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6: Special Guest Tammy Birklid, Principle owner of Merit Construction
81 Plays5 years ago
Grit and Grind podcast is brought to you by Grit City Women - A female forward organization that nurtures a creative approach to empowering female entrepreneurs, small business owners, and leaders in Tacoma. Join host Krystle Edwards and special guest and principle owner of Merit Construction, Tammy Birklid while we discuss:
Learn more about Tammy:
- Leading a thriving company in the male-dominated construction industry
- Leading a company where all employees feel like owners in that they’re valued and are encouraged and equipped to thrive
- Equality in the workplace is less about titles and more about men and women working together to leverage their unique skillsets and perspectives for the betterment of the entire company
- Running a business and supporting our community during the COVID-19 crisis
Learn more about Tammy:
- Website : https://www.meritnw.com/
- Insta : @merit_construction
- Facebook: Merit Construction
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Transcript
Introduction with Tammy Berklett
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Grit and Grind, a podcast by Grit City Women, where gritty is the new pretty. This is Grit City Women founder and host Crystal Edwards. In today's podcast, episode six, we have special guest, Tammy Berklett, principal owner of Merit Construction. Welcome, Tammy. Hi, thank you. Thank you for joining us today. So why don't you go ahead and just tell us a little bit about yourself.
00:00:34
Speaker
Sure. Well, I am a mother. I am a wife. I am an owner of a construction company for a commercial general contractor. And let's see, lots of other things, you know, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter, all of those things. Just like we have like a million hats. Of course, of course.
Balancing Roles During COVID-19
00:01:00
Speaker
So what what are your
00:01:02
Speaker
three biggest hats taking up your time right now? Um, actually I have a big role at my church. I'm on the executive team at my church. So that is a big 10 gallon hat right now. And work is, um,
00:01:20
Speaker
always a big part of my life. It's something so we're trying to figure out all kinds of new things right now, new softwares, just different ways to do what we've been doing for a very long time, but it still takes up a lot of brain capacity. And I think probably being a wife, trying to be patient and kind during COVID-19. So how is that affecting
00:01:50
Speaker
your work right now? Like I was saying, the biggest thing is all the new things, all the new software, trying to figure out how to do everything remotely. And then safety, obviously, is a huge factor. Safety for my employees, safety for my job sites.
00:02:11
Speaker
Having people come on and off the job and making sure that there's no health issues. Just a lot of new things that have been introduced to us that we have not had to experience before.
00:02:26
Speaker
The essential, the whole essential situation is challenging, trying to care for our clients, especially the ones that have not been deemed essential, and still let them know that their project is important to us. We're giving it every bit of attention that we can, that the governor's proclamation will allow us to give it. So it's just...
00:02:55
Speaker
requires a lot of extra patience.
COVID-19 Safety Protocols in Construction
00:02:58
Speaker
What does it look like currently at some of your working job sites in regards to COVID-19? What kind of safety precautions are you guys taking?
00:03:08
Speaker
So we have to obviously take the same precautions all the rest of us are. We need to be at all times six feet apart. We have all of our employees wearing masks all of the time. And we're wiping down surfaces. Those are not things that are normally part of construction. We're outside.
00:03:30
Speaker
you know, we're in the elements and things like that. So it's not like we have ever wiped down, you know, the steel before we're welding. That's not, you know, my guys are like, what is this cleaning part of our job? Yeah, so it just, it just has added some extra components. I think it's pretty much the same as anyone else, but it's great that we can at least be outside and we're not working on anything really that's,
00:04:00
Speaker
indoors because I just think that's the most safe we can be is outside in the fresh air. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, the construction industry, you're the owner. How has this challenged you during this time as a leader?
00:04:16
Speaker
Well, you know what? It's really interesting. You want to be strong as a leader, and especially when you're leading men, being a woman, it's always interesting. You try to figure out a balance, I think, between
00:04:32
Speaker
between strength and Being authentic and I think as a woman at least I can speak for myself that you know I'm a more emotional being usually than a lot of the men and a lot of the men that I have on staff So I can give you an example. We had a situation where we actually got one of our subcontractors said that he had a fever after he had come on to the site and so
00:05:02
Speaker
All of my staff were concerned and were not sure if it was safe to be there. And so I immediately drove to the job site, just talked with them. And everybody had already wiped down everything. We had sterilized. We had our safety team there. We had done everything we needed to do. But I sent them home because I wanted them to just have kind of mental health day over it and just kind of
00:05:31
Speaker
recognize that everything was going to be okay and have some time with their family. As I was standing on the outside of the fence and they were all on the inside six feet apart, I got really choked up and I just told them, I said, it's really hard. I so appreciate that you guys are the kind of men that come here. You care about your family and you want to provide for your family.
00:05:55
Speaker
and you care about my company and I'm so grateful that you guys are part of this with me, but it's really hard. It's hard because I'm worried about you. So I look out and it's all men and there's no response whatsoever. I was just so glad that I had sunglasses on.
00:06:18
Speaker
Um, you know, they, they knew it. They knew that, you know, I was tearing up, but it's like, it, that is really like what my life is like on a regular basis. You know, I'm, I am strong, but I am emotional and I think it's, I think it's okay. I think it's okay to, to show that there's emotion and be vulnerable. I think, um, sometimes it, it helps.
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I work in a male-dominated industry in my nine to five and it is sometimes very different. And I think channeling that emotion into your drive to be a successful leader is definitely something that ends up showing through, you know, and I think that they ultimately respect it as long as you remain authentic.
00:07:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think a lot of women following
00:07:15
Speaker
leaders that are men, you see strength, you see stoicness, right? And then when you get to a position of leadership, then maybe you try to emulate that as a woman. And I just don't feel like that's a good approach. I think what women bring to the table is empathy and
00:07:42
Speaker
that vulnerability I think is a positive. I think it allows there to be feeling in the workplace. People want to be known and people want to be cared about. And I think that that's one of the things that women bring to the table in leadership. And I think it's a great thing. Mm hmm. Absolutely. I mean, if they if
00:08:07
Speaker
your employees do not think that you care about them, why would they care about you or your business? Exactly. I mean, that is absolutely how you're going to get the most out of anyone, is to have them feel known and cared about. I totally agree.
Journey to Ownership and Leadership
00:08:22
Speaker
I kind of want to backtrack a little bit. Tell me how this journey of you becoming the principal owner of American Construction came about.
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, sure. I started with Merritt in 2007 and I was working for Len Zarelli. And the Zarelli family has owned Merritt since 1957. And it just was a really good time where he was ready for, I think,
00:08:52
Speaker
someone to start to learn the business and start to think about the future and it just was a beautiful timing thing and I think that he was very generous with his knowledge and I just continued to take on anything he would give me and work real hard to demonstrate that I respected him, I respected the ways that he had
00:09:20
Speaker
managed the business and that I was going to continue to take that approach. In 2012, I started running the day-to-day operations and he started being able to finally take some time off periodically. And in 2014, he invited me to be a partner.
00:09:40
Speaker
And just every step of the way, graciously trained me in everything that would be important for me to know and be able to actually run a construction business. I mean, I had been in construction all of my career. I had previously worked for Sierra Construction and had a wonderful boss there as well, Roger Collins.
00:10:02
Speaker
who was very formative for me as far as what kind of a boss I wanted to be, what kind of an employer I wanted to be. So I think it just both of those two jobs and those two men together like
00:10:20
Speaker
put me in the perfect position to be able to run a construction company. It's terrifying, really. I mean, there's a lot to it. And when he first asked me about it, I was like, I just wanted to say yes, but I also was, I was like, that is so much to take on.
00:10:40
Speaker
but he believed that I could do it. And I thought, if he believes I can, then I'm gonna give it my best shot. That's incredible. I love that. So you didn't even really think that you were gonna be taking it over. Oh no, that was not the intention originally. I answered an ad to come on and be the controller. My background is in finance. And so as we started working toward
00:11:08
Speaker
him thinking, you know, you are a leader here. I want you to try out the other aspects of the company and put me in a position where I was a person in charge out on a job site. I was actually learning the ropes from the outside because I had always been on the inside in the office.
00:11:32
Speaker
And I was sure that was like, I don't think this is going to work out. But you just keep working at it and you just keep going back day after day. And sure enough, now I'm competent and semi-confident in any of those job situations.
00:11:53
Speaker
There is a gap because I have not built a building, but I have the people around me that I can trust and believe in that have built many buildings. And he's still there, still to this day, very much my partner from the perspective of he wants me to succeed and he still is there to answer questions and provide guidance. So I've been very blessed by him.
00:12:21
Speaker
Was there ever a discussion of where he became your mentor at some point or did it just happen naturally? It pretty much was instantaneous I think and I was the same way with Roger. There are just people I think that you
00:12:39
Speaker
if you can see that they have something to offer and that they're willing to invest in you, that touches you and you want them to do better, to be better, to be more for them as well as for yourself. But both of them had that kind of something about them that they saw something in me and then that just was a driving force for me to
00:13:09
Speaker
you know, to want to do better, like I was saying, you know, and I think they both were my mentors all the way along. Super grateful that they were both so willing to share everything that they knew. And I imagine just by the conversation that you were very inquisitive about what was going on and trying to be a good performer. Like you said, you respected the business.
00:13:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I mean, I think I'm a learner by nature, like, and so I wanted to know everything that I could I wanted to be the best at it that I possibly could be, whichever the job was. So originally with Roger, he was teaching me
00:13:49
Speaker
job cost accounting, which sounds super boring, but it's actually really interesting and it's a niche. And so I was just very interested in it and wanted to be the best I possibly could be. And then with Len, it's like, sure, I'll learn how to
00:14:06
Speaker
to negotiate contracts? Sure, I'll start with the mountaineers where there's three attorneys on the board. It's just every time some challenge was put in front of me, I was excited to go after it and just grateful that I had someone to ask questions. So you had a good support system on that journey, but you also kind of dove in head first.
Addressing Sexism and Promoting Strengths
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if I would have had I not had a great support system, but it was kind of like you could go after it because you always knew someone had your back. Yeah, I think that that's really important. And even if you don't have it at your workplace or your specific area of employment, just having community like that that you can bounce ideas off of, bounce decisions off of.
00:15:01
Speaker
Talk about obstacles that you might be having and I know that's definitely something that with great city women We try to have because not everybody has that at their workplace, you know, not everybody has that mentorship So that's really incredible that you had that opportunity and took advantage of it I think if you don't have that at your work just like you said you need to find everyone should have you know, I have four mentors and I think that you should also be
00:15:28
Speaker
be a mentor, you should always be watching for people that you want to invest in and you want to reciprocate that growth in another individual. I think that giving of yourself and investing into other people is so valuable and you get a huge return on that. Right. It's not always about what you can get, it's what you can give as well. Absolutely. 100%. And even when you are, you know,
00:15:56
Speaker
giving you're still getting, you know? Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about what it's like being a woman owner in a male-dominated industry. I know we talked about, you know, how sometimes they're more stoic and women can be a little more emotional, but what about the day-to-day operations and, you know, making sure that there's equality in the workplace and all that kind of stuff?
00:16:19
Speaker
For starters, there are times when it doesn't make sense for me to be involved in a project. I mean, this is unfortunate, but I know in advance, just having come up through a man's world, that there are times when the client is not going to be receptive to me being the principal in charge on a project.
00:16:44
Speaker
They're looking for a man. They want to talk to a man. And I've run into that many times. And I don't have time for that. So I just simply pass those types of projects on right away. I'm not offended by it. I just simply understand that for the good of the company, it's not something that I need to be involved with. And I'll put a project manager, a mail project manager, in between myself and the client.
00:17:14
Speaker
I wouldn't tolerate that inside the company. Certainly, I don't have that happening amongst my employees. Everybody has an equal opportunity. And I think, I mean, I would guess that the women that work in the office and in the field believe that they have one of the best opportunities for equality working for a woman.
00:17:44
Speaker
But I would also say that I believe that the men that work for me don't feel like they have less strength in me than they would in a man. I have an exceptional group of people that I work with and I think they all understand how important men and women working together is. They all see their individual strengths
00:18:14
Speaker
And I think if you're a woman and you're trying to be a man or trying to do something that a man is better at, I think that's unfortunate. I say if there's something that it should be the best person for the job, and there are times and things that women might be better at, and there are times and things that men might be better at. And rather than trying to
00:18:44
Speaker
you know, be all about equality. I think it's about celebrating each other. Like, you're really good at that and I'm, I wouldn't be and so I'm really proud of you and I'm really happy for you and I want to celebrate the fact that you're really great about that. I think it's best if we all work to our strengths. It really should be about the best person for the job and everybody does have different strengths and weaknesses and there's a time and a place for everything, for every strength. I know that there
00:19:14
Speaker
I can be very useful in some areas and then some areas I may not be very useful for, but how do you manage that and communicate that with your employees? We talk a lot about that we're all working shoulder to shoulder. We talk a lot about why would you want to go after something with just your own experience rather than asking around the room. This is say we're in a staff meeting,
00:19:44
Speaker
And why would you not want to look around the room and have 150 years of experience plus both the male and a female perspective, you know, someone who went to college, someone who came up through the field. You know, we talk all the time about how we are diverse and we have a lot to offer each other.
00:20:06
Speaker
So I think that that's just something that is innate in the company. I'm huge on helping each other, teaching each other everything you know. And we have that happening all the time. There's some women that are better at our IT. We don't have an actual IT department, but she's walking around and sharing what she can and helping people understand that.
00:20:34
Speaker
We have, you know, men that are coming in and explaining something specific to the scheduling aspect for whatever reason, there's certain even.
00:20:44
Speaker
certain computer softwares that it feels like are geared towards a certain type of brain. And we're just, we're all okay with that. We like to celebrate, like I was saying, celebrate each other's strengths and accomplishments. And we like being specialists. When you have a small company like we do, everybody kind of has to have a general idea how to do everything. And then they also should be a specialist in something.
00:21:10
Speaker
And so I always encourage everyone in the office to be that and to have that. And then we make a big deal about that, whatever that is. And everybody has something. So you guys are really a team. We really are. And yeah, it's so interesting. We talk a lot about how we all understand that however any one individual of us treats a customer or treats a subcontractor
00:21:39
Speaker
anyone for that matter, that that reflects on all the rest of us and that it inhibits or encourages the ability for us to get the next project. So we all understand that we all work for each other. Everything we do is for the benefit of the rest of the team. I know you hear this stuff so much and people say that. I cannot stress enough that this is very real in the people that I have that I work with.
00:22:09
Speaker
It's absolutely a real team. I love the teamwork dynamic and I think that a lot of companies can forget about how important that is and how making people feel a part of a team.
Building a Team-Oriented Environment
00:22:25
Speaker
So when they come into work every day, you know, they actually feel like they have a purpose and they're appreciated and things are
00:22:34
Speaker
running the way they should and they have the support from their peers and from their bosses and management and you know being an athlete growing up I just I always was on a team and then there were times where being at work didn't feel like being on a team and that's something that I've actually done quite a bit is explain you know we are a team even though you have your job and it's different than my job
00:23:00
Speaker
And we sometimes don't agree on the path forward, but we're still a team and we still have a goal and, um, something that we have to come through to make a finished product. And once I changed that narrative to we are a team, things move so much faster. Yeah, I agree. I think, I think people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be contributing.
00:23:28
Speaker
Um, the personality that is only for themselves doesn't work very well at our work. We have had a couple of people come in and they don't stay for very long because that just is not a personality that fits well within. A real well-working team when everybody is for each other and one person is kind of trying to promote themselves. It doesn't, it just doesn't work. So I would agree. We, we spend so much time at work, right? It needs to be.
00:23:58
Speaker
It needs to be fun. It needs to feel validating. And like you said, you need to feel like you have purpose and that you're part of something. You could ask any one of the people that work at Merit and you would
00:24:11
Speaker
you would hear the same, that everybody feels that way from anyone in accounting to somebody that's out a carpenter on the job site. Yeah, I spoke with Ashley and she said that she just loves working there and that you run an incredible company and that your leadership skills really make it a great place to work. So she had really great things to say about you.
00:24:38
Speaker
Well, I am so glad that that makes me feel so good. She's an incredible person at her job as well. And she's stretched me in lots of new ways and helped me see things differently. I think that's, that's one of the things even that I do all the time is like, I'm so excited to hear other people's input, other people's perspective and have people challenge me and say, you know, let's, let's do this a little bit differently.
00:25:04
Speaker
She's she's great. It sounds like a fun place to work. And I'm definitely really glad that you were able to come on and talk about some of these things. So if you were to offer three leadership tips to great city women, what would those three tips be?
Self-Care and Belief in Leadership
00:25:22
Speaker
I think it's really important to make your employees feel known.
00:25:29
Speaker
And I think it's even if it's not employees, because leadership isn't necessarily being the boss, but making the people in your life feel known, investing in them. I think that's a really important thing. And then I believe in yourself, you know, not being afraid to dive in like we were talking about earlier. It's great to, to have a safety net. But I think that
00:25:58
Speaker
It's important to challenge yourself and believe that you can do more. I think you'll find the harder you push yourself, the more you're capable of. And I think in order to live our best life, we need to do that. We need to do the diving. And three, let me think. I guess don't forget, don't forget soul care and self care.
00:26:24
Speaker
As you're striving forward, trying to make the most of your life, don't forget to stop and take some time to have some quiet time with yourself, to know yourself so that you can stay authentic and just
00:26:44
Speaker
Give yourself tons of grace all the way along. I like that. That's really great. So what is the soul care look like for you? Soul care for me, this is not going to be impressive to anyone. But soul care to me, I love being at home and doing domestic things. So I am like, I will
00:27:11
Speaker
I will pair socks out of the sock basket and get a huge pile of everyone's socks and
00:27:17
Speaker
be so impressed with myself and take pictures and send my kids and be like, look how many socks I made you. I know that sounds crazy, but that just that helps me get like grounded and come back to who I am because what I care about most in my life, even though my work is so important and my church is so important, I care about my family, my people that are right here in my house and I love serving them.
00:27:46
Speaker
That's really funny. I love that story. There's other things besides that. But I love that whole getting ground back into doing domestic stuff. I love to read. I love to take walks with my dog. We have a golden retriever. I mean, I have lots of stuff like that. All of those things are soul care. Awesome.
Adapting Office Routines and Digital Tools
00:28:12
Speaker
So we talked a little bit about COVID-19 and what your workers are doing at the work sites for that, but how has it affected your operations overall and just how you go to work every day? Well, so right now we're, even before the proclamation came out and we got shut down
00:28:36
Speaker
you know, as they say, the stay home, stay safe situation. We had already started altering our work, so we were all coming in at different hours. So we have a schedule, and we
00:28:49
Speaker
Everyone comes in at a different time on a different day in the office. So we have no more than four people in the office at a time. So that absolutely affects productivity and it makes it a little bit challenging just because you're not connecting on the same way. So we've tried to do fun things too. We've gotten really into teams
00:29:13
Speaker
Microsoft Teams and Zoom. And we have themes, you know, so okay, we're going to have a staff meeting and it's a lo-ha theme. And you would not believe what some of my people will put together. Like they are decked out to the nines and they have a beverage with an umbrella and they're totally into it. And that that's just been really fun. We're just trying to like add a little levity
00:29:43
Speaker
Because it's it's scary. It's scary. We've we've lost our normal and We don't know when we're getting it back. And so Right now it's really important for me to demonstrate to them that that we are good. We are going to be okay and We're doing things a little bit different right now But that we're still merit and we're still the same people and that they can depend on me and that they can depend on merit to be here when I
00:30:13
Speaker
this is over, and to be honest with you, I think we're going to be better for it. We're learning like I've been talking to you about. We're learning all kinds of new software. We're probably going to be a lot more efficient as a result of this. And I'm excited. I can't wait to be able to incorporate both sides of this, like have our normal opportunities, but also have the benefit that we have had from learning all of these new software
00:30:42
Speaker
and potentially even having people work from home more than they have in the past.
00:30:48
Speaker
and have a more flexible schedule that I think would be great for our
Enhancing Systems During Downtime
00:30:52
Speaker
staff. That comes up quite a bit on the last podcast I had with one of our members. We talked about that. We just really think that people and businesses are going to be stronger and a little more prepared for disasters in the future. So I think that's a really great mindset to have. And it sort of takes the stress out of it a little bit.
00:31:18
Speaker
to be like this is a journey you know we are learning and we have no idea what it's going to look like in the end but we're just going to keep going. Yeah for sure I have you know I think we all are like kind of feeling like groundhog day where we wake up and we're just like oh my gosh seriously is this what we're doing again and you kind of like you're hoping that it was it's a dream and then you realize right away you know yes this is what we're doing um but I think
00:31:47
Speaker
It's important to make the most of it, whether it's at work, like right now you figure out your systems, right? Because it's a downtime from a people perspective. So you're figuring out how can we make our systems better so that when we get on the other side of this, we are stronger. It's important to use the time wisely and not just be afraid, but actually be strategizing.
00:32:17
Speaker
Absolutely. That's one thing that, you know, immediately crossed my mind is like, okay, now our priorities change, we can't do things in person. Here are some limitations, but that allows me space and time to focus on setting up other things on the website, you know, doing those back end things that you normally don't have time to do. So that that's actually really great advice is to focus on systems and to continue to strategize.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think you have to. I mean, you want to be ready and you want to be your best. When I say ready, it's like ready for whatever the new normal is, but you want to be at your best rather than sort of haggard and worse for wear when we get back up and running. So yeah, I think it's a great time to invest in.
00:33:07
Speaker
in systems and education as well. We've had so many opportunities to watch our webinars and all kinds of things that are available to you out there right now. So super grateful for that too.
00:33:24
Speaker
Well, it's been really great to connect with you and to hear about your journey and also about just the amazing work that you're doing with your team. Thanks for being on the podcast. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I loved it. It was really nice to talk with you.
00:33:43
Speaker
Grit and Grind is powered by Melissa Newell, financial advisor for Edward Jones. To learn more about Grit City Women, visit gritcitywomen.com or follow us on Instagram at gritcitywomen, and we look forward to getting gritty with you.