How this CEO Navigated the "Messy Middle" to Grow a 25M Business

"No.  This is not my husband's company...I built it from the ground up!"

In this episode of the Reinvention Road Trip podcast,  you'll meet my friend Shelley McPhatter,  founder and CEO of Bridgeport Construction a multimillion dollar construction firm in Durham, NC.   She's a mom of three with an ocean engineering degree and a new found love for investing.  On all accounts, she defied convention and waded through self-doubt to jump off her comfort cliff into a male dominated industry.   

Shelley successfully scaled her company to over 20 employees and 25 Million dollars in annual revenue in seven years, and earlier this month, she was inducted into the NC Women Business Owner's Hall of Fame.   Ya'll,  the kicker in all this...she's in her 40's! 

If you need a boost of "girl power" and a reminder of what we can do as women, you'll get it in this episode.  Shelley takes us behind the scenes and tells us how she navigated the messy middle - reinventing herself time and time again! 

Transcript

Jesica Averhart: 0:02

Welcome back to reinvention road trip. I am so excited. We're in season two. And this is our first episode where I bring on a guest. So if you're thinking about this, well, if you know me, you know that anybody I bring on to this podcast I absolutely adore and admire. There are people that inspire me without question. And so that's probably exponentially true for the folks that I'm bringing on first. So my first guest is somebody that's near and dear to my heart is a dear friend of mine, one of my best friends who I've watched over the years, grow her business into a little micro Empire here in the triangle and the Research Triangle Park area and across the state of North Carolina. I it's one of those things. Remember how you did would joke with friends and you're like, I'll say, I remember you when you know, you'd say that to friends in school. Like, that's exactly how I feel about this relationship I have with Shelly because I have had the unique opportunity of watching her think and grow her business thoughtfully along the way and make some really good decisions. And then I'm sure she'll share with us the times I don't know what those are the miss the messy middle stuff that I was talking about in Episode One, where it just isn't always easy, right? I get to see some of it. But I know that it's got to be so much harder as you're thinking about founding a company and taking it to scale, like bringing on employees. And so she's going to share a little bit of that with us today. So let me get into who is Shelley. For those of you who are listening who don't know Shelley mcphatter. She's the founder and CEO of Bridgepoint construction. And while she doesn't really see the idea of her reinventing herself time and time again, she has many times over from ocean engineer, she graduated out of college with an engineering degree and went into ocean engineering to construction to now an investor. She has reinvented herself many times over professionally and then even personally married three kids and then became a single mom with three kids and then trying to grow a company at the same time. It's just like heroics, heroic effort. And she really has built this little Empire here in our corner of the world. And people know her, not just as a woman's business owner and a woman in a male dominated world. I mean, that's not really it. She's really, really good at what she does. She's excellent in her industry, and is incredibly respected, which is why she's able was able to take her company from, you know, a small consulting firm to a multi million dollar business in just a few short years. Remember when I talked about the comfort Cliff in Episode One, and you think about that moment where you're standing on the edge, and I say, I think I remember saying to you all how I enjoy taking risks, like I like that part of my life. It's one of those things I'm not afraid to do. And I always laugh at Shelley because I don't know anyone. Literally, I pride myself in my ability to take risks. And Shelley takes more than I do. So like she's like, she's definitely a leader. This way, she's constantly jumping off cliffs, such that the state of North Carolina just recognized her for her good work and her ability to grow and lead her business. And she was just inducted into the North Carolina Women's Business owners Hall of Fame. So congratulations, Shelley. It is well earned well deserved. And I'm really glad that I am not the only one that is just like cheering you on. Because it's it's so good to know that the whole state sees your efforts. Shelly Leslie, who works at Capitol Broadcasting Company, I think sums it up best. She was quoted as saying that you shally strike a balance of personality, which you do humor, for sure. And grit, definitely, you hustle on behalf of your clients. And I would say that you also hustle on behalf of your employees, and your family and friends. And I am grateful that I get to be considered one of those. So welcome to the show. Thank you very much, just so I'm just, I'm just kind of thrilled by this whole story. And I'm excited that people are going to get to hear it for the maybe the first time. I don't know that you've shared your whole timeline with us. Or with people in general. Like I know, you do a lot of speaking and you've done some of these podcasts before and you've done interviews and you're on magazine covers and stuff. Okay, we get it, you're amazing. But, but I really want to take this like next 30 minutes to share with women, especially your journey. And I want to I want to pay special attention to those inflection points that messy middle, and the moments that you jumped off the cliff because that's the stuff that we get a little worried about right and we we kind of put our dreams on hold for the sake of comfort or familiarity versus maybe taking the big leap and you just do it all the time and it always looks effortless to me and and you have grown a multimillion dollar business. So for our listeners when I first met Shelly, I met her A little office in Durham across in the old ballpark. And she was working in her office and her dad was her part time bookkeeper. And that was the story of her life. Right? I mean, that's how I knew, you

Shelley McPhatter: 5:12

know, he had retired and I knew I did not want to learn QuickBooks. And he got himself up to speed pretty quick and said, Well, you know, he was newly retired. So he was looking for something to kind of do so. Yeah. Yeah, dad and I, and an office and a little office,

Jesica Averhart: 5:27

right. And I was like, so all this is awesome. Look at her and contracts or construction or whatever. And so but why don't you give our listeners the backstory? I mean, you How did you even come to that point? Yeah, you were starting your own business.

Shelley McPhatter: 5:40

Yeah. And I think to go back to your first podcast comment about the cliff jumping episode, my daughter's actually listened to that episode, and they said, Mom, you are a chronic Cliff jumper. I was like, I know, right? Like, I didn't even think about it until you coined it like that, which was really kind of funny that like, yes, I do have a chronic problem with jumping off cliffs. Right, right. Now we know Yeah, so yeah. So it all it really me starting my own company started with just people believing in me before I really believed in myself, I had no desire to own my own company, I was a company girl, I was going to retire at the construction company I worked at and you know, I was I was not leaving there. I was happy. I had a developer at a Chapel Hill who had gotten to know me, because we were kind of considering building their project. And the company I was with decided not to build it. And they said, Well, hey, we need someone to manage our construction, would you leave? Would you leave there? Start you're in business and will be your first client. And I thought, what, who? What's happening here, I don't even know how to start a company. I don't even know what's happening here. But it did just it was intriguing enough to do a little research, talk a little bit more with them. And, and when I decided to do it, my daughters who are twins, were just going into kindergarten. So I only and I have a son who's a couple years younger than them. So I went from three kids in daycare to only one kid in daycare. So financially, I could, you know, it was a more calculated risk. I couldn't have done it. If all three were in daycare, we just couldn't have made that happen. But so there was some perfect timing that was happening with that. And I felt like if I'm ever going to do it, now I've got you know, 1012 years before I have to pay for college, so I better hurry up and make some money and make this happen. So um, yeah, so I had talked to the guy who was running the construction company I was working at and told him about this opportunity. And he said that I had a job there in two weeks, and I had a job there in two years, and that I needed to go do this. And he he said that half the people sitting in this office, wish they had that opportunity and that you needed to do it. And I was like, Okay, I'm quitting then that he was super supportive. Right. And, and he believed in me that I could go do it, right, this developer believed that I could go do it. So I was like, Well, people must they saw more in me than I saw on myself. So I said, Well, I'm just gonna go with that. Yeah. And so started started the construction services business and like Bridgepoint construction services, and did that for quite a few years, you know, had a lot of repeat clients. The market was great here in the triangle, there was a big need for it, kind of hired people periodically on contract, because, you know, that was in Oh, 809, like the market here. You know, the construction market just tanked, because of all the.com stuff that happened, right? So it's kind of a good time to just utilize people as I needed. And then one of our mutual mutual friends client had encouraged me, I've been doing a fair amount of work for him. And he said, Why don't you just start a construction company? And we'll, I'll give you some work. And I thought you were crazy. And I really did think he was kind of joking. And then we met again, a couple months later, and he brings it up again. And I was like, okay, he thinks I can do this. I mean, I've been a contractor. I know how to do that work. So I maybe I'll give this a try.

Jesica Averhart: 9:29

I remember that day. Actually. Remember that day that that happened? Because we had lunch. And I remember you say I don't know if he's serious or not, but this is what just happened. And so we talked about it. And I was like, I mean, I don't know sounds like a pretty serious, right? uation and they have the business and they have the work so and then I remember you were like I'm meeting with him again. And then that's when it changed.

Shelley McPhatter: 9:51

That's alright, I'm gonna let this sit here and percolate for a little bit. And then when we met again, we he he asked me again, I was like, okay, he must be serious and he's like, Look We have worked, we have a lot of work, and I'll give you some of it to get started. You know, like just people trust you. You're, you know, you're well liked you like, you know what you're doing. Like, why wouldn't you? And I was like, well, that's that's right, why wouldn't I? Right? And so off I went and started the general contracting business, then it was probably, I was trying to do some of it on my own. I hired like my first superintendent, and it was kind of me and a superintendent, which the first hire is terrifying, right? The first time you have a full time employee, you're responsible for their family. I take it very seriously. I've never from day one looked at my staff, and my team as a commodity like they are the reason I'm doing what I'm doing. Bridgepoint general contractors does not exist without everybody that works there, right? It's not me. I'm not out there building the projects anymore. Like my team is doing that. And I take I take their well being and their families, very personal. And I think they feel that a lot of people now have been with me for six, seven years. Yeah, yeah. And so considering we really pretty much got started and 13 That's a long time to have that many people, you know, be with me for that long. But it was it was definitely, you know, that first person was I swear the hardest, like, it was very difficult. And then the second one was a little easier, you know, and then you kind of get the hang of it, you're not worried as much and you're just like, Okay, I'm just going to have to keep bringing in the work to keep these people busy. You know, and I think, you know, we've grown pretty well, I mean, general contracting, we'll do, you know, probably 25 million or more this year. We have 20. There's 20 people, which is a great size. So in between being a solo construction services person and having 20 people on my general contracting team in the middle there, I could, Cliff jumped again, and started a site work company with a business partner kind of took all my bonding and banking contacts and his site work expertise. And we started Bridgepoint civil in 16, I think. And there were so many people like what are you doing girl? You're starting a site where company like buying equipment, you know, weekly payroll, what are you doing? And I was like, yeah, that is kind of crazy. And then and we went from, you know, in three years, we went to 125 people and 14 million in revenue, like it was off to the races. It was crazy. But I just realized that it really wasn't for me, like, I knew construction. I knew general contracting, right, obviously wasn't a sight word, girl. And so we ended up, you know, sold the company to a partner, he changed name. And I just focused solely on general contracting, because it's what I know is what I live the day to day of and stuff like that. So yeah, even in between my big cliff jumping, I do small quick jumping. Yeah,

Jesica Averhart: 13:02

yeah, you're always, always always. I Oh, but I want to, I want to talk about I think so you know. And there's another cliff, you jumped just recently, in the last 18 months, when you became an investor, like a real serious investor, where you're looking at projects, and people are pitching you ideas, and you're thinking about it. But before we get to that, I want to talk about your success, your profitability, and and the reason why I talk about it is that I think maybe the hook of this podcast is going to be about how you grew your business from, you know, small consulting firm to $25 million in so many years. I don't know what I'm going to name it, there's going to be something like that. And people are going to chase that title. And you've said to me more than once, that they might chase that title. But that's not how you gave me that money. It wasn't driving revenue, right. I

Shelley McPhatter: 13:56

I, sometimes I used to be embarrassed to say this, but I'm not embarrassed anymore. Because it's I've been successful at it. I've never had a revenue goal. Like any of the years never had a revenue goal. I just knew I have two superintendents, so I have to keep them busy. And I have seven superintendents that keep them busy. And I have 11 superintendents, I got to keep them busy. You know, it's just and we chased good projects we take we chase good clients. And I found that there was a small period of time, and I'm talking six months, right where I felt like, we need work, we need projects, things are slowing down a little bit like I have to fill some gaps. And we took jobs just to take them right. They weren't profitable. The client was a terrible fit. My staff was miserable because of that. And it just was a really terrible time period. And I was like, I am never I would rather one of my superintendents not be as billable, and get the good project. Then take work just to take work because you're You have to get me a revenue goal. Like, I just we and we've been profitable, right? we've, we've always made profit, I've been able to give my staff bonuses every single year, even in COVID. We had bonuses. It was amazing. But it's, I just found that chasing a quarterly goal, or it just doesn't make sense. I just, are we profitable? Why are we profitable? We're profitable because of the projects and clients we have.

Jesica Averhart: 15:27

Yeah, so that speaks to me, because I, you know, it speaks to this idea of, and you didn't say this, but I think in my mind, you know, I think about who I'm interviewing, and the type of work that I take with my, with my consulting business, it's always around values. And like, if if somebody, you know, I wouldn't interview a woman, I was just having this conversation, I wouldn't interview a woman on my podcast, who didn't have the same sort of value set that I have, or doesn't believe in equity. Right? Right. Like some of my core value principles, if org treats their team or their their work environment with a toxic treats, treats that has a terrible or toxic culture and treats their employees poorly, or treats the women poorly in their business, because I'm all about women's empowerment, and like, you might be killing the game. And everybody might be given you a word, right? But if you're not a good person, right, the people that you lead, don't like, you know, that's not what we're talking about, right? You're talking about that exceptional human, the ones who do the hard things, which is stick to what they believe in, don't chase there in your case, not to some people do think that having goals are really important revenue goals are important. And that's fine, because that's their business philosophy. But in your case, that wasn't your business philosophy. It was good. We're good people, you know, that was important to you. And it's worked. It's worked. Yeah.

Shelley McPhatter: 16:48

And I know, I've talked to people in the construction field who have businesses who've had businesses. And when they find out, I didn't have revenue goals, and I've still grown my business, I've been profitable, they, they actually think I'm crazy. Like, they don't even understand how I don't have a revenue target even for like, this year.

Jesica Averhart: 17:08

It does laugh in the face of like MBA students who go to school and do this big degrees so that I could help you figure out your revenue model. And you're like, I don't know what, right, we're just gonna, we're just gonna be better this year than we

Shelley McPhatter: 17:22

right. And that is what's happened, right, we've taken on bigger projects, more complicated projects, you know, we work with, you know, clients who have more complicated projects, and and that lends itself to a higher profit margin because the the projects are more complicated, right, and we're not, we're not out public bidding 80% of the time, you know, we do some public bid, because we need to be competitive, we need to know what the market is. So we're probably 15% of our revenue probably is public work. But, you know, we're chasing private clients, where we're one of three bidders, or we're gonna get we're interviewing and getting selected on our, you know, our team, our qualifications and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's been good. And it just, it does sound crazy. Actually,

Jesica Averhart: 18:07

I love it. I love it. I love unconventional ways of doing things like I like, if everybody just does everything the same way. It's no fun, right? Like that. You're like laughing in the face of convention, and that the people you're laughing in the face of if I could just be honest, are these men, right? You're just like, no, that's terrible. We're not here to mail bash, but it is kind of like you do it your way. Right? I'm gonna do it my way.

Shelley McPhatter: 18:31

Like, I don't even know how to do a business model. Like I don't, I honestly don't like i'd luckily didn't have to present one to my bank when I was going for credit lines. Like they because by the time I needed a credit line, I was always I was already profitable. So they were like, Oh, you got it. Yeah. Was your business. She's profitable. Now. I'm not saying that's a great idea. Right? Like someone wanting to start a new business. Like I get that you have to like, yeah, there's there's definitely Yes, right. Right. It's right there. Like, right, yeah. Right, look me up on, you know, Instagram or LinkedIn and yell at me because she said

Jesica Averhart: 19:12

we didn't need to plan. A business plan. She didn't say a business model, which revenue goal, right. All right. So let's talk about, I have two more things I really want to cover before we land this plane that I want to know. The second mostly which is around self care. So be thinking about that. Also, because I know you and I know a little bit about the self care business, and so I think we should talk about it. But but the last pivot that you've made just recently is because you've been doing really well in your business and have made some very savvy, professional business move and have grown your company carefully. You've been able to do some personal investment projects. And so, you know, did you ever think that you'd be an investor,

Shelley McPhatter: 19:57

I never did and it actually when you When you called me an investor, I was like, That's weird. Oh, I guess I am an investor. She

Jesica Averhart: 20:04

did do the lab. What are you talking about? I'm like, Girl, you have like four. How many projects have you invested in? Yeah, I think just three. Yeah, just yeah. He says, Yeah, three investment roles right on the table, but she's part owner of right. And that's significant.

Shelley McPhatter: 20:17

Yeah, no, it, you know, definitely adds a layer of stress to my life. But I'm not going to be a general contractor. When I'm 70. Right, or hopefully, when I'm 60. Yeah. So I wanted there to be other options for me down the road, as well. So it's trying to like starting to lay those pathways right for that.

Jesica Averhart: 20:39

Did you go looking for it? Or did somebody say, Hey,

Shelley McPhatter: 20:43

I'm human. I didn't really go looking for it necessarily. It just kind of happened, I guess. I guess the the medical device company I invested in, I did get introduced to them through somebody, and just actually found that the whole device super intriguing, and just felt very compelled to invest in it. And then since my daughter had been having, she ended up having treatments with it. I've saw the results like it was striking, and ended up investing a little bit more through the end of last year and stuff. So yeah, so that's super exciting. I'm looking forward. That's a whole nother field. I have not I don't know anything about right. And so I'm looking forward to learning about FDA and medical medical trials and all that kind of stuff. You know, so it's gotta be fun.

Jesica Averhart: 21:31

Yeah, it's really cool. All right. Well, so follow Shelly. Oh, Shelly, what's your Instagram? Just generally do you know Is it is it is mcphatter. One? I think so. Yeah, I think that or one follow her on Instagram, just generally, because I think over the next couple of years, you'll see various things that she's working on. Yeah, yeah. So you go and talk about your spa.

Shelley McPhatter: 21:52

Yeah, yeah. So the spa kind of fell into my it kind of happened. I my daughter's and Mona my daughter's is in Charleston. And so when I was renovating a condo down there, I had decided I was gonna do a little self care, because I'd never go get a facial. I never get a massage, like maybe one a year, maybe like, anyhow. So I decided there was I found a spa in Charleston that was woman owned, and I didn't want to go to like a big commercially, you know, manage spa and stuff. So started going there periodically and gotten got to know the owner and stuff. And then she moved to a new location. And she really, you know, was getting her hair done by her then. And she she was like, I really need, you know, to renovate this place. I need to make some changes, I really want to grow. And she's on King Street. Like it was an amazing location. And she does amazing work. She just needed business help, right? She could she knew how to run a spa. She knew but she didn't. She didn't have all the business side. She should have revenue goals. I didn't actually we don't even we just we actually have a model now on like, whatever, you do have a model. But someone else say, yeah, Sarah did that I didn't do but anyhow. So I was just listening to her. And I was like, she's sitting on a goldmine. Like, she just needs someone to help her. Right? I was like, Well, you know, maybe, let's go into business, I'll help you like, and so shortly after that, we shut down. We're in the middle of renovating the spa right now. And so we hope to be open and maybe six weeks are having some permitting issues. Heart of Charleston spa and salon. So I'm pretty excited about it. So you know, get to learn about that. That's going to be exciting. I don't even know what happened on that. It was more I think some of it was emotional, because I really wanted to see this woman succeed. I felt like she had all the tools. She has the location. She just needed some support. Right. And so it's been fun. You know, it's been it's awesome. And I get to do my construction thing. You know, of course, of course we you know, closure. person. That's right. That's how to do the things. Yeah. So. So that's been cool. And because of that, I also ended up buying a she also has some does some Salon and Spa work out in Colorado. I'm kind of part owner of that as well. And then about a building in Colorado that the Salon and Spa is and so yeah,

Jesica Averhart: 24:26

there's that like going good to give the texture. Because that's why you're and I don't talk about it a lot.

Shelley McPhatter: 24:34

I don't talk about it, because I just I just keep it to myself and keep it moving. Yeah.

Jesica Averhart: 24:39

Well, I don't know that you would have time to talk a lot because you're managing the thing. Right, right. But let's talk so this is a good segue because you are an investor a part owner in a day spa, right? Well, two locations. Yeah, yeah. So but, you know, this is where the we keep it all the way live real on this on this podcast. I've known her for a long time, we decided to 11 years and Shelley puts everybody else for she has, like, quintessential Superwoman complex. And, and I've seen her on moments ebb and flow where. So I'm talking to the audience here, you're sitting right here, but I know that you think it's important. This is the thing that I want to sort of point out is that, in my opinion, the way I've seen you move is that you know, that it's important, and you do value self care, you just don't prioritize it. Correct. And then when you do you got go bigger go home, you're kind of you're jumping off your Cliff of self care to do big stuff, right? And then you go down into the, to the depths of work, and then you come back out, right, you know, but like, that is sort of even a pattern with your self care. And I just wonder what and I suspect that there are women who do the same thing, who, who know it's important, and then they do these big grandiose moments, but I'm wondering about that sustainability. I feel like in the way I do it is by Dibble dabble along the way so that I can feel like I have control over my own destiny type of stuff. Right, right. And I don't know, which is better, because I'd love to take a week and go somewhere, but I can't I don't do

Shelley McPhatter: 26:17

yeah, like, I can't even take a week I'll take like, I might go for days. Like I don't even think I can take a week anywhere. It's crazy. But yeah, yeah, you're right. You vacation together a couple of times. Yeah, we've occasion well together. It's so much fun. But short. More days, in and out. Yeah. Like it's crazy. So no, I I am the worst self care person that I know. No, no worse. Okay. You're not the low that I know. Yeah, maybe? Yeah, no, I do I do. I do know that it is super important. Especially because the level of stress that I allow myself to get to right, like, everyone laughs I don't think they are, they don't really laugh about it. But I laugh about it. Because it's the only way I can cope with it is like, you know, the levels of stress, it's like I get to a very stressful level. And then I almost normalize it. And then I'm like, okay, I can do more, right. And then I can do more. And I can do more until I don't even realize the level that I'm running at, because I have normalized it. And that's not healthy. And that's not okay. And I do not recommend that it's just my life and how I've lived. And so I do think that coming into this year, I really, you know, my goal would be to almost put self care on my calendar, right? Because if I don't months go by, and I'm in the weeds, and I'm, you know, doing my thing. And so I really want to start putting, you know, going to the spa, right? Like going and getting a massage and facial on a on a Tuesday afternoon, right or something and just doing it because the weekend if I wait to the weekend, and that's, that's not helpful, because then I get stressed out because there's all these things I need to be doing on the weekend. Like my taking care of myself, right? Yeah. And so I really plan on, like, forcing that. I haven't been at all. But but that is my goal. Like I really plan on putting it on my calendar

Jesica Averhart: 28:13

and making it happen, I think are healthy and yeah. And it doesn't have to be reckless. It's just your time. Yeah, that gives you that recharge to get going and be able to support your team and family at the highest level. And it just something to look forward to a couple hours, right

Shelley McPhatter: 28:30

like I'm not gonna go for like a Tuesday spa day. But I'm just I may go for a couple hours and just get a facial on a you know, massage like and that's three hours maybe right of my day. Yeah, that really could you know, I could sit there and can gather my thoughts. Take a minute, you know, just relax and unplug. And so in

Jesica Averhart: 28:48

the week up leading up, you're thinking about it, like there's so that week leading up or whatever, you know, it's coming right feels like okay, I have a reprieve. But if you don't, I'm a big believer, and if you don't have a thing to look forward to, you really do get lost in the sauce around life, right days and weeks go by turns into months and just like he's right, I get a massage once a year. Yeah. And I was like you do I'm like, I think we get massages. Like it's like go go to the spa. I'm like she must be that must be the time when we're gonna ride and is. Yeah. Yes, we're gonna get that on the calendar. Dave Dave's her husband. So Shelly just recently got married how many years now? Just two or three years coming on three years. Yeah, yeah. So anyways, so yeah, so she's got a whole family to deal with and I'm gonna be like, Dave Yeah, listen here. Right get her on this right okay, friend. Yeah. Anyways, no, my kids here just anything in general. I mean, your mom you're like dealing with all the things What else? Oh, you know, I tell them about what you're doing this weekend. Oh, this weekend? Yeah. Oh, she came in. So excited. Oh my god. are proud of herself.

Shelley McPhatter: 30:01

Yeah. So so usually on the weekends, I work I do laundry, you know, I clean around the house, I work in the yard, I turn my laptop on. I work a lot, right? Like I during even in the evening, like after dinner, I'm working like I'm not interested in watching a lot of TV and stuff. So. So I made myself a list for this weekend. And it's so funny because it's just like, I'm going to go to the farmers market. I'm going to alter. Yeah, I don't even know. I'm going 25 bucks. keto keto, right. Have like I like I'm just getting to spend two hours in Whole Foods and just wander around. And I'm pretty excited about all that which. Hilarious, actually. But if that's what it takes, just to not be because if I'm at home, I'm going to migrate to my laptop. Yeah. And so I thought that would be a good way for me to just not I'm gonna go hit golf balls. Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna lay on the sun for a little bit. Yeah, yeah,

Jesica Averhart: 31:07

I think that's great. I am laughing at you, because it was cute when you came in with your list. But I mean, in all sincerity, I think that is great. And I think it's a good tool, I think that is actually a really good tip for for us. You know, if you feel like if you're home, you're going to be compelled or drawn into your dishes, your whatever, all the things you need to do the cleaning that this that the other. And the way to get to break that cycle is to get out of the house and create a fun little excursion for yourself right not to cost you anything. These are maybe fun little errands that you want to do anyways, roll, look up a list of something you want to check out and then go to the store and look for them. I love this whole foods, I think that would be I actually think that'd be super fun, too. But it doesn't have to be grand, you don't have to take a week off. You don't have to go away for four days to beach. There are ways to take care of ourselves that can be as meaningful and provide you as much joy because you're right,

Shelley McPhatter: 32:01

because I need to not be thinking about all the things Yeah, right. Because I think about even I mean, David's even said, like, and friends of mine have said when we're driving in the car, and I'm just somewhere else, right? I'm thinking I'm always thinking about the next thing, what's going on the business, you know, a project, whatever. I'm just they can tell they can like see it in my face? And I was like, That's not good.

Jesica Averhart: 32:27

Yeah. It's the nature. I mean, I just unpacked all of your things. Yes. Yeah. That you know, where I ended into which Oh, yeah,

Shelley McPhatter: 32:34

I think I think where I regret the most would be doing that when my kids were younger. Yeah, I mean, I have I have twins, twin girls, Morgan in Sydney that are 19 and my son Andrews. 16. You know, when they were young, when we i was growing the company, right? And then especially when I got divorced, and it was me, like I had to support, you know, myself and my kids household, right, that I was really feeling the pressure. And I I feel like I worked too much. I was there. I was present but not listening to them. Right. Which if I could go back, that would be one thing I would do. I would make sure they knew I heard them, you know, but I think they weren't happy about a lot of it when they were younger. But now they are fiercely independent children. Right? Because I mean, I don't know who their homeroom teachers were. I don't know what you know, they got good grades. Luckily, they stayed out of trouble. So I didn't have to get involved in school too much. Yeah, her kids are brilliant. They're at the top of their classes. But really smart kids. So yeah, yeah. So I have to like get intervene and that a lot. But I do wish I would have been more present, you know, at the time, but I, you know, they're now they get it. They they're proud of me. And they appreciate like what I've done and stuff like that. But it was it was tough run there for a bit.

Jesica Averhart: 34:03

I know. But I happen to be there when you got your award earlier this week. And all three of your kids were there. They were all beaming with pride. And I talked to the girls before I talked to your girls before the award and they had so much going on in their lives. And that is out of the eye, you know how rare and I'm just like, okay, but we're not here for that. And as soon as we walked in, I walked in because I walked in late. It's just like your kids were so so locked in to success and just being so proud of you that all the things in their own world went away. Because they were there for you. Yeah, that was really cool. No, it was cool. Yeah, I was I was proud of them. And also like that's the that's the power of the work that you've done with them is that they really see and and wanted to celebrate with you.

Shelley McPhatter: 34:47

Yeah, that was special. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was that was a great honor. I was I was totally surprised. I didn't even know I got nominated and then did not know you were nominated. And then to win was, it was crazy. Yeah, Kelly's Yes. Great. You'll see her Oh yeah, I said I was way too young.

Jesica Averhart: 35:02

She's getting a Hall of Fame way. But when you sent it to me, I was like, congratulations is your career over? What's happening here? I was like, way too young to get this award, but I'll take it. I appreciate listeners now understand why though, because it is you've done some incredible work.

Shelley McPhatter: 35:17

Yeah, I mean, you know, women owned construction company. It's no, it's not my husband's company. No, it's not my family. It's not a family business. It's me. Right. I did it. I grew it. You know, we're making it happen. So yeah, that's not that's not super common. It's not, right.

Jesica Averhart: 35:35

Well, my friend, this was delightful. I love that. We got to record the story. Yeah, cuz I just respond. Yeah, I think people need to hear it. And and we all have stories like this, where we make these decisions along the way that are critical, and depending on how we move changes the rest of our life, right?

Shelley McPhatter: 35:54

That I never, ever, when I started in, oh, seven, just, you know, by myself, if you would have told me that in 1012 years, I would have started a general contracting business how to site work business that then sold like I just could there's acid in a medical spa, like what like not even on my radar, but it's all about, you know, seeing that a doors opening and just having the courage to walk through it. Right. And don't miss the door. Right. Be aware enough of what's happening. to not miss the door.

Jesica Averhart: 36:29

You know, so sometimes it's not the big, big, big leaps. It's the little increment, right? decision.

Shelley McPhatter: 36:34

That's what it's been the whole time is yes. Yeah. I feel like it sounds like it's cliff jumping. But it really has been incremental changes that along the way. Yeah, that has led to a big thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Jesica Averhart: 36:46

I love that. Oh, that could be our title to the little yeses, the little yeses, big the big the big. Yes. So I don't know. Anyways, thank you for being here. I appreciate your time. I love you dearly. I love you. They stay inspired, and we will continue to be inspired by right thank you. Right. Bye.