Carolina Henao

I attribute my success to my husband's strength and support as well as the guidance of my mentor John Friedman. My husband has been my rock through everything - we've been married 25 years and I love him dearly. Without his support, I could not have done any of this. And John Friedman, who is the only man in our firm, has been my mentor and a huge stronghold for me throughout the whole process of getting my licensure in the United States. He's been right there for me through everything. Everything that I have professionally, I owe to this guy. He's older now and not as involved in the day-to-day management of the firm, but without him, I would not be where I am. He's everything, seriously.

The best advice I received came from my husband when I was starting my business and was frozen by fear about everything. He told me to get good insurance, make sure all my T's were crossed and my I's were dotted, and then as long as I do a good job, don't worry - I have insurance. That really helped me break through everything because I was so afraid of making mistakes, especially with big clients like Whole Foods. I'm very passionate about what I do and I put a lot of emotion into it, so that fear was paralyzing me and not letting me move forward. But beyond that, I think the most important lesson is about hard work and diligence. We live in a society that's become accustomed to getting everything instantly, and we're forgetting the value of patience and hard work. We're forgetting the value of the grind. The great thing is that human beings are made to grow through struggle. We grow through the grind, through going against the current, through pulling against gravity. That's how we grow as people. We need to remember that and not let technology and instant gratification rob us of that growth process.

I would say two things. First, there's no such thing as luck. The reality is that luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and that requires hard work. You have to be willing to put in the preparation. Second, and this is so important in 2025 and beyond - our worst enemy right now is ourselves. Yes, discrimination exists, but not at the level it was before. We've proven in society that we have the same value and capability. We're not in the 70s and 80s anymore, we're in the 2020s and it's different now. So we need to watch how we talk to ourselves and really love ourselves, because we cannot expect the world to love us if the love doesn't come from within. Society and social media teach us an image that's not the complete reality, and if we're not strong enough to appreciate who we are - both our strengths and our weaknesses - and if we don't learn to value ourselves as we are, then we will become our own worst enemies. We will sabotage ourselves. I've seen it all the time, even with my own two daughters. Our insecurities can be our own block, and that's what we need to learn to overcome. When we learn to love ourselves and appreciate ourselves, we won't sabotage ourselves anymore.

The biggest challenge right now is the economy and the uncertainty in the markets. The tariffs and market volatility are creating a climate of fear around investing. I work with large clients like Whole Foods and other big supermarkets, and they've put their construction and expansion programs on standby or decreased them because of what's happening. Since our work is so related to the cost of construction, and that's tied to the cost of gas and manufacturing, everything is integrated with inflation. Any fluctuation in the market affects us very quickly - we're the first portion of the market to be affected and the last to be recovered. If you want to see how the market is doing, test construction. You can tell when a financial crisis is coming by looking at the KPIs in hiring and firm health in our industry. Right now, people are stopping upgrades to their homes, they're afraid to get loans, banks are being more stringent and rejecting more loan applications or charging higher interest rates. The cost of construction can change from one week to another, sometimes increasing 5-10% in just two weeks, and that volatility can kill a project. This is creating an environment of uncertainty that's freezing people - they might have the money but they don't know what the situation is, so they're waiting and not starting projects. It's strange because the economy has been behaving very differently than in prior financial crises, and I just don't understand it. You cannot predict it. And this affects so many people in the blue-collar sector - construction workers, laborers, people who work in lumber, brick, stone. It's like a gear that's losing a huge chunk of the mechanism that moves it, and everything is interrelated.

Honesty is huge for me I like people to be honest, both for myself and for others. Self-discipline is another important value, where people are capable of their own management and self-control. I value openness and communication I think it's so important that people feel they can communicate openly. I also value creativity and new ideas tremendously. I love seeing things from different points of view. It makes me so excited when people bring new things that I haven't thought about, when they think of something that had never occurred to me and bring ideas completely out of left field. I just love those moments. And innovation is great I think innovation is such an important value to hold.