Melissa Suchodolski | Firing Bad Clients and Building Great People

Melissa Suchodolski told someone once that getting into construction was "absurd." That was 25 years ago. Today, she runs USC Builds, a 140-person Rochester contracting firm, and a workforce development nonprofit that Governor Hochul wants to replicate across New York State.In this episode, she gets into what it actually looks like to build a company culture most firms won't even try, what it cost to fire a client who represented a third of her annual revenue, and why the construction industry's labor crisis is a competitive advantage for anyone who started this work early.CHAPTERS00:12 Welcome and the Non-Conformist Oath01:09 How Fitz and Melissa Met at the Jewish Home of Rochester11:25 Why More Americans Should Travel Abroad12:23 Meet USC Builds: 25 Years Building People Through Construction13:31 From History Major to Construction President16:26 Why a Skilled Trade Can Never Be Taken Away19:33 What a Trauma-Informed Workplace Looks Like in Construction27:43 Why She Fired Her Second-Biggest Client Over Racism on the Job Site30:42 The Construction Labor Crisis and Who's Already Positioned to Win34:39 Ascend Workforce Solutions and the Governor's Attention41:20 Trauma as a Superpower42:51 This or ThatCONNECTUSC Builds → https://uscbuilds.comROC Vox → https://rocvox.comNew episodes every Tuesday.Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production in Pittsford, NY. Learn more at https://rocvox.com.