Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #301: Georgette Blackburn with RGC Construction
Georgette Blackburn, owner of RGC Construction, shares her journey from receptionist to successful contractor and how she built a thriving family business that handles everything from small bathroom remodels to commercial construction projects. She discusses the unique challenges and rewards of running a construction company as a husband-wife team while breaking barriers in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
• Florida State general contractor serving the tri-county area (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach)
• Woman-owned, family business offering residential and commercial construction services
• Projects range from luxury bathroom remodels to complete store builds and home construction
• Started career as a receptionist at 17, working through various construction sectors
• Set five-year goal to get contractor license, achieved it in just two years
• Works as a "power couple" with husband, blending complementary skills and shared passion
• Biggest challenge of working together: difficulty separating work from personal life
• Emphasizes transparency and clear communication as core business values
• Maintains strong work-life balance with family time, boating, and travel
• Encourages listeners not to fear reaching out for guidance on construction projects
RGC Construction can be found on all social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Visit their website at rgcconstruction.org or email Georgette directly at georgette@rgcconstruction.org.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, hello, friends, family, great community, welcome back to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, of course, the host with the most, jeremy Wolf, and we are here, as always, interviewing local business owners, getting a look under the hood, learning about what they do in our great community and why they do what they do. So today, I am excited to sit down with Georgette Blackburn, and Georgette is the owner of RGC Construction. Georgette, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3:For sure, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, it is our pleasure, and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning us For sure. Thank you. Thank you for having me, it is our pleasure, and thanks, as always, to our listeners for tuning in. We appreciate your support. All right, georgia. So let's get right into this. Tell our listeners a little bit about your business.
Speaker 3:We are a Florida State general contractor. We are located in the Davie Cooper City area. We are local small business, family owned, woman owned, woman qualified and all around. Just you know, we're the general contractors that can get your projects done. We have a lot of experience, you know from. We're born and raised Floridians my husband and I and he co-owns the business with me and we are born and raised Floridians my husband and I and he owns the business with me and we are born and raised Floridians that have been building in Florida since our 20s and we're in our 40s and 50s, so we've been doing it for a long time and we love what we do.
Speaker 2:I love it. Husband and wife team local family run business woman owned business, I must say. And wife team local family run business woman owned business, I must say, georgette, I have done, I've done quite a few of these interviews and I've encountered so many women owned businesses in industries that are predominantly male dominated, right, I have. Most recently I sat down with Jenny Chapter who owns Quality Termite and Pest Control. She lives right here in Cooper City. I work with Tamara Chase from Chase Roofing, another woman-owned company. I've encountered women plumbers.
Speaker 2:So it's really interesting to get the perspective of a female that's running a business in predominantly male-operated trades. If I could speak today, we'd be in good shape, wouldn't we speak today? We'd be in good shape, wouldn't we Okay? So I want to dig in to the types of services you offer through the business because I think a lot of people, myself included when you hear like a GC general contractor, it comes to your mind like, okay, well, you just do like, all things construction related, right, you come in, you do renovations, you do. But I think there's more to that right. Obviously, there's businesses that work in the commercial side. They work in the real estate, the residential side, some specialize in certain aspects of construction. So tell what types of services you offer. What's your target demographic, who do you serve? Tell us a little bit about the work that you've done over the years.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what kind of makes us unique. We are capable of doing, you know, all of the above. Our background comes from state work to industrial work, to commercial work, to luxury residential small bathroom remodels. You know, primarily we, we really do it all. We just finished a store in Wynwood that was a perfume store do it all. We just finished a store in Wynwood that was a perfume store. We have an ongoing addition going on in Cooper City so we're capable of doing your simple bathroom models, your kitchen remodels, and we're capable of building you a new house or building you a new store or renovating the inside of the store. So we're all around, we can do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2:A to Z soup to nuts. I love it, I love it. So now, obviously you're local to the community and a lot of the work that you do is here. Local to South Florida. Do you have? Is there somewhere that's too far for you to travel? Do you do work down in Dade County, Palm Beach?
Speaker 3:beyond that, Like where's your, your primary focus? I mean, obviously we want to stay Tri-County. You know, being from Southeast Florida, we know that the market starts in Dade and ends in Palm Beach for this side of the coast. But we have projects in Tampa and we're open to traveling to the areas all around Florida, as long as it's the right project, right fit, obviously, for the client and for us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah Right project, right fit, obviously for the client and for us. Absolutely yeah Right project. You're there, yeah For sure. Okay. So you mentioned husband and wife team. I'm interested about the journey, right, I imagine that you weren't growing up and going to school and you're like you know, when I get, when I grow up, I want to be a contractor, a general contractor. How did you end up in this business? Was it something where you were with your husband first and then you had you come from different backgrounds and you came together and say, hey, this would be great if we did this. Or did you have background in that field before you met? Talk a little bit about your professional and personal journey that led you to where you're at today.
Speaker 3:I mean for for me personally. I, you know, I started out as a receptionist at a brick company, learned how to read a survey, learned how to lay out a sidewalk in a walkway, and, and it became really interesting to me and I was, you know, I was 17 when I took that job, so I went from a brick company to a pool company, to a home builder, to a road builder, so my personal experience in my career is pretty extensive as far as different types of projects. My husband the same thing. We've known each other since we were in our 20s. We were not together.
Speaker 3:We were actually friends for a very, very, very, very long time and it just so happened that we came together. We both were friends for a very, very, very, very long time and it just so happened that, you know, we came together. We both were in a point in our careers where we knew that we wanted to do something on our own, and when we came together as a couple, we found that we were like kind of like a power couple and it just really worked really well yeah.
Speaker 2:Love it. So what would be? I always ask this when I have a husband and wife. I actually used to work with my wife many, many years ago and it's an interesting dynamic I like the term used, the power dynamic. I always felt like in my relationship with my wife we were like the yin and the yang. Right, she did what she did. She was really good at that and then I was really good at what I did. But when we crossed paths with each other, things can often flare up. What would you say is one of the most rewarding things about working day-to-day with your husband? And on the other side of that, what would be one of the most challenging things? And don't cop out and say, oh, nothing's challenging. I had a guest I asked that and they were like oh no, nothing, nothing is challenging at all. Everything's peaches and cream.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think the biggest benefit that we have, you know, is that we have really great communication and we're really best friends. So, and we both, we're both intrigued by the industry, right, we'll walk into a place when we're going to have dinner and then we're pointing out things and talking about them. So that's kind of like you know the perk, right? We love the same things, we see the same things, we see the same things, we work the same way. The downside is we don't stop working.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 3:we talk about it at night, before we go to bed.
Speaker 2:We talk about this, we talk about that we blur the lines as they say yeah, I know. It's difficult to detach from it, right? Because you get a thought You're laying there in bed at like nine, thirty, ten at night and you don't want to talk about work, but then something pops in your head about a job you're doing. It's like I got to share this with you right now.
Speaker 3:It's like ah, did you remember? Did you? Did you talk to? Yeah, and it's, you know, right before you're going to sleep and be like, and then you have, you have a whole conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how great dynamic to have and especially, like you said, the communication is so unbelievably key in everything that we do, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so no. I always say with my I've said this so many times now on the north side of 40, yeah, I used to get in arguments, if you will, with my wife and she would start criticizing me over something and I would get triggered and the wall would go up and I'd get defensive and I'd start fighting back. And what I've come to realize more and more is that the things that she's saying that are triggering me, it's just me mirroring back. She's mirroring back to me the things that I know I need work on and I'm trying to avoid it because it's uncomfortable. So I've gotten a lot better at really engaging and communicating in my life. So yeah, and listen.
Speaker 3:that comes with our age. I definitely am not triggered by the things that was triggered in my 20s and 30s. I'm on the upper side of 40 myself and my husband is in his early 50s, so that comes with age and grace.
Speaker 2:It really does. It really does. Yeah, the wisdom, the wisdom comes. So, georgette, one of the reasons that we do this show is obviously to get a look under the hood and learn a little bit about the owners, why they do what they do what they do, and really help build the know like and trust factor. But also, is education right? There's a lot of misconceptions that exist in different industries, so I'm curious what are some of the things that you typically see or you hear the most from clients or prospects? People come out in terms of their confusion about the work that you do.
Speaker 3:That's a good question, um, and there's a lot of possible possible answers for that.
Speaker 3:But I think the one thing that comes up a lot is when a client doesn't have the knowledge on the front end of the project and they don't know where to get started or how to get started started or who to talk to.
Speaker 3:And you know, I think I've learned that that's one of my strong suits is that you know the beginning is so critical having the right information, having the right party on your team. You know, even if I found that, even if I'm not hired as hired as a contractor or somebody, I have no problem, you know, answering questions and helping somebody get started, because a lot of times you don't need the services of a complete general contractor. You may just need a plumber or you just need an AC guy, and a lot of people don't know where to start on some of those things. So I feel like the misconception is is that you know all the general contractors out there are just trying to build the biggest project and don't want to talk to the small guy who needs help understanding where he starts. You know that's it's it's it's a big problem. Know out there in the big world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and for you, as a GC, you obviously subcontract out to all the different trades plumber. So if you, if you encounter somebody that maybe just needs a plumber, like you, have a wonderful directory or resource directory of businesses that you know and trust that you could refer out, which I think is absolutely.
Speaker 3:And I, I'm, and I'm one of those people that I, you know, I maintain the relationships with my subcontractors, and most of them are local as well. So, you know, I have plumbers and in electrical guys and ac guys down in miami, I have the guys that work in broward, I have the guys that work in palm beach. You know that. Then there's the bigger boys that like to travel, you know. But, yeah, I, I can help wherever I can and I think that's the biggest thing I like to do is help help our clients or our potential clients, or even, you know, joe next door. Hey, I have some questions. I can help you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, knowledge is power, said, and I think one of the things that specifically for I mean this rings true for for many, many different industries, but I think, uh, specifically for the trades industries and contractors and people doing, uh, potentially big jobs, it is so important to have somebody, if possible, that you truly you, and you trust, that you can work with, because nothing, nothing gets me more than when I have a project to do. It's like whatever it is. Yeah, first place I go is like okay, who do I know that does that? And I go on my phone I'm like, do I know? And I'm looking for like somebody that could tell me they trust this person. And then, if I can't find that, I'm thinking like where else I can go.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, if you don't know anybody, you got to go to the old Google machine. You got to go. You find three or four companies, you look at the reviews, whatever. Then you got to call them and then most people they'll have those companies come out and they'll give them quotes. And then people start to think that, well, maybe if I do enough research I could become an expert and I could determine why this quote is better, because it's $2,000 cheaper than this quote and we tend to get in the weeds with all that and it doesn't make for a better decision necessarily.
Speaker 2:What I want in my life is I want to have somebody that I'm so confident in that I just call you and I know you have my best interest at heart. So you come look at the project. You say, hey, jeremy, this is what our recommendation is. It's going to cost this much. Is this doable for you? And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, I get it done. I don't want to waste 10, 20 hours of my life quoting different jobs and going crazy there. That's why I think it's so important for people to get to know the owners of the business, to see if you you feel confident with them, so you don't have to go through all that nonsense I mean they're, at the end of the day, it's you're engaging a relationship with somebody when you you know it's a business relationship, but you still need to be able to have trust and transparency.
Speaker 3:And I think that a lot of the problems that we have in in the trades and in the industry is there isn't transparency and there isn't communication, and I think that was one of my key factors of opening the business is I needed, you know, I needed to understand, um, the way I wanted to run my business was going to be with you know, clear communication, clear transparency, um, you know, constant follow-up. It's, it's, you know. I'm not going to tell you it's going to take six months. If it's really going to probably take you 12 months, I'm going to give you the answer. You may not like it, but I'm going to give you, you know, I'm going to give you all the supporting documents and information that go along with that, but you're going to get transparency when it comes to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good stuff, good stuff. So one of the another thing I like to ask of all the guests that have the show what I found that the older I get, is that experiences that I've had really really tough life, hardships or challenges the types of things where when they happen to you and you're going through them, you kind of question everything why is this happening to me, like, and it just really shatters your world. And on the other side of that, many years later, you look back at that experience and you say, man, I am so grateful for having gone through that. I wouldn't be where I'm at today if I didn't have that challenge or whatever it is. So I always like to ask our guests if there's anything throughout your journey that kind of fits, that bill, that at the time going through it you felt like the world was ending and you'd never get through it. And then, sitting here today, you're truly grateful for having gone through that experience.
Speaker 3:I've had a couple of those. I mean, you know, life there's a lot of curveballs and definitely life there's a lot of curve balls and definitely, you know, being a woman in a male dominated industry can be really tough. But I was really, really young and most of my experience is, you know, my career is experience based experience and it's not. I didn't go to college to come into this, into this industry. I learned it. You know, boots on the ground, line by line, and I went through an experience where I, you know, I was a single mom. I had, you know, a bunch of mouths to feed and it was tough, it was really tough and I had to, like you know, strap on my boots and I said I can do this, I can work in this and just can work in the industry and make it. And I'm going to do that and I did it. I mean, I gave myself a five-year plan to get my license because I got tired of making money for other people and I got it in two.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, we were just talking about this yesterday on a podcast I did for another podcast where we were talking about the idea like there's no growth without pain and I asked the question I was like, but why does it have to be so painful? And we were talking about how well, there's always going to be discomfort and pain and you have to lean into that. The question is, how long do you want to feel that pain and discomfort, as opposed to confronting it head on and really moving past it as quickly as possible? And what I found is that when you lean into the pain and the discomfort, it becomes considerably less painful and uncomfortable and it goes away.
Speaker 3:The growth is faster.
Speaker 1:The growth is faster, the growth is faster.
Speaker 2:And the growth is faster, whereas in the past, many, many years ago, I'd get stuck in negative loops and I'd get in it and something that happened throughout the day would end up ruining my whole day or even my whole week. And I'm just so much more aware right now when that stuff happens and I always remind myself when something really really severe happens, I remind myself and I tell this to my kids as well. It's just a moment. Things will always get better, they will always change, and you might not be feeling good now and you might not be feeling good for the day, but soon enough things will be brighter, for sure.
Speaker 3:Glasses half full.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what do you like to do for fun when you're not working, when you're downtime, If you even have any? I know you're probably out there working your tail off all the time, but what do you like to do in your downtime?
Speaker 3:I mean for my husband and I. We have learned working in the Florida construction industry. You have to have work-life balance. If you don't, you will be consumed, right. So we have a very large family. We spend most of our free time with our family. We have grandkids, we have nine grandkids, nine grandkids. Yeah Well, we have seven kids between the two of us and nine grandkids. So we're a very big family.
Speaker 2:You don't look like a grandmother. I'm just saying that. I'm not trying to flatter you. You do, I'd be so. I'd be shocked if you had. You told me that, but you told me on the front of the show, so I had a yeah, so I mean, most of our time is spent.
Speaker 3:You know, we, we have a boat. We like to go out in the ocean um we like to travel. I mean we like to do all the you know, normal 40 something year old fun stuff you know. But um, we really do, you know, enjoy our quality time with our family. We're we're very family oriented, so that's pretty much fun for me.
Speaker 2:Family is everything, absolutely so. So you like the travel where. Where are some of your favorite places to venture out to?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a Florida girl, so I love Disney. I mean, you know I am, you know, family, so but I would say I love going out west. I have a friend who lives on the outskirts of Las Vegas and I love, you know, the Grand Canyon and all the national parks out there. And then secondly would be, believe it or not, I love Washington DC. It's great to visit. I don't know. As an adult I love it.
Speaker 2:The only experience I've had with DC was when I was I don't know six, seven. I was a young kid and my parents took me there and I was a nightmare disaster area. I don't remember the particularsars, but I remember being a little just like complaining every tour we went on this sucks, I want to go, and you know, mom, if you're listening, dad, forgive me yeah, but it's definitely something to experience, uh, as an adult, and for me, you, the architecture and a lot of the things that are there in the area are just phenomenal to visit.
Speaker 3:So I went in the spring one year for the Cherry Blossom Festival and I love going there.
Speaker 2:So, but yeah, I'm gonna have to check it out again as an adult. Yeah, obviously perspective has changed considerably through the years, but I would be fascinated to go take another trip out there.
Speaker 1:That's very cool.
Speaker 2:So what would be, before we wrap this up here, what would be one thing that you'd like to leave our listeners with? Now this can be. It could be about your business, or it could be a little piece of life, wisdom, something that you'd like to share, a little nugget that you'd like to leave our listeners with, or or you could do one of each.
Speaker 3:The choice, the choice is yours, georgette uh, I mean, I guess I would leave them with. Don't be afraid to reach out and don't be afraid to chase your dreams I mean, at the end of the day, you know we're not getting any younger and dreams, I mean at the end of the day, you know we're not getting any younger. And here I am, you know, doing it, and if I can do it, anybody else can do it, right, so yeah, and I, I'd love, you know, I'd love to meet new friends and and to make new connections. So, absolutely, reach out to me. You know, I would love to meet all of my neighbors.
Speaker 2:Essentially, Very cool. I love it. I love it. So, reaching out, speaking of reaching out, somebody's listening. They like what you had to say. They're thinking about doing a remodel in their house or a project, whatever it is, and this is resonating with them. And they're like you know what? I want to reach out to RGC Construction. How can we do that? What's the best way to reach you? Maybe share your phone number, your website, if you have social media handles, share all that information so our listeners can reach out and find you.
Speaker 3:For sure. We are on all the social media platforms. We're on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. We do have a website it's rgcconstructionorg, which a lot of people don't get the org part, but it is rgcconstructionorg and they can email me. We do have a toll-free phone number on our website and if they want to email me, they can email me. It's my first name, Georgette, at rgcconstructionorg.
Speaker 2:Perfect, and we will, of course, drop a link in the description with all of your contact information so if anybody missed it, they can get it down there and then they could reach out and start that dream remodel project that they've had sitting in the back burner for the last five years. Don't wait, the time is now. We only get this one life to live. You might as well enjoy yourself and live life to the fullest. Absolutely Good deal, all right, cool. Well, georgette, it was a pleasure to meet you and learn about what you do in the community. We're so happy to have you on.
Speaker 2:And to our listeners out there, if you are considering that project seriously, reach out, talk to Georgette. She seems like a wonderful business owner. At the very least, he'll give you some good information. Absolutely Right. And if you're out there and you are a business owner and you like what you hear on this podcast and you're like man, I should really get on there and tell my story. Reach out, we could have a conversation, see if it makes sense to have you on the platform and tell your story. We're always happy to spread the messages of local business members in our community. So with that, I thank everybody for joining us. I wish you all a wonderful day and we will catch you next time on the next episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Ciao, Bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Cooper City. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to GNPCooperCitycom. That's GNPCooperCitycom, or call 954-231-3170.