Defying Expectations: Building Resilience in Male-Dominated Industries with Gina Schaefer

Gina Schaefer shares her journey from building a multi-million dollar hardware store chain to becoming a professional speaker, offering insights on overcoming self-doubt and breaking barriers in male-dominated industries.

• No one thought Gina would succeed as a woman in the hardware industry, which created initial self-doubt that she had to overcome
• Branding is more than logos and colors, it's about what people think about you when you're not in the room
• Business development requires systematization, including targeting specific audiences rather than trying to appeal to everyone
• Successful entrepreneurs must be prepared to fail, look stupid, and make wrong choices as part of their growth process
• Understanding your value and charging appropriately is crucial, especially for women in business
• Recognizing and naming your fears (Gina named the chip on her shoulder "June") can help you manage them
• Play the long game, know what you want, create a strategy, be open to pivoting, and stay both hungry and self-aware
• It's essential to balance confidence with constructive self-criticism to grow professionally

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Transcript

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Overcoming Self-Doubt as an Underestimated Woman

Gina Schaefer 0:00

No one thought I was going to succeed as a woman in the hardware industry , and so I immediately started with a lot of self-doubt , and I woke up every morning thinking am I good enough ? Is this going to work ? Am I going to keep my team employed ? What I really needed to hear was that I could do it .

Stefanie Couch 0:13

Having that hunger and that awareness of where you're going . It helps you stay on track , and especially when it gets hard , I think that's a message that I would give any person , but especially women Know what you want , know how you think you're going to get there , know you're going to have to pivot , but stay hungry and also stay aware of the feedback you're getting .

Gina Schaefer 0:33

Be ready for anything , be ready to roll with the changes , be ready to roll with the punches , be ready to be encouraged , insulted , challenged , overruled , all of those things . But then I would also tell her to not let any of that stop her To remember that you know , if she's there , she's there for a reason . If she wants to be there , she needs to stand up for what she believes in , not to be afraid to stand out , to stick out . That all of those things will probably work in her favor . Really , I want it to be known for empowering women in the hardware industry . Just because the world underestimates us doesn't mean our fate is pre-written .

Stefanie Couch 1:10

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast , the show for bold builders , brand leaders and legacy makers in the construction and building industry . I'm your host , Stefanie Couch and I've been in this industry my entire life . Whether we're breaking down what's working in sales and marketing , new advances in AI and automation , or interviewing top industry leaders , you're going to get real world strategies to grow your business , build your brand and lead your team . Let's get to work . Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast with Stephanie Couch . I am here today in Washington DC with my client and friend , Gina Schaefer . Welcome to the podcast , thank you , Stephanie .

Stefanie Couch 1:55

And we are here actually doing some filming for some promotional stuff and we figured , why not film a podcast while we're here , why not ? So let's get started . All right , we are working today on some amazing content and we've been working together for a little over six months now and we found each other through a speaking engagement , a women's conference actually in Chicago , and we met . You were actually in the lobby giving away books and you are somebody's pens and you signed my book and I thought you were fabulous and we have become friends and you've been one of my clients . Tell me a little bit about the experience working together and maybe some of the things that you've enjoyed or that have helped you .

Gina Schaefer 2:41

Well , after I was scared to death of doing anything on my own , I was so excited to find you because you really laid out exactly one , how you were building your business and two , what you could help me do for mine , and that was really important for someone to help articulate what my vision was for my business too . And somehow you , just you knew right away . You also knew what organizational things I needed . I can be a little flighty sometimes when it comes to checking the boxes . I can make the list , but then actually getting through the list is important , and so we started working together so that I could build a speaking business and methodically get through all of those things that needed to happen in order for me to look like a professional look and be a professional speaker .

Stefanie Couch 3:30

And you are a CEO , so you've had this team of people doing things , and I find that a lot of times with businesses in general , but also with people that are doing something on their own , that have had a big team , it is really hard to go from being able to have a person to do these things , so you are the person or you have to find someone else . So that's really what we started working on was figuring out what's really important and what could kind of wait and what was a nice to have and what was a must have . What were the must haves for you when we started working together ?

Gina Schaefer 3:55

Well , I mean at the and it's very basic , I needed a website and a business card . I mean , One of my superpowers is delegation and so when you talk about having a team , I would have just called someone in marketing and said , hey , will you make me a business card or will you figure out what my new branding should be ? We had to start really at the very , very foundational levels and people who don't understand how important those things are and I did , but I don't think I had ever seen them layered the way you layered them , and that was really cool for me to watch unfold .

Stefanie Couch 4:25

Branding is a topic that I think most people undervalue . How important brand is for people and for companies ?

Gina Schaefer 4:35

Tell me what branding means to you . Well , branding means a lot of things , like you said , I think , for me . Watching it happen , though , for me was knowing , for example , if somebody asked me for a piece of collateral , I could hand them something that had the professional pictures , the same colors , the same fonts . I mean , truly branding is consistency . But then , across all of the materials that you're going to need for any kind of event and I could it was like plug and play . After you put together my materials for me and I had never . I had never seen that happen . I mean , I think it had happened in my business so many years ago that I had started taking it for granted , but then , when it was about me personally , I really felt like I was put together .

Stefanie Couch 5:13

Yeah , branding is something that people think of as logos and colors and fonts , and that is a part of it , for sure , but branding is really what people think about with you as a person or your business . When you're not in the room yes , after they've done business with you , maybe before they even know who you are that first impression of like this person stands for this thing . They do these things and you really wanted to become a person that was known for certain things . So tell me what you wanted to be known for and what you were trying to do , which is very different than your career that you had done for 20 plus years .

Gina Schaefer 5:49

Yeah , it was . So I think I wanted to be known for a couple of things . Really , I wanted to be known for empowering women in the hardware industry , any underrepresented , underestimated group of people . You know , the foundation for my very first speech was just because the world underestimates us doesn't mean our fate is pre-written . And that meant a lot to me because I was very underestimated in my hard work career when I got started and I knew I could do it and I knew you know I hire a lot of folks from recovery . I hire a lot of returning citizens . I talked to a lot of women in traditionally male fields . I know they can do it and so I wanted to be known , I hope , as someone who was supportive in those efforts for everybody else .

Stefanie Couch 6:27

Yeah , and building culture is something you're very good at and you worked really hard to build at your company , with your 13 hardware stores and almost 300 team members that you have . Tell me how you wanted to be seen as a culture builder , and what you talk about is a little different than the typical how to build your culture . What does that mean to you and how did that story become what you wanted to be known for ?

Gina Schaefer 6:53

Well , one of my one of my longtime heroes is a guy named father Gregory Boyle who started homeboys industries in LA , which is just this incredible nonprofit . And in his first book father G says even gangs have a culture . And I remember being a young CEO and hearing that and I kind of wanted to say , well , duh , right , I mean , every group has a culture . But it had never really occurred to me that that culture could be as negative as it could be positive . And then , as leaders , our role was to make sure that it was nurtured and defined , and by nurtured I mean what does the team want it to be and how can you , as the leader , grow it ? I wasn't going to say these are our core values . I wanted my team to articulate how they wanted to be perceived , what they wanted our values to be , what was important to them , and then my job was to help bring that to life .

Stefanie Couch 7:42

I think that leads into , pretty naturally , the talk about value and what is valuable to people . And as we started looking at your new business , really figuring out , what was your go-to-market strategy , who did you need to talk to , what were you going to talk to them about , which we just kind of summed up , and then how are we going to go about that process and that's something a lot of businesses really don't have is that strategy , which is something I think is interesting ? You assume people have one and we all kind of think we do , but sometimes it's really big , like 78 goals , and you just can't accomplish that Right . So I think , breaking that up into a structure that's digestible , that's doable , and working through those things one by one and we kind of did that with your system , and now we're more into the business development side of things , because your brand is there and all those things are done what does that look like for you going forward and what's important to you as you start to build this , now that you have a foundation ?

Gina Schaefer 8:40

Well , I mean , I think this is what you're getting at . There's a systemization when it comes to business development that I didn't understand before . And working with you , going through a public speaking program that I went through really honing in on who you want your audience to be , a lot of us want to say I can talk to everybody , I can be in every industry , I can talk to every group

Building a Foundation for Speaking Success

Gina Schaefer 9:00

of people , but that's really overwhelming . And if I said to you , stephanie , I only want to talk to women in the hardware industry and I don't just want to talk to women in the hardware industry , but I need a focus to start , sure , you can hone in on and this is one of the things that you really helped me do what are the organizations that are having events that need speakers and speak to that group ? What are the companies that have maybe an internal group for the women in in their industry a tool company , for example , that needs speakers for the events ?

Gina Schaefer 9:30

That's the honing in . That is really important because , if you , I get very excited . I want to talk to everybody and that's way too overwhelming . So you really helped create that . And then I think one of the other organizational pieces that was very important for me that you helped me with was creating a CRM , implementing a CRM , making sure that I was again methodically tracking where my leads were coming from , who I could follow up with next year that might not have worked this year . Who they know that I can follow up with . I mean , it's all of the dotted lines from where I started in a very , very systematized way .

Stefanie Couch 10:01

Yeah , systems and data are powerful . Yes , and sometimes for a small business or a solopreneur it's almost impossible to get all that together . It feels overwhelming . But if you start to take it at one at a time and then you start to follow up on those things , it's really powerful . We talked a little bit about value and it's really about what is that customer find valuable ? Because we can build the most valuable thing to us , but if no one cares about it no one would pay for it Then it's not really valuable . It's not valuable to your target audience , and I think figuring out your unique value for the perfect audience is something that people struggle with all the way up to the enterprise business , because we all do want to sell to everyone and help everyone .

Stefanie Couch 10:44

You and I care a lot about impact . That doesn't just mean dollars and cents . That means really changing things people , perceptions , all those moments that we try to do . And when you figure out who would find your message the most valuable and then you start to really hone in and lean into them , that's where you can become the most impactful . In my opinion , and I think for you it's starting in the place . That is the person that you were a few years ago , 20 years ago , when you started in the hardware industry , what message did you need to hear to really impact your life ? What is that message for you ?

Gina Schaefer 11:20

Well , I mean , what I really needed to hear was that I could do it . My parents had said that to me my entire life . But when I joined an industry that was very foreign to me , that I had no experience in , I needed someone to say it's OK , you're going to be fine with enough determination . And when I ask a million questions , I had to put in all of the work . But the flip side of that was hearing people say you'll be fine , yeah , you've got this .

Stefanie Couch 11:49

You flip side of that was hearing people say you'll be fine , you've got this , you can do this . We talk about this a lot , and I think it's one of the biggest lessons that I would tell any person thinking about entrepreneurship . Number one is you better be real , sure you're super into this , like for real . This can't just be a wild idea that you woke up with . It's like this could be fun , wrong , no , um , you gotta have a hunger for it and a real need to either fix it , to impact it , to build it , whatever you're doing .

Stefanie Couch 12:15

And then , secondarily , you've got to be ready to absolutely fail and to look stupid , to feel stupid , to just do the wrong thing . Like just you make the wrong choice , you take the wrong path , and I think that's something that I would tell anyone , and I know you've lived that for 20 years now . It's like you've had to close stores , you've , I'm sure , lost money , you've hired the wrong person . You've hired the right person and done the wrong thing with them . I mean , I've done all of these things in my two years owning my own business .

Stefanie Couch 12:47

And you'll do them again , absolutely Over and over again , but it's figuring out that that's okay , yeah , and that the most successful people in life , but also in entrepreneurship , even more so because you own so much of your own destiny . It's probably been a rocky road , you know , and having that mentality up front is really the only thing that's going to keep you going .

Gina Schaefer 13:29

I gave two speeches last year , and both independent of each other . Both CEOs said will you please focus on where you failed , where you really struggled ? And it was a really interesting lesson for me , because my glass is always three quarters full . I just everything's great .

Gina Schaefer 13:44

I'm going to tell you the rosiest part of the crappiest day , because that's the part that I want to remember , right , and both of these CEOs said when you get up on stage , I want you to tell my team that something bad happened or you had a huge challenge and you still are this happy and this positive and this successful . And it was a really good exercise for me because it really made me think about the stores that we had to close , perhaps people I had to fire . I said we hire folks who recovery , people who went back out , meaning they started using drugs again . That was heartbreaking for me , but , damn it , I couldn't let it stop me . I had to still get up the next day . I still had people that were relying on me and so , um , I have to remind myself and we say this often you can do hard things . I was doing the hard things , I just didn't want to talk about it .

Stefanie Couch 14:28

And that you probably should expect this to be hard . Oh yeah , I mean , why wouldn't ?

Gina Schaefer 14:32

I , I can do this . My husband calls it the next shiny object and like the 10% rule , I'll , I'll climb . I climbed Kilimanjaro with him and he said are you going to train ? I'm like no , it's 90% attitude . He's like get on the treadmill get on a hill .

Stefanie Couch 14:44

You're not .

Gina Schaefer 14:46

But I mean , I think you know that . I mean it goes back to successful entrepreneurs , I think have that mindset like oh yeah , I can do this yeah , and I think that's the only reason that anything like that ever happens .

Stefanie Couch 14:58

because we're crazy enough . I think we can climb Mount Kilimanjaro without ever walking a mile .

Gina Schaefer 15:03

Yeah Of course we can do this . I live in Washington DC . It is a flat city .

Stefanie Couch 15:07

I needed to find a hill to go up that mountain .

Gina Schaefer 15:10

What ?

Stefanie Couch 15:11

would you say , is the thing that you would spend all the time again for that one ?

Gina Schaefer 15:17

thing . What I would tell prospective clients is that you are going to give , you will create the entire foundation for building the business . What I have learned , though , most specifically , is that you can give me all the tools in the world , and if I don't act on it , it was a waste of money . And so I really think that the one thing particularly when it comes to branding you've said if you're gonna show up on social media , you know , particularly when it comes to branding , you've said if you're going to show up on social media , you show up two times a week , three times a week , four times a week . You do not show up every other month , and I knew those things .

Gina Schaefer 15:44

But when it came time to me spending my money to pay for someone to help me build this business , I needed to actually act on what I knew , and that's probably what I learned the most . First of all , I'm scared to death . She's going to be disappointed in me . So if Stephanie said I need to do this , I'm going to do it because it was a big commitment , and I think you probably took a chance on me being your client as much as you're getting paid . But I could be a jerk , I could be unpleasant , I could not follow through . And I mean , maybe I've been all of those things at some point . I don't think I have , but I do think , as business owners , we want people to do what we're teaching them to do or what we hope they do .

Stefanie Couch 16:25

Yeah , you want to leave the engagement knowing that it's not just like , okay , I got a paycheck . Yeah , because that actually is the worst , guiltiest thing . I think it's like if I don't feel like I helped you and your business is exponentially better and I brought you exponential value , then I feel like it was a failure and I think that's how I lived my life . That's probably a little bit of that high achieving perfectionist coming back out , but I do think that's what makes an exceptional person in life and businesses . If you want to absolutely

Branding and Culture: Creating Value

Stefanie Couch 16:55

knock it out of the park every time , then you have a vested interest in that client and like we are still helping each other . I think that collaboration .

Stefanie Couch 17:06

I also think for me , working with you , you had done something in your business as a powerful woman very similar to me . I mean , we have a pretty similar personality in some ways , different in other ways , but you had done it and you built a $50 million business with 13 locations and you're a badass woman and I was helping you do something that you had never done before and you two lessons were . You not only reached out for help and allowed someone that was younger than you , less accomplished in the monetary , like climbing the ladder way . You allowed me to help you do something you weren't sure of in your newer business venture , but I learned from you . Okay , this can be done . I can do this because I've been very open about wanting to build a hundred million dollar business and I really want to change the industry .

Stefanie Couch 18:01

And both of those things are crazy . I mean , we know that . Like , yeah , they're big goals . Most people's businesses only I think , four percent of people ever get to a million dollars . That's people , not women . Yeah , I think less than one percent of women ever hit a million dollars a year . And I'm saying I want to hit nine figures .

Gina Schaefer 18:17

Yeah .

Stefanie Couch 18:18

And that's still going to be my goal , and you have never you've been like . You're going to do it . I have no doubt , and there's very few people that have that resilience to actually do what you've done and then to be able to tell me like you're going to do this . You're going to do it .

Gina Schaefer 18:34

It's going to be fucking hard .

Stefanie Couch 18:37

Well , if you're going to do it , you're going to get there and so that's the thing . I've learned from you the most is learn from other people that may be less accomplished than you in a lot of ways , but more accomplished in certain areas , yes , and then allow that person to inspire you to do things that are impossible . And find the people that have kind of already done the impossible thing . Get around them and learn from them .

Gina Schaefer 18:59

Surround yourself with people that are bigger , better , smarter , older . All of the things , all of the errs right , there are two . When I started the hardware store , you'll appreciate this . The nuts and bolts aisle has thousands of items , thousands . I didn't know what any of them did and some of them have multiple names . There's a . Molly bold , and there's an anchor and they're the same damn thing I would .

Gina Schaefer 19:21

The original store . It was this weird skinny aisle and there was a doorway , an opening . I would stand in the doorway literally like a , like a block , and I would tell the vendor when he was there . I would say I'm not moving until you tell me what these three things do . And he , of course , was wonderful , he humored me the whole time .

Gina Schaefer 19:39

But if I was afraid to ask him what my items did , I would not be able to sell If I was too embarrassed to admit I didn't know how to use them , and so we have to be willing to ask for help . And there were three distinct times , prior to working with you , that I hired . We hired a business coach because there were things I used to say , probably still say it Is there an adult in the room that can save me ? Where's the adult that's going to come to my rescue ? Well , I was smart enough to realize I think 2005 was the first time we hired a business coach that I could hire an adult to help me out , and that alone was worth every penny that we spent .

Stefanie Couch 20:11

And when you're starting in your business , you're the , you're the one cause . You don't have the money to pay someone to help you do that . Um , but here's the thing I will say about that . There are so many free resources now YouTube , like a miracle , um .

Stefanie Couch 20:26

I mean , I make free content all the time about how to do LinkedIn , how to I talk about it's personal branding all the time on on LinkedIn and speaking engagement , because I think there's a lot of people that can't afford to pay me to do this and I still want to help . It doesn't mean they can't , shouldn't be helped . That's exactly right . And so then hopefully , that free help is so great that they get to a level where I can work to get them to the next place and they pay . But that's not the point of all of this .

Stefanie Couch 20:53

I'm going to be successful and help other people be successful by giving value to everyone I can help . Yes's not the whole world , but especially in our niche , and I think every single person that I can do that for I want to , and that also feeds the fire , like yesterday , I got a message on LinkedIn from someone who was an employee of a client I was visiting this week . She sent me an amazing message . I showed it to you and we both said I had said this to myself . And we both said I had said this to myself and you verbally said it . This is what we do .

Gina Schaefer 21:25

This is what makes it worth it .

Stefanie Couch 21:26

And that's why you get on the plane to go to the freezing place to do the thing . That's why you go to the speech , even though you're not really getting paid as much as you should to do that one thing , but it's a cause you believe in . Yes , that's why you help the person who can't pay you , and those people are . The reason I'm sitting right here is because someone did that for me , yep , and they took the chance . They gave me the shot , they answered the question . That was super annoying because I'd asked it a hundred times . They believed in me when I necessarily wasn't the person that could accomplish it , but they let me try it anyway .

Systematizing Business Development

Gina Schaefer 22:06

That's what this is all about . I just got chills . I mean it's the ripple effect you help one person and they could help 10 and it just , it just keeps playing forward , and forward , and forward . I mean I hired folks in 2003 who still call me or send Christmas cards , who say here's where I am now and this is , this is the foundation that I really feel like I got from you or your business that 20 years later , I've carried forward and it's so impactful .

Stefanie Couch 22:26

And you got to get out of your own way because you're not going to be able to do all the things you need to do to get to where you need to go . You're going to have to figure it out . I think that's the biggest lesson I've learned in entrepreneurship . Going back to the perfection thing is like oh well , now that I'm an entrepreneur , there is no such thing as perfection . Everything I'm doing is new in some way , I mean . And if it's not , then I'm not actually pushing myself , and so I figure you know , with you at this point in your you've sold this business , you're doing something different , you're a speaker , you're building a whole new business from scratch .

Stefanie Couch 23:02

To have that gusto and that hunger that's one of the things I love about you the most , and I think that is a core value in my intrinsic self is like I'm so hungry , I want to do something I've never done . You have that and we see that in each other , and I think we actually feed that in each other . I think we do Make each other hung and I think we actually feed that in each other . I think we do make each other hungrier and push harder , which I love .

Stefanie Couch 23:24

And to have a client relationship like that , where you're pushing me , though Also , I mean , a few times you'd be like why are you still talking about this Like ? And then like five minutes later I say the same thing . You're like oh well , you told me you're going to do that last week . Why are you still talking about it ? Why haven't I done it ? We don't beat it Like , we never get to the point of where we don't need that person in our life , and I think that's that's the best client relationship . I think it's where you're actually making each other better and you're pushing each other up Mount Kilimanjaro .

Gina Schaefer 23:54

You know it's lonely being a CEO because you don't have a boss . And sometimes you want a boss or you want nobody's going to walk in . Nobody would walk into my office and say , hey , you stuck at this , or you should do this better , or why . Why are you no one ?

Gina Schaefer 24:07

They just they assume you have the answers , or or they're afraid to tell you when you're falling short . You need , you need that person . And I think we were able to create that relationship with each other at a point where your business was very new and I was just doing something super green . I mean , I wouldn't even call it a business , it's just well . It is a business now , but at the time , like it was a wild ass dream that I had , like I can do this but that's how everything starts , Exactly .

Stefanie Couch 24:31

That's one of the best businesses start in a garage table exactly , you know conversation somewhere where it's like this is a good idea . But I think that hustle and that hunger is what keeps you in it when the days do get hard and it does seem impossible . And I'm two years in , you're 22 , 21 .

Gina Schaefer 24:51

Yeah , yeah .

Stefanie Couch 24:52

And you're still striving for more every day , which I think is amazing . Thank you , and also having a lot of fun . I'm having so much fun Doing travel and all of those things with it . Yeah , what's the most challenging thing for you going into 2025 ? What do you , what problem are you going to solve in 2025 ?

Gina Schaefer 25:08

Well , a problem for my business problem . Well , specifically , finding new clients right . Prospecting is a big deal for me , particularly if you're afraid to make you know . People think of cold calls , and it's certainly not cold calling uh , what I'm , what I have in mind , but prospecting is just a little terrifying , Um , and then also , getting paid what I think , getting paid what I know I'm worth , Um , that is a challenge .

Gina Schaefer 25:29

The speaking industry , uh , has a lot of I mean just challenges in general with what people perceive as the value for your time on stage . When I went through the class that I took a year and a half ago or so , one of the comments that stuck with me is that for every minute of a speech , you practice one hour . And when I tell you if someone hires me for a 40 minute keynote , I practice for 40 hours , I am not lying , but when they want to pay you 50 cents an hour , you logically know that doesn't make sense . But you want to say yes , and I'm not doing this to make tons of money , but I do want to value that those hours because I could be doing something else .

Stefanie Couch 26:09

And also , if you make tons of money , you can choose what you do with it Exactly . You can give it away , which you do a lot . You can invest in someone else's business that they're trying to get started . Yes , you can get more reach , and so I think Even nonprofits have to have money to continue to run , and you've got to have that value of yourself as well , because that way people feel like you're worth more .

Gina Schaefer 26:34

If you ask for more and you own it . Yes , and I know that I am and I feel like I'm doing the work to get there . I mean , there's a lot more work to do and I just need to manifest that .

Stefanie Couch 26:46

Yeah , absolutely , more work to do and I just , I just need to manifest that yeah , absolutely . We are both bold , brazen ladies in industry that is male dominated the hardware industry , the lumber and building industry and we've come up with a lot of challenges in our careers . I know , and some of the times that I thought I couldn't do something , you know I ended up doing it , but it was hard , it was tough , there were a lot of challenges . Tell me a little bit more about the challenges that you've come across and what you would tell a young 20 , 25 year old woman in a place that's not necessarily built for her ? Yeah , what would you tell her to do to be ready for , to know ?

Gina Schaefer 27:24

Well , I wish someone

Embracing Failure in Entrepreneurship

Gina Schaefer 27:25

had had this conversation with me when I was , when I was 30 , right when I was starting the first hardware store . I would well , first I would say , be ready for anything , be ready to roll with the changes , be ready to roll with the punches , be ready to be encouraged , insulted , challenged , overruled , all of those things . But then I would also tell her to not let any of that stop her to remember that , you know , if she's there , she's there for a reason . If she wants to be there , she needs to stand up for what she believes in , not to be afraid to stand out , to stick out . Um , that all of those things will probably work in her favor , yeah , yeah .

Stefanie Couch 28:02

I would also add to that . I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a woman that was in a certain spot in her career in a building industry role and she felt really stuck and she said , well , they want me to do this certain thing , and then that's the hindrance . And she didn't really believe that was the hindrance , and so I told her , I challenged her . If you can get really honest with yourself and you can truly kind of take yourself out of the situation and observe your behaviors , what really is holding you back ? And I think we have to be open as women to say we do have things we need to work on . Sometimes we're not being held back because we're a woman . Maybe it's that we're not ready for that role , we're not doing a good enough job . We're not being held back because we're a woman . Maybe it's that we're not ready for that role , we're not doing a good enough job , we're not working on certain things that would move the needle for us .

Stefanie Couch 28:53

You have to be truly transparent with yourself and that is really hard to do , especially if you believe in yourself and you are confident . It can actually be a hindrance to not look in the mirror and say , okay , that wasn't the right move . I screwed up there . I could be better here , and I think it's a balance of that . It's a balance of confidence and of constructive criticism for yourself or taking it on when others give it to you , because I have seen some moments in my career where I could have done a lot better and I kind of put that chip on my shoulder saying like , oh , they're just doing this because I'm a girl yep you know it's self-awareness is really important in these , in these situations , for sure and you we've talked a lot about chips on our shoulders , and I think it's okay to kind of have that , because it makes you be able to like put , put it your head down and grind through something that's really tough .

Stefanie Couch 29:45

But what is your perspective on having a chip on your shoulder ?

Gina Schaefer 29:48

Well , you know , I had a chip for years . For for what ? The beginning ? And one reason like no one , thought I was going to succeed as a woman in the hardware industry in a neighborhood that was , you know , revitalizing , and so I immediately started with a lot of self-doubt from some groups of people , and so the chip grew there . But then , honestly , the chip morphed into oh my God , the competition's going to kill us . And I woke up every morning thinking am I good enough ? Is this going to work ? Am I going to keep my team employed ? And I gave a speech a couple of years ago to a group of female auto mechanics and you want to talk about bad-ass women ?

Gina Schaefer 30:20

3% of the auto mechanics in the United States are women , and so I had the absolute pleasure of being their keynote speaker . And I decided , because they work on cars , people name their cars . I was going to name the ship on my shoulder and so I named her June . I don't know why , but I did , and I brought June to life to try and relate to this audience of women who worked on cars , and it landed really well . You know , it's always scary when it's kind of new material , the way I was presenting it for the first time , even though I practiced a lot and it really resonated like , yeah , you can personify things that freak you out , yeah , things that challenge you , things that annoy you .

Gina Schaefer 30:57

And I gave June a personality and I wouldn't say I gave her a burial . She's still there a little bit . I like to say that she's my friend now . Sure , um , frenemy maybe sometimes , but you know you , we need to own that kind of fear . I also think , just to go back to your comment about acknowledging and being self-aware , we have to , we have to know or understand that things don't happen overnight . You might want uh , we'll just use age , because it came up earlier . You might want a 21 to do something , but it might

Advice for Women in Male-Dominated Industries

Gina Schaefer 31:25

take you until you're 30 . Like it did me , to really have the guts and the chops and the idea and the everything . I mean , even then I didn't , but it's not going to happen overnight .

Stefanie Couch 31:36

That's a great point and I would definitely say for me . I learned that lesson sort of the hard way , cause , you know , I was at a big corporation things didn't really move quickly and they definitely didn't move quickly enough for me , because light speed is not quick enough for me . And I got frustrated by that , you know , sometimes to my own detriment , because I stopped listening to what was happening and what was being said to me , because I was just like , well , I should have gotten this job already or I should have already been here . And I think we often can play on a too small of a scale . You know , there's a quote that you underestimate what you can do in 10 years , but you overestimate what you're doing one year , right . So there's somewhere in between that and right now , where I'm at in my life and my business is , I'm playing in a decades game . So things that I want to do in 10 years , where I want to be at that certain mark and I want to feel a certain way and be doing a certain thing , it probably will take me 10 years to get there . It might not , it might be seven , might be eight , but I'm okay if it takes 10 because I have a big enough goal , but when you don't have that plan and that strategy and the overall place you're going to , I think it's easy to get frustrated and quit because you don't have that place you're pushing for in 10 years , seven years , six years .

Stefanie Couch 32:50

But one thing that's helped me is to have a want list , and I think it's okay for women specifically , but really for any person , to have things that you just want . It's not something you need . It's not like you have to have this pay your bills or you need to do this to eat or feed your kids . It is something where you just purely want this . I want to be a CEO , I want to have my own business , I want to hit a hundred million dollars , whatever . I want to have this big impact and change the industry .

Stefanie Couch 33:15

So I write that every single day when I'm at home and in my normal routine I write down the same list of wants . Some of those things , over two years , have already been crossed off . I love it and having that hunger and that awareness of where you're going it helps you stay on track and especially when it gets hard and knowing , hey , if I really truly want this thing , I'm going to have to fix these other seven things to get there , and that may take 10 years , but I'm going to do that . So I think that's a message that I would give any person , but especially women , is know what you want , know how you think you're going to get there , know you're going to have to pivot , but stay hungry and also stay aware of the feedback you're getting . Where you can get better , can you ?

Gina Schaefer 33:57

want a new hat . I want a new hat .

Stefanie Couch 34:01

It's unbelievable how many hats I want . Gina , I want a hat line is what I want .

Gina Schaefer 34:06

My own line of hats . You know , I would like to . I would like to be a

Turning Self-Awareness into Growth

Gina Schaefer 34:10

representative , a model , that's not the , an ambassador for a glasses company . Well , that's what I'm manifesting . That's a good one .

Stefanie Couch 34:18

And as many glasses and hats as we've purchased , we probably our P&L would look a lot better if we could do that .

Gina Schaefer 34:26

I need yeah if the hats and glasses were less expensive , maybe .

Stefanie Couch 34:29

Yes . So if you're listening to this and you can make those realities happen for us , we are always open to opportunities .

Gina Schaefer 34:35

Those are our dreams .

Stefanie Couch 34:38

That's it for this episode of the Grit Blueprint Podcast . For more tools , training and industry content , make sure to subscribe here and follow me on LinkedIn and other social media platforms . To find out more about how Grit Blueprint can help you grow your business . Check us out at our website , gritblueprintcom .