Kristen Kirby

I attribute my success to perseverance, definitely. Having supportive people around me has been crucial - we all go through periods professionally and personally where we're like, 'I've had enough, I just can't,' so having support to say 'Yes, you can, remember this, remember that' is so helpful. Sometimes we can't see it ourselves, and having other people kind of show us the mirror is important. I also think loyalty has been extremely important to me. As business has gone up and down, it's been extremely important to me to treat my people right - whether they're employees or subcontractors or vendors. That's not just a relationship that I buy because I spend money with them, it's a relationship that we work on so that we can be there for each other. It's mutual, back and forth.

I always fall back to some of the first career advice I ever received from my father: that you can do anything for a year. To me, that has always meant don't give up on something quickly, see it through. You can do anything for a year - give it a go. Your perspective in a year will be totally different than it is on day five.

I think the first one would be, don't be afraid. Be willing to ask questions. I think especially women, and particularly young women, feel like we have to put on a brave face, we have to get it right, because we're going to be more critiqued if we don't. To me, that all comes down to, if you believe in yourself, it doesn't really matter what your critics are saying. If you feel strongly about something yourself, you feel like you have the ability, you have the passion, you have the vision, then believe in that and let that lead you.

Right now it is tough. When we have economic and political ups and downs, we feel that very strongly in our market. I'm in a market where 90% of my clients are not building their primary residence - people don't have to do what they hire me to do. They have the disposable income to do it, the desire to do it, so when the political and economic ups and downs, ebbs and flows create that instability, then that really pulls a drawback on our market. More localized, we are in Asheville, North Carolina, and we had a hurricane in the fall of 2024, and that has created a big impact on our labor base. A lot of people left because either their housing or their kids' schools or things were disrupted and they had to move elsewhere to make a living, so that has affected our labor base.

Loyalty, I think both giving and receiving. Transparency, whether it be fiscal or just - one of the things that I tell my clients is, look, we're regular people, we're not infallible, and what's important is not that we never make a mistake, but that we are able to speak to you and tell you that something has occurred and jointly determine how to move forward. Just being open and honest. And I think not being intimidated to take chances. Sometimes you might take a chance and you fall on your face, but if you never tried, you never would have known.