Initially, Michelle Buczkowski considered “being the only” an isolating place.

Buczkowski, vice president of talent management with 84 Lumber, shared during the virtual leadership meeting of the Women Executives in Building on August 31, that many times she felt like the youngest – and only – woman in a room.

“For a while I saw ‘being the only’ as a lonely place,” Buczkowski said. “[Later] all the things that made me ‘the only’ became my superpower.”

It turns out there’s a lot riding on a person’s elevator pitch.

It’s part marketing, sales pitch, and personal branding. You also can’t go into too much detail, and you’ve only got about 30 seconds to make an impression.

“Always tailor your speech to the group,” said Miriam Keith, President of Kayleb Consulting LLC. “Your elevator pitch often is referred to as the BLUF: bottom line up front. Then give details.”

Sometimes sharing business accomplishments may feel like tooting your own horn, but a recent virtual meeting of the Women Executives in Building aimed to sway leaders from this opinion.

That’s because sharing accomplishments and good news not only is necessary to allow staff and colleagues to celebrate awards and milestones with you, but it’s also necessary for personal branding.

In case you have not heard, the National Institute of Building Sciences is hosting a networking and industry summit to connect some very important people: Female executives from the nonprofit built world.

It’s happening this Friday, Oct. 4.

Dozens are planning to attend the first annual Women Executives in Building Summit.

We hope to open a can of worms that we all can be proud of: Conversations about diversity, inclusion, building, leadership -- the whole kit and caboodle.

It’s not every day that you gather a room full of female executives to talk about tough issues like diversity, inclusion, and management in the nonprofit built environment.

But that’s exactly what happened Friday, Oct. 4, when the National Institute of Building Sciences hosted the first Women Executives in Building Summit.

“It starts with us,” said Lakisha A. Woods, President and CEO of NIBS. “We have to talk with each other. Fifty-one percent of this country is female and over 90% of the building industry is male – there are not enough of us at this table.”

International Women’s Day is March 8.

According to the IWD site, “The race is on for the gender equal boardroom, a gender equal government, gender equal media coverage, gender equal workplaces, gender equal sports coverage, more gender equality in health and wealth.”

This has been a work in progress over several years, but we’re not there yet. Women’s equality is not just a women’s issue. It’s an everybody issue.

When it comes to boosting diversity, equity and inclusion in the building industry, it will require a host of changes, starting with awareness.

Awareness comes at many levels, from minorities and young women entering the workforce seeing diversity in leadership positions, to awareness of how technology has changed women’s views and experience within the construction industry.

Stepping away from work, while we’re all sheltering at home because of the pandemic, has never been more difficult.

But a group of building executives recently shared their secrets to balancing home, family, and their professional lives, during a July 30 virtual meeting of the Women Executives in Building leadership series.

Ideas ran the gamut, from exercise and eating well to weekly mindfulness and meditation programs online. And when all else fails: One should never underestimate the power of a Zoom happy hour or Houseparty game night with friends.

Jamie Gentoso was young when she got her first taste of construction.

It was her architecture class at East Lansing High School in Michigan. One of the class projects involved designing a home for a family on a specific plot of land, using a set budget. She loved solving a complex problem with various constraints and thought architecture would be a great career path. However, her school counselor spotted her aptitude for math and science and suggested Gentoso might consider a career in engineering.