This week on the Creative Genius Podcast, Gail Doby sits down with Margaret Donaldson, founder of Margaret Donaldson Interiors (MDI), and Courtney Heffron, MDI’s CFO, for an incredibly candid conversation. Margaret shares the story of starting her business 36 years ago and how, after running it “from the gut” for decades, she realized the firm’s growth—especially during COVID—had made the business bigger than her.

Listen in as Margaret opens up about the difficult, but necessary, journey of shifting her mindset from boss to leader. She shares what prompted her to seek coaching—the need for an exit strategy and a desire to ensure MDI’s legacy and protect her employees. Courtney provides expert insight on when a design firm should hire a CFO and the strategic value that high-level financial expertise brings to decision-making.

Margaret and Courtney reveal how embracing a leadership team and committing to a cultural pivot—moving from a control culture to a collaborative culture—required making hard choices, but resulted in massive growth, including a doubling of their net profit. This episode is a must-listen for any firm owner looking to build an A-plus team, invest in intentional growth, and create a “well-oiled machine” that can thrive beyond its founder.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Margaret’s “divorce” from her original family business partnership that pushed her to start MDI.
How a chance meeting (and a retiring bookkeeper) brought Courtney, with her public accounting and auditing background, into the role of MDI’s CFO.
The surprising, quick results they achieved once Margaret stopped resisting and fully committed to the coaching process.
The challenges of emotionally separating the business entity from Margaret’s personal identity to enhance business development.
Margaret’s new skill of pausing and listening more before speaking, including a funny example of changing the “hit by the bus” scenario.
Margaret’s creative business development secret: chasing every lead and following up with past satisfied clients—even if it means a surprise flight.
Courtney’s perspective on overcoming imposter syndrome and the necessity of trial-and-error in business growth.
Their strategy for building an A-plus team using the “ideal team player” framework, focusing on candidates who are humble, hungry, and smart.

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s14e3-shownotes

Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the created genius podcast, Margaret and Courtney. It’s always a pleasure to work with you too. And I’m just excited to have you on the podcast today. You are absolutely one of my favorite clients because you are so coachable and is one of the things that has made it such a delight to work with you all and to see you progress over this last year and a half. And it’s hard to believe it’s just been a year and a half, but let’s start with how you got into business. Margaret, what was your goal when you started?

Sure. Well, thank you for having us. It’s quite an honor. I appreciate that. So the goal when I started my business, it just sort of happened. was in design school in college. And then when I got out of college, I worked for an established designer for a few years. And then I formed a partnership with my aunt and she had a successful furniture store.

And after several years there, I felt the need to break free of the restraints of her business model so that my design work could expand. And unfortunately, we kind of had a divorce, which was very hard since it was family. And it was the right thing to do, though. I was a little bit in a box where I was.

And I officially started my business three weeks before my first child was born. And that’s when I started Margaret Donaldson interiors.

Gosh, and you’ve been in business for how long now?

think it’s 36 years, 36 years as Margaret Donaldson interiors. you know, I had I worked for someone else and then with my aunt for several years before that. I don’t want people to know how old I am.

So wow.

They don’t have to know. No problem. Well, it’s so interesting and it’s so interesting also that, and I’m going to go a little bit off of some of the questions I had for you, but I was thinking about for you to come to me at the point of your business that you did, it was really an interesting time to choose to do that because you’ve been running your business for a very, very long time.

Right. But the business really got it got bigger than me and I realized I needed help. So I found Pearl at just the right time.

It’s been great. Well, let’s start with also with how you two started working together and Courtney, share what you do with MDI.

Yeah, so before joining MDI, I worked in public accounting as an auditor for several years, which gave me a good foundation and exposure to a lot of different businesses. And I actually got connected to Margaret through her son’s friend who I used to work with. this was around COVID and I was wanting a career change. And when I heard about the opportunity, I felt like it would be the perfect fit. It was honestly like a dream job for me.

I’ve always loved interior design. even wanted to be a designer when I was younger, but I quickly realized that I don’t have that creative side and my strengths are definitely better suited on the business and financial side. So this role gave me really the best of both worlds where I get to be part of the creative industry that I genuinely love while focusing on the financial and operational side that I’m passionate about.

I was initially hired as the controller and then that developed into the CFO role that I’m currently in. When I first joined MDI, we had a really smaller bookkeeping setup. And so my goal was to modernize and streamline things. During that time, we transitioned from QuickBooks to Studio Designer, moved everything digital, and that has really completely transformed how we manage the business.

And so now today, my role touches on a little bit of everything from strategic planning, decision making, financial management and forecasting to client relations, new business opportunities. And then I also oversee the accounting, course, payroll, employee benefits, taxes, and et cetera. Essentially just helping ensure the business runs smoothly and continues to grow.

She has a really big job.

This is very big job. You’re a big company in our industry. And so for the level of work that you do, and maybe we should throw in here how many people you have on your team. Maybe you check.

You do.

But Courtney and I’ve been sort of back and forth on this, but we have decided that we have including myself. We are at 19 employees, full time employees. And then we have four 1099 contractors that we use in various capacities. So I guess we’re.

Somewhere around 23.

Sometimes it’s clearer than you think, and especially since it grew so organically for you. It’s interesting how all of a sudden you end up running a big team and you never anticipated that you’re going to do that.

Exactly, it just happened and that’s when I knew I needed help.

It was kind of like the perfect storm when COVID happened, business was booming actually for the interior design industry. And that’s around the time that I came on. And I felt like the growth really did happen very organically. And we just, as business was coming in, we made it work, hired more and improved the business as much as we could.

And so it was actually during COVID that brought me to Courtney because we stayed home for six weeks. And then when I called everyone back to the office at that point, my bookkeeper, who had been with me for 22 years, decided that she didn’t want to come back and it was time for her to retire. So that very Friday, I was sitting on my dock with my son.

and his friend, and I was just lamenting the fact that I don’t have a bookkeeper anymore, she’s leaving. And this is when my son’s friend was like, I might know somebody, and he starts texting, and that’s how it all came to be. So things happen for a reason.

They do happen for a reason. I believe that. In fact, every time I’ve wanted to hire somebody, I just think about it and I start talking about it and I put a job description together and the person shows up. It’s so funny that it works that way. So I’m not surprised that worked for you. So I guess a question I have for you, Courtney, is when does it make sense to add somebody with your level of knowledge? Because not all firms hire a CFO.

Yeah.

And of course you’re a larger firm, so to me that makes sense, but is there a particular time or a particular incident?

I think it really depends on a few factors, mainly the size and complexity of the business, especially as your firm grows, you have more projects, more employees, there’s more moving parts. I like the accounting side naturally becomes more involved at that point. And so that’s ...