Ever wondered how the multifamily construction industry is evolving through the lens of women leaders? Join us for an exclusive conversation with Stacie Edwards, Vice President of People and Culture, and Valerie Currin, Senior Vice President of the Market Rate Segment at THS National, LLC. With Stacie's seven-year tenure blending HR acumen with a family background in construction and Valerie's fresh perspective supported by deep-rooted family ties to the industry, you'll gain invaluable insights into THS National's strategic moves in market rate and affordable housing, their expansion into Texas, and future ventures into student housing and senior living.
Listen as Stacie and Valerie recount their impactful experiences at a women-focused industry summit in Phoenix, emphasizing the transformative power of networking and mentorship. They share practical strategies for client onboarding, setting clear expectations, and the importance of understanding client roles and needs. Discover how THS National fosters successful client partnerships and talent retention through regular surveys, stay interviews, and a strong sense of community among remote workers. This episode celebrates the multifamily industry's inclusivity and diversity, highlighting the essential qualities of an ideal client for THS National and underscoring the ultimate goal of resident satisfaction.
Meet Stacie and Valerie in Multifamily Women® Summit.
Connect with Multifamily Women®:
Carrie Antrim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieantrim/
Multifamily Women® Summit: https://multifamilywomen.com/
Be a Guest on the Podcast or at the Summit: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/speakingrequest
Multifamily Women® Leadership Series: https://apps.multifamilywomen.com/join
Multifamily Innovation® Council: https://multifamilyinnovation.com/council/
Multifamily Innovation® Summit: https://multifamilyinnovation.com/
Best Places to Work Multifamily®: https://bestplacestoworkmultifamily.com/
Welcome back to another episode of the Multifamily Women podcast. We are so excited today we have some amazing guests. They are with THS National, we have Stacey Edwards, who is a vice president of people and culture, and Valerie Curran, who is the SVP of the market rate segment, and we are so happy to have you two here today. So let's start with Stacey. Stacey, tell us about how you got into multifamily and how your career kind of blossomed from there.
Speaker 2:Sure, Well, I've been in multifamily for seven years now, but my background in HR spans many industries. Multifamily was not something that I had originally planned on getting into, but being the wife of an engineer and having a father who was a master carpenter construction kind of seemed like a natural flow for me when I decided to go back in the job market again.
Speaker 1:Very nice. And Valerie, what about you?
Speaker 3:I'm a newbie in the industry, so I've been in the industry for 16 months. I've had family and friends that have been in the industry for 20 plus years, but I love it. I left a really really great industry and really didn't think I would be able to find another industry this great, but I am so happy to be a part of it and I don't think I'll ever leave.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, that's how a lot of us feel about multifamily. So tell us a little bit about THS National and the service that you provide.
Speaker 3:So we're a multifamily general contractor, we're a national contractor. We focus on two primary segments. You've got your market rate segment and then just two years ago, we started affordable housing. So we are primarily in the southeast market. We're headquartered out of Raleigh, north Carolina, but we have offices all throughout Florida, georgia, south Carolina, virginia. We are moving in and participating in the Texas market, which we are very excited about and that's the skyline that you see behind us. So I'm very excited about that. But you know, at the end of the day I would say THS National, we're community builders. You know we fill a big alignment with trying to provide services and really good projects for our clients and their residents.
Speaker 1:Very cool and what's on the horizon for THS that you are excited about?
Speaker 2:I'll speak to that a little bit. Moving into affordable housing was really exciting two years ago and we're just scratching the surface of that. We've got lots and lots of opportunity throughout the whole US going forward. We have people coming out of the woodwork saying, hey, we need a good GC to help us make these communities a really lovely place for the residents to live. So that's a big thing that we're definitely focusing on the expansion into Dallas as well a little bit this year and a big push into 2025, which is why Valerie's here boots on the ground now in Dallas. We have a couple of other THS employees who are also here in the city as well. So that's really exciting. And then we're always looking for new segments to get into. There's student housing and hospitality and senior living. There's lots of opportunities. So we're just kind of excited to figure out what our next segment is going to be and where we're going to go from there.
Speaker 1:Very cool, and so let's start with Valerie. Tell us a little bit about your role and what specifically you do at THS.
Speaker 3:So I'm over our sales and operations segment for for the market rate business Right now. That consists of approximately 80 employees. But you know I'm really there to make sure that we have the right footprint in each of our major markets that supports our client needs and you know, primarily it's to focus on the client experience. You know we're going out there and building relationships in these local markets and you know we've got to be able to support what we're selling, so we've got to be able to anticipate what our clients needs are and deliver on that. So so my role was really to make sure that we're continuing to build out the teams and support our people in their development journey as well, to provide that great experience for our clients.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love that and I love that you're staying focused on the consumer. I feel like it's easy to get derailed and I think it's really important in this industry to be always focusing on the consumer. I agree with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's really great. You know the one thing as I said earlier, I'm very new in the industry, but what I love about this industry and what I see it's about relationships and to me, all the value in a partnership with a customer is all about the relationship.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and creating those lasting relationships, because we hear a lot that something will roll out and maybe that's where the partnership might end, and so the fact that you're kind of creating those long-term relationships, I think that's really important and really exciting for people using your products. And what about you, Stacey? What do you do so?
Speaker 2:I. I have the fun pleasure of overseeing our people and the culture part of the organization I also, you know. So that encompasses HR as well as training and development, safety we just hired a new safety specialist, which is really exciting. He's doing a great job, we're happy to have him and then marketing as well. So my reach encompasses quite a few areas of the business. I don't get to do the customer-facing stuff as much as Valerie does, and I do enjoy that part of it. But I do get to hear the fun things that come across my desk from happy clients who like to reach out and say you know, our people did a great job and it's fun celebrating our folks when we get those messages.
Speaker 1:I love that. What do you love about the THS culture?
Speaker 2:You know it is. So I, I, I joke because I had um, shame on me a preconceived notion of what a construction company was like prior to coming to THS, and that was a cowboy cowboy boots, mustache mustache smoking cigar with his feet on the table. And that definitely was not the case when I got there. A very, very smart, driven group of individuals that I work with and I have to say, seven years later, it's not and I joke about this as well my husband rolls his eyes because he's the engineer. You know I say it's not super glamorous, but the reason why I'm still here seven years later is the people we work with, amazing people, and, uh, I'm very fortunate to really enjoy each one, each and every one of them that I get to, you know, go see and talk to every day. So it's, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I love that, and let's talk a little bit about you know what you leaned into there. What is it like being a female in this business?
Speaker 2:There's not as many of us as I would hope would like you know we are working, working on that. Val's addition to the team was wonderful. For me, having another executive female voice alongside mine has been fabulous, so very grateful to have her part of the team. But it's it's. It's an interesting industry for females and I honestly wish more and more we're getting into it because it can be a great career and the impact that we get to make on these communities. That's one of the things that I love is going out and seeing the before and after, and some of the properties you see can be devastating, whether it's a fire rebuild or even our new affordable housing line and that segment, you know, seeing the before and after is just amazing and I think you know, for me as a female in the industry, knowing we're making an impact in communities has been great.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think it's really important to talk about because I think a lot of women, you know they want to dip their toe in the construction side or the, you know, the build side, and I just think it's really awesome that you two are taking the leap and paving the way, and I love that for our listeners and for you. And so what about? What are the benefits, as a client, of working with THS?
Speaker 3:I think you know I'd go back to something I referenced earlier that you know we're community builders and you know we exist because of our clients. So when you ask, you know what's the benefit about working with us is we're not there just to do your big CapEx improvement projects, right? We're there to understand from our client's perspective is what's your growth plans? You know what other markets are you moving into? We want to be attached to them, so we're growing with them, so we can always support their needs. We don't want to have a client where we're only doing one project and then we never collaborate again. That's not how we we've built our business over the last 17 years and it's certainly not. You know what we need to do to keep growing. We want to stay along with our clients through their journey of growing as well.
Speaker 1:That is a great answer, and you are sponsoring the Multifamily Women's Summit this year, so tell us a little bit about what inspired you to want to be a sponsor of the Women's Summit this year.
Speaker 3:Stacey and I went last year. It was our first time attending and, wow, I was only three months into my role at THS and in the industry and what a way to be welcomed. I remember leaving there, going. I have found a new home, I have found a new industry. You know I am a big fan of just advocating for women leadership, fan of just advocating for women leadership, coming alongside other women as well and inspiring one another. And I'm just excited to participate in the event again and we made some friends at that event that we still, you know, keep in contact with. So yeah, we're great, greatly appreciative of being asked to come back and to be a sponsor and to participate.
Speaker 1:I love that you had that experience. Stacey, did you have any great takeaways?
Speaker 2:Very similar to what Val said. For me, it was a little different when I got the email saying hey, there's this great event going on in Phoenix. Would you be interested? Val hadn't actually quite joined the team yet, so I was hopeful she would be joining us within a couple weeks. I'm like all right, I've got to sign up to go to Phoenix for going to this new event, but prior to, you know, engaging in it. I think I might have spoken to Carrie on the phone. I called up and I was like hey, what is this about? Like, this sounds like something we would like to go to, but tell me more. So when you know, when we actually got there and had a chance to see and meet a lot of the participants and the people who were there with us as well, from every industry, whether they were a supplier or a vendor or working in, actually, in the apartment communities themselves, it was really a neat experience and one that we both said left there saying, yep, we're coming back next year.
Speaker 1:Awesome and I'm so glad that you formed some connections. I think that's probably my favorite thing about the summit is that it's such a level playing field. We don't do a trade show, so we don't have. You're over here and people can come to you and we make it very equal, very even so that we're all just women in our industry who are innovating together to solve the same problems, and so we're really excited to have you again this year. Excited to have you again this year. Tell me a little. Tell me a little bit about some of the connections that you formed in this industry and what that means in this industry to you in terms of client building, client relationships building people relationships. Let's start with Stacey.
Speaker 2:Well, I, I. There was one lady in particular who I had met with and she was actually in a market that we hadn't kind of branched into into, or we're just kind of starting to get into that market, and she was a huge resource to me to give me insight on okay, you need to join this association, you join, you know another one and and if you're going to be interacting with you know this individual at our company, you know here's the best way to work with him. So she was very helpful on some you know, insight into her organization and and the people who she works with and and how best to just get our foot in the door in that new, that new region that we were moving into. So it was, she was was great.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and.
Speaker 3:Valerie, you know, I think people are always evolving and that means we're always changing and we could always be moving. And you know, just because you make a connection over here, that may not work for you in the present moment, it doesn't mean that it can't in the future. I'm a big believer of community and learning from one another and I think it's always great to build relationships. And you know, don't even underestimate yourself, because you never know what you're giving to someone as well. It's not just about what you can receive, but also about what you can give through the power of networking.
Speaker 1:I love that answer and I think being females and women in this industry and paving the way, like I said, in a new side of the industry that isn't heavily represented by women at this time isn't heavily represented by women at this time Talk a little bit about that and are you mentoring anyone that's maybe on your team that you feel excited about? That you're helping bring that new generation up in that way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a really great question. You know I love to mentor individuals, but I would say the ones that I mentor every day are my daughters. You know I have two college age children and you know I've spent a life of mentoring them. But especially where they're at in their own journey of going into adulthood, you know they're still trying to figure out what's that next thing I should do. Where do I want to go? And I keep selling them on this industry. I'm like it's an industry of community. It's got so many different facets to it of different things you can do. Why don't you come and try it out? So I'm right now trying to sell them on the industry to come join.
Speaker 1:And that's funny too, because we all have such. From what I've recognized in our industry, a lot of us come from a totally different background and we just fall into multifamily and then we stay because it's just so unique and you can harness almost any skill set in this industry. Truly, I'm a theater background. I mean I'm here podcasting with you. So you know, I think that's what's so unique about it is it's such you can always land here, you know. I think that's what's so unique about it is it's such you can always land here, you know. And yeah, so what about you, stacey? Do you have any mentees?
Speaker 2:I think we're always mentoring, whether it's intentional or not. You know, I know a large part of what Val does because she enjoys it so much is, you know, walking out of meetings saying that was a great section. You know, I feel like you know, like I was able to give some good advice and things of that nature. So I believe it is something and part of my role in the organization being over the people and the culture of the organization is a large part of it is mentoring, and maybe not mentoring in a traditional sense. But advice this is how I've been there done. Advice this is how you know I I've been there, done that. This is how I handled it. Um, you know, here's maybe some, some ways you could do things a little differently or try it this way next time, um, but I do think it definitely a lot of it goes on, especially at our level within the organization, for a lot of our younger men and women, uh, at the company.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome. Well, you two are doing amazing things, so I love this dynamic. That's here too, because I love thinking about the client facing side and the people and how those two elements work so nicely together. So I love that you two are so close and that you're in communication with each other a lot. How do your roles kind of feed off of each other where you're working on the culture of your people, but then you're also thinking about how that impacts the client at the end of the day and I'll let whoever wants to start start.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's a lot of crossover there, right, because you know you asked earlier, lauren, what's something that's on the horizon for THS and I just think it's growth, right, it's growth and it's adding more people to the THS family and to our culture. And you know, for me it's important to be able to tell Stacey and her team, you know these are the needs of our clients. This is the type of skill set that we need to be able to provide from relationship building, community building, and here's the skill set that we need on the operations side to make sure that we're providing good services. So I think you know the two of us collaborate frequently, probably all the time, really of just you know how do we continue to develop the structure, whether it be through training and development, future operations of the team to support what the client needs.
Speaker 2:And having you know the more females we can bring into the industry. It helps to negate that good old boy network type of you know, stigma. That kind of came along with construction and we're doing a great job of that. And and having Val to to um collaborate with has been, you know, breath of fresh air, in a large part because she's fairly new to the organization. So it's always good to have outside perspectives and and new, new, fresh ideas of someone coming on board. That's looking at things Maybe I'm, I might be a little too close to a situation and she's able to take a step back and look at it and say, yeah, you know what, let's, let's, let's go this direction. So it's, it's been awesome.
Speaker 1:I love that. And, valerie, what industry did you come from?
Speaker 3:So I came from um. I worked for a manufacturer for for 20 years, um, but we were providing uh security products, so it was more in the commercial construction side. Um, it was more office buildings, data centers, manufacturing things like that. So there's still a tie in, you know, on the construction as a whole. But you know, at the end of the day, I don't think it matters what industry you're in. People buy from people and I think it's great when you can take something that you learned from somewhere else and adapt that into a new industry and then again be in a new industry and learn new things the client success journey, because you know, I love that.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that your clients really get that hands-on experience and it's not just that onboarding, it's about longevity. So what are you doing? Are you listening, surveying? What are we doing to keep clients?
Speaker 3:Uh, it's, that's a great question. You know, um, I think, from the onboarding of a client. You know it starts from day one, from an introduction, and you know it starts from day one, from an introduction, and you know understanding what a person's role is within an organization, understanding what their needs are, understanding what problems they're trying to solve and can we solve those problems for them. But then I'm a big believer in setting expectations up front, you know, and making sure those expectations are aligned. But then I'm a big believer in setting expectations up front, you know, and making sure those expectations are aligned. So you know defining what it is that they need, making sure that our teams internally understand that so we can deliver on that.
Speaker 3:But you know the start of a relationship doesn't and the journey of the relationship doesn't end after one project. Right, our clients are constantly moving into new markets and evolving and you know we want to participate with them in that. They have leadership summits throughout the year and different meetings where they're trying to bring in different partners, and let us be a part of their journey is how they grow as a company. So we're participating in that as well and again, being in our local associations and local industry events to make sure we understand what's going on in the market and how do we need to pivot and evolve to respond to that.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. And then, conversely, on the other side of things, stacey, what are you doing to retain top talent?
Speaker 2:Oh goodness. Well, we're always trying to do things a little different than our competitors or even, you know, any other industry out there in the market it is. It is definitely a war on talent right now. For sure, and we've been very lucky we have a good, you know, good high retention rate. We've, you know, have great place to work certified, certified for the last three years running.
Speaker 2:So we do surveys constantly of our people, or a couple of times a year with our folks, just to make sure that we're tapping into areas that we may need to improve on. We do stay interviews, so we're trying to get ahead of anything. If there's an issue going on that we're not aware of, it allows us the opportunity to go in and make those changes as need be, if it's something that we're able to change. So that, and then just trying to get out there, valerie and I travel quite a bit. We bring some of our other executive leadership with us too from time to time and seeing the people, we have a lot of men on an island, so to speak, and that's hard when you're not interacting every day with coworkers.
Speaker 2:We're very fortunate or I am, anyway, I go into the office every day Val's hybrid. She's here, there and everywhere. So you know it's, it's when you're working by yourself. We try to create a real sense of community within the organization, even for those folks that are satellite or remote. And you know, just do do it through various virtual calls. But you know, try, do do it through various virtual calls, but, um, you know, try to visit as often as we can.
Speaker 1:Love that. The in-person touch is so, so necessary and so nice. These days. We're we're on zoom so often, so it's really nice to have that face-to-face time with your people. I love that. So really quick, valerie what? What is your ideal client look like, meaning what types of companies work with you? Are you delivering more of a catered experience, more of a boutique style? What is the ideal client for THS?
Speaker 3:Um, I think that the ideal client for us is, um, the ideal client for us is really one that understands what it means to partner with us. Right, I think it's a partnership and I want to really hone in on a partnership because, you know, nothing is easy in construction, nothing is easy in doing renovation work, because you never know what's on the other side of a wall. Right, there could be delays. You're relying on various nuance. That's out of the control of DHS and that's also out of the control of our client, you know.
Speaker 3:So I think for me, it's partnering with clients that are again willing to help us understand what their needs are, how we can solve them and, when we do come across challenges, how do we work together to provide a great experience, not for just the needs that they may have rather it be completing a project on schedule, but thinking about, you know, the residents that are impacted by the work that we're doing. You know we're going in to communities where people live, so I'm always like, do we all understand, at the end of the day we're doing? You know we're going in to communities where people live, so I'm always like, do we all understand? At the end of the day. We're there to serve residents and provide them a good experience in a place that they're proud to come home to every day. So I think you know our ideal client is someone that understands we're both there to serve residents in a community.
Speaker 1:I think that's great, and I love that you're thinking about the resident at the end of all of this, because we have our clients, but at the end of the day, you're right, we're serving people in their homes. This is incredibly important work that you're doing and I just I think it's great that you have your eye on the resident at all times. That's a really good outlook. And so when you are running into these hurdles, or do you kind of line up that as a possibility, or do you let people know look, we might hit some snags, but we're here to work through it with you. What does that look like when you encounter those?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it all goes into proper planning right. We are very blessed to have people that have been in this industry or been in other construction industry for a very long time, so you know, they know what we're the possible risks that we encounter. So I think you know if we're planning for that and kind of going through our pre-construction meetings and understanding what are all the possible things that could happen, have we planned for that? And when the inevitable happens and things are outside of our control, it's all about proper communication, getting on the phone with the client, working out a plan together and being aligned on that.
Speaker 1:I think it's really great for people to have a partner like you who is able to help them navigate through that process, because I can't imagine having to try to jump all these hurdles on my own. So I think it's wonderful that THS is willing to partner with people to help them through those hurdles that they hit. And is there anything else on the horizon that you're excited about or that you want to leave our listeners with today?
Speaker 3:Personally for me, I'm most excited about being in Texas. This is my new home and I'm just so excited to be able to come into one of the biggest markets in multifamily and serve our clients here and continue to build out our organization here to serve our customers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and on my side of the house it's really welcoming those new employees and new team members into the company. We've met some amazing people and have such a great group of folks that we work with, and just continuing to have that servant leader mindship and teaching others our way, that's one of the things that I look forward to.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, and where can our listeners learn a little bit more about THS National? You can go to our website.
Speaker 3:We have tons of great content out there. But look for us in all the local apartment association trade shows. We participate a lot in NMHC. We're there for all of those conferences, we're at NAA, but we're constantly trying to put out content and, you know, tell people more about who we are, not just what we do.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Well, I want to thank you again both for being on the Multifamily Women's Podcast again today, and we can't wait to see you at the summit.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're excited.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for sharing time with us today, for sure, and thank you all for listening. This has been another episode of the Multifamily Women's Podcast. You know where to find us at wwwmultifamilywomencom.