Meet Carla Ramirez Mcgregor | Founder & Curator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carla Ramirez Mcgregor and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carla, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I spent the last 10+ years working in corporate America. Having been in Austin, TX it’s hard to avoid the technology bubble and it’s many interesting avenues. My formative career experience was recruiting for tech companies design, engineering and product management teams. Companies such as The Knot, Realtor.com and other inspiring companies that showed me e-commerce was a viable avenue for business.

After taking a new job with a small Executive Recruiting firm I realized I spent 50+ hours a week working for someone else. It made me realize that time could be used to build a small business that I believed in spending that many hours in.

Entrepreneurship is always a harder avenue but the reward can be so much more intoxicating.

What should our readers know about your business?
About:
Studio CM works with artisans and specialty workshops in Mexico that produce hand made products for your home. We do the hard part by curating, sourcing, and importing Mexico’s finest products so you can enjoy a seamless shopping experience.
Our uniquely curated collection are produced in Oaxaca, Jalisco, Yucatan, and Michoacán. It’s important for us to highlight a different side of Mexican design that is contemporary, modern and timeless.

What sets us apart:
We are learning what sets us apart is the uniqueness of our curated collection. While some of our products, like hand blown glass are no novelty, the designs and colors we use are quite different and highly customizable. In addition, many people do not have access to imported products as the logistics can be daunting. We offer a full service of end to end importing with clear timelines and outcomes.

Most excited about:
We are in year two, last year was very much about getting the business off the ground and finding our audience and refining our product catalog. This second year we have been focused on managing higher volume and incorporating wholesale into our business model.

Challenges:
Being a solopreneur has it’s obvious challenges that include financial and employee support. However, the biggest challenge has been that every aspect has been learned hands on. From traveling to Mexico, scouting products, aligning with vendors, learning to import products has been on the fly. Today we still experience these challenges at a higher level such as attending a tradeshow and learning how to ship a palette of products round trip from Texas to NY without anything breaking. Every step is a challenge and some days there is a lot of energy and inspiration behind it. Other days, it’s hard to pivot and continue being creative as it takes a lot of energy!

What we want the world to know:
Studio CM proudly supports makers and want to continue building a brand that aligns with the philosophy of “quality over quantity”. We care about the environment so we want to support consumers that want long lasting products. In an effort to do so we reuse materials and keep a lean business. Each product has a great story and personal connection with it’s maker.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This is an excellent question as we have become somehwhat of a travel agent when it comes to Mexico and the locations we source from.

CDMX would be our choice of recommendation for a long weekend.
First stop, the Castle of Chapultepec for some sight seeing and appreciation of Mexico’s long history. Then we would recommend popping into Pinguino which is a local store that has beautiful artisan goods to buy gifts for loved ones. For lunch time, Mi Compa Chava has the best sea food and we also suggest a lunch beer since it’s vacation!

Post lunch we would go to the JUMEX Museum of modern art. For evening activities we would let our guests pick from an exciting night of Lucha Libre where we would watch Mexican wrestling, a great dining experience at Marmota, or a lounge evening of listening to house music at Apartamento.

CDMX has an exciting array of activities where you can fill up a weekend doing food/beverage tastings, dance, relax, explore history and art. This is an ideal weekend from our perspective.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A shout out to Baylor University’s Executive MBA program that highlighted the important aspects and pillars of what it takes to build a business. It was an eye opening program for professionals that seek enrichment to their careers. Without the MBA, I would have lacked the insight as to what the minimal viable needs are to launch a small business. Thank you Baylor, teachers and my classmates for that experience that has made a world of a difference.

Website: https://ilovestudiocm.com

Instagram: @ilovestudiocm.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-ramirez-mcgregor-563a4a59