Audree Grubesic from Modular Sure Site shares her path to Construction
With Audree Grubesic, https://www.modularsuresite.com/
Craning a New Home Module In PlaceMore About the Show
The Build Perspectives podcast shares insider knowledge to build connections and community in the building materials industry. Tim and Carolina are friends, colleagues and former coworkers who love the construction industry and their clients, and want to share their passion and insights to attract future talent to the industry.
In this episode, Tim, riding solo, talks to Audree Grubesic, owner of Modular Sure Site, a modular construction company, about modular construction, owning your own business, women in the industry and more.
Modular Construction Is Superior
When Audree moved from luxury custom homebuilding into modular, she immediately saw it was the superior way to build. Because while offsite construction has been around for hundreds of years, currently, it’s evolving rapidly.
With offsite, you don’t have to worry as much about the labor shortage or the fact that materials are expanding in price levels. Modular lets you build a quality structure faster and more affordably.
Audree started her own modular construction company over two years ago and first started working on residential projects. Recently though, she’s begun moving into the commercial space, which she finds exciting.
The reason modular construction is making so many waves and is so affordable for the customer is that you can control your costs. By taking steps out of the building process, you save on labor and you have less material waste. It lets you do the job right the first time.
Modular Sure Site
Audree started Modular Sure Site, her modular construction company, two and a half years ago. They are a general contracting company that works in commercial and residential modular home building, as well as offering setting crane service. So they not only build the building, but they have the means to apply it to the foundation, making her company an all-in-one service.
She learned a lot from their first project: a four-piece modular home located in the mountains. The experience taught her a lot about understanding the process of placing and taking down and putting each piece together, plus where they could streamline the process in the future.
Each project has taught her how to make the process a little better each time.
How Modular Works
For Audree’s clients, the process is very similar for each. First, the client designs the home. Then Audree’s team takes those design plans and turns them into modules. And then they connect each of those module boxes together to make the home.
Each box is literally complete with cabinets and flooring and lights and all of the finishes needed to make a home. This helps make the process fast once you get to the job site, which is important for a location such as the Denver mountain area where the ground freezes in October and stays frozen until March. Once the ground is frozen, you can’t do any work, so you have to work within a limited time range.
For traditional buildings in these cold regions in Colorado, it takes anywhere from 24 to 36 months to build a home. This is due to the combination of the weather, the traditional build products and the lack of trades in the area.
This is why Audree’s client sought out modular as their solution. In the end, from start to finish, Audree’s team finished the mountain home in just 12 months.
Audree’s Origin Story
Audree’s parents were both entrepreneurs, so she likes to say it’s in her blood. Over the years, she’s owned and sold a lot of companies.
But when she got out of college, her first job was in mass communication as a TV engineer. She was one of the youngest female engineers ever hired at CBS in Chicago. (She had to bother her boss for three months to get the job.) The job taught her a lot about engagement, talking with people and having that connection, as well as innovation and technology.
After that, she did consulting for a lot of brands for agency and marketing work. All of these combined taught her a lot about sales and marketing, all of which she uses with her company.
Women in Modular Construction
Audree was one of the first women to get into modular construction, and she’s noticed that more and more women are starting to get into the industry, which she loves. She wants women to know that modular is not something to be scared of.
Tim brings up that at the last several International Builders Shows that there have been very few women at the modular offsite prefab networking events, but this year about a third of the people were women. Both Audree and Tim were very excited since diversity in the industry means more unique and exciting ideas.
Audree acknowledges that there’s so much to learn about construction in general, let along modular construction. But that’s what makes it fun! It’s great to be able to grow and learn and evolve.
Plus, because so much of the construction is done in a factory, women (and men) new to modular don’t need to actually be able to od the nailing and structure and design of it. Instead, they can elevate the communication and the use of integrative software.
For instance, Audree’s company uses Buildertrend to communicate with their clients: “[The software] simplifies the whole process where my clients can log into the website, they can see everything happening. We’ve got a budget running, they can see the trades coming in, they can see a build schedule.”
Mentoring & Advice
Audree says she’s not afraid to ask questions; she knows it’s okay to not know it all. She’s started using LinkedIn to connect with the people who are doing it best in the industry. LinkedIn is one of her biggest resources because she can easily connect with someone and send them a message online, making it a quick and easy process.
She also advises doing research yourself. If you are unsure, Google it. You can also talk to local people to get to know an area, and then help each other out. It creates a close community that you and they can help each other out.
When Tim asks what advice Audree would give to someone new in the industry or someone who wants to switch careers to enter the industry, Audree doesn’t hesitate: “Always lead by your passion. If you’re feeling passionate about something, you’ll find the resources that will evolve and circle around that…that passion will have a drive and that drive will lead to connections.”
She says to start by finding out more information. When she started in modular, she had no idea where to start, so she decided to start by Googling. If modular is something you are interested in, she suggests the Modular Building Institute as a good starting point.
She also suggests the National Association of Home Builders. Or go local and do a search of business names associated with modular into your secretary of state website.
When she started in modular, there was no one to tell her how to do it. So she called up all 16 modular builders in her state and asked to sit down with them for 15 minutes. She asked them for suggestions, where she should go, what she needed to learn. And all 16 were happy to help her get started. So don’t be afraid to ask the question.
What Needs to Be Talked About In Construction?
There needs to be more women in construction. The few women who do come into the industry end up leaving because they don’t feel support and don’t feel like they have the right people around them to keep moving forward. Audree feels there needs to be more resources for them, people they can call and talk to and collaborate with to help them move where they need to go.
For women, Audree suggests joining Women Who Build, a non-profit started by Barbara Jackson, that is “a proactive “on-demand resource network” to support women wishing to enter the construction industry and those who are already in it…to grow, advance and succeed.”
It has resources for how to write proposals, what you need to know on blueprints, how to define projects and much, much more. And while it’s marketed towards women, for men new to the industry, it can also be a great resource. Tim and Audree both highly recommend it.
Tools to Use
Audree recommends several construction software platforms for organizing your business: Buildertrend, BuildTopia, CoConstruct and Procore. Getting these systems set up will take time on the front end but it will save you tremendous amount of time and effort on the back end.
Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s episode! Shoot us an email at buildperspectives@gmail.com.