Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep.#95: Building Trust: How Russell Construction Partners With Clients

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

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A nurse-turned-contractor shares how a family company became a regional builder by focusing on trust, education, and durable results. We talk career pivots, beating self-doubt, and the systems that keep budgets honest and buildings strong for decades.

• what Russell Construction builds across healthcare, residential and commercial 
• how three divisions speed delivery and sharpen pricing 
• Josie’s path from fieldwork to CEO and owner 
• client education from site selection to preconstruction 
• addressing contractor misconceptions with transparency 
• mindset shifts to counter self-doubt and worst-case thinking 
• growth from local firm to regional contractor 
• where to learn more and get in touch

www.russellala.com


SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome. And with me is Josie Young. She's with Russell Construction. Josie, you're the owner of Russell Construction. Tell us a little bit about what you guys do.

SPEAKER_01:

I am. Thank you so much for having me today. We are a local general contractor that really invests in the community around us to promote healthy living and just getting in touch with your community. So we build healthcare, industrial, and commercial projects, anywhere from$1 million to$100 million for a single-size project. And do that in all three sectors, industrial, healthcare, and commercial.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay. So you guys are busy then. You do residential and commercial.

SPEAKER_01:

We do. We do. We have three divisions that service clientele. No matter the size of the project or the type of the project, it falls into one of the three divisions that we have in our company. And that's really just to be able to service our clients faster and at a cheaper price.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, tell me a little bit about you, Josie. How did you get into construction and into ownership here?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I get that question a lot, being a female in the construction industry for sure. And I actually originally attended Troy University and graduated with a nursing degree. So it was not my uh number one choice immediately. Um, but my father started Russell Construction 42 years ago. And so I grew up in the construction industry. I grew up being in it and around it. And, you know, anytime we would go on a family vacation, we were stopping to see a job cycle on the way and stuff. I was just inundated in it growing up, but I never considered it as a career path. Um, and so fast forward I graduated in nursing and just did not fall in love with it. It was good timing. My dad needed some marketing revamp, and I was a 21-year-old, fresh college grad at the time, and so I said, Oh, I can do that easy. Um, and so I started part-time with marketing and um quickly realized that I knew more about the construction industry just from absorbing it over the years than I ever thought that I would have. And I really enjoyed doing what we did. Um, so we help clients from the very beginning to the very end of the process, even when they're looking for land or they're looking for that right spot for them, we can guide them through how to choose that spot and then the budgets, um, budget the project along the way throughout the design to make sure it doesn't go over budget in the end. And so walking clients through those steps in that process was exciting for me instead of overwhelming. And so I decided once I figured out I liked it, I needed to learn the construction aspect of it. So I went in the field for a few years and then came back in the office in project management. I did a a couple of years in pre-construction um and was eventually promoted to VP of marketing, and then um had a serious conversation with my father a few years ago in 2022, and then I purchased the company and became CEO and president in 2023. Um and we've been there since. So what a story. Yes, it's a quick, quick version.

SPEAKER_02:

I love it. That is awesome. Well, you know, you've been in this business your whole life from childhood up. Have you come across any kind of misconceptions that people have uh about construction? I bet you have a, you know, whether you're doing a home for someone or a large, you know, commercial building, I bet people have thoughts in their head about the process that that are really not true.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, absolutely. Um, I think sometimes construction companies are perceived as really just salesmen and then um the quality of the product that you're getting is not a quality product. And so we really try to walk hand in hand with our clients and fully explain what they're getting. We don't expect our client to know anything about construction. It's our responsibility to ensure that the integrity of your home or your business is maintained and that that structure is going to be here 30, 40, 50 years from now because it's a well-built structure. Um, and so we want to invest in the relationship with our clients as well as with our trade partners to show them that the conception of a construction company just kind of taking advantage of that situation is not true, um, and that we can just be a partner for you and um it'd be money well spent.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, a trusted partner, absolutely. Yes. So when you are, you know, working on your business, you're all in Russell construction. But what do you do, Josie, when you're not in your office building a building? What do you do for fun?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. So I have two boys that are two and three. So they keep me very busy. Um when I'm not wrangling them in. I do enjoy playing tennis, um, I enjoy exercising and just being outdoors. So anything outdoors I would like to be at.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, very good. So, you know, part of the reason I do this podcast is to encourage people to follow their dreams of entrepreneurship. And um, with that, there's always some, you know, challenges along the way that you have to overcome. They could be personal, they could be in your business. What are some of the things that you've encountered that you overcame and made you a stronger person and made Russell Construction a stronger business?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I think one of the biggest things that entrepreneurs often struggle with is the self-doubt. Um, the self-doubt or the um assumption that a scenario is going to be the worst case scenario. And oftentimes it ends up not being the worst case scenario. Um, and so just training myself to uh think optimistically while also being realistic about the scenario is a is something that I had to teach myself. You know, it it really allows you to grow in your business when you can ground you know yourself in in what you believe and know what's true and what's not true, um, and just let that guide your steps.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think that's probably a common problem. I know I suffer from that, just uh more of a try to train your brain not to be uh a negative more, not to be so negative, to be more positive. It's really more work to have a positive outlook than it is to have a negative outlook.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely, especially when you have big dreams and ideas, and most entrepreneurs do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that's exactly right. Well, what is one thing you wish people knew about Russell construction that they may not realize?

SPEAKER_01:

So we have grown a lot in the past, even just a couple of years, we've really doubled in revenue. And so we've become a fairly large regional contractor. And um, oftentimes people perceive us as being just a residential contractor or just a commercial contractor and don't realize that we really integrate all of those systems. And so, no matter the product that you want us to produce, we can do it. Um, and we have you know a section of our company that is geared just for that type of project.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, excellent. Well, how can people learn more about Russell construction?

SPEAKER_01:

We have a rep website, it's Russellala.com. Russell has two S's and two L's. Um, we also have Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, all of those items. And then our phone number is 334-215-1617.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Josie. I've really enjoyed learning more about you and Russell Construction. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburn.com. That's gnpauburn.com. Or call three three four four two nine seven four zero.