Transcript
Dean Wehrli:
Welcome to the newest podcast, newest edition of New Home Insights with John Burns Real Estate Consulting. I’m your host, Dean Wehrli. Today, we have another very, very special guest. In fact, I’m going to say our most special guest so far. Alaina Money from Garman Homes. Alaina, please say hi.
Alaina Money:
Hi. Wow, what an intro.
Dean Wehrli:
Hey, I mean that very seriously. What we’re going to do today is something a little bit different than we normally do. It’s not necessarily a specific topic. We’re going to talk about the role of women in building and we’re going to do that through Alaina’s experience. She helps run and owns the Garman Homes’ building company out of Durham, North Carolina. They build throughout the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
Dean Wehrli:
One of the models, I guess, at the company is Build Like a Girl. So that’s what we’re going to talk about, how Alaina, through building like a girl, learned to run a home company. So, I want to start, Alaina, by asking though, with a spectacular name like Alaina Money, how did you get into building homes, rather than being a hedge fund guru, or a host on CNBC, or something like that? What first attracted you to building?
Alaina Money:
Well, you know what’s so funny? I actually went to school for a master’s in healthcare administration. I was a healthcare consultant and I was completely miserable about it. And I went on a search with friends and people I knew and asked them who loved their job, “Who loves your job?” And because I was determined to find a profession that I could love, because I think that if you love something, you can be great at it. And if you only really like it, you’ll probably only be very good. And I wanted to be great.
Dean Wehrli:
Sweet.
Alaina Money:
So I found someone who said, “I love what I do and I sell onsite for D.R. Horton.” And I had just built a home with D.R. Horton. And so, I decided to try it out and I did. And that’s how I got into home building.
Dean Wehrli:
And you started with the part of home building that a lot of women tend to start with, which is sales and/or marketing. So you started out in sales at Garman. How did that get going?
Alaina Money:
So I was on site for big national builders for about four years, two different home building companies. And then Jim started Garman Homes and he had been operating for about a year, and I decided that at that point I was either going to go into sales management for a large national builder or I was going to be part of building this company with Jim. And I decided I wanted to be part of building this company. And I had two young children at the time and I knew it was going to sacrifice the majority of my motherhood if I went that sales management track with a large national builder.
Dean Wehrli:
Gotcha. Okay.
Alaina Money:
Yeah. So I chose to start the sales team with Jim and then we had this wonderful conversation one day, and it was in the middle of the recession. It was 2010. [crosstalk 00:03:27] We were driving through a neighborhood that we had just gotten a few lots. And I said, “Why aren’t more of these women who were leading me as VPs of sales and marketing at these large national home building companies, why aren’t they rising past the level of VP of sales marketing? Why aren’t they running the home building companies? Because this is a recession. Couldn’t we just sell our way out of it?” That was my … Isn’t everything … Doesn’t everything boil down to sales and why can’t we just sell our way through this?
Dean Wehrli:
That’s very often the go-to when folks are struggling, “It’s the salespeople’s fault.” Yeah.
Alaina Money:
Yeah. If it’s our fault, couldn’t it also be our solution? Or our contribution? So he said, “I don’t know for sure. I mean, certainly corporate culture plays into it. I don’t want to minimize what it’s like for other women in large national home-building companies. I know the road is very different there.” But he said, “I would suspect that they don’t know the core business of how to build a home.” And I said to him in that moment in that car, “I want you to teach me how to build a home, because I want to earn the right to be considered for that spot. I want to run this place.”
Dean Wehrli:
So literally building a home, constructing a home, hammers and nails, and all that? Okay.
Alaina Money:
Well, managing construction. I wasn’t swinging a hammer. I was managing the person that was swinging the hammer.
Dean Wehrli:
I was going to ask you that, by the way. So did you ever get out there and swing a hammer? And, yeah?
Alaina Money:
So, I did. My first Build Like a Girl … So Build Like a Girl was the blog, was the project to manage construction on a home. It was a completely fish out of water experience. I had sold probably a hundred or so homes at that point and I had never built one. So I picked a spec home, an inventory home, and I would drive up to that home site in my white minivan, because I had really young kids.
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah.
Alaina Money:
I would just walk up on site and introduce myself to the crews as like, “Hi, I’m Alaina Money. I work for Garman. I’m actually the sales manager, but I’m managing construction on this home. And would you guys let me do some stuff?” And they [crosstalk 00:05:43] what their faces looked like.
Dean Wehrli:
I bet. Yeah, I can just imagine. But they were pretty cool about it?
Alaina Money:
They were. They would … I was in sales, so I knew how to build rapport. I knew how to create trust and connection with people. And so, I think they recognized that my intentions were completely true. I really endeavored to learn as much as I could about what it looked like to construct one of our homes, what it looked like to manage construction. So, one of my very favorite moments from the blog is when I asked the concrete crew, I was talking to them, they were pouring a slab and I was on the outside just talking to them, getting to know all the guys. And it was intimidating. I mean, I would walk up to a crew of 12 guys. As a woman, that’s a little different dynamic than I’m used to.
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah. Well, let’s be honest, especially in construction, it goes to stereotype, right?
Alaina Money:
Exactly. So, I walked up and they had enough context for me, as a manager within the company, that it probably afforded me some credibility. And so, the concrete crew was the first that said, “You going to get in here with us or what?” And they’re in the slab with the bull float. And so I said, “Can I?” He said, “Go get your boots.” I ran to my minivan.
Dean Wehrli:
Your mom van. Gotcha.
Alaina Money:
Right, exactly. I mean, there was no pretense. There was no … I didn’t have a truck at that point or anything. I was a mom first and my job was second. And so, I ran back and got my boots and ran back into the slab. And they said, “Just jump in.”
Dean Wehrli:
That’s awesome.
Alaina Money:
And they were still [inaudible 00:07:39] and they’ve … That connection, when I … For years after, as I would drive up onto a site and see that concrete crew, I was just … It was like seeing family. And [crosstalk 00:07:53] I knew them all by name and it was such a high value for us, because they knew that I would value all the extra effort, all the extra attention. They knew that it meant something to me and that I was always appreciative when they took extra time and I noticed all the details. And so, yeah, it was a wonderful experience.
Dean Wehrli:
That’s a great point though, right? They know you’ve walked in their boots, literally, so they know that you know, that “management” knows what they go through and how hard their job is.
Alaina Money:
It’s extremely hard. Yes. And the framers were another crew that was really good to me and they let me fly trusses with them and it’s still my favorite part of construction is when they fly the trusses. Just, I love it.
Dean Wehrli:
Oh, really?
Alaina Money:
I think it’s just like a party.
Dean Wehrli:
So, I want to be clear though, so when you said, “Hey, you’re the sales manager, right? For Garman Homes.” And you say, “You know what? I want to shift to construction manager.” So, that’s pretty brave saying, “Yeah, I’ll send my obviously highly valued sales manager and let her do construction for a while.” That’s a pretty brave thing to do from a builder’s perspective.
Alaina Money:
Yeah, it was. And really, let’s be honest, it was 2010. We were in the middle of the largest recession, and we had nothing to lose. There was nothing [crosstalk 00:09:10]-
Dean Wehrli:
Oh, okay. Sure, go for it.
Alaina Money:
Exactly, [crosstalk 00:09:16]. [inaudible 00:09:14] opportunity, right?
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah, that’s true. That’s good. That is the best time to do something out of the box, isn’t it?
Alaina Money:
Exactly. So the writing, the blog came out of just documenting what my experience was every day of building that home and all the lessons. It forced me to connect the dots of my experience and how that was shaping me as a leader for our company and how I could leverage the knowledge I gained being outside of my comfort zone and outside of my role and then go back to my role and ripple that through the entire company, to the benefit of all of us.
Dean Wehrli:
Okay. And I know you’ve said before that you found it kind of humbling, but you eventually did find your voice in that blogging and in actually getting the hands on home-building.
Alaina Money:
I did. It was so humbling. I couldn’t believe how much I didn’t know about building homes, considering how many I had sold. And I found my voice in terms of being okay not knowing the whole story, knowing what I didn’t know and still being okay speaking up about what I thought was important. I didn’t need to know everything to have a point of view. And Build Like a Girl taught me that. I didn’t need to have it all figured out, but I could show up in a way that was authentic, and genuine, and thoughtful, and I didn’t have to have all the facts figured out. I didn’t have to be an expert in construction management to know what it would take to build a beautiful home.
Dean Wehrli:
Did you ever go into any other parts of … Into, I don’t know, purchasing, or dabble in other contracts? Anything else before you started to rise up within Garman?
Alaina Money:
No. Build Like a Girl sort of … Well, I guess Build Like a Girl was the gateway drug maybe.
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah. Okay.
Alaina Money:
[inaudible 00:11:15]. Once I had the experience of building a home sort of under my belt, then I went on to build two more, almost in rapid succession, in a line in new neighborhoods and it helped us build the voice of the company. It was a marketing driver for us.
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah. Tell me exactly, Build Like a Girl means what to you?
Alaina Money:
Oh, that’s a really good question. Build Like a Girl means everything to me. It’s how I built my career. Build Like a Girl was me owning the fact that I was a girl. I named it girl instead of woman on purpose. I did not know a lot, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have a tremendous amount of value to add. And Build Like a Girl was a way of being honest about what I didn’t know and being open to learning and to spreading the message of what it meant to build a Garman Home, what it meant to us as the management of the company, as the founders. [Crosstalk 00:12:22] What it meant to us to build a Garman Home was so much more than construction on a house. It was about creating these spaces where people live their lives and creating them in cooperation and support of the human hands that actually put this home together.
Dean Wehrli:
Wow, that’s interesting. Now, being as honest as you can be, did you feel like, was there resistance along the way? Other builders, land sellers, brokers? Did you feel that at all from being a woman in this male-dominated industry?
Alaina Money:
Oh sure, yes. Yes, for sure. I can tell you a story. One time when I was actually the division president, so I had made it all the way up to division president, and I was managing construction because we had just let go of the VP of construction. And so, I stepped in to manage it. And a builder of ours, he called me out in a neighborhood in Chapel Hill and he said that the head of inspections needs to meet with the head of construction and that’s you. And I said, “Okay. Where do we meet? Where do I go?” So we meet, because we needed to change a way we were building something because of an unintended consequence. And he was protecting the public and we were up for those changes.
Alaina Money:
So we go to the house that’s under construction and the construction manager introduces me. He says, “This is Alaina Money, this is our division president, the head of construction.” And this guy crushed his arms in front of his chest and looked at me just very sort of quizzically. If I’m giving full benefit of the doubt, it was more of [inaudible 00:00:14:06]. He looked at the construction manager, he said, “Division president?” As a question. And then looked at me and said, “Division president?” And I said, “Yes, that’s me.” And it was uncomfortable for … He had [crosstalk 00:14:26] uncomfortable for everyone.
Dean Wehrli:
“Division president, but you’re a woman? I don’t understand. How could this … I can’t … What?” And then his head exploded.
Alaina Money:
Exactly. And then he asked me what I [crosstalk 00:14:41] majored in college. If you wouldn’t ask a man, you don’t ask a woman.
Dean Wehrli:
There are two things you don’t ask a women, yeah
Alaina Money:
Right. A litmus test for if you think you might be a sexist. [inaudible 00:14:59] if you wouldn’t ask a man, then you might be a sexist.
Dean Wehrli:
Yes. That’s good. It’s like, if you start your question with, “I don’t mean to be offensive,” your question’s going to be offensive. Trust me. Stop asking it. That’s interesting.
Alaina Money:
Yeah. He said, he was just so confused. And he said, “How did you become a division president?” I had to sort of go through the whole thing and I said, “I just worked really hard and now we’re here, so why don’t you tell me why we’re here so I can help you?”
Dean Wehrli:
So now if that comes up again, and hopefully it will not, but if it does, you can say, “Hey, listen to this podcast.” And you can just give them a link.
Alaina Money:
Exactly. I will.
Dean Wehrli:
Here’s the … That’s interesting. That’s a great … I’m sure there were others too, I imagine. Something of that ilk? Okay. Yeah. I mean, I’m not surprised. I’ve seen that. I’ve been in many meetings where that kind of something … Maybe not quite that bold, I suppose, but where that kind of awkwardness and that kind of assumption has been at play. And not even that long ago, to be honest.
Alaina Money:
Well, there’ll be times when I am willfully trying to change people’s eye contact from Jim Garman, who’s my partner in business and life, who is our CFO, to me. And I am the CEO and I went there … They will talk to him before they’ll talk to me. They just-
Dean Wehrli:
You should have Jim go get you coffee at the beginning of a meeting one time. Just do that just routinely. “Jim, could you get me some coffee? I’ll be right here. Two sugars. Thank you.” So you started building houses, and you became division president, and then co-owned the company with Jim today. I mean, so that’s a heck of a success story. It didn’t happen … I mean, how long was that process?
Alaina Money:
It was … I became an owner in 2017 and I started Build Like a Girl in 2010, so it was a seven year process. I think within five years I had become division president. By 2015, I was division president.
Dean Wehrli:
Wow.
Alaina Money:
And when I became division president, I had an option to buy in as an owner.
Dean Wehrli:
No.
Alaina Money:
And so, I wasn’t able to exercise it for a few years. But once I was, I was super excited about it and honored to be part of this … I mean, I always felt like an owner. It always felt like something I had helped create and I felt a lot of ownership over it. And it’s really … I’m just so grateful to be in a position where I get to be an owner.
Dean Wehrli:
Do you think it was … You mentioned earlier about big publics. Do you think the process you’re talking about and the potentials and the opportunities are more open in privates than they would be in a public builder environment?
Alaina Money:
From where I’m sitting, I would assume, yes, but that’s just my assumption. I’ve never been part of it and I don’t want to sell them short, but I also know that if it was easier, there probably would be more.
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah.
Alaina Money:
I don’t know. I mean, [crosstalk 00:18:12]-
Dean Wehrli:
I think you’re right.
Alaina Money:
… itself, maybe.
Dean Wehrli:
Also, in the private sphere, it kind of does depend on who’s at the top, frankly, doesn’t it? Right? If it’s someone who is a misogynist at the top of a private, their word is God. Whereas in a public, a little more political, a little more normally corporate generalities are involved, I would imagine.
Alaina Money:
Yeah. Yeah. I think there are pockets of people who are turning the tide within a larger organization, for sure. And I’ve witnessed that as well, and I always want to cheer those people on, and make sure that I’m supporting them, as we certainly … There are companies out there that, I don’t want to speak in too many generalities, because there are companies out there who are bucking the trend and I was not nearly the first division president here in Raleigh and there were several more …you know, there’s a handful of us.
Dean Wehrli:
I’ll give a hat tip to one. Taylor Morrison, I know it’s not just Sheryl Palmer heading that company, but they have female division presidents and other women I work with in very high positions. I mean, I don’t want to short any other builder who is doing that, but they just stand out to me as a public builder that’s doing that I think pretty dramatically and clearly.
Alaina Money:
Oh, absolutely. But, I think she’s the only one of the-
Dean Wehrli:
She is, yes. But I mean, even beyond Sheryl, they have a bunch of folks, a bunch of women out there and increasingly so that are in DPs and other corporate level too. So it’s good, it’s happening. So for you though, it was all about getting outside your comfort zone, you said, and learning the entire business. Is that something that can be generalizable, do you think, to other women in the industry?
Alaina Money:
I think so. I think, for sure. I think anytime you get out of your comfort zone, you get out of your area of expertise and you endeavor to learn as much as possible about some other part of the business, it unlocks just a whole data field of points that you can then connect back to your own area of expertise, which just deepens your understanding of how this business actually works, start to finish. So your perspective … We always say …
Alaina Money:
When someone goes through an experience like this, Jim and I will often say to each other, “That person grew a foot.” They grew a foot going through that experience, because now they can see from 12 inches higher. They understand more about how this business, how their role in the business impacts the people before them and the people after them, and how they are intricately connected to every other person in this process. And people have better decisions when they have more information.
Dean Wehrli:
I’m not going to lie, when you first said, “They grew a foot,” I thought for a second that they grew a third foot and it was some kind of a North Carolina-Southern kind of a thing. So I’m glad you explained that to me, to someone as dumb as I am. That’s interesting, though. So you do, you grow and you get this more kind of holistic understanding of the business by getting out of your comfort zone. I think that’s absolutely right. And hopefully, it is generalizable and there are paths to doing this. Which brings me to my next question is, sort of what’s next? How else do women rise into the building industry? What other hurdles might they face? Any thoughts on that?
Alaina Money:
I think that women rise, because when … I know, for me, when one of us rises, we make sure that the others are getting the same chances that everybody else … Whatever leap of faith or whoever took a chance on me, inspires me to want to take a chance on others and to give someone else who didn’t come with the exact perfect resume, but had the grit, and the dedication, and the pure passion for the industry, and for learning. Those people make the top of my list for who I want to hire to grow this company.
Alaina Money:
So we have a new division president who is a woman and she was a VP of sales and marketing at a different company. And it was important to me that as we were searching for a division president, that they had all of these qualities that were sort of … I don’t want the typical division president, I want someone to come with a list of talents that I maybe didn’t even anticipate. And people aren’t seeing them because they don’t fit the mold.
Dean Wehrli:
Gotcha. Okay. I mean, is it a matter then of sort of, I don’t know, a critical mass and then it becomes kind of self-fulfilling. Do you think that’s happening?
Alaina Money:
Sure. I think the more we’re here, the better. The less heads of inspection will look at us like with that quizzical look of, “Who are you? That must be mistitle.”
Dean Wehrli:
“Am I being pranked? Is there a camera?”
Alaina Money:
And I’m all of 5’2 and it was raining that day. I was wearing a ball cap, and my rain boots, and I’m sure I looked younger and less experienced than he was thinking. But, I think what you’re saying is true. I think that the more of us there are, the more of us there will be. And I think that women also help each other. I’m part of a women’s housing leadership group started by a few women, including Cory Boydston, who’s the chief financial officer for Ashton Woods. [crosstalk 00:23:50] And there’s three women who put together a group of women in the industry, so that when …
Alaina Money:
The search for women and diversity on panels, and on speaking engagements, and on lectures is high. People want to see people who look like them. And I’m so grateful to every woman who has broken the barriers before me and there were so many. There’s no way that I would have been able to dream as big as I did if there weren’t a few pioneers who went first. And I knew it was possible. It wasn’t like I [crosstalk 00:24:32]-
Dean Wehrli:
Yeah.
Alaina Money:
I knew it was possible. I just knew I was going to have to … I couldn’t follow the standard path. I was just going to have to make my own.
Dean Wehrli:
And you did, which is a fitting end. I mean, this is a great story. So, you decided you wanted to be at the top of the builder, not just sort of get shunted into just a sales role and not a top decision making process. And, like you said, got out of your comfort zone and learned the business from top to bottom, especially construction, which of a male dominated business is probably the most male-dominated part of the business. And then you … My God, I’m still amazed by the timing. In five years you were division president. That’s tremendous.
Alaina Money:
Thank you so much. I picked the right company [crosstalk 00:25:20] to forge my path. I picked the right partner to forge my path. It certainly would have taken me years longer in a larger organization, but I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to do and I’m really proud of the opportunities I’m able to now afford to more like me.
Dean Wehrli:
Well, thank you. I appreciate you being here. We’ve just listened to Alaina Money from Garman Homes tell us her story. Alaina, please say goodbye to the folks.
Alaina Money:
Goodbye. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks for asking me. This is such an honor. Thank you.
Dean Wehrli:
Absolutely. It was well worth it. It was blast. Hopefully, you’ll listen to us next time when we’ll bring you something almost as interesting as Alaina’s story. Until then.
