www.redefinepossibility.com
BREAKING NEW GROUND
At BCG I got a great baseline in business training on how to run a business and worked with CEOs of Fortune 100 companies on their strategy, and really stretched a different side of my brain.
But… I realized that I really missed building things. I continued to come back to building buildings as my North Star. After two years at BCG, having learned a tremendous amount, I took that with me and went back into real estate development.
I joined a developer here in Boston called The HYM Investment Group and was able to work on incredibly exciting projects, including a 45-story residential tower and a 52-story office tower, a project that changed the Boston skyline. It was through these projects that I discovered what really drives me.
Seeing the physical output of my work is just so exciting to me. I was at HYM for about five years, and I really loved it, but during the pandemic, I started to take a step back and think about how I wanted to spend the rest of my career and the kind of impact I wanted to make.
At the same time, I was looking around and not seeing any women-owned developers in Boston despite a lot of support in the city and the state for minority and women-owned businesses.
So much of this speaks to your belief in yourself and in being the change you want to see. What would you say have been the challenges that you've really faced in getting your company off the ground and being this face of female development?
One challenge is being a small business working on big projects. There are things that you run into as a small business that can become barriers, whether that be cash flow, or types of insurance that people typically require. Those can be hindrances that you really need the right partners and stakeholders to manage.
Another challenge is making sure that we prove ourselves. I feel like the onus is on my company to make sure we're bringing value and adding to the partnership so that it becomes a bonus that we're a women-owned company and not just the defining factor.
Lastly, and this is one that every business owner faces, is managing stakeholder relationships. It's key for all of your stakeholders to be as happy as they can be. And it's something you take very personally as a business owner. That includes employees and clients, partners, consultants, and just making sure that you're communicating and you're continuing to foster a positive relationship with everybody.
We had our first female elected mayor, we had our first female governor elected, so there seemed to be this wave of female empowerment in Massachusetts. All of that, coupled with the time in my life, I felt like it was the right time to take a risk.
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ICON Architects