Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What is something that everybody thinks is very important when you're starting your business, when you're. When you're going out on your own, that you've learned that, eh, you can skip it. You don't need to worry about that.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: A lot of what I've learned and where I've come from is just doing it. Successful people are typically just more decisive people.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: I do hear that a lot. I actually have a problem with analysis paralysis myself.
So I think being cognizant of that has, I know, helped me. Do you ever find that? Did you get pushback sometimes from, you know, some of your crew members on how. On whether to do anything? And how do you handle that?
[00:00:36] Speaker B: I don't necessarily get pushback in the form of literal opposition, particularly, but what I do notice is I get pushed back in the form of fear. I'm literally gonna make t shirts that say this, that there's nothing that they can do that I can't fix. And I really want to give them that autonomy to make decisions and to be decisive. And it's okay if they're not right. It's okay if they said something wrong, because fortunately for us, it isn't life and death. And because of my experience and my background and also just who I am as a person for them, I want to support them, make them successful. And you can't be successful by not making those mistakes. But there is nothing that I can't back us out of.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: And welcome, everybody, to another episode of trust this master series. Today we're meeting with Kate Dulou.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Dulo.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Dulo. Okay. Today we're meeting with Kate Dulo of build Ventures USA. The gosh, let me get this right. Contractor. Kate, in real life, you are known as a general contractor on Instagram, but you're an entrepreneur.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: You run your business.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: I do.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: And I want you to tell us a little bit first who you are, and then we'll get into some other questions. So tell us a little bit about who you are.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Sure. So, yes, I am a certified general contractor for the state of Florida, as well as a licensed real estate broker. So. Build Ventures is a vertically integrated company. We offer full service construction from new construction, ground up renovations, retrofits, to construction management, as well as we are a full service real estate agency for residential commercial land brokering. And we do full service property management to supplement. So we have multiple divisions of the company, hence the name build ventures. Kind of a spin on joint ventures, working with investors, working with clients. We really help our clients from concept to capital and their development needs.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Okay. Also on the property management, I noticed that you guys do long term and short term rentals. That's got to be. I don't see that very often. I see a short term rental company and I see long term rentals. It's very rare to see one company that does both. Do you have different teams that handle those and handle that?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: I figured we do. We have a full service, short term rental division under a director of short term rentals that we have in house, as well as our director of long term rentals as well.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Well, now, short term rentals, are we talking about Airbnb, Vrbo, home away, that kind of thing?
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So those are all third party platforms. We actually broker those in house. So we do direct booking for those short terms. So we don't co host on those platforms. We are the actual mechanism that does all the booking and the outreach, the tenant procurement, the guest procurement and management.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Okay.
How long do most people stay in the short term rentals that you guys are handling? Is it a week, days, months? How do they go?
[00:03:47] Speaker B: It depends. It depends on the ordinances, where the property is. Obviously, we have some legislation that, you know, commands those types of stays and for how long guests can stay. We have rentals that are 30 day minimums and we also have rentals that can be one night.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Just depends.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: And you guys handle the reservations directly. That's got to be tough. That's got to be a lot of work. I know that's tough.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a great team.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: How many people do you have now?
[00:04:13] Speaker B: We have five full time employees. On the management side, we have eight real estate agents, and then we have a couple other ten, nine contractors that we work with closely to that helps our business development, our property procurements, our client and tenant liaising.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Where are you guys located? I saw. It seems like you're in three different places, but where all do you operate? Is it just in Florida or how do you do that?
[00:04:44] Speaker B: So I'm licensed for the state of Florida. We are looking to expand, though, so I am looking to, you know, get my license in other states, but for right now it's just Florida. However, our working area is Okeechobee north. We pretty much stay out of the south Florida area, but we have over. We have about 200 managed door assets in Pinellas county alone.
Across the I four corridor into Orlando and then up through Daytona into St. Augustine is where our build geography is for our new construction, as well as our management and real estate. Wow.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Wow. That's a big area to cover. That's a lot of. A lot of land. How did you get where you are today? How long have you guys been in business? Where did you start? How'd you get where you are now?
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So build ventures as it is today is really the second iteration of my career. Previous to build Ventures, I owned a company, a design build general contracting firm, and that was from 2014 up until 2019. And then I opened build ventures as it is today, in 2020.
So I did design build development primarily for hospitality. So that was hotel renovations, conversions, brand refreshes, new construction.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So 2020. There was a little something happening during 2020. The world came to a stop. What was it like doing all this starting in 2020? Just jumping into it?
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Well, it was actually a blessing in disguise for a lot of reasons. One, I was pregnant with my son, my first child. So it did, in a lot of ways, give me some downshifting, as I like to say, time. It also really allowed us to create the framework of the new operations, because I knew I wanted to bring more to our clients than just what design build framework can offer. I wanted to be more of a fractional operations company for investors, whether you're first time or seasoned. I wanted to be able to offer turnkey services from acquisition to construction infrastructure to exit strategy in the form of management.
And it really allowed me to kind of sit back after getting out of the design build straight, you know, general contracting atmosphere to really work out the framework of how we could integrate to benefit everyone in the real estate and the property management. So it was really a blessing in disguise for me. And it did allow me that time not only to have my son, but also to really vet employees, to vet the business operations, and to really make sure that when we did roll out and we had our go to market, strategy was really strong and individuals under what our service offerings are.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: Wow. What is your avatar for a customer? What are your typical customers?
Where are they in their life? What size businesses are they, are they individuals? What are they like?
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Sure. You know, we really cater to all types of investors, and that's really where we're after, is you can be a client investor, obviously, you could be an individual investor, you could be first time, you could have a portfolio of assets. We really want to be that business, like I said, that fractional operations for individuals, to really allow these industries to be passive, you hear that all the time. Get passive income, buy a property, rent it out, just collect mailbox money. But number one, it's really hard for individuals who are inherently entrepreneurial and or do have the capital to invest in these assets to really be hands off. Right. But then two, it really isn't a hands off business, you know? So to have a manager like us that has the integration of contracting of management of real estate, we really can provide that full service, completely passive operations partnership, that whether you're a first time investor looking to leverage, maybe, you know, the last savings that you have to go into a property to then start your journey, or you have a portfolio, we come in to assist you, like full, like turnkey that way.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Fractional everything has gotten a big, I think, a lot of traction since COVID We had used fractional coos, fractional integrators, fractional CFO's over the years, and fractional CSO sales officers. So I believe that that is a new, not just a trend, but I think it's the future of a lot of businesses. Because a lot of businesses are at a certain size, they can't justify paying a full time in house team to do that. So in essence, they hire your team to do that. So that's good. That's good.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And the fractional operations is wonderful for that reason, too. But it really helps us as well, because I think something that a lot of companies and individuals may not also know on its face, is that we bring a lot of networking power in that fractional atmosphere, too. So because I work with a lot of different investors, a lot of different groups, capital partners, etcetera, I can service my clients a lot better because I actually have such a wide network underneath me of being that fractional design, and that's really benefit. And that's a really awesome synergy when you can bring clients you're working with to your other network and see the success, you know, because we're all in this together and there's so much business to go around. You know, I say my competition isn't my other colleagues, it's just the bad ones that don't do it right, you know?
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I've noticed that about fractionals that we've used in the past as well, that they have this network, they also have a wider, a broader experience simultaneously with working with you, that they're also working with other clients who may be similar to you. And they go, well, we're seeing them use this platform for their cloud based software, whatever, you know, whatever it may be. They, they have other experiences that they bring to the table for you. Why? Why did you do it? Why did you in 2020 make that? What seized your brain and said, let's let's do this and why do you still do it today?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: You know, I wanted to bring more to our clients when I had, when I was operating my first general contracting firm. The design build capacity is still, was very robust and still a great service offering for clients, helping you through the design phase, whether in partnership with a design firm or doing your drawings and your design implementation in house. That gives inherently, that gives a lot more contractor control and really hedges a lot of issues, budget problems, material budget, you know, material issues, etcetera.
But I was noticing that we were still, in my opinion, not providing our clients a true catered experience, if you will. So, for instance, they would come to us with a great idea, but then we would outsource them or refer them out to acquire the properties. So now we have a design and we have a good implementation plan, but then we need a property. So then we would say, okay, well, once you have your property, come back to us. Well, you know, it's kind of 50 50 shot at that point. Or they come back with different advice, new advice, something that kind of changed the trajectory of the construction. And then also the biggest thing for me was the disappointment in our clients at the end, not because of the construction, but because their exit strategy couldn't be fulfilled appropriately. But in all fairness, as just the GC, we're performing one portion of the job, and that really wasn't our avenue to get involved in. But because you are so close to your, your clients inherently by construction. You know, we heard all of this, and I remember thinking to myself, man, if I was just involved in the beginning, really truthfully, as a true partner to these individuals, we really could have knocked this out of the park for their needs, because I would have given them different advice in construction. I would have told them different, maybe to do different design, maybe to not spend here, but spend there, because I would know what their long term exit strategy is, especially when we get into multifamily assets, especially when you get into buy and hold, when we get into stabilization plans for commercial entities. That's really important that me giving you advice on the front end. I need to understand what your exit is. And most contractors don't get involved in that, and that's not really their fault. It's just not their arena.
But I figured because of me being a licensed broker, me having real estate experience, me knowing and integrating all of these things, why couldn't I just provide everyone, all my clients, what I feel is really, truthfully, the counseling that they need for development and to fulfill their investor needs yeah.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: I've seen so many times when a developer goes out and they've already bought the land or they bought the property, and then they come to design, build. Not that I've ever done that myself, but you, then it's too late because you've bought it. And now you're gonna go to, this is to the contractors, the designers, the architects, and they're gonna look at it and go, sure, you can do this, but it's gonna cost you ten times what you ever thought it would. And I can see the value in having that you as the broker helping source the property going, okay, yeah, I can look at this and know this is about what this is gonna cost to bring this up to fulfill what you're trying to do over the next five years or whatever with it. That's okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. You don't see that often. You just don't see that often.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: No, because in the construction industry, we are really bred to stay in our lane, and frankly, we should with our licenses, and everyone should with their licenses, but because we have, I have the two and the experience of that, you know, it's just made sense to offer that. But I do, on the front end, do a lot of consulting, and that is a bulk of the consulting that I do is, hey, Kate, I have this address. This is what I want to do, kind of in the macro level. Can you let me know and spend some time to research to make sure we're going down the right path for what I want to do and where I want to be. And oftentimes I tell my investor clients, when we sit down, I always tell them that we're going to start from the end and work our way forward, because I need to know what your plan is, and then your plan will dictate your buying power for you right now where we sit. Then that, that buying power will dictate what we can get into, and then that will dictate the, you know, the budgets, and then we can work backwards to start so you can find exactly what you're looking for.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: When do you think all this dawned on you, that this is the best way to do that, to start at the end and work backwards? When did that light bulb go on?
[00:16:09] Speaker B: A lot of mistakes.
Really? No, a lot of mistakes. A lot of, you know, nights with me looking at some of the properties, our investors, what they're looking for, and me just being humble enough to realize that maybe that wasn't the right property or maybe that wasn't the right strategy, because I just didn't have all the information.
And then I realized that the information I need is really at the end, you know, I need. And that was really the motivation also to open, build ventures as opposed to just doing design, build contracting. Because if I can know what and what it means to you, too, there's like, at the end of the day, some investors are okay breaking even, especially in how the market is today. They're holding it for appreciation. They're holding it for a long term play. Maybe they're land banking, maybe they're doing. But that strategy is so important to know. Some individuals want certain cap rates, but that tolerance, I need to understand what you're looking for in order to back that in. And some people are okay with. Maybe they're looking for $500 of extra revenue a month. Maybe they're looking for debt free revenue. Who knows what that is? But I need to talk to you and figure that out so I can get you into the right play.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Really what I'm hearing is that you listen to your clients a lot. You probably have to talk to them a lot. What is that journey like for you, between you, a client comes in off the street, what does that journey look like for them with you? That process?
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So I mean, just really starts with a conversation, you know, really similar to what we're having is, you know, I get a lot of phone calls, a lot of referral phone calls. So I'm really very thankful for that. And that's really how I start is just tell me a little bit about you. You know, if I'm talking more than they're talking, then I'm not doing it right, you know? So I even tell them at the beginning of the call. So look, like this is really, I need to hear from you. I need to know everything. So I'm just going to ask you some questions and just feel free to keep talking because I listen for keywords. I listen for key information that's going to help me then also consult with them further.
But really, it's just in their ideal world, what are we looking for? What is their goal?
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a mistake, I think, that a lot of professionals make, regardless of what profession it is, that they automatically assume what the client is trying to accomplish. And I've caught myself. I do the same thing. I've assumed that, hey, you're coming in here and you want to maximize your return. You want to maximize your profit. And it's like you said a lot of times, if you just listen to them, that's not what they're looking for. They're looking for something totally different. And, and unfortunately, sometimes it takes a while for the professional to realize, oh, this is, you're not looking for that. This is what you want. But by then, how much time have they wasted both party parties on that?
Go back to when you were starting out.
What is something that a lot of people think is that you've heard out in the market that everybody thinks is very important when you're starting your business, when you're going out on your own, that you've learned that you can skip it. You don't need to worry about that. Is there anything like that?
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Having an, having a business plan in the macro is important, but having an iron clad business step by step framework is just nearly impossible. And a lot of what I've learned and where I've come from is just doing it, you know, and figuring it out later, really, you know, and I have, in my bathroom, I have, you know, cabinets in my vanity and have a whole bunch of, you know, things in there. And one of it, one of the little signs I've made for myself to look at every morning is just be decisive. And, you know, successful people are typically just more decisive people. And at the end of the day, I literally has, like, just do it. Like, really, like, just do it and we'll figure it out later. And I've been very fortunate that we've been able to kind of figure it out. And there has been things that we haven't been able to figure out. But, you know, that's a learning process in itself, too. And I actually really like those scenarios. And, and, you know, what I've been through in that because I've learned more in that failure than in the successes, you know? But I think that a misnomer is that you have to really know exactly who and why and where have a, you know, straight understanding of exactly your client, exactly how you're going to make money. Exactly what your service offer is always so fluid. It's so fluid. And to be open minded to that learning and adapting, you know, adapting really is, I think, the most important attribute that you can have and be humble enough to say, oh, yeah, that, oops, I really messed that up.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: And guess what?
[00:21:01] Speaker B: We're going to just pivot this way and, you know, and admit it and just keep moving.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah, we always say that there's education. I mean, you pay tuition for education through school, and then once you're in real life, you're paying tuition through experience. It's, and it's always expensive. It doesn't matter, because if you make a mistake, it's going to be expensive to fix it in real life, just like it was expensive to learn it in theory, in class and just doing it. I do hear that a lot. I actually have a problem with analysis paralysis myself.
So I think being cognizant of that has, I know, helped me that I go, yeah, Joe, you will analyze everything to death and never take a step if you don't just get out of your own way. So I've surrounding myself with people who just do it, and now I'm. I'm like, well, let's just do it. Let's just try this. Let's see what happens. And it sometimes drives everybody on the crew a little crazy. Do you ever find that? Did you get pushback sometimes from maybe family or some, you know, some of your crew members on how, whether to do anything and how do you handle that?
[00:22:13] Speaker B: So I. Fortunately, I don't necessarily get pushback in the form of literal opposition, particularly. But what I do notice is I get pushed back in the form of fear, you know, whether it's an agent of mine looking to do a new deal that they've never done before, or whether it's an employee of mine looking to onboard a new client or new tenant that they might be, you know, a little bit unsure of or how to do it.
I can tell that they're a little fearful, and so what they want me to say is, it's okay. We can back off. Don't worry about pursuing this, or let's pursue it in the way that we've always known. But I'm usually not that way. I'm usually like, yeah, let's do it. Let's make it happen. Let's go. Like, let's just jump in. And there's. But what I do also say is I reassure my team that, and I tell every single one of them, and they will tell you, this is exactly true. I'm literally gonna make t shirts that say this, that there's nothing that they can do that I can't fix. And I really want to give them that autonomy to make decisions and to be decisive. And it's okay if they're not right. It's okay if they said something wrong, because fortunately for us, it isn't life and death. And because of my experience and my background and also just who I am as a person for them, I want to support them, make them successful. And you can't be successful by not making those mistakes. But there is nothing that I can't back us out of. And there's nothing that I won't take responsibility for. And I want them to understand that, too. As their broker, as their general contractor, I will take extreme ownership of any scenario. I would just prefer they do something. I will be more upset. They don't do anything out of fear of that. So I really just push them. I do. I just push them to do it. And like I said, oftentimes I'm sure behind the eyes, they're like, just say, no, it's okay, we don't have to. But, um. But it is cool to see them evolve to like my team, you know? And with every time we push, the next time it comes around, they're further along. They're further along. And I think it's just really cool to watch, too, in their success.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: I think that's, I think that's the true entrepreneurial spirit of let's just do it. We'll take the business, we'll figure out how to get it done.
I've done that for years. We'll just, just say, yes, we'll do it, and then we'll go out and figure out how we're going to do it. But if you just don't even take the chance, you never, yeah, you'll never get anywhere. What's something important in your daily routine that you wish you had started earlier?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Meditating. Taking some time for myself.
Prioritizing reading, prioritizing. Meditating. Prioritizing physical exercise, too. You know, I think as entrepreneurs, our day is so packed and mental gymnastics is a thing and, you know, it's hard to stay focused. But really meditating and really starting my day with a focused process now that could deviate and oftentimes it does. But at least starting in that rooted meditation of this is the two or three things I want to accomplish today. I don't overload my to do list either.
This is how I want to accomplish them. I visualize these accomplishments. I visualize meetings. I'm a big proponent of taking the moment to really, really focus.
I'm a big runner. I love to run. That's really helped me in my career. Take that time to visualize while I'm running. It's a very important reflection for me, and I wish I would have prioritized that sooner in my career.
It took me till now, really. It's in the recently last five years to really be doubling down on that. But I've noticed such a huge difference in not only my productivity, but in how that manifesting has really brought things to life that I've really wanted, whether it's for my clients, for me personally, for my family, for my business, but I really attribute it to just really focusing and believing and really trusting my instinct.
Trusting my instinct's been a big deal, too. And I always used to doubt myself, especially being a female in this industry, young female in this industry. I always had people telling me, well, no, you don't know. How could you know? You know, and I would always this little tiny voice of doubt, you know, and that that's all it takes is that little bit. And so I work really hard every day to squash that and just keep moving.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: No, imposter syndrome is real. I mean, there, there were nights, fortunately, not as often anymore, where you wake up in the middle of the night and you're like, you know, I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have this. And it could all. It's all going to come crashing down. You know, you just never know when it could just go away. But I think that feeds into our humility, too. What kind of people. How do you find people to surround yourself with that, lift you up? What. How do you find your networks, your, your flock, so to speak, that you fly with?
[00:27:29] Speaker B: Sure. I mean, you know, I think it's taken kind of years, really, to learn, to learn who I want to surround myself with, you know, obviously, like, you know, your network is your net worth, and I truly believe that. And so I'm always on a mission to be networking, whether that's for business gain, personal, you know, how I can help other, other people and to really just get in there and meet as many people as possible. But I will say that my flock of people, if you will, that really helped me and impact me.
It took me a while to actually be okay with saying to myself, you know, I don't think this person is bringing me the value or, you know, this attribute is something I'm trying to eliminate for me, maybe, like, negative thoughts are always doubting. And then I realized that this person might be bringing that into my world. And so I do call them, like, friend audits.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: Oh, tell me about that.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Kind of monthly, too, actually, which might be a little more frequent than you think. But.
But I really do try to kind of figure out if people who I'm surrounded myself as are helping or hurting, you know, really. And it's okay. And I think that it is really okay for you to say into yourself, like, I just need a little bit of distance from this person, maybe instead of doing a monthly dinner, now we do a quarterly dinner just to catch up, you know.
But it's really, really important for my goals and for my business and for everyone who I'm taking care of through the company, clients and employees that I am focused and I'm laser sharp. And if I feel that, you know, I can't be because of relationships, then it's working the opposite direction. Relationships should be helping you, you know, so helping you.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: What, what would some things that people in your network do that help you?
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Oh, man. From everything. I mean, really from mental help and assistance and being a sounding board and, you know, mentorship to physical help. Really literally being those individuals who can carry out some of our business needs that I know take really good care of our clients and they're amazing referral sources for us to make sure that our business model is truly being conveyed.
I mean, really anything from, like, physical help, too, just from people who want to help with our family and childcare and helping that way. I mean, really, it's a full run, especially when you have a full plate of things.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Well, it seems like you're a networking monster. Looking at your instagram, you're in tons of events. You go to lots and lots of events. How do you, when, when these opportunities come to you, whether it's business opportunities, networking opportunities, whatever it is, you only have a finite amount of time. How do you weigh and, and determine, okay, I'm going to do this, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to spend time here, not there. How do you do that?
[00:30:37] Speaker B: I think it's actually a little more technical of an answer than you would probably think, you know, from a contractor.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: A contractor has a technical answer.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: I actually really categorize individual people and their service offerings and different, I actually categorize them. So I have, and I've told this in my team and I suggested to them as well to kind of emulate it. I have follow up techniques like emails, from emails to phone calls to scheduling. And what I do is I have them in different categories. So if I meet someone who I'm like, you know, they're super interesting, but maybe they run, you know, a yoga studio. Okay, well, I can't really figure out right now how that person could integrate into what we're doing now. I want you to stay focused, but I know that maybe later there's something I could do with them to help them or they would help me. So I have, like, a template email that I have for, I call them like, you know, kind of like the c tier, not a negative way, just like you're kind of out here, come in the tertiary, so follow up and make sure they have my information, they know what we do.
I give them some referral information to say how that would benefit them, whether that's monetary or otherwise. And we just kind of keep in touch. And I kind of have them on a drip by personal drip to come just follow up with them. And maybe that's more, that's going to be less official than an email, maybe just a text, like, hey, just thinking about you. Hope yoga's going well, right? But then you have those b level where they're more integrated into what my business is, but still kind of an interesting dynamic, right? And so then I have a different technique, different drip, and a different email, and I kind of push it. And then of course, I have my a, where they can integrate. Now we can benefit together, now we can do business, whatever capacities that are, they are. And I have that in a different kind of drip, too. So I really try to, and then I really, honestly, Sundays, Sundays are my day. I tell my team, like, it's Sundays. I have, my phone's not ringing typically, and I go through, and I put all the business cards I've collected from the week in one area, and I go through them and I put them all immediately in my phone, too. If it's not a digital card, that's something I learned a long time ago as well. I used to just go on my computer and put their information in and email and put in our CRM or whatever, but now I put them all personally in my phone and follow up by text and say, hey, I shot you an email, too. It was easy for me now, obviously now with text, so. But I remember being like, oh, I remember this person. I need to text them really quick, and then I wouldn't have their information on hand and, you know, so just kind of those, like small things. But I do really categorize relationships to you just make sure that, you know that everything is moving forward and we're capturing as much as we can on the networking side and getting to know everybody.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: So I want to pick up on something you said on, Sundays are my day. That's the day I put things in. I put contacts into my phone. Now, a lot of our listeners would sit there and go, what kind of work life balance does she have that Sunday is her day and that's the day she, it sounds like she's still working. What does work life balance look like to you, because I'm starting to hear this again a lot. And for entrepreneurs, especially when it's our own business, your work is your life and your life is your work. So it's tough. And I. So I always ask, what, what does work life balance mean to you? Yeah.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Well, you know, first off, I tell all my employees in my team that I do not expect them to put in the hours and to do what I do. That's not their, their role and responsibility, you know? And I don't expect that of them either. For me, as gluciary as it sounds like, I don't work. This isn't work to me. This is what I wanted to do. This is where I feel fulfilled. This is my life, really. And so to me, it's, it's fun, it's interesting. It's something that I've been training my whole life to perform.
And so the balance, for me, there really isn't a need for a balance because to me, it's just, you know, what it is. And I do have a family, obviously. I do have kids, and we spend a lot of time together. My kids are very happy. I'm so thankful to be a mom. And it's not, it's not to the, you know, it's not to the dismissal of that at all, but it's just when you live it and breathe it, you integrate it at all times and everything, you know? So I don't know, it's just, it's never really been a thing for me. And I do get that comment a lot, though. Like, wow, you should, you know, take some time off, you know? But the time off isn't relaxing for me.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: What I'm doing is relaxing.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: And, you know, I find that we use our time off.
For me, personally, it's not so much for me to rest and relax. It's testing the business.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: It's not a vacation. I'm really just, I'm the whole time going, okay, let's see how well the crew handled me being gone for a week or two, me being away. It's so even vacations are, in a way, just business.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: It's so true. And you're so right. And that's always in the back of my head and, you know, like, okay, the delegation at work, you know, and kind of getting that, like, you know, that testing done. But thankfully, I have an amazing team. I mean, just an amazing team. I couldn't do what we do. I couldn't grow so quickly as we're growing without them. So it's been good.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: Well, this is a little out of blue, but do you, do you have coaches and mentors yourself that you. I mean, any programs you go to, any particular processes you subscribe to for your business?
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Actually, I'm not an official, you know, coach or mentor. I have a lot of people who did a lot of work with who are more experienced than I am, who have seen a lot of different things, and I'm very, very thankful that I've made a good impression on them, whether it's from past working relationships or whatever have, you know, whatever that may be, that I can pick up the phone and they will help me through anything. And I have quite a few of those individuals, too. You know, my dad's huge for me. He's working with me now, which is cool.
You know, he didn't never want. He didn't want to retire. So now he's. He's working with the real estate side and the property management side, the business. And, you know, he and I can just be on the phone for hours or in person for hours, just talking about everything. And that's been a huge, huge part of my life, always with him being that person for me, too. But outside of him, I have a lot of professional, like, in the field, colleagues who I can call. And I love it, too, because I just had a call yesterday, actually, with a wonderful woman. And I'm like, I am such an up bind. I really need help. And she gave me perspective. I was seeing red, like, I couldn't see past, like, what the issue was, and she just dropped some reality on me, and I said, oh, my gosh, you're totally right. This is why I call you. Thank you so much. You know, and so I'm really thankful to have those relationships.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: I noticed you're on your social media. You are very active in women, in business organizations.
How important is it for women to support each other in business?
[00:38:17] Speaker B: It's more, more and more and more important every day. It really is. And I think as women, we unfortunately do have some tendencies to not be fully supportive because it is super hard to get a seat at the table, let alone to maybe share it. Right.
But there's so much business to go around, and we together need to rely on each other. And I love the women in construction work. I do women in, you know, in business, helping represent advisory boards as an under underrepresented population, being a woman owned small business, like, designated by the SBA is a big deal. Having that license, I really want to be like, that guiding light. And that inspiration for women to show that, you know, trust me, there's been a lot of things said to me that people would probably not even understand, a lot of backlash. But it's just so important that we make a name for ourselves and that we support each other and that we are formidable, you know, in the industry. And I want to be that person and say that, well, she can do it, then I can do it, you know, because if a human can do it, it's humanly possible.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: And I really want to be that, that inspiration for women who may be on the fence of anything. Especially, too, you don't have to be a general contractor to be in construction. You know, I really want women to, to come to construction companies, whether in HR or accounting or administration or sales, you know, and women tend to shy away from our industry in general because of, of certain aspects. But I want to be that inspiration for them to say, look, because women in our industry do really, really well. We have the communication, the detail, the follow through, and that's really what makes construction companies don't fail because they're bad at construction. They fail because they're bad at business. And women tend to be very, very good in this business.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I've actually found that especially with lawyers. A lot of times the best lawyers are the worst business people because they're so focused on their crap, but then they have no idea how to run a business. And I've just seen on your social media where you've exemplified the saying that if you're not at the table, you're on the menu, you are in the room. I saw a picture where you're standing there with the governor, and you wrote this very eloquent post. It's almost an essay about the live local act that I've written about in my newsletter, but we've not really heard much about it. Can you tell us a little bit about the live local act and what you think that's going to do for construction and maybe affordability of housing in Florida, how that's going to work?
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Sure. So related to that post, I was invited to meet with the governor, and I did ask him a question more related to single family infill development as opposed to what the live local actual was written for. Now, it's made incredible inroads to opening the conversation for affordable housing and integrating attainable and affordable housing into our areas. And some of the most important to note and highlight is basically what that does is when you exercise that act through the building departments and through your applications of your permitting and through zoning. Fundamentally, it allows for previously zoned commercial land to be expedited into zoning variants for multifamily residential. So you don't have to go through that process.
Also it provides credits to the developer, material credits to the developer, as well as expedited permitting.
Now a caveat of all of that though is that there is a percentage of the inhabitable units that would be dedicated to, to affordable housing.
And so that would be predicated on the AMI of the area, which is like the average medium income of the area and what individuals could afford. So what it does is it obviously helps development, helps incentivize developers to do that. Obviously, construction costs and labor costs being high, any incentive really helps. So that if you're going to not be building for full retail market, there has to be some type of back end incentive that would, you know, have you do that.
But also it does create a mix of the living aspect too, so that you have full retail market individuals who can afford that, as well as individuals who are on the affordability side inhabiting one area. And so the premise and the psychology is that everyone builds each other up. And so I think that's a very interesting dynamic that's more socio economical and all of that.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: When you do, you're focused on big macro ideas. In addition to that, you've also been pretty outspoken about building for climate change, for the future of climate change. What are some changes that you see probably need to be done in Florida to prepare us better for what's coming down the pine?
[00:43:38] Speaker B: Well, you know, the reason I've been so involved in the political side is because in order to promote the change in the codifications and in the field, it starts in the office, really, because unfortunately we have all these ideas. And a lot of my developer colleagues and contractor colleagues, they know and they see what's in the field and what works and what doesn't. And we also know what devastation can cause for families, too. But if we don't have the latitude from the building department and from the inspectors and from the office of the Codifications and people who write the bills and make the rules, then we, there is a non starter. There is no change in the field. So I was appointed last year to the development advisory board of Orange county. And that has been an amazing opportunity to have a seat at that table to when bills come through and changes and different things come across the table. I'm there to say, you know, we need to rework this because in the field it's not, it's not going to apply and it's not going to yield the results that you think it will because of that, just that gap in experience. So it's very cool that we in Orange County House advisory boards are taken very seriously.
But that's been a really huge angle of my political side, my political involvement and how that relates to sustainability is just that, is that we have a lot of ideas on sustainable building systems that could be long term, economically better for people, not only monetarily, but also disaster resiliency, you know, flood proof, waterproof, etcetera, that can really help, especially in today's insurance climate issues, you know, but we have a hard time building these systems because we don't. The engineering and the unknowns of different systems that are not immediately in the code, they're different from frame and masonry. And so therefore, we have a gap in understanding whether it's going through plan review, whether it's going through Florida product approvals, whether it's going through inspections, that knowledge base. There's a little bit of a gap there. And so that really fundamentally prevents the implementation at the end of the day. So I'm really trying to help. I always say I'm trying to squeeze from one side and my contractor squeeze from the other and we will get something in the middle, I'm sure, at some point.
But it's been a really great experience to help bring that to light because we do need to do something more about the disaster resiliency and long term economic sustainability for our communities, you know?
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Well, and I'll tell you, I mean, I've served on boards like that decades ago. And when you go back to the city or the county and you see the fruits decades later of what you did, it's so fulfilling. So you're planting seeds now of oaks that are going to grow, and 2030 years from now, you're going to look back and go, I helped plan that. I helped come up with the, the ideas that are the basis of that community or that whole city now, that whole county. And it's very fulfilling. So a lot of people, I think, don't see that because they're like, I'm wasting all my time sitting in this meeting at the city or county level or whatever, but it, it's glacial pace, but when it does work, it makes you feel wonderful.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And another thing, too is I really noticed being involved in these things is that these are all open meetings as well. So, meaning that anyone from the public can come and join our development board meetings. They can hear the topics they can hear what the board is suggesting and questioning, but I noticed a large lack of, really, advertising and dissemination of the information. We just had a big wetland ordinance overhaul fundamentally go through, and they had, Orange county hosted seven open meetings to the public, public hearings to come in and listen to what the, what they were suggesting. And, you know, I went to a few of them and they weren't really very well patronized, and I realized that there's a big gap in information and letting people know Vision 2050 is really what everyone is aiming for in Orange county right now. Orange county, we're projecting by 2050 to have 750,000 to another, to 1 million additional residents. And so what that means is infrastructure, economies, business scalability, all needs to be taken into consideration. Land development, Wetland, that's premise for the wetland ordinance is being redone because we're running out of land to expand.
But I realized that in my generation, too, and my peers, like, they just, they don't have any of the information. And so I really wanted to come in and be that person, too, to kind of, you know, sound the alarm on that and say, hey, look, these are when the ordinances are, these public hearings are scheduled for. This is what we're discussing. This is how it's going to affect you. You know, I just did a panel recently with one of the city of Orlando commissioners, the state attorney, the sheriff's department, Orange County Sheriff's Department, and really great information through the Women's Council of Realtors and so on. My social media, I really try to advertise those events, because to get that knowledge base of what's going to be affecting you now or in 30 years, it's really, really important for everyone to get involved and understand.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: I mean, I think that's the basis of a democracy. It's the, it truly is government of foreign by the people. But if the people sit back and don't attend these things or don't even, you know, try to stay informed of what is going on and make their voices heard, that's when I think the people feel like, well, it's, government is separate from me, and it's out there doing these things to me rather than, well, I'm part of that, and I'm helping to shape those policies like that.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: I really want to. I really want to change that narrative.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: I mean, I'm only one person, but that's why I'm really trying to get politically involved, because I want to change that narrative. I want people to understand that they do count. Their voice does count. And not only that, but especially in Orange county, they do a very good job at providing those atmospheres and those meetings. It's just we have to get people involved in starting for them to know that these things are scheduled, that they're there, you know?
[00:50:27] Speaker A: Yeah, no, government. Being a citizen is an active sport. It's not, it's not passive. You don't just sit back and let it happen to you. I guess some people do, but they're. Yeah, they're not us.
What is something that you didn't pay enough attention to early on, but then had to learn the hard way? Something that sort of smacked you in the face at some point?
[00:50:49] Speaker B: Honestly, ironically, networking, really? Yeah, networking and marketing and really actually kind of being a fault to my own was what I literally just of not being in the know, you know. And so I realized, especially with opening build ventures, that I can't just be working my business and working in my business and my head down, even though that helps shape the experience that I have. I have to be running the company, too, and constantly sharpening my pencil and constantly meeting new people and constantly learning from those and getting in the know myself. And like you said, just not putting your head down and letting things just happen is controlling the way those things can happen.
And so I did learn that the harder the hard way. I think that's maybe, and maybe as the entrepreneurial spirit, the pendulum has swung way further than most people would have taken it. But I'm really happy that I was able to kind of identify that and have now, I feel, since kind of changed that trajectory for myself.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: But I've heard that before. It's the intentionality.
When you're just the w two employee in a company, you do feel like, well, hey, I just show up, I do what I'm supposed to do, and I may do a great job at it, but I'm going to get through that. But what's going to happen is going to happen. But when it's now your company, you're the visionary, you're in charge.
Yeah. You can be intentional about taking it where you want to take it. And staying involved in the community, in politics. Plus your own company helps you see where things are heading.
And that's a great trait to have. Well, our mission is, of course, helping people aspire to a better life. And so I always end our conversation on these episodes with asking our guest, who is someone who has inspired you or helped you aspire to the better life that you have now?
[00:52:56] Speaker B: I think my parents were really, really instrumental in that, you know, they've had a great relationship with them. They've always been so supportive. My dad's been an entrepreneur his entire life. He's never worked for anybody, you know, besides those college jobs. Right. But he's been an entrepreneur in the industry as well, for real estate development, business brokering.
And he's taught me a lot of what I know, a lot of what to do, a lot of what not to do. So that's been, my parents together have been very, very influential in that. And then now, genuinely, me being a parent really continues to drive that mission for myself, too, is to make sure that my kids, I have a daughter and a son and to make sure that I'm being the best role model for both of them. You know, teach my daughter that she can do anything she aspires to and to build women up and to be a part of the cause and not the problem. And for my son to know that he can do the same and that there's opportunity for everyone and that he can be a driving force and help those people that may not have what he has and may have those opportunities, too. So that's kind of on both sides, which is interesting.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: Well, Kate, it's been wonderful getting to know you and hearing your story.
We're going to put Kate's social media connections all on our site. So please, like, follow subscribe to Kate.
She's very inspirational, I think, and going to go a long way, I mean, even farther than she already has. Again with that, we're going to let everybody go today, and thanks for watching and like, and subscribe.
