Melanie Stowe

I'm self-taught, and my mentor is really my dad more than anything. When we were growing up, my father told us to never have a job because that means jackass of the boss. He's the oldest of six, so he pushed us to be our own bosses so we wouldn't have that trouble with having to deal with politics in the office and being told what to do, when to do it. I'm doing the inspections and I'm my own boss. I don't have people that I report to the same way that I did when I worked in an office environment. That independence and being able to decide when I want to work and how much I want to work has been key to my success.

My father told us to “never have a job,” so we wouldn’t be beholden to a boss or office politics. That advice pushed me to be self-reliant and pursue work where I could be in control of my schedule and decisions.

I would say that it's not bad being in this industry because you do get to decide when you want to work and how much you want to work. The drawback to that is if you don't work, you don't get paid. There's no PTO. If you're sick, or if it's a raining day, if you want to go on vacation, you gotta work hard and plan for that because you won't get paid while you're on vacation. But also, you're gonna come across people that have no idea what you're talking about, and you just have to prove to them on a regular basis that you do know what you're talking about. And to never let them make you feel less than you are.

I think doing the inspections is my most notable achievement because there's not too many women that are doing the inspections. You do need a little bit of construction background, and I have some of that basic background because my father's a carpenter. So I grew up helping him roof houses and put additions on homes as a kid, so I had some good basic knowledge of construction. Doing this gives me that nice combination of insurance background and a little bit of construction background. The most challenging part of working in a male-dominated field is to be taken seriously as a woman. It's difficult, especially when I'm on construction job sites and stuff to be taken seriously because I'm a woman. They still kind of look at you like you shouldn't have a clue what we're doing here. And surprisingly enough, I do.

I'm a mother of 5 and have raised 5 children. Our youngest is about to graduate this year and head off to Sam Houston State University. I have one that is in the Navy currently, another daughter that is a nurse who works in Fort Riley on base because her husband is a retired Army. I was a Cub Scout troop leader and a Girl Scout troop leader, and I'm currently president of the La Marque Band Booster Club, which I've been operating since inception for 6 years. We raise money to help support the high school band in their endeavors, whether it's fundraising to help get them off on trips for food and funds for hotels. We help get the graduated seniors off to college. There's been a few students that they didn't have enough money to fly to college, so we would raise funds to pay for their airfare to get them to college because they earn scholarships for school. I'm also a volunteer for the City of La Marque on one of their committees monthly. I support the Stand Up to Cancer program because not only am I a cancer survivor, but my husband lost his mother to cancer 30 years ago.