There is a Difference featuring Michele Wilson, Sonder-Luxe Home Solutions

 

Four years today, Draper DNA introduced the video and blog series There is a Difference featuring people in the construction industry and beyond that embrace being smart and bold in their careers. The idea for this series was sparked by the desire to recognize incredible during Women in Construction Week. Our first interview was with Kathy Ziprik, a Hall of Fame public relations pro with roots in construction. Today we are sharing our interview with Michele Wilson, general contractor and owner Sonder-Luxe Home Solutions. Michele tells her story of seeing a need being unfulfilled and building a business to fill this valuable niche. She shares her experiences past and present. It has been a treat to meet and get to know Michele. We think you will feel the same as you read and watch here interview with us.

Meet Michele Wilson

 

My name is Michele Wilson, and I actually own two businesses in construction. I own Coffee With Contractors, which is a networking group just for the trades and the contractors, and then I also am a general contractor and I own my own company, Sonder Luxe Home Solutions.

How Did You Choose Remodeling as Your Career?

 

Everything happens for a reason. I fell into this by chance. I grew up in the trades. My dad was an electrician, I’ve run a plumbing company, and when I was living in DC I saw homeowners getting taken advantage of with shady contractors, and so I started coming on as their rep, as their project manager, their concierge in the DC area, and helping pretty high-end clientele handle the contractors. I became their voice so they didn’t have to, and things were actually getting fixed versus a Band-Aid slapped on it.

When I moved to Raleigh, that concept was more of a DC, New York, California concept, and people in Raleigh weren’t quite ready for it, so the natural next step was for me to become a GC, and that’s what I do. I offer the same thing, the same advocacy for homeowners as a general contractor that I was doing as a project manager, but this time I run the ship and I’m not reliant on bringing the contractors in, I’m bringing in subcontractors under me.

How is your business different than a typical, let’s use remodeling or design build contractor?

 

My background is in logistics, it’s in project management. Before I even moved to DC I was a wedding coordinator for many years, so I’ve taken a lot of that skill set on moving logistics through your projects and applied it to my company. So you don’t just get a blanket bid from me, you get a bird’s eye view of your whole project. You’re getting lined items clearly written out, change orders are clearly discussed before they happen.

A lot of it is pre-planning in construction, so I take a lot of the pre-planning off people’s shoulders, because they don’t have to try to figure out which contractor to call, subcontractor to call, do they need a designer? I kind of come in with that mindset looking at the big picture.

Do You Love What You Do?

 

I think that’s an awesome question. The more I’ve gotten into construction and the more I’ve been able to help people, the more I’ve realized this is truly my calling and my passion. When I moved to Raleigh, I couldn’t find good quality trades. I had a whole team up in DC and obviously when I moved, they didn’t move with me, so that’s where Coffee With Contractors came out of. It was me trying to find vetted quality trades that I was happy to work with and put my name behind.

Over the last couple of years, that’s grown into a pretty significant networking group. I have about 70 to 80 contractors attending, I host events four times a year where we get to network with just people in construction, whether it’s residential or commercial. Because of that, I had Sonder Luxe down here trying to do the project manager or homeowner rep, and it seemed like people from New York, like I said before, or California, they understood that concept, but people from Raleigh just really couldn’t quite grasp it.

So, through a natural progression of me taking occasional projects as a project manager or owner’s rep, it quickly became clear that what everybody was asking for was an honest, transparent, general contractor. So, that’s the natural progression into me getting into the GC space.

How Do Customers Find You?

 

A lot of it is word of mouth. Obviously through having the networking group, my trades are now starting to recommend me as well or refer me out. I spent a year and a half networking here in The Triangle when I first moved, so I really put my name out there. I have obviously social media marketing and branding, but that’s pretty much how people find me.

What Role Does Social Media Have in Your Business?

 

It’s actually a pretty big role, I think, how I get my leads and even through all of this, I was telling you on the plane, I’m starting a podcast with my co-host called Chicks in Construction. She had already owned it and owned the name and the trademark and wasn’t doing anything with it, so we decided to shift what that was and turn it into this podcast. I think that that is also playing a role in social media, because that’s part of social media and positioning ourselves not only as experts, but as a voice of reason, sharing stories.

Our goal is to share stories about what has happened to homeowners and also maybe shed some light on where things could have been fixed or where they could have timed out before they got to a disaster. I want to hear more success stories, so social media very much plays a role in how I showcase my projects, how I showcase other contractors and subcontractors through Coffee With Contractors’ social media, and now how I’m starting to present as an expert. Because even though I’m newer to having a GC license, I’ve been in the industries, like I said, since I was a kid, so I’ve got all the knowledge, now it’s time to execute that.

Is Being a Woman-Owned Business a Benefit to Your Customers and You?

 

Yeah, I think so. I’m definitely more detail-oriented and my thing is communication. I communicate … even if it’s the smallest thing about your project, you’re going to get a text or you’re going to get an email from me so that you’ve been communicated. I don’t assume that homeowners know or can read my mind or know what’s happening throughout the flow of their project, so I think that that’s where it’s a little bit different versus your typical GCs.

I love all the GCs that come to Coffee With Contractors. There’s more, there’s quite a few of us in the group, but I know that communication and just the detail, paying attention to the details. Then like I said, setting up the flow of your project from start to finish through thinking about all the logistical steps, this one comes after this one, this one comes after this one. I try to put that into a visual for homeowners so they can see it.

What Percentage of Your Customers Are Either Men or Women Making Most of The Decisions?

 

It’s women. The guys are there too, but honestly, it’s been the women that are contacting me and I feel like they feel safe contacting me, because I show up presentable, I’m not showing up like … not to say there’s a bad thing about it if you’re a GC coming from one job to the next, but I show up clean. I don’t allow my crew to smoke on the job, I don’t allow them to put trash, I’m all about clean job sites and just better environment. So I feel like a lot of women homeowners feel safe contacting me, because they know I’m not trying to take advantage, if that makes sense.

I’ve actually really worked hard to find some of the unicorns in my trades that I work with, so a lot of who I’m working with, I’ve got a women-owned plumbing company, I’ve got an electrician who only hires females in his company. Those kinds of things are the things I look out for when I’m talking to my homeowners, because it’s not just about feeling safe with me, I want them to feel safe with the trades I’m bringing in as well, so that’s another part of it. You’re absolutely right. There’s a big market for women in construction right now, and I think that not enough of us have gone into it.

Do Your Clients Build or Remodel to Fit Their Family’s Lifestyle?

 

Yeah, and that’s where I really like working with designers, especially the women interior designers, because they’re listening to our clients, right? We are all listening to our clients, and if you’re going to remodel your home, you might as well remodel it so it fits your lifestyle, in my opinion. Don’t just remodel it for the aesthetic or for the increased costs or the return on investment, if it’s your home and you’re staying in it and you’re not flipping it to sell, I always encourage everybody to remodel to their lifestyle.

That means if it’s better for you to have a cabinet that comes up out of the kitchen to hold your Kitchen Aid, let’s make that happen for you so it’s ease of use. I love working with clients who are thinking that way. They want to remodel because they want something to work better for them, because it’s obviously not in the way it is laid out.

Do Your Customers Build to Fit Their Family’s Lifestyle?

 

I do. Actually, I do a consultation before they even hire me, just so I can get to know them. I get to see their house, I get to see how they’re living, and then I start thinking, hey, can we do this? Then when I work with the designers, I’m very proactive about working with designers all the way through the project to make sure that we’re thinking about the flow. Not just in your bathroom, it can’t just be a bathroom, but does it flow for you? Do the drawers work for you? Are they at the right height for your … not everybody is 5’10, the average in America or whatever, some people are shorter, some people are taller. Are we doing standard height countertops or do we need to lower it a little bit better to make it convenient for you?

Because the last thing I want as a GC is for us to do this massive renovation and then you get into it and you’re utilizing it and it’s still not quite working for you, you’re irritated. So yeah, I hope that answers that question.

What Did You See at IBS+KBIS That You Are Bringing Home for Your Business?

 

Wow, that is a really good question, and I love that you put that in there, I was thinking about that. I think a lot of what I saw was the custom features, especially when I went to the KBIS side, the kitchen and bath side, the custom features that are happening in your kitchens, in your bathrooms, in your bedrooms, and how people are thinking outside the box.

For example, one of the kitchens I saw, instead of having one refrigerator smack in the middle, they actually divided the refrigerator into two and had the countertop in the middle. One side was like your beverage refrigerator and the other side was your regular food refrigerator, and then in the island they had the drawers of the same color. It was a green fridge, but they had drawers for all the snacks, and drawers are for kids to be able to reach things. So concepts like that where we don’t have to do the traditional standard box fridge, we can make it way more cohesive for homeowners. Things like that is what I saw.

I saw some fun and exciting lighting fixtures, new things. New trends like that I think we’re going to see a lot of, and color. Color was everywhere at the IBS show, and I think we’re going to see a lot of that coming out, and I’d love to bring that to my clients. I’d love to work with clients that are thinking outside the box.

Thank you, Michele.

If you would like to see our interview with Michele, visit our YouTube Channel through this LINK.