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The construction industry knows how to talk about the tangible—build your team; get off the tools; scale.
What gets less airtime is the internal work running underneath all of it — the identity shifts, the competing forces, the particular experience of the femme founder building alongside and within a male-dominated industry.
The Holistic Home Service Podcast is that conversation.
Energetics and strategy and everything in between for the women leading home service businesses.
As we rise, everything built around us does too.
I'm Edi Oduraa, and this is the Holistic Home Service Podcast. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Holistic Home Service Podcast. I am Edi Oduraa, Founder and CEO of Via di Oduraa and I'm so excited to dive in with this inaugural episode. This podcast has had many iterations over the years and really feels like it's coming into its own now.
Edi Oduraa:And we're going to talk about all things home service, all things holistic minded. And by that, I mean, not just looking at, okay, how do we scale in the business and the tactical things that are so often a part of these conversations, but some of the more nuanced elements and issues for someone who is growing and running a home service business. I want to start us off with the Heroine's Journey series. So the inspiration came really from my own story and also surveying the industry across the home service, construction, residential contracting industry. There is this growing conversation around scaling, getting off the tools, getting out of the truck.
Edi Oduraa:The elevation and journey centers around internal and external shifts around productivity, hiring, spending money. I think this is amazing, amazing, amazing. The home service industry is the industry of the people. We are going into people's homes and turning them turning their houses into homes with our services, painting, you know, remodeling, creating safe environments in their yard with tree work, landscaping, and home service companies deserve to be paid well, in fact, very, very well. And I'm loving to see that more people are recognizing that and engaging in conversations to make that a reality.
Edi Oduraa:But what I've noticed is glaringly absent from this conversation is deep dives on the identity shift that is required of this journey, particularly for the heroine. So let's just call a spade a spade, right? And before I do that, I will say there are absolutely women and femmes who are, you know, walking the off the tools path and there are resources available for you. All the resources about getting off the tools are largely relevant to you, right? And then there are people who don't identify as women who will really resonate what I'm gonna be talking about with the heroine's journey.
Edi Oduraa:So I'm being a little reductive because it makes the conversation easier. And because from what I've seen, this is the most common dynamic. Women in the back office, husband on the tools, when there's a partnership like this, And there's a particular journey for that woman who is working the back office. So again, I recognize I'm being reductive. There's all different kinds of iterations and experiences.
Edi Oduraa:So please shift and mold this as it suits you. So in these conversations about scaling and growing, are focusing on the person who's on the tools and we will talk about the need for systems and delegation, etcetera. But there's a whole co founder who's absent from this conversation and it is often the wife who, you know, might be described as, Oh, they're handling admin stuff or they take care of the client calls, but really is functioning as the fraction or as the COO of the company. And if you are, if you identify as this woman, I want to let you know that I see you and that if you are feeling unsupported by the resources that are out there, that you're not alone. And there's a reason for this, right?
Edi Oduraa:So, I want to say first of all, that we often don't even recognize that we're on our own journey. We define our next steps in the movement of our growth by the business and by our partners off the tools journey. So I worked in a partnership running a tree service business for five years and I was the back office support. I built everything from the ground up, our systems, website, our HR protocols, etcetera. And never once did I really fully think about my elevation as its own separate journey.
Edi Oduraa:I thought about the business and what can we do to scale and that, you know, having me in a more strategic role would help it scale. And I thought about my partner and him getting more off the tools and how that would help the business. But I didn't think about my journey individually as okay, what do I want for myself in this business? What are the skills that I'm bringing to the table? What does my growth, my elevation, deeper enjoyment in the work I do look like outside of seeing if this meets a need elsewhere in the business, if that makes sense.
Edi Oduraa:And so one of the first steps is to just define that we're on our own journey, that it's not just about business growth, not just about our partners' growth, but that we matter in and of ourselves. We have our own journey that is worthy of being paid attention to and tended to individually. And one of the things that comes along with now thinking more about our journey is also recognizing that it can be as formulaic or predictable as the off the tools journey, right? If you've listened to enough podcasts, been enough masterminds, you know, the off the tools journey is something like recognizing that, you know, you can serve better when you're not doing every single thing, putting systems in place, getting things out of your brain, using tech to leverage that and then bringing people on board to start running things, upgrading your training. You know, there's all these different pieces that will be in a different order for everybody, but you need all these pieces will be covered by somebody going off the tools.
Edi Oduraa:And similarly with the heroine's journey from what I like to say doer to director, secretary to COO or CEO, right? It can be this formulaic. There are these essential pieces that every single woman is going to have to navigate to move into that position where she's not doing everything, but she's truly in a more strategic role. So, the heroine's journey will have many of the same elements as the hero's journey, recognizing the need for help, right? Recognizing that the business is better served with you in a more strategic role, but there are definitely some uniquely distinct elements especially as a woman in a male dominated space, you can't get around that.
Edi Oduraa:We're not going to beat around the bush. So I want to highlight some of these different elements because there's so much content out there about the very standard, you know, scaling, growing, delegating kind of stuff. So, overarchingly, what we will find is that there is a lot more identity work on the heroine's journey. Again, you are in a space where you're not seeing as many people like you succeeding, thriving in a fully strategic role. You are also in a space that takes women's labor for granted, frankly.
Edi Oduraa:There's so many people I've talked to who are running their business, talking about all these amazing things they do. And then they casually mentioned, oh yeah, my wife handles the accounts. My wife handles the back office. And I'm like, I know sir, that this woman is literally running your business. She is the actual CEO running your business, but there is such an under evaluation.
Edi Oduraa:And I experienced that in my own case, in my own instance, of relegated to the admin side of things and mentioned in passing, when I was functionally the CEO running the business. So, are all these external forces that are going to have you likely devaluing your own work and not having a clear sense of your path for growth. And so the heroine's journey will include a lot of identity work And also not to name in general society as a whole, I could get on that soapbox, I probably will at some point, but not today. So one of the first identity shifts on the heroine's journey that you'll need to embrace and navigate is believing you deserve support. We all have some good girl programming in us.
Edi Oduraa:Okay, the good girl says, I be quiet, I do what's comfortable, I handle things on my own, I'm not a burden. And again society actively pushes this. If you come from a religious background, you might have received messaging like this, depending on your culture, depending on where you grew up. We receive the message that it is good and great to not receive support. It's a very Western thing, Western individualistic thing as well.
Edi Oduraa:And so one of the first things you'll need to access is the reality that you deserve support. We so often feel like our worth is in doing than being than our intuition than our strategic mind than our sight, right? Our business clairvoyance, if you will, like our ability to see what needs to be done, our relational acumen. I'm not saying we're not going to be taking action and I'm not vilifying it, but what I am saying is that we can so often pigeonhole ourselves into the tactics because it feels super tangible, it feels valuable, you can end the it could be at the end of the day and say, okay, I checked this off the list, I created this thing, I answered this thing, put out this fire and there's a sense of, okay, I'm valid, I'm good, I'm doing the right thing, the good thing. And this is our good girl programming working in overdrive.
Edi Oduraa:And it prohibits us from getting the support we need to elevate because if you are putting out all these fires, you don't have the time and the capacity to get into creative space and think about how to elevate your business. You don't have the capacity to see more business development opportunities and do sales opportunities that can accelerate the business. You don't have time to assess the processes and get more strategic about how things are running, if you're always in the weeds. So the first identity shift is believing you deserve support. The rest of these are not necessarily in any particular order, but I do feel like the support piece underpins so much of why we stay stuck.
Edi Oduraa:A second major identity shift you'll have to navigate is fully claiming your next role. In an industry that really values hands on experience, it can almost feel like you're a bit on the outskirts. I know that I have had moments where I could really sense that because I couldn't plumb or wire electrics, Or climb a tree, nobody will ever get me up in a tree that my business insight was less valuable. Even though, right, tree climbing, plumbing, doing electrical work are completely different skills than running a business. And there is this discourse around being onoff the tools, right?
Edi Oduraa:It can feel hard to fully see what your next role will look like and claiming it. Because again, we're in an industry that emphasizes the growth trajectory for somebody who is coming from On the Tools. But you, you will need to be able to claim that role and to define it for yourself. It doesn't mean you have a five year plan and you know exactly what you're going be doing in five years, but having a sense of, okay, I really enjoy our client relationships. I find that when I have the time to, I'm able to generate more business or get referrals from our clients.
Edi Oduraa:Like I want to move into a position where I am out maybe networking more and running, working with a marketing agency to run ad campaigns. Maybe your desire is for the sales and marketing piece. Maybe you are strategic minded and where your partner loves to be on the tools, loves running the job site. You are great at overarching strategic thinking and planning and pulling all these different levers and a CEO title is really what makes sense. Maybe you're more operational and you love engaging with the processes and up leveling them and helping manage employees and all these things.
Edi Oduraa:Maybe COO is more of your title. I encourage you to look into what these different roles do in a company and start dreaming and begin to claim that next role. This will anchor in all the identity work, all the hard conversations, all the stressful pinch point kind of weeks, having this image of what life can look like on the other side and allowing yourself to even recognize that it's possible that you even deserve it. Again, I'm coming back to the whole concept of deservingness because sometimes again, get in our own way because we feel like we don't deserve it or we haven't earned it enough. It's your business, right?
Edi Oduraa:You're working in this business, you're working with your business partner, your life partner, whoever that may be, you're one in the same. You have the authority to step up into this and if you don't feel like you do, then there are some critical conversations that need to happen. Another element of identity shifting on this heroine's journey is being comfortable with the discomfort of others. Likely, you are where you are because it's comfortable both for you and for those around you to a degree. Now, if you're listening to this and you're really feeling moved, right, And you're envisioning what the future could look like, perhaps that comfortability has slipped a little bit and now you're feeling the discomfort of, okay, I want something more.
Edi Oduraa:This is not working for me anymore. The thing that we will quickly recognize as we begin shifting is that people are comfortable with where we're at. They're used to you responding to the text messages right away in the calls. They're used to you putting out the fires. They're used to not having to think about the mail and you are the one who always handles it.
Edi Oduraa:And there's going be pushback even from people who love you and want to see you succeed. We as human beings, we are self focused. We tend to think about how a change is going to impact us. So we have to become comfortable with the discomfort of putting up boundaries, of disappointing people, of seeing people flounder a little bit. This can be one of the hardest shifts to step into.
Edi Oduraa:It really pushes against that good girl programming, which says don't rock the boat, don't make people uncomfortable, especially not your husband, don't make any problems, right? Be a good little girl, handle the tasks and keep quiet. And I know nobody most likely is saying this to you, but if you're like me, I'm sure you can resonate with feeling that in certain situations where you are uncomfortable, but you could tell that voicing that discomfort and making yourself comfortable would make a whole lot of people uncomfortable. We need to step into that. This is not about becoming callous, about ignoring our impact on others, but it is being strategic about no longer bearing the cost within ourselves and in our career trajectory and in our fulfillment, while just for the sake of keeping others comfortable.
Edi Oduraa:And the beautiful thing that you'll come to see as well is that as you expand, you are inviting those around you to expand as well. I guarantee there are ways that other people around us have not been stepping into their next level of ownership, of power, of clarity, because we have been managing that. And that's okay. It's not an indictment against ourselves, never want to do that and not an indictment against them. But we're all we're just growing.
Edi Oduraa:We're like trees, right? We're a part of nature. We're always growing and shifting and moving with the sun and changing. And so this is just another one of those things. So, as we're navigating this heroine's journey, we are going to really be recognizing that we deserve support and also stepping into fully claiming this next role and then getting real comfortable with making people uncomfortable and sitting with that discomfort.
Edi Oduraa:There is so much more to cover and so much more that goes into this journey. That's why this is a series, but this is the foundational piece, some of these key identity shifts. I have a PDF for you if you are interested, you wanna learn more, you wanna go deeper and it is about the five archetypes of the women up leveling in a home service business and their struggles and next steps to dislodge them and get themselves unstuck. I'll put this in the show notes, but it's called Which One Are You? And it is a resource that I wish I had when I was in the thick of running the tree service business.
Edi Oduraa:So to wrap it all up, at the heart of the heroine's journey is a reclamation of power, voice and desire. Getting clear on what's possible, claiming it, moving in power to attain it, being willing to upset the status quo within yourself, your partnership, your community at large to do so. If you're lucky, I'll say this, if you're lucky, you have a super supportive partner who is not threatened by your journey and recognizes that your elevation is his elevation, is your elevation, is his elevation in this beautiful cycle. If you're little bit less lucky, this will likely require your partner to go deeper in his own journey and may make things tense. We'll definitely explore this in later episodes, but that's okay.
Edi Oduraa:Your job on this earth is not to make people feel comfortable and unchallenged. Your goal is to live right to your fullest potential, fully expressed, making an impact. And when we are in that space and at that frequency, it invites other people also into that space. So, you know, regardless of what the outside world, how the outside world responds, this work is so necessary. You live in deeper flourishing when you are acknowledging and capitalizing on your skills.
Edi Oduraa:Your business flourishes, the people who work with and for you flourish. And also I would love to say that studies show that companies with female CEOs perform I believe 20% better than those without. We need women in leadership, especially in the home service field. And the collective at large succeeds when women succeed, when you succeed. Thank you for joining me today.
Edi Oduraa:I am so excited to continue discussing the heroine's journey. I feel like I could talk about this for years. That's, I mean, whole podcast is fundamentally the heroine's journey in a home service business. So what elements feel relevant to you on your heroine's journey? Where are you at?
Edi Oduraa:What feels tense, sticky? What feels expansive and good? I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to connect at viadiodora.com or anywhere you're hearing this podcast. Until next time.