Women in a family run fence business

All right well thank you for coming gab Gabrielle um um I have a few questions to ask um tell us what Builder fence company is and what do you do we are Wholesale Distributors and manufacturers of fencing materials and uh we have five locations and we service the West Coast how many years have you guys been around we've been Incorporated for 65 years my grandfather started uh in the fence industry during the Depression nice um will you guys be at the fence show in September in Las Vegas oh we will I'm excited do you um what can we expect to see at your booth a lot of things we are just uh finishing some decisions right now like today so if anyone wants to write in some suggestions they'd be appreciated but um we're we're going to have a new Booth do you have anything exciting that you're bringing to the fen show um we're we're going to have these um light box things and pillars um you know I'm not an expert with the nomenclature but it is exciting that's awesome um are you guys doing any education sessions at the F show um I understand that I might be o but I Brian Brian said something about that I think it's still being firmed up gotcha all right well thank you for coming on um is there anything else you would like to add before I bring on the other ladies go ahead bring them on

Hello everyone how is everyone it's great to see you guys how are you guys hello hello hello hello hi Heather are you there I am here I'll be in full force in about five minutes okay good how's everyone doing I am yir with Las Vegas Fence Company here in Las Vegas um we are the women of fwa this is Michaela Patterson and Andrea Patterson I'm sure you guys have heard of them from Highpoint companies and we have Heather today with h Mr Fence and we have Gabrielle Frankle is that how you pronounce your your name yes yay okay so you are with Builder fence company out in mostly the West Coast right good so today ladies we are going to be talking about um women in a family run business and a family fence business more specifically um Andrea do you want to start off with what kind of questions do we have for today for this great grou of ladies Gabrielle do you how many family members do you have working within your organization well um we have my brother myself my sister and my father and what are their roles my father is President and owner of the company although um he's semi-retired I would say and uh he's spending a lot of time uh in Jackson whole Wyoming enjoying the cooler weather right very much so and watching moose walk past his front yard and uh my brother is general manager and my sister works in the Sacramento branch and I I'm the CEO currently very cool cool awesome have you guys um have you guys been doing it for a long time have you been in the business um from a very from a young age or have you gone off and done other things well I would say I have gone off and done other things um I I went to law school in Chicago at Northwestern and I dabbled in that for a little while but you know I didn't I didn't love it and I told my parents I want to come back and work in the business but um so I I've always been involved in the business uh filing invoices stuffing envelopes yeah uh inventory uh showing up for inventory um and I grew up with my parents talking about it incessantly yeah of course it's it's impossible not to I mean it just it feels like sometimes it it's your whole I mean it is your whole life it's your livelihood right so it even weakens um for us too what about you guys Andrea and Michaela how how many um people do you guys have how many family members do you guys have in your organization we have six I was goingon to say we have six yeah really wow so everyone from office to bookkeeping to parts and delivery to social media to the guys you know running the company so we're we're spread out we're all over the place yeah yeah I um so for us we actually um I have my daughter who um does all of the social media and the ads and all that creative stuff like I said the fence magazine and all that cool schol stuff um I think we might have lost uh Gabrielle but um we also have my sister my sister or half sister who um is about 15 years younger than I am and she has kind of taken over um the role of general manager in the organization as young as she is she um she has very she has those qualities that you need in a general manager to take over so we're kind of grooming her to take over everything because she I can tell that she's real I'm really proud of her um how about you Heather it's gonna be really loud but I'm gonna be outside in about two minutes um I think we have about six people family that work for us um I would make seven if you count me um so it's a it's yeah it's a lot of family and sometimes that can be good and sometimes that can be bad yeah so I I don't know are we getting into that today the struggles yes we are yes we are that should be a Hot Topic that could probably take a whole like hour by itself um no uh yeah so so six for me so I'm just gonna start with that answer for now until we get to the nitty grp well you can you can lead us into our next question right Andrea that was my next question what are some of the struggle like what one of your your work struggles so am I going sorry you cut out go for it okay work struggles work struggles are fun when it comes to family because I hate to say it and this sounds sad but sometimes whenever you have people who aren't related to you you feel like the

Related people get more benefits and so that creates a um animosity amongst everybody so it causes problems there and then sometimes you have issues with family members you know take going the not going the extra mile is not the right wording I'm trying to use you have family members who will sometimes push the limit right yeah so maybe they take an hour and a half for lunch or maybe it's hard to treat them the same the same as um the rest of the employees for sure um yeah definitely as much as you don't want to have that preferential you know status as a family member you you kind of do because you are family and we run into it the same so how so I don't know how you guys feel about this so a little bit of it is different for me right because um you know Mr Fence obviously Sean owns the business and I married I married him so I that's how I came into the business right and I know that um it's hard because I come from a corporate world and I've had this conversation with lots of um other fence wives out there in the industry but I come from a very black and white world like where there's rules and if you're late you're late and I don't do favors for anybody so that's been hard for me to adapt because you know I know this has happened to me maybe six months ago I'm like I don't care of your family rules are rules you know like so so it's a little hard for me and but lucky for me Sean and I we don't carry that home with us you know because I'm like we work at work right right right what about you guys um Michaela and Andrea what are your some some of your struggles with family members like Heather was saying I mean I don't know it's so hard I think when we did have family members so my brother and sister were working there for a period of time and then Andrea's brother was working there for a period of time had two brothers working sometimes they were at the same time sometimes it was like one working this time another one was working this time so they never like comingled together at work but it was VE like I think in my opinion having my brothers work for my husband and his brother it was more tricky because like they're my brothers and I want them to be treated like an employee but at the same time I don't want them to think that they get special treatment just because their sister is yeah married to one of married to the boss basically for Michaela and her family yeah no I was gonna say it was the same I think they did all of them did good in not taking advantage of the situation I think um so I think we're really grateful in that aspect because they did treat it like a job not like oh you know I'm related to so and so so I can just come into work and get paid and then not do and do whatever I want basically so I think yeah we were really grateful in that situation um yeah how about you Gabrielle well um one issue is with family the only thing we ever talk about is business we can never take a vacation together because one of us has to be on absolutely but my sister my sister I'm learning about family governance and having a family meeting once or twice a year you know to get ready for generation four and generation five to make sure the cousins know each other um and develop good working relationships with with each other but one great thing is we can tell each other anything um I mean we just let it rip and um and it really helps in terms of management to I mean we'll we'll we'll argue with each other but it it's all good natured um we might argue like crazy but then when we're done you know we're still Breen and sister or daughter and father and um it works out that way and another thing is if you you know we don't we don't get treated better than the employees and if you're not pulling your weight you're out that's it yeah absolutely that's I think that's very important and um like you mentioned in in our case the same thing we're we are a small organization and when like it it just seems like we could never take a vacation to together because there somebody always has to be here and unless we close the entire company down for us all to like take off um that's I

Think the very first time we did it was last uh December I think we shut down that week between Christmas and New Year's to to have all of us spend together because it just seems like you know if one if if I'm taking the day the the week off or something like my sister can't take the week off because she has to be there be here or my daughter or her her boyfriend who also works with us at some at one point I also had my brother so it I totally get the the it really I really appeals to me not being able to take the time off um or the a vacation together as a family so Gabrielle I'm glad you pointed that out and I'm so appreciated for that because I agree I feel like even like when we go to um Christmas get togethers in Easter I feel like sometimes like it tends to the discussions just tend to be work rated oh my God every single day see my daughter's my daughter's over here agree she works for Mr F too and she's over here agreeing she's like yeah that's all we do is talk about F like it's it's where am I supposed to park bro they don't make these spots big enough what else do we have adrea um this doesn't necessarily apply for me and Michaela necessarily because we are the older people in the company um but like are there old school versus new school struggles that you guys have in your businesses like are with new younger employees coming in with newer ideas and then you know the more experienced workers that you have there are are they stuck kind of in their their own old ways of doing things if that make sense sure we let um Gabrielle answer I think you guys and Builders has actually been around like you said been around a long time um do you find any of those struggles with you know well a lot of the we have really long-term employees like some of them have been with us upwards of 40 years wow and they have such tremendous knowledge so you you can never replace that and who would want to um and uh I mean but we're still transforming the company and that's that's one thing we can't lose sight of so it's up to management decisions good management decisions to be made to continue transforming and growing the business hiring well hiring people that that are harmonious with other people um that know how to deal with people um and uh respectfully you know have accountability are trustworthy are um have humility um Integrity those kinds of values are Universal yeah definitely do you find um as like you know with older Generations they they might be like against trying new software programs or or we're implementing a new Erp right now um and uh and we're not having any trouble so not yet that's good that's really really good because um for us I mean we kind of do a lot of things very um very old school and um we still do a lot of our forms on Excel and rather than like trying different software programs and stuff but I think we're at the point where we do need to start like looking out for new software programs that are going to make our lives easier even though it's going to be hard for us to take sit down take the time to learn them and and I think that that's part of Brian's struggle is actually getting him to sit down and taking the time to learn it you know well a good Erp should be user friendly yeah um and then the benefits uh to helping employees take ownership of their work uh become obvious to them they can see the Improvement and uh then the proof is in the pudding and everybody is happy yeah absolutely yeah what else do we have Andrea um do you have like a succession plan for your younger family members that are stepping up and going to be taking more manager like manager cannot talk um like like bigger roles within the company um or like to prepare them to take over for like leadership roles are you asking me yes oh okay um well my kids are 16 10 and six and um we do some H we have some ideas about family governance uh my niece she's 13 years old and my nephew I think is 21 so they're they're too young really to get started but I'm going to start bringing my my daughters you know my son and six but my daughters to the family business especially the transformational women in family businesses events put on by family business magazine um they really incorporate the family and do a great job of that and they make it seem less weird to kids I remember thinking we were the only people in the world that

Have had a family business and it was just so weird and you know I didn't think it was cool at all um but when you go to an event and there's all these kids there and they're excited and their parents are excited it does something different so I think these kinds of group events are are really going to change them and then also the family meetings I think they're going to be at fun places and everybody's everybody's going to have an enjoyable Outlook I just I remember being a kid and all my parents did was talk about the business and uh it just seemed so bizarre to me um but it's not it's it's what made this country great in the first place yeah you know and we're all of us are on the front lines of that and it's an amazing thing that we should all be so proud of yeah we um we also my daughter I mean we've been around for I don't know business owners I guess you could stay for about 12 15 years now um so my daughter when she was probably about eight or nine she just has always been um around offices and business people and and I think when she when she reached like high school age and high school was done and stuff she kind of when she was younger she really wanted to be ingrained into the company and like go around sales calls and stuff and now she went through a phase where she didn't she wanted like nothing to do with the fence company she went off on her own and and uh now she's kind same thing she's kind of realized that you know hey this isn't too bad you know having your parents own a fence company or having a family business isn't isn't too bad like you get treated pretty good in my opinion so she came back and she says I want to work with you guys and can we uh can you guys incorporate me into something so we finally we put her in like different positions to see what she excelled in and I think we have finally found an area where she excels and she's really good at and she enjoys it so it took us a good year and a half two years until we found that position that plays with her but I'm really happy because I do see the difference in her in her demeanor and her and her the way she carries herself and how happy she is doing what she's doing is she she is 22 wow yeah so but I think she's gonna be leaving us to go to um to College full-time now in the fall so good for her yeah that's aw yeah what about you guys I know you guys have very little um Andrea and Michaela yeah so I think my daughter is the oldest she's five and then we have a four a two and a one so two and two each of us they're very little yeah still pretty little but I think it's good that they grow up seeing how hard everybody works I think that is something that this kind of upcoming generation doesn't really have in a sense is like that strive to work hard and want to work and earn what you have um so I just hope that we kind of teach them that is okay to work and you know bust your butt here and there and you can also have your free time off we have our core values in the office the honesty integrity and accountability and so I think those are really important to live by and that our kids just see you know these amazing women and men working in the company that live by these core values um so yeah I think it's awesome to bring them up in just this type of job yeah definitely 100% um and then last little question for everyone um I'm GNA gear this to Gabrielle first how do you balance your like working for the business and your family as a woman in this bu in like in this industry I going all of the time um I do have a babysitter that I use a lot and um their their dad works here at the company he's the Sun Valley manager so we really cooperate very well um because of that so that that's incredibly helpful um but I I do a lot of work outside of the business too other than taking care of my kids and spending time with them um I I'm in a program to feed the hungry and um I counsel young women um and so I've realized that anything um that I put my heart in I have enough energy to do and um but I'm always thinking about the business it's impossible not to I have I have periods where I'm like okay I'm gonna really focus on exercising and eating healthy and and getting off work at a at a de at a normal time to go home and like do something else and then um I don't know it happens for like a good week two weeks and then I just work just kind of consumes you again so it's it's okay to just restart over and over and over

Again however many times you have to restart and I mean that happens with me I don't know about you guys about you michaa yeah I'm always restarting I feel like my daughter will be like let's exercise and I'm like we have so much to do can't do this right now but yeah no I agree you're always restarting I think as a mother and a wife it's important to you know we are almost the backbone like emotionally of everybody right that comes home goes to work Dalton brings the work my husband for everyone who doesn't know him um you know brings work home with him all the time it doesn't stop ever and so I think it's good that we kind of both understand like his role in the company his role at home and we have come to you know where okay at this time I understand work is busy but like phone has to go off we have to have this family time um and I think just as a woman in this business that is kind of my role especially amongst my family Andrea yeah I'm Delton and Cole probably have it like equally busy I'm sure when Cole gets off the phone delton's on the phone again and then they just like back and forth with Lauren it's always yeah so no I'm the same we have a certain time that like I like to try to have him put his phone away or at like the bare minimum because like your kids want to see you they want to spend time with you they want to play with you and I get that you know work is 247 but your kids gota your kids want your attention too so we have the boundary of at a certain time we try to limit it as possible obviously that's pending you know certain bids that we have to get sent and there's a lot of questions and whatnot they try to get answered as quickly as possible but we do have that boundary of from this time to this time no business talk no nothing you can answer it tomorrow morning early yeah wow he does he does his best to abide by that because he understands that it's a lot on me when he comes home and it's his attention is still work he's either texting his brother texting employees on the phone with his brother employees or on the phone with our office just trying to figure out their schedule they have a bid do in two days that do you have like final numbers that you want to submit blah blah blah yeah yeah I mean it is hard work but it is very rewarding I think we're very fortunate to work in a family company um like Heather you know I was in corporate for eight nine years before I kind of switched over to not being corporate and it's like night and day difference you know family run businesses treat you like you are a human and you have things that come up whereas corporate world was just kind of like oh your car broke down like that sucks I hope you get to work or else you know you're getting R up and you get it late on your card you get you know are you gonna make it in or not you know that's all we really need to know right so I think with family arounded businesses we're just very fortunate to have such a good strong foundation in business yeah I I think the rewards are definitely more than the than the um negatives for sure yes absolutely yeah and I think like outside like our our employees I are 100% like grateful for the things that dalan and Cole do to accommodate certain things like cars being broken down or whatever or I have to make this appointment can I come in late they're like yeah just meet us at this place for this job whatever like they are 100% appreciative of the links that they go to to keep their employees but also like realize that these employees have things that they have to do like sure some of them have kids we all do yeah so be able to communicate those needs and whatnot yeah yeah if an employee needs flexibility um either they or their manager tells us and then my brother myself make the call and you know we're we're very flexible like we understand a 10-year-old can't be home alone all day or you know um yeah your child care fell through or whatever um but we make the decision on the spot and then it's done and I'm so grateful for that that we get to treat people like like people yeah definitely very rewarding to to be able to do that for even for um our small staff that we do have it's very rewarding when one of them needs something you're able to to give it um 100 100 times comes back to you I believe AB what else do we have Andrea those are all my burning questions anyone else have burning questions to ask I don't think so I think um just uh

I don't know if we discussed the family values part of the the business that Gabrielle wanted to bring up well I think we talked about it a little bit in in that um uh in transforming the company how they affect things but I think it's and and another um I think it was Heather brought up that her family's values are their corporate values and that's what I found it's it's like a very natural thing when I think about what was important to my parents what they absolutely demanded of me or there would be you know disapproval it's um Integrity honesty trust accountability but they also demanded humility you know you couldn't be arrogant or know- at all like that why and you better have courage you know yes you are not allow better have courage that is absolutely 100% right you better have courage because we're going to throw you out there and you're going to have to figure it out and um it just wouldn't be tolerated you know just wouldn't be tolerated and um and then leadership that um creates teamwork that supports teamwork you know they don't like uh a kid walking in and um being a leader that works against teamwork like that is roundly frowned upon and so when I go around I'm always thinking like I don't I can't embarrass my dad and my brother and my sister I can't embarrass my grandkids you know I don't have grandkids yet but um like I can't embarrass my family that way we have a legacy absolutely and even if I might want to say something out of hand I can't say it um you're held to a higher standard in my opinion when you're family you're definitely held to a higher standard in the organization with your co-workers with your with your team it's just when you're a family you have to be you have to have that standard in my opinion and it's just higher and when in doubt be quiet yes you're absolutely right well um I think we touched on everything Andrea don't you think we did well that's awesome thank you guys thank you you guys so much for coming on um Gabrielle thank you for taking the time and discussing what an honor thank you so much for asking me you are very welcome and maybe we'll have you on another on another subject on another live at another time you're always welcome and Andrea and Michaela and Heather thank you guys for coming on we'll see you guys next time and don't forget to register for the fence show yes thank you thanks guys