374: Ellie Mroz: The Reveal Install & Working with Trades

Welcome! Today you're in for a treat! We have Ellie Mroz joining us, and she's a really talented designer and also an astute businesswoman. We're very fortunate here at Window Works to be doing the window treatments for all Ellie's projects. Today, Ellie discusses her niche with us. And get this- her niche isn't a particular style of design or even an ideal client. It's it's the town where she and her husband grew up, fell in love, and started their family! On the show today we also take a look at the hard conversations that you will need to have with vendors and clients when unforeseen things happen. Listen in to find out more.

Ellie’s passion for interiors began in the world of fashion. After she graduated from Cornell University, she enjoyed several years of internships in ready-to-wear and jewelry design, merchandising, and public relations. Finally, her love of beautiful things brought her into interior design. This transition was natural for Ellie because her husband’s residential home remodeling business, Michael Robert Construction, started growing. And his clients started asking Ellie for her help in choosing all the finishes. From there, the husband and wife design/build team grew and a boutique interior design firm was born.

Since 2015, Ellie has been asked to appear in several episodes of George Oliphant's show, George to the Rescue NBC, as the on-air talent who helps families in need create beautiful spaces. And these beautiful spaces really improve the quality of the lives of these families, as well as the quality of their homes. Listen in to hear what Ellie has to share with you today!

Show highlights:

• Ellie talks about her involvement with George To The Rescue.
• Why it's really worth investing in a receiving warehouse where they hold all your goods until you're ready for the majority install.
• Designers really need to be there when the delivery for an installation happens.
• Setting expectations with a new client right in the beginning.
• Ellie and her husband, Mike, have two separate companies and they don't always work together.
• Ellie talks about her really unique niche.
• Ellie prefers to take on few jobs and really make them profitable.
• Ellie has recently added a new service called Design Therapy.
• Ellie tailor's her style to each client.
• Some really great advice that Ellie received from a photographer.
• The joy of owning your niche fully.
• How to deal with it when things go wrong working on a project with contractors, subcontractors, and vendors.
• Some tools and tactics for avoiding dramas.
• Why you should never ditch old emails.
• The value of spending real time on site with your contractors.
• Developing the skill set to have the hard conversation with clients.
• What's coming up for Ellie in the future.

Previous episodes mentioned on this show:

Raquel Langworthy #343

Links:

Website - Ellie Mroz Design

Instagram - Ellie Mroz Design

Pinterest - Ellie Mroz Design

The custom home-building project that Ellie is documenting on Instagram: #Shadowlawndrive

Michael, Ellie's husband's website: Michael Robert Construction