery Barn, occasionally other retailers, Rejuvenation Room & Board, you know, the big players in town.
And the pandemic was so tough because one, we either couldn't get it, the damage rate was really high on those materials, and so we would spend so much time in the exchange and return process; we would have just been better off offering our custom collection, our custom cabinetry at a slightly better price point.
And so that is where the vanity line came from. So we launched a collection. It took us about 18 months from the day we dreamed it up to the day we were able to get it live on the site. The hard part was making sure we had all the right install imagery.
So we had a number of projects in motion that we wanted to wrap up, photograph. We did a few pro bono vanities just so that we could get them installed in homes and get some of those original creative assets. And then it was gangbusters for a while, and then we have just, we still have the vanity line. It's doing its thing.
We push it out a lot into Pinterest. So we do get quite a few out-of-state orders, but we don't do a lot of talking about it online like we used to. Mostly, it's just a bandwidth issue. We have a good flow coming in organically, and hopefully with the addition of a few new people in our shop, maybe this fall or winter, we'll be able to kind of turn that dial up again and start getting the word out, especially more to our local friends in the community.
Desi: Yeah, I could imagine local designers really tapping into that. So thanks for giving us a little behind the scenes on that because I mean, that is part of why I thought you'd be the perfect person to have on here to help me fill in between some of these summer series episodes that I'm providing is that I mean, you've got that arm of the business, you've got the cabinetry shop, you've got the people out in the field doing the work, you've got the design team. So that's a sizable business that you're leading and a lot of different avenues of the business.
So if you think about just running an interior design firm, there's so many different hats to wear and pieces to puzzle together, and then you've got all these other pieces as well. So I think that's so interesting. And one of the things I'd love to know is just did you have that in mind as you came onto the business when you joined many years ago? Tell me about that evolution of your vision.
Katie: Gosh, no, we did not have that vision. We were in our home. When I met my husband, it was just himself and then one other guy, and they were, actually it was one to two people at a time. So at most it was three people, but mostly just two, between himself and then a really small cabinet shop. And just with alignment with other business owners, much like the Midwest Design Retreat, being around the right industry professionals, like-minded folks, it just became one person at a time. It was always identifying the needs that we needed at that time and been really true to filling the position for what we need versus creating work around people.
I think as we've grown, we've had some really good people here and we will kind of help develop a role that fits their skillset, but ultimately, we're looking at, we're basically creating a job description, right? This is what we need, who can fill this role. And so just one employee at a time, but we're still relatively speaking a really small company. We only have 11 employees on our staff. We have about five professional subcontractors that we work with. So that would be helping in the design architectural space planning.
We also within that employee group, we have an engineer on staff too. So he kind of is the liaison between all of our different arms of the shop and the fields and the design team. But then of course it's managing all of the subcontractors. That's where I think start to get really big, right? We have up to, you know, 30, 40 different conversations, people we're working with on a daily basis. And everyone on our team is interacting with all of those subs in different capacities.
So it was never a part of the business plan. It was just again, it's been one person at a time. I will say we are, we're in our sweet spot. We've been a little bit north of 11, 12 employees and we've been just a little bit under, and we feel like this 10 to 12 is really our sweet spot and we're really intentional if we can about staying here really, to be honest.
Desi: Yeah. And when you say you're bringing on one person at a time, I know one of the questions that I'll get from designers is, well, how do I know when I'm ready to hire? And I think this is really individualized per business and what you're aiming for. But I'd love for you to share a little bit about what are some of those signs or symptoms in-house that start to perk you up as the leader of, okay, it might be time to bring somebody else on.
Katie: Yeah, so early on, I think it was being really creative about the position, right? Not feeling like I needed to hire a full-time position, offer, you know, a huge salary, all of the benefits, unlimited paid time off, all the holidays. I feel like that's where things get really cumbersome. It's like, how can I be so responsible for such a really big role and financially, how am I going to cover that every month?
So it was probably a little bit of finding the right people early on, but just to come in either in an internship. I've done a lot with part-time to full-time work. I've brought people on and said, hey, we're going to do a 90-day trial run at part-time. Let's see if this works. And then if it works, we can talk about where we go from here. So really flexible opportunity in the onset is what is what really worked well for us to find a few of those original folks that have really grown with our team since.
I think in this creative space, there's a lot of people looking for part-time work. They might already have their own studio, their own design clients, and maybe they're looking to fill some time. They might be right out of school. There's a lot of people that are right out of school that will take whatever they can get just to get in the space and get going.
So that's been really helpful just to think about it as a little bit of a less, I don't know, permanent decision. And I always think about, we really value and appreciate every single person who walks through our doors, but it's also a two-way decision. And so I have to remind myself, I'm not signing a lease agreement. I'm not, you know, signing on a big loan that I have to think about paying back.
Yes, this is someone's livelihood, and yes, it matters, but if after 30, 60, 90 days, this isn't a fit, it could be, you know, potentially on their end as well. We just have to be willing to have those conversations to say this isn't working or why isn't it working? Can we reset? Is this the right job? Is this the right role? Fortunately, those conversations don't happen often, but just having the ability to be able to exit the plan if you need to, I think, makes it a little bit easier to go into and take the step into the next direction of adding people on your team.
Desi: Yeah, I agree 100%. I think in general, that's a good philosophy to have with your business as a whole, is I can always re-decide.
Katie: Always.
Desi: Even with a lease or something like that, there's going to be something you could do if you really needed to or wanted to. Yes, think through things, do your due diligence, and I think it's so freeing to release that pressure off yourself to think it's got to be the end all be all. So I'm really glad that you brought that up.
Knowing that you are looking for best fit on both sides, do you have any words of wisdom over best practices for how you determine that in the screening and interviewing process?
Katie: Oh, we're in the thick of this right now. I am in an actual HR group. So we are refining all of that right now. So, everything I thought I was doing well, of course, there's always room for improvement. So core values has been really helpful for us and we're screening employees. And so we have a list and we don't necessarily run those through an interview, but they're good filter in the background. And then of course, pulling some deliberate interview questions that do speak to our core values.
I would also say we are getting more and more serious about demonstrating the skillset. So is it we've sent off material selections. I've done a floor plan. It might just be a bathroom or a pantry, a smaller space. I will send off the materials and then I will ask a candidate to draw that in an elevation view for me. We use CAD, but whatever software you use would be helpful. I've asked them to make design boards, to present.
So I think a portfolio that they can share is helpful, but it isn't always relevant to what we need, and it could be a different design aesthetic, a different point in their career. So we're really looking for people to take what we do and basically apply it, right, and show us that you've got the chops that we need.
Desi: I love test projects. I think they're so beneficial. I've had too many of my own clients where they've brought someone on, and what the person has said is their skillset or their aesthetic, it just doesn't end up matching. And it's not even where this person that they brought into the team is trying to be deceptive or anything. It's just sometimes we're not as self-aware as we could be, or our interpretation of our skills is different than what is actual. I mean, you even think about this with our design client projects where, you know, they say they want modern. Well, what is modern? Right? We got to look at the picture and be like, all right, so what is it in that image that you actually like?
So there's that just sort of discernment that you can't get until you get into it a little bit with that person. And I think, you know, often we can feel a little pressed for time or we just like want some relief of having the extra help, and so it's easy to skip over some of those pieces, but they really are beneficial and a worthwhile investment.
Katie: Yeah, and one of the things too that I'm excited to start doing, which I admittedly, we just haven't done it. Mostly, it's just a timing issue. But I want to start going back and doing reference checks and actually doing picking up the phone and learning more about the candidates, and either from past employers. It's so old school, but I think it's really critical. And I just, that's the piece we're missing. How can we hear from people that have worked with these candidates before? What's their work style? To your point, what is their design aesthetic? How did they collaborate on a team? Some of those real-life questions that you may not be getting out of an interview. So we're definitely going to start implementing that, it’s on my to-do list that I took notes for from my last HR meeting. Go back to old school, see what happens.
Desi: Yeah, that's always very insightful. Now, once you've brought someone in the fold and you're starting to onboard them, I'm awfully curious about because there's so many people in the company with their fingers in the projects, tell me a little bit about your onboarding process because I think maybe this might be similar to what other design firms might do, but also might have its very own flavor.
Katie: Yeah, so we spend quite a bit of time just getting familiar with our tools. We have a lot of them, but we are always trying to simplify and consolidate. And I love going through the tools process because I think it can be really eye-opening for me as well to understand, is this really working? Is this efficient? Does this person understand how we're using it and why? So I'm listening to feedback during that process too.
And then it's a lot of shadowing. Typically it's me because usually when I hire, it's a capacity issue. I'm taking on more work than I need to be. And so I'm pretty deep into a design project or working with clients, maybe the project has scaled larger. So I will bring in that new employee to basically assist, right? To get that one to completion. At some point, depending on timing, I will be introducing something that's a little bit more approachable, smaller in scale, kitchen only, main floor only, and have them then just start basically mimicking everything they saw me do. But then I am very much kind of shadowing them and overseeing all of their work.
And so then we will collaborate, and I do review all of the deliverables. If it's the technical items, drawings, cabinetry, elevations, then we do even get our cabinet shop involved as well. So we do quite a bit of internal redlining, if you will, before our design team, if we're speaking of just designers, can interface any of that information outwardly with a client.
And I would say the shop and the field, it's get in there, just get in there, get your boots on, start building, start creating, start working. Just start, you know, again, it's a lot of on-job training and shadowing. But yeah, on the design side, it doesn't take long. I mean, we could just be at this for six, seven, eight weeks before, depending on who the person is, I'm releasing them to really meet with clients individually.
Again, if I go back to that 80% that I'm delegating, I'm really trying to remove myself from having to be involved in all of the meetings. There are milestone meetings that I will always check in and be present with, but they're not necessarily on the creative side. I really love to give my team as much autonomy as I can because we've reviewed internally, so I know when they're presenting with clients, I know what they're presenting, but I'm checking in milestone meetings. It might be, are we checking in against the budget? Are we preparing for construction? What are our next steps? I usually check in on those kind of bigger “what's next” conversations. And inevitably, during those meetings, we are definitely talking about design elements and finalizing some of those decisions too.
Desi: In your title is Creative Director. So tell me a little bit more about how you balance that role of creative direction with giving the team autonomy.
Katie: I let them do it, right? I let them, I mean, I'm with the homeowner from the beginning for several, six to eight to even more conversations before I'm onboarding the team. And that includes I've been to the home, I've met the homeowners as well at this point, probably even two or more times depending on the scope of the project. We don't deliver any creative without bringing on a designer from the team. And then we have a pretty succinct process at that point.
We are either most likely we're making another repeat visit to the home so the designer can basically absorb all the information I've already shared with her, and then of course, meet the homeowner, see the space in person. We've got a questionnaire that we've had the homeowner fill out at this point as well.
And then from there, the designer typically is getting started right away on floor planning. So we're doing floor plan development and all of that, we use Monday.com as our project management system. And so they load a lot of their deliverables in there, they'll tag me. If a deliverable is due on Friday, hopefully I'm getting it earlier in the week, and then I have some flexibility two or three or more days to happen, review, offer some red lines, I'll print things out.
We're in office often, so that is another huge thing. I don't have a very flexible work-from-home policy. We do work from home on Fridays, but Monday through Thursday, we try to all be in office as much as possible, and that allows for that ongoing collaboration. Those quick five-minute check-ins, you know, hey, I can't find this tile, what do you know? And then I encourage the team to collaborate off one another.
So if I'm absent, if I'm in a sales call, if I'm managing the other parts of the business, they can lean on one another to find resources or gut check drawings or creative decisions. And they all work really well together, which is helpful. And probably all of that to say is I, maybe where I'm different than other design firms is that I don't need to be in all of the client meetings once we kick off the project.
Desi: How do you frame that for the client? Because that's a little bit of pushback that I'll get when I'm working with designers to help establish more senior leadership in their own team, is, well, I'm the one who's been marketed, it's my business, my name's on the door. They want me at the meetings. And what I'm hearing is you're at the meetings, but not all the meetings. So tell me how you set the stage for that so that it is helpful for you as the CEO who has other things that you need to focus on, and still gives a really great client experience.
Katie: I sell my team early. From the very first meeting, either on the phone or when I get to their home, I do Zoom calls the first interaction, and then a few more interaction,s and I'll eventually get to the home. And if I have a designer identified at any point, I will start using her name. So I'll just keep repeating her name. Well, when we get, you know, and I'll say her name into the conversation, here's what you can expect, and then I'll talk about their skill sets and their strengths and capabilities and alignment, why I think that person might be a great fit for them. I'm just really clear from the onset that I will be, and I am copied on all client emails. I will read everything. Every once in a while, I will jump in and I'll offer a few clarifying answers.
Every once in a while, if I see that maybe we're not understanding what's supposed to happen in the email, if the client's trying to communicate something that maybe my team is misinterpreting, if I can pick up on the communication disconnect, I'll just pick up the phone and I'll call the homeowner. And so I'll check in that way too.
So I just find warmer ways to connect with the clients throughout the project. And then once we get into the renovation side of it too, I might be doing a ride along with my husband, who's managing the field side. So I can do surprise check-ins. We might just take a day and go run around to, you know, three or four different job sites, check in. I know he's meeting with homeowners. I'll just say, hey, I haven't seen them in two months. I'm going to hop in the car and come see them with you. So just trying to find maybe unexpected moments to check in.
But yeah, I mean, it's selling my team early on and making sure homeowners understand that I can't do what they do. I can't draw, I can't do the technical, I can't do CAD. I'm not trained to do any of that. And I let our homeowners know. Probably not everybody in the onset, but as I can read that client and what they might be expecting of me, I will be more willing to share. Listen, this is why the team is important. This is the skill set that they bring that I can't bring to the conversation.
Desi: Yeah, and I think so much of this is really around setting expectations. And I think, you know, when we don't have an expectation of what to expect, what's coming, we naturally will just fill in the gaps as the consumer, so your client, of what we think might happen. And, well, if your face is on the website, that's probably a likely assumption.
So by setting the clear expectation and also what I'm hearing too is that you're very sold on this is the best way to do it too. It's not a, well, I'm going to give them this other person, and that's going to be like an okay route to go. It's no, they're going to have this other person on our team, and it's going to be the very best for everybody. So I think that's a really important point to call out as well.
Katie: Yeah, and they get undivided attention, right? I mean, my team is, they're not running around to all the meetings that I'm handling. They're not, you know, they're not wearing a sales and marketing hat. They're not troubleshooting potential employee issues or running leadership teams out of the cabinet shop on whatever we need to do there, you know, growth or filling, scheduling, or whatever was going on. And so, yeah, you're right. I mean, they, our clients, are really set up for success when they have a dedicated person on our team that's not me to be their day-to-day point of contact.
Desi: Yeah, very much. I love that you're, I love that you're saying that.
Katie: And trust me, right? It's real. There's some days when it's like, I should be at that meeting. How can I make it happen? And sometimes I'm just choosing to stay home and go on my morning walk. I mean, to be honest, I'm just, it's I got to have time where I can just decompress and not be at all the things all day long.
Desi: Yep. And there's a, there's a trade-off always, and yes, maybe you won't be at the meeting, but maybe because of that walk, you come up with a great idea, or you're more refreshed coming back. You're more patient with everybody in the office. Who knows what it is, but I think so much too of being a CEO is learning to trust what you actually need, whether that is, this is the next employee that we're going to add on, this is the role that they're going to take, or it's, do I go to the meeting or do I go on a walk?
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the walk, go for the walk.
Desi: I love the walks. I went on a walk before we recorded. Alright. So one of the things you said is that you feel like you're at your sweet spot right now in terms of staff. So I'm curious then what would maybe growth or the business trajectory look like over the next few years for you if you are in that spot where it feels like, yeah, this is pretty good.
Katie: Yeah. I love that question. We actually just did a meeting with our design team on Monday of this week to talk about what's next for our company, what does that look like? And I had each person create their own mini presentation of what, how they identified what's next. And it really, it's a creative push. It's how can we level up? How can we elevate, you know, all of the things that we love to do and we do well, and the things our clients are coming to us for and asking for some of those heirloom cabinetry pieces, leaning into historic renovations. We're doing a lot more, you know, natural stone and living finishes, and just things feel really juicy and authentic right now.
And we're coming off a major string of projects where everything fit that bucket. So now we just want to lead with that, right? And I think some of our, a lot of the people in the room where you and I met have that brand standard of here are the countertops that we prefer to work with, here's the material choices. We're going to meet you at the show, and we're going to help pick out those slabs. We're going to be the steward of bringing those samples, the other samples, to those meetings and just becoming more white glove.
And I think it's just having deeper, richer connections and then taking the projects further. You know, there's always that opportunity for furnishings and window treatments, and we dabble in it, and every other project, we are really lucky to be able to bring some of those things to the project.
But again, I think it's, it's making that more of our brand standard from the onset and from that initial call of this is what we can do and bring and just extending those relationships longer instead of, you know, these three to four month projects, how can we make them six to eight month projects? Maybe not all on the construction side, but from the design perspective. And we all feel really aligned. That's what we all want to do. So I said, great, then that's what we'll do. We don't need to sign more contracts this year. Let's just take the ones we have and make them better.
Desi: That's so exciting. I love that alternative, right? Because I think often we think of growth as bigger, more, that kind of thing, and it can look so many different ways.
Katie: We've come off a few years where it was, it was that. I mean, we've had record-breaking years. I don't want to do that ever again. Not that we wouldn't be happy with higher revenues than we've done in a previous year, but not at that trajectory, not at that speed, and really feeling like we weren't doing every core of who we are at its fullest. It was kind of just like we were felt a little rushed or pressured and so we're, we're really a little bit of a slow that we've come into 2025 has allowed us to shift that thinking, and I've never felt so energized and excited about what's next and to have total alignment with our team at the same time.
Desi: Mm, I'm so happy for you. I think that's great to have those cycles, right? There's those pushes of growth, like where in that more typical sense, but then there's also those periods of time where it's stability, where it's you're tightening things up on the back end, you're refining your process, it's leaning into a certain type of aesthetic to call in those types of clients and I think we can get really burnt out pretty quickly if all we're doing is just growing, growing, growing year after year. And that's not to say we can't have increases in revenue and that kind of thing over time, but I think it's again, knowing your business and knowing what it needs in this season. So I'm excited to see what that looks like for you.
Katie: Yeah, stay tuned. It'll take about 18 months to show it and put it out into the world, but no, yeah, we're in it. And we're excited.
Desi: What do you think might need to shift in you as the person and the leader of the business in order to bring that to the forefront? Any ideas on that?
Katie: I think it's just being, kind of to what you said, it's being really settled in, not having to grow so much in scale at the same time, right? And feel like we need to do more and the bigger projects and we have really wrapped our arms and that's coming from me really to, we've really wrapped our arms around these mid-sized projects. They feel like a really good spot for us to be in. We can showcase everything we do.
We love a small project and we love the big giant ones. These mid-sized projects, we can do it all and do it really, really well and deliver a very white glove experience for our clients. The really big ones are really fun and juicy and, you know, you win awards off of those big ones, but they're very stressful. It's a lot of problem solving and it is, I often say we come to work and we problem-solve all day long. I feel like on those big ones, we are always problem-solving that sometimes we lose sight of the really pretty, fun work that we set out to do.
And I think on these mid-sized projects that were it's our bread and butter, we don't lose sight of it. It stays really fun throughout the whole thing and we have really healthy work relationships with our homeowners because if we're stressed, they're stressed. I mean, the stress is all around.
So I'm really settled in that. I mean, maybe in a year from now I'll feel differently, but we're also starting to think about what's, like what's the end game for Jkath? I mean, it's not happening soon, but we might only have a ten-year runway left, and what does that look like? Does that, are we still in it, my husband and I, and do we phase out as consultants? Are we just replacing ourselves and doing a little bit less so we can spend more time away from the business? Do we have people here that eventually want to take on bigger roles? I mean, we're starting to think about all that stuff and, you know, there's a lot of mindshare that goes into that future planning.
So it's, it's really now balancing how much time do we put on that and then how much time could we continue to invest in our projects? And so there just isn't a lot of room right now for like this big scale and growth game that I think five years ago, that's all we wanted. And we did, we've grown, we're way bigger than we were five, six, seven years ago, but I'm, like, we feel at a very good capacity right now.
Desi: Those are all great questions to be asking and, yeah, just continually checking in with yourself and seeing how it feels.
Katie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's good. It's good.
Desi: All right, one last question before we wrap up.
Katie: Okay.
Desi: What does it mean to you to be a designer CEO?
Katie: You know, for me, I always, I want to be hands-on, right? So there's this balance between running this company, being responsible for a lot of decision-making, which I love. I love high-level thinking. I love working on the business. I love working in the business, but I also love being really connected to each of my team members and then the clients at different phases throughout the project like I mentioned earlier.
So I think it's just finding a really good balance. Balance, I know people hate that word. Like what's balance? But, you know, every day feels a little bit different, and that's why I'm in this space. I don't want every day to be the same. I wouldn't excel sitting in an office somewhere doing the same thing all day long. I also wouldn't excel sitting here in my desk on my computer all day long. I need to be up and moving around and seeing and touching things and materials and traveling and meeting people, industry professionals and clients, and people that I feel like, you know, are I could mentor me or people that I could mentor. I just love different pieces of all of it.
So for me, I don't know. I mean, it's just dancing in a lot of different spaces in a very creative way, but finding gratification and joy in all of those pieces and feeling like I'm also leaving a little bit of impact behind along the way, too, for my team and our homeowners.
Desi: I love that. Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for sharing all of your answers. I peppered you with questions today that I thought our listeners might want to hear you give your response to. Before we say goodbye, can you please let everyone know where they can find you and the business and check you out?
Katie: Yeah, Instagram is great. It's @jkath_designbuild. That's where we do all of our project reveals, behind the scenes, you name it. And then you can always hop on our website, jkath.com, and join our newsletter. We do send those out every week, every Sunday, and it's again, a little bit more of behind the scenes, what's coming ahead, some more trends, things that we're loving. It could blends over to a little bit of lifestyle on our newsletter as well. So, yeah, those are the two best ways.
Desi: All right. Everybody go check it out. I think especially Instagram, I love how you've done Instagram. I think it's a really nice blend of the behind the scenes with the polished pictures. It's a balance, right? There we go with balance again. But I know a lot of people struggle with Instagram, and like, what do I post? And I think you're one to look to. So definitely go check that out.
And I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. And in that one, it is the final truth that I'll be sharing in the What I Know For Sure CEO Summer School series. I'm really excited to round that out. If you are not subscribed or following the show, take a second, push the little button in wherever you listen to your podcast, and make sure you're following along so you don't miss that one.
I also have a really great interview coming up with Melissa from Oho Interiors, who is also one of the speakers at the Midwest Design Retreat and was recently named one of the Next Wave designers from House Beautiful. That's going to be a great interview as well. All right, that is it for today. Until next Wednesday, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Desi Creswell: Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited. Today's a special day. We have a guest for an interview, and today I'm here with Katie Kath of Jkath Design and Build. And Katie and I met for the very first time in person, although I was definitely aware of her prior to meeting at the Midwest Design Retreat, and after hearing her speak, oh my gosh, she has so much to share with you in terms of the multifaceted business that she's running with various revenue streams, different parts of the actual design business, and her team as well. So I know she's going to have so much to share with us. Welcome, Katie. So glad to have you here.
Katie Kath: Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited.
Desi: I'm excited too. Before we dive into the topic of all things team hiring, management, leadership, I could give it so many words, would you mind sharing a little bit about who you are, what your business is like, and the types of projects that you work on?
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm a partner. My husband and I own Jkath, and we've been in business for 15 years. I have not personally been with the company for 15, but we'll just say a good portion of those years. And I currently sit as the creative director and partner of the business alongside my husband, but he manages a lot of the field. So we have the renovation side, so he manages oversees the field, and then we have a custom cabinetry shop. So we do all of the work in cabinetry in-house. And then I lean more on the design side of overseeing the designers, a lot of the space planning.
We do enough architectural in-house to be dangerous, but then we do partner with engineers and outside support on larger projects where things get beyond load-bearing. If we're doing additions, any exterior elevations, we'll bring in some outside experts. And then I handle, just like every small business, sales, marketing. I do all the client engagement from the very first email to the very final photography of their home walkthrough. I'm kind of there. I bookend. So the first 10%, final 10%, and then I work really hard to delegate the middle 80% of all projects.
Desi: Wonderful. And can you tell us a little bit more about what your team makeup is?
Katie: Yeah, so we have staff on the interior design side. We have the cabinet shop, so we have, we're actually adding two new folks into our cabinet shop here in the month of July, which is exciting and also a little bit scary just as we're continuing to evolve and grow the team. And then the field would be our third facet of the company as well. So that's our a few employees, but then mostly all the subcontractors that we oversee as well that do the actual renovation work out in the field.
Desi: Amazing. And when I was poking around on your website, I saw too that it looks like you've got a vanity line happening. Is that something new? I don't think that I've seen that before.
Katie: We launched that in the pandemic. We, in the past, had, if we were doing say a whole house, and certainly all of that cabinetry is ours, there might be a kids' bathroom or, you know, guest bathroom or certainly lower-level bathroom that may not have been as high design as some of the other main living areas. And so often clients were selecting vanities from retail partners, Pottery Barn, occasionally other retailers, Rejuvenation Room & Board, you know, the big players in town.
And the pandemic was so tough because one, we either couldn't get it, the damage rate was really high on those materials, and so we would spend so much time in the exchange and return process; we would have just been better off offering our custom collection, our custom cabinetry at a slightly better price point.
And so that is where the vanity line came from. So we launched a collection. It took us about 18 months from the day we dreamed it up to the day we were able to get it live on the site. The hard part was making sure we had all the right install imagery.
So we had a number of projects in motion that we wanted to wrap up, photograph. We did a few pro bono vanities just so that we could get them installed in homes and get some of those original creative assets. And then it was gangbusters for a while, and then we have just, we still have the vanity line. It's doing its thing.
We push it out a lot into Pinterest. So we do get quite a few out-of-state orders, but we don't do a lot of talking about it online like we used to. Mostly, it's just a bandwidth issue. We have a good flow coming in organically, and hopefully with the addition of a few new people in our shop, maybe this fall or winter, we'll be able to kind of turn that dial up again and start getting the word out, especially more to our local friends in the community.
Desi: Yeah, I could imagine local designers really tapping into that. So thanks for giving us a little behind the scenes on that because I mean, that is part of why I thought you'd be the perfect person to have on here to help me fill in between some of these summer series episodes that I'm providing is that I mean, you've got that arm of the business, you've got the cabinetry shop, you've got the people out in the field doing the work, you've got the design team. So that's a sizable business that you're leading and a lot of different avenues of the business.
So if you think about just running an interior design firm, there's so many different hats to wear and pieces to puzzle together, and then you've got all these other pieces as well. So I think that's so interesting. And one of the things I'd love to know is just did you have that in mind as you came onto the business when you joined many years ago? Tell me about that evolution of your vision.
Katie: Gosh, no, we did not have that vision. We were in our home. When I met my husband, it was just himself and then one other guy, and they were, actually it was one to two people at a time. So at most it was three people, but mostly just two, between himself and then a really small cabinet shop. And just with alignment with other business owners, much like the Midwest Design Retreat, being around the right industry professionals, like-minded folks, it just became one person at a time. It was always identifying the needs that we needed at that time and been really true to filling the position for what we need versus creating work around people.
I think as we've grown, we've had some really good people here and we will kind of help develop a role that fits their skillset, but ultimately, we're looking at, we're basically creating a job description, right? This is what we need, who can fill this role. And so just one employee at a time, but we're still relatively speaking a really small company. We only have 11 employees on our staff. We have about five professional subcontractors that we work with. So that would be helping in the design architectural space planning.
We also within that employee group, we have an engineer on staff too. So he kind of is the liaison between all of our different arms of the shop and the fields and the design team. But then of course it's managing all of the subcontractors. That's where I think start to get really big, right? We have up to, you know, 30, 40 different conversations, people we're working with on a daily basis. And everyone on our team is interacting with all of those subs in different capacities.
So it was never a part of the business plan. It was just again, it's been one person at a time. I will say we are, we're in our sweet spot. We've been a little bit north of 11, 12 employees and we've been just a little bit under, and we feel like this 10 to 12 is really our sweet spot and we're really intentional if we can about staying here really, to be honest.
Desi: Yeah. And when you say you're bringing on one person at a time, I know one of the questions that I'll get from designers is, well, how do I know when I'm ready to hire? And I think this is really individualized per business and what you're aiming for. But I'd love for you to share a little bit about what are some of those signs or symptoms in-house that start to perk you up as the leader of, okay, it might be time to bring somebody else on.
Katie: Yeah, so early on, I think it was being really creative about the position, right? Not feeling like I needed to hire a full-time position, offer, you know, a huge salary, all of the benefits, unlimited paid time off, all the holidays. I feel like that's where things get really cumbersome. It's like, how can I be so responsible for such a really big role and financially, how am I going to cover that every month?
So it was probably a little bit of finding the right people early on, but just to come in either in an internship. I've done a lot with part-time to full-time work. I've brought people on and said, hey, we're going to do a 90-day trial run at part-time. Let's see if this works. And then if it works, we can talk about where we go from here. So really flexible opportunity in the onset is what is what really worked well for us to find a few of those original folks that have really grown with our team since.
I think in this creative space, there's a lot of people looking for part-time work. They might already have their own studio, their own design clients, and maybe they're looking to fill some time. They might be right out of school. There's a lot of people that are right out of school that will take whatever they can get just to get in the space and get going.
So that's been really helpful just to think about it as a little bit of a less, I don't know, permanent decision. And I always think about, we really value and appreciate every single person who walks through our doors, but it's also a two-way decision. And so I have to remind myself, I'm not signing a lease agreement. I'm not, you know, signing on a big loan that I have to think about paying back.
Yes, this is someone's livelihood, and yes, it matters, but if after 30, 60, 90 days, this isn't a fit, it could be, you know, potentially on their end as well. We just have to be willing to have those conversations to say this isn't working or why isn't it working? Can we reset? Is this the right job? Is this the right role? Fortunately, those conversations don't happen often, but just having the ability to be able to exit the plan if you need to, I think, makes it a little bit easier to go into and take the step into the next direction of adding people on your team.
Desi: Yeah, I agree 100%. I think in general, that's a good philosophy to have with your business as a whole, is I can always re-decide.
Katie: Always.
Desi: Even with a lease or something like that, there's going to be something you could do if you really needed to or wanted to. Yes, think through things, do your due diligence, and I think it's so freeing to release that pressure off yourself to think it's got to be the end all be all. So I'm really glad that you brought that up.
Knowing that you are looking for best fit on both sides, do you have any words of wisdom over best practices for how you determine that in the screening and interviewing process?
Katie: Oh, we're in the thick of this right now. I am in an actual HR group. So we are refining all of that right now. So, everything I thought I was doing well, of course, there's always room for improvement. So core values has been really helpful for us and we're screening employees. And so we have a list and we don't necessarily run those through an interview, but they're good filter in the background. And then of course, pulling some deliberate interview questions that do speak to our core values.
I would also say we are getting more and more serious about demonstrating the skillset. So is it we've sent off material selections. I've done a floor plan. It might just be a bathroom or a pantry, a smaller space. I will send off the materials and then I will ask a candidate to draw that in an elevation view for me. We use CAD, but whatever software you use would be helpful. I've asked them to make design boards, to present.
So I think a portfolio that they can share is helpful, but it isn't always relevant to what we need, and it could be a different design aesthetic, a different point in their career. So we're really looking for people to take what we do and basically apply it, right, and show us that you've got the chops that we need.
Desi: I love test projects. I think they're so beneficial. I've had too many of my own clients where they've brought someone on, and what the person has said is their skillset or their aesthetic, it just doesn't end up matching. And it's not even where this person that they brought into the team is trying to be deceptive or anything. It's just sometimes we're not as self-aware as we could be, or our interpretation of our skills is different than what is actual. I mean, you even think about this with our design client projects where, you know, they say they want modern. Well, what is modern? Right? We got to look at the picture and be like, all right, so what is it in that image that you actually like?
So there's that just sort of discernment that you can't get until you get into it a little bit with that person. And I think, you know, often we can feel a little pressed for time or we just like want some relief of having the extra help, and so it's easy to skip over some of those pieces, but they really are beneficial and a worthwhile investment.
Katie: Yeah, and one of the things too that I'm excited to start doing, which I admittedly, we just haven't done it. Mostly, it's just a timing issue. But I want to start going back and doing reference checks and actually doing picking up the phone and learning more about the candidates, and either from past employers. It's so old school, but I think it's really critical. And I just, that's the piece we're missing. How can we hear from people that have worked with these candidates before? What's their work style? To your point, what is their design aesthetic? How did they collaborate on a team? Some of those real-life questions that you may not be getting out of an interview. So we're definitely going to start implementing that, it’s on my to-do list that I took notes for from my last HR meeting. Go back to old school, see what happens.
Desi: Yeah, that's always very insightful. Now, once you've brought someone in the fold and you're starting to onboard them, I'm awfully curious about because there's so many people in the company with their fingers in the projects, tell me a little bit about your onboarding process because I think maybe this might be similar to what other design firms might do, but also might have its very own flavor.
Katie: Yeah, so we spend quite a bit of time just getting familiar with our tools. We have a lot of them, but we are always trying to simplify and consolidate. And I love going through the tools process because I think it can be really eye-opening for me as well to understand, is this really working? Is this efficient? Does this person understand how we're using it and why? So I'm listening to feedback during that process too.
And then it's a lot of shadowing. Typically it's me because usually when I hire, it's a capacity issue. I'm taking on more work than I need to be. And so I'm pretty deep into a design project or working with clients, maybe the project has scaled larger. So I will bring in that new employee to basically assist, right? To get that one to completion. At some point, depending on timing, I will be introducing something that's a little bit more approachable, smaller in scale, kitchen only, main floor only, and have them then just start basically mimicking everything they saw me do. But then I am very much kind of shadowing them and overseeing all of their work.
And so then we will collaborate, and I do review all of the deliverables. If it's the technical items, drawings, cabinetry, elevations, then we do even get our cabinet shop involved as well. So we do quite a bit of internal redlining, if you will, before our design team, if we're speaking of just designers, can interface any of that information outwardly with a client.
And I would say the shop and the field, it's get in there, just get in there, get your boots on, start building, start creating, start working. Just start, you know, again, it's a lot of on-job training and shadowing. But yeah, on the design side, it doesn't take long. I mean, we could just be at this for six, seven, eight weeks before, depending on who the person is, I'm releasing them to really meet with clients individually.
Again, if I go back to that 80% that I'm delegating, I'm really trying to remove myself from having to be involved in all of the meetings. There are milestone meetings that I will always check in and be present with, but they're not necessarily on the creative side. I really love to give my team as much autonomy as I can because we've reviewed internally, so I know when they're presenting with clients, I know what they're presenting, but I'm checking in milestone meetings. It might be, are we checking in against the budget? Are we preparing for construction? What are our next steps? I usually check in on those kind of bigger “what's next” conversations. And inevitably, during those meetings, we are definitely talking about design elements and finalizing some of those decisions too.
Desi: In your title is Creative Director. So tell me a little bit more about how you balance that role of creative direction with giving the team autonomy.
Katie: I let them do it, right? I let them, I mean, I'm with the homeowner from the beginning for several, six to eight to even more conversations before I'm onboarding the team. And that includes I've been to the home, I've met the homeowners as well at this point, probably even two or more times depending on the scope of the project. We don't deliver any creative without bringing on a designer from the team. And then we have a pretty succinct process at that point.
We are either most likely we're making another repeat visit to the home so the designer can basically absorb all the information I've already shared with her, and then of course, meet the homeowner, see the space in person. We've got a questionnaire that we've had the homeowner fill out at this point as well.
And then from there, the designer typically is getting started right away on floor planning. So we're doing floor plan development and all of that, we use Monday.com as our project management system. And so they load a lot of their deliverables in there, they'll tag me. If a deliverable is due on Friday, hopefully I'm getting it earlier in the week, and then I have some flexibility two or three or more days to happen, review, offer some red lines, I'll print things out.
We're in office often, so that is another huge thing. I don't have a very flexible work-from-home policy. We do work from home on Fridays, but Monday through Thursday, we try to all be in office as much as possible, and that allows for that ongoing collaboration. Those quick five-minute check-ins, you know, hey, I can't find this tile, what do you know? And then I encourage the team to collaborate off one another.
So if I'm absent, if I'm in a sales call, if I'm managing the other parts of the business, they can lean on one another to find resources or gut check drawings or creative decisions. And they all work really well together, which is helpful. And probably all of that to say is I, maybe where I'm different than other design firms is that I don't need to be in all of the client meetings once we kick off the project.
Desi: How do you frame that for the client? Because that's a little bit of pushback that I'll get when I'm working with designers to help establish more senior leadership in their own team, is, well, I'm the one who's been marketed, it's my business, my name's on the door. They want me at the meetings. And what I'm hearing is you're at the meetings, but not all the meetings. So tell me how you set the stage for that so that it is helpful for you as the CEO who has other things that you need to focus on, and still gives a really great client experience.
Katie: I sell my team early. From the very first meeting, either on the phone or when I get to their home, I do Zoom calls the first interaction, and then a few more interaction,s and I'll eventually get to the home. And if I have a designer identified at any point, I will start using her name. So I'll just keep repeating her name. Well, when we get, you know, and I'll say her name into the conversation, here's what you can expect, and then I'll talk about their skill sets and their strengths and capabilities and alignment, why I think that person might be a great fit for them. I'm just really clear from the onset that I will be, and I am copied on all client emails. I will read everything. Every once in a while, I will jump in and I'll offer a few clarifying answers.
Every once in a while, if I see that maybe we're not understanding what's supposed to happen in the email, if the client's trying to communicate something that maybe my team is misinterpreting, if I can pick up on the communication disconnect, I'll just pick up the phone and I'll call the homeowner. And so I'll check in that way too.
So I just find warmer ways to connect with the clients throughout the project. And then once we get into the renovation side of it too, I might be doing a ride along with my husband, who's managing the field side. So I can do surprise check-ins. We might just take a day and go run around to, you know, three or four different job sites, check in. I know he's meeting with homeowners. I'll just say, hey, I haven't seen them in two months. I'm going to hop in the car and come see them with you. So just trying to find maybe unexpected moments to check in.
But yeah, I mean, it's selling my team early on and making sure homeowners understand that I can't do what they do. I can't draw, I can't do the technical, I can't do CAD. I'm not trained to do any of that. And I let our homeowners know. Probably not everybody in the onset, but as I can read that client and what they might be expecting of me, I will be more willing to share. Listen, this is why the team is important. This is the skill set that they bring that I can't bring to the conversation.
Desi: Yeah, and I think so much of this is really around setting expectations. And I think, you know, when we don't have an expectation of what to expect, what's coming, we naturally will just fill in the gaps as the consumer, so your client, of what we think might happen. And, well, if your face is on the website, that's probably a likely assumption.
So by setting the clear expectation and also what I'm hearing too is that you're very sold on this is the best way to do it too. It's not a, well, I'm going to give them this other person, and that's going to be like an okay route to go. It's no, they're going to have this other person on our team, and it's going to be the very best for everybody. So I think that's a really important point to call out as well.
Katie: Yeah, and they get undivided attention, right? I mean, my team is, they're not running around to all the meetings that I'm handling. They're not, you know, they're not wearing a sales and marketing hat. They're not troubleshooting potential employee issues or running leadership teams out of the cabinet shop on whatever we need to do there, you know, growth or filling, scheduling, or whatever was going on. And so, yeah, you're right. I mean, they, our clients, are really set up for success when they have a dedicated person on our team that's not me to be their day-to-day point of contact.
Desi: Yeah, very much. I love that you're, I love that you're saying that.
Katie: And trust me, right? It's real. There's some days when it's like, I should be at that meeting. How can I make it happen? And sometimes I'm just choosing to stay home and go on my morning walk. I mean, to be honest, I'm just, it's I got to have time where I can just decompress and not be at all the things all day long.
Desi: Yep. And there's a, there's a trade-off always, and yes, maybe you won't be at the meeting, but maybe because of that walk, you come up with a great idea, or you're more refreshed coming back. You're more patient with everybody in the office. Who knows what it is, but I think so much too of being a CEO is learning to trust what you actually need, whether that is, this is the next employee that we're going to add on, this is the role that they're going to take, or it's, do I go to the meeting or do I go on a walk?
Katie: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the walk, go for the walk.
Desi: I love the walks. I went on a walk before we recorded. Alright. So one of the things you said is that you feel like you're at your sweet spot right now in terms of staff. So I'm curious then what would maybe growth or the business trajectory look like over the next few years for you if you are in that spot where it feels like, yeah, this is pretty good.
Katie: Yeah. I love that question. We actually just did a meeting with our design team on Monday of this week to talk about what's next for our company, what does that look like? And I had each person create their own mini presentation of what, how they identified what's next. And it really, it's a creative push. It's how can we level up? How can we elevate, you know, all of the things that we love to do and we do well, and the things our clients are coming to us for and asking for some of those heirloom cabinetry pieces, leaning into historic renovations. We're doing a lot more, you know, natural stone and living finishes, and just things feel really juicy and authentic right now.
And we're coming off a major string of projects where everything fit that bucket. So now we just want to lead with that, right? And I think some of our, a lot of the people in the room where you and I met have that brand standard of here are the countertops that we prefer to work with, here's the material choices. We're going to meet you at the show, and we're going to help pick out those slabs. We're going to be the steward of bringing those samples, the other samples, to those meetings and just becoming more white glove.
And I think it's just having deeper, richer connections and then taking the projects further. You know, there's always that opportunity for furnishings and window treatments, and we dabble in it, and every other project, we are really lucky to be able to bring some of those things to the project.
But again, I think it's, it's making that more of our brand standard from the onset and from that initial call of this is what we can do and bring and just extending those relationships longer instead of, you know, these three to four month projects, how can we make them six to eight month projects? Maybe not all on the construction side, but from the design perspective. And we all feel really aligned. That's what we all want to do. So I said, great, then that's what we'll do. We don't need to sign more contracts this year. Let's just take the ones we have and make them better.
Desi: That's so exciting. I love that alternative, right? Because I think often we think of growth as bigger, more, that kind of thing, and it can look so many different ways.
Katie: We've come off a few years where it was, it was that. I mean, we've had record-breaking years. I don't want to do that ever again. Not that we wouldn't be happy with higher revenues than we've done in a previous year, but not at that trajectory, not at that speed, and really feeling like we weren't doing every core of who we are at its fullest. It was kind of just like we were felt a little rushed or pressured and so we're, we're really a little bit of a slow that we've come into 2025 has allowed us to shift that thinking, and I've never felt so energized and excited about what's next and to have total alignment with our team at the same time.
Desi: Mm, I'm so happy for you. I think that's great to have those cycles, right? There's those pushes of growth, like where in that more typical sense, but then there's also those periods of time where it's stability, where it's you're tightening things up on the back end, you're refining your process, it's leaning into a certain type of aesthetic to call in those types of clients and I think we can get really burnt out pretty quickly if all we're doing is just growing, growing, growing year after year. And that's not to say we can't have increases in revenue and that kind of thing over time, but I think it's again, knowing your business and knowing what it needs in this season. So I'm excited to see what that looks like for you.
Katie: Yeah, stay tuned. It'll take about 18 months to show it and put it out into the world, but no, yeah, we're in it. And we're excited.
Desi: What do you think might need to shift in you as the person and the leader of the business in order to bring that to the forefront? Any ideas on that?
Katie: I think it's just being, kind of to what you said, it's being really settled in, not having to grow so much in scale at the same time, right? And feel like we need to do more and the bigger projects and we have really wrapped our arms and that's coming from me really to, we've really wrapped our arms around these mid-sized projects. They feel like a really good spot for us to be in. We can showcase everything we do.
We love a small project and we love the big giant ones. These mid-sized projects, we can do it all and do it really, really well and deliver a very white glove experience for our clients. The really big ones are really fun and juicy and, you know, you win awards off of those big ones, but they're very stressful. It's a lot of problem solving and it is, I often say we come to work and we problem-solve all day long. I feel like on those big ones, we are always problem-solving that sometimes we lose sight of the really pretty, fun work that we set out to do.
And I think on these mid-sized projects that were it's our bread and butter, we don't lose sight of it. It stays really fun throughout the whole thing and we have really healthy work relationships with our homeowners because if we're stressed, they're stressed. I mean, the stress is all around.
So I'm really settled in that. I mean, maybe in a year from now I'll feel differently, but we're also starting to think about what's, like what's the end game for Jkath? I mean, it's not happening soon, but we might only have a ten-year runway left, and what does that look like? Does that, are we still in it, my husband and I, and do we phase out as consultants? Are we just replacing ourselves and doing a little bit less so we can spend more time away from the business? Do we have people here that eventually want to take on bigger roles? I mean, we're starting to think about all that stuff and, you know, there's a lot of mindshare that goes into that future planning.
So it's, it's really now balancing how much time do we put on that and then how much time could we continue to invest in our projects? And so there just isn't a lot of room right now for like this big scale and growth game that I think five years ago, that's all we wanted. And we did, we've grown, we're way bigger than we were five, six, seven years ago, but I'm, like, we feel at a very good capacity right now.
Desi: Those are all great questions to be asking and, yeah, just continually checking in with yourself and seeing how it feels.
Katie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's good. It's good.
Desi: All right, one last question before we wrap up.
Katie: Okay.
Desi: What does it mean to you to be a designer CEO?
Katie: You know, for me, I always, I want to be hands-on, right? So there's this balance between running this company, being responsible for a lot of decision-making, which I love. I love high-level thinking. I love working on the business. I love working in the business, but I also love being really connected to each of my team members and then the clients at different phases throughout the project like I mentioned earlier.
So I think it's just finding a really good balance. Balance, I know people hate that word. Like what's balance? But, you know, every day feels a little bit different, and that's why I'm in this space. I don't want every day to be the same. I wouldn't excel sitting in an office somewhere doing the same thing all day long. I also wouldn't excel sitting here in my desk on my computer all day long. I need to be up and moving around and seeing and touching things and materials and traveling and meeting people, industry professionals and clients, and people that I feel like, you know, are I could mentor me or people that I could mentor. I just love different pieces of all of it.
So for me, I don't know. I mean, it's just dancing in a lot of different spaces in a very creative way, but finding gratification and joy in all of those pieces and feeling like I'm also leaving a little bit of impact behind along the way, too, for my team and our homeowners.
Desi: I love that. Thank you for sharing that, and thank you for sharing all of your answers. I peppered you with questions today that I thought our listeners might want to hear you give your response to. Before we say goodbye, can you please let everyone know where they can find you and the business and check you out?
Katie: Yeah, Instagram is great. It's @jkath_designbuild. That's where we do all of our project reveals, behind the scenes, you name it. And then you can always hop on our website, jkath.com, and join our newsletter. We do send those out every week, every Sunday, and it's again, a little bit more of behind the scenes, what's coming ahead, some more trends, things that we're loving. It could blends over to a little bit of lifestyle on our newsletter as well. So, yeah, those are the two best ways.
Desi: All right. Everybody go check it out. I think especially Instagram, I love how you've done Instagram. I think it's a really nice blend of the behind the scenes with the polished pictures. It's a balance, right? There we go with balance again. But I know a lot of people struggle with Instagram, and like, what do I post? And I think you're one to look to. So definitely go check that out.
And I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. And in that one, it is the final truth that I'll be sharing in the What I Know For Sure CEO Summer School series. I'm really excited to round that out. If you are not subscribed or following the show, take a second, push the little button in wherever you listen to your podcast, and make sure you're following along so you don't miss that one.
I also have a really great interview coming up with Melissa from Oho Interiors, who is also one of the speakers at the Midwest Design Retreat and was recently named one of the Next Wave designers from House Beautiful. That's going to be a great interview as well. All right, that is it for today. Until next Wednesday, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
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