Do you know that only 10% of the whole construction industry today is made up of women and only 3½% are working in the field? It has always been considered as an industry that is male-dominated and not women’s work, and that leads women to have limiting beliefs that hinder them from reaching their fullest potential.
Do you want to change that voice in your head that is just so persistent on telling you you can’t do things? Do you want to be clear on what you want so that you can be courageous enough to move towards a life of your own terms? Have you always wanted to live a life that doesn’t look like anybody else’s? Do you want your limiting beliefs to transform into empowering ones?
It is through being in motion towards what you want to accomplish in your life that you get to better show up in the world! We only get to live once. Start the change with what you are telling yourself.
Tricia Kagerer is the author of the book “The B Words: 13 Words Every Woman Must Navigate for Success.” She highlights challenges and breakthrough strategies for women entering non-traditional roles in the workplace.
Tricia is the Executive Vice President of Risk Management for Jordan Foster Construction – a large construction organization that performs civil, multifamily, and general contracting across Texas. She leads the risk management, safety, and leadership teams. In relation to this, Tricia is a construction industry expert and speaker on various leadership, risk management, and safety topics including crisis management, emergency response best practices, education across cultures, and servant leadership and diversity.
She holds a Master’s degree in Dispute Resolution from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Communication – Public Relations from Regis University in Denver, Colorado.
In this episode, Tricia talks about the presence of prohibition and inhibition in one’s life as she guides you in taking a step forward for you to start changing your limiting belief into an empowering one and be able to create a life of self-defined success.
 
What you will learn from this episode:
  • Discover how critical it is for you to have a clear distinction between prohibition and inhibition in order to create a life of self-defined success
  • Understand how prohibition affects the way you think and creates limiting beliefs
  • Find out how you can start living life on your own terms through resources and tips given by an expert
 
 
You have to start with who you are so that you can recognize what you want, and part of that is knowing how you show up in the world innately by our personality.
Tricia Kagerer
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
 
How to address your limiting belief and know yourself in a deeper sense in order to live life based on your own self-defined success: https://5voices.com and https://gianttv.com
 
 
Topics Covered:
 
02:14 – Challenge is facing the limiting beliefs that are both internal and external – a clear distinction between prohibition and inhibition.
04:36 – Listening to all the noise out there – the prohibition that’s telling you you can’t do things: the common mistake business women leaders make when trying to change.
06:54 – One valuable free resource to help you address prohibition and focus on knowing yourself: https://5voices.com and https://gianttv.com.
08:35 – One free and actionable tip you can do to change your limiting belief into an empowering one: Just really spend some time with a sheet of paper. Get a sheet of paper and you draw a line on it. Write down a limiting belief and then take the time to create an empowering belief. From there, you can create a strategy.
10:46 – Q: Does inhibition only affect women? A: The reality is it impacts everyone. In our world, everything’s very politically charged. There’s a lot of barriers and a lot of finger pointing, and men and women feeling very uncomfortable with the whole situation. Bridges is what we need to create where men and women are working together to encourage and empower everyone to be able to create their life based on their own self-defined success.
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“Only 10% of the whole industry today is made up of women and only 3 ½% are working in the field. And so, why is that? A lot of it has to do with prohibition. It’s just always been considered an industry that’s a male-dominated industry – it wasn’t “women’s work” – and so society or culture kind of has defined that.” – Tricia Kagerer
“If it’s important to you to have a career and have a family, there are ways to do it and the kids will be okay.” – Tricia Kagerer
“We have to know ourselves to lead ourselves.” – Tricia Kagerer
“If you just stop with the idea in the limiting belief that you will never be able to start a business because you don’t have enough money, you’re never going to start a business.” – Tricia Kagerer
 
“I believe that that’s just a better way to show up in the world – to be in motion towards what you want to accomplish in your life, because we only get to be here one time.” – Tricia Kagerer
 
 
Ways to Connect with Tricia Kagerer
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
 
TRANSCRIPT
 
Sarah E. Brown 0:38
My guest today is Tricia Kagerer. She is on a mission to support and promote women into non-traditional roles in the workplace. And in that vein, she’s written a book – The B Words: 13 Words Every Woman Must Navigate for Success – where she highlights challenges and breakthrough strategies for women entering non-traditional roles in the workplace.
She is currently the Executive Vice President of Risk Management for Jordan Foster Construction – a large construction organization that performs civil, multifamily, and general contracting across Texas. She leads the risk management, safety, and leadership teams.
She is a construction industry expert and speaker on various leadership, risk management, and safety topics including crisis management, emergency response best practices, education across cultures, and servant leadership and diversity.
She holds a Master’s degree in Dispute Resolution from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Communication – Public Relations from Regis University in Denver, Colorado.
Welcome, Tricia. Thank you for being here today.
 
Tricia Kagerer 2:02
Thank you so much for having me. I’m happy to be here.
 
Sarah E. Brown 2:06
Tricia, what is the biggest challenge you help female leaders face in business today and what might be the symptoms of those challenges?
 
Tricia Kagerer 2:14
So the biggest challenge that I help women face today is really recognizing the limiting beliefs. There’s limiting beliefs that are internal and external. So, I call them, prohibition is external.
So for example, in the construction industry, there are very few women. In fact, only 10% of the whole industry today is made up of women and only 3 ½% are working in the field. And so, why is that? Well, a lot of it has to do with prohibition. So, it’s just always been considered an industry that’s a male-dominated industry – it wasn’t “women’s work” – and so society or culture kind of has defined that.
The biggest pro- example of prohibition was what happened in the 1920s when my grandmother emigrated from Ireland. Prohibition was, “you’re not supposed to drink out or you’re not supposed to sell alcohol”.
The thing that’s interesting though is prohibition is very much real and it does impact us, but what we celebrate is those that rise above it and move forward because of it, almost looking at prohibition as something that is a catalyst for change. That starts with inhibition. So, how do we change the voice in our head and get clear on what we want so that we can have the courage to move forward. And that starts with what are you telling yourself.
So, I have a very powerful negative voice in my head and I actually named her my name, Patricia. I go by Tricia. I named her Patsy and I basically named her and claimed her so that what is she telling me, what are the doubts, so that I can get clear of knowing is it really true? And is there a semblance of maybe something that I’ve been telling myself that’s holding me back from doing something; is it really true? And are there small steps that I can take to move forward?
So I think it’s a clear distinction between prohibition and inhibition, and that’s critical to creating a life of self-defined success which I talked about in The B Words – a life on your own terms that doesn’t look like anybody else’s.
 
Sarah E. Brown 4:30
Very cool. And what are the biggest mistakes your clients make before working with you?
 
Tricia Kagerer 4:36
Well, I think in particular, in what I’ve seen in the industry that I’ve been – which is safety and risk management and construction – is we see women pursuing a career, pursuing their education, being very intentional about moving forward in that career, and then there’s a limiting belief and it could be from prohibition in society or it’s also just inhibition internally that says, “if you want to start a family…” So, at the time where we started becoming more successful and really earning that skill set and that knowledge and expertise is the exact same time where potentially, we want to start a family or find that significant other and we want to move forward in that direction. And I see in many cases, there’s a limiting belief that “if I do one, I can’t do the other.”
So in my case, I was climbing the corporate ladder if you will, and I met my husband and got married and moved away to a foreign country. I ended up having two children and at that time I was told over and over by family, by friends, by colleagues that “Oh, will you give up your career now? You’re never going to get it back” and that’s absolutely not true. And if I had believed that, I would have maybe not worked as hard as I did to make sure that I had a pathway of re-entry.
And so, I went ahead and studied and got my certifications while I was home with my children when we were living in Munich, Germany, and then when I returned to the United States, it was relatively easy for me to find a position and negotiate. I actually was able to negotiate a flexible schedule way back when that just didn’t exist.
But I think that’s really one of the biggest mistakes; it’s listening to those, all of the noise that’s out there – that’s prohibition – telling you you can’t do things. And if it’s important to you to have a career and have a family, there are ways to do it and the kids will be okay.
 
Sarah E. Brown 6:44
Mm-hmm. What is the number one free and actionable tip you can give our listeners today to help them address this challenge now?
 
Tricia Kagerer 6:54
Well, so, one of the things that I learned about in the last couple of years is, I’m a certified Sherpa with Giant Worldwide. It’s a leadership program that I studied in the 5 Voices. So, we have to know ourselves to lead ourselves. And there’s a free assessment tool that anybody can take. It’s called the 5 Voices Assessment, and you can just get online, take it. It’s very similar to Myers Briggs, but it’s much more streamlined to where it’s only 5 Voices instead of 16 different personality types.
I believe you have to start with who you are so that you can recognize what you want, and part of that is knowing how you show up in the world innately by our personality. And so, that’s a free resource that’s available to anyone.
And then, there’s GiantTV as well.
Sarah E. Brown 7:48
Where would people find that?
Tricia Kagerer 7:50
It’s https://5voices.com. And then, https://gianttv.com is also a resource where there’s a lot of free videos for the- it’s called the 100x Leader Program. It’s one of the tools that they have. And then they also have a Sherpa Training Program as well.
But once you’ve taken the 5 Voices Assessment, you can get online and learn everything there is to know about your personality type, how you show up, what are your triggers, how you are under stress, and all of that is a free resource that’s available on the internet.
 
Sarah E. Brown 8:25
Terrific. So, you gave us an actionable tip. Is that also the free valuable resource that you can recommend that women look at?
 
Tricia Kagerer 8:35
Yeah. So, well, that’s a free resource, and an actionable tip is just to really spend some time with a sheet of paper.
And in my book The B Words, in chapter one, I talk about limiting beliefs and there’s an exercise that you can do. And it’s basically changing that limiting belief into an empowering one and it goes back to that pesky voice in your head – in my case, Patsy.
So, if you get a sheet of paper and you draw a line on it, and you write down a limiting belief and then you actually take the time to create an empowering belief, and then from there, you can create a strategy.
So for example, women often, they’ll say “I would love to start my own business one day” but then you ask “why don’t you?”, “Oh, I don’t have enough money.” The next question is “how much money do you need?” and it’s typically resulting back with a blank stare – “I have no idea.” So, it could be that that’s something that you’re assuming you don’t have enough money, but if you don’t know how much money you need, you’ll never be able to start a business and you’ll never be in action in forward to your dream.
So, a limiting belief, for example, if you don’t understand finances or business – that could be something that a woman is telling herself. An empowering belief is “I have a great handle on finances and I have been successful in business.” And then the strategy would be to sign up for an online class or attend a free seminar on personal finances. I mean, there’s a million things out there right now. Even the small business administrations are very actively pursuing women, giving resources. But if you just stop with the idea in the limiting belief that you will never be able to start a business because you don’t have enough money, you’re never going to start a business.
 
Sarah E. Brown 10:32
Very good. Very good idea and advice.
So what’s one question, Tricia, that I should have asked you that will help our audience take action to address this challenge? And then, would you answer the question?
 
Tricia Kagerer 10:46
Sure. So, one question that you could ask me is, “is inhibition – that limiting belief, that voice in your head – does it only impact women?” And the reality is it impacts everyone.
So, I believe that right now more than ever, in our world, everything’s very politically charged. There’s a lot of barriers and a lot of finger pointing, and men and women feeling very uncomfortable with the whole situation. So, bridges is what we need to create where men and women are working together to encourage and empower everyone to be able to create their life based on their own self-defined success. That’s really what it’s all about.
But part of that is inhibition is not just impacting women; it’s impacting men as well. And if we don’t tune into our inner voices, we will just assume that those things that are prohibition are always there and we’ll never move forward. But if you look at the people that we celebrate in life and the heroes, they’re the ones that stepped up and found a new way to do things or pushed forward or were able to go around a barrier or knock the barrier down.
And I believe that that’s just a better way to show up in the world – it’s to be in motion towards what you want to accomplish in your life, because we only get to be here one time.
 
Sarah E. Brown 12:16
Sure, sure. Great advice. Thank you so much for being here today.
 
Tricia Kagerer 12:21
Thank you for having me. It’s very nice to be a part of your show. Thank you.

Leave a Reply