Marisa Huston

Yeah, well, you know, Monday’s like every other day, you have to play catch up. So you start by checking your e-mails, because the most important thing in my world is people. And so I have to know if anybody’s reached out to me for any reason, whether they want to be on the podcast, or they have an order, or they want to talk to me about an idea that they want us to create for them. Whatever that reason is, I’ve got to make sure that they get the response. I’m very responsive on e-mail. That is my preferred way of communicating with people just because in the work that we do, it’s very visual. We deal with a lot of art, and I need to really understand what they need and trying to get that out on a phone call is nearly impossible. So the best way really is when they send me an image or express an idea. Now, if the customer says they want to talk on the phone, absolutely. I’ll pick up the phone and call them. But it’s just from a reference perspective, it’s so much easier to do things on e-mail. So that’s the first thing I do. I guess the best way to describe it is I do all the front-end work. So I talk to customers, I answer e-mails, I do invoicing, I let people know that we’re doing things, I do social media. So all the front-end work is really my responsibility. The back-end work, where I like to say the magic happens in the shop, because that’s really where all the ideas come to life. And that’s where Jerry comes into play. So my husband, Jerry, is there. He takes the information that I give him and makes it into something, right? And then I try to support him in some way. So there are things that I can do. Like maybe it’s sanding or finishing a block of wood or whatnot. He’ll ask me for help, then I’m there. But for the most part, you know, 99 percent of the work, physical work that is done is done in the shop with him. Then I then come back into play because I package the items, or I deliver the product. If they’re local, we literally go to their office location, for example, and bring it to them. And I think that’s part of the joy. You know, kind of like when you deliver flowers, and you see a smile on people’s faces. That’s how it feels like when you get to see the customer’s smile on their face when they see the final product that we created. And that really helps kind of put everything in perspective because everything we do takes so much time and energy that it’s like your little baby that you’re handing over, you know what I mean?