She Builds Show: Recent Episodes
Stefanie Olson
Welcome to the She Builds Show with host Stefanie Olson. Stefanie is a licensed general contractor who builds new construction, renovates, and designs your vision. Today more than ever, we need raw authentic women who are willing to rise above society's norms, break those glass ceilings and encourage each other to boldly build the life we were meant to live. The She Builds podcast is a place where you can ask questions about business finances, flipping, remodels new construction, as well as feature women who are crushing it, and women who are struggling, because this is a non-judgmental zone of authentic conversations that lead to powerful insights that hopefully will make you think deeply about your choices and make you consider what you're building.
ABOUT STACI MARTINEZ:
Staci Martinez is a passionate resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she leads a fulfilling and diverse life. With three daughters and a loving husband, Staci is dedicated to nurturing her family while pursuing her entrepreneurial ventures.
Staci is proud to be a part-time fitness coach, sharing her knowledge and motivation to help others achieve their fitness goals. In addition to her fitness coaching, Staci also runs two businesses. Alongside her husband, she owns a wood flooring business where they work together and provide exceptional craftsmanship. Staci's expertise extends beyond wood flooring as she has also embarked on her own small business welding, creating beautiful metal art pieces and occasionally crafting custom furniture for a local home builder.
While chasing her dream of becoming a full-time metal sculptor, Staci remains committed to giving back to her community. As the Secretary of The Hooded Heroes Foundation, she dedicates her time to offering support and assistance to struggling welding students by helping them obtain the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) for their education. She finds tremendous satisfaction in this role, knowing that she is making a difference in the lives of aspiring welders.
Staci's love for welding goes beyond her personal pursuits. She actively participates in local high school weld competitions as a judge, eager to share her experiences and inspire the younger generation. Speaking with students about her craft brings her great joy and fulfillment.
In summary, Staci Martinez embodies the spirit of determination, entrepreneurship, and giving back. With her businesses, volunteer work, and dedication to the welding trade, she is a true role model making a positive impact in her community and beyond.
CONNECT WITH STACI:
• Website: https://issuu.com/siouxfallswoman/docs/sfw_jj23-issuu
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staci-martinez-2a241622a
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/605_shieldmaiden
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT MEGAN AND ERIK HAMMOND:
Meet Megan and Erik Hammond, the dynamic duo devoted to helping families achieve their goals. Having successfully built multiple businesses over the past 14 years, while homeschooling their three daughters, Megan and Erik know what it takes to balance family life and professional success. They have a passion for empowering moms to take control of their lives, achieve their dreams, and become the best versions of themselves.
Together, they wrote “The Happy Mom Handbook,” a comprehensive guide for moms seeking to create happiness and success in their lives through practical advice, real-life examples, and easy-to-follow tips. Join Megan and Erik on their mission to help families thrive, and discover the happiness that you deserve.
CONNECT WITH MEGAN AND ERIK:
• Website: https://www.happymomhandbook.com/free-a
• Website: https://www.journeytofulfillment.com/inner-circle-jtf
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT JENNY CROZIER:
Jenny Crozier is a woman of many hats. She is a wife, a mom, a builder, an influencer, a safety compliance manager, a tradeswoman, a writer, and a true Jill of all trades. She is from Mount Pleasant, Utah, Jenny is a proud co-owner of Crozier Construction Services LLC where she does general contracting with her husband on residential new construction, additions and remodels. She works as a safety compliance manager for Delta Valley Trucking, ensuring that the construction projects are safe for everyone involved.
She is a member of the Utah Valley Home Builders Association, the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), Utah PWB, Utah WBC, Empowering Women In Industry, and is an ambassador The Crew Collaborative.
Jenny received the 2022 Outstanding Women’s Award with the Women’s Builders Council, the Hamlet Homes Female Builder Grant, Star Trucker of the Quarter, and has been nominated for several other awards throughout her career including Trades Woman of the 2023 year with Empowering Women in Industry.
Jenny comes from a long line of hard-working blue-collar generations, and her love for the trades is deeply rooted in her family history. She's a fierce advocate for women in the trades, and she uses her platform to showcase the awesomeness of trade careers to future generations.
In addition to the the construction and trucking industries, Jenny is an accomplished author, ambassador, and empowered woman who's passionate about empowering the next generation to find careers in the trades through fun tools and products. She's a gal in the construction and trucking world, building doors and breaking barriers in male-dominated industries.
Jenny recently published the children’s book: Jenny a Jill of all Trades, I am a Welder. The first in a series highlighting job opportunities in skilled trades. She believes in shining a positive light and excitement on hard-working blue-collar opportunities.
In her spare time, Jenny loves to work with fun tools and products, create woodworking projects, and share her knowledge with others through writing and speaking engagements. She's a true Renaissance woman who's not afraid to get her hands dirty and make things happen. She loves working in both the construction and trucking industries where she continues to break barriers and recruit women and up and coming generations into skilled trades jobs.
CONNECT WITH JENNY:
• Website: https://www.jennyajillofalltrades.com
• Website: https://thejaneschool.org/jenny-crozier
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecommittedbuilder
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-crozier-69923a24
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT JAIME KINROSS:
Meet Jamie Kinross, a 26-year-old interior decorator, content creator, and home décor social media influencer based in the beautiful state of Utah. Jamie and her husband share a passion for home décor and together, they love doing various projects to personalize their builder-grade home.
Aside from her love for interior design, Jamie also enjoys the great outdoors and spending quality time with her family, including her adorable dogs. She takes pride in creating engaging and inspiring content for her followers on various social media platforms, sharing her insights, tips, and tricks to help people create spaces they will love.
With her creativity and a keen eye for design, Jamie has quickly become a trusted name in the world of interior decorating and home décor. Her infectious passion for all things home design has earned her a large following, and she continues to inspire many through her content.
Jamie's dedication to her craft and her friendly personality makes her a joy to work with. She is always up for new projects, collaborations, and partnerships that align with her values of quality, creativity, and authenticity.
CONNECT WITH JAIME:
• Website: https://linktr.ee/Jamielee_designs
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamielee_designs
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT COLEEN BRENNAN:
Colleen Brennan is a builder living and working out in Malibu, California. Originally from Chicago, where she started and owned an all female construction company Bad Bitch Builders, employing over 30 women. For 13 years she has been remodeling, and building homes. Currently in California she works on a crew of 20 men for Phelps Design Company. She has built/remodeled over six homes in two years with Phelps design. Many homes and clients will hire Colleen separately for her knowledge and abilities “hardening homes” a newer field which involves taking properties at risk of burning in California fires, making the changes necessary to eliminate dangers around and on property prone to fire.
Colleen has also been involved part time with So Cal Fire Supply installing mass scale fire suppression systems on large properties. This company has successfully saved thousands of acres during one of the largest brush fires in southern California history the Woolsey fire. These automatic suppression systems change the game when it comes to fighting fire out in California, they have the proof to back it up.
Out of all the trades that Colleen has become skilled in, Tig, Mig Welding, Carpentry rough and finish, as well as roofing and demolition are her favorites. She has become skilled in concrete, masonry, framing, iron working, installing doors and windows, insulation, drywall, tiling, electrical, landscaping, trenching, siding, etc... She loves it all.
She hopes to start a trades school out here as well as continue to grow her company out here in southern California hiring more women in construction.
CONNECT WITH COLEEN:
• Website: https://badbitchbuilder.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badbitchbuilders
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT CHAR MILLER-KING:
Char Miller-King is a passionate woodshop teacher, who has found her calling in the world of woodworking and craftsmanship. Her love for woodwork began during her undergrad when she needed a bed. Char turned a simple bed platform into an exquisite piece of furniture, with intricate details and expensive vibes. It was the best feeling in the world to know that she built something with her own hands, which she could enjoy every night. She slept on that bed for the next five years.
Char grew up in sunny California, where she would spend her days running on the sandy beaches and enjoying the laidback lifestyle. However, she eventually left and landed in Georgia. During college, she met an intelligent and sophisticated man, whom she decided to create a happily ever after with. They have since spawned four adorable children, with the youngest of the brood being twins. With her experiences as a woodworker and maker, Char brings a wealth of knowledge to her students. She has a keen eye for detail and enjoys teaching others how to develop their skills, so they too can create beautiful and functional pieces of furniture. When she's not working, Char can be found enjoying time with her family.
CONNECT WITH CHAR:
• Website: https://www.thewoodenmaven.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodenmaven
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT ANDREA MARTIN:
Andrea Martin, a fall protection specialist at 3M, has built her expertise in the safety industry over the course of 18 years. She is highly regarded for her ability to assist customers in developing safety solutions for complex applications. One aspect of her work that brings her immense satisfaction is the resemblance between fall protection solutions and puzzles, where each piece must seamlessly fit together. Taking into account factors such as the product, application, and safety standards, Andrea is dedicated to finding the optimal solution that ensures the safety of workers and provides thorough training on product usage, handling, and maintenance. Operating within a predominantly male-dominated industry, Andrea actively addresses and overcomes gender bias on a daily basis. She emphasizes the significance of well-fitting safety gear for individuals of all body types. As a mentor to aspiring women in the industrial and safety fields, she serves as an inspiration for those interested in pursuing safety-related roles beyond the confines of a site manager.
CONNECT WITH ANDREA:
• Website: https://premium.thesafetymag.com/ca-top-women-in-safety-andrea-martin
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safety_chick
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fallspecialist
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT MONICA MIRAGLILO:
Aside from her professional pursuits, Monica is also a devoted mom and wife, a savvy entrepreneur, a skilled renovator, and a model with an eye for style. She approaches life with a positive attitude and takes it one day at a time, always enjoying simple pleasures like good food and good company. Monica is an inspiration to women everywhere who are looking to break down barriers and achieve their goals.
CONNECT WITH MONICA:
• Website: https://linktr.ee/stylewmonica
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlbuild
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylewmonica/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-miraglilo
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT ERIN STETZER:
President of Stetzer Builders Inc.
Erin Stetzer is the President of Stetzer Builders Inc, a Houston-based construction company that aims to be the most service-driven builder in the industry. Erin is a highly skilled and experienced professional who has spent her entire career in the construction industry. She has a passion for creating superior products and providing a superior client experience.
Erin is a mom, and she shares her experiences on her YouTube channel with the hashtag #MomTruths. She talks not just about being a mom, but also about being a woman in the construction industry. Erin believes that it's important to share her experiences and insights to help other women who may be considering a career in construction.
Erin is a strong believer in the power of teamwork and collaboration. She knows that success in the construction industry requires a team effort, and she works closely with her team to ensure that every project is completed to the highest standards. Her dedication to her work and her clients is evident in everything she does.
In her free time, Erin enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves exploring new things and sharing it.
Overall, Erin Stetzer is a dynamic and accomplished professional who is making a significant impact in the construction industry. Her commitment to excellence and her dedication to her clients make her a true leader.
CONNECT WITH ERIN:
• Website: https://www.stetzerbuilders.com/about
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/stetzerbuilders?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-stetzer-1a54975
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT KELLY IRELAND:
Owner TPG Mechanical LLC
Mother of 2, 1 of 10, 4th generation plumber.
Kelly first started 7 years in large-scale commercial plumbing with Philadelphia Plumbers Union Local 690 before getting a masters license and starting a residential service business in 2020.
Kicked off with the help of Covid, she worked to expand her plumbing knowledge and transfer her love of large-scale plumbing jobs towards the intimate journey of helping individuals and families keep their homes sanitary and flowing properly.
CONNECT WITH KELLY:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075780617774
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tpgmechanical
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinyplumbergirl
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-ireland-tpg
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT CHLOE SMITH:
CEO and Co-Founder of Mercator AI
Chloe Smith is the CEO and Co-founder of Mercator AI, a construction intelligence platform that delivers project insights for general contractors, engineering firms, real estate firms, and building project manufacturers. Prior to launching Mercator, Chloe developed market intelligence tools for business developers in the marketing and advertising space, where she helped reduce time spent on gap analyses.
With a strong background in data strategy, big data, AI, and data monetization, Chloe was able to leverage her expertise to create Mercator. Today, Mercator analyzes millions of construction data activities—from conception to post-construction—to enable early project detection, uncover risk signals and surface competitive and client insights in real-time.
Together with her Co-founder, Hogan Lee, who has a background in building high performing multi-disciplinary teams, Chloe is building a company that is at the forefront of industry intelligence and innovation.
CONNECT WITH CHLOE:
• Website: https://www.steelpines.com
• Website: https://www.stackct.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steelpines
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcie-burroughs-8b592279
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcieinthesticks
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT DARCIE BURROUGHS:
Content Marketing Specialist at STACK Construction Technologies and Owner at Steel Pines
Darcie Burroughs is the Content Marketing Specialist at STACK Construction Technologies. She also owns a General Contracting and Portable Sawmill business in Edinburg, NY with her husband and is busy raising a three-year-old boy, and wrangling nine chickens, two horses, and a dog.
Darcie is passionate about advocating for more women in construction, spreading the good word about the benefits of construction technology in a mostly laggard industry, and incorporating her professional life with her personal business.
CONNECT WITH DARCIE:
• Website: https://www.steelpines.com
• Website: https://www.stackct.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steelpines
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darcie-burroughs-8b592279
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcieinthesticks
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT SINEAD MOLLOY:
Sinead Molloy has worked in the construction industry for over 10 years operating various different machines such as telehandlers, forklifts and cranes and after returning from Australia she was disappointed to see the lack of other women on the building site. She said while she was working in Australia it had become very common for females to be involved in the construction industry, particularly on the driving side with some female only driving firms finding a lot of success.
Sinead said: “I was working in Australia for ten years driving machines, came back here and noticed that girls were not doing it here. I had a friend with a company out there with only female drivers and they found a lot of success with some big firms eventually growing to prefer them than others. “In Belfast there are very few women on the ground at sites, with them mainly being involved in health and safety or engineering. There is a stigma with females on site, but I know a lot of girls here who would be very hands on, they just don’t know where to start or where to go to get into the industry.”
She Built It NI, is a new training academy and recruitment company tailored for women who have a passion for construction and who may have lacked the confidence to pursue their dream. We support and strengthen the success of women in the construction industry, providing bespoke training and helping them to gain the skills, knowledge and tools to enter and progress in the sector and to fulfil their full potential. We assist contractors and clients to recruit highly motivated, trained and skilled women, helping to reduce skills gaps and promote gender equality in construction.
CONNECT WITH SINEAD:
• Website: https://shebuiltitni.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuiltitni
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/she-built-it-ni
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/she_built_it_ni_
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sinead_molloy
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT PIPER STROMATT:
Director of Design, Founder, Partner
A graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, class of 2015 (Interior Design & Architecture). As a highschool freshman, Piper started practicing interior design, at just fifteen years old, participating in two years of classes on the subject. Completing Design I & II, she knew her future field would be Interior Design.
Piper says you can typically find her with her husband Tyler and black Lab, Miller. Her hobbies include working out, music, travel, and quality time with friends and family. Piper considers clients family by the end of every design process, and the meaningful relationships created with each of them hold a special place in her heart.
CONNECT WITH PIPER:
• Website: https://boutiquelivingbycurate.com
• Website: https://www.hartstudiochatt.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/curate-custom-homes
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curate_boutiqueliving
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piper_thebuildingblonde
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT JENNAE LEISEY:
I’m Jennae (pronounced Jen – NAY) – I have been a part of this crazy real estate industry for nearly fifteen years, lending has been my absolute favorite piece of the real estate puzzle. I started out in mortgage operations where cultivating relationships with underwriters, processors, and closers became my strength in getting loans through efficiently.
Those relationships really shaped my understanding of guidelines and how to make loans go through the system faster!
A few years ago my husband and I started talking about this CRAZY idea of buying land and living on the property with our family. Well that crazy idea became a reality last year and we have been having so much fun ever since! When we started thinking about this a few years ago we realized how hard it was to find lenders who offered construction financing. All I could find were sketchy websites and local banks where their loan officers had no real experience making helpful decisions that would affect our build. I decided it was time to be the help that I needed, but for others. So through that, JL Lends was born! I am SO excited to help you finance your dreams whether it be a renovation of an existing home, a beautiful custom home or an ADU add on.
Let me know how I can help and let’s build!
CONNECT WITH JENNAE:
• Website: https://www.jllends.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Jennaeleisey
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT ROSA SANTIAGO ZIMMERMAN:
RSZ Design + Development is a woman-owned, Latina owned firm, and at the helm of our firm, you will find the creative, multi-lingual, and grit-driven Founder and CEO, Rosa Santiago Zimmerman. Her firm is empowered by the diversity, dependability, and talents of outstanding partnerships with our suppliers, vendors, and contractors. Coupled with an outstanding internal team with world-class experience, our firm stands in a lane of its own.
The RSZ team share 25 years of professional experience and collectively contributes a wealth of confidence and knowledge to every awarded project.
RSZ Design + Development creates, develops, and builds with the intentional purpose of creating a WORLD our client’s will love to live in!
CONNECT WITH ROSA:
• Website: https://www.rszdesigndevelopment.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rszdesigndevelopment
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rszdesigndevelopment
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_hGj-_nouGxdE15CcXQDrw
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT CASSI NICOLAUS CROWLEY:
Owner, New Gen
Born in Northern California, my childhood was punctuated by the farming seasons. From spring bloom to fall harvest, I grew up amongst the trees, the equipment, and the elements. From a young age, I watched my father grow his almond and walnut operation, always willing to take on a new challenge.
Truthfully, I had no intention of taking over the farm. For me, I have always been avid studier and lover of people. That passion led me to concentrate most of my professional pursuits in community-focused non-profits, and even a Master of Social Work degree. However, I realized that the farm had so much to give to the local community – sustenance, education, employment, security, and land conservation. So, for me, NicNut Farms is fulfilling a dream to serve others and preserve our ancient agricultural connection with the soil. Life these days is mostly family, farm, and coffee. It’s a good life.
CONNECT WITH CASSI:
• Website: https://nicnutfarms.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicnutfarms
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicnutfarms
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT JULIE LAUGHTON:
As a graduate of Iowa State University, she studied Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Mechanical Engineering and Interior Design. After graduating with a degree in Design, she moved to New York City where she spent five years working for two different architectural firms and top five developers in Manhattan. Properties included: Phillip Milstein's Windsor Court, Liberty Court and Normandy Court, Lefrak Property's Newport City, Landau Development's 990 Avenue of the Americas, Zeckendorf Development’s Zeckendorf Towers, J.I. Sopher's the Monarch and Astor Terrace, Bank of America's 5th Avenue Corporate Offices, Citibank's Park Avenue Corporate Offices, David Webb Jewelry on Park Avenue, Weinberg Law Offices, Rizzo Law Offices and the historical Friars Club.
When opportunity arose, Julie relocated to Los Angeles and quickly found her way to Laguna Beach. After adding Certified Custom Kitchen and Bath design to her resume, it was time to round out her credentials to include being a licensed General Contractor. Julie's vast expertise and experience is demonstrated through her portfolio. Her unique hands-on process and attention to detail have made her a favorite among homeowners who value a stress-free process, meticulous attention to detail and a flare for retaining the essence of your dream home.
CONNECT WITH JULIE:
• Website: https://www.julielaughton.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julielaughtondesignbuild
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JulieLaughtonDB
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/julie-laughton-design-build
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julielaughtondb
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT CHELSEA HUSUM:
Chelsea Husum owns and operates American GPR & Coring in Denver, CO which provides core drilling and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) services. She loves being involved in the thriving construction industry throughout Denver and Colorado and is passionate about her growing company and team.
Chelsea is proud to sit on the Board of Directors for STEMblazers, Women of Asphalt and the Castle Rock Economic Development Council. She is actively involved in the industry to help promote, inform and encourage the women. She was awarded the Up & Coming Award from the American Subcontractors Association of Colorado at the October 2022 Gala.
She enjoys personal development, travel, and spending time camping and boating with her two young sons and husband. She loves to spend her free time outdoors and be active with family and friends.
CONNECT WITH CHELSEA:
• Website: https://americangprco.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-husum
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseahusum
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• The first half of the book tells a story of three people and it's so engaging and it really hooks you. The second half of the book shares the principles of how you can own your morning and elevate your life. My biggest takeaway is that will power is a muscle, and if we don't exercise it, it gets flabby, I whole-heartedly agree. If we eat chocolate every time are weak, little mind desires and we don't practice the difficult task of saying no, the more we give in to our willpower muscle, the more we give in to our will power... The muscle actually atrophies. It gets weak. The same is true of the opposite, the more we say No, the more our muscle grows, I am absolutely obsessed with this concept right now because it gives me hope, it gives you hope that anyone can change... We are not genetically programmed to be failures, to not be morning people, we are not people who have to give in to every weak thought, we actually have the ability to increase our will power by simply exercising our willpower. (01:56)
• Robin Sharma calls it the 20-20-20 formula for your victory hour. So in my calendar, at 5 AM, my appointment is titled victory hour, I love seeing that in my calendar, so the 20-20-20 formula is broken down into 20-minute sections of that first victory hour from 5 to 6 AM. The first 20 minutes is sweaty exercise, you rise at 4:45 and you start your exercise precisely at 5:00 AM. I get up, I put on my workout clothes, and I hop on my Peloton for 20 minutes. The concept is that there are so many amazing feel good brain chemicals released during the sweaty 20 minutes that you actually feel completely different at 5:20 AM then you did at 5:00 AM. Your mental state changes, and I've actually experienced this first hand, I'm tired and I don't want to get up, but after my 20-minute ride where I sweat, my mind and body feel completely different, try it. (03:44)
• To think, to ponder, to understand yourself better. During this time, I meditate and I journal, my practice lately is just to keep my body still, I have heard that a body that cannot sit still is a reflection of the status of your mind, so when I go to meditate and all I want to do is stretch or move, it just gives me insight that there's growth still for me to continue on the road. So I sit still and I breathe, I repeat my mantra and I quite my mind, and I believe that the health of your mind determines the health of your life. So, I do my best to rid my mind of all negative thinking and to speak life and truth over myself. It's a beautiful 20 minutes. The final 20 minutes from 5:40 to 6 o'clock is what Robin titles growth. This 20 minutes is for expanding your knowledge, for reading, for listening to a podcast, for learning something new. I use this time to read. It's a time for you to pour into your mind to learn a new skill, to finish the book that you have never had the time to read. (05:14)
• Now, here's the catch, you have to do it for 66 days. You cannot do this for five days and then stop, you cannot change a habit and have it reach the point of automaticity until you've conquered it for 66 days. So, buy a calendar and write a V over every day that you claim your morning, a V for victory. I know you can do this, I want to see you change. If you want accountability and you want to join The 5 AM Club, send me a message on Instagram @shebuilds.homes, I'd love to push you to become the person you want to be. Download The 5 AM Club or buy it on Amazon, Go to the bookstore. (07:06)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT SUNITA RITESH:
Sunita Ritesh believes a building and design process should be enjoyable and a trustful ride. Even though the nature of this business is a roller coaster ride, her zest to keep her clients' peace of mind and experience first and as uncomplicated as possible, has prompted her to develop excellent processes and communication methods for her company. After taking a break for family and being a stay at home mom for about 12 years, Sunita started her Interior Design Studio in 2019. In the year 2021 the company diversified into building and construction. Being a wife and mother, Sunita's core of her life is her family. She puts this same passion of family first into her client's projects and homes.
For all the years of operation, Sunita has earned client's for her company solely based on word of mouth and client referrals, which she believes is a testimony to the quality of work her company provides. When she is not building or designing you will find Sunita with a book or writing something herself. She is an avid traveler and loves to explore architecture and designs all over the world. She also believes in sisterhood and supporting other woman owned businesses in whatever ways she can. Giving and being involved in the community work is personally and professionally an important criteria for Sunita and her company.
CONNECT WITH SUNITA:
• Website: https://mechkithh.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mechkithhinteriors
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sunita-ritesh
•Twitter: https://twitter.com/_sunitaritesh
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mechkithh_designs_and_decor
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT KELLER HAYES:
Program Director, Transportation and Construction Girl™
Keller has spent a lifetime representing, supporting and understanding women and girls. Keller holds a minor in Women’s Studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Keller built the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce (CWCC) to the largest women’s chamber in the country. And, she has 15 years in the construction and transportation industry. She has consulted for the US Department of Transportation, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Utah Department of Transportation and the North Dakota Department of Transportation to provide technical assistance to women owned and minority owned companies.
In 2016, Keller looked at the representation of women in transportation and construction. She decided more needed to be done and created Transportation & Construction GIRL. Transportation and Construction GIRL is a pioneering effort in the transportation and construction industry to fill a void in workforce and provide sustainable careers for young women. This past September, Transportation & Construction GIRL Day had 1000 attendees. Six hundred girls came from 30 different schools to experience 50 interactive exhibits and make connections in this industry. One girl left saying, “Thanks for talking to us. I might want to have a job like you.”
Keller combines mentoring, shadowing days, and events to open up the transportation & construction industry to young women. One graduate said, “Your work is inspiring and has an impact on people far greater than you’ll ever know.”
Today there is not only Transportation and Construction GIRL Day, there is also a video library – Superstar Women in Transportation & Construction - of women in the industry that young GIRLS can visit and listen to over 57 women in the industry on how they got started and advice they would give. It is a 24/7 opportunity to “See it to Be it.” Several weeks in the summer, Transportation & Construction GIRL provides Career Weeks for GIRLs. Over one week, girls – ranging from 13 to 20 years old – make five stops to engage with women, ask questions and tour work sites. Each company puts together a day long insight into their company and into the industry.
Both U.S. Representative Diana DeGette and U.S. Representative Scott McInnis recognized her with a U.S. Congressional Tribute. The Tribute acknowledged: “As a result of her leadership, business women have become a more powerful force in our city and our state." July 15, 2004 was named “Keller Hayes Day in Denver” by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. The proclamation said “Keller Hayes is a role model to other women, encouraging them to achieve more than they thought was possible.”
CONNECT WITH KELLER:
• Website: https://constructiongirl.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TransportationConstructionGIRL
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keller-hayes
•YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtGF-keE3_ib2YNq9XbmIA
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
0:01 Welcome to the she build show, I'm your host, Stefanie Olson, a licensed general contractor who builds new construction, renovates and designs your vision today.
0:12 More than ever we need raw, authentic women who are willing to rise above society's norms, break those glass ceilings and encourage each other to boldly build the life we were meant to live.
0:24 So honey, what are you building?
0:27 Welcome to the she build show And happy, happy new year 2023.
0:33 I am so incredibly grateful to see this year to have a new fresh start.
0:39 I just can't tell you how incredible it feels to have a season allow for you to restart something in your life or to give you new, fresh perspective.
0:51 I really feel that way about January.
0:54 I think November and December were stressful.
0:58 We had some incredible time off with my family and I really checked out and I think I realized how much I needed that.
1:07 It had been a lot that was going on and I sat down and I really reflected on what I want to change in 2023.
1:17 Like, what am I struggling with, what is not working, what do I need to do better?
1:22 How do I need to grow and I've just really set some goals for myself that I want to share with you.
1:29 The first thing I do when I am starting a new year is I reflect back on last year and every single month, I take gratitude photos so I take a gratitude photo every day.
1:43 But then I compile it into a monthly little photo collage, then I print them out and I put them in my journal and I sat down with my family and I showed them all of the pictures for every month last year just to remind them how much life they lived, what went on in 2022.
2:03 It's just something that I love that a photo captures all of the memories because as soon as you see that picture, it's like bam! Yes, I remember that!
2:13 I remember when you know my daughter sold her lamb at the fair or I remember when we went to Hawaii or oh my gosh, you remember when we went to Florida and it was five million degrees and awful and we just had a good time going around the table talking about the last year, you know when I started reflecting and then looking back and then also trying to move forward, I start with a word and a mantra and I get this guidance from Pamela Crim and the big life mentoring program, She really teaches you how to come up with your word in mantra.
2:45 My word this year is momentum and I'm gonna share my mantra with you for 2023.
2:53 Here we go.
2:55 I will create consistent momentum in my life. I will prioritize my body mind and soul so that stress leaves my body, wake up early, love my family, momentum and health, wealth and freedom, let's go.
3:11 So that's my mantra and why did I choose those specific words momentum to me is the small things that you do daily that add up and I need to be more consistent with my body mind and soul.
3:30 And when, I mean my body mind and soul is, I haven't been taking care of the way that I want to take care of my body, I've been far too stressed out and I don't feel as connected spiritually.
3:44 So I want there to be a daily reminder because I say my mantra out loud every day every morning, like it is on my to do list.
3:51 Like I have to remind myself of the commitment that I made.
3:55 So I want to create momentum with those things.
3:59 It's not like, oh someday I will far out there change the way that I am, you know spiritually connected.
4:06 It's no, I want to create momentum in those things.
4:09 To me that means daily things that I'm going to do on a daily basis that is going to take care of my body, mind and soul and I really wanted the word stress and leave my body to be in my mantra because I feel like stress and overwhelm is an option.
4:29 Like it's not something that I have to take on overwhelmed.
4:32 It's not something that I have to be, I really feel like it is created in your mind and I think my mind and the pathway to like overwhelming stress in my mind is like a freaking ginormous Grand Canyon Valley, like the thought and the pathway is so set and so deep that I just immediately go to stress and overwhelm and there's not this, it's okay, this isn't stressful, I can get it done of course I can handle this and there's not a way of that, I feel reconnected to myself and balanced and calm.
5:07 I get so outside of myself and so stressed out that I really want the word stressed and overwhelmed to be a choice in my life.
5:15 Yeah, I'm choosing to be stressed right now, just like I'm choosing not to be stressed right now and so I want to be conscious of the momentum I make towards that goal.
5:26 I want that Grand Canyon valley of that neural pathway of that habit of that thought to shrink and to dry up and to be recreated or replaced with a different one and so I want to be really conscious of the state of my stress, doe's that makes sense? It's like sometimes I just live in that stress all the time that I'm not even conscious of it until my husband's like you're crazy right now and I'm like, what I am? What are you talking about? And like I didn't realize it until I took the time off at Christmas and I was like, well I was found really, really, really tight and there was way too much on my plate so things that I'm trying to implement around that is because I am a people pleaser and I do not want to make anyone unhappy ever, I will say yes to things I shouldn't say yes to and so what I'm trying to do is implement a way for me to not feel pressured to say yes and for me that if I have an inquiry of a new client or somebody that needs me to go look look at a job or needs my attention or needs my time, that my assistant is scheduling that because she can say this is when she's available and she doesn't feel bad or feel the need to fit her in or make her schedule, you know, twist around backwards to fit that person in and stress yourself out.
6:53 She's like, she's free on this Thursday in February.
6:57 I just needed to be disconnected from that because I think I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to wanting to make everybody happy and then I've left nothing for my family, I've left nothing to take care of my home and to be there for my kids and my husband.
7:15 The other thing in my mantra is to wake up early and love my family.
7:20 To me waking up early means like success to me, I don't know, not success, but personal balance, that's probably a better word, personal balance for me, like it just works for me, it works for me when I wake up early versus when I don't wake up early, I feel so stress and overwhelm and like I'm behind, when I don't wake up early now granted, like on the weekends or days off, like I sleep in, it's not like a, you know, pedal to the metal every single day of my life, but when I have a lot of things going on during the day that need to get done, say, you know, most of the time my kids are up at 6:45am we're out the door at 7:30am. Say I don't get up till 6:30, like lunches, breakfast, I've gotten zero quiet time.
8:09 I didn't journal, I didn't read, I didn't check in with my mantra and my daily goals.
8:15 It's just chaos for me, internally, it may not seem like that on the outside, but internally I don't feel balanced and so waking up early means balance for me, it means like coming back to myself, checking in, it means dealing with that stress planning my day, knowing what's up ahead.
8:34 I wanted that to be a part of my mantra that yeah, waking up early equals like happy Stefanie and I need to be consistent with that and I want to be reminded daily that that is something that I have found that works for me. And the second part of that wake up, really love my family. And to me love my family just means that I'm very intentional with them and I've set aside time in my schedule for both of my kids each week to do something special with them. Wednesdays are just play with Trey day, like from 3 to 5 Sonora goes to gymnastics, I just sit and I have nothing on my calendar and I say Trey, what do you want to do?
9:16 You want to go to the park? You want to go ride bikes? It has to be something active.
9:20 We agreed that, him and I. Then on Thursdays Sonora and I want to ride horses together and it's like, I want to love my family well. I want to be there for them. And we also decided that we have a family dinner night during the week, it's hard for us to sit down for dinner and on Tuesday nights nobody really has anything going on. And I want to have a sit down dinner with my family because even though it can be overwhelming to get dinner on the table to get everybody sitting down, once we're down and we're sitting and we're eating, we talk to each other, right?
9:56 We always share our highs and lows.
9:59 It's a time for us to connect and I don't want that to be once a month.
10:03 I don't want that to be every other month.
10:05 I want that to be weekly.
10:06 I want my kids to know what's going on in my life.
10:08 I want to know what's going on in their life and when we're honest with them about how we're feeling about what's going on in our lives, like they're able to relate and understand that like we're not just these like separate organisms existing together.
10:21 We all need to take care of each other and if something's going on with somebody like we want to know as a family, the last part of it is momentum and health, wealth and freedom.
10:32 My focus this year really is, as you saw earlier, is my health really.
10:38 I just feel like my stress and my body and my soul in my mind have not been cared for in the best possible way I want to focus on passive income.
10:47 That is 100% my and my husband's goal this year is to like, our goal is to increase our Passive income by $5,000 per month. That is our goal. And however we need to get there, we're going to get there.
11:00 We signed up for wealth ability, which is a if you and your husband or you and your partner struggle with communicating about money and are in a place where you want to move forward with planning your retirement, planning your wealth strategy, planning your legacy, wealth ability is going to be the path for you.
11:21 And so we signed up for that because we're just really like my husband is turning 50 on Saturday and we want to focus on making sure that like we are thinking about it, we're having conversations about it and we're having people guide us and we have a pathway to get there to implement and wealth ability is going to help us do that.
11:38 And then I put freedom, and for me like financial freedom, freedom in my mind, I've been doing a lot of mind work about my thoughts, thought work and like doing thought downloads and taking thoughts and re-working them so that they are the truth about who I really am, and what I want to believe about myself, and what I want to do in my life.
12:03 The last thing is always what Pamela teaches is to just like end it with a bang, like give yourself a like tiny little motivational speech at the end and exclamation and so it just ends up with let's go! To me, that is from Brooke Castillo, she is such a badass and she's always just like let's go, come on, let's go!
12:25 I love that and I love that in my life that it's like no we're not going to stay stagnant, we're not going to just wallow here, we're not going to be like dumpster trash thought, people, let's go, let's get over it, let's move on.
12:38 So that is my mantra and my focus and my intention for the year and I pray and hope that you have taken some time to think about what yours might be, and what kind of person you want to be, and what change you want to implement. Because I want to grow and I want to be better and I want to be surrounded by people who want to be like that.
13:05 I just encourage you to take time to be intentional about what you want to happen this year and make effort at moving towards that and start to create momentum in your life.
13:20 Thanks for listening to the She builds show, I so appreciate you and I'm so grateful that you're here listening.
13:28 Thanks for joining me today on the She build show, my name is Stefanie Olson. My hope is that this episode leaves you feeling empowered and ready to boldly take that step into building the life that you envision, one 12 x4 at a time. And if you can do me a quick favor, please leave me a five star review on ITunes. I get giddy over reading the reviews each week and I will choose one special person to win some She Build Swag. Make sure you add your name to the review and I'll reach out if you're the winner. Thanks again for hanging out. Be sure to visit me at the shebuildshomes.com where you can ask me questions and share with me what you're building.
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT MORGAN DAWSON:
Morgan graduated from Kent State University in 2020, receiving her BA in Construction Management. From there she moved to Washington DC, and spent two years working for a general contractor as a field engineer. She now works in Birmingham, Alabama with a real estate development firm. Some days are spent in the office, while others are out in the field. She took her personal experience and frustrations and built Dawson Workwear, a company dedicated to creating the perfect workwear for women. The female body and the demands of the job are at the forefront of every design so women can work confidently and comfortably. Morgan is proud to be at the head of a woman owned and operated company, with all products designed and manufactured in the United States.
CONNECT WITH MORGAN:
• Website: https://dawsonworkwearforher.com
• Email: dawsonworkwearforher@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morgan_dawson31
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/morgandawson31
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So this scenario with this project is bringing back grandparents with grandkids, and obviously parents with children, grown adults with their parents. And I think it meant that much to me because of the pain that I have in my heart about missing my parents so much and having them miss out on so much with my kids. And I think the depth of what it meant was because of the pain that I carry around that topic. And so for me to be able to do this for somebody else was actually really healing for me. I got to take this kitchen and this home where when the kids get dropped off at the bus, they can literally walk to grandma's house from the bus stop. They could ride bikes or the golf cart from their house to grandma and grandpa's house. And I could not be happier for their family because I used to have that with my parents where they used to be extremely close by to my kids where they could walk. And I don't have that anymore and being able to give that to both my friend, her parents and her kids, was just so meaningful to me because I value family so much. And being close by to your family is something that I will never take for granted again. (02:32)
• If you have a second, go to our Instagram page and check out the Estates Project. The kitchen just turned out beautifully. I also got to really incorporate a piece from their original home. It was a stained glass that the client had, I think, made for her mother-in-law and she had passed away. And then she had put this stained glass piece in her front door. She asked me, could you put this in my new front door? And her front door was set up with eight little windows and there were double doors and it wouldn't have worked. So I really wrapped my head around how could we incorporate this stained glass into the kitchen. And it was the day before we were supposed to turn over this project to them, and we finally got the tape lights. I wanted it illuminated. I wanted it off the wall. I wanted to be able to turn it on and off with a switch. And it got done like hours before we were supposed to turn over it to the clients. It is probably also one of the things I'm most proud of, to take the history of something that is so important to a client and kind of revamp it into this gorgeous focal point in their new kitchen. (04:21)
• I guess what I want to say for this Christmas season is that make an effort to be with your family or make an effort to thank your family for being there. Make an effort to spend time with them, to not be so busy that you can't just sit with them, because once those things are taken away from you, you really have no idea how much you'll miss them. I just want you to stop and take a moment and just hug the people that you love. Tell them Merry Christmas, because that's the best gift you could give them, is just your time and your attention and your ability to be present, not give them presents, but to talk with them and ask them questions and to show your love in a way that is intentional. And I intend to do that this Christmas with my kids. I intend to take two full weeks off and to just enjoy my family and to de-stress from the stress I've been carrying through the last few months.(05:51)
• Thank you for listening. Thank you for this beautiful year of She Builds Podcasts. This is the first full year that I've had this show going and it's one of the things I love the most of what I get to do. Because even though I'm sitting in a room by myself talking to no one, it's a way for me to process and to share and to give you maybe a glimmer of guidance or knowledge or hope. And I think for so long in my life, that piece was missing, that like depth, that importance, that creativity. You know? I'm so on all the time. So right brained, a detail oriented and never allow myself the space to see the other side of me, which is this. You know? Like just being vulnerable and sharing what I've learned and sharing what I failed at and talking to incredible women who are in the same industry, that I've got to get to know this year. And how incredible that has been for me to just be encouraged that there's other women like me and there's other women like you that can do hard things. And I'm just so impressed and so grateful and so thankful for all of you. So happy 2022 and Merry Christmas. (07:33)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
ABOUT CHRISTI POWELL:
Christi is the WBE (Women Business Enterprise) Lead supporting locations in the United States for 84 Lumber and has 27 years in the Commercial & Residential Construction field working in several key roles.
She currently serves as a Board of Director member including the NY Women Builders Council, the Skilled Trade Alliance, the LIBI Associate Board of Directors, and the Greenville Chamber Board of Advisors. She loves making a difference for women in the industry and helping women and minorities feel welcome in nontraditional careers. She holds the 2021 GWBC award for the WBE Advocate of the year and a 2021 Women of Influence Award.
Christi believes that people who are vulnerable, authentic, connected, and committed are the ones who will make a difference, no matter their industry.
CONNECT WITH CHRISTI:
• Website: http://www.fixinuptheplace.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fixinuptheplace
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixin_up_the_place
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Fixinuptheplace/_created
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So I think this is actually like a viable way to help gain more trades, more labor and to just actually have more higher level business owners. Most of the men I come across are super welcoming, kind, they're really willing to answer questions if I don't know something. I think that within this industry is a combination, the key to be successful, I think, kind of infiltrating this male-dominated industry is two things. I think it's respect, and I think it's confidence. (01:55)
• But what I've learned about men in my life, especially with my husband, is that respect for them is tied to love, just like for us. Sometimes it can be words of affirmation or touch, just spending quality time can be connected to love for Women. Respect is deeply tied to love for men, so if you disrespect them, most likely they don't feel loved. They probably won't say that, but that's what I've learned. So if I disrespected my husband, it's probably directly tied to how loved he feels. So respect is mainly their love language, and I think it's just imperative to show them respect. I have found that truth in my own relationships and have really tried to practice it within my marriage. I also see it ring true for the contractors I work with being kind, acknowledging, hard work and asking questions to someone who knows more, I never pretend to know something I don't.(04:01)
• I don't ever come across as unkind, or demeaning or belittling to any man in my life, especially my husband. We don't nag, we don't demean, we don't belittle, it doesn't work, it doesn't work in my marriage, and it sure wouldn't work in my business. And for confidence, for me, that comes through the ability to make decisions and solve problems. I always say that the one constant in this business is that you can count on their being a problem to solve, so if you don't like critical thinking and having problems to solve, then girl, this business is not for you. That's what construction is, a constant wave of problems, some large, some small. And I think I accepted that a long time ago, that most of my phone calls that I get are issues and issues I need to solve. They aren't calling to check in on me, they aren't going to ask me how my day is. They're calling to tell me that they have a problem, and my goal every time is to handle that issue in that phone call and not drag it on. (06:37)
• I think it's a really good way to practice confidence is to start making easy decisions quickly. I want to make sure that you heard me say easy. When I have something big in life, I've learned to sit with it and to pray about it, but when they're easy decisions, I don't falter, I make a decision and I move on. So, start with dinner, make it easy decision, make it quick, move on. What clothes are you're going to wear? I just begin with the small things and be confident with the decisions you make don't waiver. Once I make a decision, I don't go back, I move on. Schluter's the answer. Good, done. Didn't think about it another second, I've learned to trust myself and my abilities. And the more success you have with making decisions, the easier it will be. (08:55)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I hope today I find you well and even if I don't, I hope you take a minute to listen. I'll just start with that the last two months have been some of the hardest of my life and the last week was kind of a breaking point for me. So many things had happened and it had gone on for so long that even during my husband and I have just recently started therapy up again and I think more so just so we can communicate better. Nothing's essentially wrong. It's just, I don't ever want there to be anything wrong and if we could do better and communicate more and ensure our love, I want to commit to that. And I had a little meltdown in our session last week and the therapist immediately told me, because I was just crying like I hadn't had anybody ask me how I was doing. I haven't had a moment to express the pain, the sorrow, the sadness, the hurt that I had experienced over the last period of time and I had a moment and it just all came pouring out. (00:30)
• I've had a lot of external circumstances contribute to my inability to cope or manage or not feel overwhelmed. And so I decided on Friday that it was time for me to take this back. It was time for me to get out of this hole. I had maybe seen a bottom I hadn't seen in a long time, but it didn't mean that I couldn't see the light. And I had somebody say, you aren't in a well, you're just in a tunnel and just keep walking. The light is coming. And I'm like, you know what? They're right. I'm just going to keep walking. The light is there. I'm not stuck at the bottom of a well. It's just a little dark and I need to keep walking towards the light. And so I took my phone on Friday, and I just decided not to check my email. I decided to turn it off and just focus on my family. We had a really fun, incredible kind of family reunion celebrating both of my parents' 70th birthday party. And it was exactly what I needed. (04:03)
• And she spoke all those things that I had said to her back to me and it, it washed life over me again. And I was just so grateful for that moment because she's somebody that I hold so dear to my heart and somebody that even if we hadn't seen each other in far too long, the commitment of who we are in Christ and who we are as people remains foundationally strong. And that's what I needed to be able to see the light to guide me out of the darkness of the tunnel. And the other thing that happened, I think it was yesterday I had, you know, over the past few months, my routine, my normalness, everything that had been going on kind of been disrupted. And you know, when you feel out of control and you feel the drifting, I just was like, Stefanie, go back to the basics, get up early, even if you don't want to, because that is your time to feed your soul. That is your time that you need. And so I just got up and I walked out to the gym and I did not want to, I was exhausted. I was tired. And I just turned on the podcast that I normally listen to. And the message yesterday was about anxiety. (07:24)
• So I allowed the circumstances in my life that I am riddled with anxiety about, to be something I'm excited about. And so she just kept saying, tell yourself you're excited. And so I just screamed it. I'm like, I'm excited. I'm excited for the next chapter. I'm excited for the opportunities I've been given. I'm excited. And instead of being anxious, I just replaced it with I'm excited and walking into a room or going into the next circumstance. When I walk into my team meeting or with the people that I work with or I'm surrounded with and I'm excited for the next thing, you know what that makes them, it makes them excited and it rubs off on people and it helps them to come together and not be riddled by the anxiousness of what's coming, but to be excited. Wouldn't you rather go through life being excited than anxious about everything? And so that's my path this week is to recognize the anxiety, do the things that I know keeps me balanced and keeps me from drifting. So I went back to the basics of what keeps me healthy mentally, physically, and in my soul. (11:56)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So when we bought this house, I posted everything that I did and I got a lot of pretty positive feedback and a lot of people who were interested in it. It started with friends and family that wanted me to come do these projects, which I never really even considered as any type of career. But the first person reached out and said, Hey, can you redo my laundry room? And I was very intrigued and I was like, sure, I'll try it. And it turned out pretty darn good. So it really was, it started on social media and then the blog I started years ago started to finally get some traction and interest and people really finding images on Pinterest that they really liked and had no idea of how to make their room look like that. So they kind of asked me if I would be able to, I guess, implement it and make it make their room look the same. (06:07)
• Well, OK. My dad growing up was a contractor and he had a contracting company and he did a lot of commercial, mostly restaurants in the beginning, remodeling, and then he did residential towards the end. And as a child, very young, I used to go to his job sites with him. And I think that's when I fell in love with the process because he would bring me to whether it be just usually homes before he started. So, I got to see how it looked beforehand. He would kind of tell me the plan. He'd bring me in in the very middle of the mess when it's just a disaster and you can't possibly imagine what it's going to look like at the end. And then when the project was finished, he would bring me back later and say, like, see, this is where I told you I was going to move this here and do that there. And so seeing it from like, trying to imagine the beginning, the chaos in the middle, and then how beautiful it is in the end, I think that made a big impact on me too. (11:17)
• We have a front, I call it a sitting room. It's just like one of those bonus rooms. I'm not real sure exactly what it was supposed to be. Probably just a sitting room. And we moved in. I told my husband, I'm going to paint that wall black. And he's like, Oh, God, that'll look terrible. And I'm like, No, no, I'm going to do, I'm actually going to do the whole room. It's going to look great. He did not think it would be great. Lots of people on Instagram told me do not paint a room black. That's going to look terrible. It's going to be terrible. I finished it. And it is the most sophisticated, classy, dare I say sexy room in our house. And it is beautiful. It's so pretty. And so watching people come in and go, Oh, my God, like I've had people reach out to me and go, Hey, what color paint did you use? What sheen paint? What this? Because it turned out so good. And that was one of those times I like trusted myself and like, I'm just going to take a chance. It's just paint. You can paint over it. It's not a big deal. Right? So that's my favorite in our house. (14:05)
• Don't be afraid to try. Like I have people all the time that write to me on Instagram and say, like that room that's black. I could never. It's beautiful, but I can never. Why could you never? Why? Like it's just paint. Paint over it if you don't like it, like just try it. I understand people not wanting to buy a whole garage full of tools to do things, but the last accent wall that I did, I used trim cutters. It's a little handheld trim cutters. And it was screen trim, super thin screen trim that, I mean, it took me a while to get the measurements quite right to have them all equally spaced, but it took no time at all. And if you don't have a nail gun, you could use liquid nail. I don't know if I'd recommend it, but you could use finishing nails on a hammer. Right? Yeah. There's ways around it. For sure. I would just, in your home, it's your home, it should be your safe space. Your home is where you can try things. You can. You don't have to worry about what other people think because it's your own home. So if you have a space that is just boring and you just want to liven it up some, like just try it. Just try new things. That's all. Try new things. You're probably going to love it. (29:42)
ABOUT KELLEY ELMORE:
Kelley Elmore works full time as a practice manager for a busy anesthesia group in Florida but recently started a company doing small room renovations and accent walls. She's always had a love for DIY and started a blog to show projects that she was working on. People seemed to really like what she was doing and started asking her to make over rooms in their own homes. Fixin' Up The Place, LLC was born and it has been nonstop projects ever since! She continues to use her Instagram and blog to teach simple home improvement projects anyone can do and to inspire others to make small changes to love their home.
CONNECT WITH KELLEY:
• Website: http://www.fixinuptheplace.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fixinuptheplace
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixin_up_the_place
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Fixinuptheplace/_created
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• What's it like to be 11? Like I can recall turning 10 and thinking that was the coolest thing ever to be two digits, like I was nine and then I turned 10, and now you're in fifth grade and you're 11. What does it feel like? Can you give me... What is it you like compared to maybe being seven... When I was seven I was in second grade, and I'm older and in fifth grade.. Any difference? Do you feel the attitude coming on? You feel... No! Do you feel different? No! Describe to me what it's like to be 11. I miss... Like when you're my age, you just kind of completely forget what it's like to be a kid. Do you have a care in the world? What matters to you most right now? (01:01)
• What is most important to you about treating other people, how do you want to treat other people... What's important to you about that? Well, it's to treat people kindly. Do you feel like you treat people kindly... Yes. And is it important to you? Yeah. Okay, what if somebody's not being treated well, do you feel like you stick up for them or are you like, Oh, good luck with that? I would stand up. In what way? Give me an example. Say somebody's picking on somebody else, I would just say like, Hey, don't do that, it's important for you to feel like people... That you're a good friend. Yeah, yeah. What else is... Say something that you think you've learned about yourself in the last year. I care about other people a lot. Ok, in what way? If somebody, just like anybody, even somebody that hasn't been nice to me in the past, I help them do something. Yeah, so you have... Maybe your ability to forgive has grown? Yeah, that's good. I think that everybody deserves second and third and fourth and fifth chances because we're just never perfect and you can't just write people off unless they've completely proven to you that maybe they shouldn't be in your life. (04:06)
• Okay, what's something crazy you've done in the last week? The last a week? Yeah. I know what I've done in the last week that was crazy, that put me out of my comfort zone for sure. Well. What have you done? This morning I rode my horse at 5:00 in the morning. Yes, it was pitched black and you got up and I didn't help you. Well, barely. That is a little crazy. I don't think most 11-year-olds would get up at that hour... Wait...and ride your horse. Crazy in the last week... It's Monday Mom. What do you think mine is? Do you remember? Oh, do you remember mine? So I went and took an adult dance class. I was terrified, and I think doing terrifying things and putting yourself out of your comfort zone is something you should always strive for in life like... Yes, it scares me, and I'm going to do it anyway. I think that fear should never be something that stops you, and I was terrified to go embarrass myself, because I have not danced since before you were born, even though I did it my whole life. I went and I showed up in a room and there was 15 ladies and a teacher, and I was like, Girl hasn't grooved in a long time, and I went out there and did... And I was super proud of myself for doing something that I was terrified of doing, and so I'll always encourage you that even when you're scared... Do it anyway, right? (07:36)
• Do you get what I'm saying? That's their purpose in life is to teach you and show you the things and show you your short fuses, and show you the things that make you angry, and show you the things that make you impatient and go, Oh man, that's a glaring thing that I need to work on... Can you see it from that perspective? Rather than like, I'm angry with my brother. Any tips? It's a glaring reflection. I mean it's the thing, if you let the relationships, the close relationships in your life teach you, it will be the thing that helps you grow the most. Yeah, can you look at your brother that way instead of...? Maybe. But I think it's worthwhile and worth doing. What else would you like to tell the people of the She Build Show world? I don't know. Has anything I've done, like what She Build or like doing this show, does it make you feel empowered for you could do anything? Because that is my hope. Yea. Like in what way does anything make you feel like you can't do it, or you're like, "oh man, mom can do whatever". Yea. Is there that little tiny feeling in there? (11:48)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I had to break that news to my kids, and all I was trying to do, to kind of cheer up and lift up my daughter was tell her, let's find everything that we can be grateful for, like let's find ways where God showed up for us. And we had a kind of crazy thing happen at a different hospital and got discharged and in that moment, we were really, really, really upset, but then now with this new hospital and what we found out, we were like, Oh my gosh, God saved him from a surgery that could of been terrible for him. And so we were just trying to find all these ways to be grateful, and my daughter was just convinced that there was absolutely nothing good about what is happening now. I ended up needing to get an MRI CD and it was a crazy story, I ended up like... They were closed and I'm knocking and pounding on this door to try to get somebody to show up, and I'm literally in a ball of tears because I needed this MRI and I didn't want to have to drive back another hour and a half to where it was left. And, this lady walks out and she burns the CD for me after hours and slides it through the crack. (01:59)
• I try to tell her that if I could, just like out of all the things I know, out of all the things in the world that I've learned about business and investing in cash flow and money, and being a parent and a mother and a wife, and just taking care of my body and my home, all of the things that I invest in and all of the things that I do. I'm like, If I could only teach you this thing... That would be it. That is what I would choose to do. I wouldn't teach you how to flip the house, I wouldn't teach you how to be this or that, I would teach you how to manage your mind, I would teach you how to take care of your thoughts because... Oh my gosh, child, if you can capture that concept before you're 40, you're going to be light years ahead of me. (05:58)
• We never look inside of ourselves for the answer and really, truly everything that we want to offer to the world and add value, we already know. And we know how to be able to write down all of the ideas. I just listed off all of those things that could be inside that She Build School, and all my brain can tell me is I don't know how to do it, but I just gave you all of those things just out of an air that I want to do, so I do know! You do know. You do know, you know how you add value, and you know that you can do it and the possibility is absolutely available to you. Brooke teaches this crazy concept, which I still cannot wrap my mind around, of actually living in that time where you've achieved that goal, you've made that money, you've given that value, you've achieved it, and what does it feel like and you need to live there. I'm Stefanie and I created the She Build School. It's a massive success. I can't believe how many people I have helped, how many women now feel more empowered to take on things in their life, both personally and professionally, and just freaking taking care of crap at their house, and not feeling like they can't do something. And just, it's changed my life. So that's me just living as if it's come true. (12:20)
• We're on that road. We're on that path. I've made it, and the more you live there, it's like the dream feels more in reach and it gives you more confidence and just such a beautiful kind of journey I'm swimming through right now, you know? And I'm really trying to not completely lose myself and not completely let this dream I have dissipated because of the current circumstances of my life, with my husband and all of this doctor stuff. I haven't handled it well today, but I'm just trying to re-gather and re-focus and just went for a walk and hang out with my dogs, enjoying nature, listening to the birds and the Crickets, and re-grounding myself and go, ok, I'm going to love my husband well, I'm going to take care of him, and I'm also going to pursue my dreams and run my business and do it well, and love my kids, and take care of myself. (14:17)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I was lacking that passion that I had in school, the excitement to design, and so I started just kind of doing some of my own interior styling stuff with my roommate, and we were just posting on Instagram and we thought it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun. And then work got busy again, so of course that kind of petered out. But when I noticed layoffs were impending, I started exploring the idea of doing some freelance work or renovating my boyfriend's house at the time, and that's where I am now, I got laid off and I decided to go in, full steam ahead and renovate my house and teach people what I know about architecture. (04:12)
• Home Depot was one of the main sponsors at the Haven conference, and they have a competition every year called Orange tank, and they basically put out a pitch like, Submit your ideas for this type of project, and there are different categories for different monetary levels, like we will give you money to complete this project sort of thing. And so I entered that and I didn't win... That's okay. The connections that I made, it was virtual this year, because it was 2020, but I still managed to make some connections. I kept up with the people that were in my emails and I was like, If I'm going to make this thing work, I really need to get into it... And so every couple of months, I would just sort of email a couple of the people that I had connected with, and I eventually got my first paid collaboration with the Home Depot spring of that next year. So, less than a year later. Now, it wasn't enough to quit my job, but It was certainly enough to be like, Wow, I can do this. (11:06)
• Well, I had to kind of figure out what my priorities were... Yeah, I got to this point where I was like, I was told I needed a blog, I was told I needed a Pinterest and a Twitter and a Facebook, and it was just sort of like, Okay, well, if that's what I need. And so I just sort of started all of these things, I don't keep the blog up regularly, I'm not posting every Tuesday and Thursdays, but I have content over there and for my bigger projects, like I had a lot of questions about this coffered ceiling that I did in my entry and an epoxy table top or a counter top that I worked on. Now those... I got a ton, a ton of questions about, How did you do this? I love how you did that. Can you please talk about more about how you connected these together, and so I will then turn something like that into a blog post because that is a great way to share more details and more information that people can always refer back to. But I don't keep it up, because at a certain point, you're just running yourself too thin, you've got to put your energy where you are either most passionate about, or where you can see the most return on your efforts, and blocking is a long-term game. (20:08)
• At some point, I think one of my big goals is to be able to purchase houses, and I don't necessarily want to be a flipper because I feel like flippers have a really negative connotation; cheap, quickly done. But I see so many poorly done jobs that I want to be the one that actually does it right. Yeah, absolutely, girl! I want to be the one that gets in there and even if it costs a little bit more, I want it to actually be good for whoever ends up purchasing it, or if I decided to rent it or whatever. It's almost like I want to improve the name of the industry, change the reputation. And I don't want these cheap flippers, the cheapest materials, things not being done correctly, I want to do it right, because I want people to have nice spaces to live in. (36:55)
ABOUT MORGAN:
Morgan at Palmetto Highway is an Architect turned DIYer. She was laid off in 2020 and used that as an opportunity to start her design business and renovate her home. With her experience in architecture, she is attempting to bring her home's design vision to life and to teach her audience everything she knows so that they can do the same. She is a stubborn optimist determined to turn her current home into her dream home on a budget.
CONNECT WITH MORGAN:
• Website: https://palmettohighway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palmettohighway
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/PalmettoHighway
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I got a job and so I started doing sales for a restoration company and pretty quickly realized that this was actually something that I had an interest in, so I did that for a season. I took some training on some of the software in our industry, after that, I was like, Well, you're doing the subcontracting thing, because he was a subcontractor and I'm like, You're doing this subcontracting, and I really need to understand how the builds go together, so I want to work more one-on-one with you. And he was like, No, that's like too, but I think in his head, he's like, No, I don't really think I want you really working with me. I think I want you to have a little distance. But he got a concussion, a pretty bad concussion, like black out for God, 10 minutes, and he couldn't drive the truck and dump trailer that they needed to for the business. And he's like, Can you go pick it up? Now, a little context, I was the girl growing up that no one would let drive any equipment because they deemed me a hazard. Okay? So warning. And he knew that, he knew that my family didn't trust me with equipment. I had driven this trailer on a straight road back from Wisconsin, and I had never driven it, but I went and I picked it up and I got it home and everything was in one piece. (03:18)
• So I did a lot of things that people would necessarily do that you don't need to do to start a general contracting company. I know a lot of people will start out of their basement, or we'll just start doing sales the way that they are, we'll just do whatever... They won't necessarily do things the way that I chose to do things, we started off right away with the CRM, we started off right away buying iPads for sales guys, we started off... I had to make one of the early decisions, the one that I had to make early on was, are we going to go paper, are we going to go digital for all of our files, we went digital, because we just figured that that was more scalable. (08:26)
• One of the things that I've started to transition to in the last year, because I've realized... I'm going to start venturing into other businesses, and this business is getting to the point where I've got the managers in place that I need, and then I will start venturing into other businesses. But in order for me to do that, I needed to outsource a lot of things. So, I've outsourced my email now, my email management. But if I have an employee who's struggling, the number one thing I go to ask them, Can I see your inbox? Yes, right. And usually what's happened is they don't have a system for managing the stuff that gets in there, they don't have a way of quickly and easily sorting through what's important, what I need as a resource and what I don't, and so that it all stays there. And the important things that they need to get to, they have no method for like getting back to them, so then they're missing things because they've got 5000 things in their email. (12:54)
• So, I think there's a couple of things. One, I think you have to be willing to look at things from a different perspective than necessarily what other people are doing. Because what we have done in our company, I don't know of a single company in the space that we're in that is set up the way that we're set up to. What's the difference? So, we have our own... So many companies that work in our space have project managers that are the sales guys that also... So they'll meet with the homeowner, they'll meet with the insurance adjuster, they'll write up the estimates to send to the insurance company, they'll negotiate with the insurance company, they will do the material selection and they will be picking up materials at the end of the project and the check. What I have found was many of the people who are very good at selling are terrible at paperwork, and they are terrible with making sure that all of the pieces for production are handled well. So what that ends up resulting in for the home owner is, they don't get someone who's the best at what they do, just working on that part of that project. So when I realized that we have to have sales people, but I don't think that they should be the ones who make material selections with homeowners. (18:30)
ABOUT SARAH AHRENDT:
Sarah’s passion from an early age has been helping people. She grew up on a resort in Northern Minnesota where she learned the value of hard work and the importance of providing superior customer service. Her love of business was fueled by dinner table discussions where her parents openly discussed the inner workings of a small business.
After college with bachelors degree in Nursing from Augustana University in South Dakota Sarah worked at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale and various other locations throughout the state, however, after struggling with the hours and burn out Sarah decided that a career change was necessary.
It didn’t take long for Sarah to realize she had found her dream job. In construction Sarah was able to combine all of her strengths and passions. She was able combine her hard work ethic, background in business and customer service skills from the resort with her critical thinking skills, ability to educate and compassion from nursing.
CONNECT WITH SARAH:
• Website: https://www.ardmorconstruction.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ardmorconstruction
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ardmor-construction
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I just got done giving a speech at the Grow Tech Fest, at the Sierra Nevada Big Room in Chico. I've honestly had three of the roughest days that I've had in a while, my husband ended up in the ER locally, and then we had to go down to UC Davis to get him into the emergency room there because there's just no quick way to fix somebody's back that possibly needs surgery. And so we spent 30 hours in the emergency room, and then last night we finally got him admitted to the hospital and we just sat down and I said, Baby, I made this commitment to do this speech, I had been prepping for it for the last couple of months, I spent a lot of time on my Google slides that I actually created in Canva, practicing my speech, and I just really felt this pull of... Do I go? Honey, do I go do this commitment that I said I would... Because I don't feel comfortable leaving you. When he was in the emergency room, there was really no advocate for him, and I really wouldn't have left if he was still in the emergency room. But once we got him admitted to the hospital, he had people actually treating him like a human and caring for him, and we we're just waiting for the Neurosurgeon. And even in the midst of my husband's serious pain, and lying in the hospital, he's like, Go. You need to go. You have to go. You need to do this. You've been prepping for this. You need to go. And just the level of his selflessness and his level of commitment to me, to encourage me to do things that are scary to me that he knows that I will be good at, he was like, go. And it was like everything in me, to just even leave. (00:30)
• My daughter was like, Momma, but your anniversary, you're supposed to go to Hawaii or spend some time, and I go, Baby, don't worry, there's going to be so many more anniversaries for your daddy and I that, it's okay. Like, it's okay, we have each other and we love each other, and it's okay. And it was just a testament to our marriage and our commitment to each other, and we're not perfect, nothing's been perfect, we have a hard history, and a man, we've come really far. My level of commitment to him in this emergency situation, and then his level of commitment to me, and just encouraging me to do the speech. So I went to the Grow Tech Fest, which I really didn't know that much about it. Because my commitment this year to myself was if there was an opportunity that stretched me, that made me feel uncomfortable, that I was going to say yes. And it's really completely put me out of my comfort zone because... You know, I'm introverted, and speaking in front of the people makes me nervous, and being around a lot of people and having to talk about myself makes me extremely nervous. It makes me like barfey, I don't want to do it. But I also know that I'm going to encourage somebody and it's really not about me, it's not about how it makes me feel, it's not about any of that, it's about the people that I could potentially inspire or encourage. (03:26)
• When you become as She Builds client, you get to download your owner's portal from either your computer or your phone, you get to access the schedule, you could just see everything that we're doing. You could to look at the daily logs, which is like a requirement in our business that every client gets three daily logs per week, where they get photos uploaded in the description of what's going on in their project every few days, and they can comment on it. They can communicate with their project manager, their invoices are uploading there, and we really do use technology to make the service to the client so incredible. And that was the technology piece I was really trying to bring into my presentation. Then afterwards, after everybody went, which, these guys were just so smart and made the most incredible things, I was so impressed by them. They were like, Okay, we're going to vote and judge you, and we're going to give a prize to the winner, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, can I just leave now? That's literally how I felt. Can I just leave now? I don't want to know who wins because I'm a very sore loser and I had no idea this was a competition. so all the investors are huddling around the table, and they were deciding who was going to win. And they go, Okay, we're all done. And they start to announce it and they say they just want to give the person the award who gave the best story, who gave the best presentation, and they called my name and you guys... I don't know the last time I won anything, I think after you get out of elementary school, high school, you just don't get ribbons or awards anymore, and I got an award for the best presentation. (06:55)
• I was able to take that nugget of information from Brooke's teachings, because normally, I wouldn't have handled it that way. I just would have been swallowed up, swallowed up and consumed by all the things. It's just too much, it's just too much. It really is too much. Like my daughter called me crying yesterday because she hadn't seen mommy and daddy in three days, because we're down two hours away, it's just too much and... Yes, have you, I broke down a couple of times and had a really good cry, but I also know that we're going to be okay, it's not anything that we can't fix and move forward. And I'm just so proud of that shift in my mind, because normally I just would have swallowed up into bed and cried myself to sleep and not dealt with it. And so I just want to encourage you today, that really, it's your mindset. That changes the way you look at your circumstances. And if I could encourage you to do anything, it would be to listen to Brooke Castillo's podcast, she really teaches you how to look and think about your circumstances differently, and feel about your thoughts differently. And it is just like a work I'm going to be committed to the rest of my life, because I really think everything that we want to achieve to be, comes from the source of how you think and how you feel about what you think, and how you act about what you feel, and the results come from how you act. But it all trails back to you think. (11:23)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So before I even had the idea to do this, my background is in accounting, so I went to school... My major was accounting, then I moved on to grad school, got my MBA, concentration in Accounting and pretty much started working right away. I did that for a few years, I wasn't really loving it, but now it was like, Okay, I got my degree in this, so this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life, this is just the path that I'm on. So whether I love it or not, this is just my career now... Right? And then my husband and I, we grew up in New York, we were born and raised on Long Island. We decided after we got married, we were going to move to Texas, his parents had lived here for about 10 years, and then... So we were like, Okay, we're going to pick up and move. We're going to try something new. So after moving, I said to my husband, I don't really think I want to do accounting anymore, new state, new me. I want to figure out something else that maybe gives me a little bit more freedom that I can go fly and visit my family when I need to, or just not having to take those days off work, something that's more just based around me, a little more flexible. So I was doing all this research, what can I do? What can I do? A little soul searching. A little deep dive into what makes me happy and what I would be good at, and then I was like, You know what? Why can't I do house flipping? (01:03)
• Yeah, so first I started following people on Instagram that were real estate investors that posted little nuggets of information on their pages, I started watching a lot of YouTube videos on it, listening to podcasts, like absorbing everything that I could. I had a whole notebook that I was taking notes on everything. And then there was somebody that I came across on Instagram who did a mentorship program, and that was kind of like what brought it all together for me, everything that I had been learning. Every day my husband would go to work and I'd pull out my laptop and I would just study all day... I mean, I went through a master's program, so I know how to study. If there's one thing I could do, I studied for years, so that's pretty much what I did all day, every day. And then that last little bit of mentorship was to bring it all together, to wrap it up, bring it all home and really give me that last push to start doing it. To get out of the analysis paralysis, where you just reading, studying... How much more information can I accumulate before I feel ready to do this? At some point you just have to go. You just have to do it. (06:21)
• My husband would come from work for lunch and he's like, What did you do today? And I'm like, Oh my Gosh, I put in an offer on a house. But now it's like I do it, I just send these offers like they're nothing, but it was really funny to look back. So that first house, it was actually the second offer I ever put out to... Where was it? It happened really quick. It was in Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee. It was a cute little house, it was in pretty rough shape and had been vacant for three years... How did you find it? I found it just on Redfin, I was just zooming in on map, looking for trends, looking for a cluster of homes with a certain price point, and then maybe one or two that was super low, so I was just looking for something that stood out to me and the only reason I started looking in Memphis was actually because I had a really great conversation with this lender, like a hard money lender, that I was reaching out to all these different places to see what their terms were, and she had recommended me to an agent and Memphis, she was super helpful. (11:02)
• Yeah, so actually, this was my first one and it went on the market a month ago, so I got a handful of offers on it, but they were all creative finance offers, which I wasn't interested in taking, and that shows me that maybe they're trying to use it as a rental, and then I had a handful of Airbnb people come, and I was thinking like, hmmm... If everybody is looking at this for rental or an Airbnb, then why don't I just keep it? So I'm like, I've already taken out the hard part of how to flip the House, right? Why not just pull two birds with one stone and figure out how to Airbnb as well, which is a very good way to build wealth and cash flow and all of that good stuff. So that is where I'm at right now. I am in the process of doing a cash out refinance on... Okay, I'm just waiting for the appraisal to come back to see how much I can actually take out, which the numbers are really good, everything sells pretty high in the area, and I felt very comfortable with my assessment of it at the beginning. I also had my mentor analyze it and give me his number, and then my hard money lender on top of that, to lend on the deal, they had to tell me what they thought it was going to be worth. So I had three confirmations of this after repair value, so I'm pretty sure that after the cash out refinance, I'll be close, if not... Right on! So then you're going to... Are you going to move forward and make it into an Airbnb? (16:57)
ABOUT GIOVANNA RAMOS:
Giovanna Ramos is the owner and CEO of She Invests, a real estate investing company. She earned her MBA in accounting and worked as the Assistant Controller of a midsize company for a few years before realizing it wasn’t the right fit for her. After moving from Long Island, NY to Dallas, TX last year with her husband, she knew it was time for a change. She quit her job in accounting and decided to pursue real estate investing full time.
The focus of her company is flipping houses, she does these flips thousands of miles from where she lives. Long distance investing is a great way to find deals without limiting yourself to one particular market. Giovanna currently invests in multiple markets across the United States. She still considers herself a newbie since she started her company less than a year ago! She is learning as much a she can, growing a lot along the way, and taking it one day at a time!
Giovanna is a big believer in creating your own reality. “Your thoughts create your feelings, your feelings inspire action, and action produces your results. It’s never too late to start a new career path or learn a new skill, yet many of us put these limits on ourselves. People believe “they can’t” so they don’t but imagine living from a place of “I can” and “I will” … there would be no limits to what you can achieve!”
CONNECT WITH GIOVANNA:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/she.invests.co
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So I decided, well, actually it wasn't really my decision, my husband along with a couple of my girlfriends suggested that I start my own business and just see what happens, because then I can pick and choose. Because with new construction, there are some weeks that we were doing 16 Ground Works a day, like 16 houses all underground, that's a lot of digging and it's hard on your back when you have a slip disc. When you don't feel your best. Yeah. So it just seemed like a better idea because it's like, Oh, you know, then you can just pick and choose and do all these smaller jobs that everybody wants and put that faucet in here and there... Yeah, well, I ended up opening my own company, and there was a whole story behind that as well, trying to get the name, but I've been slammed busy since day one. It really is. Yeah, I had no idea, but I live in a fairly small town where I grew up here, everybody knows me, so it was very easy. It was an easy transition to go from working for a company to owning my own. (11:56)
• I don't know, though almost eight years ago is... Not very long ago, and women in trades was very prevalent at that time. I still grew up in a time where it wasn't. When we started roofing, I was the only female on site besides some painters or whatever, so I kind of lived through all that where you're not... Supposed to be are here, you're not in a very welcoming environment to the type of person that you are, which is a woman, plain and simple... And not just a woman, but one that's barely breaking a hundred pounds. Yeah, you're like, I'm a tiny woman. You don't fit. The mold... Exactly. When did that change for you? When did that... Because your Instagram's called The Lady Plumber, right? So when did that shift happen for you where it was like, Okay, I'm ready for people to know that I own WestCom, was there a time where you felt comfortable or what changed? Honestly, I don't even really know when that happened... I do know that there was a time... I think it was gradual. I do know what it was, it was I think when I started winning awards. (21:23)
• Definitely my partner, I call my husband, we're not married, but we've been together for 15 years now, so he... I think in some degrees, has been my biggest supporter, mostly because he just puts up with my nonsense... He hasn't kicked me out yet, so. Nothing that I would say is 100% supportive. I have some very, very good friends. Some very, very good girlfriends, and I only really started hanging out with girlfriends, I would say, since I opened the company... Not before at all. Really, I had some people that I hang out with, but I wouldn't really consider them super close friends. But now, I have a very solid group of girlfriends that I hang out with and I talked to... And a lot of us are business owners, and that's how we met was through Women in Business, something through that route. I would say that my girlfriends. A supportive business. Not that they can relate to, what I'm dealing with in construction, but it's never actually the construction part that's a problem. Yeah, no. It's never actually doing the trade parts, it's all the other parts. That's the easy part, it's everything that comes along with that, which you know, I guess they can relate, because you're dealing with bad clients and bad employees and, you know, stress. And it's all very much the same thing, very stressful. I didn't know it would be this stressful, but it is stressful. (37:31)
• I think it's also the mentality of not giving up at the first hurdle to like the 25th hurdle because they just come at you and knocked you down. I just read this book called Win the Day, and he gave this example of this bird, it's called a King Fisher, and it's one of the most highly covenant birds in terms of fishing, like it has this incredible fishing finesse, one of the best birds at fishing and catching fish out of water. And the guys sat there and watched the King Fisher try to catch a fish, and it took him 37 tries. Like the best bird catching a fish. 37, it took him 37 tries to catch a fish. That's like if you would have given up at the 36 try, you would have been one away from catching the fish, and it's like... I love that. Failure is actually... I'm just constantly trying to teach my kids that failure is the catalyst for learning. 100 percent! Things like tenacity is so necessary, that it's like, you have to be willing to solve the problems and learn and grow, because failure is for sure coming at you. (44:11)
ABOUT MARY-ANNE BOWCOTT:
Born and raised on southern Vancouver Island, was not exactly on the path for a career in the construction industry, but as her time through academics carried on, not knowing what she wanted to do post secondary took her onto a path of exploring unconventional options. It was a struggle to find employment at the time as being petite female teenager, as employers didn't exactly take her seriously. But through persistence and determination and one employer giving her the benefit of the doubt, she landed her first job in the industry as a roofing labourer. Now 17 years later, a shingle roofer, Red Seal journeyman Plumber, Class B gas fitter and successful, award winning plumbing and gas business owner, she is paving the way for young women seeking a career in the building trades, showing first hand that you can do whatever you set your mind to with a little persistence, motivation and determination.
CONNECT WITH MARY-ANNE:
• Website: https://westcomplumbing.ca
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westcomplumbing
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_ladyplumber
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-anne-bowcott-232346138
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I became a step-mother in my 20s, I was young and naïve, but I became a step-mom to the sweetest young boy. I became a parent to him before I ever had my own children, and I will say for sure that I stumbled my way through this and I probably did not handle it with the wisdom I would have handled it if I were to do it over again, knowing what I know. But you see, I grew up in a family where hard work meant everything, you never got through life being lazy or doing less. (00:53)
• I required my children to make their beds every day, and I don't just mean throw the covers up and call it a day, I teach them how to straighten their sheets and fold it down at the end of the head of the bed. I show them how their comforter goes and where to set their pillows and how to straighten everything once they're done, to look at their bed and notice if anything needs to be fixed. This isn't a type of punishment, I promise. I'm teaching them the notion, how you do anything is how you do everything. (02:52)
• I don't think I understood the phrase until I read Mark Peterson's book Win the Day. I knew I was teaching my children important things, but I didn't have the phrase to sum it up. I think this phrase, how you do anything is how you do everything also reminds me of the same, that you must be faithful in the small things to be trusted with the big things. I love this because there is no huge commitment here, there's no pressure, there is no looming mountain to climb, you wake up and you do the small things. (03:47)
• We can break it down into those small steps for ourselves and just do the small things well. That's if I'm faithful with these small things in my world, that I know that I can be trusted with the big things when they come later. They won't be scary, they won't be too big, I'll know how to handle it. So I just appreciate you that you took the time to listen today, I know this is short and sweet, but wherever you are, I want you to know how incredible you are and that you really are a blessing to this world. And girl, do the dishes and do the laundry with kindness in your heart, and do it well, do the small thing. (05:30)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Because I see what's missing from my perspective from being a builder and the people I work with, but what did you really see was missing... A lot more hands-on things with the clients, like the mood board and the 3D renderings, like photos of the end design, and here in Chico, it's just too expensive for the clients, and a lot of people in Chico don't have the software on a computer to do it... So I just kind of wanted to offer that to Chico residents. We do it all the time in class, so I thought, Why not? Right, because if you think about it, most people can't really picture what their house and what the layout of their space is gonna be from a 2D floor plan. (02:09)
• I've always been a creative a person, and in high school, I prevailed in art and science, and then once I got out of high school, I kind of realized architecture is a mixture of art and science in a really applicable Art. And I was always inspired by my dad, who was a driller, and he taught me how to draft. Every time I wanted to rearrange my room I did it with grids and the squares on the grid. I always loved doing the site visits with my dad, I loved the whole process and being outside and all the fun stuff that they do out there and hard stuff. And then lastly, I really like the end result, how you literally make something out of nothing, and you really get to physically experience the space once it's completed. (05:37)
• I really like creating the spaces and doing the creative part of the site visits and traveling are always fun and inspirational, so I would love to travel and get inspired by other architecture and then come back and see what I could do with it. And then also shopping is really fun, going into a furniture store and finding the perfect piece that a client might like, or going to the granite store and seeing all the really cool unique pieces of granite and quartz and stuff like that. Yeah, definitely. I think that's why I want to encourage so many more women to consider this industry because we are so complex as women that this industry really allows for the complexity and to kind of meet that need of... Okay, some days I really get to be creative and design and make beautiful things, and other days I get to sit at my desk and just work on something a little bit more mathematic or more detail-oriented, and then go back to being creative and then go out to the site, and if you like to get your hands dirty, there's the ability to do that too. I just love the complexity of it. (07:33)
• I feel like the system and software that are available now are one, more accessible to people like you because maybe they're not so expensive to purchase that software. But then it also just gives this better product, and I love the fact that even that you're really trying to make it affordable for people to use rendering, because I 100% agree that if a client that's just doing a simple kitchen remodel, most of the time, they're really overwhelmed by all of the decisions. The traditional interior designer is going to go in with all their swatches as things are being brought along during the construction phase, but I like the fact that it's like, let's get everything out in the open before anything even starts, and let's see what it actually looks like without having to have it created in front of you actually being built. So you can try on the blue paint color on the cabinet, you can try on the wall color, the counter top color and really visualize. (11:35)
• I'm really proud of being in this industry where it's usually mainly ran by men and it's really tough on a woman, and the things the men say is really disheartening and discouraging, and I'm just ready to... To not have it be that way? Yeah, exactly. You know what, that's why I'm here is because there's more of us than you think, and we just need to keep finding each other and rally around each other because the industry will change the more we can link arms with one another and support each other. That's like when you reached out to me, I'm like, Heck yeah, we're going to talk, yeah, we're going to communicate because the more women we can get to come and provide a beautiful service, and not by putting men down or making them feel like we're better than them, that's not the case, it's just we need diversity in every industry, and we offer something different, we offer the ability to build something and consider the way you live in it and the way you feel in it and the way it looks. (16:58)
CONNECT WITH CHASE:
Website: https://www.ccarrdesign.com
Instagram: @ccarrdesign
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So that is sort of like how it began... We started with the kitchen, I was able to do it. It turned out beautifully. I loved it, I loved the whole process, I even loved when it was demo and the space was a mess and no one in my house liked it, except for me. Yeah, because you can see what it's going to look like, right? Oh yeah, I could to see what it's going to look like, and I didn't mind living in a construction zone, even though we had... We were having babies, because not only one baby, two babies came back to back, you know? So that's how it started. So then we renovated her first house that way, we sold that one, made a lot of money and then bought our second house and so forth, and then we did it again. But then it got to the point I had no more houses to renovate. So I was like, What do I do? So we started investing in real estate in Arlington, and so we would buy... This properties had needed a lot of work, renovated them and sold them. Like we started flipping houses, and then eventually it grew into friends of mine would approach me and be like, Hey, I need to remodel a bathroom or a kitchen or whatever, can you help me? And I was like, I got you. (5:03)
• I think it's a combination of a lot of things Stefanie. Something that is a big part of my story is I became a teenage mom at the age of 18, so I had a baby as a freshman in college, and sort of like, I was very young, I was a baby with a baby, and I was introduced, I had to grow up really quickly, right? And it's sort of like a lot of people back in Nicaragua where I'm from, viewed it as this terrible, tragic thing that would happen to me... Right? In terms of my society, where I come from, I was pretty much like walking around with a scarlet letter on my chest... Yeah, an unwed teenage mom at the age of 18, but in a way, I didn't... It was hard, but I didn't view it that way, right? It was just like, in my head, failure, even back then, it was never sort of an option. (10:01)
• Absolutely, I think just empowering other people to feel like, Okay, yeah, I can do this, and that's a thing, it's like... I don't know if you've heard of Matriarchy Build... Have you? Yeah, I'm on their platform. You are too, right? Yeah, yeah, I guess, I think you are. And I just love that they're just trying to put us, people like us with the experience, in the hands of anybody that wants to be able to go, Okay, I may not feel comfortable doing this, but there's a woman that I feel connected and easy talking to, and they have the experience and knowledge, and they're willing to share that with me for a pretty nominal fee, just to buy us for a little time, an hour or a couple of hours, and help them with their project. I think it's such a beautiful and smart way to empower other women to just try things... That's so cool. (24:36)
• It's been a beautiful thing, and also with this one client that I'm talking about, she really was involved in a lot of the design process for the renovation, and you know she was really scared to make the incorrect choice on a quote on quote, whatever, tile counter top. But I was like, You need to go with your gut. It doesn't matter what your mom or your next door neighbor. Their opinion is about what's going to go in your house, like this is your house, your remodel, and you need to make your eyes happy, your eyes are the most important eyes. No one else matters. Exactly. And she took that and she ran with it, and she was having so much fun and she was making all of these bold decisions, and she wallpapered, like... Let me just give you an example, it's not generally my aesthetic, but I'm also having so much fun because it was so different from me Stephanie. Yeah. She had this powder room and she really wanted a wallpaper of old school cassette tapes, black and white. I was like, Oh my God, and we were going with this sort of modern aesthetic and we did it, we installed these old school black and white cassette tapes, and this beautiful brass mirror and like a hunter green, really modern floating vanity. Oh, wow. (29:36)
ABOUT GABRIELA NARVAEZ:
Gabby grew up surrounded by the sounds of construction and design. The loud drill of power tools and conversations between contractors were a part of her normal life in Managua, Nicaragua where her father was a civil engineer and ardent developer. For Gabriela, real estate, design, and renovation has not only been a lifelong passion but also a constant part of her daily life.
In 1999, Gabriela moved to the equally humid city of Washington, D.C. Over two decades later, and she has not left. She has found a newfound passion for the properties within the District and the ones that surround it. From the single-family colonials in Arlington to the federal-style townhouses in Georgetown, Gabriela sees potential in renovation everywhere.
Demolition, development, and design excite Gabriela. As a fully licensed general contractor, designer, and real estate developer, she strives to create spaces where families can live both beautifully and joyfully.
She currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband, three children, and their lovable poodle-mix.
CONNECT WITH GABBY:
• Website: https://www.guildpropertiesllc.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Guild-Properties-GC-House-Flipper-105667304728331
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guildproperties
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• The shopping is a big portion of it, we look at the price of the kitchen, the cabinets and the countertop, or would take up the majority of that cost... Right. So once they have that estimate, we then start show rooming, we go on a journey to find the things that they like. So second visit with American Dreamers is always in the showroom, and we kind of think of it as window shopping. Okay, so you're going to pick out what that door style looks like, the colors that you want, do you want custom colors? How custom do that you want them? Do you want them to be in the Sherman Williams pallet? We can use a code number or are you just going to bring me a Swatch or something that you found on the internet? How custom are we talking? What type of door style do you want? What kind of cabinet style do you want? We go through the whole thing. What kind of insights have you seen on Pinterest that you can't live without? (4:02)
• That is mostly the process and it is the longest process, especially because when you're looking at some sort of a CAD drawing or a 3D drawing, or something. We want it to be creative and we want people to think really in-depth about it and how it looks and what it's going to be and make edits. You know, go home, sit on it for a bit, don't just pull the trigger because we do want it to be spectacular. I have a few clients that say, Look, I only know what I know, I would like to do something different and unusual that maybe hasn't happened often or at all yet, what can we do there? And so in those instances, that gives us a chance to really be creative and there's only paper sketches and it doesn't get to go into CAD and I can't show it. (7:21)
• I think when you own a business, okay, you automatically start setting your kids up with expectations of your availability. And that's super important because we want their mindset to be that this is for them, although, that you aren't there all the time, what you're doing is building a future for them. And in order to do that, you can't be home every single day, right? And so I had the most interesting conversation, I heard amongst my kids, because I've got step kids and then I've got a daughter. Okay, so the boys were split, I have two boys, the boys were more of this belief that if you're not home all the time, then you don't love me as much. And my daughter had stepped up to bat that one day because, Brandis' youngest boy our best friends... Okay, which isn't always great to have your kids be able to team up on you, but nevertheless. And she says to him, Well, she goes, How do you think that we are going to be able to go to Disney World? And all, they call us the parents, because it's not exactly Mom and Dad, and she goes, how do you think the parents are going to afford to take us to Disney World and all these cool vacations if they don't get to work, she's like Dominic...They're out there making money so we can have nice things. (26:50)
• You can't just say, Well, I like to X, Y, and Z. Why don't we expand upon that? Okay, why do we have to focus so much on where the missteps are, because honestly, it drives us down as a whole... It does. So that has always been a really big mission of mine, it's my mission, on top of seeing more emails to be interested in construction... Right? That's always one. But yeah, I go to local tech schools and I talk about this, we want to build each other up, I said, You want to look around the room because you don't understand the person three chairs down could be a building inspector one day, right? And two chairs down, might be the foremost master carpenter in his industry and he may be looking for a job one day, and you'll have the inside scoop to scoop him up, because you know him, right? So watch what you say, try to really air on the side of being positive because it really is a reflection of our industry, not just us. (34:09)
ABOUT MORGAN KUMPFMILLER:
Morgan is an award-winning general contractor, interior designer, and the owner of American Dreamers Renovations – a boutique home construction and renovation company serving Pittsburgh, PA and surrounding communities. It’s Morgan’s mission not only to improve the construction industry through quality work and service but to build and grow the industry by inspiring women to pursue careers in trade. Morgan is rarely not working – she’s either in the field, in the office, teaching classes, doing Mom things, or speaking at industry events – during that occasional down time, she’s dreaming.
CONNECT WITH MORGAN:
• Website: https://www.americandreamersrenovations.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanDreamersRenovations
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/americandreamersrenovations
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• You cannot eat healthy three days a week and expect to look and feel how you want. You cannot work on your business one day a month and expect to meet your goals. You cannot create that invention that you have dreamt about, by only dreaming about it. You cannot write the book if you don't start with the commitment to write one page per day. Discipline over time is how your vision comes to life. My vision, I want to change the construction industry, I want women on a job site to be... No big freaking deal. I want every woman who was like me, that likes to get her hands dirty, that likes to work hard, that has never really fit in with the girly girls, to find a beautiful home in the construction industry. I no longer want construction to be a place where customers get the short end of the stick. I want people who we work for to feel listened to, to be communicated with and to enjoy the process of their remodel or their new home build. I want the door opened, so so many women can walk through it, and they are welcomed with open arms. (04:24)
• So I've ran a lot of businesses and I've done a lot of stuff that had no meaning to me, but made me a lot of money. This time though, with She Builds... I needed that to be different. I want to inspire, I want to encourage, I want to physically be the woman opening the door for the rest to walk through, I love people, I love real conversations, and I love helping you believe in yourself. I mean, don't ever come up to me and be like, Hey, how's the weather? Because I'm out, unless we're talking about real stuff, I get weird and I leave. If you have a vision, here's what I would tell you, first, write it down, make a poster, go to Michaels, get some poster board, get a white board, write it in large letters and put it on your wall where you will see it every day. Then I just want you to leave it there. Then, I want you to go to work on your discipline, if you are serious about achieving that vision, you need to grow your discipline. (6:50)
• Discipline is a muscle. The more you say no to the temptation, the stronger and easier it is to continue. Start small. When you want to grow this muscle bigger than ever, then read The 5 AM Club and do the challenge. I mean really DO IT! Really do something different. What you're doing now is not working. You're just drifting through life and girl, you are meant for more. Develop your discipline, strengthen the muscle. Then when you are strong and wild on your vision, commit to it, stay the course and believe in yourself. You, my friend, are incredible, and we all have the power within us to build something life-changing.(08:13)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So, my background was working for two really awesome agencies, one in Florida and one in Southern California. And really... Advertising was my passion. And then when I came into the family business, it was really during a major market shift, 2006, and a lot of people of that generation were choosing not to come into construction and housing because it was a recession. And really part of that is why we have a labor shortage now, it's because basically all these people who would have come into the industry didn't come into the industry, and that's exactly when I came in. And because things were going more from print to digital, that was my opportunity to rebuild Group Two into a digital marketing partner for home builders, so we're an old business with a young heart. (2:26)
• So, the group of women, there were about 10 of them in the core group that started this idea to build an all women built home in Utah. And I know your listeners have already heard about the actual build... Part of that was the group had reached out to me as a woman-owned marketing company. So, my company named it The House That She built, and we did the marketing for their project in Utah. So, all their graphics, their social media, we did some graphics about the individual women to tell their stories, and we ended up getting some national publicity through the National Association of Home Builders, so we were really a part of the build and The House That She Built. And basically how I got pulled in was actually the other general contractor, her name is Christy Allen, our dads did business together, and Stephanie is second generation as well, you see that a lot in our industry. And actually, the three of us were talking about how all of us were brought into the industry by our dads, and now we're here, and it's like, Okay, we're here now, how do we bring in more women? (4:00)
• Those women just go to work every single day and maybe they have a social media account, maybe they don't, and so there's not a whole lot of light shed on the fact that, as a younger woman or a girl, seeing them in a place that is like, Oh, I just brought my mom to work day and shared their profession, we did back in the day. But in this alternative format, I just think it's so cool and so influential to just the young community, and I love that it was like a children's book and not an adult book. You know what I mean? That was very important because as I mentioned before, of course, we all know there's a labor shortage, the labor affects the entire US economy, so there is no one in this country who is not affected by the labor shortage, and these are really in-demand jobs and their noble awesome jobs. And I think if girls don't see that these are potential careers for them at a young age, we're missing such a major opportunity. (7:09)
• I always say this, one of the things that I learned during the build of The House That She Built, is that these women who worked on this home all have different backgrounds, different education, different skill sets, but they're all so valuable to the industry. And for me, it kind of made me think like, okay, I have never framed at home, I've never done plumbing, I haven't done that, but I do have a skill set. My skill set is on the marketing side, how can I use my skill set to help the industry? So for me, being able to tell this story that elevates the women who are doing these jobs, it's like, I think that they are the superstars, and I want them be like... Whenever I tell a school, if you meet a woman who's doing plumbing, have her sign your book, that is so cool. And so for me to get to use what I am good at in a way that benefits the industry and women in the trades has been just so cool. (11:04)
ABOUT MOLLIE ELKMAN:
Mollie Elkman is owner and president of Group Two, a full-service marketing partner for home builders. She is the author of the best selling children’s book, The House That She Built, published by NAHB BuilderBooks in collaboration with The Professional Women in Building Council and NAHB’s workforce development team. She was recognized at The 2022 International Builders' Show as the National Sales and Marketing Council's (NSMC) Sales and Marketing Professional of the year. Mollie is passionate about proactively sharing the successes of those in housing in order to diversify and grow the number of people in the skilled trades. She is currently doing this through The House That She Built Patch and Charm Program for Girl Scouts of America.
CONNECT WITH MOLLIE:
• Website: https://www.grouptwo.com
• Book: https://shebuiltbook.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GroupTwoAdvertising
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grouptwoadvertising
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/group-two-advertising
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GroupTwoAdvertising
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Why is saying no so hard? I think that maybe it might have something to do with our lack of connection to ourselves, that maybe when we say yes, when we really mean No, it's because we forgot what was a yes. And I know for us, we're so used to ignoring the internal voice that we just automatically and habitually say yes, without any check-in, I'm terrible at this, it literally causes me physical pain to let someone down to disappoint them to know I didn't exceed their expectation. It will keep me up at night. (02:38)
• So here's the tip if it's not a hell yes. Then it's a no. I use this in my business all the time, and I make sure I never say yes to a project without my entire team saying hell yes, this is like a safeguard for me. If we all can't feel the excitement and it's a no... Something better will come. To write something. It always does. Opportunity is everywhere. And what you seek is seeking you. If you want the best clients, the best projects in a healthy relationship with your work, say yes to only the things that are... Hell yes. Everything else is a no... One of my favorite quotes is from Warren Buffet, 'The difference between successful people and really successful people, is that, really successful people say no to almost everything'. Good point, sir. For my personal life, I use my spouse is a protection, just like in my business, I kind of have to use my team as a protection because this is not my strongest muscle, I'm not good at it, so I have to have these extra layers of protection. (03:38)
• I think it's important to choose what we do with our time, it's such a finite resource, and I want to be intentional with every hour of my day. I want to be friends with people who breathe life into me, I want to serve this world, and I want to change it. I want to be world class, so girl, that means... No, might be appropriate. My business coach tells me, 'Good is the Thief of Great'. I want to be world class, and I don't want to settle for just good enough... Neither should you. (05:46)
• On the other side of this coin is saying Yes, taking action. Saying yes to things that maybe you really need to say yes to. My friend has a saying... 'If it scares me, then say yes'. So if she's terrified, she jumps in both feet. I love this model because so much of us coast through life, we don't take the vacation, we don't jump out of the airplane, we don't trust our gut, we don't buy the investment, we live in such a world of fear. And You know what? I'm done with fear. It's taken a lot from me, it's kept me quiet and small for far too long. Take action, say Hell yes to the things that you want to do, and then put the work in. Stay committed. Be a powerful force. I just know you're going to change the world because you want to know why? You're astonishing, nobody else has the gifts that you have, nobody else has the ideas, and the forethought and the wisdom that you have, to say YES to the things that you've been pushing aside. Say NO when it's really a NO. (06:20)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• If you're going to update the electrical in your bathroom, you need updated plugs, switches and cover plates, bathroom vent fan, cabinet hardware, vanity facet, tub, faucet and shower head combo, paint and grout colors, so that's kind of like a material and selection list is what I call it, and sub-contractors needed to do the whole job, if you just wanted to organize it and not do anymore, you need someone to do demo, plumbing, electrical tile, counters, drywall, paint and window installation. Okay, now that we have a list of both of those items, you need to design the space, selections need to be made for everything on the material list, you need to pick out your tub, your title, the paint colors, the cabinet, the counter is the window, the facets the light in the hardware, the mirrors, and then you need to order it all, so that means you have to measure and order everything associated on that list. So right now it's taking me two or three months to get windows, and if you're going to have a custom vanity made, cabinet makers are booked out just as long, don't even get me started on appliances, that's why we're doing a bathroom example. (02:50)
• If you just have some drywall patches and it needs to be painted, so two weeks is usually plenty of time for a bathroom remodel, what's really not fun is living in a house that has been demoed and then just staring at it for a month. Anybody ever done that? Like, yeah, we're going to redo our bathroom, and then you find out that the title you want is three months out, you can't get a cabinet, can't get a window, and then you just stare at that empty demo bathroom for months. So no demo. Until everything's planned. No demo until all the stars aare aligned. So most cities would require a permit for this type of remodel, and I always get a permit no matter what, it's super easy to go to your local building department and just ask about the requirements, a lot of times they just appreciate you coming in and communicating with them what you're doing rather than trying to hide it. So go down there, ask what is required, and get the permit for this process. (4:43)
• I always allow days, not hours, I don't try to cram things into multiple days because sometimes you get there and you're like, Oh, the floor is not level, or whatever the problem is, to assign a timeline to each step on your calendar and then you can see what needs to be done and how long it's going to take, and if you're going to be doing parts of it, assign your timeline to your task, and if you're using subcontractors, you need to give them a minimum, at a minimum a week's notice when you will be ready for them, Hey, the tile is going to be done on this day, we'll be ready for counters. I give my sub-contractor a minimum of two weeks, it's crazy busy where I live, and I just like to give them as much notice as possible. So if I know when the cabinets are being installed on a certain day, I notify my tile guys and give them a window of time on the schedule after cabinets, and then I also notify my counter top sub so that they have plenty of time to put the job in motion, and they always know that I've already ordered all the materials, and they don't have to worry about anything, they just go pick it up and they install it. When I'm scheduling items, the most important thing you can do is plan, everybody has commitments and schedules, and no one likes a surprise or something unplanned. (08:04)
• The work I do in the background to make sure everything runs smoothly, basically gives the impression to my sub-contractors that I respect their time and I appreciate their work, and if anyone comes to your house and they do a good job, give them donuts. I'm serious, feed them, give them a good review and recommend them and always be kind, be kind to anybody that comes into your house. Every single subcontractor talks to every other contractor, so if you treat one poorly and give them a snotty attitude, you will get ghosted because they all talk to each other, Hey, don't call that crazy lady back, that's what happens, because that floor guy is going to tell the cabinet guy. Now, with that said, this is just a little insight into how I run my jobs. This is just a tiny easy Hall bathroom. There's a lot that goes into construction, and it takes a lot of good planning to do it well, so if you're considering DIY, I hope this information has either empowered you or slap you in the face to hiring a contractor to manage the project, one or the other, you're either going to fall on one or the other side. (09:20)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So, the name of my company is Under Construction Photography. I come from five generations of iron workers, and so they're kind of my inspiration, and what got me started into shooting construction. I worked in the office of IBEW and I worked at the Office of the iron workers doing compliance. And then I was a dispatch girl for 10 and a half years, and that also gave me a really cool connection with the members as well, or the workers. I had to deal with them on kind of personal times, because I was the dues lady, they had to pay their dues, but I enjoyed it, I enjoyed getting to know the workers on those different levels and... Yeah, it's perfect, just pushed me in that direction more and more. (0:44)
• I had unfortunately lost my father 11 years ago, and his untimely passing was very tragic to me personally, because I idolized my dad a lot, and I watched him grow so much from being that worker to then being politically involved, fighting for his members. He took his oath so seriously, and so losing him tragically, unexpectedly, really, really then catapulted me into... Documentation of the workers. It was like the first job I went to, immediately, there was a couple old-timers out there, and they just started telling the stories about my dad, and I really, really enjoyed that because again, it was like, I got to see, or hear a different side of him in a way that I didn't get to experience, but these guys did, out in the field. So, it was their camaraderie, their brotherhood, I just... I don't know. Yeah, I really, really appreciated them sharing with me these stories, and that's what pushed me more and more in the direction of documenting them, listening to them, and it was like therapy for me when I first started, to kind of really hold that in and use that to just make me feel better, and they felt good too telling these stories. It was like a feel good all the way around, and I really appreciated the open arms, open doors and arms that these guys offered to me when I did come out on to the job site. (3:30)
• It was a few different things that kind of transpired in the process, and me eventually being hired, I started the sticker Challenge on Facebook, I had all these people send me their stickers, and then after that, I started creating t-shirts and I would put real photos on the back, with the members on the guys that are in the raising gang connecting the iron, and they loved to see themselves on shirts, they loved to to see themselves in general, be glorified like that. But, to have now on a piece of apparel, it was really cool. And that was kind of another direction I was thinking about going, I was just not sure on how to make money at what I do. You gotta throw somethings against the wall. Right, right, see what sticks. And the t-shirt stuff, that was really a full venture... I mean, I had a map in my room that I started pinpointing where I was selling the shirts to all across the United States and Canada, and that was really neat. But it was a long hustle and I just like... I had to borrow money to even get that started, and then I was just... I got laid off my job. And it was like, sink or swim. What are we gonna do? Well, I gotta figure this out you know, like right now. So, I borrowed money from my brother and I started the shirt, and that was really cool, but then I want to say, I was out in LA, the Sixth Street Bridge in Boyle Heights, downtown LA area, was going to be demoed and before they demoed it though, there was a rebar company out there, I want to say it was LA steel. And they were constructing these massive cages that they were going to be pile driving into the ground for the new bridge. And when I came up on this site again, I was just WOW! And it's that wow moment of what are these guys doing? These rebar cages were huge, huge! I'd never personally seen a rebar cage like that before. That was a first for me. So, the owner of that company ended up finding me, I think on Facebook, and wanting to purchase just one photo, and I think I sold it for 100 bucks or something. (12:48)
• My mission... That's a good question, is awareness to the construction industry organizing, bringing to the forefront who these people are, because it's just... I don't know, it's so emotional behind it, sorry. No, don't apologize at all, I love your passion. And that's what drives me. A lot of my decisions are emotionally made, I'm emotionally attached to my imagery, to all the work that I do in this industry, and I want people to feel how I feel about it, and I think I'm kind of weird though, because I'll drive by a job site with my daughter in the car with me, and I'll be like, I can't believe what they're doing! And she's like, you know... I think it's like a rule that children just don't think what you're doing is cool. My dad, my uncles and my grandfather, were all working in the construction industry, I didn't understand it like I do now. I didn't have the love for it then, that I do now. I loved them, but I didn't know what they were doing either. it tool me having to be exposed to it to understand the depth of the work that they're doing, and how important I felt it is. To recognize them. Absolutely. (21:11)
ABOUT TARA GARNER:
Tara Garner is the founder and creative eye behind Under Construction Photography, social media and marketing development in the construction industry. Tara knows the blue collar industry needs updated imagery and to bolster morale, she brings this to the workforce with her photographs. Tara's work is a way to connect the men and women in the blue collar industry with their communities and the rest of the world. As a social media and branding expert, Tara works with the best in the field to strengthen their brands. Tara is OSHA 10 certified and is up to date on job safety. She is also an award winning photographer and travels all over the country bringing awareness to the blue collar communities.
CONNECT WITH TARA:
• Website: https://taragarner.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCPbyTaraGarner
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ucpbytara
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taragarner81481
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Now, as you might know or may not know, I'm on a mission to try to increase my passive income, my cash flow through either fixing up properties and either holding them long-term and turning them into short-term rentals. Now, this book is written by Avery Carl, and it's super great for someone who is just wanting to put their toes into gaining knowledge about short-term rentals. So, I highly recommend it if you just kind of know nothing and you really just want to start digging deeper into, what does it look like to have a short-term rental? So, what I love even more than this book is the happy business woman behind this book, I wish I could have her on the show, so Avery, Ms. Avery, if you were listening, DME, I want you on the show. Not only did she write this book, she created what is called the short-term shop, and it's a real estate agency that only deals with investors who want to purchase short-term rentals. (01:05)
• Now they go above and beyond just being your real estate agent, once you're in escrow, and you pass your inspections and you've released your inspection contingency, you go to a meeting with her husband, who does what's called Management Monday, and they teach investors how to set up their Airbnb account, how to source local house cleaners and handyman, or handy women, and all the things that you need to get your short-term rental up and running. And they really focus on self-management of that short-term rental, they really believe that property managers really steal the profit from you, so they're teaching self-management of the type of investment to keep more money in your pocket. Ain't you smart? Like Girl, high five! (02:51)
• So, you may or may not know that I was an accountant for 10 plus years. I know traditional accounting, it's called GAP accounting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets are embedded into my psyche. But most of my life intuitively, I've done this weird cash bucket thing that my dad always just gives me a hard time about, because I have my little buckets all over the place. I have multiple bank accounts with basically no access to myself so that I could save money for various things, but not touch it, and it works. It works well for my brain, it works well for how I'm wired. That bucket is for a vacation, that bucket is for home repairs, that bucket is for college, and something else I've tried but kind of struggled with is Dave Ramsey's cash envelope system. I love the concept, and I love budgeting, but getting cash every month out of the bank is something I don't consistently do, because let's face it, we are a convenience type of society, and going to the bank every month to get cash is not super convenient. (05:21)
• He suggests five key bank accounts. Yes, five separate bank accounts. Here are the bank accounts, income, OPEX; which is your operating expenses, taxes, profit, and owners compensation. How it works in the book, which you must read to get all of the juicy details and get way more information on how he actually suggests you break this down, is that each time a deposit comes in, you have percentages that are assigned to each account, and so that money, the money that comes into the income account gets divided up by percentages into each bank account. Yes, you actually transfer the money into each bank you account. Let me give you an example. When a deposit comes in, you allocate 5% to profit, 35% to taxes, 10% to owners compensation and 50% to operating expenses. So that means you only get 50% of that deposit to spend on your expenses, and yes, you're planning for your taxes, so when your taxes come, you have money in a bank account to be able to pay them. (09:00)
LINKS TO BOOKS:
• Short-Term Rental, Long-Term Wealth
• Profit First
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So after transitioning through multiple architecture firms, I ended up getting a job for a local home builder here and felt like they do kind of track homes, but they're on the higher end, so they're million dollars and they don't do thousands of homes a year. They do a few hundred, but they're all really, really custom and really beautiful, so I started working with them and then realized, well, there's other departments in this particular home builder that I wanted to try out. So I got a real estate license, started selling real estate for their model homes, I ran all of their marketing, and then I got to dabble a little bit on-site and just going out on site, checking on jobs, and kind of realize, Wow, that's a lot more exciting for me than it is sitting in the office. (2:27)
• Yeah, the house that She Built was a really cool project here in Saratoga Springs, so we started a Utah professional women in building Group, which is a chapter of a national group, a few years about here in Salt Lake City. And we've been lucky enough to have women from all over the state that have joined and that it is now a to state professional women in building Council. Cool, it's really cool. And we have more than 60 women that have joined and are paying members and are doing really incredible things for our entire community. But the house that She Built, we needed a project that we could do that it was going to be fun and exciting and attention casting. And throughout discussion back and forth, this project of building an all-female built home came up, everyone thought, Wow, this seems really cool, really exciting. (7:45)
• Yeah, and I think for me, I have a little different kind of crew, like all of my trade partners, they've known me since I was a kid, my dad, a very loyal contractor, he doesn't price shop, he picks the people that are good to him and he's good to them, and that's why they have these long-term relationships. So a lot of these people have known me forever and they really... They know that I know what I'm talking about, and they don't question me or give me a hard time on site, but the occasional time we do have new guys or new man that own companies that are coming out and joining our trade team. I do have to prove myself, and at some point I would like it would be great to not have that have to happen again, but I think for the next little while, we just have to continue to get the word out that women should be in this industry, it's a great place for you to be. (13:36)
• I absolutely think construction is not for the soft heart, you have to have thick skin, even in a situation where I'm in, where most of the people I work with have known me since I was a kid, we still get into it all the time, I mean, we're in a crunch where the last minute I'm yelling at the plumber about something, he's yelling back to me about something, you have to have the skin... And you have to also be able to say, I'm wrong. And you have to also be able to... This is probably the difference between men and women, and I see this a lot on job sites as men are, my dad and the plumber or the electrician can get into it and then be best friends tomorrow. (30:36)
ABOUT STEPHANIE DAILEY:
Stephanie is the current 2021 President of the Utah Professional Women in Building committee, and the 2022 Utah Valley HBA's 2nd Vice President. She is in line to serve as the first ever female president of the Utah Valley HBA. Stephanie began her career in construction at a very young age. At 16 she got her first job at an architectural design firm. After high school she continued her education in computer aided drafting. She became a licensed real estate agent in 2015 and a licensed contractor in 2019. She spent 6 years in architectural design both with Landforms and Walker Home Design.
In 2012, she began work with Symphony Homes out of Davis County. She started in their architectural design department. After a few years she transitioned into real estate sales and marketing while continuing to help the drafting department. In 2017 she began working side by side with her father Steve Dailey. In 2019 she became a licensed general contractor and today they work together building custom homes across Northern Utah.
Stephanie likes to spend her free time outdoors. You can usually find her out on the trails on a mountain bike or in her side by side. Most weekends she is camping or traveling and enjoying as much time exploring as possible.
CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE:
• Website:https://stevendailey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniebuildsit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stephaniebuildsit
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Okay, so how I initially got into construction, I did commercial… What I did was I used to be an estimator and I would itemize all the projects on bigger construction jobs, so I went off to doing that on my own, secured a couple of my own, did start doing a couple other deals. First I started off doing supply then I did play grounds, then I start remodeling court houses, and I kind of went from there. So I got through on one deal that kind of put me in a discouraging situation because anyone who knows about commercial construction or government contract, you have to wait that 30-day period after the entire job is complete, so you're putting up all of your money up front, so sometimes that could be stressful. (01:11)
• I think what happened was I had a job that required it, and so I'm like one of those people who are like, Oh, I can do anything. Like before I got into construction, I would have every training, every trade, I'm just one of those people who I'm not going to go to other people to get things, I'm like, How can I do it so that I can make all the money? So being one of having that mind set when a job came along that's the requirement has to be contract or license, I'm like, this won't happen again, I'm going to get my contractor license, and so immediately I got online and started taking this stuff and it really… You know, sparked the interest for me. Me and my biological father don't have a really, really close relationship, but he is a general contractor, and it just like… It's just, it's crazy to me that I actually love everything about what I do and that somebody's so close does the same thing, but I did not learn it directly from him. (08:59)
• One day I have this book, it's like blue, when I randomly think of ideas that are like genius ideas… I have to tell you about this. In 2012, I used to own a business called Fast Food Express, and what we would do was, we would deliver a fast food, people would call in place an order and say, Hey, I want Wendy's... We would take the Wendy's to them for a fee. So it kind of pre-Uber. Everyone was like, Oh, you always come up with these great ideas. So, as I started to getting into flipping and stuff, one day randomly, it just came across like, how to get flipping rich. I don't know what I was watching, what I was doing. So I was like, Okay, you know, that's going to be what my ego would call. And so I started writing it and then I would crumble stuff up and then I would be like, That's not perfect, that's not this… Until I hired, organized my social media and different things. And I'm like, it's your first one, it doesn't have to be perfect. You are holding out on all this knowledge, you know, because you're expecting it to be like for a Barnes & Noble top seller, and it doesn't have to be that. (19:40)
• Because I feel like a woman never really tells the story of construction, we have you and probably like two or three other people who does it, so I feel like it's surging because sometimes… So I was on the board of National Women in Construction, you're still not the boss, even though you have a high role in construction, you're not all the way there. And so I did it because I kind of want to encourage people to know that they can do the entire process, even the boss and have people look in… I feel like it was something that was needed. Also being a mom, raising kids. People who do show it, I feel like they don't have the family orientation of it, all you see is them working, you never see them, you know, interacting with their kids or… Boom, back to the drawing board, where an architect is making sure that things fit in properly. So I kind of was like, you know, I feel like it's missing something, and that's where I was like, Let me start doing this, letting them know you can be a girly girl Mom, you don't have to be like this tough mom that's like… Yeah, or whatever. I still interact with my kids, I just know when and when to cut it off. I feel like I'm a great contractor, the people I work for, they continually want me to work for them again. (28:08)
ABOUT SHAUNTELL FORNEY:
Shauntell Forney is an entrepreneur and general contractor from Akron, OH who has a proven record of accomplishment in the real estate and general contracting industries. After 9 long years there are not many challenges she has faced. Shauntell has a niche for working with investors; she works with several out of state clients . Her personable demeanor establishes a confident, professional relationship with clients. She is the founder of Property Junkies, a company that specializes in houses for sale. Most properties are off market deals, foreclosures , and other creative real estate strategies. Because of this, Shauntell works side-by-side with subcontractors and can quickly identify quality processes and remove those that are less than desirable. Her expectations are high on every aspect of the construction process, and with her extensive knowledge and background experience, those who work for her respect her knowledge and meet her standards.
Her main goal is to share her knowledge and experience, as well as to show how exciting it is to work in the real estate and construction industry and how, with the right coaching, everyone can succeed in the same field.
CONNECT WITH SHAUNTELL:
• Website: https://www.property-junkie.com
• Website: https://getflippingrich.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shauntellalese
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauntel-forney-27820897
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I started university doing a degree that I didn't know what I was going to do with, so that was sport science, and I didn't use that and I needed to fund that life, and I just reached out to our recruitment agency, and the highest paying low degree background was just laboring in the industry. Yeah, so I started in it that way, so I was in the trenches with a group of people, and it was just a really good camaraderie at that stage, and I was just watching this machinery all day and fell in love with... I don't know the excavator looked like a swan. This beautiful thing, let me drive it. How did you get in that seat... How long did it take? It took six years to get into it, and I guess eight to be accepted being into it. (03:58)
• So I went, I got my excavator ticket anyway, that was just super easy to get, it was like a two day course. But I came back to the ticket and it didn't mean anything. And then, I don't know, over the years, I changed jobs and there was like, I feel like five men who really gave me the time and sort of gave me a go. But it did take a long time to build that sort of relationship. But even still, I think the first two years of operating it was short-lived, like I would jump in the machine and within moments I'd have someone yelling at me to get off of it... I did spend a lot of years crying in those machines. (06:58)
• But that was probably a year and a half, just under two years like difference between then to now. And I did start doing some business plans and was preparing to get my own machinery. Because I just realized that, Yeah, it was finally at a point where I had the confidence in my work and that I could do it and go out on my own, and I just wanted to create... Culture became such a big focus for me, and I just really wanted to be able to make a change with that. So I started planning, and that job where I was being praised and everything, I ended up working so much that I burnt myself out. And I was getting ready to work, but I couldn't leave the room, up on site, like I was dressed and ready for work, but my body just wouldn't step out the door. It was very bizarre, and I had to make a decision to sort of say, Well, I think my emotional mental well-being needs prioritize now, and I left that with no work to go to, I was like, Something's not right here with myself and I just need to go home. And I think for four weeks, I didn't have work and it just... I don't know, it just also fell into place, I got the excavator within six weeks at that moment. (14:57)
• So it's great to see the moment that more and more females are coming into the industry, and every time one comes on site, if it's for like my client, I will naturally take her under my wing and... Yeah, give her go on the excavator and try and encourage her to stay, because it is a bit intimidating at first. But I've also just got my first mentee, so I'm a mentor. Yeah, and that's awesome. Awesome. Yeah, it's crazy to think that I'm here after going through that, but yeah, I just... I feel like the industry needs to change. And it is great to see the culture has definitely changed, they're still so far for it to go, but I've definitely seen men's belief systems change right before my eyes over the course of these 10 years, and... That is everything. (18:50)
ABOUT CJ DEVEREUX:
CJ is a trim excavator operator in the construction industry. She's worked within the civil & construction industry for 10 years and have been an excavator operator for the past 5 of those years. In 2021, she took this foundation and established Civilspec Resources Pty Ltd. As a Director and Operator, CJ now has several loyal clients that she services with the use of her 5.5Tonne Hitachi Excavator.
As a uni student CJ began working through a labour hire company as a drainers offsider. She was in the trenches watching an excavator all day and working with a small crew. The comradery in this environment itself won her over instantly, although, she was mesmerised by the excavator's capabilities, (prior to that, she never had an interest in machines). She began asking questions about them and how to become an operator- she was met with comments such as "its a mans role" and rather tried to be convinced to learn the roller, as that's female friendly. Needless to say, CJ still did her excavator course, she had the ticket but no help or experience to get a position. CJ asked hiring companies if she could have them teach her skills. She reached out to companies to work for no pay, purely experience, with no luck. She continued to labour and with relentlessness she was fortunate to meet a select few key men on my journey who gave her a go. Otherwise, no mentors, n0 training or support, CJ self taught through failed attempts. She risked her reputation and embarrassed herself on many occasions, solely for the opportunity to learn.
With no upbringing around construction and no family/friend links in this field prior, this has been the most challenging yet rewarding path to undertake. CJ actively uses these prior challenges and triumphs to share with the community; doing all she can to play a role in changing the culture and trailblaze the way forward for women. She recently become a mentor in the NAWIC and Veraison mentoring program. CJ is on the NAWTC 'women in trades committee'. She naturally takes on a guidance and support role when new females arrive on clients sites and she's in the process of being a part of a women's refuge expansion workforce. Alongside these, she's a big advocator for volunteering within the co1nmunity. CJ took the opportunity to register her excavator with 'Make-a-Wish' foundation to be able to assist in fulfilling a terminally ill child's wish to operate construction machinery, should a child possibly have this as their wish.
Every day was a challenge but it made every win along the way all that much more victorious. It was incredibly rewarding to watch these men's beliefs systems change from seeing an excavator operator as a 'males role', to celebrating her skill set and providing overwhelming praise. This was never of their wrong doing, no one knew any different. They never had women challenge those beliefs, and what a warming journey it was to witness firsthand a cultural shift. CJ has the utmost appreciation for the several key men that gave her a go initially, and not a day goes by where she doesn't value their pivotal role in her career. All the tears, the knock downs and challenges from the past 'male culture' has all been worth it to finally be able to stand in confidence with her skill set today and role model to other women that there is no glass ceiling.
CJ's passion fuels a burning desire to create a legacy and forge a pathway for the next generations of women to embark on a career similar with acceptance, equality and support. Her vision is to inspire women around her that anything is possible.
CONNECT WITH CJ:
• Website: https://civilspecresources.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/civilspec_resources
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-devereux-41a85a192
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• You know, my parents had a welding machine shop. That's how I became a welder because you know, it makes good money. Much better money, especially, you know, when you go back, you know, 40 years ago, what I could make as a secretary or what traditional women's type, you know, roles professional would be. Right. So that's what I did. And, and when I met him, we were both blue collar workers and hard workers. I have to say. So one day he said, you know, my company's making a lot of money off of me, and I think I I'd just like to go into business for myself. What do you think let's start a business? (01:41)
• We are a general contractor and we're a carpentry subcontractor, which means we also work for other general contractors besides ourselves. We have a group of carpenters who do wood carpentry, which is different than Middlestead framing. Right now, it's private and in the past we've done government work. It just depends. I have to say in construction, you have to learn to pivot. We have trends right now. The trend is, is very much residential. If you look around every city in the United States, we're building a lot of homes for people. (05:16)
• So I saw that you're a part of the women in construction expo. Is that right? Yeah. The women in construction expo in San Francisco. We haven't had that since COVID. Is that the one you're talking about or the one? Well, yeah, it was just, I was reading through kind of some of your background and you guys have done so much and your company is so, you know, well renowned. I just, you know, because I can't ignore the fact that obviously you're a woman running this construction company. Is there a passion or a drive that you want to encourage more women in construction? Did you help start the expo? Like what things, what beliefs do you have about that? What things have you done to maybe, you know, try to, to expose more women to the industry? Yeah, I am passionate about it. I think that so many times we have, and all this gender talk today kind of cracks me up because I think that sometimes we focus too much on what men do, what women do, you know? Where, I think you are what you are born to be, you know? But at the same time, society tries to limit us, both men and women to define this is what women do. (17:13)
• What do you think is the best part of your job? The best part of my job is when I see us grow and how successful we come over the years and the making, you know? It's about the people that work for us and, and my family, it's all of us, the team. I like working with the team. I like it when we're successful on projects. And, also too, just seeing the projects when they're completed is a level of satisfaction. That's very tangible. And it feels good. Like I built that, right? I didn't really build it with my hands, but, you know? Yeah. I was a part of it. Everybody built it. That's, what I love about it, is like, it's such a communal effort and there's nobody that just gets to say, I did all of that thing myself. (24:37)
ABOUT JEAN BJORK:
Jean Bjork is Owner and CEO of Bjork Construction Company in the San Francisco Bay Area. A professional with over 35+ years of construction experience, Jean’s initial foray into the trades was as a welder. In 1988, Jean co-founded Bjork Construction while also raising a family, working full-time and earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Initially, Bjork Construction established itself as a premier custom home builder and built many large estates in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2006 Bjork Construction became a WBENC certified woman owned company, and in 2011 signed with the Northern California Carpenter’s Union. As Bjork Construction has evolved and grown, it is now recognized as a successful commercial builder to many Fortune 500 Companies and other influential clients.
Bjork Construction continues to distinguish itself as a rising star. In 2022, Bjork Construction was awarded the WBEC Pacific’s Business Excellence Award. In 2021, Bjork Construction ranked #9 on the SF Business Times’ list of Top Women Owned Companies in the Bay Area. In 2020, Jean was inducted into the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame. 2019 brought Bjork Construction the WCOE/WBE Star Award, and in 2018, Bjork Construction was the recipient of the AGC’s Diversity & Inclusion Award.
Jean is an advocate for entrepreneurs, a champion of women in business and has been recognized nationally for excellence in business and for her commitment to diversity & inclusion in the workplace and community. Jean is an active participant in college and industry mentorship programs, volunteer work and enjoys organizing and participating in industry educational and outreach opportunities.
Jean’s advice to others?
“Be persistent. Pursue your passion. Know your worth, and don’t sell yourself or your product short. Lead with equality and inclusiveness. Strive to be the best, and always believe that you can improve.”
CONNECT WITH JEAN:
• Website: http://www.bjorkconstruction.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bjork-Construction-Co-Inc-202545299782847
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bjork-construction-company-inc-
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So I ended up, I took an extra year at high school because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet. So after that I went into sport management and I went down to Niagara college, near Niagara Falls. I did that for two years. It was technically a three-year program, but you could opt out at the second year. And that's what I did because I realized that maybe I would start my own painting business. (03:40)
• I moved up to my cottage when I was 17 by myself and have no problem being away from home at school. So it's definitely a lot of self motivation, But definitely, It gives a lot of kudos to them for right. Do your mom or a dad own their own business? No, so, well, my dad just started his own property maintenance business and we kind of bounce off what I'm doing so we can like, you know, give each other clients. They never had their own business before. My mom was in graphic design and my dad was in the car business, but once I started the painting business, my dad, he was like, okay, I guess I'm your maintenance guy. So he'll help me clean all my tools and we'll organize the garage and he helps out a lot through that. (05:32)
• And then I started making my Instagram and Facebook. So I would post pretty regularly of anything that I painted. It doesn't matter how big or small, just so I can have a little bit of portfolio when people would try and find me. And then that's when I started boosting my posts and slowly starting getting recognized in the area. I made one post that for the, I think it was right at the start of the pandemic, saying how I had no work and we weren't really sure what was going to happen. And that post kind of exploded. And I got a lot of jobs from that one single Facebook post. I think I had like 500 shares or something like that. And then everyone starts talking. All my jobs pretty much now were just word of mouth. (08:32)
• So you didn't have to go take a test. It's just experience-based and then obviously if you do a good job, they're going to tell people, yeah, pretty much anyone can become a painter, but not everyone's going to be a good one, right? Yeah. I'm in California and you can't like walk sideways without a license. So all of our painters have to have painting contractor licenses, which is a different thing. But, if you could do it, I'm just curious, like, how are you handling everything? Like, you know, how long has it been? Three years or something like that. That you've started. So three and a half now being an entrepreneur is hard. (10:46)
• Like I've pretty much trialed tested every single brush I can find here. And the perfect brush is the pro forms. I don't know where they're made or where they come from, but we have them at one store in my town and nobody else really sells them. And that will give you the most perfect line ever. Okay. Pro Forms, right? Is what you said. I've given it to even my friends to try out who have never painted before, and they're like, oh my God, this is beautiful. So the good materials matter, like I've had some clients saying, oh, like, you can use my roller. It's been in my garage for a while, but you don't need to buy materials. Because I have stuff. And I look at it and it's covered in dirt and it looks like it was pulled out of the trash. So good materials matter. That's how you get a really good paint job is having good materials and keeping them nice and fresh and clean all the time. (29:51)
ABOUT EILEEN DAVID:
Eileen David is the owner of Georgian Bay Painters, located in Penetanguishene Ontario Canada. She started her business 3 years ago with an all girl team. They focus on mainly exterior in the summer and interior throughout the winter months!
CONNECT WITH EILEEN:
• Website: https://georgianbaypainters.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GbayPainters
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbaypainters
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I was in 342, the local plumbers and pipe fitters union, and it wasn't challenging enough. Plumbing was cool, was good money, it was consistent work and things like that. But I work with my hands and I like to, I'm an artist and creator, a natural creator, and so being able to go out in the field as a welder and build the infrastructures. And while you're welding, it's a literal art form, the weaving, the beading, the banging, the hammering and putting together, and building and constructing... It's an art and I loved it. I remember it reminded me of playing with the Lincoln Logs when I was little. My grandfather had got me the Lincoln Logs and I just... I would spend hours on that thing, and it just reminded me of that in fulfillment, after seeing the buildings constructed and things like that. (02:22)
• You know what is something about a woman, we can do, you we're super heroes. We can do any fricking thing we put our mind to. There is no way anyone could tell me that, they're like, Yeah, I just can't, I just don't have a talent, you do, you do... You have to find it within you and believe in yourself. Seriously? And so from there, I end up passing the test, I had to... They let you in my class? I put it on the table, the CW, I inspected it and it was wrap... He bent it. No cracks, no nothing. I tested, I certified on my very freaking first day, and from there I was in a panic because I'm like, Oh shoot, I really got to do this, and I started in the backyard just running bubble beans, just figuring out how to do it. (05:36)
• So I got dispatched from the union to go to Chevron refinery, and I worked in the well Bay, and there's where I got a chance to be amongst a lot of the OG's, old-timers that have been welding for a long time and traveling the world welding, all very versatile. And I just kind of cuddled myself under their wings, every time they were doing something, I watched, I worked, worked, worked all the time. I was always on the table doing something, my downtime, I was practicing my tag, I was practicing my flex Corp and anything and everything I could get my hands on to do, and to practice, to better benefit myself in the craft I did, for sure. (09:16)
• So I travel the country as a minister, and I do go on individual mission trips and things like that. So I was very keen on leadership skills and things like that, so when I get on the job... It worked really well because I'm able to say, Hey, you know, put that boss figure upfront, I don't have to build myself, I just be me and... You have a lot more respect, people are listening to you. I'm able to be in the office for 1-on-1 with the head notches, and things like that, and really expand my scope in the trade. I felt like working independently was really beneficial for me, working as a female welder in the trades, it was a lot more freedom, and it was a lot more fun too. Had people who are a lot more well-rounded? You know the union. I love the union, don't get me wrong, I always recommend people, young ladies to this day. Go Union so that you get to work. But it molded me and it gave me the tough skin that I needed in the union. (16:18)
• I'll be working on shoes, or boots are coming up, that's in the plan, everything that we need to be equipped out in the field. We're starting with more welding, then we're going to... I am, I always say we're, but it's just me... Sounds professional. right? And we're going to be developing clothing for women who are in the painting field, carpenters, something constructed for them, something that is mechanically fit, makes sense for the job that they're doing. Because different jobs... You're moving in different ways, you need different little hooks and fingers and stuff like that, but then at the same time with this first line with the pants and things like that, I really... I got to keep a fashionable touch. Like for example, we have this full stretch bottom, because when you were wearing the boots, say If you're going to walk over some some rebar or decking or something. You know, your pants can become a safety hazard when they're open, flared, opened boot, tripping... Oh my God, but I've seen many people fall flat on their face. (31:15)
ABOUT LASHANNA INGRAHAM:
Lashanna is a multi-certified master welder and iron worker. Lashanna entered into the trades in 2008, After completing apprentice training program Cypress Mandela, plumbing and pipe fitting weren’t enough for Lashanna so she switched over to structural steel welding, equipped with the certifications and training that she needed to break chains and boundaries throughout her experience as a woman in the field, Tackling big projects like Chevron refinery and working with the WWII ships on Maryland was adventurous.Lashanna has taken part in restoring and building various historical buildings throughout her local city of Sacramento all the way to the Bay Area, she has built Sacramento’s golden one center, Marriott hotels, luxury apartments, hospitals, high-rises even a BART station just to name a few.She is an incredible leader who is not afraid to take risks and pursue her dreams. Lashanna has traveled back-and-forth from the United States to Ethiopia sharing her knowledge about building and trades work.
She has also donated materials and equipment to local schools and welding shops in the county.Lashanna is married with a 5 year old son. Raised by her grandparents in Dunnigan, CA, growing up on a farm was the best thing that could have ever happened to her it was where she learned first class work ethic from her world war two veteran grandfather.Nowadays when Lashanna isn’t hanging iron she advocates for women in the trades and shares her experience as a woman in this male-dominated field. Standing as a conduit to women all around the world who has a desire for more Lashanna is the CEO of “Ingraham”, a brand whose mission is to provide comfort fit work wear for women who work in the trades. Lashanna is looking to break the chains to stereotypical bondage by using her story and voice to encourage Women that this is her world too. Lashanna Ingraham has been featured in several blogs, including The Fabricators Magazine, you can also find her on her YouTube channel and social media Instagram page.
CONNECT WITH LASHANNA:
• Website: https://leyudesigns.com
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NxvX0OG3QY
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefashionwelder
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I studied architecture and interior design in college, and because I graduated in interior design, I thought that that was the path for me, so I did that for a little while. And it was when I started going to these consultations and people were asking for help with things that I thought could have been solved during the build, I had my reawakening. And I was just like, You know what? Yeah, this is not for me. I definitely need to be in... Back in architecture. That is where my original love was, and that is where I am meant to be. My father in-law was actually a general contractor, and he introduced me to a CAD program that my husband and I learned a little bit together. He doesn't know it anymore, but to design our own house and things kind of went... Took off from there. I had a neighbor up the street who was a builder, he knew I used the same program he did, so he recruited me to come work for him, I worked for him for over 10 years. (03:05)
• It is ever changing. That's the big picture, it's always changing. And I feel like I'm kind of always being nudged into a certain role or capacity or offering for my services, typically for Domani Home Design. It's usually just me, I have a couple of part-time assistants that are virtual and remote, and they help out as I need, as they're available. And we typically... So I went, like... In my first couple of years, I did maybe six projects in a year, and then I got to a place where I was doing 15 in a year, and that felt really, really crazy and busy trying to... It got to a place where I was starting two new projects, to new home designs every month, and I was very... I was totally swamped. So, I had to scale back to the one project a month, except for December, I'd take December completely off, to kind of catch up, regroup and spend time with my family. And the projects are usually... They're usually second-time homeowners, so typically, I'm not designing for first-time homeowners. (7:36)
• And it was such an amazing project. So I joined the profession women in building in Utah right about that time. They already had the idea and everything for this project, but they were just barely getting started, they were trying to find the land and trying to decide what to do with about the floorplan, and I thought it was going to be a custom design, so I was so excited, I was like, I'll be able to offer my services. And they finally did get the property, they had to use the builders, and one of their set plans, production plans, and so it was like a bummer. I said, Can I just please review the floor plans? And so what happened was we took that base floorplan and we applied my standards, like I was talking about, four-foot wide stairs and open concept and different things like that, and we were able to tweak it. We had to keep the outside, so it fit in the community. But we were able to... They let us do anything we wanted with the floorplans, I was able to take it and give it this really awesome master's suite, like this open loft at the top of the stairs, a full spa like master bathroom. (16:10)
• Well, and just going back to, is it the right fit for each other, the abundant mindset, all that stuff. The more I've been blessed with, the more I feel like I need to kind of like, Oh, I can't contain all those blessings... Right? Right, yeah. I got to have some avenue to funnel them out. I'm kind of working with my architect on a lot of projects and he's trying to retire. And I said to him, Hey, who do you recommend? He's like Nobody, and I thought, That's so sad. He's got this gift, and he knows so much and he's got all these years of experience and wisdom behind it, and nobody to replace him. Right? And what a sad thing that is... His legacy is lost. Once you retire, there's nobody coming behind him to kind of carry on the awesome work that he does, and I just don't want that to happen. And honestly, there's so many people who want to do residential architecture and design, and there's not enough opportunities out there to learn the hands-on stuff that goes into the actual residential construction. A lot of architecture, interior design programs, they really kind of direct people towards commercial work instead of residential work, and so there's a little bit of a void, there's a little bit lacking as far as being able to teach people and train people in residential construction techniques and design and stuff. (27:07)
ABOUT STEFANI THATCHER:
As a young girl, Stefani watched her father design and build their family home. Intrigued by his architectural and drafting skills, she began sketching designs for “the perfect floorplan.” From there, she never questioned what career path she would pursue.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design and a minor in Architecture, Stefani went on to become NCIDQ certified in 2007.
While working as an interior designer she realized two critical facts that ultimately led her back to her architecture roots:
1) She could preemptively solve more design problems by designing “good bones” (aka: floor plans).
2) Her true design passion was residential architecture vs interior design.
Over the last 25 years, Stefani has worked in a variety of design positions including staff designer and furniture sales. But it was her job as head of the drafting department for a custom and production home builder that gave Stefani an insider’s edge. There she gained first-hand knowledge and experience in designing high-quality AND value-engineered homes. The “clarion call” came in 2015.
As a busy mother of four, Stefani knew it was time to launch her dream career as an self-employed Residential Designer. She “set up shop” at home where she could greet her kids as they came home from school, have the flexibility to run the soccer carpool, take care of and be with sick babies, as well as regain control of her work destiny.
Domani Home Design is where Stefani connects with homeowners looking to “level up” their home environment. Each home design utilizes Stefani’s unique SMARTER FLOOR PLANS™ design method. The homeowners’ personal stories and unique lifestyle are woven into the finished product.
Stefani’s designs have won multiple awards including several People’s Choice Award for the Cache Valley HBA’s Parade of Homes and a “Best Floor Plan” in 2020.
Most recently, Stefani implemented her SMARTER FLOOR PLANS™ method for The House That She Built (THTSB) that was featured in the 2021 Utah Valley Parade of Homes.
Stefani is driven to educate, empower, and inspire others to join the residential construction industry. The Professional Women in Building helps provide one avenue for this. There, she participates and volunteers on a regular basis to continue the mission of THTSB.
CONNECT WITH STEFANI THATCHER:
• Website: https://domanihomedesign.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/domanihomedesign
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/domanihomedesign
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/domanihomedesign/_created
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domanihomedesign
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Okay, so in our experience, of course, I cannot include all of the contractors, but from our experience, and at least my customer's experience, the way we see the old generation of construction is contractors that don't really communicate all the time, don't back up they're word, they don't show up, they're not really driven by the result, they just do what they're told to do, and it creates a lot of issues between the end user and the contactor. Sometimes the customer says, I want A... The contractor of thinks, Okay, he wants A... To me, A is actually B, for example, so that's what I'm going to do, and I will do it in my own pace, whenever I want, whenever I can, if I can get on the call, yes or no. Of course, not all of them, I have to say, not all of them, but in our experience, or customer's experience. When we say a new world of construction, we mean taking everything... When we start from the last part, the result, what is it that you want to have now, it's not enough to just describe it because both you can integrate words or let's say product in different ways. So basically, once we have a rendering for a very clear picture of what the customer wants, then we start all the planning phase and we guide them through all the purchasing phase, which is very important, especially now with all the supply chain and issues and delay. (04:16)
• First of all, any customer calls us or someone that is inquiring about the service will talk to me. Again, it's very, very personal, and it's very important for people to know that when they call I pick up the phone and they talk to me, not my secretary, not my office manager, not by Forman, they talk to me. I want to identify their needs and see exactly what I want to do, and I will be the one to meet them. Obviously, once we get a better idea of what needs to be done, kind of like I would call it a grand plan, then they will meet David. David will guide them through the process of planning and design, and he will create, together with our architect, he would create the blueprint and he would present it to them, and he would walk them through it. (11:15)
• First of all, this is something that I struggle in the beginning, David agrees and insists on doing it, it starts with planning. Obviously, I have a babysitter, I have a nanny, my kids are in daycare, but still I'm a Mom, so after noon, five to eight, I am a full-time Mom. Of course, then I pick up the phone or whatever, I mean, but I'm trying to be really with my kids, everything is in our calendar, as crazy as it sounds, maybe not for you, not that crazy, but we plan ahead everything, we wake up every morning very, very early to work out, I care about that. The kids wake up around 6:30 or 7, and then we have our hour, hour and a half to spend some time together. They go to daycare, we go to work sometimes earlier, and when they come back, I always have someone here with me so we can give attention to both at the different times. We have date nights on the calendar, we try to plan our weekends very carefully, so we have time to create nice experience, or go out with the kids and spend some family time. (16:20)
• So we do remodeling, but mostly complete, completely remodeled, and new construction. It can be used garage conversion, custom homes, whatever it is. I would say, let's start for me more than if it's not structural, basically, if the customer does not want to knock down any lumbering walls or an opening to the exterior, it can take anywhere between three to five months, it depends on the scope. If we touch every single piece of the house, bathrooms. kitchen, flowing, painting, roof, exterior, landscaping.. It will be more towards, I would say, five months. Let's say, I'm going to focus on the interior because the exterior is a whole different story. Let's say customers with a three bedrooms, two baths wants to do pretty much everything inside, it will be depending on if they want just cosmetic, if they want electrical, plumbing... But they are somewhere in between $100,000 to $200,000. (25:56)
ABOUT JADE SCHMAIA:
What It’s Like Being a Woman in Construction?
Of all the people working in the construction industry, women only make up 10.9%. And there are even fewer on the front lines of job sites. But women are paving their way in this male-dominated industry. One such woman is Jade Malka, the co-founder of DYM Builders Group in California. This full-service contractor works in both remodeling and new construction throughout Southern California, and has seen great growth in recent years.
Malka shares that she comes from a long line of entrepreneurs and real estate investors. Her father was an engineer, and her uncle was a real estate agent. Her grandparents always owned real estate and would sometimes flip properties. In Israel, she served as a real estate attorney for a year before working as a real estate agent in Florida for two years. Her job in Florida made her realize that she was more interested in the construction itself than she was the real estate side of the job. “I worked with a lot of foreign investment that basically purchased properties in order to fix and flip or fix and rent,” she comments. “And since they were foreign and lived out of state, or out of town, I had to manage the construction for them. So that’s when I realized I wanted to do construction.”
Malka says that her favorite part of her job is acting as the “house doctor,” diagnosing the problem the homeowners are having with their home and then fixing it. Remodeling houses — especially in the last two years during COVID, when more homeowners were spending time at home and finding ways to change their homes — has always been more fun for her than new construction.
“We do both [remodeling and new construction], but I like the part with the remodeling better, because you really change people’s lives,” she says. After starting her own company, Malka found that other people in the industry were often surprised when she showed up on a job site alone, or went to a vendor to order materials. Oftentimes, people thought that she was somebody’s assistant or the wife of the contractor. “I’d be walking into the house and they wouldn’t close the door behind me, because they didn’t understand that I’m here by myself. They always thought that I was waiting for somebody because I’m the assistant, or that I’m the designer,” she says. “And even when they hired me, they always tested me.” She’s learned to not take the comments personally, and has found that the more confident in herself she is, the less people question her authority. Malka knows that she’s good at what she does, and as a result doesn’t field as many doubting questions from clients or other contractors. “Slowly, slowly, because I was so focused and I had such a strong belief in what I do, they don’t ask me those questions anymore,” she shares.
Malka doesn’t get to work with other women in construction too often, but loves when she gets the opportunity. She’s worked with one of her friends, Hila Hemo, contractor at Construction by Maya in Calabasas, on several projects and hopes to continue to work together in the future. “And it’s amazing, working with a woman is amazing because we have attention to detail. We listen to the client when he talks, we hear what he has to say,” she says. “We find that a lot of women feel a lot more comfortable when we are in the area to say their opinion, to express their opinion, to say something is wrong or not as they planned.” DYM Builders Group also prides itself on having several women working both in the office and in the field. The team’s quality controller, who communicates between different teams and crews, is also a woman. David Malka, co-founder of DYM, notes that he’s found women to be better in supervision roles than their male counterparts.
CONNECT WITH JADE:
• Website: https://dym-builders.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dym.builders
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So, when I was 18 years old, I was desperate to get into this type of work, I had kind of done some schooling for it, but I didn't know much. And I was helping my friends on a roof, and their boss owned a company that traveled all over the country doing construction, and I just thought it was the coolest thing. So I applied for the job and they looked at little ole' me, 18 years old, no experience, female, and they laughed and said, No. But I kept coming back every day and asking and... No, no, no, no, no. I kept getting No's. On the day they were leaving to go travel for a few jobs, I showed up with my suitcase with tears in my eyes and I was like, Give me a chance please... And they were fine, they gave me a chance and for the next five years, I was traveling the country and learning and working, and it changed my life. (01:14)
• I love the pool business, and that was mainly like its own separate trade. After I left the pool business, I did get other jobs and learn different things, my favorite has to be drywall, I would say. When I own my own business, I'm a remodeler, that is my passion, doing the whole thing, taking it down, putting it back together. If you look at my Instagram there's a lot of my remodels on there, that's been my favorite thing. I've found out of remodels that the drywall work is like finessing, I'm an artist, I like to do stuff like that, so I enjoy it. But the whole remodel itself, that's my passion. I could do remodel after remote, I did for years, and be happy. (06:18)
• I got diagnosed with epilepsy at seven years old, and I was having a lot of grand mal seizures, and I didn't think I was, or the doctors didn't think that I was going to be able to use my brain properly, because it was still developing with all that going on, and it really messed me up a lot and it caused mental health issues, which I still struggle with today. I have PTSD from things that have happened to me as well, so it all kind of mixes together. But the older I got, I just kind of... I realized that actually the more I don't get myself out there, the more I see it, it feels like I don't know why, but I just started fighting it and I don't have them as much anymore, knock on wood. But it's more of a constant battle of fear like, Am I going to lose my license again? Am I going to see all this is happening or something like that, even if I haven't had a seizure in a year? I still have that in the back of my head. (12:44)
• Well, the country life has always been where my heart is happy and small towns, something about them, I've been drawn to them since I was a kid. My grandmother took me in when I was like 10 years old, and then I stayed in West Virginia. I fell in love with the accent, I fell in love with everything. I was just in love. And once I actually came here, I made some friends and I knew people. I just, I don't know, I fell in love with the place and it's too busy in Massachusetts, it's too expensive, there's so much... But I'm not hating on it, but I'm off that population, minus me. (20:35)
ABOUT KAITIE KING:
"Being a woman in the trades has changed my life for the better. But it wasn’t always easy. It also made me tougher and more resilient. It wasn’t as accepted when I started learning years ago, and getting a job in the trades as a woman was hard. I was learning how to do a shingle roof with my friends and found out their boss owned a company that traveled the country doing construction and I applied for the job. I got turned down multiple times, so when they were leaving to travel for the next few jobs, I showed up with my suitcase anyway and begged for a chance to prove myself. They gave me a shot and I worked hard to prove myself and learned as much as I could. It was the opportunity that changed my life forever. After that I started my own carpentry company and I also work for an amazing company in Indiana now called Feinberg Construction. I’m definitely proud of how far I’ve come in the last ten years."
CONNECT WITH KAITIE:
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@carpenterkaitie
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carpenterkaitie_
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• My husband is quite a few years older than me, and I know he will want to retire within the next eight to 10 years. He would tell you the next five years, but let's be realistic, and I feel the burden of that and the responsibility to prepare. We both worked extremely hard, and I don't want to have to work this hard forever, and neither does he. So my goals have changed, they've shifted. My mindset has moved, I want to gather as much passive income as possible, if you don't know what passive income is, it's an investment that brings in monthly cash flow without having to directly work for it. So regular income is exchanging your time or services for money. Passive income examples are rentals, Airbnb syndication, multi-family investments, even RV parks, anything that brings in monthly cash flow without it being directly related to your time or services. (01:36)
• So the first thing I did was write this little goal on sticky notes and place them all over my house, 40 at $1500, 40 at $1500, 40 at $1500. I wanted this goal to be something both my husband and I could tackle together, and let it be something that we could constantly have at the forefront of our minds. So the next thing I did, because I was serious about this, was hire a wealth coach... Yes, that's a real thing. I wanted someone to slap me in the face on a weekly basis and keep me accountable to the goal and how we were going to get there. I wanted someone to poke holes in my plan, make me stay the course and keep me focused on what I set out to do... And accountability is a game changer, I'm the type of person that hates to let anyone down, if someone has assigned to me a task and is going to be there waiting for me to get it done, I'm much more likely to put that at the top of the priority list and ensure it gets done. So the next step consists of looking at deals constantly, that much passive income doesn't come from sitting around and not thinking about ways to invest. (03:06)
• So here's what I've done so far. I decided to build a house, an ADU and keep it and Airbnb it... I've never owned an Airbnb before, I don't know a ton about it, but I'm willing to work, I'm willing to try, and I'm willing to do what it takes to get us to our goal with all my investments. It's important to me to not drain my capital, also known as cash in my business. So what I did was pay cash for the build like I normally do for any spec build, but then I sold it to myself for my business with a note payable to my business, and then I'm getting a personal conventional loan on the property, and we'll refinance the property and pay off a loan in my business. Now, this allows me to not have to come up with any money down or to take cash out of my business, so that's just a creative way for me to be able to be increasing cash flow without draining the cash that I actually have. So then I will Airbnb it and make passive income on the investment without any money out of my pocket. (04:18)
• The other thing I have not really done a whole lot in my career is use conventional financing, I have a lot of private money lenders that I pay interest-only loans on, but honestly, the conventional lender world scares me and overwhelms me, the amount of paperwork and documents and explanations that you have to reveal to a lender is mind-boggling. So I set out to find something different, I found a lender who is a private lending company that is basically a huge group of investors that lends on fix and flips, rentals and new construction based upon your credit score, the cash flow and the deals and your experience. No crazy paperwork, no outrageous interest rates like that from the private money lenders, plus there's no limit on how many loans you have with them when you're trying to acquire investment properties with conventional financing. They have a cap of 10 investments with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government regulates how many investment loans they will give you, and so finding an alternative ways to get loans was kind of a must. Now, the purpose of me sharing this with you is that I want you to start thinking outside the box, I want your retirement in the life and lifestyle you want to be something you plan for and communicate about. (05:23)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I chose time over more money and more stress, this hasn't been a usual choice for me, I'm a go-getter, I'm a hustler. But you know what? I'm also a mom and a wife, and I want to make food for my family, I want to pick up my kids from school, I don't want to let my kids down because I didn't attend their play or their soccer game. I feel like right now is the season where my family feels more important than anything else. Have you ever felt like that? Do you ever wonder deep down if you're spending your time, how your soul desires for you to spend it? Do you ever have a yearning for this? I think I have, and I also think I've been ignoring it. I say, I want to do that, and then something comes up and it's the first thing to get booted from my priority list. Why do we do this? What do we give up the thing that's most important to me the quickest? Why is this what is expected in our culture, that family is a secret in the working world, and anyone with any other priorities... Isn't grinding hard enough? I want to call BS on this. (02:07)
• I have a strong desire to be a present mother, one who pours over her children and has a strong connection with them. One who provides meals in a safe home and just someone they can talk to. Someone who puts their phone down when they speak, someone who showers them with time, uninterrupted time. But I also want to be successful, and I want to have a large impact on this world. I want to help women achieve their dreams and live boldly. Doesn't it feel like these things are opposing forces pulling at one another? I want to stay at home and be a mom, and I want to change the world and help and serve as many people as I can. Are they opposites? Why does it have to be one or the other? I wish I could gather all the mothers out there with a dream and limited time and make a group of bad to the bone women who want to change the world, but also support motherhood and being incredible wives, does that exist? Can we have both? I want to have both and I want to do both well. Do you struggle with this? I have a feeling that every mother and wife does, how could you not? (03:17)
• There's just this underlying guilt that we're just failing at something in some area of life all the time. I want to tell you today that I see you, you're not failing. But you do need to listen to the callings of your soul. And stop ignoring them. Change your schedule. Make the hard choices. Be there to pick up your kids, stay at home in the morning to take them to school, be at home at night to make sitting down for dinner a priority, and stop apologizing for giving birth to the most amazing people on this planet, they are a gift. And so are you, my darling. (04:28)
• I am going to work on this and stop worrying about all the pressure and all the things, and know that I want to live my life to the fullest and fully without regret, be true to yourself today, my love. Spend your time wisely, choose what you're going to do with it, and don't apologize. I hope you have the most blessed day. Take care. (05:06)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I was a stay-at-home mom for quite a few years, probably almost 10 years before I started IKO designs, and I love that my kids were getting to the place where they were all in school, and I was like, What can I do? What would be something that would be interesting? So my husband is a contractor, and we had been since the time we were married buying properties, fixing them up and then reselling them, it wasn't necessarily the intention, but that's just kind of how it happened for us. It was like, Okay, we bought this little tiny house, we fixed it up, we had more kids, so we sold it and then we bought another one, and we kind of got in this process of doing this, and I realized how much I really enjoyed that process of seeing something in kind of a state of disarray and then taking it and making it something beautiful people could appreciate. (01:11)
• I was slowly growing this interior design business, taking whatever came my way, and I was also doing hair and thinking I wanted to grow that business. What I realized was I really so loved doing interior design, and I got to the point where I was getting too busy doing design work to still do hair. And so I was kind of like 50-50 doing both, and I realized through really the help of some amazing women around me, they're like, You need to just do this. Yeah, and it was really scary because doing hair was like, I was actually making money where in design I was like, I'm not really making money. And so it was kind of a big leap and I just stopped doing hair all together and jumped in 100% doing design and put a lot of effort into my Instagram and networking and all the things that I feel like really helped me kind of propel my business in the last couple of years. (03:54)
• I did want to say one thing, I feel like it's really important to acknowledge when you come from a place of privilege, and I think about myself and the fact that I have a spouse who has worked so hard to be able to provide for our family and give me, honestly, the freedom to be able to choose a career that was risky. And I didn't have to go and, well even doing hair, I didn't have to stay doing that career because I have a spouse who was really supportive and was like, I support you in this and I didn't have the pressure of having to pay all of our bills or I have to do them and luxury really to pursue a career and develop it, and I know that not everybody is in that position and I think sometimes we're like, Oh, if you just work hard enough and all your dreams can come true, it's like sometimes we start out at an advantage. (08:12)
• So I think I do my best to try to help educate people in the process and also realize most people that are in this place, whether they're remodeling or new construction or going through very similar things, they're trying to make a million decisions at one time, it is really stressful. And I think for me, I always just want to try to alleviate as much of that pressure and stress as possible and help them. I think one of my strengths is the overall big picture, and I feel like if you're in interior design or construction, you have to be pretty good at that. And being able to envision something. And some people really struggle with that. So I think helping someone be able to take the essence of who they are as a person, so their personal style and aesthetic and the way that they live their life in their space, and to translate that to a contractor or tradesmen and develop a design concept that's something that they feel like embodies them. (11:28)
• And if anybody doesn't know what Stobles is or hasn't checked it out, it's like the most gorgeous coffee and food location downtown with a co-working space and it's what? Three or four levels. How many square feet? There are four levels. Yeah, so there's a basement, there's the main floor, the mezzanine, and then the rooftop on the rooftop. That job was totally one of those networking jobs, so there's two couples that are the owners, and I just happened to meet them through Alex Marshall, and actually through Danny Paget and Maverick, forgetting his last name right now, but... So anyways, it was just random meet and then I guess Alex Marshall is like, You should have Nikole help with the design, and they were already totally down the road, they had their architect and really great design concepts already. And so when I came on the project, I definitely consulted on finishes, a decent portion of them, but a lot of their stuff they had well down, but all of the furniture and stuff was definitely our team. (18:35)
• I'm working on a project right now that their style is mid-century, which is so fun, clean lines, and we're thinking about using cork floors and terrazzo tile. Just lots of pattern. And I think one thing too that I always want to try to put into my design is, so thinking about layering textures and natural texture, so natural elements like wood, stone, things that like woven art or dried floral or things that doesn't feel just one-dimensional, but it has history and it has just layers of texture. I think it's really important for a place to feel, especially if it's a new construction, which I know you do a lot of new construction, it's easy, you've got the dry wall and the tile floors, it's like, let's throw in the wood and let's get the medals in there and all of that stuff to make it feel like it's more home. (37:17)
CONNECT WITH NIKOLE
Website: https://ikodesignstudio.com
Instagram: @ikodesignstudio
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I know it sounds weird, but I met the concrete guy is super early in the morning, and the first thing we do is decide the height of the slab based upon the grade, and in our instance, fall to the plumbing system. So fall is referring basically to how the poop goes downhill, and it's just a nice way of saying it. We basically need to take into account the fall between our bathrooms, in our instance, a septic system to make sure that our slab is high enough to create enough fall. So, we determine that, and then after this, we locate the property corners. So, property corners are placed by an engineer who comes out and does a survey, they read the description on your deed, they locate the points, and then they place what's called monuments in the ground. The monument is just a giant stake in the ground, usually with a yellow top on it and a little flag thing, and most of the time they're hidden and really hard to find, so it's always a really fun game of hide and seek to find the property corners. (01:42)
• So once we lay it out, I stand there and I just take it in, I try to pause and just look around. I look at my floor plan, I look at the placement on the lot, I look at the view, I look at the parking, I look at the garage and the driveway and the set backs and where the windows will be facing and what will they be looking at. So, this placement and the decision around it or permanent, you can't move the house after you decide its position. So I just take some time and I make sure that it's where it should be. I make sure that what they're going to be looking at is beautiful. Often times I will actually move the house. So they'll lay it out regionally where the engineer and architect had put it on the floor plan. And because there's wiggle room in some of the lots I do, because we're far enough away on a set backs, I'll usually move the house back or forward or to the side just to adjust for the environment and how a family will eventually use the home. So once the placement is finale, they take chalk in this long black tube and it has holes at the bottom and they walk along the tape measure to draw out the floor plan and draw out the layout of the house with chalk in the dirt. Fun, right? I'm always like, Can I chalk it out? (04:05)
• So usually in that instance, you will see a large gray pipe coming out of the ground, it's called conduit, and it's running on the outside of the wall, on the exterior of the wall, up into a large electrical panel, this is super ghetto and ugly. Nobody wants to see conduit and an electrical panel mounted on the outside of their home. That's usually what happens when you have an old home and electrical needs to be updated, they just slap electrical conduit in the panel on the outside of the house. I think it looks ugly. So in order to avoid that, we don't want that on a new home and we can prep for it, so what we do is we bend a five-foot piece of large, gray conduit basically into the shape of an L, and we place it inside the footing, going up inside the 2 x 6 walls, and then also going on the outside, hopefully you can kind of visualize this, this is a sweep... It's not a broom, it's basically an electrical conduit, making sure that we can pull electrical wire from the outside to the inside wall of the house so that there is no panel or electrical conduit mounted on the outside, it ensures that it's hidden inside the finished walls and the electrical panel is inset between the steps. It's finished. It's nice, it's clean. It makes me happy. (05:59)
• So the electrician usually sets the conduit. Now, after that we have the framer come in and hang his hold downs. Now, these are just giant metal stakes that the engineer calls out in certain areas of the home, and they get placed inside the concrete footing and they're kind of suspending in air so that the bottom part will be in the concrete, and then the top part will stick out enough for the framer to eventually mount the walls to the concrete. Their job is to hold down the house to the slab... Sick, right? So we have this sweeps in and we've got the hold downs, and after that, when we do a slab, we have to make sure the plumbing is already to go. So the plumber comes for the waste, which is your black ABS pipe and installs that and lays it out for each bathroom and sink. He goes through the whole floor plan and he lays the plumbing pipes, when you do a slab, plumbing is inside the concrete. So in order for us to pass what is called the footing inspection, we have to make sure all footings are cleaned, the sweeps are in, and the plumbing is filled with water and passes what's called a wet set test. (07:29)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• It's pretty simple, you see board and batten all the time on the exterior of a house, but it's really easy and a pretty simple one to start with, if you want to do an accent. So, I want to take you through the steps and how to achieve this, so the first step is to gather, steal, borrow or beg for the tools you need, or you could go buy them, but here's the list. You need a nail gun. I use all Milwaukee tools, they don't sponsor me anything like that, but I just love their tools, and I love that they have a smaller battery option, the tools are just a little bit lighter, they're not as heavy. So you need a nail gun with either... I would suggest one and a half or two inch nails, you need a hammer in some sort of pry bar, that's to get your baseboard off. You need a Jigsaw, which is just a small handheld tool with a tiny little saw on it that does more detailed cutting. You need just a regular screwdriver with probably a Phillips head on it, you need a miter saw, so a miter saw is the big saw that you grab with your hand and it comes in, and it cuts down trim. It's a big saw that stands on its own, you need a multi-tool that is able to cut edges or baseboard if needed. (03:01)
• I think that a smooth surface adds an extra level of finished detail, it just looks really custom, and the way you do that is you put hard board over your wall. So, if you don't care about that, you can just skip the hard board and put the trim up on your wall, directly on to your existing sheet rock. So, I chose to have a smooth finish, and you just get hard board at Home Depot, it's a 4 x 8 sheet by 1/ 8 inch. And you want to make sure that your cuts or where your vertical boards are going to be, but have Home Depot, they will cut that hard board for you. You don't have to take it home in the ginormous sheets, take your measurements with you and have Home Depot cut it and then take it home, it's so much easier. The four way sheets are kind of cumbersome and hard to carry by yourself. So I highly recommend having Home Depot cut it for you. So the next thing you need to do is get molding, I used three-inch molding, and I think I got 17 foot long boards. (05:25)
• Now, the next thing you want to do is take your boards and cut out holes. If your hard board, that's going against your wall is going to cover an outlet or a switch, you need to make sure that you cut the outlet holes in the switch holes, and you do that using your jigsaw. Now, to make sure you get those outlet holes in the correct spot, you can do one of two things, measure, mark it, cut it out with your jigsaw and pray you put it in the right spot. I messed up on this one, so it was really frustrating to find out that my hole was in the wrong location. So, what I found was a tool... It's called a blind Mark drywall electrical box locator tool. They have it at Home Depot or you can order it online. And what you do is you put a magnet on the plug, and then you put the magnet on the other side of the hard board, then you draw around it, then you hit your hole every single time. And if you don't want to get frustrated with this part, that tool is invaluable, and I highly suggest it. So cut out your holes and your hard board, and then next what you're going to do is spread liquid nails all over that hard board, and then you're going to squish it against the wall. Then you're going to take your nail gun and you're going to nail the perimeter of your hard board, don't nail in the middle of it because they're going to end up showing, and you don't want that. (08:54)
• Check all of your nails to make sure they're fully set, and when I say fully set, when you're doing trim, you don't want any shiners, which means you want that nail to be inset enough to where you can put putty inside of it, if a nail is sticking out and you can feel it when you rub your finger over it, that nail needs to be pushed in with a nail set. It's just a small, little...Kind of looks like a large nail and you use your hammer to nail it in, or you can just use a hammer, just be careful not to damage your trim. So after that, you're going to caulk all of your edges for your horizontal and vertical boards and your baseboard and then you're going to use painter's putty to fill all of your nail holes. Once that dries, you're going to sand your putty, and then you're going to prime everything. The hard board, if you use the hard board, it really needs primer to have a nice finish on it, so make sure you prime your hard board. And then I had to prime my walls because I had pink, and covering pink up with a really light blue was going to be impossible without primer. So we had to prime everything. And then you want to paint at least two coats of paint on everything, and then you get to take photos and show off to all your friends, and you are going to feel so accomplished. Gosh, I just want to celebrate with you. And honestly, being able to build something like this that adds detail and design to your house is so rewarding. I just want to encourage you today to change your mindset, that if this sounds so impossible to you, I want you to re-evaluate that thinking, that even if you've never done this, you are capable of it. You have it within you to tackle something like this, you have it in you to create and fix things that you want to... So dive in. (12:27)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Let's say you have a glass jar and you fill it with rocks, maybe boulders like rock size that you could fit in the palm of your hand, and then around that rocks, you put in smaller pebbles and you think, Okay, gosh, it's full, and then around those smaller pebbles, you put in sand and there's still more room to fill it because it fills in all of the crevices. And then around that, you can actually fill in water, and so the difference is, is that we're not focusing on the water and the sand and the pebbles, because those are the details of how to accomplish the bigger things, the rocks. Now, if we put all of the sand and pebbles and water in that glass jar before we put the rocks in, the rocks don't fit, so the rocks have to go in first, we have to know where we're headed, we have to know what we're doing, and then we fill it in with all of the details, so that's the mindset around what a rock is, so each team member is responsible for reporting on their rock each week at what we call our level 10 meeting. (02:48)
• Now, once you answer these questions, I want you to compare this reflection to your yearly goals and see if you're still on track with those yearly goals that you set. Or, if something needs to change, are they still in line with your purpose, your path, your passion. Now once you've completed that, I want you to take a few minutes and I want you to write down every issue you see in your business. Do you have people problems? Do you have software problems? Do you have transportation problems? Whatever you see as an issue, I want you to brain dump it on paper and get it out of your head. You need an issues list, write down all the problems that you don't have an answer to. Now, once you've done that, I want you to take your on your goals that are written on a piece of paper, and I want you to put your issues that you've just written down, and I want you to set them side by side, I want you to see what's getting in the way of you making it to your one-year goals. You have all the issues that are blocking you from those goals, do you see that now? With those two lists in front of you, this is how you make your rocks for the quarter, this is how you set your goals, you combine the issues that you need to solve with the goals you have set. (05:06)
• Combine your issues with your goals and solve them to keep you moving forward towards your plan after you set your rocks. Each team member should have three to seven rocks per person, and you need to meet weekly on the progress of those rocks. Now, how we do this? Is I just simply go through the rocks and I ask the question? Are you on-track or off-track? If they say on track, no more discussion. If they say off-track, then I ask the question, is there an issue we need to solve? If there's an issue, it goes on the issue list, and the last 60 minutes of our meeting is dedicated to solving the top three issues... Beautiful, streamlined. And it's also so easy not to do, it's so easy to just get busy and bury our heads and not look up until Christmas. Don't do this. I believe success is accomplishing the daily consistent habits we implement over time, so now is your time, it's the end of the quarter, and it's time for you to set your goals for Quarter two. (07:54)
• If you don't have a business, and more importantly, if you do, you need to set quarter two goals for your personal life. You can take those questions that I went through earlier, and you can ask yourself those questions with your personal life. What went right over the last 90 days? What went wrong? What is not working? What do I need to do differently? What should I focus on? What do I need to delegate? What is my energy like? How am I feeling? Those can all be applied to your personal life as well. Every quarter I take about an hour and a half and I review my yearly goals for my personal life, I check off what I've accomplished, I set new goals for the quarter, and then I break them down into my monthly and daily goals. (09:13)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Now, if you have never experienced Mexico or a third world country, it's a different world. There's dirt roads, there's trash everywhere, there is no electricity, no running, flushing toilets. There's no heat, there's no air conditioning, and there are dogs. Pregnant dogs everywhere. I wanted my kids to gain gratitude and perspective, it's one thing for me to tell my children, be grateful for the clothes and shoes and the food you have, and it's another thing for me to show them... To show them somebody who doesn't have any of those things and is still happy and full of life. So our team showed up a little tired Monday morning, but ready to work, we were building a house for a young girl, about 18 and her husband, who was about 20. I think, they already have a two-year-old son, and she's pregnant. Their current house consisted of a dirt floor, cardboard boxes that were wrapped with plastic and held together by bicycle tires. (02:41)
• Come and work with me and then go play. I watch them communicate with other children that don't speak the same language, but they could meet each other at fun. Do you know what I mean? They play tag, they jump rope. And they just laughed. I watched my son take the $2 that someone on our team gave him to buy toys at the market and give it to a man who needed surgery on his feet. He just donated his money... I've never seen him do that. I watched my daughter serve food to people in a village who just needed a good meal, and she did it with a smile. Now, my biggest takeaway in lesson learned, is the reminder that when we serve and we give of ourselves, we actually get so much more in return when our focus is on putting more good into the world, than just giving with our time, our talents. We actually feel revived, our perspectives and priorities change, we get back to our purpose, our reason. (04:44)
• Man, I missed going to Mexico more than I realized, because deep down, I have a servant's heart, I think we all do. But it just gets callused and bruised over through life and the experiences that we encounter. Now, I used to express that heart, and I would lead with it, before kids and life and work and paying bills got in the way. I used to volunteer in a children's ministry at my church. I went on a trip to Uganda to serve an orphanage. I organized an entire bike ride across the United States to raise money for that orphanage. What happened? Where did it go? Where did my heart for service go? I think it disappeared into my phone and my emails, my business and employees, children and dinner, and horses and dogs in a clean house and new shoes and marriage and dishes, and just life. (06:18)
• So, my encouragement to you is to start small, say something kind to a random person today, or do something big and sign up for that mission trip or volunteer where you feel called. Fill your mind with gratitude and sweetheart put down that phone, and get on the ground and play with your kids. I know that we cannot take anything with us in this life, and if there's one thing I want to be remembered for, is that I put good into the world, and if at the very least, I taught my children to put good into the world. (07:38)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• And as I got older, obviously, it was more and more interesting to see what he was doing, he ended up starting a construction business on the side, so I got to really see it from that side, not only from the inner workings of construction itself, but also the business side of it. And then I would say one of the most pivotal things as a kid was seeing him build an addition on the back of my house. So that was crazy, because, I was 12 and we were all sharing one room, and now all of a sudden all of us had our own bed rooms, and it was like the biggest deal, and it was such a hero moment for sure, because he did everything from literally for the lab. So I think the one thing he's paid out was the roof, like that was it, so it was really neat. And as I got older and they bought my first car, he helped me rebuild a lot of that, really, I would say I helped him rebuild that, and so he was just into everything, I was just always around it. (02:25)
• At times I think that that's how creativity works and how you can't force it, and if you force inspiration and creativity, then you're always fall flat, you have to wait for it to arise, and that means not pushing yourself too much and overbooking. Burnout is really real, especially in this industry, right? It's great to have ideas and goals and to be like, Oh, I can get this done in a day, well, if you can, doesn't mean you will... And life gets in the way, and as a mom, it's like there's nothing that works and you have that deadline that you're like, I have been delaying this, I've got to get this done. And then my kids are sick and that's just life. But there's no two ways about it, that's just how it goes. And so you have to kind of really be realistic with yourself and what you take on and then allow yourself some time to just kind of veg. Don't do anything if you're not really feeling super inspired or motivated. And on a Saturday afternoon, it's okay to just sit still on the couch and watch movie with the kids. (09:35)
• My life is somewhat back to normal now, but I was filming in Los Angeles for seven and a half weeks, I was back and forth. Yeah, it was intense. It was funny because it happened in the beginning of December, my husband had been in the car business for 17 years, he'd work like 70 hours a week, and it was really crazy, and we had obviously been talking for quite some time about needing to make a change for our family, and last year was a hell of a lot of transitions in that realm... He left his job the first week of December and left in two days later, I got the call for this specific TV show, and it was like the craziest thing, because had they asked me a month as before, I would have been like, There's no way I can be gone that much. And I just don't have the... Our life wasn't built that way... Yeah, yeah. It just isn't built that way. And by design, I wanted to be the one who's picking my kids up every day and cooking dinner and whatever. And the fact that he was working, it never bothered me because that was what I made my life... It's how our life was designed. And so anyway, it became just this really cool thing, and it was really crazy because I've been offered opportunities like that before, I've done small little things where it's like a one-episode deal or whatever. But that was just a weird opportunity in the company that was producing it, or owns the rights to the show, had just reached out to me randomly, and I was like, Hey, we'd like to talk, and then I just fell in to. (15:23)
• Somebody asked me the other day what my goal to future was, and I said I wanted to write a book at some point, I don't know if that's a five-year goal though, I just want to write a book, just because I want to write a book. There's really no reason. But for the business, I don't know, I think in the last year, it really taught me, if I put less expectation on what I want to happen, it'll happen sometimes more than what I would have hoped, and so I think that allowing myself the freedom to say no to the things that I just don't feel good about it. Bi trusting those instincts and saying like, Hey, this may be a great money or this may be a great thing, But it's just not a fit, it doesn't fit with myself in ever finding my brand a little bit, if that makes sense, and what I want to happen, what I want to be showing people. I'd love to obviously start teaching some... Maybe if I could just put that into the schedule, that would be nice. I'd like to just find balance, keep finding balance, get my kids more involved, I don't know, all of my goals are really, keep doing, doing what I'm doing and hope for the best. (32:41)
ABOUT SARAH LISTI:
With a passion for all things construction, Sarah Listi started Tool Girl’s Garage- a woodworking company based out of Texas. With unending curiosity and enthusiasm, Sarah tackles projects of all kinds of renovations as well and shares the process via social media and her blog. If Sarah isn’t in the shop, she is likely spending time with her family, her long time husband, kids, and dogs, on their property in Texas.
CONNECT WITH SARAH:
• Website: https://toolgirlsgarage.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toolgirlsgarage
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/toolgirlsgarage
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/toolgirlsgarage
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toolgirlsgarage
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• The first half of the book tells a story of three people and it's so engaging and it really hooks you. The second half of the book shares the principles of how you can own your morning and elevate your life. My biggest takeaway is that will power is a muscle, and if we don't exercise it, it gets flabby, I whole-heartedly agree. If we eat chocolate every time are weak, little mind desires and we don't practice the difficult task of saying no, the more we give in to our willpower muscle, the more we give in to our will power... The muscle actually atrophies. It gets weak. The same is true of the opposite, the more we say No, the more our muscle grows, I am absolutely obsessed with this concept right now because it gives me hope, it gives you hope that anyone can change... We are not genetically programmed to be failures, to not be morning people, we are not people who have to give in to every weak thought, we actually have the ability to increase our will power by simply exercising our willpower. (01:56)
• Robin Sharma calls it the 20-20-20 formula for your victory hour. So in my calendar, at 5 AM, my appointment is titled victory hour, I love seeing that in my calendar, so the 20-20-20 formula is broken down into 20-minute sections of that first victory hour from 5 to 6 AM. The first 20 minutes is sweaty exercise, you rise at 4:45 and you start your exercise precisely at 5:00 AM. I get up, I put on my workout clothes, and I hop on my Peloton for 20 minutes. The concept is that there are so many amazing feel good brain chemicals released during the sweaty 20 minutes that you actually feel completely different at 5:20 AM then you did at 5:00 AM. Your mental state changes, and I've actually experienced this first hand, I'm tired and I don't want to get up, but after my 20-minute ride where I sweat, my mind and body feel completely different, try it. (03:44)
• To think, to ponder, to understand yourself better. During this time, I meditate and I journal, my practice lately is just to keep my body still, I have heard that a body that cannot sit still is a reflection of the status of your mind, so when I go to meditate and all I want to do is stretch or move, it just gives me insight that there's growth still for me to continue on the road. So I sit still and I breathe, I repeat my mantra and I quite my mind, and I believe that the health of your mind determines the health of your life. So, I do my best to rid my mind of all negative thinking and to speak life and truth over myself. It's a beautiful 20 minutes. The final 20 minutes from 5:40 to 6 o'clock is what Robin titles growth. This 20 minutes is for expanding your knowledge, for reading, for listening to a podcast, for learning something new. I use this time to read. It's a time for you to pour into your mind to learn a new skill, to finish the book that you have never had the time to read. (05:14)
• Now, here's the catch, you have to do it for 66 days. You cannot do this for five days and then stop, you cannot change a habit and have it reach the point of automaticity until you've conquered it for 66 days. So, buy a calendar and write a V over every day that you claim your morning, a V for victory. I know you can do this, I want to see you change. If you want accountability and you want to join The 5 AM Club, send me a message on Instagram @shebuilds.homes, I'd love to push you to become the person you want to be. Download The 5 AM Club or buy it on Amazon, Go to the bookstore. (07:06)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• This is one of the first things I would tell them. Get a separate bank account. If you are running a legit business, you cannot co-mingle your personal funds with your business, this should be right up there with getting your business license. Step one, you need to have a separate bank account for your business activity, once you have this, you need to respect that account and do not pay for personal items out of this account. Do not buy groceries from your business account. Same goes for your personal account, do not pay for items out of your personal count that are for your business. And here's the best reason why I could tell you this, if your business gets audited and you have co-mingled your funds into your personal account, you have to give the Auditor access to your personal account. (01:40)
• Every month you need to review your profit and loss, and I'm going to go into that in a little bit. But knowing what your business is doing, even if it gives you anxiety and you don't feel like you're a numbers person, you cannot ignore the numbers, you have to know on a monthly basis. They tell you everything, okay? So, I need you to know the difference between gross profit and net profit. When I was a kid and my dad was teaching me this, it was just this foreign concepts and I could never grasp it, so I'm going to try to break it down as super simple as possible for you, so... Gross profit, it is gross and disgusting, it is a number that tells you a lie, it's the number that you look at before any expenses, gross... We don't like it. So for example, in my life, gross profit is what I sell a house for, it's a lot, and it's gross because I have a crap ton of expenses that I had to pay for to build that house, it's not my real money... It's gross. Okay, got it? Net profit is the number we want... Net income, net profit, same thing, is how much money we really made. Net profit is your income, your gross income minus all of your expenses. (04:15)
• So you need to know your net income on a monthly basis, you need to track this number constantly, a lot of people just get confused and they go, Oh, I made 6000 bucks this month, but that was their gross profit and they have no idea what their net is. So, your net income needs to be tracked monthly. Okay, this is number four. What is a profit and loss statement? Super simple, it's a sheet of paper that shows you your net income, it's the details of your gross income minus your expenses and operating costs, that comes to the bottom line and shows you your net income. It shows if the business is making money or not. Don't be scared of a profit and loss, it's simple. Let's say you have a cake company, your profit and loss statement would look something like this, your gross income would be how much you sold the cakes for to the customer, next it would show your expenses, how much you spent on the ingredients to bake the cake and then your final number would be your net income. How much did you make on the cake? These numbers are so important because they help you make the right decisions; should I charge more for my cakes? Should I find cheaper ingredients? Is my kitchen rent too high and killing my net income? The numbers help drive your decisions, and if you don't know the numbers, you can't fix the problems. (05:59)
• But as a business owner, it's helpful, see the big picture and understand that where these numbers end up and why it's important to track them, it's also helpful when it comes time to preparing your tax return that you have already tracked all of these numbers on a monthly basis, because if you are noticing that your net income is really high and it's much higher than last years, you won't be also angry and upset when your accountant tells you how much tax you will, because you've been in the numbers, you know you saw the signs, so dig in, look at the numbers, blog off two hours every month to organize and get familiar with financials. (09:33)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Yep, so I got a degree in architecture, and right after that, I went to work for a firm in San Francisco doing custom homes, and I loved it. However, I would put all my heart and soul into these plans and turn them over to the contractor, and then I would do sidewalks and I would think, Oh my gosh, why did they detail that way? Why did they do this? And that's when I really got into wanting to get into the construction side and... Sure, I can draw detail two dimensionally on how we're going to flash this window or how we're doing the detail of the fill pan of a door with the flooring. But I want to actually be there and do that and understand it, so I can understand what I'm drawing. And so that's when I got into the contracting world working for a home builder. So, I did project management there for some large communities here in the East Bay, and which was great, it opened my eyes to the building world on a big scale, but I was missing my outlet of design, and that's when I got connected with a smaller contractor. (4:52)
• I think it's always been dormant in my mind as a pipe dream, it wasn't something I mapped out and planned to happen at this point in time. It just got to a point where I was doing these homes, and I have a difference of opinion on how we should do something, or how we should deal with the home owner or how we should schedule it, or schedule the subs. And I'm lucky enough, I'm at a point in my life now that with my husband and myself, I could take on this risk of... I'm going to take the leap and sure, I have a four months of work ahead of me, I need to figure out the way market myself, what am I going to do, but I'll figure it out. And now, I don't know, six months in, and I'm so busy and things just keep happening and word of mouth is so great, and I'm not looking back at all. (7:48)
• I think that was pretty much when I was working mainly on the contracting side. One, every week has fire drills, right? So you start out with your Monday of what you're going to get done that week, and you never get it done because there's constantly fire drills. But the burn-out comes when you're working extended hours, which we all know we do sometimes. But when I never had a positive outlet, of something that I was excited to do. And then that's when I learned like I needed a creative outlet still, or I needed some positive affirmation from a client that I didn't no longer have, so I felt like I was working and working, and it was... I'm definitely not one for the corporate world. (20:40)
• Yeah, absolutely, and I think as you grow as a business owner, not knowing what's going on with your financials is probably the worst mistake you could make. Because whether or not you're doing data entry or reviewing the profit and loss, I come from an accounting background as well, to me, dropping that and handing it off and going, I hope, I'm going to cross my fingers and everything's okay... I absolutely agree with your husband, it's like you have to know how to do it, you have to understand it, even if it's painful. And to be a good business owner, you have to know how to read those documents and you have to know what's going in and coming out so that you can make wise decisions and go, Okay, now I really don't want to take on that client because I have enough money in the bank. (23:58)
CONNECT WITH LINDSAY:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsayowendesign
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayjowen
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Why is saying no so hard? I think that maybe it might have something to do with our lack of connection to ourselves, that maybe when we say yes, when we really mean No, it's because we forgot what was a yes. And I know for us, we're so used to ignoring the internal voice that we just automatically and habitually say yes, without any check-in, I'm terrible at this, it literally causes me physical pain to let someone down to disappoint them to know I didn't exceed their expectation. It will keep me up at night. (02:38)
• So here's the tip if it's not a hell yes. Then it's a no. I use this in my business all the time, and I make sure I never say yes to a project without my entire team saying hell yes, this is like a safeguard for me. If we all can't feel the excitement and it's a no... Something better will come. To write something. It always does. Opportunity is everywhere. And what you seek is seeking you. If you want the best clients, the best projects in a healthy relationship with your work, say yes to only the things that are... Hell yes. Everything else is a no... One of my favorite quotes is from Warren Buffet, 'The difference between successful people and really successful people, is that, really successful people say no to almost everything'. Good point, sir. For my personal life, I use my spouse is a protection, just like in my business, I kind of have to use my team as a protection because this is not my strongest muscle, I'm not good at it, so I have to have these extra layers of protection. (03:38)
• I think it's important to choose what we do with our time, it's such a finite resource, and I want to be intentional with every hour of my day. I want to be friends with people who breathe life into me, I want to serve this world, and I want to change it. I want to be world class, so girl, that means... No, might be appropriate. My business coach tells me, 'Good is the Thief of Great'. I want to be world class, and I don't want to settle for just good enough... Neither should you. (05:46)
• On the other side of this coin is saying Yes, taking action. Saying yes to things that maybe you really need to say yes to. My friend has a saying... 'If it scares me, then say yes'. So if she's terrified, she jumps in both feet. I love this model because so much of us coast through life, we don't take the vacation, we don't jump out of the airplane, we don't trust our gut, we don't buy the investment, we live in such a world of fear. And You know what? I'm done with fear. It's taken a lot from me, it's kept me quiet and small for far too long. Take action, say Hell yes to the things that you want to do, and then put the work in. Stay committed. Be a powerful force. I just know you're going to change the world because you want to know why? You're astonishing, nobody else has the gifts that you have, nobody else has the ideas, and the forethought and the wisdom that you have, to say YES to the things that you've been pushing aside. Say NO when it's really a NO. (06:20)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Because of my background in Kasztan, I really wanted to have a career that would allow me to be financially independent and have a positive impact in the world. So I decided to go into engineering, and during my program, it was a small university in Southern Germany, a program is called International Project Engineering, and I learned a lot about different engineering subjects, project management and the intercultural competencies. And as part of the program, I had to go abroad for half a year to work at a manufacturing companies, I applied to so many exotic countries, initially I wanted to go to Asia or South America, and then the most interesting offer came from Waukesha Wisconsin, which is a small town here in Wisconsin, like, Where in the hell is Waukesha? But it sounded so interesting, and I love material sciences, especially steel and it was a German steel cutting tool facility that offered a job in quality assurance. (2:47)
• I repeated over and over again that I loved my job, I love working in manufacturing, and I love working on construction projects, and I didn't really want to leave my job, but then after these massive projects were, then I got really bored and I thought about the fact that I need to do something more in my life, and I need to do something that really matters. So my husband and I gave ourselves a full year to decide whether we want to stay in the corporate world, in this case, I would have done my Master's in the electrical engineering, and he planned to do his MBA or we would start a business together. So by the end of the year, we didn't have a decision, so we decided to go up North for a whole weekend and brainstormed a lot of different ideas. Then... I told him, You know what, I've been thinking about the safety shoe idea for a long time. There's a real need. (8:43)
• During that accelerator program, we actually launched with our first product, which is, I call it the gravity boot. It's so cute, I love it! Thank you. It's kind of, I call it the walk-through boots, which is, it's designed for women, as for myself, who spend most of the time in an office and once in a while go through a manufacturing facility, but need to be safe having a slip-resistant out sole and the steel toe cap, protective toe cap. And over time, so after we get the funding, we started working on an additional model, which is now our best-selling shoe. We made a boot that was driven by women in construction who said, I need ankle coverage, I need an electric hazard certification and a lower heel, with the 90 degree angle. So that's when the Omega came into play. And I see so many women wearing it. (17:05)
• Yeah, we try to run a very lean operations depending on the day, all of us, we're wearing different hats. Wednesdays are my product development days, Fridays are more social media days, so it really depends. We just hired our fifth team member who will be starting on Monday. As the founder and CEO of the company I focus on things like product development, because I worked in a space and I talk to women in manufacturing and construction and similar fields on a regular basis. I'm responsible for fundraising, strategic planning, we talk briefly about traction, implementing, creating a mission for the company to make sure that everyone rose in the same direction, it's incredibly important, because sometimes you can come off track. Where does that new person fit in your organizational chart? She will be taking over customer service. Before that, my husband helped with operations, making sure, shipping our products to our warehouse, making sure our customers get their products on time. (22:14)
ABOUT ANASTASIA KRAFT:
Ana Kraft is the Founder and CEO of Xena Workwear - a company that creates fashionable safety shoes and functional apparel for women in STEM and the Trades. This new category of workwear helps professional women be safe and feel confident in any work environment. Transitioning between the office, to the construction site or manufacturing floor has never been so easy. Ana holds a degree in International Project Engineering from Reutlingen University in Germany and currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The causes that drive her include sustainable development, education and maximizing opportunities for women.
CONNECT WITH ANASTASIA:
• Website: https://xenaworkwear.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xenaworkwear
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/xenaworkwear
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/challenge/?next=/xenaworkwear
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xena-workwear
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I went to my team and I told them, I need a break, I need a week to get myself right. I asked them to protect me from the business for a little bit, I told them they don't want me solving problems right now because I'm in a place that I will send the nasty text or the email, I won't think twice about it, I won't re-read it. And that's a scary place to be, that's a scary place where you feel completely comfortable just pressing send when you know you've written something you shouldn't have said, when you know you're making a choice you shouldn't make, but you do it anyway. That should be a red flag. It's a scary place to be, it's a place where we ruin relationships and hurt the people closest to us, so let's just start with... Sorry, I'm sorry to all the people who saw me in January, I was drifting. (03:23)
• So I reached out for help. I have been struggling for about a year now with this vicious cycle of how I manage my stress. It goes something like this, I wake up, I have a wonderful morning stress-free, I eat a nice breakfast. Then about 7:30, I get blasted with all the crap I have to do for the day, I skip my meals during the day, I drink a crap ton of coffee, come home far later than I want to take care of family stuff, and then gorge myself on M&M's. Those little delicious devil chocolate candies have taken over my life for far too long, and it's the only thing I crave to help soothe my stress, and then the next day I wake up in the morning feeling like duty from eating all of the sugar, work out harder than I really wanted, to try to burn the calories off and then do it all over again. This cycle has been a drift in my health for a long time. (04:42)
• So I reached out for help. I found an naturopathic doctor and I hired her and I asked her to help. Y'all, that's a big step for me. I'm not a girl who asks for help, but I needed help. You want to know the first thing she did? She put me on a seven-day detox with no coffee... What what? I have not missed a day of coffee since my daughter was born, and y'all, she's 10, and what a gift she gave me, I didn't drink coffee before she was born, and now it's like, how do I survive without it? So today, the day I'm recording this, is day six, no coffee, no sugar, no gluten, and you know what, I don't hate life as much, but day one through day three was kind of like dog poop lit on fire, I couldn't get out of bed for an entire day. (06:13)
• I want my habits and commitments and daily choices to line up with my short and long-term goals, so babe, recognize the drift, call it out for what it is, ask for help and do the small insignificant things each day that help you go in the right direction toward the life you want to live, and the incredible person you were born and made to be... I know you have it in you. That's all for today. Just recognize the drift and course correct. So thanks again for listening to the She Builds Show. What a gift you are. Do me a favor today and just bless someone, can you put some good out into the world, because in January, I covered it with some stinky stuff, okay? And I need all the help I can get to just re-insert joy and love and kindness into the world and I can use your help. (08:44)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• This book asks the question, Do you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur? The first half of the book, Gino is convincing you to not become an entrepreneur to get out of doing the business if you don't possess six essential entrepreneurial traits. The traits are visionary, passionate, problem-solving, driven, risk-taker, responsible risk-taker and responsible. He goes into depth of these traits and with absolutely no apology, says If you weren't born with these traits, you should not be an entrepreneur, he also has an assessment in the book to help you identify whether you possess them or not. In the assessment, you rate yourself from one to four, one is being strongly disagree and four is strongly agreed. (02:07)
• The book has really helped me realize that the way that I'm put together is okay. It's okay that I have so many deals, it's okay that I have so many ideas and set goals and am extremely motivated and passionate. I want women in their lives to be successful in the path they choose. And I think the first step to that success is knowing thyself. One interesting thing I learned while going through this book is that you can be an entrepreneur, but just work for yourself, you don't have to grow a big team, you don't have to have a ginormous business. This was the difference as a young person that I realized there was something different between my father and I, he grew his accounting business, but really did that as a one man show, it's how he preferred it. And it's because he knew his sweet spot and where he was successful, his gift was not training and teaching and growing and taking on other businesses and taking risks, it was to work hard and know he was in control of the fruits of his labor. His success and his idea of entrepreneurship was actually being a solo entrepreneur. (05:44)
• And this book has also actually enlightened me on how my husband is put together... Entrepreneurs are all different. So many entrepreneurs, they don't really fit in. They're different. A teensy weensy bit crazy, right? We're all on crazy. And my husband, he is a true visionary, he has ideas, he leads people so well, and he's optimistic to his core, and this book helped me realize that although sometimes I can feel like he's all over the place, I'm sure my people feel like I'm all over the place, but living with someone like that, I realized that, man, that is a gift, he is a gift, and so are his ideas. (07:19)
• You are a gift and so are your ideas. Know thyself... Were you formed perfectly to be an entrepreneur? Did you rate fours on all of those questions? If you're not sure, I highly recommend that you read the entrepreneurial leap. And then if you know for sure that you are, then my best advice to you is to implement Traction, it will change your life and really get you to build your business from the foundation up to start it strong. So read the books. Download the audio books. Keep growing. Keep reaching. Keep learning. Spend time getting to know thyself. It's worth it, honey. (08:07)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• The first one it's called backlog, this is one of my favorite titles of a column because it's just where you get to brain dump everything. Whatever you have that needs to get done goes in backlog, all the things that are running around in your head, it gets dumped here. And under that column for each task, you create what is called a card, the card has its own little box with the title, and you can have as many cards under the column. So next to the backlog to the right, I title to column this week, I only allow, and I teach my team this, five things at a time to be put in that column. So you just choose the items from backlog and you click and drag them into this week, next to the this week column is what I title today. This is what you are going to get done today. I teach my team that they're only allowed to put three things... Yes, three things, if you take everything from backlog and you put it into this week or today, it feels really overwhelming, not only visually, but mentally. (02:08)
• That means you can only do one thing at a time. It is proven that multitasking is not possible. Let me prove it to you right now. So I want you to make a fist, now I want you to point both your fingers up, and then now I want you to move them about an inch apart from each other, and then I want you to stare directly between... Now, don't touch your fists together, you have to have your hands apart, and I want you to stare directly between both pointer fingers, what happens? What happens is, your fingers drift back together. You can't hold your fingers apart in gaze through them at the same time, so stop trying to multi-task, it doesn't work. One thing at a time, okay? (03:39)
• Okay, so let me give you a real life example on how I use Trello. So, I have Trello downloaded on my phone and my computer, and whenever I have a task that comes up, I've just kind of trained myself over last three or four years to only use Trello. There's so many things that pull my attention that you could put it here or put it there, but I just use Trello instead of texting myself, emailing myself, writing myself a note inside my phone, making a sticky note. I pull out my phone, I put it in backlog, and I get it out of my brain, I just stop letting it swirl around. So this has been the best practice for me for the stuff that comes up throughout the day, to have it in one place and I know where it goes because it creates structure and organization. (8:18)
• The other thing I use it for is my personal life, you all... There are always things that need to be done around the funny farm here, and it's an easy way for my husband and I to communicate about various tasks that need to get done around here. So within this board, I write down things that need to get done, it's also a nice way to delegate things quietly and kindly to your husband. Like, hey, can you pick up this pile of leaves, please? Thank you. I'm just going to put it in Trello and then you won't be mad at me. But other things I keep within that board is, a packing list for my kids, it just makes it so much easier when we're going on trips for me to just... To pull that list up and go through pack them. I also have a set of instructions for like a checklist in references for how to take care of all my animals and my house when we're gone. So, every time you leave your house, you're making a list for whoever is house sitting or taking care of your dogs or animals, and I just have one set up in Trello and I send that to the house sitter. It just makes my life easier, run smoother and not feel like I have to recreate something that happens over and over. So, document it. Delegate it. (10:52)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So an attached ADU can only be maximum 50% of the living area of the main residence with a maximum of 1200 square feet. If it's a detached ADU, they're generally maxed out at 800 square feet. Now, there are rules to accommodate if you want something larger, but you can only go 50% of the living area of the main residents. Again, maxing out at 1200 square feet. So a simple little example, If you want a detached ADU, you can go up to 800 square feet, no problem. If you wanted to go larger than that, and you had a 1500 square foot house, 50% of that main house is 750, so you couldn't go larger than 800, your main house has to be bigger to accommodate something. (01:53)
• The other item that I just want you to consider is your utilities. So our city allows you to hook up to existing water and sewer lines, this is a huge deal because it really saves money not having to put in additional underground utilities. Now, the other item to discuss here is septic tank, so we have a lot of septic tanks in the area that I live... The city here will allow you to hook up to an existing septic tank if the tank and leach field is big enough to handle the additional load. Let's talk septic tanks for a second. So, the size of the tank determines whether or not you can put in additional load on that tank. A 1500-gallon tank usually is for a three-bedroom house, and the tank load is determined by bedrooms, not bathrooms, so if you already have a three-bedroom house and you're adding a one-bedroom unit and you have a 1500 gallon tank, your tank would be maxed out. (04:16)
• A master plan is a floor plan that has already been through a building and planning check and has a set of plans ready to roll. This is my favorite way to expedite the building process, and it also saves a lot of money. In Chico, they have over 20 master plans ready to use, and they range in size from 496 square feet to 749 square feet. These plans are on their website and you can view in the ADU catalog. It saves so much time and money, you guys always consider a master plan, even if the floor plan isn't exactly what you want, because small modifications can be made without paying a fortune. Starting from scratch from an architect or engineer from the get-go, is quadrupled the price versus using a master plan, so always consider this and check out your local city or county to see if they offer anything like that. (6:42)
• So the other thing to consider is your financials, you can get a construction loan for a new build, so any local lender can help you through that process and just make sure you're considering the financial part as part of your plan. Now, once you have your plans ready for submittal, you can either submit them as an Owner Builder or you can have a Contractor submit the plans for you. Now, there will be permit fees and school fees that need to be paid at this stage, so make sure you bring your checkbook when you're going to submit plans, then once you get the permit, you're ready to start building. (8:22)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, I want to kind of walk you through what yesterday looked like for me. I just want you to know what it's like to be in my job, in case you're possibly considering it. So I wake up early, I write in my journal, I meditate and around 7:00 AM my work day starts. I check my email, I check the schedules, and I communicate with my sub-contractors. I run a business where I manage all of the subcontractors who are performing the work, most general contractors run their construction business that way. And it's a delicate balance because these trade partners are not my employees, so I have to be super respectful and conscious of their schedules and make sure I'm planning out at least two weeks to a month, so I can manage their schedules as well. (01:44)
• Yesterday I was out looking at jobs around 800 AM, I have visited eight sites, and the first one, we've gotten a lot of rain and snow over Christmas and New Years. The house had been dried in, which means it's protected from the weather on the outside and the dry wall and paint had just gotten completed. So we had a lot of snow melting and a lot of water running near the house, I had to call my crew, because I have people on my team that help manage keeping sites clean and doing small tasks that we need to get done. So I called my crew and had them divert the water to get some temporary gutters installed, we needed to get the water that was melting off the roof, from the snow away from the house. (02:44)
• So this is what I did after knowing that they started framing, I had to let the electrician know that he needed to go cut in his electrical panel in the sheeting before the siding goes up. I like to give everyone more than just a few days notice, so I felt really bad rushing him on this one, but... it Is what it is. So second, I had to call my finished guy to let him know that they of raining, because the next thing that's going to happen is we're going to need exterior doors to be able to put the siding up, so I had to let him know. And then after that, I called my window guy because again, before siding can go up, we need exterior doors and windows, so I scheduled windows for the end of the week to make sure we were ready for siding. (7:07)
• But along with scheduling and planning, I also get to design... I have a very creative side to me, and I love that. All the parts of what make up who I am get to be expressed in this career, I get to come up with the entire picture of what a home would look like. And I love Pinterest, and I love pushing the envelope on design. So I build spec homes and most spec homes are generally pretty boring and it kind of drives me crazy. So I try to combine quality construction with trending design elements like beautiful wallpaper, and I just painted all the doors and trim on one of my specs gray... I know. Crazy, right? So I love my job, I love the flexibility, I love that I get to be a mom and a wife and create beautiful homes, and just kind of sit inside my gift. I just want to encourage you, if you're considering this path as a career choice and you want to know more about it, send me a message. I'm on Instagram, @shebuilds.homes is my Instagram handle. I would just love to encourage you today, I'd love to inform you, I'd love to help you with your path or anything that I can do to just encourage you. (11:42)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So step one, you have to have a goal setting planner or a system, no matter what type of person you are, I feel like we can all meet at the crossroads of, I have something I want to accomplish or a habit I want to create, and I don't want to fail at it anymore. If you're the type of person that's spontaneous and free-flowing or you're super tasky, I think we all have things that we want to do and we want to accomplish, and I've found through a lot of research, and a lot of trial and error, that this really works. I personally recommend the big life planning system, you can download it, I'll put the link in the show notes. (02:54)
• For each zone, you break those down into weekly goals, so for example, spiritual zone, if I have a yearly goal of attending church each week, then I write down in that week, that the goal is to attend church. And then it's there in front of me and I know, Alright, I gotta make sure I'm playing and ready to get everybody ready to go on Sunday, because that's important and it feeds me and I feel better. So number five, write down your daily goals, these are always the zones in your life that you will need to give attention to. Usually when I need to change a habit or really work on something consistently, I focus this into my daily goals. So for example, in my health zone, if I want to drink a gallon of water a day, my daily goal would be to fill my large jug of water the night before, so that first thing in the morning I see it and then I know, Okay, in order for me to make it through this gallon, I got a chug a quarter of it right now. (05:44)
• As you sit down for that period of time, you open up your plan or your journal, and as you achieve those weekly and monthly goals, you check them off and you also recognize when you're slipping. It also reminds me, Oh right. I said I was going to do that this month, and I only have a week left, I need to schedule that time with my spouse, and it keeps you accountable to that. By looking at it every single day. Now, step seven is accountability, and I think this step is probably the most important one, we know that if we write and track our goals, that they're much more likely to happen. That's been proven. (6:53)
• So seriously, focus on finding people who are in line with your goals and make appointments with monthly to check in. I have a business coach, we meet as a team weekly, we go over our goals for the month that we've been working on. And then we plan for the next month, we set aside time to be accountable to the things we said we would do. I really hope that you take a few hours during this little break when the kids are out of school, when you have some time and set your intentions for 2022, so that you start it well, but you also continue it well, and it goes far beyond January or February. (07:55)
FROM THIS EPISODE:
• The Big Life Planner Link: https://biglifehq.com/planner
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I started in the mid-90s doing building on lot consulting with an engineering firm and did that for 10 years, and then I retired from that and I acted as a general contractor for building our family home for the following year, and then I was working full-time with my husband in our trades business, so I was kinda doing part-time kind of doing the engineering thing, and then I shifted full-time into our business, and after 15 years, we sold that business and now what I do is I work with other women in construction businesses to help them organize and structure their business for profitability, flexibility and freedom. (0:47)
• So it was just having that support, somebody to help me stay focused, because when you can get carried away with everything that's going on in your day, that last priority is on your business. So that's thing that gets... When you're tired at the end of the day, that's the things, well, maybe I can do that tomorrow instead, but when I had that accountability, when I had that person to say, Okay, these are the points that we need to work on, and let's focus on this one piece then I could do that. And so that's kind of how it helped me, just make sure that I put my processes in place and make sure that, basically what ended up happening is we were able to build our business so basically we could actually sell it when we were at really to exit it. (6:52)
• Yeah, I'm certainly the only one that caters just to women, there are other women who do construction coaching, but I think I'm the only one that does women specifically. And like I said, I do that very purposely, it doesn't make my life easy... It would be easy for me to go find all these men and bring them in... That would be fine. The challenge is getting women to recognize they need the help, recognize they're allowed to ask for help. I think that so many women are used to doing everything and... I got it, I can do it. It's just easier for me to do it. I was there too, before I hired my first admin person, it's just like, I can do it, it's just easier for me to do... I don't have time to train somebody. It's just like all these emergencies, I just need to do, I need to do and I need to do, and to just stop and let yourself ask for help and to accept it, that is I think the biggest challenge. Because one, women feel like a failure when they have to ask for help. It's just like, I can do it all, well you shouldn't do it all. There's no reason for you to do it all, and nobody can be successful on their own. (14:31)
• You gotta be ready for it. There is a lot to be ready for, I mean, even on the good days, there's a lot of struggles, but if somebody's interested in that, I really want to help them be able to make that shift because challenges are confidence and fear. Women who are making that shift from being a trades woman to becoming a business owner in the trades, those are the two biggest issues that I see. And I really want to help them, empower them and give them the tools that they need to do it with confidence, because it is so... It's so possible. It's so possible to have the right support system when you accept it, when you give yourself the opportunity to take the help, have the guidance, there's so much potential. (23:27)
ABOUT CORALEE BEATTY:
After 25 years in the construction industry, and successfully selling her trades business, Coralee now shares her knowledge, experience and expertise with other women in construction and trades to build their business for greater profitability, flexibility and freedom. In addition, Coralee advocates for women in trades to empower them to take control of their future in the industry, helping them start a business and doing so on the right foot, providing best practices for growth and success.
Coralee wholeheartedly believes in the power of women and believes together they are stronger. Her purpose is to support women in construction to maximize their business potential and live a life they love.
CONNECT WITH CORALEE:
• Website:https://www.thrivehq.ca
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/thrivehq.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coraleebeatty
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coralee-beatty-627a001b1
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So after transitioning through multiple architecture firms, I ended up getting a job for a local home builder here and felt like they do kind of track homes, but they're on the higher end, so they're million dollars and they don't do thousands of homes a year. They do a few hundred, but they're all really, really custom and really beautiful, so I started working with them and then realized, well, there's other departments in this particular home builder that I wanted to try out. So I got a real estate license, started selling real estate for their model homes, I ran all of their marketing, and then I got to dabble a little bit on-site and just going out on site, checking on jobs, and kind of realize, Wow, that's a lot more exciting for me than it is sitting in the office. (2:27)
• Yeah, the house that She Built was a really cool project here in Saratoga Springs, so we started a Utah professional women in building Group, which is a chapter of a national group, a few years about here in Salt Lake City. And we've been lucky enough to have women from all over the state that have joined and that it is now a to state professional women in building Council. Cool, it's really cool. And we have more than 60 women that have joined and are paying members and are doing really incredible things for our entire community. But the house that She Built, we needed a project that we could do that it was going to be fun and exciting and attention casting. And throughout discussion back and forth, this project of building an all-female built home came up, everyone thought, Wow, this seems really cool, really exciting. (7:45)
• Yeah, and I think for me, I have a little different kind of crew, like all of my trade partners, they've known me since I was a kid, my dad, a very loyal contractor, he doesn't price shop, he picks the people that are good to him and he's good to them, and that's why they have these long-term relationships. So a lot of these people have known me forever and they really... They know that I know what I'm talking about, and they don't question me or give me a hard time on site, but the occasional time we do have new guys or new man that own companies that are coming out and joining our trade team. I do have to prove myself, and at some point I would like it would be great to not have that have to happen again, but I think for the next little while, we just have to continue to get the word out that women should be in this industry, it's a great place for you to be. (13:36)
• I absolutely think construction is not for the soft heart, you have to have thick skin, even in a situation where I'm in, where most of the people I work with have known me since I was a kid, we still get into it all the time, I mean, we're in a crunch where the last minute I'm yelling at the plumber about something, he's yelling back to me about something, you have to have the skin... And you have to also be able to say, I'm wrong. And you have to also be able to... This is probably the difference between men and women, and I see this a lot on job sites as men are, my dad and the plumber or the electrician can get into it and then be best friends tomorrow. (30:36)
ABOUT STEPHANIE DAILEY:
Stephanie is the current 2021 President of the Utah Professional Women in Building committee, and the 2022 Utah Valley HBA's 2nd Vice President. She is in line to serve as the first ever female president of the Utah Valley HBA. Stephanie began her career in construction at a very young age. At 16 she got her first job at an architectural design firm. After high school she continued her education in computer aided drafting. She became a licensed real estate agent in 2015 and a licensed contractor in 2019. She spent 6 years in architectural design both with Landforms and Walker Home Design.
In 2012, she began work with Symphony Homes out of Davis County. She started in their architectural design department. After a few years she transitioned into real estate sales and marketing while continuing to help the drafting department. In 2017 she began working side by side with her father Steve Dailey. In 2019 she became a licensed general contractor and today they work together building custom homes across Northern Utah.
Stephanie likes to spend her free time outdoors. You can usually find her out on the trails on a mountain bike or in her side by side. Most weekends she is camping or traveling and enjoying as much time exploring as possible.
CONNECT WITH STEPHANIE:
• Website:https://stevendailey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniebuildsit
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stephaniebuildsit
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I have built lots of houses, flipped over 100 homes, and for some... This felt different. All the houses I've built before had partners, I had other contractors who had the risk, it wasn't all on me. But this one was all me, I had to face my fears and worries and completely put myself out there. When life gets like this for me, I know it's because I've drifted away from God. When I'm so consumed with worry, most likely because I haven't surrendered, I know I'm not allowing myself to turn over the outcomes that I have no control over. So Sunday, we went to church and the entire message was about... Guess what? Surrendering, I realized that my worry was not necessary. (04:30)
• And you know what happened? Right after church, I had an open house scheduled for these two houses to try to sell them, they'd only been on the market a couple of days. I set up everything, I put all the signs out, the flags out, and for a half an hour, absolutely no one... I mean, no one, I felt ghosted. I also felt like the kid sitting inside the house waiting for your friends to show up, peering out the window, where are they? Are they coming? Are they going to be here? No one for like a half an hour, and then you guys, all of the sudden cars upon cars... I mean, at one point, God was just showing off. 30 people are walking around the house, it was speaking life into me. See, what I didn't know was that the little theater across the street that I actually had thought had been abandoned, had a play scheduled at the exact same time of my open house and the hotel car by car, showed up to the theater and they all came to see my house. The response and the feedback honestly brought me to tears because that day I sold both houses. (05:49)
• And I think God was saying to me, child, I got you. You're mine, you have nothing to fear. The bigger the mess, the bigger the carry. Am I right? I am a mess and none of that had anything to do with me, and I just want to give God the glory for that moment, he just overwhelmed me that day, overwhelmed me to the point of tears that I could be such a mess, such a worried filled mess, and the very day that I'm feeling that and trying to surrender to God, that he shows up and he shows off, Oh man! So do not let worry, fear and dread over take your mind honey. Surrender. And you know the thing about surrendering is, is this is not a one-time thing, it's an act that must happen daily, a daily reminder that your worry can be handed over and you can let peace in. (6:58)
• Honey, you are good enough. You do know what you're doing. Do the thing. Even if you're scared, I'm proud of you. You're incredible. You are amazing. Do the thing. Even when you're worried, thank you so much for listening today for coming and joining me as I share things that are closest and dearest to my heart. May your day be filled with peace. (08:10)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I met you when you were kind of in the middle of working for the last one and then starting your business, and I'm curious, because I've never asked you what made you decide to take that leap to be like, I'm done working for y'all, and I'm ready to do it? It wasn't like just being done working for other people, it was sort of just like I... Had a dream to have my own business when I was... I think I was like 18, I was like... I went to a junior college before I went to Cal Poly. And I was like a life guard. I was in high school, and I was telling one of my friends that was working with me about how I wanted to become a landscape architect and how... At 18? Yeah, I feel like it was right when I had just learned about it and how I thought it sounded like an amazing field because I could have my own business one day and it seem like something that I can do with kids, that would be a manageable kind of job. And he was like, What are you talking about your 18? (1:25)
• So does your husband do some of the homeschool stuff? I do use that for the afternoon, so he does it in the morning with the kids, and a lot of times, he mostly does the Science, he used to be an outdoor science teacher, so he's really good at doing that and he get's it's excited about it. Yeah. He does that part with the kids and he makes breakfast and does all the things like all morning... While I'm working in the office and then if I can be done by one... then I go to my meetings all day, and if I'm home, I'm designing, and if I'm out, I'm doing a consult at someone's house where I'm designing on site and drawing stuff up for them right there to hand off at the end of the day. Or I'm measuring if it's a bigger project, doing a site analysis, getting things home, I can drop the base map and do the whole design. (10:34)
• I really want it to be something that people see. Come to life and see the vision. Absolutely, and I think just figuring that out in... Once I'm on my own, now that I'm actually working with lots of people is kind of learning of that whole part of the install... Absolutely, yeah, because most people don't want to just stop there, they're like, Okay, now how do I get this to actually make it happen. They don't just want the design, they want to know who do I call to build this and how much is it going to cost? Which is hard to do when you're not on building it. (19:37)
• And sometimes for me, I can just move on to the next thing and not just sit in the fact that, Wow, the blessing has come, it's here, I'm living the thing that I dreamed of having. And sometimes we forget and we get caught up in all of the business and the stress, but really there's so much gratitude to be had in the thing that you wanted to do, and I think that keeps us happier and more fulfilled when we can just sit in the fact that we're living the thing we dreamed. Yeah, it does. I think I should do that more because you're right, it is really easy to move on. (23:05)
CONNECT WITH JENNA:
• Website: https://jenna-johnson-designs.business.site
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennajohnson.designs
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-johnson-7218642a
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• These four words I'll do it myself. No, no, no. You don't have to do that. I'll do it myself. Oh no, no, no. I got it. I'll do it myself. Oh, it's okay. I got it. I don't need your help. Instead of teaching, instead of passing on knowledge, instead of truly focusing and spending my work hours on my genius. I'm bidding jobs, I'm checking in on subs, I'm responding to emails, I'm doing the books, I'm writing the checks, I'm answering the sales calls. I'm designing the project and the list goes on and on and on instead of truly focusing in on my genius. (02:04)
• So I'm going to have to teach. I'm going to have to delegate and choose my family over and over. I mess it up. I drown in the busy-ness and then I have to make different choices next time. Someone told me once that you can't ever just arrive at perfect balance between work and home life, it's not attainable. They told me it's a counter balancing. You have to go over here and balance that and then go over there and balance that. But it's not this, shut it off, cut it off, can't bring it home, don't know what to do with it, can't talk about it. It's this counter balancing. So one thing needs more attention than the other. At certain times it's a constant movement back and forth, not in a bad way, but one once you're able to balance that correctly in the counter balancing, it does create balance. (04:19)
• I spent the whole full weekend with my husband, cleaning out his garage and shop. This has been a five-year gig I've been avoiding. I take care of the house. You take care of the shop in the garage. And my husband wasn't born with the gift of organizing, so I just literally shut it off from my brain from having to help him, but we really needed to take care of it. So I helped him, and we bit off way more than we could chew. And on Sunday I had plans to spend the afternoon with my daughter getting our nails done. She had been asking me all week, but my husband, he couldn't finish the job on his own. And he had stuff scattered throughout the entire yard and I knew he just couldn't start Monday with stuff everywhere. So I sacrificed the time with my daughter to spend it with my husband. She was in tears and she was so upset with me. I was heartbroken. I told her I would make it up to her. I promised her, you want to know what she said to me? She said, I knew you would do this. Oh, those words cut like a knife. (05:28)
• But when I woke up on Monday, I get the disappointment of my sweet girl's face out of my head. So I decided to counterbalance. I was upfront and honest with my team. I told them I screwed up with my little girl and I needed to give her my afternoon. And I was hoping they would be okay to reschedule for the next day for our meeting. We had some schedule work arounds, but we got it figured out. And I freed up my afternoon and I went and surprised her. She was a static. She was like, what are we doing, mom? Why are you just picking me up? It's like, babe, we're going to go get our nails done. (07:13)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• When I saw the internet come about, I thought, well, here's an opportunity, because everybody can have that 15 minutes of fame, right? Everybody has an opportunity. So I started... Yeah, so I started dreaming about creating this online TV, radio network, I kept trying to get people to create it, they just couldn't see it... It was the early days, everything was HTML code. And so I taught myself how to do HTML, how to do CSS, and how to do JavaScript, and all the coding, and then I created my own network. Instead of trying to find somebody else to do it, I built it myself. So there you go. She builds, I build my network. (2:35)
• I was one of the very first Women in China to teach podcasting, and it was really bizarre because when I went over there, everything was in Mandarin, when I was trying to figure out the podcast platforms.... I'm going to stop you right there. Does HTML turn into Mandarin when you're in China? Is it all the same? No, it's different, and plus when you go onto the platforms, everything was in Mandarin, so I had to learn different words in Mandarin that would be related to what the podcast would be. So that way when I went through their platforms, I'd be able to go through and set it up. So I learned a little bit of Mandarin to create it. (5:16)
• I was creating TV shows back then, that's what a cooking shows and health shows and things like that, and I actually was making deals with doctor's offices and they were going to stream my TV shows inside their doctor's offices for their patients to watch before they go into their appointments. It gave us a way that it went beyond the old way of doing broadcasting through these major networks, you can create these little networks and have your content streamed just anywhere. And it's even more so today. But from FMG network, I did podcasting, I created women in podcasting directory in 2005, so it was the first online directory for all women podcasters. Then I actually went in and started a podcast school. After the fire I kind of took everything down and went on hiatus to rebuild my life. I'm now in the process of re-emerging. I have a Radio, TV and Podcast Network, a podcast directory, the women in podcasting directory and I have a site called Podcast mingle, which is an online community where people can find guests for the podcast, so I have a lot of different things that are launching this fall. (10:19)
• The word no, when people have something that happens and they can't control it, you keep saying No. No. Like, it's going to stop it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it doesn't... And so we couldn't get in the next morning and then a friend of mine, she called and said you need to come over here and I can't leave, I can't leave. She said just come over here and just rest, she was such a sweetheart. So we went to her house, and then the next day we came back out and we were trying to... Kept trying to get in, they wouldn't let us in. I kept trying to call animal rescue, that was such a nightmare, the phones were down and you couldn't get a hold of anybody. (15:49)
• It's kind of like separating yourself and it's like, alright, now I'm on this timeline that one's gone, and then instead of looking back and always trying to be what you were, it's almost like there's been this death of whatever Jody was before. Now, we have to kind of let go of that because we're never going to find that again, it's gone. And how do you move forward and just embrace that like this has happened, and this is me and this is my new life? With my journey with you and how much you've poured into me and helped me, I think in a small way when we've been through something like that, when we can look back on it with gratitude and be like, Okay, through that fire, all of these other beautiful things about myself have been formed and created, and I have gratitude. Are you at a place of gratitude yet? Yeah, because one of the things that I've found about myself is I was constantly running and I was doing a lot of things, I would say yes to everybody, and I would do all these things previously where it wasn't always where my passion led me, and so now I'm grateful, I pay more attention to things I love, I'm conscious that life is a fleeting moment. (27:24)
ABOUT JODY COLVARD:
Jody Colvard is the Founder and CEO of FMG Network (FRQNCY Media Group), Women in Podcasting and Podcast School, all cutting-edge communities combining creativity, personal empowerment and technology to empower voices, ideas & stories. She is also the Co-Founder of the Speaker Studios and Master Speakers Bureau. With a career spanning over 20 years in business successes, Jody has worked with celebrities and charity organizations such as Make a Wish Foundation and The Sole of Africa with Nelson Mandela, Brad Pitt and Sir Richard Branson; and with clients featured on 20/20, Good Morning America, Oprah, and Dr. Phil.
In the late 90's, Jody and her partner Declan Dunn, who wrote the first books on Affiliate Marketing, worked together to educate entrepreneurs and fortune 500 businesses on developing online platforms, marketing and media. In 2001, with a desire to help entrepreneurs have a voice and secure their spot in this fast-growing space called the Internet, Jody created the FRQNCY Media Group (FMG Network), providing online TV, Radio and training for entrepreneurs wanting raise their voice and share their message. In 2004, Jody was introduced to Podcasting and Blogging, and quickly realized how effective they both could be in sharing thoughts, ideas and stories. She began conducting workshops and spoke on stages Internationally teaching entrepreneurs to use these new tools. Soon after, Jody went to China, becoming one of the first women to teach Podcasting in Asia, and in 2005 she created Women in Podcasting, the longest running and largest podcast directory for women podcasters.
Jody has spoken all around the world, helping individuals to have a voice, sharing the stage with; Michael Beckwith, Barbara De Angelis, Declan Dunn, Brendon Burchard, DC Cordova, Click Funnels' CEO Russell Brunson , Yanik Silver, Eben Pagan, Zappo’s former CEO Tony Hsieh, Loral Langemeier, Mark Victor Hansen and many more…
Jody is a pioneer – an insider’s mentor – in the realms of internet marketing, new media, social networking, and business strategy development. In 2011 she distilled that knowledge into her acclaimed book and training program Be A Show Host: How to Connect Your Dream to The New World of Community, Customers and Continual Profits. This comprehensive media course has been used to teach thousands of students to develop professional, polished, and – best of all – profitable podcasts and radio shows.
An ardent supporter of various causes, from Make a Wish Foundation, where she was instrumental in making a young boy’s wish come true, in conjunction with Ron Howard of Imagine Entertainment and Robin Williams, to raising money for the homeless, American Cancer Association and the Scleroderma Society, Jody has volunteered her time and resources to help make a difference in the world.
In 2018 Jody's world was pulled out from under her when the Camp Fire swept through her community and destroyed her home and took her loved ones. She stepped back from her media business for a while to rebuild her life. And now after the 3 year anniversary of the fire, Jody is re-emerging, relaunching a brand new TV, Radio and Podcast Network bigger and better than before.
CONNECT WITH JODY:
Website: https://fmgnetwork.com
Women in Podcasting: https://womeninpodcasting.com
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I'm a second generation builder, so I started in diapers, I spent summers... My dad was a developer here in Chico, so I spent summers working on the job. After school? Yeah, so grew up on the job site, then decided to go to college to do something else, was a Recreation major and somehow ended up back in construction. I'm married to also a second generation builder, so we in our spare time, always built together, got into houses, redone them and we were in the process of redoing our house when the Camp Fire struck. So hence, that led me to a lot of time on my skid steer on our property and our neighbor's property, and then reconstructing with my family, which has been quite a dream, it's been great. (01:23)
• Without a doubt, it's one talking to girls who... Anybody really that will listen really about how great construction is, especially girls, because my generation a 20 something year-old, that book wasn't really open to me, that platform. It should have been, and being in a building family, definitely it should have been. But really then, it really wasn't. So right now, I'm just trying to tell any girl that will listen, consider construction as a career choice, really anybody... You don't have to go to college if you want to do construction, but to be able to see what you physically build at the end of the day is such a beautiful thing. And really, my calling right now is launching a mobile training unit that will travel to areas that have been affected by wildfire. (3:33)
• It would be amazing if I had unlimited funds to do anything with, so it's been something that we've been throwing around to the Valley Contractor's Exchange, which for those that don't know, builders exchanges are non-profit member-based construction associations. I have the greatest job when I'm not physically out there building, I get to advocate locally for building and whatever that looks like in various communities throughout the country. So it's been something we've been talking about here for 20 years, how great would that be, and we've been trying to find community partners to do that with community colleges or office of education or just other community partners that could help us make that a reality, and we never really got anywhere on that. And so the silver learnings that come out of these terrible natural disasters like we experienced with the Camp Fire and then the subsequent North Complex Fire, fortunately, unfortunately, provides some funding sources that aren't typically available to us. (06:42)
• Yeah, ideally, if they have two weeks to spend with us, that's an 80-hour per core curriculum, it's an industry recognized all over the United States and is recognized basic construction skills and safety. So they can take that if they want to enter the work force, which... No joke, that's what we're also trying to do here, when we talk about rebuilding after the Camp Fire, rebuilding Paradise, it's painfully slow only because we don't have the physical bodies to the work, so if we can empower people... And the other part of that is construction is a really intimidating industry to get into, especially as a woman, right? Like physically go on a job site and show up, you have to show up and utilize those tools and equipment and know what you're doing. It's hard, it's intimidating. So I feel like if we can go into these communities and teach them those basics and then empower them and have them physically build something, and then they can look at it and say, Wow, I did that. (10:48)
• Do you have a goal date? I do. The goal, the drop dead date. I'm going to say January 1st. I think it'll be... I think the pieces will be together before then... Yeah, so we're securing funding right now, the NOFA hasn't even been released yet, but we're still filling out the application, we've had several conversations with the EGA, this is right on their radar, like this is right in line with what they're trying to achieve, not only through fire rebuilding, because we're coming out of COVID also, and then we've talked to our local community foundations. We're going to talk to them about funding. BCE does have some money in the bank, so they can have some skin in that game too. And then go out to industry and ask them to put their skin in the game, because we know they need employees... And the other part of what we're going to do here is take this truck and trailer to schools, there's no more construction tech classes in high schools and middle schools. And so right now, on a very small scale, we do construction camps with the Boys and Girls Club, we do construction camps with our local recreation district to grow those programs too. (13:10)
• Yeah, so happy to be alive and to have my family and to realize the only things that we lost were just things... We were home, so we were able to get our pets loaded up, we've been evacuated several times, so you know, I know how to pack... I have my favorite underwear, stupid stuff like that, you lose most of your clothes, but just be able to put on that perfect pair, it's crazy. But we didn't take the other things like the paintings that my grandmother did and my grandfather's war memorabilia, that stuff sucks, but the rest of it is just really things... I have my family and I have a great husband that knows how to build. So that first two months, we didn't know where we were going to live and life is just got really strange and has weird ways of taking care of you. (19:17)
ABOUT AMY:
Amy Rohrer, Co-Owner of Rohrer Construction and Executive Director of Valley Contractors Exchange, is a second-generation builder living in Butte Creek Canyon. Amy is passionate about empowering girls and women in construction! She engages youth by teaching construction camps with the Boys and Girls Club, and summer camps where she is sure to offer an equal number of Girls Build! camps.
After their family’s home and construction shop was lost in the 2018 Camp Fire, She and her husband got HAZWOPER certified and spent 6 months removing the ash and debris from their property, as well as their neighbor’s property, before they got down to the business of rebuilding. In fall of 2021, she is launching a mobile training unit that will travel to burned-out communities and teach fire survivors basic construction safety and skills though hands-on-tools community rebuilding projects.
In her work life, Amy is happiest on her skid steer (named Miss Kitty), pouring concrete, or framing and standing walls. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her husband and 2 teen-age sons, playing golf, soccer, and paddle boarding.
Amy is fond of saying, “I may be 5’ 2’ and 110 pounds but put me on a piece of equipment and I am just as strong as a 6’ tall bodybuilder!”
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• If you're going to update the electrical in your bathroom, you need updated plugs, switches and cover plates, bathroom vent fan, cabinet hardware, vanity facet, tub, faucet and shower head combo, paint and grout colors, so that's kind of like a material and selection list is what I call it, and sub-contractors needed to do the whole job, if you just wanted to organize it and not do anymore, you need someone to do demo, plumbing, electrical tile, counters, drywall, paint and window installation. Okay, now that we have a list of both of those items, you need to design the space, selections need to be made for everything on the material list, you need to pick out your tub, your title, the paint colors, the cabinet, the counter is the window, the facets the light in the hardware, the mirrors, and then you need to order it all, so that means you have to measure and order everything associated on that list. So right now it's taking me two or three months to get windows, and if you're going to have a custom vanity made, cabinet makers are booked out just as long, don't even get me started on appliances, that's why we're doing a bathroom example. (02:50)
• If you just have some drywall patches and it needs to be painted, so two weeks is usually plenty of time for a bathroom remodel, what's really not fun is living in a house that has been demoed and then just staring at it for a month. Anybody ever done that? Like, yeah, we're going to redo our bathroom, and then you find out that the title you want is three months out, you can't get a cabinet, can't get a window, and then you just stare at that empty demo bathroom for months. So no demo. Until everything's planned. No demo until all the stars aare aligned. So most cities would require a permit for this type of remodel, and I always get a permit no matter what, it's super easy to go to your local building department and just ask about the requirements, a lot of times they just appreciate you coming in and communicating with them what you're doing rather than trying to hide it. So go down there, ask what is required, and get the permit for this process. (4:43)
• I always allow days, not hours, I don't try to cram things into multiple days because sometimes you get there and you're like, Oh, the floor is not level, or whatever the problem is, to assign a timeline to each step on your calendar and then you can see what needs to be done and how long it's going to take, and if you're going to be doing parts of it, assign your timeline to your task, and if you're using subcontractors, you need to give them a minimum, at a minimum a week's notice when you will be ready for them, Hey, the tile is going to be done on this day, we'll be ready for counters. I give my sub-contractor a minimum of two weeks, it's crazy busy where I live, and I just like to give them as much notice as possible. So if I know when the cabinets are being installed on a certain day, I notify my tile guys and give them a window of time on the schedule after cabinets, and then I also notify my counter top sub so that they have plenty of time to put the job in motion, and they always know that I've already ordered all the materials, and they don't have to worry about anything, they just go pick it up and they install it. When I'm scheduling items, the most important thing you can do is plan, everybody has commitments and schedules, and no one likes a surprise or something unplanned. (08:04)
• The work I do in the background to make sure everything runs smoothly, basically gives the impression to my sub-contractors that I respect their time and I appreciate their work, and if anyone comes to your house and they do a good job, give them donuts. I'm serious, feed them, give them a good review and recommend them and always be kind, be kind to anybody that comes into your house. Every single subcontractor talks to every other contractor, so if you treat one poorly and give them a snotty attitude, you will get ghosted because they all talk to each other, Hey, don't call that crazy lady back, that's what happens, because that floor guy is going to tell the cabinet guy. Now, with that said, this is just a little insight into how I run my jobs. This is just a tiny easy Hall bathroom. There's a lot that goes into construction, and it takes a lot of good planning to do it well, so if you're considering DIY, I hope this information has either empowered you or slap you in the face to hiring a contractor to manage the project, one or the other, you're either going to fall on one or the other side. (09:20)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Because I see what's missing from my perspective from being a builder and the people I work with, but what did you really see was missing... A lot more hands-on things with the clients, like the mood board and the 3D renderings, like photos of the end design, and here in Chico, it's just too expensive for the clients, and a lot of people in Chico don't have the software on a computer to do it... So I just kinda wanted to offer that to Chico residents. We do it all the time in class, so I thought, Why not? Right, because if you think about it, most people can't really picture what their house and what the layout of their space is gonna be from a 2D floor plan. (02:09)
• I've always been a creative a person, and in high school, I prevailed in art and science, and then once I got out of high school, I kind of realized architecture is a mixture of art and science in a really applicable Art. And I was always inspired by my dad, who was a driller, and he taught me how to draft. Every time I wanted to rearrange my room I did it with grids and the squares on the grid. I always loved doing the site visits with my dad, I loved the whole process and being outside and all the fun stuff that they do out there and hard stuff. And then lastly, I really like the end result, how you literally make something out of nothing, and you really get to physically experience the space once it's completed. (05:37)
• I really like creating the spaces and doing the creative part of the site visits and traveling are always fun and inspirational, so I would love to travel and get inspired by other architecture and then come back and see what I could do with it. And then also shopping is really fun, going into a furniture store and finding the perfect piece that a client might like, or going to the granite store and seeing all the really cool unique pieces of granite and quartz and stuff like that. Yeah, definitely. I think that's why I want to encourage so many more women to consider this industry because we are so complex as women that this industry really allows for the complexity and to kind of meet that need of... Okay, some days I really get to be creative and design and make beautiful things, and other days I get to sit at my desk and just work on something a little bit more mathematic or more detail-oriented, and then go back to being creative and then go out to the site, and if you like to get your hands dirty, there's the ability to do that too. I just love the complexity of it. (07:33)
• I feel like the system and softwares that are available now are one, more accessible to people like you because maybe they're not so expensive to purchase that software. But then it also just gives this better product, and I love the fact that even that you're really trying to make it affordable for people to use rendering, because I 100% agree that if a client that's just doing a simple kitchen remodel, most of the time, they're really overwhelmed by all of the decisions. The traditional interior designer is going to go in with all their swatches as things are being brought along during the construction phase, but I like the fact that it's like, let's get everything out in the open before anything even starts, and let's see what it actually looks like without having to have it created in front of you actually being built. So you can try on the blue paint color on the cabinet, you can try on the wall color, the counter top color and really visualize. (11:35)
• I'm really proud of being in this industry where it's usually mainly ran by men and it's really tough on a woman, and the things the men say is really dishearting and discouraging, and I'm just ready to... To not have it be that way? Yeah, exactly. You know what, that's why I'm here is because there's more of us than you think, and we just need to keep finding each other and rally around each other because the industry will change the more we can link arms with one another and support each other. That's like when you reached out to me, I'm like, Heck yeah, we're going to talk, yeah, we're going to communicate because the more women we can get to come and provide a beautiful service, and not by putting men down or making them feel like we're better than them, that's not the case, it's just we need diversity in every industry, and we offer something different, we offer the ability to build something and consider the way you live in it and the way you feel in it and the way it looks. (16:58)
CONNECT WITH CHASE:
Website: https://www.ccarrdesign.com
Instagram: @ccarrdesign
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I was a stay-at-home mom for quite a few years, probably almost 10 years before I started IKO designs, and I love that my kids were getting to the place where they were all in school, and I was like, What can I do? What would be something that would be interesting? So my husband is a contractor, and we had been since the time we were married buying properties, fixing them up and then reselling them, it wasn't necessarily the intention, but that's just kinda how it happened for us. It was like, Okay, we bought this little tiny house, we fixed it up, we had more kids, so we sold it and then we bought another one, and we kinda got in this process of doing this, and I realized how much I really enjoyed that process of seeing something in kind of a state of disarray and then taking it and making it something beautiful people could appreciate. (01:11)
• I was slowly growing this interior design business, taking whatever came my way, and I was also doing hair and thinking I wanted to grow that business. What I realized was I really so loved doing interior design, and I got to the point where I was getting too busy doing design work to still do hair. And so I was kind of like 50-50 doing both, and I realized through really the help of some amazing women around me, they're like, You need to just do this. Yeah, and it was really scary because doing hair was like, I was actually making money where in design I was like, I'm not really making money. And so it was kind of a big leap and I just stopped doing hair all together and jumped in 100% doing design and put a lot of effort into my Instagram and networking and all the things that I feel like really helped me kind of propel my business in the last couple of years. (03:54)
• I did want to say one thing, I feel like it's really important to acknowledge when you come from a place of privilege, and I think about myself and the fact that I have a spouse who has worked so hard to be able to provide for our family and give me, honestly, the freedom to be able to choose a career that was risky. And I didn't have to go and, well even doing hair, I didn't have to stay doing that career because I have a spouse who was really supportive and was like, I support you in this and I didn't have the pressure of having to pay all of our bills or I have to do them and luxury really to pursue a career and develop it, and I know that not everybody is in that position and I think sometimes we're like, Oh, if you just work hard enough and all your dreams can come true, it's like sometimes we start out at an advantage. (08:12)
• So I think I do my best to try to help educate people in the process and also realize most people that are in this place, whether they're remodeling or new construction or going through very similar things, they're trying to make a million decisions at one time, it is really stressful. And I think for me, I always just want to try to alleviate as much of that pressure and stress as possible and help them. I think one of my strengths is the overall big picture, and I feel like if you're in interior design or construction, you have to be pretty good at that. And being able to envision something. And some people really struggle with that. So I think helping someone be able to take the essence of who they are as a person, so their personal style and aesthetic and the way that they live their life in their space, and to translate that to a contractor or tradesmen and develop a design concept that's something that they feel like embodies them. (11:28)
• And if anybody doesn't know what Stobles is or hasn't checked it out, it's like the most gorgeous coffee and food location downtown with a co-working space and it's what? Three or four levels. How many square feet? There are four levels. Yeah, so there's a basement, there's the main floor, the mezzanine, and then the rooftop on the rooftop. That job was totally one of those networking jobs, so there's two couples that are the owners, and I just happened to meet them through Alex Marshall, and actually through Danny Paget and Maverick, forgetting his last name right now, but... So anyways, it was just random meet and then I guess Alex Marshall is like, You should have Nikole help with the design, and they were already totally down the road, they had their architect and really great design concepts already. And so when I came on the project, I definitely consulted on finishes, a decent portion of them, but a lot of their stuff they had well down, but all of the furniture and stuff was definitely our team. (18:35)
• I'm working on a project right now that their style is mid-century, which is so fun, clean lines, and we're thinking about using cork floors and terrazzo tile. Just lots of pattern. And I think one thing too that I always want to try to put into my design is, so thinking about layering textures and natural texture, so natural elements like wood, stone, things that like woven art or dried floral or things that doesn't feel just one-dimensional, but it has history and it has just layers of texture. I think it's really important for a place to feel, especially if it's a new construction, which I know you do a lot of new construction, it's easy, you've got the dry wall and the tile floors, it's like, let's throw in the wood and let's get the medals in there and all of that stuff to make it feel like it's more home. (37:17)
CONNECT WITH NIKOLE
Website: https://ikodesignstudio.com
Instagram: @ikodesignstudio
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I was walking through the art department on my way to some random general ed class, and I passed by the interior design department and I saw floor plans and I was like, Oh my God! I remember the moment that I stopped and I looked in the cases and I was just like, Who gets to do this? I actually ended up asking someone in the hall and they were like, Oh, the interior design department, you should go check it out. I did, and I found out that inter-design was more than just couches and pillows and paint, which is kinda stupidly what I had thought, and so I jumped in with both feet and that's what I majored in in 2007, way back in 2007. Getting hired by the design firm here in Chico that I did my internship with. And it was amazing, we were working on the Feather Falls Casino hotel, so I got to do a lot of space planning, and it was great. (02:09)
• By the time we were actually in it, and so I started taking drafting classes at night. I graduated from design school, everything was by hand. So I'd put the kids to bed, and then I would take classes, just so that I could draw our own plans for this house, because I couldn't get anybody to do it. And I started taking it into Ellis to get printed as they were going into the city and we had a couple of revisions and the really nice lady Barb at Ellis, she's become such a good friend, she's like, How are you getting these plans turned around so fast? Everybody's so backed up, who's doing this for you? And I was like, Oh, I'm drawing my own plans, and she's like Okay, You're doing your own plans? I need your business card. And I was like, I don't have a business card. I'm just saving this for me, and she's like, Well, you know that we're in the middle of a crisis and there's not enough draft people and architects, and if you can do this, it's your responsibility to put it out there. (06:26)
• I'm actually split 50-50. So I have about half of my clients came to me because they want to remodel their house, they don't know they need an architect, an engineer or designer, and they just want me to take it from start to finish. And the other half are clients that already have had plans drawn by an architect, and they're not sure if they function well or if they even like them, or what they're going to look like when we pop them up into 3D. I'm spending the other half of my time redlining architectural plan sets and then actually putting in furniture pieces and showing them like, Okay, you think This is big enough for your fireplace, your couch, your table, then you're dining room? but if it's not, then we have to adjust some things. (11:27)
• I'm trying to give myself a little bit of a break that I can have it all, but not at the same time. So the days that I am filling it as a Mom, I'm probably not going to get everything that I had on my calendar for work done, and then on the days that I am really doing an amazing job at my job are probably the days that the kids are with my nanny from 8 to 5. And I've had to just... I had a lot of guilt about that over this last year, but at the same time, my kids are five and six, and it's so crazy to hear them talk about Mommy builds houses, like Mommy designs houses. And my son's really intp Legos right now, and he'll come out and he'll have built a house, and he's just like, I buildt a house like you build houses. Okay, so I am taking time away from them, but I'm also hopefully inspiring them that they can do whatever they wanted to do. (20:17)
• My business has really, really been cranking for one year, so I was in like a year and a half, but it's really been going for a year, so I've really been looking at my projects and having to take a serious look at which ones was the most successful at which could I provide the greatest help, I guess, to the projects which were worth the investment for the homeowners and worth it for me. And so I think possibly over the next year, for me trying to figure out, do I only take projects that are a kitchen or more than one room, pool houses, do I only take projects that really are not already in the remodel... So right now, I have some clients that they had started the remodel and they thought that they could do it on their own, and then it's so hard and there's so many moving parts, and so then I've jumped in and tried to piece it all together from a project that was already started, and so maybe having more boundaries about not taking projects like that so that I can schedule myself out better and people feel more successful, I think is kind of the direction that my business is going, and I think it'll always be fluid because right now, building and renovations are going crazy, especially in our area, and so it looks like I'll have the luxury of being able to topic and choose, but then also just trying to keep my mind open that it might not always be like this. (24:57)
ABOUT JEN BEDFORD:
Jen Bedford is the owner, and principal designer at Studio B. Interior Design. The firm located in Chico, CA specializes in spatial-planning for new builds and renovations alike. With projects all across the state her services can be utilized in-person and also through a detailed E-design process. Jen focuses deeply on the way her clients live-in and use their homes to design highly functional and beautiful spaces as unique as the families that live in them.
Studio B. approaches interior design from both an architectural and construction perspective. Perfecting and balancing the floor plan in the early phases of each project is the key to her success. The selection of hard and soft finishes comes second in her design process and ensures a beautiful and proportional project outcome. With a Bachelor’s Degree from Chico State in Interior Design, architectural plan set evaluations and kitchen/ bathroom renovations are her specialty.
Jen is a Chico native and former owner and creative director of A Bit Unruly women’s boutique. She lives on a small farm just outside the city limits with her husband Phil and two kids Juniper and River.
CONNECT WITH JEN:
Website: www.studiobchico.com
Instagram: @studiobchico
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I had bought a house and it had this horribly ugly, giant lava rock looking stuff on the outside. I don't even know if I can describe how awful it is. They're like two foot by one foot brown, black, awful lava rocks. I don't know why anybody ever chose this as a material to put on the outside of a house. But there's a lot of things to question in the eighties, right? So I knew I couldn't update or flip this house without dealing with that rock. So I painted it. I pulled my paint samples out and then picked a color. I drove away, came back and the house was already painted and I showed up and my mouth fell out of my head. It was 100% the wrong color. (02:13)
• But color today is probably one of my favorite things to choose. And I've gotten a lot better at it. And even now I rarely get samples. I don't know why, but I just kind of trust my gut. Because I've seen most of the colors that are in my paint deck in real life, I've painted them enough. I just kind of can picture them in my head at a mass scale and know deeply in my mind what it's going to look like. (3:58)
• So I didn't know for a long time that other people, people like my husband and most of the men I work with, that they can't see what I see. I didn't know that this was a gift. They can't picture the colors, the counters, the backsplash, the floor. They can't see how the puzzle fits together perfectly. So then they question every material because they see them individually, but they don't see the whole picture. And this can cause a lot of pain in some relationships because there's an immense amount of trust that someone has to extend to you to trust them in something they themselves can't picture. (05:33)
• I have a dream to have an office full of bad to the bone women who can all collaborate within the same space. So wouldn't that be cool? Architects and engineers who believe in interior designers and they want to have their input from day one. Oh, we also need more women, architects and engineers. So if you have this cool gift in your brain of how you can see things come together, then I want you to consider this industry. It's a perfect match, design architecture engineer. It all fits together with that ability to see something. (06:56)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I took the advice of changing my environment to help curb this habit, I realized, and around this time of day, I'm tired, I need to pick me up, I need to go somewhere, I need to get away from my desk, I need to get out of the truck. So instead of driving physically driving to Starbucks, I'm like, I'm going to drive to a different place... What's a good place to go? So it came up with Live Life Juice. It's a local juice company that makes fresh juice daily, bottles it and sell it. It's to die for delicious and my body really thanks me. Since I've changed up this environment cue by just driving to a different location, not trying to make it complicated, I just do not drive into Starbucks, just driving somewhere else. (02:14)
• I struggle with this concept constantly, especially when it comes to work, I do what is urgent over what is most important, I choose conquering the to-do list over sticking to what he calls your success list to-do list. Feels like I'm accomplishing something, but they don't resolve anything around my one thing, so I decided to try to figure out my one thing... I listed over 100 things that I do and that I have a desire to do what I'm good at, what I'm passionate about, things I hate doing, but I end up doing them, because they're on my list. I listed them all, then narrowed down over and over until one thing was left... No, no, my one thing is teaching. (4:46)
• Let me dive a little deeper into this for a second. So, in other words that mean the same thing, a sacrifice or to give up. Surrender, renounce, discount, spare, resign oneself to... So what he's saying is, You can give up work, you can spare work, but you cannot give up, you cannot spare or resign yourself to your physical health or your family or your relationship. Sacrifice means to give up something in a big way for something or someone else. When I think of sacrifice, I can't help but think of Jesus and the sacrifice that He's given us. That's the ultimate sacrifice, right? But what are the sacrifices in my life, in your life, that maybe you're making unintentionally? Are you sacrificing things that really matter most to you, what are you sacrificing for something else? (06:42)
• And when you go to work and you do the things that you need to do, you need to choose the highest priority item, the unit to work on, and all other items on the to-do list can wait. You can get behind in work, you can't make up soccer games, there is no dire consequences to all the small things that I should have could have would have done at work. So when you're at work, use the time-wisely, rank your important work, make a success list and only do that. Do the one thing that is going to move the needle furthest. And when you go home, you do the one thing that you need to do to take care of your family, your relationships, your health... This concept to me just kind of blew my mind because I think that we think in our culture that we need to prioritize work over everything, and that we sacrifice our families all the time. (09:20)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• My dad dressed up in his bell bottom jeans with his Elvis moves, and he brought the house down... He was the star of the show. I loved it, I loved every minute of it. I used to go to all the practices with him, and they would put me in the shows when I was a kid, I would end up being some back-up dancer for Madonna or something. But you can bet your butt I wanted the starring role. (02:33)
• What I love about this concept is that there's something for everyone, there's a place for everyone, there's a tribe for everyone. My dad couldn't sing, but the man could perform, the man could lip sync the hell out of anything, and so could these other people... To me, it proves that there is a place for everyone's gift to come to fruition, I mean, rock stars that don't have to sing and they get to be rock stars, that means that there's a place for you and your gift, even if there's not a path for it, even if it doesn't quite exist, then maybe you need to create it, create a space for your gift to be expressed, created... What is the path that you could create... That has never been created before. (2:50)
• One of these amazing women lives down in LA, and she runs Dirty Girl Construction... Isn't that dopest thing you've ever heard? She literally named her company Dirty Girl Construction, I was so estatic to find her, I emailed her, letting her know my plans and that I wanted to know if she would meet with me and give me guidance. She said Yes, I was kind of thrown off my rocker because I really didn't expect her to even respond to my email. But this incredibly successful business woman down in LA, she re-models these gorgeous million dollar homes right on the beach, she said I could come and spend the day with her, So we loaded up the kids, we drove down to LA, and she poured into my soul for the entire day, giving me tips and ideas and a path to take, and encouraging me. (04:57)
• Most of the time I just hid in the shadows of my gifts, and it made me feel alone. And because there's not a lot of people like me out there, I felt lost. But that's not true, I just never did anything in my life to find them, to call them out. There are women out there who would rather drive a truck and wear boots and put on a ball cap than actually shower, those are my people. Women, who would rather be in the dirt and be outside, women who would rather have a clean barn than a clean house. I'd rather have the blower on my back then a vacuum in my hand, that's me. I rarely come across women like me, but I decided to do something to create a space to call them out. (06:45)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• I know what life feels and looks like when I'm not drifting, so I can recognize the drift. Do you get my drift? I always love a good dumb joke. So what I do is start adding the things back in that I know will get me moving in the right direction; I get up early, I ask the kids to cook dinner with me, I write in my journal about my sadness, I work through it, I process it, and then start to gain traction. Again, like I said, the number one thing in self-care is to know yourself, and when you're drifting and when you're not. The second thing that works well for me is to be intentional. Life is so easy to just drift through to wake up, drink coffee, go to work, cook, clean, laundry, repeat. But what makes a difference in my self-care umbrella is intentionality. (02:50)
• I've kept a journal most of my life due to my severe introverted-ness, I'm not one to spill the beans on the nearest stranger, I'm more likely to keep everything inside till I absolutely lose my freaking mind on the people I love most. That's much more my style, so I wouldn't recommend it, but I would recommend journaling so that this doesn't happen. So, I actually write my letters to God, I start each day with the two words, Dear Father, and I just tell Him how I'm feeling, what I'm grateful for, and what I need help with. And usually it ends in some sort of surrendering what I've been trying to control. It helps. The other thing that I do to get me excited about journaling, if you're not really like a journaling type, is to go to Barnes and Noble and shop in person for a journal. They have the most stunning journals with leather bound backs, and you can't help but want to fill the pages. So that's just a side note trick to journaling, but that's one of my top goals on the daily. (05:11)
• I started with the Calm App, spending at least 10 minutes in the morning or night, just sitting up straight and breathing. And at first, my mind wanted to run wild all over the damn place, but after about two, three weeks, my body looked forward to it, my mind settles quickly now, and when I lay down, I can rest and fall asleep. And I also when I'm struggling, when I've had a busy day, I can kind of lean on this technique to start breathing and to quiet my mind and to drift into sleep, so it's really helped. My kids actually join in on some of the meditations with me and they really like it, and it's just been something new that I've been learning and leaning into, so I love being able to accomplish that daily. (07:37)
• I take a daily gratitude photo, and then I add it to this really cool app called One Second Every Day. So for me, pictures evoke beautiful memories, and daily I try to capture a moment that I'm grateful for. Whether it's a sunrise, or my kids, or my pets, or just even a dang butterfly, I try to find time to stop and just be grateful. Some days it's just my cup of coffee in the quiet morning and others, it's truly incredible things like completing a house or watching my kids learn how to do a back-flip. It changes your perspective when you're intentional about gratitude. (11:25)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• So I think this is actually like a viable way to help gain more trades, more labor and to just actually have more higher level business owners. Most of the men I come across are super welcoming, kind, they're really willing to answer questions if I don't know something. I think that within this industry is a combination, the key to be successful, I think, kind of infiltrating this male-dominated industry is two things. I think it's respect, and I think it's confidence. (01:55)
• But what I've learned about men in my life, especially with my husband, is that respect for them is tied to love, just like for us. Sometimes it can be words of affirmation or touch, just spending quality time can be connected to love for Women. Respect is deeply tied to love for men, so if you disrespect them, most likely they don't feel loved. They probably won't say that, but that's what I've learned. So if I disrespected my husband, it's probably directly tied to how loved he feels. So respect is mainly their love language, and I think it's just imperative to show them respect. I have found that truth in my own relationships and have really tried to practice it within my marriage. I also see it ring true for the contractors I work with being kind, acknowledging, hard work and asking questions to someone who knows more, I never pretend to know something I don't.(04:01)
• I don't ever come across as unkind, or demeaning or belittling to any man in my life, especially my husband. We don't nag, we don't demean, we don't belittle, it doesn't work, it doesn't work in my marriage, and it sure wouldn't work in my business. And for confidence, for me, that comes through the ability to make decisions and solve problems. I always say that the one constant in this business is that you can count on their being a problem to solve, so if you don't like critical thinking and having problems to solve, then girl, this business is not for you. That's what construction is, a constant wave of problems, some large, some small. And I think I accepted that a long time ago, that most of my phone calls that I get are issues and issues I need to solve. They aren't calling to check in on me, they aren't going to ask me how my day is. They're calling to tell me that they have a problem, and my goal every time is to handle that issue in that phone call and not drag it on. (06:37)
• I think it's a really good way to practice confidence is to start making easy decisions quickly. I want to make sure that you heard me say easy. When I have something big in life, I've learned to sit with it and to pray about it, but when they're easy decisions, I don't falter, I make a decision and I move on. So, start with dinner, make it easy decision, make it quick, move on. What clothes are you're going to wear? I just begin with the small things and be confident with the decisions you make don't waiver. Once I make a decision, I don't go back, I move on. Schluter's the answer. Good, done. Didn't think about it another second, I've learned to trust myself and my abilities. And the more success you have with making decisions, the easier it will be. (08:55)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• Yes. And for the first 25ish years, I've pretty much punished myself mentally and physically if I wasn't absolute perfection. The mental part is the hardest struggle for me, I'm introverted and I don't process out loud so I tend to suffer in silence and the conversations I allowed to be spoken over myself are things I would never say to another human being. Even the worst of the worst people that I really don't like, I would never repeat the things I say to myself to another person out loud, because it would crush them, it would defeat them. It would affect them for the rest of their lives. (02:22)
• One day, his response really slapped me into reality. I said out loud while I was getting dressed, I'm so fat, and he looked me in the eye and he said, you never see what I see. He was mad. He was frustrated. You will never believe me when I tell you how beautiful you are. You have been telling me, you are fat since the day we got married. Ooh, dang, really have I? That hurt. But you know what? I needed to hear that the pattern of the mindset has been around way too dang long. We've been together for 12 years and married for 10. Holy crap, crap. I have been saying this horrendous stuff to myself for over a decade. (03:23)
• I will seek out God's will in my daily choices. With my time, it is time to let go of old thought patterns and design a life full of balance, freedom, calm, purpose, growth, and impact upon others in a positive way. I will design a life that I do not need a vacation from. I repeat that to myself every day. I type that every day. It is this daily offering of my weakness and asking for God's help that I'm addressing the body image issue from the inside out. Which, if you think about it is really where I have found out that that's where the problem hides. It's a daily reminder that I can choose my thoughts and let go of the ones that no longer serve me. I can ask God for help when they overwhelm me. I can accept and love myself just as I am. No diet or workout will ever rid my mind of the terrible negative thoughts. It's a daily habit change. (04:59)
• What do you say to yourself about your body? And even the most confident, beautiful woman that seems like they have it all together, when you really ask them what they say, it's not nice. It's not things they even want to repeat to me. So I offer them this practice of a mantra and a word that speaks truth and life over them, knowing that this was one of the longest struggles that I have, knowing that this is one of my longest struggles that I've been saying terrible things to myself. I created a rule in my house and the rule is you may never speak bad about yourself. If one of my children says something like I'm so bad at that, or I'm not smart enough. My entire family knows that we are to rally around that person and speak life and truth over them. And we make them repeat the words, spoken over them until we are sure the lie is gone, and the truth of who they are remains. (06:22)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• These four words I'll do it myself. No, no, no. You don't have to do that. I'll do it myself. Oh no, no, no. I got it. I'll do it myself. Oh, it's okay. I got it. I don't need your help. Instead of teaching, instead of passing on knowledge, instead of truly focusing and spending my work hours on my genius. I'm bidding jobs, I'm checking in on subs, I'm responding to emails, I'm doing the books, I'm writing the checks, I'm answering the sales calls. I'm designing the project and the list goes on and on and on instead of truly focusing in on my genius. (02:04)
• So I'm going to have to teach. I'm going to have to delegate and choose my family over and over. I mess it up. I drown in the busy-ness and then I have to make different choices next time. Someone told me once that you can't ever just arrive at perfect balance between work and home life, it's not attainable. They told me it's a counter balancing. You have to go over here and balance that and then go over there and balance that. But it's not this, shut it off, cut it off, can't bring it home, don't know what to do with it, can't talk about it. It's this counter balancing. So one thing needs more attention than the other. At certain times it's a constant movement back and forth, not in a bad way, but one once you're able to balance that correctly in the counter balancing, it does create balance. (04:19)
• I spent the whole full weekend with my husband, cleaning out his garage and shop. This has been a five-year gig I've been avoiding. I take care of the house. You take care of the shop in the garage. And my husband wasn't born with the gift of organizing, so I just literally shut it off from my brain from having to help him, but we really needed to take care of it. So I helped him, and we bit off way more than we could chew. And on Sunday I had plans to spend the afternoon with my daughter getting our nails done. She had been asking me all week, but my husband, he couldn't finish the job on his own. And he had stuff scattered throughout the entire yard and I knew he just couldn't start Monday with stuff everywhere. So I sacrificed the time with my daughter to spend it with my husband. She was in tears and she was so upset with me. I was heartbroken. I told her I would make it up to her. I promised her, you want to know what she said to me? She said, I knew you would do this. Oh, those words cut like a knife. (05:28)
• But when I woke up on Monday, I get the disappointment of my sweet girl's face out of my head. So I decided to counterbalance. I was upfront and honest with my team. I told them I screwed up with my little girl and I needed to give her my afternoon. And I was hoping they would be okay to reschedule for the next day for our meeting. We had some schedule work arounds, but we got it figured out. And I freed up my afternoon and I went and surprised her. She was a static. She was like, what are we doing, mom? Why are you just picking me up? It's like, babe, we're going to go get our nails done. (07:13)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• There are four types leader, task, free spirit and people. And the purpose again is to just better understand yourself and others. So I don't know if you can tell, but mine is leader and task. I'm just hard wired this way. I can't help it. So let me kind of describe to you what a leader type is. They're results oriented, a visionary leading by example, hardworking. They work until the job is done. You see the big picture. You like to control the outcomes, you thrive on competition. You'd like to be efficient with time, words, actions, you like ideas and bullet points, not stories. And you can be impatient when others waste your time. You're responsible, assertive, self-motivated. If you see a problem, you act on it without waiting. So that's kind of a leader type. (01:45)
• So then the task type is your number one priority is getting things done completely and thoroughly. And you do this to no end with lists, or you create routines and systems and make processes easy to duplicate your extremely hardworking, dependable, reliable, responsible, and take no nonsense approach to life. You enjoy being organized in the last detail and your like your day to have structure, everything has a place and there's a place for everything. You strive to complete never-ending tasks on your list and you feel wonderful sense of closure when everything is checked off, just reading that makes me happy. (02:37)
• The free spirit is personal and professional freedoms are your top priority. You don't like to be tired down by convention, policy or rules. You're flexible spontaneous. You think on your feet, you're great in a crisis, your ability to think outside the box makes you great problem solver, and you prefer to do it your way. You come through probably March to the beat of your own drum. And you see life as a myriad of opportunities and experiences to live in the middle. Does that ring a bell for any of you? (03:28)
• And then the last type is the people type. The number one priority in your life is people creating strong relationships, both personal and profession. You thrive on being friendly and helpful and making a difference in others. Getting along with others is paramount to you and you seek harmony and want to avoid conflict with others working well. The others comes naturally to you, whether one-on-one or part of a larger group, you're caring and supportive of others and have a high level of empathy. Naturally focusing naturally focusing on meeting other's needs in this way. You add stability to a team of what you are a member. So those are the four types leader, task, free spirit and people. (03:57)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• He taught me and to go out into the world and to buy my first flip, scared as hell as I was, what it really comes down to is, I wasn't going to accept status quo. Are you? Are you in the rat race? Dictionary.com describes the rat race. As an unrelenting and usually competitive activity or routine, especially a pressured urban working life spent trying to get ahead with little time left for leisure. Oh, that sounds exhausting and horrible. I've heard that there's only three ways to get out of the rat race. One, marry someone rich, two, inherit a bunch of money, or three, sell your organs. (03:28)
• You have to start with surrounding yourself with people who you want to be like, you have to think outside the box, you have to level up your thinking. You have to build a foundation of information and knowledge that makes you start to dream. That helps you to plant a seed, but then honey, you have to water it. What is it you want to build? Where do you want to start? No more status quo. I refuse to let life just happen to me. I refuse to live little. I refuse to allow anyone from keeping me from stepping into my destiny, start dreaming of what you're going to build. For most of us, we've been told that working 40 hours a week for the rest of our lives is the only way to make money. We have been sold a pile of goods y'all, a platter of lies. (04:50)
• I didn't want to just pay my bills the rest of my life. I wanted to leave a legacy. I want to teach my children. My father taught me so I hustled, I read the books. I mean, all the books. I did the research. I read enough information to learn how to buy foreclosed properties at the courthouse. Yes, like they do it on TV. I didn't go to school for that. I had a regular job. I was working full time, but on my own time. I was going to learn how to get out of that rat race. I learned what the foreclosure process was. I did title research on every property. I figured out what a first deed and a second deed of trust was and how buying a second deed of trust means you're straight screwed. Don't do that folks. (05:50)
• I was a credentialed teacher who worked for her father at his accounting firm, but I also was encouraged to find my calling and to never just live and stay stagnant in status quo. And it didn't come easy, it's a lot of hard work. Who in your life can you speak your dream to, ask them to support you and keep you accountable? It's time to get out of the rat race, honey. It's time to start thinking out of the box, pick up that book, put down that phone, learn something new. Start to build the life you want. (06:43)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow
• My truest love is horses, so I'm a throw and through cowgirl, I wear Cowgirl boots every day, and my idea of style is to pick up yesterday's clothes and give it a big whiff to see if it's still clean, this is partially out of survival and the fact that I have really grown and matured and take into the idea that how we look and how I dress no longer consumes me, I am me, and I like how I was created. (1:11)
• I've been married for 10 amazing years to a husband has truly taught me the real definition of kindness, sacrifice, selflessness and unconditional love, it's definitely not a perfect life, but when I choose gratitude for daily. So growing up, my father ran his own accounting practice, he's a CPA, I'm extremely detail-oriented, and he ended up encouraging me to help him a lot growing up. I went to school actually to be a teacher, honestly, because I wasn't sure what else to choose. I wish they wouldn't make you choose a career path until you were at least 30, because I had no idea what I wanted to do at 18. So I taught for a year, I figured out it wasn't for me, and then I decided to work with my pops at the accounting firm, but I didn't have the credentials to do that, so dad made me write up a business plan presented to him on how I would accomplish getting my license, and then he would consider making me a partner, I got married, became pregnant with our first sweet little girl. (2:54)
• I had time during the summer months to be creative with what I wanted to do, real estate really had drawn in my interest. We bought our first flip in about 2011, and that snowballed into about 100 flips over the next five years, as well as getting my real estate license. That all sounds really easy to say, but it was a crap ton of work from there, I bought a piece of ground that needed to be sub-divided and I built four houses on it, that blossomed into a relationship with a local developer and contractor that had asked me to be a part of our team. We, together, built about 80 new construction homes over the last five or six years. Now a while back, those guys who I had the pleasure of learning from and being taught so much information, they told me they wanted to slow down, I kind of freaked and knew I didn't wanted to go find another contractor, what is a woman to do? Get er done. (4:25)
• I got my general contractor license, and while that should pretty much sum up where we are current day. So, getting my licence really sprouted a new dream for me, a dream where women do hard things and support each other, where women get encouraged and step into industries that history may have told them in the past that they don't belong. Then She Builds was born. To me, She Builds is a place where women step into undefined roles, where women feel empowered to reach beyond their day-to-day life and achieve what they only dreamt about. Women's potential and dreams will not be stagnant here, their voices will be heard and ideas counted. (5:24)
WAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…
• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow