An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Our faith is personal and unique to each of us. But we share the same life purpose, family values & personal commitments because of our relationship with Christ and His sacrifice. We ground one another and remind each other of the truths we believe when the other might be struggling. We carve out time to pray with one another, giving the weight of our days to Him, releasing the pressure valve in our heads & hearts.
As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Luke & Whitney Wright from MudLOVE.
MudLOVE is an Indiana-based pottery boutique owned by Luke and Whitney Wright. In 2009, inside a tiny garage with nothing more than an old stamp set, a box of clay, and a plan to support clean water projects in Africa, MudLOVE was born. With mud on their hands and love in their hearts, MudLOVE sees the chance to make a difference as their inspiration to create. They put thoughtful, skillful hands to the clay to shape mud into love, producing mugs and bracelets that make unique and meaningful gifts. MudLOVE is a for-profit business built on the idea of giving back. Partnering with Water for Good, MudLOVE ensures that every product purchased provides one week of clean water for someone in the Central African Republic. Alongside providing water, MudLOVE products have become everyday instruments of encouragement and inspiration.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?
Whitney: A few critical moments inspired my start as an entrepreneur. I have always been a creator and knew from a young age that I wanted to start my own business. I suffered from a sudden and debilitating bout of anxiety and depression that lasted for the better part of 2001. One of the pathways for my healing was creating again, and it took the form of making jewelry. At the urging of my friends & family, it was a natural fit to start selling my work. But it wasn’t until many years later that I founded my jewelry business, Bel Kai. I was pregnant with my first son at the time, and my desire to work from home while raising little ones grew into making my dream of entrepreneurship come true.
Luke: When I graduated from college, I had a degree in ceramics. You may be surprised to know that market demand for potters is fairly weak. So I did what everyone should do after college; I traveled the country in a 1991 Volvo station, racked up credit card debt, and landed at home back with my parents. Ok, so I don’t recommend the last two things… At the time, my dad was a staircase carpenter but also had some health complications. He had one last big job, and I decided to help him while figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. Midway through the staircase project, I applied to be a bus driver, ended up failing my CDL test, and never went back. Then a friend of mine heard about my mud-making passion and offered his basement as a temporary workspace for me. I never looked back.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?
Whitney: We built our dream home and sold it two years later. We love working together on projects, and because we share the same design style, we agreed on everything. I’ve often heard that building a house is stressful for many marriages. We had so much fun! We added so much love + story into our home, finding one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture, art, and architectural touches. Our architect + builder put the same amount of heart into his work. It was (and is!) a beautiful home. After moving in, we realized it wasn’t quite the right fit for us and some of the values we have in place for our family. Add in a surprise 4th pregnancy, and with peaceful but heavy-ish hearts, we decided to sell. We live two doors down, so we still get to admire it from afar, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
Luke: To me, the most interesting story that happened was the merge of Bel Kai and MudLOVE and how that came to be. Whitney was working on Bel Kai out of the house and had one employee. MudLOVE was seeing rapid growth and had two locations and about 50 employees. One of the MudLOVE locations was a garage, the birthplace of MudLOVE, in 2009. The other was a much bigger facility that did all production in downtown Warsaw, 8 minutes down the street. In a small Indiana town, two MudLOVE locations was a bit overkill. When discussing the future of Bel Kai, we felt a little weird about that employee having to work from our house with two rambunctious kids in the midst. I proposed the garage as a studio for Bel Kai, and then the ball was rolling fast. Next thing you know, it turned into our story. We now call that garage Belove, a marriage of Bel Kai and MudLOVE. The artisan village where it resides today continues to be a favorite hub for patrons in our hometown.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Whitney: Oh goodness, so many come to mind. They were mostly having to do with the process of my medium for making jewelry. The craft and handmade revolution had barely begun (Etsy got its’ start the year prior to mine). There was little information about handmade jewelry using pendant settings, paper, + resin. Needless to say, the pendants from the early days of Bel Kai are no longer in existence. If they are, they certainly have not aged well. At the start, I was living in a California bungalow, and because I couldn’t find pendant settings that I liked and would work well, I was soldering metal in my dining room. I had no business using tools like that! And I was printing images on uncoated cardstock that would often bleed under the resin layers once poured. Our production is now a perfected science as a result of years of trial and error.
Luke: Easy, not listening to my wife about a licensing deal we ended up trying. She didn’t feel good about it, and I was convinced we were going to make it big. Although it’s not too funny, it was a good reminder that a devil’s advocate is always an important role in a marriage and in business. I had blinders on and wasn’t willing to accept the cons in this situation. The truth is, the deal almost cost us the company, and it was hard on our marriage as well. I learned that my optimism can be misleading in my head, and I need to look at too good to be true opportunities more objectively. I am also a better listener now.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Whitney: Bel Kai strives to create jewelry that is rich with meaning. As an all-kinds-of-jewelry lover, there are so many brands I love to wear because they are beautiful. But because we work with images that can be customized for our community, there are many ways we can add value to a piece of jewelry that can become a meaningful keepsake. We work with initials, birthstones, photographs, and design images with names, anniversary dates, and words that serve as reminders or encouragement. Over the years, we have had the opportunity to work with many artists, photographers, musicians (setting their lyrics in pendants), organizations to create custom jewelry for their beloved communities, and it has become our greatest joy!
Luke: I have a lot of things I could say, but if I had to pick one, it would be the synergy our products and the customer have together. I never anticipated the amount of effort our community would pour into other people with our products. I also didn’t anticipate the impact that small gesture of a word would have in other’s lives. I’ve heard a lot of stories, one of a former gangbanger on his deathbed in tears when he receives a MudLOVE bracelet that says hope. My favorite is Morrey Hester. He was an older guy that drove an old white truck and mopped the floors of the local Post Office. I noticed Morrey coming into our shop on a weekly basis, purchasing two hope bracelets at a time with a brown elastic. Eventually, I had to ask him if he wanted to buy more at a time and get a bulk discount. He politely declined and informed me that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He went on to tell me how he put his two hope bracelets on the turn signal of his truck, and whenever he learned of someone having cancer, he would give them a bracelet. When he ran out, he would get two more. This went on for a while until he eventually passed. I was honored he spent the last days of his life using our product to love others in a time of need.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Whitney: We run a small gift shop in a village of shops and restaurants right down the street, in our Indiana lake town. We have an antique drafting table in the middle of our shop that holds thousands of components of Bel Kai jewelry pieces that can be put together to create necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. We recently duplicated “the jewelry bar” in a retail store in Fort Wayne, Indiana, called goodMRKT. It is a collaborative space of vendors and makers intent to do good through their businesses. The project has been very well-received by the Ft. Wayne community, and there are plans to expand. We are thrilled to cultivate space and opportunities for our customers to create meaningful pieces of jewelry.
Luke: Our outsourcing partnership with Vida Plena in the Dominican Republic is an ongoing project that I continue to have renewed excitement about. I’ve learned that outsourcing can be a very impactful choice, not from a profit perspective but from a mission perspective. It’s a choice that has renewed a passion in me and drives me as a social entrepreneur… It’s not an easy path to choose this specific group of people to create a product I’ve been making for 12 years now. However, in my last visit to our partner in DR, I was creating original bracelets with ten women that I couldn’t communicate with, and we were connecting on a new level. The joy and respect on both sides of the spectrum were incredible. As they are helping me with products, we can provide a sustainable job that they are proud of.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
Whitney: We give our employees their own agency in their roles at MudLOVE LLC. We like to think of them as entrepreneurs in their own space and right. We live by a small liberal arts college, and many of our employees have started their careers in our midst. Because we are a small business, through and through, the opportunity for employees to make a difference is great. They can make their job what it is. MudLOVE LLC has been a stepping stone for employees to refine skills and hone in on their giftings, so when they leave, they have a greater sense of what they want to make a career of.
Luke: For the sake of the employer, and the employee, never stop rubbing shoulders in the process. As I have learned the hard way in my situation, being too far removed from the process is detrimental to me, the team, and the company. There have been too many times when an employee has been burnt out because the process or the system was broken. Often it can feel personal, and for them, it is usually personal. My lack of involvement at a time of rapid growth for MudLOVE led to frustration, and eventually them moving on to something else. If I’m not willing to help solve problems or ask good questions, it’s tough for an employee to thrive. It’s not about Luke as a person, it’s about the fact that I am the leader in this company, and they need someone that will jump in the weeds with them to understand what is truly happening.
How do you define “Leadership”?
Whitney: Lately, leadership to me has been about owning and bearing the weight of taking risks. At the end of the day, Luke and I are at the helm of our company and have the responsibility to each other, our family, and our employees to confidently make decisions that we know are the best. There are potentialities and liabilities at every turn. In hindsight, we may discover that we didn’t make the right decision. But leadership is about taking the risk with integrity, without knowledge of the eventuality, and humbly accepting any outcome.
Luke: I define leadership as an ambiguous journey certain people will eventually embark on that, involves making decisions based on experience, education, and gut. Sometimes by choice, sometimes by situation will a person become a leader. Many of our employees have been given the charge of “leader” as we work through team transitions. Early on, I always expected MudLOVE to be just me, leading myself, making my own decisions and agendas. Boy, was I wrong! For me now, I hope to put myself in a situation where the actual work being done is run by good systems and processes, in which I’m helping lead improvements and future needs of those things. Outside of that, I can now use my experience to lead, avoid repeated mistakes, and make better decisions.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Whitney: With our recent growth and the necessity to find creative ways to increase production without investing in more space + people, we partnered with an organization in the Dominican Republic called Vida Plena. They exist to provide fair employment opportunities to women to break the cycle of poverty. In addition to trade training, this beautiful team of women is also involved in adult literacy classes, micro-finance programs, and counseling. Vida Plena exists to see these women flourish economically, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. We are honored to train and work with this team on both Bel Kai + MudLOVE production.
Luke: It’s a tricky question to answer without feeling like we’re tooting our horn. In general, I believe that an entrepreneur’s success, by default, should bring goodness to the world. Why are social good entrepreneurs hard to find? Entrepreneurs have an innate ability to make decisions, whether it’s the right one or the wrong one, and learning from both of them. They have strong convictions of what’s not working in their business and feed off of the things that are working. They are master problem solvers. We need you to step up because you’re a rockstar! If we look around, we know what’s wrong in the world. We just need to make one more step. Oftentimes, the hardest step is thinking outside of ourselves.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Shared Faith. Our faith is personal and unique to each of us. But we share the same life purpose, family values & personal commitments because of our relationship with Christ and His sacrifice. We ground one another and remind each other of the truths we believe when the other might be struggling. We carve out time to pray with one another, giving the weight of our days to Him, releasing the pressure valve in our heads & hearts.
- Community. We are fortunate to have found kinship with several couples that we couldn’t live without! We have years of history. We travel & family together. We know each other well. We respect their opinions, so there is freedom in hearing from them. Because we share similar values in our homes, we learn from them as we share life together. The gift of being able to speak safely and openly about marriage, parenting, running a business is invaluable.
- Counseling. Leading a team can weigh heavy, and at times, we can feel lonely and isolated. Of course, we have each other, but because we spend so much time together, it helps to have a neutral voice and outside perspective in our life. We both have had mental health challenges, and an added trial within the walls of our home and in our family keeps us relying on the help of mental health professionals.
- Quality Time. We prioritize our marriage in time spent playing and connecting. We date on a weekly basis. We travel, sans kids, every couple of months, even if just 24 hours. We let grandparents love on our kids at their homes so we can experience our quiet, clean home (pro-tip!). When you consistently take the time, you’re more prone to notice & miss the connection. Some evenings require work-time, but if they add up to too many evenings, it doesn’t sit well. So we take the time to close our laptops, make cocktails and sit on the porch together.
- Partnership. There is always room to grow in mastering this. But we have made great strides over the years to partner in every aspect of our marriage truly. At times, we divide up responsibilities. Other times, the lines are blurred as to who is responsible for what. One of us, picking up the slack, for the other, without question. This becomes especially important when one of our workloads is greater than the other. We review our calendars regularly and adjust as needed, whether one of us is at home with the kids while the other goes into the office. It’s a continual dance, and when we’re synchronized, it’s sustainable for everyone!
Luke: I don’t want to take the easy road, but she nailed it.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Whitney: First thing that comes to mind. Free Mental Healthcare for all. The stress of this life is great. We are aware of the negative impact that our fast-paced, success-driven, social-media-addicted lifestyle has created. We have personally benefited from the help of mental health professionals in our family. We know that it is cost-prohibitive for many, and our schools need more funding for additional help. I’d love to experience a world where everyone gets the help they truly need.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Whitney: I often think of the phrase, “Bloom where you’re planted.” It’s an oldie but a goodie, that keeps me grounded (no pun intended). It’s taken me many years to feel like I’m in the right lane pertaining to my work, partly because of significant life experiences and childbearing years when I’ve chosen to give more time to family. Today, right now, I know I am where I am meant to be. If that changes tomorrow, no problem. I just want to take each day for what it is, give it everything I’ve got and remain content in the midst of it all.
Luke: One of my favorite bands no one has ever heard of has a lyric that is “the tree that stands the tallest is the most prone to fall down.” It’s just a reminder that the more I grow and learn as an entrepreneur, husband, and father, the more I need to be aware of my pride, which can be very dangerous. In fact, what I learned is that pride is the root of conflict for so many things. I ended up using the concept of chopping our pride (tree) in our first core value as a team.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
Whitney: Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. She epitomizes Women Entrepreneur to me, but the things I appreciate most have nothing to do with her success as a businesswoman. I have followed her on social media for several years and appreciate so much the words and mantras she shares with her community. She has a generous spirit in wanting others to succeed. When she shares, she places such a high value on realness, something I strive for in my own life. Her love for her family is evident, just as her love and support for her husband and friends. And she’s just hilarious. I imagine a private breakfast would be the most fun.
Luke: I’d have to say, Zach Braff. While doing repetitive MudLOVE elastic production, I ended up watching his movie Garden State twice in a row. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen his movie either because it’s my favorite of all time. I have this idea in my head that we’d be pretty good friends. I think I could overlook his star status and be pretty chill. I’d want to explore his creative process together and see if there are things I could apply to my work.
How can our readers follow your work online?
Whitney: You can read the Bel Kai studio story as well as my personal story on www.belkai.com — where you can also shop and view our current jewelry collection. I have always enjoyed writing, so I’m often sharing about the delicate intersection of life, work, family on Instagram @whit_wright.
Luke: www.mudlove.com. @mudlove I’m on a long break from social media, so don’t judge my lack of posts if you happen to find me.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Luke & Whitney Wright of MudLOVE was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.