To other remodelers out there or other operations managers or owners of businesses,

I would say open your eyes to those people and open your mind.

And regardless of gender or whether they're transposing skills from one industry to another, if they have the

mindset and the grit, open your mind to be able to see it.

Welcome to the Fine Home Building Pro Talk podcast, our regular discussion with building industry

professionals. This is Fine Home Building

Contributing Editor and Production Manager at TDS Custom Construction, Ian Schwant. Today I am joined by

Jessica Bissipps-Miser Operations Manager at Silent Rivers Design Build in Des Moines, Iowa.

You can find the Fine Home Building Pro Talk podcast and the original Fine Home Building podcast at finehomebuilding.com slash podcast.

You can leave feedback and ask questions there too. Jessica, it's great to have you on with us.

Thanks for having me, Ian. I'm looking forward to our conversation today. Yeah. So you are the operations manager at

Silent Rivers, but you were self-employed prior to that. What was the focus of your self-employed

tradesperson work and how did you get started?

Yeah.

Well, thanks for asking about that.

I was owner-operator of a handy woman, small projects type business.

And it really came out of the first recession that we had. I had been in the

insurance industry and an office and had gone to be a stay-at-home mom and then found myself in

a divorce during the time where no one was

hiring and all of the companies were on a hiring freeze back in my original industry.

And I've always been handy with my hands. I grew up with farmer parents. So, you know,

nothing got thrown away. It always got repaired and fixed or

...