Strong Conversations

Women in Construction: Mentorship

Episode Summary

Mentorship is one of the most invaluable things that we can have in our careers and lives in general. In this episode, we talk about the importance of mentorship, how we can find it, provide it, and foster it in our work environments. We also discuss the different types of mentorships whether it’s through a formal work program or informal with our own network.

Episode Notes

Join Simpson Strong-Tie as we invite partners, colleagues, and leaders together for insightful conversations. Stretch your mind with profound and powerful ideas that will help evolve how you think about the industry -- and your place in it. 

 

We will dive deep into the subjects and issues that we all face -- forging stronger connections and relationships along the way.  

 

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to get an in-depth look inside the minds of innovators and leaders who are reshaping and advancing the world we build and live in. 

WOMEN IN RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION PODCAST

Welcome to our podcast on Women in Residential Construction hosted by Simpson Strong-Tie, a leading manufacturer and technology services company of engineered building products in the residential and commercial space. In this podcast we take a closer look at the women who make up the residential construction industry. We are going to have an open discussion about how we got here, what challenges us, motivates us and what makes us succeed. In each episode we will be joined by three guests to get their perspective on what it’s like to be in this field. We will talk about how women can effect change and create an environment where other women want to be a part of.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MENTORSHIP

Mentorship is one of the most invaluable things that we can have in our careers and lives in general. We talk about the importance of mentorship, how we can find it, provide it, and foster it in our work environments. We also discuss the different types of mentorships whether it’s through a formal work program or informal with our own network.

Hosted by Shelby Short, Director Global Quality (Simpson Strong-Tie  )

Guests: 
Angie Roseman - VP Supply Chain Services & Business Optimization (Beazer Homes)
Kellee Hansen, National Purchasing Director (Lennar)
Rebecca Matmiller, National Accounts Sales Manager (Whirlpool)

 

Episode Transcription

The Importance of Mentorship Transcript

Shelby Short

Welcome, everyone. It is with great pleasure that I am hosting today's podcast on women in residential construction with a special conversation about mentorship. My name is Shelby Short. I am the director of global quality for Simpson Strong-Tie. Simpson is the leading manufacturer and technology service company for residential and commercial construction. With me today are three amazing women also in the construction industry. Let's meet them now.

Kellee Hansen

Happy to be here. Kellee Hansen with Lennar.

Shelby Short

Welcome, Kelly.

Kellee Hansen

National director of purchasing.

Angie Roseman

Hi, Shelby. I'm Angie Roseman, vice president of national contracts and options at Beezer Homes.

Shelby Short

Hello, hello.

Becky Mattmiller

Hello, I'm Becky Mattmiller. I'm in builder sales at Whirlpool Corporation.

Shelby Short

All right, ladies. Well, this is going to be a fun conversation. I know mentorship is very important to me. I know it's important to us. We've been talking about this for a while. So let's get into it. What I like to do is just hear your stories about what does mentorship mean to you. We've talked before where mentorship shows up in different ways. It's the, we'll say the formal process of a company actually having a program, which is actually pretty rare. And then mentorship shows up in ways that maybe you're asked to be a mentor or maybe we seek it out. And so really we'd love to just kind of hear your stories about what does mentorship mean to you.

Angie Roseman

To me, mentorship is sharing information. And a lot of times you're sharing information with someone who doesn't know what they don't know, right? And so you're taking responsibility to share lessons on life and business with somebody.

Shelby Short

Oh, that's very true.

Kellee Hansen

With the complexity of home building, it's, I mean, mentorship, it's tribal knowledge, right? You have to ask questions. We don't, I didn't go to school for construction and there's so many parts and pieces. And so I think having the confidence of being, not knowing it, like you said, it's, it's really about, you don't know what you don't know until you ask. Right.

Shelby Short

And then being brave enough to ask Yep. Right. There's courage behind that.

Kellee Hansen

Fearless.

Shelby Short

Yeah. Right. We all are. We call us fearless. Absolutely. Woman in construction, that we have to be a little fearless for that. Right. Perfect.

Becky Mattmiller

And I was just going to kind of piggyback off that, right? In terms of, you know, being courageous to kind of ask for that feedback, but also being somebody who's willing to share that feedback and willing to share those experiences and things that you've learned from others to lift people up, both in their personal and professional objectives.

Shelby Short

Right. Right. And knowing that that's going to happen, right? And having the impact and mentorship has an impact. I know for me, right, there's just a long history of experiences being a mentor or being mentee, if that is, right? And knowing that impact. And I think that's a special place to be impacted, but also having the impact on someone else. You know, can you guys think of a time where you've had that moment that you know that you've had an impact on someone? Maybe it wasn't a formal mentorship moment, but you know that you've had a mentor moment with someone.

Kellee Hansen

Always when they use my lines against me.

Shelby Short

Then you know they've been listening.

Kellee Hansen

Absolutely. I'm like, wait, I've heard that somewhere before. I mean, and it is a proud moment because it's like, okay, you really do, you know, you're engaging because it's exciting. It really is.Right. But organic too. It's the same time.

Shelby Short

Right. Well, that's what we were talking about earlier, right? There's that formal mentorship process. And then there's the organic moments. And I think most of the time, they're mostly organic. I know for us, we do not have at the company, and actually the companies I've worked for do not, I've never experienced a formal mentoring program. Have you ladies had a formal program? How was that different than we'll say the organic moment?

Angie Roseman

I was lucky that early in my career, I was at GE Appliances and GE had a formal mentorship program. And so they, you know, made suggestions on, you know, who to choose and what to look for on both sides of the fence. And so as I moved through my career at GE and then at other companies, I just, they didn't have formal programs, but I realized the importance of it. So I just kind of sought it out myself.

Shelby Short

Nice. Is that something, does that last like a lifetime of the program? Was it like a year? Like, does that relationship just build over time?

Angie Roseman

Yeah. So it builds over time, but they kind of gave parameters on when you ask someone to be your mentor, you are in charge of that relationship. You're in charge of setting up lunches or meetings and keeping it going. And I think that's an important distinction. I mean, obviously, if you're mentoring someone, you care about them and are invested in their success and check in with them, but the mentee is the one driving, you know, setting up the meets. And so in my formal program, they suggested like once a quarter. And so I just tried to keep to that schedule.

Shelby Short

Nice.

Kellee Hansen

It's really a pull, not a push, right? And that for our company, we, I mean, we have, I think it's not necessarily called mentorship, but it's really about training and peer -to -peer training. And just our environment, we have a very, very special culture and environment that really allows you to be the best and to, you know, seek out others who emulate that. It's really, it's a very, very rewarding and enrichment program we have.

Becky Mattmiller

Whirlpool does something very similar to the example that you shared in terms of them having kind of this formal mentorship, a little bit different in respect to the fact that sometimes one is recommended for you. You as an individual may not know that person very well, right? So it is, you know, this is on you to schedule the meetings, come prepared with the questions, be very direct in terms of what you're looking out of that relationship. But, you know, then actually to get something out of it and parlay that into a longer -term relationship or even a different form of mentorship. And I've had those experiences and they've been, they've been positive. They've been positive. Although I would say I've probably learned the most from more of that organic, more of that informal.

More natural. - Yeah, the one that's a bit more natural versus, oh my gosh, I have my mentor meeting coming up next week. What is it that I'm going to talk about, you know? You know, I much prefer more of that, you know, organic and more of that. conversation piece, and I really enjoy almost the example that you were talking about, like, I saw somebody that I really respected in that moment, and I am going to go and try and learn from that person, so I can be more like that going forward. I think that's much more positive, and a lesson that you take with you a lot longer. I can't really tell you what I talk to my formal mentors about, to be honest with you, but I know a lot of my informal nuggets that I got from people.

Shelby Short

Interesting, because about two minutes ago, I was feeling a little jealous that I had not had a formal mentoring program experience, but based on what you just said, that maybe actually the organic way and the informal is even better. You know? Yeah, to add more color to what you were just saying about my experience of looking for people that you are connected with. Right? It was about 20, I think it was about 20 years ago, and we were doing a project for the company, and we were in a big meeting room, I was full of consultants, and this woman walked in and just owned the room, and I was just in awe, and mostly men in the room, as we typically are in this industry, and she just owned it and was just professional and polite, but knew her stuff, and so when there was a break, you know, walked up to her and said, "I'm just really, I'm not sure what the words I actually used," because it was a while ago, but basically, like, I really would like to talk to you after the meeting if you would be open to it, and she said, "Yes," and now looking back, right, that was, she knew she was going to be, quote, "mentoring me." That's not, I didn't go and ask her, "Can I take 30 minutes when we're done and be mentored, please?" Right? But that's really what was happening, and so when she sat with me and just, I asked a bunch of questions, and her biggest advice was you need to build your own personal board of directors and again, she was also giving me advice on that's really building your mentorship you know team And that was just in the 30 minute. I never saw her again. So that was kind of a an amazing moment How about you guys have what's your maybe your most favorite or memorable organic moment that has impacted for you in your career.

Angie Roseman

I think as far as like organic how I ask someone to mentor me or to let them know I'm interested is I usually send them a note or ask them. Hey, would you be up for a career chat sometime? I'd like to learn about how you got to where you are today, right? That's been my go -to for the past several years.

Shelby Short

Do you find most of the time their response is positive always?

Angie Roseman

Yeah, always Because you make the note, you know complimentary like hey, you're in a great position I'd love to learn from you. Are you cool? It's like a 30 -minute career chat. Yeah.

Shelby Short

Yeah. No, I love it Yeah,

Becky Mattmiller

Becky Mattmiller

I think I think that's really great. I ours. It's very similar. I mean, it's not hey What will you be my mentor? You know, it's not it's not that it's mentor our but it is it is something that even at Whirlpool, right? Like you we have such a strong culture of mentorship very similar to what you are talking about in terms of being your best you know, it really is, you know, if somebody reaches out to you the expectation is that you do want to help that person grow whether you've worked with them before or not And they are taking an interest in you know, your career and how they can move up as well And it's supposed to be mutual beneficial, you know that way and I've always had people accept my invites as well right. Yeah, but again, I would say, you know if I to go back to your question in terms of what have been some of those things That you've really kind of carried. I guess, you know, for me, I've looked at it as One watching others and just kind of making mental notes. They don't even realize that they're mentoring me, right? right? I'm observing and trying to figure out how I can embed that into my approach and how I show up every day. But then there's also been other times where just asking for advice or even having a conversation around a problem that I'm struggling with. And all of a sudden, I walk away feeling much more confident and able than I did before. And I try and remember those moments as I go through. - Carry them with you all day long.

Shelby Short

Right, put them in your pocket. - Pocket, right, maybe front pocket, yeah. –

Angie Roseman

What I was thinking about when you were just talking was all my best hits are stolen material. - Oh, absolutely, pocket, right. - Be it official mentors, I take things from them and just hearing somebody speak and how they manage maybe up or down. I'm like, I wanna do that, that sounds good.

Kellee Hansen

I think my personal aha moment in starting in home building was, it's very, very scary. 'Cause if you make a mistake, it's a big mistake. Like you put the wrong house on the right on a lot and you have to tear down that house. And so one of my big mentors, division president, he said, there's nothing you can do that I can't undo ever. Wow. And it was like, holy cow. And with that type of confidence, I'm like, so it's okay to make mistakes, right? And it was just like a confidence builder that obviously gave me enough rope to hang myself because I did run with it. And I learned how to ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. There we go. And I think that that was like the biggest aha for me.

Shelby Short

Yeah, relieves that pressure, right? I mean, especially I think in the early stages of our careers, right? We wanna do everything right, but everyone around you doesn't expect that. I don't know why we put that pressure on us, but that's just reality. Yeah, so yeah, having that at the beginning is then you can just go through it.

Kellee Hansen

He believed in me more than I believed in myself. And I think that was the turning point for me. And I'm like, okay, I got this. And I was faking it for a long time. I got it now. After 25 years, I've got it.

I can do that.

Shelby Short

There we go. Perfection achieved. Exactly.

Angie Roseman

Well, I think that demonstrates the impact a mentor can have for a leader to instill confidence in somebody, right? Like what a big deal that made, you know? - Yeah, huge. - And to tell someone like, I think you're good and smart and you're going to do great things. I mean, that can have a big impact on somebody. - Changes everybody, I think, right? The positive. - I agree. –

Shelby Short

Yeah, 'cause life isn't perfect, right? And life is ups and downs. And so to be able to kind of hold onto that. And what I'm finding interesting is we're all pulling from not an experience necessarily that happened recently. So that moment, right? We're all pulling from, of course I asked, my story was from years ago, but we're all pulling from a moment that was earlier in our career, not necessarily most current, which is pretty cool.

Becky Mattmiller

The power of it, right? How you carry that with you through all those years.

Kellee Hansen

Yeah. And my division president at the time, he probably didn't even think twice about it, but it changed my life and it totally did. And then I just, from there, I mean, I asked a lot more questions, but I had a lot of confidence that if they have confidence in me, then I must have confidence in myself.

Shelby Short

Absolutely. So you're making me think about, do you seek out others to mentor? Has there been an opportunity that you can give advice to someone, unsolicited, of course? But that's really mentoring, right? If you can see someone giving your presentation or that they just need some more information 'cause they just haven't been on the planet as long as maybe we have. And so how to help them, but usually people don't necessarily ask for advice. "help." And so I think there's power in that portion of mentorship to be able to go and say, I've experienced this, I just want to give you some good information." Maybe it's inspiring, I don't know the right words, but have you guys had that moment? You do seek that out on a regular basis?

Angie Roseman

I give unsolicited advice all the time.

Shelby Short

Right? Thank you. I was hoping someone said yes because I do it all the time.

Angie Roseman

And I think also being a leader, that's part of it, right? So yeah, I do often. And there was a gentleman who I would give advice or tidbits to every now and then and after a couple months he asked me for a formal mentorship. So that was cool.

Becky Mattmiller

I think we've all also experienced where we have received that unsolicited advice, right? And how helpful it's been, very similar to your story, perhaps not asking for so much comfort and confidence. But boy, did that have such a positive impact. And then even for me, I was recently asked to help interview somebody for a different team. So I was just on the interview panel and I was very passionate that she was the right person for the role. There are some pieces that might be a little rough around the edges that could use a little polishing and the hiring manager was like, oh, so are you signing up to be her mentor?" I absolutely would because that's how much I believe in her. There's some things you just can't teach. If you're telling me that this person just needs a little bit of polishing and a little bit of professionalism, absolutely. But you can't teach passion and you can't teach urgency and energy. And again, I'd rather work with somebody on some of those, you know, smoothing details than anything else versus like full -on coaching around behaviors and performance. And she ended up getting the job and I'm super excited for her. It's not even on my team, but I just had so much confidence. in her, so excited to see where she goes.

Shelby Short

Yeah. Oh, those are the great stories.

Kellee Hansen

Well, now I know you both have been on appliances and you have to be passionate to be in appliances. I mean, it's not like you can't like halfway do it because you're talking about a dishwasher. And when we have jets and we have bottle jets and we have... And you guys just pull out drawers, right? Oh, and the stainless. It's just beautiful. Finger mark resistant. Steaming. And so I totally agree with you that, I mean, it's those little sparks and you have to be passionate about what you do. I mean, I absolutely love what I do. Every day it doesn't feel like work because I just love my job.

Becky Mattmiller

And that's such an interesting comment too because I feel like that's one of the best parts about the builder industry. You work with people who are so passionate about the industry and what they do and what they get to contribute to this final product for somebody to live in this home and everybody kind of rallies around that and just makes the industry very exciting to be in.

Kellee Hansen

It definitely differentiates, I think, from any other industry. We make those first movements. We make families be born. We make Christmas happening or holidays gathering for good and bad. So it's like, it's the best part of what we do is deliver homes. It's pretty special. It is.

Shelby Short

Let's do a little deeper dive into the qualities. We touched on it a little bit, but I love to hear a little bit more of the qualities that you look for in a mentor. So my story was right. I have a passion also for presenting, even though it makes me nervous, but I love it. The bigger the group, the better. And so when I see somebody who seems very comfortable in presenting, I try to find that person or get some mentoring from them to get some tricks of the trade of how do they get more comfortable. But for me, that's one of them is to see the confidence in someone presenting something. some information, but what about you guys? What are you looking for?

Angie Roseman

I usually choose a mentor or ask for that career conversation from somebody's whose Career I'm impressed by or like to emulate in some way And I think it's important to not always choose someone that's on your vertical like I'm not marketing but one of my mentors is in marketing, you know, but I really you know I'm impressed by her career the different jobs that she's had and so I wanted to talk to her and learn from her Regarding her mentors, I think as a female your first You know instinct might be to choose another female to be your mentor I don't think that has to be the case probably half of my mentors are males again, just someone's career that you want to emulate and to you know kind of compare and contrast people's Experiences, yeah, especially in our industry based on being a woman in construction.

Shelby Short

Right, right because there's We'll say maybe not as many women options or you know a lot of female in in maybe even you're in your office and in your department So if you are gonna seek that out, you're gonna have to stretch it out a little bit, right? Yeah, for sure It's very common

Kellee Hansen

So way back in the dark ages when I started there really weren't any women were you the first one Pretty I pretty much was yeah, I was the first female at a national purchasing level. So For me, it's always been about not the smartest person, but the best communicator because it's really about communication. Yep, and it's how do you talk to? Men, right? I mean, I'm pretty good at it now I know I've got my good at it had some practice I did and I just had I had a wonderful mentor of it where I was at in the division I got to go to a national purchasing and he's still my mentor. I still work with him today. Wow 20 years later Yeah, it's really exciting. I learned from him still today and it's all about communication. It's about delivery, right? right? You can say something really bad, but if you say it with a smile, things get a little better, right? So it's really absolutely. It's about communication and so I was really fortunate to have a couple of great mentors in my career. That's great. And now I look for you know the females like emulating them. At Lenar we have phenomenal women leadership. That's great. Yeah, we're really I'm very blessed with that.

Becky Mattmiller

Interesting how the industry has shifted. You went from being one of the first and now all those women are there. I think that's really exciting.

Kellee Hansen

It's exciting and we do a phenomenal job of bringing women into the field. So we have I think I bet it's probably a 40 percent ratio. I don't know that for a fact, but when I'm in the field I see a lot of women. That's great. So we really encourage it on our everyone's included policy. Everyone matters. That's great.

Becky Mattmiller

I would say you know for me I've had a variety. I've had you know men and women and it's probably transitioned a little bit over my career. I've been at Whirlpool for 20 years, which is still hard for me to say. But you know at the time, especially when I was younger, there were a lot of men you know and men in more senior positions. So you know gravitated towards that quite a bit. But I also had a lot of female direct you know people leaders. So that helped me out quite a bit. And now I find myself even in my situation today just kind of being a woman and moving up through Whirlpool very similar to you. I kind of seek out women to bring with. But I also seek out more women in mentorship situations. My life is very different than it was 20 years ago. I'm a mom and now I'm a single mom. And you know my life has taken so many twists and turns that sometimes it's for me where I am right now. I like having that that woman to talk to about all of those different things. I find it very rewarding.

Shelby Short

Absolutely. absolutely. Back to building that personal board of directors is building that team around you, right? I know for me and our company, same, we have more and more women that have come into our company at Simpson. And we had the pleasure of having a female CEO for quite some time, Karen Colonias, who was phenomenal. So to have the female leader at the top was great. So another, another, she was intentionally or not, was definitely mentoring all the women in the company to really show and lead the way of what that looks like. And I know that was very inspiring, you know, for us too. I will say also, looking at mentors and finding them, I do also have to go outside of my own company, right? I mean, I think that that's, I think for all of us, like we said, there's definitely for seeking out women or just good, we'll say mentor candidates, that it's not always in the vicinity, you know, the area that you're in, that you have to reach out into other industries, you know, other companies. I know that through, you know, conferences or different, you know, experiences that those moments sort of happen. Do you guys do that too? Like try to find it outside of the company and not just, I mean, most of our time is within our own company.

Angie Roseman

But that's the, yeah, I think the immediate thought is, oh, someone in my vertical, someone at my company. But yeah, I feel like my mentors, they're all different. And that's someone, someone for something different. Like I, one's an attorney, talk to her about contracts, one's, you know, just an amazing leader, one's marketing. And so, yeah, a lot of them outside of the company.

Kellee Hansen

I talked to strangers. Those are the best. I spent a lot of time at airports. I was just gonna say, the airplane mate, I'm standing in line at the airport and I'm talking about, you know, they'll see my Lennar bag. And so what do you guys do? Oh, hey, we have a Lennar home. So it's like, an automatic thing. And I always really just, I mean, how do we engage women to come into our industry? And I think that's really important for at least me. I know probably a passion that we all share is we need the next leaders. We need the next CEOs to become in the home building industry. So I don't know how we can formally do that other than talk to strangers, but I mean, and I think I know that there's an opportunity at, I know that with the building foundation talent, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with them. But it's, you know, how do we help engage even in high school and how do you, you know, can we spend some time there to help the mentorship? And there's so many opportunities. –

Shelby Short

So that's a great opportunity. I get them young, get them exposed, you know, and finding a path for them.

Becky Mattmiller

Yeah, especially for females, you know, I think historically a lot of people think of, you know, those trade roles as being, you know, more male -driven in terms of, you know, an industry, but getting those females in there is great.

Shelby Short

Yeah, 'cause we're not at four years old and playing in the backyard and saying, I one day want to be in residential construction. And I'm going to be a mentor and a leader, right? I mean, these are not necessarily conversations that we're having at young ages and we need to now.

Kellee Hansen

There's so many trade opportunities, 'cause it's about finesse, right? It's like a trim carpenter. They don't have to really carry heavy things. You have to carry some things, but it is about working with your hands and women are great at it because of the attention to detail, right? So how do we get more involved? –

Shelby Short

Well, that's why I get, we'll say excited and fired up about mentorship, right? I mean, those moments happen what you're just describing all the time, right? And that really is mentoring. And we just maybe don't, as I say, as a world, we don't talk about... that word mentoring in those moments, right? And I think that's just the power of mentoring just in general, right? I mean, I think it's an exciting moment when you have those and an opportunity to bring women into our industry, and you never know what's going to happen.

Kellee Hansen

And like what Angie said about just its transfer of knowledge, right? Sure. It's you know some things. Let's let you know some things, too. It's a gift, right? You're sharing.

Shelby Short

Not that I want to talk on the "I'm usually a glass half -full," but I am curious just because life is not all perfect as we want it to be. But has there been any experience on the flip side of mentorship that hasn't worked out, and maybe some lessons learned to share of the don't approach it this way, or advice that maybe we didn't, I don't know, didn't work out, right? Or maybe you haven't had a negative experience with mentorship. I can't think of anything that I've had negatively. I don't think anybody, to our point earlier, if you ask, most people will say, "Oh, absolutely. There's a gift and a kind of an ego boost, if you will." But yeah. I mean, has there been a negative experience with you guys? No. That's great. Well, good for us. We're doing something, right? Yeah, that's great. Nothing that I recall, so. Well, it's not memorable, I'm not going to think, right? I probably forgot about it. Exactly. Yeah, I don't hold on to those negative moments. Let them go. Awesome stoicism. Yeah. Well, I think, right, I mean, we would remember, right, if we reached out to someone and said, "I'm really, you know, I love the way you did that presentation. I want to learn more." And I would find it hard to believe that someone would say no, you know. But I think it's that making sure that we are aware of that all the time, that that moment, that person may need us. us for something. And if we're being asked that we, like you say, give back or pay it forward to be able to do that. –

Kellee Hansen

We've called that build it forward. - Build it forward. Oh my, I love that. - I just can't go on with that. –

Angie Roseman

And you know, I mean, I very much want to hire people that I want to work for someday. And so you could be working for, you know, - Absolutely. - Someone you're mentoring today in 15 years and 10 years. And so investing there is super important. –

Shelby Short

Oh, like I said, we've been around for a minute. And so why would we not want to share that information with others to make them better? It's going to make the industry better. It's going to make just women in business better. It's going to make the world better, you know? I mean, there's a roller coaster of life. I don't want to be all, it's not, I feel it's pretty perfect right now. So I'm going to hold onto that. That's great.

Becky Mattmiller

I actually liked what you said to Angie in terms of reaching out to others, you know, within the industry. My career hasn't always been in sales. So I haven't always had exposure to companies outside of my own. And I would say like since being in sales and getting to meet, you know, Kellee and yourself and others, gosh, is there so much to learn from other women? I mean, especially, you know, you work for a builder and you work for a builder, you know? So you guys live and breathe building. I work for a manufacturing company to where builder is a big piece of it. But it's not all that it is, right? I mean, at the end of the day, we manufacture products. So to talk to other females who are in the industry is really uplifting for me because you just don't get so much of that internally, you know, at Whirlpool. - Mm -hmm.

Shelby Short

When it feeds on that passion, like you were saying earlier, right? It's your passion about what you do. And then you feed off of that, right? And together, it's just keeps getting better and better and better.

Becky Mattmiller

Like you go to a conference and you come back and you're just re -energized and like, it's really-- - Fired up. - Yes, yes. It's really a great feeling. - Right.

Kellee Hansen

Actually, appliance is our life and death, just for the record. - They are. - We were just talking about the air conditioning that went out, right? - But appliances are, it is the most difficult trade because it's at the very end of the, and last to go in, and there's no recovery time. So what they do, what you used to do, but what they do is really, it's super important. We can't close a home without them, so.

Shelby Short

Oh, absolutely. - We need it all, we need it all. - That's right, actually, we need, I mean, we need some little Simpson parts in there as well. We've got to get that house up. –

Kellee Hansen

We need a lot of metal.

Shelby Short

Absolutely, right, no.

Kellee Hansen

And we do appreciate that too, by the way.

Shelby Short

Yeah, it's a team effort, right? I mean, that's part of the process. Well, this has been great, right? I think we've really kind of had a great conversation about mentorship. I would really like to, as I close, I think we could probably talk for hours, which has been great, is to share some final thoughts. Maybe some good advice that you want to share. I know for me, the best advice that I ever got really was build your own personal board of directors, and that has stuck with me, and I share that as much as I can, whether it's asked of me or I'm giving advice, and so yeah, we'll have some final thoughts with you guys.

Kellee Hansen

Thank you for inviting us. I'm just gonna speak on our behalf, right? But this is a really, it's an awesome thing that you guys are doing. Just learn a little bit more about kind of each other. So I really, really do appreciate that. - Thank you. - And thank you, honored to be here, and honored to be with you guys. - It was an honor, absolutely. It's been fantastic. –

Shelby Short

It's been great. I want to keep going. Let's talk about other things. Mentorship is one, what else are we passionate about?

Angie Roseman

As a closing thought about mentorship, I would say don't be afraid to ask. Just be upfront and ask. People, I mean, my experience has been considered an honor to be asked to be somebody's mentor. So don't be afraid. And then the best advice I've gotten from one of my mentors, and maybe he's listening right now, he says, Samurai makes a decision in seven seconds. Trust your gut. Trust your gut. It's, I mean, it's never been wrong for me. - I love it.

Becky Mattmiller

I'm gonna take both your nuggets away from me.

Shelby Short

I just wrote that down, but you're mentoring me right now, I think it's happening.

Kellee Hansen

That is true. I mean, intuition is, you can't mess with it. Every time you do, you do get, it does go sideways.

Becky Mattmiller

And I think it goes back to, you know, and even for me in terms of bigger things, very similar to that, it's have the confidence and trust in that decision -making. You know, you were chosen for this for a reason. You know, it's because everybody else believes in you. And how are you gonna now believe in yourself to make those choices?

Kellee Hansen

And the answer is always no if you don't ask. - Right? - Yep, absolutely, yeah.

Shelby Short

Be brave, get out there. - Be fearless. - Yes, fearless, right. I gotta write these words down, right? These are gonna be our new words. Well, this has been great, ladies. I really appreciate your time and coming here, talking about one of my most favorite topics of mentorship. And I think, like we said, I think we could talk about just about anything. So I really appreciate your time and giving some great advice. And hopefully those listening will take some of this great advice and just get out there and be brave, be fearless, be great women in the industry. And again, thank you so much for your time and we shall meet again.