What can we build when we invoke ancestral wisdom, dare to dream differently, and ask for help from fellow dream weavers?
What can we build when we invoke ancestral wisdom, dare to dream differently, and ask for help from fellow dream weavers?
Village wealth. Creative spaces. Dignity. Community capacity. Safety. Pride. Belonging. Infinite possibilities.
For Wanona Satcher, the seeds of the future she’s building stretch back generations, tracing a familial lineage that has shaped her in profound and enduring ways.
Building is in Wanona’s blood. Her grandfather helped lay the railways upon which the United States was built. Her grandmother, Pearl, opened the door to metaphysics, psychology and ways of understanding the world that extended beyond conventional education.
“She was protesting systems to tear them down. I grew into the space of building new systems up.”
When Wanona founded Makher’s Studio in 2017, her vision for the modular design firm was rooted in building sustainable, equitable places for people from all walks of life to live, work, learn and age in their own communities.
Small spaces constructed from recycled shipping containers became the conduit for Wanona’s expansive dreams.
And over the past 9 years, she’s navigated countless hurdles to bring her vision of prosilient communities into reality.
“It’s been really hard on many levels.”
Those watching from the sidelines will marvel at the creativity Wanona has harnessed to scale up her Atlanta-based company through alternative funding paths, such as real estate acquisition, landing large institutional contracts, and tapping into the Coralus network.
In truth, it’s been an arduous journey filled with ‘nos’ from venture capitalists and setbacks that tested her perseverance time and time again.
“Ultimately, I had to accept that I wasn’t attracting VC funding and lean into not wanting or needing to fit into that world…It was about seeing the abundance of opportunities rather than the scarcity, which is one of the biggest lessons I learned from Coralus. That has really shifted my perspective on how to approach relationships and also how to create boundaries.”
The pearls of wisdom and power of meditation that her grandmother passed down have also been integral to the inner work Wanona needed to do as she sought to grow both her company and her own identity as a purpose-driven entrepreneur.
“There were times when I didn’t feel I had anything of value yet to be able to negotiate or leverage my worth. Eventually, I came to realize that wasn’t true, that I actually had more to bargain with than I thought.”
Working in a traditionally male-dominated industry as a Black woman business owner, Wanona has also had to contend with open hostility and pricing discrimination.
“I’ve shown up at construction sites where I’ve had to hide in my husband’s pick-up truck while he got a fair quote for a product, and then I’d come out to answer a question he didn’t have the answer to, and suddenly the quote would go up.”
The Atlanta-based business has faced plenty of other obstacles over the past nine years, from political upheaval to volatile supply chains, opportunities that didn’t come to fruition quickly enough, clients who weren’t a good fit, and more.
Through it all, Coralus has served not just as a funder but as a sounding board, a support network, and a teacher.
“We wouldn’t be where we are without the support of Coralus and the Coralus network, and it’s not just about money. A lot of times it’s about technical support, and technical doesn’t always mean technology. It also can mean personal support and space for personal development. You don’t usually see that in financing spaces. So to me it’s very innovative…Coralus has taught me how to be creative around the kind of funding and growth that we want.”
Coralus has also been a sacred mirror of reflection for Wanona on her journey as a founder.
“I don’t always take the time to step back and look at the big picture… Coralus has been the only sort of outlet for these kinds of conversations with founders. Having that listening, that ear from the Coralus perspective is so necessary and is very rare.”
And in Coralus, Wanona has found kindred spirits who care as deeply as she does about building genuine relationships.
At Makher’s Studio, this has translated into being deliberate about the clients she works with, treating her staff as an extension of family, learning how to set boundaries, and, of course, designing spaces that foster connections between people. Through Makher’s Studio, Wanona has also been able to bring her husband on as Director of Operations and recently hired her mother as an executive assistant.
Reflecting on where Makher’s Studio is as it heads towards its 10th year in business, Wanona is excited for the next phase of the social enterprise’s growth.
The company has moved from start-up phase to a more mature growth phase. They have over $6 million in contracts and are getting set to move to a permanent company-owned campus. They’ve shifted from 1- to 2-unit projects to the ‘missing middle ’24- to 50-unit mixed-use/multifamily developments. The projects Makher’s Studio has partnered on range from veteran’s housing to a commercial kitchen supporting Black food entrepreneurs and countless other community-affirming initiatives.
Makher’s Studio is also expanding its impact beyond Atlanta. It’s a certified modular builder in Georgia and North Carolina with aspirations to expand nationwide. They’ve forged partnerships with a broad range of clients including municipalities, community development nonprofits, land trusts, and banks seeking smaller community-footprint branches.
Casting her gaze forward, Wanona remains dedicated to building a future where neighbourhoods are spaces of creation, factories are places of learning, and belonging is embedded into the fabric of design.
“I call it the ‘three-stool’ model. It’s a safe space with three parts – a foundry, a factory, and a forum.”
In other words…
A sanctuary buzzing with cultural expression, creativity, innovation, knowledge-sharing, wellness, and joy.
A place where dignity, inclusion, a sense of belonging, and empowerment are woven into the design.
A public hub where community is forged by hands and hearts working together. Where dreams for the future are articulated, embraced, and pursued with a deep knowing that they can be realized.
Circling back on her journey as an entrepreneurial changemaker, Wanona has come to realize that it’s not about being the best or having everything you need; it’s about choosing, every single day, to keep following your vision, just like her grandparents did and just as those who follow her will.
“There’s always going to be somebody smarter than you, faster than you, even maybe wealthier than you. And if you know all of those things, you’re bound by nothing.”