Her Story
About Lissa
My day starts at 4 o'clock in the morning. I get up, make coffee, get ready for work, wake my daughter and get her ready for school, and drop her off with her grandpa who helps get her to and from school. I'm at my warehouse between 6 and 6:30 in the morning. My core responsibilities are to make sure that my department runs as smooth as possible. In construction, anything and everything that can go wrong usually does, and it's my job to remain calm and to think outside the box and problem solve, essentially putting those pieces back together to get things taken care of and to make sure that everything still runs smoothly with minimal interruptions to any of the customers. Whether that's figuring out the delivery for the day or scheduling on the fly, that's what I'm doing. My day typically ends about 10:30 at night when I log off my computer. My schedule says I work Monday through Friday, but typically I work Sunday to Sunday. That is what my role calls for - the job that has to be done. I'm a very busy woman, not only managing my department but also raising my daughter who's now 8 years old. I'm considered to be operations, so I'm behind the scenes. Nobody really knows the things that I go through to make sure that they don't see it and to make sure that everything still stays kosher and is the same, no matter what.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lissa
01What do you attribute your success to?
My greatest accomplishment was owning being a single mother in a one-income household. I should mention, when my husband died, we had just purchased a brand new house that we built. The greatest accomplishment that I have is that I didn't quit. I never got to stop and cry, which is probably why I get so emotional from time to time about it. I never got to grieve, because life still has to continue. Bills still have to be paid. My customers don't care that my husband died and I'm trying to take care of my daughter, because they look at it as this is what you need to do. I had to keep going. I had to keep going for my daughter. My baby, she depends on me for everything. That was where I found my strength - I have this little girl whose life has been turned upside down, and it's my job to make sure that she can flip it right side up again and be as less traumatized as possible at losing her father at such a young age. It was my job to make sure that she had the things that she needed. That's where I found the strength, just to, okay, this happened, alright, I've dealt with the issue, now what's next? Oh, okay, we're completely done with this? Cool, okay, I gotta go back to work, I gotta get, you know, I got my kiddo to take care of.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Never back down. Never back down at all whatsoever, no matter what. I could not begin to tell you how many times I got told I couldn't do something, and I very much said, oh yeah, watch this. During my interview, I was interviewing against a male who had all this experience and was very well known throughout our industry. My now boss asked me, why should I pick you over him? I looked at him and I said, you know, I can't make that decision for you, I can only tell you this. Yes, he looks pretty. He's the shiny new toy. However, I'm the one that's gonna roll my sleeves up, and I'm gonna get in there, and I'm gonna get dirty with them, and I'm gonna make sure that things are done. I said, if you looked at his hands, you know, he was very well manicured, very prim, very proper, hair was very much not out of place. I threw my hair up in a bun right quick. I said, how long did that take me? He goes, maybe a second. I said, exactly. I said, as soon as you see me put my hair up, you know I'm going to work. And that's how I won my manager over. My big thing is don't ever, don't ever back down. There's nothing in this world that women can't do that men can do better, or anything like that.
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