Threading Together Leadership and Empowerment with Shauna Brown
In the virtual Lemonade Stand, Crystal is joined by Shauna Brown from On the Double! Heating & Cooling! At the close of International Women's Month, they discuss navigating career ambitions in the trades, cultivating team dynamics, and being intentional in personal development.
0:07 - Empowering Women in the Trades
9:09 - Work-Life Balance and Self-Awareness
15:41 - Work Relationships With Spouses and Teams
25:05 - Empowering Women in Leadership Roles
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 2: 0:07
Well, what's up, lemonheads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Crystal and it's just me today. Emily is on some meetings today, so she wasn't able to join me for this particular podcast, but that is okay. I love having time with this guest all to myself. We've had some great conversations. I can't wait for you guys to hear about a female woman Well, of course, female in the industry Kicking booty with her family's company and what she did to achieve work-life balance. Let's get into it. Let's sip some lemonade.
Speaker 1: 0:41
Awesome.
Speaker 2: 0:43
All right. Well, guys, I'm really excited to have Shauna Brown from On the Double, and it's a fellow Texan. Yes, we're pumped up for that. Now, even though we live nine hours apart, we're still in the same time zone. So that's yes, yeah, yeah. So same state, same time zone, yes, same, that's. We feel great about that. People will tell me all the time oh my gosh, my aunt lives in Texas and I'm like they could literally live 10 hours for me. So, yes, but Texans love other Texans and so, anyway, super excited to have Shauna on the call with me today.
Speaker 2: 1:21
Shauna does have her degree in business background, in small business development, and I think she just really has a good desire for empowering women in the trades and just achieve excellence where they can leadership, just all the things that I think a lot of us could hear.
Speaker 2: 1:37
So even if you're a dude listening to this, there still is a lot to learn about how you can empower the females on your team to have excellence. Shawna, one thing I say a lot is I really do not need anyone to give me a seat at any table because I'm a woman. I will happily earn it myself. But there are things that we can do as business owners especially as business owners or our co-parts in a business to help embody that your team, that women are supported and respected. That's a that's a key word there, opinions are respected and things like that. So I want to encourage the men that are listening right now like listen to this, as as Shauna and I talk through ways that you can support the females on your team so that others see how respectful they are treated. I don't know how you feel about that, shauna.
Speaker 1: 2:30
Well, I think the word that just came to mind is value. You know, yes, respect, but value I mean women. I'm not a I am woman, hear me roar type person. However, women are so capable and truly the backbone of the industry, and we have been for many, many years and we're getting this great opportunity now, as things are shifting, to really showcase and highlight those, those gifts that we have, and I'm excited that the men in the industry are embracing it, because they really, really are. It's wonderful.
Speaker 2: 3:04
Oh yeah, shauna, I think that's a great point, like right now, I'll be honest like there are tons of men, especially men that are influencers right now, that really support women, that really are encouraging. They're financially supporting women as far as sending them to training and things like that. So we have a lot of positive things going right now. So, before we get too deep into that, tell us a little bit just like about you and about On the Double and like because I love that you work with your husband, josh, like I want to hear this great portion of your story about work-life balance.
Speaker 1: 3:36
OK. So yeah, we. I so went to college, graduated college and have have since been involved in business development and multiple startups, and so that was kind of my background and we married my husband and then life just kind of got going and ended up in the trades. However, I think an interesting point is that my father and my uncle own a heating and air conditioning business. I think is interesting point is that my father and my uncle own a heating and air conditioning business and it is 45 years old, out of a smaller town, san Angelo, texas, and so I grew up around the trades. I've been involved in the trades Now I have two brothers and I was not necessarily allowed to participate very much.
Speaker 1: 4:22
I never got to go in the field or anything like that, but the guys did, and but I was around it all the time. Go in the field or anything like that, but the guys did, but I was around it all the time and in the shop all the time watching sheet metal be bent and put together and play around those huge machines. And I was involved in some of the book work and some of that as I got older. But still, just what I think was no need about it is. I had no fear of entrepreneurship because I grew up around it, and so, I think most people.
Speaker 1: 4:49
I've often told my husband that there are very few people really who are brave enough to own their own businesses, to go and open a business and try to run a business from scratch and take that risk. We never even thought twice about it. We never thought this is really risky because we just grew up around that and we that's what we've always known and you just, you just go for it. And so when, when it came about that we were both working full-time jobs and whatnot and then started this business on the side, by happenstance it just slowly grew and then when we went all in, it wasn't really we weren't really afraid. It was just kind of like okay, let's do this. It wasn't really a. I mean, it was a big leap, but not at the same time, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2: 5:39
Yeah. So let me tell you something too, like you said this, so you know I'm a trade baby. I call it. A lot of people hear me say this a lot. I adore businesses that are operated by dads, cousins, brothers, grandpas. I love it and there's a lot of, there's a lot of pressure that comes with those things. There even can be like some competitive pieces in there. You know, like well, how is our business doing compared to my cousin's business? Or my dad started the business and maybe he wasn't a great owner. And then you come in and make all these changes. Some of that can get very, very cluttered, if you will, or like draw out a lot of emotions that I think are hard to manage sometimes.
Speaker 1: 6:25
Absolutely Well, we never, we haven't been partners with our family members. So we are in a different city. We have, but we, you know, thankfully have not. We actually chose not to participate in that. We love cause, I love my father and I love my uncle, and we knew better than to get involved in all of that. It would be too complicated. So they continued and still that business is still running and I don't know if God wills, we may participate in that someday, but at this point it's still doing its own thing and we have our own business here. And, ironically, I have a twin brother who opened a HVAC business in the DFW area in Louisville. So it's in our family for sure and it's been a fun journey and definitely interesting. To run your business with your husband, with your spouse for sure, that's a lot.
Speaker 2: 7:22
Yeah, so you know we all face different challenges in here, but I know a lot of things that women suffer with. So I say suffer, have to manage, is a better way to say it.
Speaker 2: 7:33
Not all of us want to be stay at home moms. Not all of us want to be full-time working moms. Some of us don't have a choice. Some of us do have a choice, but one thing that I do know that I think we as an industry can be more mindful of is not always number one. This affects both dads and moms and daughters and sons. I mean, we all are in this caretaking mode for people. You know, as I think one thing is really helping your team not have to choose a lot of times between their kids and work, or family time and work and things like that. And I know that can get a little egregious on both sides, right, like there's people that are like you've got to work and I don't care, you got to get babysitters figured out. And then there's people who, like my kid's eyebrow twitched so I feel like I should be off today.
Speaker 2: 8:24
You know it does have to be a. The key word here is balance. But tell me a little bit like you kind of went through a a discovering thing, like we were just sharing and talking about our kids and things like that, and so I just I liked what you said about how you structure your life.
Speaker 1: 8:45
Absolutely so. I mean, it's been a journey for sure. And then just the way that we have always been because we're a husband and wife team and we're in, we don't have family locally or you know, like the grandparents support, or you know aunts and uncles, things like that locally it's always just been him and I and our two kids, and so we've had to have that balance and part of our culture at our business has. We've always said we want a place that people know that their family is important and that work-life balance is important, and so we model that and we allow that and we have not thankfully we don't have team members that take advantage of it, but if they have a need, if they've got something going on, they know that they can take care of it. They know that they have support. We all support one another in that if a kid's sick or you know they need to take off or something, or if they were very flexible with our people and we want them to be able to go see their kids presentation at school, or if they're in the spelling bee or there was special lunches that they have, you know things like that. So we do definitely support our team.
Speaker 1: 9:51
And then personally, you know I have had quite the journey and we've had to find a lot of balance this last year and a half or so. And well, the year we decided to go into business like full full time I mean, we had been part time for quite a few years and then went full-time um, I actually had a stroke out of the middle nowhere and, um, I had a seven-month-old child and there's a lot. I mean, there's so much more to my story, but it was. It was uh shocking, to say the least. I mean, weren't we're going into business full time? And um, one day my husband popped in and and and, and he's like hey, are you feeling okay? And I was like, and I couldn't speak back to him properly and so went to the emergency room and then I was having a stroke and, um, no idea why and we still don't know to this day other than it was just a bodily my body was just so really inflamed and overly exhausted and all these things, and come to find out how autoimmune issues and my body just couldn't handle.
Speaker 1: 10:58
I was overextending myself, because that is my nature as a woman, businesswoman, mother, wife, all the things my entire life.
Speaker 1: 11:08
I've always overextended myself and it came to a head, and so through that process, I had to learn a lot of a lot, and so I ended up going more the natural route, because traditional Western medicine was just like you're fine, we can't find anything wrong with you but I wasn't well, wasn't well at all and so I approached that in a more natural way and found out that I had some autoimmune stuff, and so for several years, I really focused on that, while we're trying to build the business.
Speaker 1: 11:34
And then the business just kept getting bigger and more and more involved, and we've got two kids and they're getting older and all the things, and we rebranded our company, we hired more people, all these things, and so about a year, a little over a year ago, I well and that was in 2016 when that happened, and so I was doing well for a long time and you start ignoring things when you feel okay, or you think you feel okay, of course and you start ignoring things when you feel okay, or you think you feel okay, of course, and you don't keep taking care of yourself like you were when it was such an acute thing and so life was spiraling out of control and as we let it.
Speaker 1: 12:24
I think it's just our natural. I don't know if it's societal norms and and women, you know, like we, just we just do everything and there's.
Speaker 2: 12:31
there's no stopping it, there's no, stop the crazy.
Speaker 1: 12:37
Yes, it's a hamster wheel and it's like so. And we knew, like I told my husband, I was like, listen, I'm not doing. I can feel it, I can feel it coming, but I have no idea how to pull the reins back. Like where do we, where do we pull it back? And someone in our life that advises us on a lot of life things, spiritual things, uh, work things that he was like you've got to, you're coming, you've got to step away from the business, like significantly multiple reasons, your health, your girls, are hitting almost. You know these teenagers, they need you, like your kids need you, like they need your attention.
Speaker 1: 13:11
And my attention was so pulled, so many directions all the time, uh, and I wasn't giving. Nothing was going really well in the sense of there wasn't enough. I had had no much, not enough bandwidth to really do my job well, to really be a mother, well, it's really be like a wife, well, all of it, because there was just too much and um, and I recognize that. But I was like how do I? It's just all going out of control and I didn't like it at all either. It felt, it felt awful, but my health kind of hit another. I crashed again at the end of, at the end of 20, what is what? Are we 2022. And so I didn't have a choice at that point. So I said, well, here we go. And so I had to. I was back at square one again from, I mean, back like I was again in 2016. I didn't have another stroke, but your body literally shuts down with what I have. That goes on, and so I had to step completely back.
Speaker 2: 14:14
So you know, it takes a lot of maturity and professionalism and self-awareness to step back, and so if I were to apply that same thought process there to just women working in the trades, you know and I'm probably going to get a little bit of hate for this and maybe a little bit of flack but sometimes if everyone male, female, whatever people identify as sometimes you have to learn a couple of things. Number one self-awareness. So how am I coming across to others? How am I treating myself? Am I taking care of myself? Like true self-awareness, but also like what are battles that I really need to fight right. So an example would be knowing that you need to step away for a little bit to get your health back under control or manage kids or help with your parents, whatever the life happenstance that's going on right now for anybody, it's understanding like I might not be able to have control over every little bitty piece of the business right now. I've got to put people in place that I trust, and it's really about building a solid network and support system at home but also at work. So also in those of you that are running heating and air conditioning, plumbing, pest control, work-life balance, but that self-awareness and that ability to not micromanage yourself and others is so imperative to overall success. I even see this right now.
Speaker 2: 15:41
I had a client send us an email a couple of days ago that said you know what? Your account manager brought something up to me that maybe I was trying to overthink it. And she said here I am. I have told you guys three or four times that I'm not going to do things that were your recommendation. And she said this is me getting out of my own way. Please move forward with the following things. I trust you guys, right, and I always try to say man, I always try to come back and say hey, listen, not everything that does is going to be perfect, and if you were writing the content, might it be a little better? Of course it might be better.
Speaker 2: 16:18
You live like Shauna, you live on the double brand on the other side of the state. I can draw a lot of conclusions, but I might not know that John on your team makes the best barbecue sauce, so I didn't know that you know. So if you added some things to it, might it be better? Sure, but is it still good what's being put out? So would I do. I think our marketing plan is perfect. No, but it is great and it's doing good things. I just, when I can get back to it, I'll put more time in it, and you know, it's just having that self-awareness for ourselves. Well, shauna, what is? One thing, a couple of pieces of advice, so let's talk about. The first piece of advice I want you to give is for a female in the business that's running it with her husband. How do you balance giving feedback to your spouse and having it received? Like, how do you? What's? That's my first question for you, absolutely how do you navigate that?
Speaker 1: 17:19
Yeah, so I love this question and it's something we've had to work a lot on and we were giving advice really early on, and one of those things is to well two things stay in your own lane, figure out what you are good at and what's your, your, your focuses, and then let the other have pretty much free reign in those areas. And then, in doing that, for example, like he, like I've managed marketing and I manage, like, all the books and the numbers and all that kind of thing, right, but and then he's mostly in the, not in the field, but the, you know the team, the, the installers, the service techs, all that training and that kind of thing, and so what we do. And we've learned that we just kind of stay in our, in our lanes. However we are, we come to each other with recommendations and we come to each other with like questions or or bring things to each other hey, what do you think about this? You know I'm struggling with this and we get help from each other, so that has helped a lot. Just not overstepping the boundaries and getting to boundaries and getting too involved in something that's not our thing and then, too, cutting things off at.
Speaker 1: 18:32
So, as far as work-home life balance is, we made a rule that we would only talk about things during work hours and then, yeah, because otherwise we were talking about 24-7. I mean 24-7. So we had to develop some tools, if you will, to cut it off and still have the home life. You know the other conversations that we needed to have, and it can't be all about work all the time. So we would say, if we needed to talk about something still, we'd say work all the time. So we would say, if we needed to talk about something still, we'd say, okay, I've got to talk about this, this, this and this, and we have 15 minutes or whatever. And then we'd cut it off and that was it, and we're not going to talk about it again until tomorrow or, you know, like whatever day, and so that those two things have helped us tremendously.
Speaker 1: 19:19
Do we ever butt heads about things? Do we ever? I mean, you know we're the owners, so if we're doing something wrong, who's holds our feet to the fire? We only have each other. There's no one else above us necessarily God, but outside, um, nobody's. You know, there's nobody else who can say hey, buddy, you know this is, this is going on. You know you need to work on this or that, and so we are. Are both have we? We come to each other pretty well. We do really. We do pretty well. I mean, there's moments for sure, but I think we do really well, good.
Speaker 2: 19:55
I don't work with my husband, I work with my brother, and when I worked with my brother, we kind of had this little bit of a power struggle every great once in a while. But I came to the conclusion that I didn't carry the weight of the business on my shoulders like he did. So I would stand my ground and say my piece, but then I had to be the one that said you know what I choose, that his answer is the one we're going to go with. So here's my piece, here's what I'm going to say, and if you say no, we're going to continue to do it this way. I'm going to be okay with it, I'm going to buy in with it and I'm going to push forward with it, because there was no point in me fighting back on some things, and then he would respect me in the same way. So every once in a while we would go with my question.
Speaker 2: 20:36
If there was a young lady getting ready to go in to the like a general manager position and she was she had good experience. But what are some of the things that you would tell her about if she was leading a group of men that have been in the industry for a while. What are a couple of things that you think she skills that she would need to hone in on to lead that group effectively. What do you think, oh man?
Speaker 1: 21:10
I wasn't ready for this one man.
Speaker 1: 21:13
Well, you know, I think, well, one of the things that we did recently is the DIS profile and that has really opened our whole team's eyes to each other, and so that was one of the things you guys talked about at the E3 conference.
Speaker 1: 21:31
And we've looked at other we've, we've had other profiles, but we decided to go do the disc one and I think, knowing your audience, you know, and knowing how they communicate, I think would be super beneficial because you know, gosh, I can't, even I, honestly, you know I to be very transparent, I've always left that to my husband, that side of the business. So for me personally, kind of like what you're mentioning, there he, he is, you know, I know my lane, and so I've, I don't mess, I mean, I give the feedback, I observe a lot and I, uh, but I don't get in there and I don't start messing with what, what he has put in place, the processes that he's put in place, those kinds of things I don't get on like, get onto them or, you know, I don't go in and say hey, because it causes conflict because, and they're like, who are you?
Speaker 1: 22:31
You weren't, you haven't even been involved in this thing. Who are you coming? In here telling me. So, I think you know I, it would be, know your crowd for sure, like get to know your, the people, um, and I don't necessarily know, not, I don't know that I, I couldn't manage, manage those guys, I just I just haven't done it, to be honest, like I haven't in that way, and so, um, it's a little bit difficult for me to answer that.
Speaker 2: 23:00
This profile is a really good example for that. So you're right though, learning immediately. I think this is advice in itself. Like, immediately identifying, like what is your lane? Do you run this Like, are you in charge of everyone? Then you need to present yourself in a way, so leaders motivate. We don't you know, we don't dictate A lot of times. We motivate people to do what we need them to do, so leaders motivate. So your advice here is learn your lane, which is the motivation lane, but utilize tools like this profile so, before you go into your first meeting with these team members, you might could say hey, I would like for all of you to complete this disc assessment, because I'm walking into a room full of this disc assessment, because I'm walking into a room full of Absolutely yes and where they're, yeah, their strengths, their weaknesses, how they, how they interact with each other, how they would respond to you what, how best that you can support them.
Speaker 1: 23:54
I mean we've, we've included a call by call management and you know how to talk to those guys, how to, how to communicate with them, how best they receive information. You know some like that, more like kind of you know that side-by-side help. Some people want that direct input. I mean it's just, it just varies in how you're going to communicate with them. You know some people like that kind of micromanagement and some people you know are a little more hands off and and and need that space to kind of discover what, uh, what they need to do in that. Those situations I mean there's, they know who.
Speaker 1: 24:31
So, because we're in our lanes, for example, they need, they know to come to me about certain things you know, like if they have a payroll question or hr question, or if they're wanting time off, or you know they, they know to come for me, to me for certain things, that they know to go to Josh for certain things, and I think that's helped because then there's no confusion because it's kind of like the parent, you know, the kids come to the parent. Well, go ask your dad, you know, or go ask her, go ask your mom or manipulate it. We wouldn't know. We don't allow that. We've never allowed that to manipulate one or the other. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: 25:04
Absolutely so. I think the takeaway from today's call and I think we got lots of examples of it is really understanding what role you play male, female or however you're looking at it. And then also, if you are a guy and you're listening and you're trying to help empower women on your team, it's making sure they understand their lane, and their lane needs to involve some decision-making skills. Right, there were some decision-making powers and so you know a lot of women. A lot of times their opinion isn't really taken very seriously at a table and a lot of times that's from leading by example. But I encourage, like ladies, learn your space and then own your space. Learn your space, drive in it, run that mother, you know.
Speaker 1: 25:46
Yeah, I have to say throw a bone, you know, like give, give Josh some credit here too. He's always he's very respectful of women and he very much so appreciates women and their and their roles, and I think that's helped significantly in our environment. He, he really respects what I have to say and what my input is and we're very so and that shows in our culture. He's, you know, shown that to our team that no, shauna has so much value. Shauna, you know, they know, oh well, what would Shauna do in this situation, because I have had to step back so much. They often call well what they often would say what would Mama Shauna? You know, they know, oh well, what would Shauna do in this situation, because I have had to step back so much. They often call well what they often would say what would mama Shauna do? You?
Speaker 1: 26:27
know, and but yeah, and so they. They often, you know like, okay, well, she would have done this, she would have done that, here's what we're going to do here, because I literally had to stop Like I almost I haven't gone, I don gone. I work from home now for almost a year and they really had to immediately step up. They did not know, we didn't know that was going to happen, and it happened. And so one of the things that I had read or heard and it was the kind of an 80-20 rule, and so at the initiation of a project, for example, you might say here's, here's what I expect, like a 10 percent. Let them do the 80 percent and then come back and fine tune the other 10 percent. And that really set with me. And, like you were mentioning earlier, you've got to let your team try things, give them opportunity to do things, and this was the biggest blessing in disguise, it's really my husband has really stepped up in like a really amazing way that we have several women in our on our team that have been able to step up in great ways, and I've been able to step back and really examine, you know, and assess where my priorities are, and I've still been able to support the company in different ways but still heal and then shift my priorities to I'm much more present with my kids and much more available with my kids, and that's really I think I think we can be okay with that.
Speaker 1: 27:55
Like that you mentioned earlier, some of us are. You know, we've got working women, stay at home women, and then there's hybrids and there's all these different scenarios and I think you have to be able to receive this is probably the hardest thing. It was, it was a very hard year because I lost a lot of sense of identity and place and it was, you know, who am I? Because you go from being 100 percent all in all the time, kind of that being your identity of that business owner not that I'm not, but that role and then it and it just literally came to a halt and so I just am at peace, you know, finding, being, being at peace and at rest wherever you're at, wherever God has you at at the time.
Speaker 1: 28:42
I think women, if we have to be able to receive that and that we and just really be at peace with that, I think that's probably been the most challenging thing is embracing that and knowing this is just a chapter in life and that there's still. You know, I may get back to that at a time, but for now this is where I'm at and to be okay with it and not to feel that I'm not successful, to that at a time. But for now this is where I'm at, to be okay with it and not to feel that I'm not successful or that I'm not to compare myself with other people, other business owners and where they're at and where their businesses are at. I think I would encourage ladies in the trades to really just take care of yourself. Make yourself a priority. Your health your mental, your physical and your spiritual health are so, so important. The people in your life need you. They need you to be healthy and if you're running a company, you need to be healthy for your people. So finding that balance is super important.
Speaker 2: 29:41
I adore this. That is fantastic. Thank you so much. So, guys, today's conversation was really centered around knowing your lane, taking care of yourself, work-life balance and really just women being empowered in our industry. I'm thankful for male leaders like Josh, who really not only do they model the behavior, but they encourage that women have a seat at the table, as we say, in a respectful way. So thank you so much for joining us. Shauna, you are such a delight to talk to. I was so lucky to meet you at E3, the E3 conference and get to hear about you guys, and then I got to hear a little bit about your brand on the double Super cool brand out there in Lubbock, texas. And so, guys, if Shauna's story resonated with you, we would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Look for us on social media, follow us everywhere you hear podcast, give us a review. We would love to hear from you, shauna. Any last words?
Speaker 1: 30:45
Well, I just want to yeah, thank you so much for having me here. It's truly an honor. One of the things that I've been wanting to do this year is, like my word for the year is impact, so every opportunity that I have to be impactful and just encourage people, I want to be able to do that, and so this was a wonderful opportunity to get to do that, and I appreciate you having me on today.
Speaker 2: 31:03
Well, share with us. So, guys, thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. We will see you next time.
