Britney Mroczkowski, CCIM is our guest for today’s episode. She’s a Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker, Licensed Florida General Contractor, and also the President of Build It Brit, Inc. Britney and I discuss her entire career journey from brokerage to development and back. Our conversation will leave you inspired as Britney shares how she's building a development brand based on an affirmation she wrote on her bathroom mirror for motivation.
Welcome back to the She’s Wild Podcast hosted by Nancy Surak! I’m so excited to have Britney Mroczkowski, CCIM as our guest for today’s episode. As the Designated Managing Broker for eXp Commercial, Britney oversees all commercial agents throughout Florida. Prior to her current role, Britney was the Vice President of Retail Development of BTI Partners where she oversaw all retail development in the Westshore Marina District in Tampa, Florida. She’s a Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker and Licensed Florida General Contractor and also the President of Build It Brit, Inc.
In today's episode Britney and I discuss her entire career journey. Our conversation will leave you inspired as Britney shares how she approached getting her general contractors license and building a brand based on an affirmation she wrote on her bathroom mirror for motivation. Britney hopes to show women in the construction movement what they are capable of and I am so excited for you to listen to this amazing episode.
Memorable Moments:
8:56- I was truly handed land, and that was a really scary moment in my career. I'm like, “What did I sign up for? This is crazy.” But I learned more in those four years than I have in my entire life.
26:14- On my wall right here, there's a big sign that says I can build that. So all of a sudden, people kept saying, Build it Brit. And I started writing it down, I wrote it on my mirror in my bathroom so that every morning I'd have motivation, like what are you gonna do for Build It Brit today.
30:58- My goal with Build It Brit is when anybody has any type of commercial real estate needs, whether it's development, construction, leasing, sales, anything, that they can come to me, and I can get it done.
31:12- I want to be an expert on the whole deal process, not just the deal, not just the transaction, but from the start of the initial idea, to the very close out of a project to where it is operational and income producing.
33:17- The goal would be to show the women in the construction movement, show what we're capable of. My main goal is to prove what we can do when we all work together. I want awareness for women, that you can get a job in construction, and also not be sweating on site all day. There's so many different roles. You can be a developer or you can be a real estate broker.
34:45- I know everyone says find a mentor, but that's truly what gave me the confidence and the ability to do what I'm doing today.
Connect with Nancy:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/nancysurak
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancysurak/
Website: www.nancysurak.com
Connect with Britney
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/builditbrit/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/builditbrit/
Website: https://builditbrit.com/
Britney’s Recommendation & Discount Link on Zena Workwear Boots: https://xenaworkwear.com/?stamped_referral_code=nuTt3vAi&rewards-launcher=view-referrals-claim
Britney’s Book Recommendation:
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding via Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xLUdW9
She's WILD Sound Production by:
Luke Surak, Surak Productions: surakproductions@gmail.com
Nancy Surak 00:00
Welcome to She's Wild the podcast for women and land in development. I'm your host, Nancy Surak. I created this podcast as a way to collect conversations of women in the land and development industry. I've been a land broker on the west coast of Florida for nearly 20 years. And I love to empower other women and to tell them about this amazing industry. But I find often that there just aren't enough women being featured on big stages, whether that's at local conferences, or nationally. So I set out to find these women myself, that are killing it in my business across North America that are changing the communities that they live in every single day, whether they're building condos, multifamily, single family, office, or industrial projects, I hope that you will find this space to be inspirational, motivating, and educational. From time to time, I will feature women who are not only in my business, but also career coaches, and motivational speakers. I work with disease while the podcast for women in land and development. Today's guest is Brittany, and I'm going to let her introduce herself incorrectly. Tell me one more time how to pronounce her last name since I keep butchering it on our ich Pro. Brittany, welcome to the show. Why don't you go ahead and tell us your full name. bit about your background in what you're doing?
Britney Mroczkowski 01:33
Well, hi, everyone, my name is Brittany Maciejewski. I am here in Tampa with Nancy. We've been good friends for many, many years. And I've looked up to her. She's an inspiration to me. So I had to throw that out there. I am a broker developer and general contractor and I have a goal of being able to do it all in the commercial real estate field. And we'll go into that a little bit. But that's what I do here in Tampa.
Nancy Surak 01:58
So take me from your childhood to kind of how you originally got into the brokerage space.
Britney Mroczkowski 02:08
Absolutely. So my family is in real estate, but I've never worked with them. And I've done it all on my own. I like to preface it with that. My grandfather founded a grocery store chain that was pretty prominent down here in South in the southeast us. And my mom owned a lot of the shopping centers and managed a lot of them. So just being a kid I was in the car with her a lot going into the different properties around her. She developed a few Eckerd stores. She developed a few other like car dealerships, things like that hotels, so I was around her doing it. And I was just in the car. I was one of those kids that went to every meeting with her. And I think your kids were also a lot of meetings with you too. Yeah. And I was just around it, right. So I went to Florida State University, and I did the degree in real estate, which my mom pushed me to do. And at first I was like I don't know about this, I you know, didn't really even think about following in her footsteps. But she really pushed me to take that first intro class and I fell in love. So I switched my degree, I got a degree in real estate. And I knew right away I wanted to do commercial real estate brokerage, of course, I graduated in 2011, where the industry was still recovering from the Great Recession. So I had a lot of job offers that were all you know, yeah, you can be a broker here at this big firm, but you're gonna get $0 for the first year and we can't pay you a stipend and we can't pay you anything. So good luck. And I couldn't do that. So my, you know, my parents cut me off like they were supposed to and I was on my own. So I took a job as a front desk assistant, Megan, nothing at an office leasing firm. And that's kind of how I got started. And I really just worked my way up and, you know, into the brokerage world and finally did become a broker after many years of hard work.
Nancy Surak 04:01
So you did brokerage for about, what, five years? Eight years, eight years. Okay.
Britney Mroczkowski 04:06
Yeah, I was with that small leasing firm for about six months when Colliers International recruited me and that was a major breakthrough in my career. I was really excited. I worked as a marketing coordinator for Colliers for, I want to say about two years and it was really neat. I got to work on several different teams. I worked on a multifamily team, a land team, I'll never forget Ryan Kratz. My old boss at the time, told me he's like, You need to meet Nancy, she's going to be a great person for you to know in the industry. So I was working on a land team, multifamily office, retail, industrial, I worked on all the teams, right. So they knew I wanted to be a broker. So at the end, Ryan sat me down, he goes, What do you want to do? I said, I want to do retail and lands. He said, Okay, we'll make it happen. So he found me two great business partners. One of them became my mentor, pleased to McCaffrey, we worked on 40 to 50 shopping centers at his time, retail leasing them representing them for the landlords all throughout the west coast of Florida. And then I also worked on a land team with a gentleman who really gave me that background in the land development. And I was able to kind of do both. And we did lay on sales for retail development.
Nancy Surak 05:21
Fantastic. So when did you decide you wanted to get into the development space?
Britney Mroczkowski 05:27
I'll be the first one to tell you it never even crossed my mind. I left called I had no intentions of leaving Colliers and leaving Lisa, which, you know, I felt awful at the time, but it was the right opportunity for me. I was presented with the offer by BTi partners development company out of South Florida to start their retail development division and be vice president there. Even though they're based in South Florida, they let me live in Tampa, which was a big criteria of mine. And I didn't want to leave I grew up here. And I was able to oversee the West Shore Marina District, which is a 52 acre mixed use community on the water here. And I oversaw all the retail and commercial development for four years. And that it was such a big project for our community, like growing up here, there. You know, like I said, I wasn't looking to go into development, but how could I say no to that, I knew it would change the trajectory of my career. And so I thought long and hard and decided to do it. But I spent the last four years there and it really changed my whole world.
Nancy Surak 06:30
Take me through the the stage of the project when you walked in and explained the project for our listeners who may not be in the Tampa Bay region, who could be unfamiliar with the Marina District and exactly what it is like we have your piece, but it's part of a much larger project. So once you give us some of those highlights as well,
Britney Mroczkowski 06:48
so it's considered one of the big four developments in Tampa you've got Water Street, The Heights, Midtown, and then West Shore Marina District. So like I said, 52 acres on the water, two miles of trails are out and about I think it's a mile and a half of waterfront you know, considering there's a big Peninsula there eight acres, we at BTi sold off several parcels to some multifamily developers and townhome developers, and we focused on building all the roads, infrastructure, all that the retail, and then three high rise condo towers. So I was on the team that helped with all the you know, infrastructure roads, I was in charge of rezoning it. For wet zone, which allows alcohol sales I actually got, we had the second largest wet zoning application the city of Tampa had seen behind the Bucs stadium, Raymond James state
Nancy Surak 07:39
regulations. That's awesome. I did not know that. It was
Britney Mroczkowski 07:43
crazy. It took about a year and a half and a team of I think seven attorneys to get it done. But that was a huge learning process for me. And then again, I had never done any of this. So when I first stepped on to the site, I mean, they gave me their full trust me, they handed me a land in the middle of the development and said, build us a town center. And I was like, Okay, where do I start? What do I do? I started interviewing architects started interviewing contractors, I remember I drew out how I thought the town center should lay out. In my mind, I think I did it on PowerPoint. I found it when I was cleaning out my office. And it's funny, because if you overlay that with how it actually turned out is very similar. It's five buildings. We worked with API plus architects who does a lot of retail stores. And they really saw my vision of a walkable community, a lot of patio seating, things where you know, you're not going to a strip mall, you're going to a town center with 360 degree architecture. And just that feeling of a community where you come walk downstairs from your condo, go hang out at the coffee shop, or go grab a glass of wine at the wine bar, or go grocery shopping at the small little local grocer. So they truly handed me land. And you know, that was a really scary moment in my career. I'm like, What did I sign up for? This is crazy. But I learned more in those four years than I have in my entire life. I want to say it was just all thrown at me at once. Tell me about that.
Nancy Surak 09:13
Like what's what's something that you learned that you look back on now? And I know it hasn't been that long since you shifted into your new position. But what's something that you're like, wow, I learned one, two or three things and you're like, I learned that I
Britney Mroczkowski 09:29
never understood how hard red tape could be with the city. The city was great to work with. But it's also I just never understood the process before that. And I learned a lot about it. A lot of city council meetings, a lot of going to meet with city planning and then this was before COVID Then COVID hits and then it turned into getting to know all those city officials, you know, well over the phone because then all the city offices shut down and we couldn't go meet in person. So we are right in the middle of permitting during all of that. I just that loop, you know, blew my mind. And he always like told go get a permit, you know, blah, blah, oh, it's a whole process. And, again, they were great to work with, but I never understood how time consuming it could be. And that's, excuse me, okay, and this is real life. So I never understood how that process could be. So, you know, we'd have one change that need to be made made plans, but then you'd go back in for review for two more weeks. And that adds two more weeks to your timeline. You know, it just was a really crazy and never understood how long development I guess I did, but then you understand why it takes so long.
Nancy Surak 10:41
Right? Well, I get the question a lot. When I'm on panels, people will say what's the biggest impact of value on a piece of property, and I'm always, I always lean like real into the microphone. And I'm like government. And I understand the role that they play, it's really about public safety on board. And it's important to have guidelines, but sometimes things take really so much longer than what they ever really need to. And that and that just adds so much stress to a deal and impacts really, overall the bottom line, you know, because time is money that you learn that relationships with city administrators and staff is critically important for the success of our project. What else?
Britney Mroczkowski 11:26
Ah, just overseeing all the little moving parts, making sure the contractor and architect are on the same page making sure you know, my in house construction manager and I are on the same page, it was just really making sure you know, our investors understood what was going on. There's a lot of reporting. There is a lot of zoom calls every single day making sure you know headquarters down in South Florida knew it was just communication had never been more key in my career. And then it was then and yeah, I mean, I was just on the phone all day long, making sure all the moving parts were where they should be. It was great. Oh,
Nancy Surak 12:04
so you are over the development but you also did all the leasing Correct. I did. So tell me about that. Like what I mean that's a lot to have on your plate you know, but you had this vision too. So you you had an idea right of who you wanted to go there
Britney Mroczkowski 12:21
exactly. So I mean with my background and leasing you know from my time at Colliers it made sense for me to do the in house leasing, you know, they gave me the option of hiring and outs outside brokers. But you know, I'm there all day every day. I know this project better than anyone. So it made sense. And I had a vision people always joke it's like all birdies, favorite stores and restaurants. But also I I kind of am the Customer there too. You know, I thought about it. I got to know a lot of the condo owners that were purchasing at Marina point, I got to know all the residents, I created an Instagram page that all the residents started following me to where I was getting their feedback. So I had a vision of everything you know, in the town center would be everything you would use on a daily or weekly basis. I really didn't want a lot of soft good stores that maybe you go to once a quarter or twice a year. I wanted everything to be kind of service based that you can pop around to each one or spend a night out in the district. You know, go bar hopping each restaurant. It you know, I have my favorite wine bar. Everyone always jokes, I built the office above the wine bar. But crew cellars is my favorite local wine bar. They're the first tenant I reached out to the first week I started at eti said you don't know about this project yet, but you're going to and I think you'd be perfect here and we ended up getting the deal done. But like I said we have coffee shop ice cream, you know hair salon nail salon, big restaurant called Chuck lagers, a little more beer focused the wine bar, a local grocery store, a liquor store. And you know, it all ties together we do have one soft goods retailer called sand Circo. But they specialize in like boating supplies, bathing suits, which ties into the 159 slip marina we were building, but then also once the Marina opens, they're gonna do paddleboard and kayak rentals. So it's, again ties into the service aspect. So that was really important to me. And if you drive by now about half the stores are open and half are under construction. But the feedback from the residents in the surrounding communities has been really good so far.
Nancy Surak 14:24
Awesome. So are they meet they're hitting their their goals or targets? for retail? Awesome. That's fantastic. So you go through this process, you put all the tenants in, and then you wake up one day and you decide, Okay, what's next? Tell me about like, what's next? You know what, what are you doing? And I know you have you know, I look at you and you're telling me or I admire you, I'm like, I admire you. I don't know how you do at all like I'm like, Britney is who I want to be when I grow up, you know so so let's share that with our listeners because you guys so many irons in the fire. Yeah. And I just love everything. So tell me a little bit about you know Your your personal brand and what you're doing with that business and your side hustles could you get up? And then what you're doing from, you know, a pure, pure career perspective right now to
Britney Mroczkowski 15:12
absolutely so yeah, I
Nancy Surak 15:14
did I know a lot of pieces.
Britney Mroczkowski 15:16
So many. I'm like, How do I do it? Um, so I did decide to leave BTI Partners in November of last year, so a few months ago, and it was really sad, but also I felt like my job there was done in the West Shore Marina District, you know, I completed all the buildings, I got all the tenants into their spaces. I finished the rezone. And our next projects were in South Florida. And again, my heart is in Tampa, and I didn't want to leave. So I made the decision to leave and I am leaving the state and joined a brand new company called exp commercial, which were a commercial real estate brokerage that kind of went back to the brokerage world. And I'm leading the state we have about 80 agents commercial only. And it's again, we're only a year old. So I started with about 30 Something agents and I'm actively recruiting. So that is my day job. And I love it so far. But of course I couldn't leave the development out of it completely. My time at BTi I was able to get my general contractor's license and I'm starting my own small small construction company called Build it Britt and I'm also going to be doing some development consulting for other projects. And yeah, there's a lot going on so between built it Britt and exp I don't sleep much.
Nancy Surak 16:35
That's amazing. Well, you didn't even mention your your Airbnb. Oh, yeah,
Britney Mroczkowski 16:39
I forgot to yeah, my first ever development or construction project both before and on my JC license. And before I started at eti, I decided to build a tiny house on the lot next to my house. It was a disaster, but we it was my first taste in it. I loved it. I did it as an owner contractor through the city fully permitted it. I failed, I think seven inspections. Um, it was definitely a learning process. Again, my first ever construction project. And but it all worked out. We finally got it approved. And it's a 384 square square foot tiny house that I Airbnb. So that's just side income from me. And I think it's been open for three years now. But yes, first construction project fully built out full kitchen full bathroom, I had to dig 100 feet of sewer line tied and everything. And it was definitely an adventure.
Nancy Surak 17:47
Okay, but that's great. And I, for my listeners, and we'll get into this in a little bit. You have to follow Brady's Instagram because in any given day, it's it's some piece of her life on one of these like side hustles or her current business and your Airbnb content is like, my favorite. I've always laughing I'm like, Oh, my God, like she and I'm telling retelling your story. I'm like, Oh, I know this Airbnb owner. This happened. And I'm like, Oh, I don't
Britney Mroczkowski 18:15
ever know what's gonna happen. I mean, I've had people destroy it. I've had the kitchen island get destroyed from a party or they were jumping on it. I've had all the furniture had to be replaced. Somebody sprayed like wine everywhere. I mean, the stories at least it keeps my life entertaining.
Nancy Surak 18:34
Yeah, no doubt. So back to getting your GC license. That's so significant. In general, right. Like, that's not an easy thing to accomplish. So congratulations again on that. But I want you to kind of dive into what made you decide to do that, like, what was the driving force that you were like, I'm going to get my GC.
Britney Mroczkowski 18:55
So back when I was on the development side, I was in a lot of like meetings, owners, architects, contractor meetings. And in the beginning, I, you know, didn't know a lot about what they were talking about, obviously, and I didn't like that feeling. And so everyone in the company, you know, which was very male dominated. I was actually I think the only women VP there. And everyone had their GPL license. So I just took the initiative. I said, By the way, I'm getting myGC license. FYI, I'm going to do school in Orlando for it. So I may be out a few days over the next few months. But um, so I did, you know, construction school on the weekends for like two months, right in the middle of them COVID hips that kind of extended it. I was I finished all the courses and there's three tests you have to take and I was ready to take all three and then COVID hit and then it was impossible to get scheduled for the test. So took me about a full year to get it done. And I'm so grateful I got it done. Those were the hardest test I've ever taken in my life. Um, but the whole point was I learned so much. I think it's 27 books you have to read for the test, like textbooks. And I finally I was doing that as I was in all these meetings, and I and I started feeling a little more confident at the table. And I was like, Okay, I know what they're talking about. Now, I can chime in more often, because I think women get scared to, you know, say the wrong thing sometimes. But usually, I'm very outspoken and not scared to say anything, but you know, sitting there in this field that I really didn't know, all the terminology and all this. So I was like, I gotta change this. So I jumped in, learned as much as I could, and I felt a lot better being able to sit at a table, you know, typically all men. And, you know, sometimes they'd be at a table of men I didn't know. And they'd be like, you know, was trying to explain, you know, mansplain things to me. And I'd be like, Oh, well, I am a GC. So I do understand and that would always blow their mind. When you
Nancy Surak 20:59
said that the first time. Tell me about the reaction you got when you when you decided it's important for me to let this person know that I know what I'm doing. Reaction across the table.
Britney Mroczkowski 21:10
I kid you not. One of them made me look up on the DPR website and show him my license number. Because he was so flabbergasted and did not believe seriously. And he wasn't rude about it. He was just like, shocked. I thought you know, I've never seen a woman GCI. Let me go show you what's your license number? Every GC knows are licensed, memorable. I didn't know mine actually. So he sees like, well look it up on DPR. And I don't think you believe me. And then I showed it to him right next to my real estate license pops up. There it is CGC and the number. But he was shocked at the end of the meeting. Yeah, at the end of the meeting, when he walked down, he apologized. But he was I couldn't believe you really didn't believe me till I told him the number. I'll never forget that.
Nancy Surak 22:01
That means we have to do right. Or like, okay, it's like just saying it's not enough. Yeah, I'm fine. Okay, so I want to go back to one thing that you you sort of just kind of sped right past, you had this goal that you wanted to get your GC license, and you walked in, and you just said, Hey, I'm doing this, I want to talk just for like a second. And really for the benefit of the audience about saying you're going to do something and getting the backup that you need versus asking for permission to do something. Can you take me through? Did you? Did you ask them for permission? Like, Hey, can I do this? Or did you say I'm doing this? And you're gonna support me, and this is how it's gonna work. That's what it sounds like, to me.
Britney Mroczkowski 22:42
A exactly walked in to the CEO. And I said, I'm going to get my GC license. And I am going to ask that VTi reimburse me, and they agreed to awesome. And then he was like, really? Okay. I mean, he was they were very supportive. Because, again, all the men in the company had their GC license. And they said, Okay, we hadn't thought to ask you to do that. But that's great. So they were supportive. But again, if I hadn't asked,
Nancy Surak 23:12
you didn't really ask, you told them I just told. Which is, which is my point, right. That's why I'm pausing here for like a minute, because I think it's important, regardless of where really anyone, whether it's a woman or not, is in your career is if there's something that you think is going to add value to who you are as a professional or personal goal that you might have. If it's unimportant to you that you just need to go make it happen, you know, and asking for permission is just an opportunity for somebody to tell you no. And if you want to hear No, and that's part of the risk you want to take on, that's fine. But every time I can think back, where I've said, Oh, I'm gonna do this, I didn't ask for permission, I just did it. Right. Like, that's important to me, and I'm gonna go and make it happen now, then, then the weight of the world is on your back. Right? Like you because you're gonna fail,
Britney Mroczkowski 24:03
then it makes you, you know, yeah, I was determined to pass those tests, which are notoriously hard. I remember, I was in construction school and at the beginning of every class, because the tests are so hard, they make every student stand up, say which name what do you do? How many times have you failed each test? And I was shocked at the number of times how many people would fail so I go in one of the only women in the class and I'm terrified because I've heard Oh, I feel 10 times 20 times and I'm not kidding. I mean, these guys were working really, really hard. So I was determined even more to pass every test on the first try because I did not want to have to go back to my bosses and say, Okay, I gotta do construction school. So luckily, I passed two of the three tests on the first try the third one I missed by one question. I went back the next week and took it. I was like that one question really got me but But you know, I'm not ashamed to say that they're hard tests. And I, you know, luckily I was able to get it done.
Nancy Surak 25:05
Yeah, no, that's, that's fantastic. And I'm so glad that you shared that story. I think it's important for other women to hear it. So tell me, you also kind of bumped right over this one too. And that's okay. Because I knew we would get into the the nitty gritty. Tell me about the origin of builder bread. How did that come together? How did that become something that you're like, you know what, that's my, that is my personal brand. And I'm gonna lean into that really hard and make that work for me. So tell me a little bit, you know, how did that even come to be?
Britney Mroczkowski 25:34
So I do a lot of home renovation projects, this house that I'm in right now, I would never show you the kitchen right now. Because all the kitchen cabinet doors are off. My office is filled with power tools and saws on the ground. And I watch a lot of you before I got my GC license, I watched a lot of YouTube videos. And like, I'm truly just always trying to build something in house to make it perfect. Because nothing's ever you know, once I've finished one thing, I'm like, Oh, that would be a good project. So my friends, you know, and then I got into the development construction industry and got my GC license. And all my friends kept saying, oh, Brit can build that, oh, you need that done. Brit has power tools brit can do that. On my wall right here. It says there's a big sign that says I can build that. So all of a sudden, people kept saying, built it brit. And I started writing it down. And I wrote it on my mirror in my bathroom so that every morning I'd have motivation to just like what are you gonna do for build it brit today. And it just became a kind of became a brand. And it was all over my Instagram. And my instagram name was something else. And finally, I just switched it to build it, Britt. And it just kind of went from there hired a logo company, they created a really unique logo. I love our logo, hard hat. Thank you, I think it's awesome. Just announced our website, build it brett.com. And it's just all coming together really nicely. But truly, it was just one of those things, I kept writing it down. I'm one of those like, writing on a post it note, put it on your front door. So you think about it every time you leave. And I just was like, don't give up on this. I remember I created the entity for the corporation back January 1 2021. But truly didn't get it started for a year later. Just recently.
Nancy Surak 27:21
Have you had any major surprises with that? Have you got anything that you're like, I can't believe
Britney Mroczkowski 27:28
um, I in a good way can't believe how many women have reached out to me for their even if they're married or single for their home improvement project saying, hey, my husband and I are looking I I'm in charge of this project, I'd much rather hire a woman GC, then, you know, a male GC that we know you or even if they don't know me, we follow you on Instagram, and we just feel like we can trust you. And that has been like, the coolest surprise. And I'm still not ready to take on a ton of jobs. Yeah, I'm about to start my first job. You know, it's a big one. So we're putting all our effort into that. But that was such a cool thing that I'm like, that could be a whole marketing, you know, plan, right? There is just marketing to women who, you know, are scared to go through that process that they're going to be taken advantage of. When I built the tiny house. I remember I got three quotes from plumbers to build the 100 feet of sewer line, right? One quote was 1001 was 21 was 25,000. I negotiated the 8000 down to 6000. For you those two other quotes. Were just taking advantage of me completely. It's just crazy.
Nancy Surak 28:47
Yeah, well, I don't have my GC license. But the home that I live in now, my husband and I GC’d together. I did you know all the estimating all the negotiations with the contractors. And in we would tag team when we were under construction, I would open up the house because my office was was closer to where the house is today. I would open up the job site in the morning. And I would close the job site. And my husband would come during lunch. And my husband would just like tell me like you can't be a ballbuster on job sites. And I'm like, I can be whoever I want to be because they're working for me and I'm the boss. Yep. And if they don't like that, then they're they can leave. I don't care. I wasn't a total jerk. But I did have an expectation of quality, keeping the jobsite clean, recognizing that I wasn't just you know, quote unquote, the homeowner, right. I was the one that was actually writing the check to their boss to pay them their salary. But I learned a lot too. So I get it and I learned you know a lot through the negotiation process. So kudos to you on all of that and I'm sure everything that was happening, it work was impacting what you were doing in the tiny house, versus what you're doing now and all those lessons And in between. I want to talk a little bit to about, you know, kind of what what is your hope or your goal for for build it, Brett, like if, if we're five years from now, what does that look like?
Britney Mroczkowski 30:15
You know, I definitely need some people on my team, I can't do it all, by myself, I've learned that recently, I did hire a guy on the brokerage side to help me with like my real estate transaction deals, I have a business partner now Gabriel Lazada, he's like, you know, I don't even want to call my junior even though he's new to the business, because he's learning so much. So I have helped there on the real estate side so that I can focus a little bit more on building bridge side. But I'm realizing I need a team. So I definitely see a team for Built it Brit. I also just partnered with a really great guy who's going to be my project manager on our first big project. So again, growing the team, but my goal with build it brit is when anybody has any type of commercial real estate needs, whether it's development, construction, you know, leasing, sales, anything that they can come to me, and I can get it done, you know, I want to be an expert on the whole deal process, not just the deal, not just the transaction. But from the start of the initial idea, to the very close out of a project to where it is operational and income producing. I want to be able to help someone through that whole process or any portion of that process. And I'm like, Well,
Nancy Surak 31:35
I know you're gonna accomplish it. I can't wait to see the journey. I'm always watching you and going like, how is she making this happen? So I do also want to bring it back to just a question. I think it was about a year ago, maybe during COVID. During the shutdown, I think I reached out to you. And I was like, hey, like, how are you getting the sponsors on your Instagram page, like what's happening here? And I want to talk to you a little bit about like, build a Brit. And that opportunity, because I know that you've done some pretty unique things they're totally a little bit about, you know, is that is that producing any income for you? Or is it really just helping you get into other locations. So like for, you know, awareness.
Britney Mroczkowski 32:17
Right now, it's just awareness. The goal Yeah, is for it to bring some income on the social media side. I've had a lot of cool sponsorships where it's just brand awareness for both parties. I worked a lot with Zena Workwear, which is steel toed boots. For women on the construction site, they're actually, you know, not only safe, but decent looking, and not just really good looking to where you're not just wearing men steel toed boots on the site. So I could go from, you know, working on the construction site run to the office for a meeting and not have to change constantly. So that was a great company I worked with and we just shared we were able to share recognition back and forth. And then like quick safety, the the safety vests, hi guys best, I work with them a lot, again, just brand awareness. But ya know, the goal is to, and I have some ideas of how I want this to go. But the goal would be to Yeah, let that be another source of income. But not only that, just show the women and construction movement, show what we're capable of. That is my main goal right there is to prove what we're, what we can do. When we all work together. I want to show women that are in high school or college, you know, if you'd asked me in college, that I'd be doing what I'm doing right now, I would have said I don't even know that's an option. I never even heard of that. So I want awareness for you know, women, that young women to know, you can get a job in construction, and also not be you know, sweating on site all day. There's so many different roles in that avenue. You can be a developer, you can be a real estate broker. Again, these are not things that were told to me in school, you know, high school, of course, I was around you had a you had
Nancy Surak 33:59
a mom in the business, right? I mean, so So this is a great segue because I usually ask my guests if a young woman called you and she's in her mid 20s, or even mid 30s, whatever, if a woman called you and said, Hey, Brittany, I think I really want to either get into brokerage or development. Do you have any wise words of advice for me? What would you tell her?
Britney Mroczkowski 34:24
Definitely find a mentor. And if you know, hopefully, that mentor is local so that you can sit in meetings I learned so much just sitting quietly in meetings or sitting on phone calls and just listening. But if not, then you know, find someone that is doing what you want to do. And really I know everyone says Find a mentor, but that's truly what gave me the confidence and the ability to do what I'm doing today. And ask questions and don't be afraid to ask stupid questions. Because there are stupid Questions, but you learned something from them.
Nancy Surak 35:03
That's right. That's right. That's great, great advice. And as I wrap up, I also like to ask, Do you have a favorite book that has given you inspiration or podcasts that you're listening to or something that you do? That just makes you aware that you're staying on on track, and that you're going to reach these goals?
Britney Mroczkowski 35:24
So cool. I admittedly, I'm not the biggest reader in the world. But I do have one book that I have right by my couch. And is it like a goal oriented book? No. But if I resonate with it, it's called what I was doing while you were breeding by Chris Newman. And I just resonate with her story, because she focused on her career, she focused on traveling, like I travel a lot, I've been to 33 countries. I'm not, I'm 33 years old, too, and I'm not married, I don't have kids. And I'm so happy for all my friends that are, I'm like, the world's best, and all my friends, kids. But that was not something that was important to me at this time in my life. And so I really resonated with her story and how she put what she wanted in her life first, rather than following in the traditional footsteps. And again, it's all about what you want. If kids in our family are important to you at that time, then great. But for me, it was I really want to build something incredible in this industry. And I want to travel the world. So that's what I did. And I love that whole idea of just doing what you want to do. I love
Nancy Surak 36:33
that too. I just kind of like going going in your boss's office, right? And saying I'm gonna do this, and you're either gonna support me or not. And if you're not gonna support me, then then that's a piece of information that I need as well. I think you and I have that conversation more than once. Okay, the last question I have, and I know you can't wait to answer this one. Because we've talked about it. The whole podcast is where can people follow you? They want to keep up with builder, Brett? Where's the best place for them to follow you on social media?
Britney Mroczkowski 37:03
Instagram, builditBrit. Do you want to. And same with my new website, which I just launched about a month ago, builditbrit.com.
Nancy Surak 37:13
Awesome. And I'll make sure that that's in the show notes as well. I want to thank you for sharing your story, your career story, you are amazing that you have a great, wonderful story. It's super inspiring, even for women like me who are older than you, but to see that somebody is willing to kind of, you know, literally kick down the doors to build things or push down walls to make sure that she can accomplish what she wants in life and her career. So kudos to you, and can't wait to see what's next. And we'll catch up against it.
Britney Mroczkowski 37:43
Thank you so much for having me.
Nancy Surak 37:44
All right, take care. Thank you for joining us for another episode of she's wild the podcast for women and land and development. If you enjoyed today's show, please go out and rate us so that we can be found by other women in our industry. And if you know women who are working in land and development, please share this podcast with them. And if you know a total rock star woman, badass chick who is killing it in land and development anywhere in North America. I want to know who she is. Please reach out to me so that I can feature her on an upcoming episode.