Melissa Volk (Gotcha Covered North Twin Cities)

Melissa Volk is the owner of Gotcha Covered North Twin Cities, a window treatment company that specializes in residential and commercial projects.

“Where did you grow up?” I ask Melissa, a question that is fairly customary during my interview process.

She tells me New Brighton. 

“I enjoyed it,” she mentions, cautiously, so I laugh.

“No, I enjoyed it,” she assures me. “I’m the oldest of four kids.”

In addition to adorning windows, Melissa also likes hockey, so much so that in 2013 she began coaching the Andover girl’s varsity team.

During her stint as head coach of the Huskies, she has won ten section championships and two state titles, but despite the success she has had on the ice, her position as coach hasn’t necessarily become easier.

“Why is it hard to coach girl’s hockey?” I ask, a leading question that is intended to be playful, but every time I turn on the recorder, my inquiries seem to get worse.

Maybe I’m expecting more vulnerability than most people want to give.

“It’s high school girls, so you’re dealing with all the inner workings of the relationships of high school,” Melissa says.

Off the ice, business ownership is nothing new for Volk and her husband, Luke.

The two came into their Gotcha Covered venture with 20 years of business acumen between them.

Luke had an irrigation business and also managed assisted living homes, and Melissa ran a hockey training enterprise.

“But we’re meant for more,” Melissa says, not arrogantly, but internally she knew that she and Luke could ascend beyond their current circumstances.

“It’s not like we weren’t happy with what we were doing. We had a comfortable lifestyle, but we wanted to be in charge of our own success.”

I recently learned that if a cat is full, it won’t hunt for mice.

Complacency sets in, but while the cat enjoys the fulfilled nature of its stomach, mice run amok, and chaos ensues.

Applying that to human beings, there is only so much creature comforts that one can relish before the mind and soul yearn to once again tangle with struggle.

“There is a ceiling with comfortability,” Melissa insists, the implication being that she had already reached a zenith of sorts, only for her repressed ambitions to eventually come back with a vengeance.

Again, the human condition needs adversity (at least in a manageable sense) in order to thrive.  

It sounds counterintuitive, but imagine if Melissa had won a hockey state championship every year.

In a way, she would never evolve as a coach because it’s in those deflating defeats where character is built and resiliency is forged.

“The best successes you have come from a struggle, from overcoming adversity,” she reiterates.

When she and Luke began this quest of enhancing the interior aesthetic of windows, they knew building the company would require physical effort and mental fortitude.

“What have you learned about yourself in the last 6-8 months?” I ask, the sound of Mediterranean salads being tossed in the background while we sit inside Crisp & Green during its frenetic lunch rush.

Melissa then pauses, perhaps because she has not yet been asked to evaluate the Gotcha Covered journey in such a way.

“Understanding how important a positive mindset is,” the friendly and stoic hockey coach tells me.

“If you want to achieve something, you have to believe that you can actually do it.”

Her words mirror something Gretzky might say to an aspiring Bantam player.

“You can’t be thinking of ways why your business isn’t going to work, or even comparing yourself to other companies who are more successful,” she then adds, layering her response with more depth.

“You need to stay in your lane and really believe that you can do it.”

My mom once told me that everyone has one book in them, meaning we all could conceivably pen a novel about the events of our lives.

“In that sense, could everyone be a business owner?” I ask Melissa.

“Absolutely not,” she responds emphatically before chuckling.

“Too many people actually want to be comfortable. In our country, it’s more about getting enough money so that you’re comfortable, versus continually pursuing achievement.”

If I’ve learned anything over the last seven years of interviewing and writing about business owners, it’s that the hyper-successful are more driven than that old Zamboni at ice rinks.

Entrepreneurs at the highest level don’t do what they do simply for the money.

Yes, millions or even billions of dollars are probably nice to have, but it’s more so about individual development and trying to accomplish goals that only seem impossible to the uncommitted and undisciplined.

That being said, I won’t guess as to what the end goal looks like for Melissa, but in the present, her aim is to deliver an exceptional customer service experience when clients hire her for window treatments.

“Everyone is going to say customer service, but we really take the time to get to know our clients and their needs,” Melissa proclaims.

“It’s not a transactional type of appointment. Our goal is to come into your home and make your space better.”

With each window treatment job she executes, a seed is planted, and then one customer becomes two, which then becomes a project for someone’s cousin the city over, which might later lead to that new development cropping up in Andover being completely outfitted in window treatments thanks to Melissa and Gotcha Covered.

No one possesses that elusive crystal ball, but we do know that effective systems and processes yield rewards as the business owner evolves and continually brings value to the free market.

If you’re considering updating the window treatments in your home, Melissa shares that you can expect to spend around 2-3% of the value of your home.  

“You can totally find stuff below that, and you can definitely go above that as well,” she explains, the options so endless that my brain would overload trying to articulate them all to you as the reader.

“Everything depends on the amount of windows, the size of the windows, and then the actual type of window treatments.”

It’s at this point that I challenge Melissa, hoping to get a less formulaic answer, and one more rooted at her core.

“Why should someone call you?” I blankly ask.  

“They should call us because they know that we lead with integrity,” she confidently replies, and if I’ve done my job as a writer, then integrity should have already jumped off your screen and afforded social proof to the kind, amiable, and trustworthy Melissa.

Looking ahead, Melissa is strategically cultivating partnerships with interior designers, contractors, remodelers, and window suppliers.

It’s all part of the long-term vision, where bills are paid today, but a self-sustaining entity is established in the coming years.

Says Melissa:

“We would probably like a few people working under us as well, but they would be people who lead just like us.” QS

**

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