She’s helped steer companies like Nike, Gap and MiniLuxe, Inc. — an ethical beauty brand— to impressive strategic growth and streamlined operations. She totally gets teamwork and leadership, but not the stuffy kind: The kind that team members can really buy into. And have fun with.
Halfway through her second year as president of Magnolia, Zoe Krislock is focusing on the future of the beloved lifestyle brand that put Waco in the world spotlight just over a decade ago. She sat down recently with WACOAN writer Susan Bean Aycock to talk about vision, intention, making space for meaningful connection — and of course, working with Chip and Jo.
The Magnolia brand resonates so deeply with people. How do you explain that?
Jo makes life look simple. Her life is not simple as an entrepreneur and businesswoman with five kids, but the things she takes time to slow down for and care about are simple. I think the Magnolia vision gives you permission to have a moment with friends and family and be around things that feel comfortable.
I think it goes back to Chip and Jo being authentic people — they do the work and live the life. When founders are authentic to their envisioned brand, it has heart and soul.
How does that feeling of connection tie into emphasizing Magnolia’s story?
Chip and Jo built this great brand, and as we get new people into the company — myself included — how do we make sure we’re living up to that brand every day? We don’t want those stories to go away and we want to keep adding to them.
We’re in a season where we’re spending time telling the Magnolia story from the beginning, to really connect with it and feel it. When you’re making decisions by the brand, you’re making the right decisions.
Well, Joanna is a wonderful storyteller and that’s a big part of her appeal.
There’s a story behind everything; we just have to ask for it. I make a point of asking for the ‘why.’ Why do we have this business and where did it come from? Why do we do something this way? There’s always a reason it was created that way.
Chip and Jo opened up the Little Shop on Bosque in 2003, while continuing their construction business in Waco. There’s before “Fixer Upper” and there’s after “Fixer Upper,” which began in 2013. So 12 years ago, everything catapulted. Prior to that, the Little Shop was where people could enjoy Jo’s picks, and it’s opened up again. [The Little Shop on Bosque is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.] It was just too good of a memory to leave shut. We have end-of-season things there, “slightly imperfect” items and new products. It’s a little bit of surprise and delight, but we also really lean into telling the beginning of Magnolia at that location.
Do people all over the world really know about Magnolia and Waco?
I have a vast assortment of friends from across the country and all over the world from living and working in different places, and literally everybody knows about Magnolia! I’ve lived in Tokyo, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Toronto, Boston, Chicago, D.C. and Florida. But in my year-and-a-half here, I’ve had more people visit me in Waco than collectively in all of those other places!
So you last lived and worked in Boston. How are you finding Waco?
I was a suburban kid who wanted to live the dream of being a big-city person, but then I was just kind of done with it and tired of the cold. This has been a wonderful move. Waco is a town where you’re just welcomed right away and anybody would help you if you need it. I’ve lived everywhere, and I love to tell people how great this company and city are.
Tell me about your position as president of Magnolia. Why did you take this job?
Officially, the higher-level portion of my job is strategic planning for the company and overseeing all the business entities so they’re run properly and producing to the goals we’ve set, and that the team and culture are happy and embracing Magnolia’s values.
One of the things that’s so wonderful about this job is that it allows me to be good at the things I’ve done but also have the opportunity to learn new things.
How does that translate into your job duties?
[Magnolia was] in a space where Chip and Jo had overseen the company as a start-up. A lot of people who joined the company early on had grown with the company as it tried new businesses and did new things. In the beginning, people did the best they could with each new idea, and then the idea grew fast and the business grew even faster. But now it’s like, ‘There are probably easier ways to do this than the way it was built in the beginning.’
Now there are more than five businesses, and it’s time to go from startup mentality to more of a company mentality. Right now I’m taking each part of the business and making sure that it’s operationalized to industry standard and as efficient as it could be. We’re streamlining things.
So your title could really be ‘Streamliner in Chief?’
That’s right. That’s not gonna be my job forever, but that’s been good for this first year-and-a-half. You just go piece by piece. If you make processes more efficient and easier, that generally ends up saving on operating costs. But my first thing has been simplicity.
How do you put a cohesive corporate-culture umbrella over diverse businesses?
The beautiful part about Magnolia is that Chip and Jo’s authentic approach is finding what people want and need. Everything comes from their creation, so it all fits together naturally.
The people who work for Magnolia believe in its vision: To make space for meaningful moments in life and at home. It’s not about a couch or a dish. It’s taking time for your family and friends and appreciating life.
Your resume shows a pretty impressive skill set across diverse companies. What prepared you for this job?
I’ve been fortunate in that all the companies I’ve worked for have given me many different opportunities. In my last job [as president and CEO for five years] with MiniLuxe, I worked at a 10-year-old startup with the founder. I learned how to appreciate vision and how it comes to life, which is so important to every founder. My job is to bring their vision to life, but also to make sure the business can operate sustainably. Great visionaries have great ideas, but they’re usually not the ones to make things work day-in and day-out.
Chip and Jo have been very gracious in letting me run the business with their vision and their expectations. In the areas I was less familiar with, they’ve given me the grace to learn and let people teach me. We have a lot of smart people in this company. You don’t have to know everything — you just have to have the capacity to listen. Somebody has to be president and that’s me. I love my job, but I’m not a hierarchy person. It’s more important for me to be part of Team Magnolia than to be the president.
What specific strengths do you bring to the table?
I worked for Nike’s direct-to-consumer group — retail — which was a very new journey for them in growing stores across the globe. That really taught me how to bring a business to life.
Operations and processes are pretty standard, whatever the industry. You just have to know how to find best practices in that industry. I’ve also brought in a lot of network connections. When I don’t know something, I have no problem phoning a friend or an ex-coworker, an expert in an area where I’m not.
What about this position is a good fit for you?
I was an advertising major in college [BA from San José State University and an MBA from the University of California’s Marshall School of Business] and I liked the idea of art. I’ve always been pretty creative, but art doesn’t have organization — I also like to have processes and be organized. I found retail to be right up my alley, because I could be creative as a buyer or create a seasonal plan, but then I had the discipline of business structure.
I think the balance of my right and left brain has served me well, because I’m organized but I like creative solutions, and I like to problem-solve. I use my creativity in trying to solve problems in unique ways.
You’re charged with doubling Magnolia’s considerable revenues over the next three years.
Yes, let’s get a big goal out there. Doubling revenues in three years comes about through strategic growth, which right now is focused on food and our brand Magnolia Table. The restaurant’s called Magnolia Table, the cookbooks are called Magnolia Table, the cooking shows are called Magnolia Table. If we keep linking things, people will get the idea that, ‘Oh, that’s food and food represents all good things.’ We really think that will be a key driver to us getting to our double volume.
Your resume lists ‘translating founder vision and investor expectations into scalable, profitable business models with strong brand identity and customer loyalty by tangible strategies.’ How do you unpack that?
Chip and Jo never wanted to grow the company just for the sake of growing it — there has to be intention and purpose. There are lots of things Magnolia could do to grow and evolve. I think my role is to ask the questions, ‘What do Chip and Jo really find interesting? What do they feel in their hearts?’
Being a part of that is doing what feels good for the founders and what they believe in. Chip and Jo are very good at asking, ‘What do you guys think?’ They’re not saying it’s their way or the highway. It’s give-and-take, but the number-one priority is that we bring their vision to life with the Magnolia expectation, with intention. Any forward move always has to check those boxes before we commit to it.
Talk to me about guiding brand expansion and transformation.
It goes back to the question, ‘What should we do? What could we do; how do we want to grow?’ We just introduced Magnolia Table as a brand, and we believe food is going to be a real catalyst for our growth over the next few years. We’ve added ‘Cook’ to our webpage; we have our cookbooks and our cooking show, and we really feel like part of making space for people is at the table. Families and communities have great times when they eat together.
Over the next 18 months, we’re going to be announcing a lot of exciting stuff in our growth categories, but we’re not quite ready to make specific announcements yet.
You’ve lived and worked around the world. What do those experiences add to your toolbox?
In almost every instance when I worked overseas, the company was in a strategic growth initiative. I worked abroad to develop the team, open stores and create infrastructure, but it was really about establishing the brand in a foreign country.
When I lived in Tokyo, I was at dinner one night with some other expats and nobody knew how to ask for the check. When you live abroad and don’t speak the language, the power of observation is critical. I wish I lived as observantly all the time as I did in foreign countries!
How do you unify strategy over the diverse businesses under the Magnolia umbrella?
It all goes back to unified vision. We’re a creative group — maybe every business lead still wants to create their own vision. I’m like, ‘No, no: This is the vision.’ How do you do your part of the vision: Making space for meaningful moments in life and at home? How are you going to make sure your team meets that goal? If you’re in food, same vision. If you’re in real estate, same vision. It’s keeping everyone grounded in that core and then having them do the creative work around it.
How do you develop team leadership in all the different areas?
We believe in the importance of leaders developing other leaders — we’re not just trying to build a business; we put in a lot of effort into training programs. Being a brand in this city, we have the important task of developing future leaders. I take that quite seriously, and it’s what I’ve enjoyed in all my other jobs where I’ve had the opportunity to build a lot of leaders for different companies. We still do everything the ‘Magnolia way,’ which is a little loose, a little fun and super-kind and caring. We’re not gonna button it up too tight; we’re just gonna make it easier, right?
Is it a challenge rethinking operational efficiency when things have been done a certain way in the past?
Because the business had grown so organically, there were people here with incredible passion and incredible desire to deliver the vision, but they weren’t industry experts per se. A lot of things in business are shared from industry. So when you explain [the streamlined version], they’re like, ‘Oh — I don’t have to take those 10 steps; I could just take two steps.’ I think the team appreciates easier processes that we can make happen quickly. That’s agility.
How do you integrate customer feedback into strategic planning?
I read every single piece of fan mail. About month six, I said, ‘I’ve never heard anything positive or negative. Where does mail go?’ So I read every letter now, maybe for an hour each day. Their notes are so heartfelt. It’s a good part of my day, and not something I ever begrudge doing.
One key takeaway this year was noticing the many wedding invitations and baby announcements we get — people even write notes inside of them. They tell us they’ve been watching our show and can’t wait to start decorating their first home or dressing their baby. It’s important to us that people consider us friends or even family. Should we do a wedding registry? It gets you thinking, right?
One lady had an idea for an article in the Magnolia Journal. Her question was, ‘Jo always creates great ideas from the beginning. But how do you create something with things you already have?’ She had collected stationary for years and now has letter-writing parties once a month to create a moment around them with friends and family.
How has Magnolia become such a thing that groups make matching T-shirts to come here?
Every time I’m over at 1928 — the hotel and restaurants — I see at least one set of female family members and friends. This brand has connected generations together, which is amazing. On the wedding invitations we get, oftentimes it’ll say something like, ‘I grew up watching “Fixer Upper” with my mom or grandmother.’ How cool is that, to bring generations together or have a reason for friends to spend a weekend together?
I love to hang out at the Silos, because people are so happy there. Parents don’t have to really worry about their kids. Kids meet other kids. People talk to strangers. It’s clean, it’s nice and everybody is just having so much fun and they’re happy. How privileged we are to be able to give people a space to be happy and enjoy a day together.
What do you hope to accomplish as Magnolia’s president?
I hope to help Magnolia grow in a really intentional and authentic way. Before I even interviewed for this job, I had heard about Magnolia. Everybody in retail was trying to figure out what customers wanted. I think Chip and Jo figured out that retail is a whole experience. You want to shop, you want to eat. How can we keep being a new, fresh idea? That’s one thing I want to accomplish. Another thing I want to accomplish is helping them build the team and the company for longevity.
I hesitate to ask, but people will want to know: What’s it like working with Chip and Jo?
They’re exactly like they are on TV. He wants to take a good idea and run with it and make it fun. She’s so thoughtful and kind, and they’re both funny and love to laugh. They really respect the people who work with them and like their teams to help them be creative. Nobody would meet them and be like, ‘Oh, I thought they would be so different.’
