Couples you should know

Mike Pitts
Project Planner, Kliethermes Homes and Remodeling Inc.
Monica Pitts
Do-owner and Chief Creative Director, MayeCreate Design
AGE: Mike: 31; Monica: 30
YEARS LIVED IN MID-MISSOURI: Mike: 12; Monica: 23
ORIGINAL HOMETOWN: Mike: Springfield, Mo.; Monica: Moved down the grain belt, starting in Kenmare, N.D., stopped by Ames, Iowa, and made it to Columbia in 1987.
EDUCATION: Mike: Springfield Central High Class of ’97; graduated in 2002 from MU with a B.A. from the business school, emphasis in real estate and finance. Monica: Rock Bridge High Class of ’98, graduated in 2003 from MU with a B.S. in agriculture.
JOB DESCRIPTION: Mike: I am a custom home and remodeling consultant and sales representative.  I help families plan their custom homes and improve existing homes through remodeling. Monica: I think of Mike and myself as creative consultants. Mike’s creative consulting just happens to be a bit more concrete. I guide small to medium-sized businesses through the process of designing websites and marketing materials. Some days I oversee the creative process, and on others I actually design.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Mike: I’m a member of the Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee, City of Columbia Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission, Metro Rotary and Ronald McDonald House Maintenance Committee. I also am a member of Core 20 and volunteer for a variety of service projects with local nonprofits. Last year we helped the Boys and Girls Club, the Food Bank, Family Counseling Center and the PET project, to name a few. Monica: Does it count that I pick up after my dogs when we’re on walks? I am a Chamber of Commerce and Columbia WIN member. MayeCreate donates design services to various nonprofit organizations. I tag along as Mike’s chaperone to his numerous community functions.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: Monica: I’ve always been an artsy fartsy, entrepreneurial sort. I guess those two things don’t usually go together. Out of college, I took an internship designing a website, then my dad offered me a job with the family business, Tranquility Internet Services, to develop our Web design department. I later look a job for a local marketing company then ventured off to start MayeCreate Design in 2005. I’m still trucking along as a small-business owner and create fun jewelry out of fabric, beads and clay to peddle at local craft shows. Mike: I spent several years as a residential loan officer in Columbia after graduating. The past four, I was co-owner of Ultra Mortgage Group. Around the time Monica and I got married, I had a desire to change jobs and had the opportunity to work for Kliethermes Homes and Remodeling. This past August was two years, and I’ve enjoyed every day.
A COLUMBIA BUSINESSPERSON I ADMIRE AND WHY: Mike: I think I have to list three: Richard King of The Blue Note; my boss, Dan Kliethermes; and my wife, Monica. Collectively they share passion for what they do and have created amazing businesses that have helped and inspired people in our community. Richard and Dan have been a great source of knowledge when I was a business owner. Obviously I’m a big fan of Monica; I don’t know where to start! Monica: I have to jump on the Richard King bandwagon and add Cathy Atkins of Savant Business Solutions to the list. These two business owners have helped guide me through the circus of being a small-business owner. When I worked for Richard though college, he taught me how to be a good employee. I’m not saying I loved it when he yelled at me for transferring him a bad phone call, but I learned so much from watching him run his business. Cathy asks me the hardest questions; her whole job is to ask people hard questions, and she makes people think about their business and how to make it better. She has high expectations for her students, and she has those same high expectations for herself.
WHY I’M PASSIONATE ABOUT MY JOB: Mike: I’ve always enjoyed the creative process of building — or maybe it’s just buying tools. My job is a lot of fun because I get to understand why someone wants to build or remodel and then help create a plan that will let them relax in their home, create family space or address whatever concern they might have. It’s always great to have past clients tell me about their project and how they enjoy it. Monica: There’s just something about working as a team to reach a goal that makes me happy. I truly enjoy working with clients to bring their marketing visions to life. Websites are super fun because they tax both sides of your brain in the building process. I get a kick out of creating online art, the perfect marriage of form and function. My MayeCreate team keeps me focused and motivated, and I feel proud of our group because I feel like we grow as a company and professionals every day.
IF I WEREN’T DOING THIS FOR A LIVING, I WOULD…: Monica: Buy an Airstream trailer, travel around like a gypsy and teach yoga in every campground I land. I’d create art out of everything I find and hitch a trailer to the back of the Airstream for all my art junk and crappy, confiscated trash furniture I dream of someday revamping.  Mike: Wow, how do I follow that one? I guess because we are now traveling nomads, I wouldn’t mind becoming a professional bass tournament fisherman. The only catch is I don’t really have any bass fishing ability, but it sounds like a lot of fun. They always say practice makes perfect, right?
BIGGEST CAREER OBSTACLE I’VE OVERCOME AND HOW: Mike: Learning to sell homes and remodeling during the worst housing economy our country has faced comes to mind. I have quickly discovered that to be successful, you must listen to the needs of your clients and deliver a product that creates value in their lives. Also, have thick skin for all the “nos” that come your way. Monica: That’s got to be a toss-up between starting a business with no money and locating my spine. Sales, design and hunger all start to wear on a person. “No, I’m going to work with another company,” and, “I’m not really sure what I don’t like about the design, but I’ll know it when I see it,” start to gnaw at you when you’re living on peanut butter and pretzels. I was running around trying to make everyone happy when I realized it wasn’t about happiness; it’s about results. When my spine straightened and my skin thickened, I started dining on hamburgers.
A FAVORITE RECENT PROJECT: Mike: My Core 20 group is organizing a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club. On Oct. 2 we are having The Sausage Festival on the deck of Flat Branch Home Loans office downtown from 4 to 7 p.m. Planning these types of events with our group is a great excuse for us to have a lot of fun and still help our community. By the way, if you need tickets, let me know. Monica: All of them? We recently started on a website for the Community Foundation of Central Missouri. Roger, the foundation representative, is super cool. He stops by our office and makes us laugh. Marie, our designer at MayeCreate, had a great grasp on their creative vision and really nailed it on the first design.
FAMILY: We currently have two dogs, a Lab named Maybe and a Pointer name Roxie, and a feisty cat named June. We’re working to even the ratio of tails to non-tails in the household and are expecting our first child this December. Panic is starting to kick in; thankfully everyone we meet gives us free advice —  even if we don’t ask for it.
WHAT TACTICS DO YOU USE TO BALANCE WORKPLACE AND FAMILY DEMANDS: Mike: We both are pretty social people, so we have to be careful to not overbook ourselves. My favorite tactic we use is one weekend a month, we close the doors, turn off the cell phones and have a weekend alone. We might do a house project or simply watch movies, but it is great being together. Monica: Cell phones, snacks, date night, craft days and bringing the dogs to work. Ask again in January; I’m sure I’ll be full of free advice then!
WHAT WE DO FOR FUN: Mike: Together we love going floating, camping, hiking, digging holes in the backyard (Monica’s way to describe gardening) and doing pretty much anything outdoors. Personally, I enjoy fishing, bicycling, golf and watching football. Monica: I read excessively and create trails of craft messes in every room of our house while Mike golfs or watches football. I enjoy walking and running the canines as well as taking them out for public appearances in semi-appropriate locales.
FAVORITE PLACE IN COLUMBIA: Mike: A tailgate on an MU football Saturday. Monica: Restaurants or bars that aren’t weirded out by my furry canine friends.
ACCOMPLISHMENT I’M MOST PROUD OF: Mike: Making Columbia my home. After I finished with school, almost everyone I knew moved from town. It was lonely for a few years, but since then I’ve managed to meet so many great people that I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon. Monica: Not making the cheerleading squad my junior year of high school. It might seem odd to feel like that was an accomplishment, but by not achieving my childhood goal of making the squad, it opened a whole door of opportunity that would have gone unexplored. Instead of cheering I participated in FFA, public speaking competitions, showed cattle, ran cross country, took graphic design classes and was given an opportunity to start on the long journey of recovery from failure through self discovery.
MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THAT I: Monica: Secretly wish we have a girl. Mike: I’m secretly wishing we have a boy.