Breaking Ground: Women Driving Equitable Infrastructure with Danica Mason

0:28Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation. inclusion strategies and civil rights management for$15 billion plus projects. Today, we'll be chatting about scaling against the odds, building equity first from day one, women leading infrastructure, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Danica and our sponsors. Here's something most of us don't think about until it's a problem. Our phone service. Cape is a privacy first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible.

1:00Visit cape.co to sign up today. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Danica, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Well, hi, Fire Nation. And, you know, something about being successful that most people disagree with, I would say for me is the fact that I feel like I've had to pivot multiple times throughout my career.

1:53So in the last 15 years of owning my business, I feel like I've written business plans and throwing them out. Sometimes it feels like every month. And that's just kind of how it's gone at times. And having that flexibility is one of those things that has served me well, but I feel like it's also made it difficult at the same time. Yeah, but I think that you've learned something every step of the way. Every one of those false starts, every one of those attempts, like you just continue to kind of gather this knowledge, this experience, and you just become this veteran, which is why today we're talking, Fire Nation, about breaking ground.

2:31This is women driving equitable infrastructure. And I want to start by talking about scaling against the odds because Fire Nation deserves the truth. So let's drop some truth. How realistic is it for a small or minority owned AEC, that's architecture, engineering and construction for those AEC firms to scale into major industry players today? You know, I'm not going to lie. It's hard. And you don't see a lot of companies within this space that are women are BIPOC owned, but with the right mentality and specializing and delivering good work, it can be done. Are you going to be one of the top 10 players as a general contractor?

3:22Probably not. Can you specialize and be one of those top 10 in a specialization? Absolutely. It just takes dedication and getting the right teams and being willing to put in the time and effort and making the connections and calling in with those connections and the allies and the advocates that you have to really deliver that work and make the name for yourself and be willing to put in that effort. Well, that leads to building equity first from day one. So what's the very first step to creating an equity first business model that doesn't just sound good, Danica, but actually wins billion dollar work?

4:09You know, it's, it comes down to really coming in and working with companies that value the diversity and equity within the industry as well. So it's not just the fact that, you know, you can be a woman or BIPOC to own company, but you have to be able to partner with other companies that value that. And one of the nice things here in the U.S. is that we do have requirements for contracting with small and diverse businesses on our government contracts, which is great. And so there are requirements to help with that. But there's also larger contractors that just have a better mentality about partnering with those contractors and engineers and architects to help advance them.

5:06and make sure that those opportunities exist and who are willing to mentor and provide some of that business assistance and break down those barriers, whether it's with bonding or insurance or how do you do business? How do you establish an overhead rate? Those pieces that can be absolutely daunting and overwhelming for some of us and having requirements for inclusion managers or economic development leads and things like that is really important in knowing who those people are because we're the ones who can step in and help guide to get to the right people to help with that as well. On that note, I want to talk specifically about women leading infrastructure.

5:55How can women shape the future of a large-scale infrastructure and what are the systematic obstacles that are still standing in the way? Yeah. So with women and infrastructure, it's still hard. I'm not going to lie. You still see a lot of men in construction. It's the reality of it, but we are seeing a change. I mean, the 20 years that I've been doing this, I can say I have seen more women in the room. I'm not always the only one in the room anymore. It's a nice change, but it used to be that I was often the only one. But it really comes down to finding where women are able to provide value and not being uncomfortable in situations.

6:52So I think that as a whole, the industry has changed. We are much more not so much in the realm of, you know, looking at construction and thinking of the mentality of everyone's the plumber's crack. Right. Because I know it's horrible, but that's what we all think when we think about construction. And that's just not true. And so, you know, there's a lot of opportunity within the AEC realm. And I think that that's one thing that we're not doing a really great job of explaining to our youth or even people looking at second careers is that it's not just those trade opportunities. There are opportunities within, you know, finance and project engineering and administrative and things like that, that you just don't think about.

7:52And really, I'll tell you that those are the people that keep the jobs running. It's not the people out in the field. While they're important, they're not the ones who actually keep everything moving forward. But we need people at all levels within it. and I think that there's been a major shift in mentality where it's not so harsh anymore within the construction industry and so with women specifically we are seeing a rise in women entering the construction industry and leading as project managers as project engineers and taking more of that active role and there's been a big rise in that over the last probably 10 years from what I've seen.

8:39And really there's companies who are encouraging it. And we've got some really amazing contractors throughout the United States who are women owned. And some of them are specialty contractors who are in the top 10 within their specializations, which is really cool to see, to be honest. Fire Nation, we're going to talk about real versus performance equity, winning proposals at scale, and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Here's something most of us don't think about until it's a problem. Our phone service. The big carriers, AT &T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have made headlines over and over for data breaches, tracking, and selling customer data.

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11:13Seriously, every question that pops up, they will have your answer waiting. And if you visit my special partnership link, you'll get a free trial. So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com, where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High level, join the revolution. Danica, we're back. And as I kind of teased before the break, I want to talk about real versus performance equity. How can leaders tell when a project is genuinely equitable versus simply checking one of those compliance boxes? When it's real, we see companies being able to get additional work.

11:58So when it's just checking a box, we don't see the companies who are engaged on a job getting additional work. So you'll see them on one project, but you don't start seeing them on additional projects because they aren't having the cash flow to go bid additional projects. or you aren't seeing, you know, the apprentices going from one project to the next one because they aren't getting through the programs, right? So really the big thing is that when we're giving true work to, especially companies who are in that small and diverse realm, where they're getting the cashflow, they're getting the opportunity, they can actually grow in capacity and capability, they can continue to go bid work.

12:51They can continue to win work and deliver it, grow their crews, grow their equipment and keep expanding what they can do. It's not just checking the box. We don't want to see companies on projects who are just there for one project and then we don't see them again. So on that note, I think the next step is winning proposals at scale because it's one thing to come in to do a piece of a project or to do X, Y, or Z, but then it's winning a big project at scale. So what would you say are just the most common and the biggest mistakes that firms make when they're competing for these AEC proposals? And as importantly, what's the fastest way for them to fix those mistakes?

13:35And I feel like that's a trick question.

13:40No, I think that pride gets in the way a lot of the time when it comes down to especially chasing work that is proposal based. And so one of the big things that we see when you're chasing work that does have a proposal component and not just a low price component is not just trying to go after work as your own company when maybe it's a stretch. So it's finding that other company to partner with. So having a joint venture partner that shares some of that burden and knowing how to structure that and having the time to get the lawyers involved to make sure that it is going to be a good situation for both companies.

14:27You know, making sure that those resources exist for small businesses to rely on, because that's one of the things that we do see is that, you know, unfortunately, a lot of small businesses don't want to spend the money on the legal help and the accounting help and things like that. And that's just, it's not a good call. Unfortunately, you really need to spend the money on the lawyers. Otherwise it gets you into trouble and, you know, having the money to spend on the proposal help and the resources to actually put together something that looks professional and reads well and, you know, having a good schedule, a good bid, knowing how to put all that together is a big deal.

15:14But having the pride piece where it feels like you have to be the prime contractor on something doesn't serve well if you're not ready to do it. Because if you aren't ready to serve in that position, you're going to fail. and so being able to take that step back and say that you need that partner is a big deal and it will help you as a small business be able to succeed ultimately and really be able to perform well and get ready to be that prime contractor on your own you know and as far as fixing things when it comes to proposals it really is it's setting aside the money to be able to bring in the experts to help with, you know, getting something that looks professional.

16:05You can't come in with something done in Microsoft Word or Publisher when you have, you know, the companies that are doing$150,$300 million a year that you're competing against when you're doing, you know,$30 million a year and they're using layout programs like InDesign and they've got technical writers on board, you're never going to be able to compete because unfortunately the way that something looks matters just as much as the bin number does. It matters. It matters. And I really feel like that leads us perfectly into the next thing I want to talk about, which is strategy, which is story, which is positioning.

16:44I mean, where does the real win come from in proposal management? Is it in the writing, the strategy, or the positioning behind it all? It's all of it. you know, in proposal management, it really comes down to all of it. So if you don't have the right people, the right projects, the right things to back up what you're saying, you don't have the right strategy to begin with. If you don't have the right partners that you're bringing in, you're not going to be able to put together the right strategy to deliver a project. if you haven't done your research on what the project is if you haven't talked to the owners the stakeholders whether that's you know community or um you know other agencies utility companies whatever that happens to be right you don't know what their issues are what their concerns are if you're going in thinking that you know everything about a project and you've never talked to anyone, you likely don't know anything.

17:50And that's a problem. So coming in without having done that research, without having talked to anyone, and you're just picking up the bid package when it comes out and saying, we can write a proposal about this and we can bid it. It's likely not going to work very well for you. You know, knowing what an agency or an owner is looking for in their personnel that they're asking for and what the history of the companies that they're wanting you to bring in to deliver a job. You know, what types of jobs do they want you to have in your background? What kind of projects do they want, you know, size wise, complexity wise, that kind of stuff.

18:31If you just look at what's on paper, it's not enough information to respond correctly. So it really is having the knowledge prior to something coming out, but it's also being able to respond to what's on paper as well. So there's, unfortunately with proposal management, it's so multifaceted where you have to be compliant to exactly what's on paper, but you also have to have the knowledge of what is not on paper because you need to tell a story that gets someone to score you in a way that helps you win a project. Danica, take us home. For all those listening who represent underrepresented firms and they're aiming to break into the big leagues, what's the one mindset that creates the greatest leap forward in your experience?

19:27I would say the mindset that I have seen that really pushes companies to that next level is that they aren't scared to grow out of being a small company. The mindset of, yes, there's assistance and there's goals for small businesses on these government contracts, but having the mindset of saying, but I want to be big. I want to grow out of that. I don't need to rely on being a small company. I can do better. And having that mindset and saying that it's okay to grow past that threshold and that you can compete against the big boys is really what gets people to the next level. Danica, Fire Nation is listening to this and they want to connect with you.

20:19They want to learn more about your company, what you have going on. What is your call to action for our listeners today? Support the small businesses that are within your community, whether it is, you know, your AEC community, it's your local restaurants, it's, you know, your mom and pop shops in your communities. Those are so important. They're the lifeblood of our communities. And without them, we don't put people to work, we don't have community to even stand on. We have to support our small businesses and that's 99 % of the businesses in this country are small business. Without them, we don't have community.

21:04And so it's really important to maintain our small business community and keeping people working and encouraging people to think outside of the box and look at going into the trades and not just having to go into the university system. I mean, listen, especially in the world of AI, it's like get a physical trade, Fire Nation. Let's be useful in this world because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with DM and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything that we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Danica, D-A-N-I-C-A in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up.

21:46And Danica, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Danica for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world. If yes, we are now accepting guest applications for EO Fire. To learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Here's something most of us don't think about until it's a problem.

22:20Our phone service. Cape is a privacy first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible. Visit cape.co to sign up today. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

23:01Thank you.