Georgia Ezra did not set out to build a tile company. Georgia is an interior architect, and while designing a little meat, wine and cheese bar in Albert Park she wanted a Mexican hacienda feel but couldn’t find the tiles anywhere in Australia. So she sourced them from Mexico, photographed them on a whim, and sent the picture to a contact list she had been quietly collecting. Within a day she had three big orders. That was the start of Tiles of Ezra. No business plan, no spreadsheet, no grand strategy.
I have known Georgia for around twelve years, since I laid her cement and terracotta samples on the floor of my warehouse. She’s now the director of Studio Ezra, the founder and CEO of Tiles of Ezra, and the star of Design Down Under, all while leading a team of thirteen and raising two kids. She is, quite simply, a powerhouse.
What I love about her origin story is how little fear was in it. As she says, "I had nothing to lose. I had no idea I was building a tile company." The established tile companies knew how hard handmade products are to work with, so they would not touch them. Georgia did not know that yet, so she jumped. She cold called up to fifty stores a day and heard never, never, never. A lot of those same businesses now scramble to import the very products she pioneered.
We also got into something close to my heart: spending where it counts. Georgia's bugbear is false economy, skimping on the taps, tiles and hard surfaces you cannot easily change later. "You don't save money buying a cheap tap when you put it into beautiful stone, then have to change it, pay the plumber, recut the hole." Spend properly on the bones. Well made product outlives your children.
Then there is the honest bit most people never admit. Running a business is hard. Georgia is refreshingly open that some days the bandwidth is simply gone, that the buck ends with her, and that she is finally learning to stop instead of pushing through. Rest is not a failure. Getting help is not a failure. If you are building anything of your own, that part of the conversation alone is worth your time.
There is so much more in the full episode, curating a brand, going global, and the book she has just released with Hardie Grant and a wonderful story about following your heart and doing what you love.
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Conversations Under Construction is the podcast from By R.A., where we talk to the designers, makers and renovators shaping how we live. Subscribe and follow along.
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