Influential Woman · Domestic Services
Emily Stroud
ServSafe
Owner-operator of Birdhouse Services, Birdhouse Services
Oklahoma City & Ardmore, OK 73401
Her Story
About Emily
Emily Stroud is the owner-operator of Birdhouse Services, a newly established LLC in Ardmore, Oklahoma, offering a broad range of domestic services such as landscaping, home improvement contracting, cooking and cleaning, bill pay, and home organizing. With 15 years in the field, she built her expertise through roles in fast food, fast casual health food, fine dining, barbecue, food trucks, maid work, and construction cleanup before launching her company six months ago with a small team of three, delaying salaries to stay profitable. Stroud attended Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, where she studied performing arts but did not finish her degree, and she earned her massage therapy license from Intermountain Massage Therapy School in Salt Lake City after graduating high school in 2008. Her professional credentials include ServSafe and EcoServeSafe certifications, and she has been connected with NAMI for about 10 years to spread mental health awareness following the loss of her brother. She attributes her success to mentors at Flower Child restaurant, whose motto if not now, when? and daily team questions about what was done right, what needs changing, and how to improve tomorrow instilled a strong sense of professionalism and efficiency that she applies daily. Stroud emphasizes kindness as her core value, symbolized by a wrist tattoo of a digital clock showing all zeros to remind her that no one's time is more important than anyone else's.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Emily
01What do you attribute your success to?
My mentors over the years, especially at Flower Child restaurant. Their motto 'if not now, when?' really instilled a sense of professionalism and efficiency. We asked ourselves three questions every day: What did I do right? What do I need to do differently? And how am I gonna do better tomorrow? I do that every day and everything improves. I definitely attribute that to my mentors at Flower Child.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
In college, a co-performer named James said that no matter where you go or what you do, if you're not having fun anymore, shift. Just pivot. You're gonna be okay. He emphasized being happy and making people around him happy, which is why he was successful. I try to emulate that.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Specifically being a female, my advice would be to keep your chin up and look him in the eye. They are going to challenge you for being female. They're not gonna look at how talented you are. Don't let it get you down. Keep your chin up and look them in the eye. That's really done me good, especially on the construction side of things.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, just setting up the proper bonding for myself as one company, because every time I talk to insurance, they're like, wait, so what category do I put you in? And I'm like, all of them. Once we start advertising and figuring out what platform to go through, trying to keep it personalized and crossing that threshold, that's definitely a challenge. I want it to have a specific feel where people feel relieved the moment they call me and taken care of every step of the way, and I don't want that to change as I grow.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My number one thing is to be kind and help everybody have a better day. I have a little tattoo on my wrist that reminds me about this. It's a digital clock face, and it's all zeros, and I keep it to remind me that no one's time is more important than anybody else's, and I need to be kind no matter what. That's really important to me.
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