SideQuest 01: From Science Labs to Power Tools (And Why It Matters)

Welcome to our very first SideQuest! These mini-episodes are "bonus snippets from the field" where we share the stories, challenges, and crazy moments that don't make it into our main episodes.

To kick off this series, we go behind the scenes of MyHandyma'am to answer the question: How did we all get here?

Arly shares how she went from a biology student to becoming our first full-time employee, and Emily explains how an artist’s brain is the perfect match for home renovation. Plus, we discuss the "Villager Mentality" and the powerful moment at a domestic violence shelter that clarified our mission: helping women feel safe in their own homes.

Links & Resources Mentioned

​Community: Join the⁠⁠ How to Handyma’am Facebook Group⁠⁠ to ask questions and post your project pics!⁠https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1EKq23JThH/⁠Products We Love: Find the tools mentioned in this episode at our storefront: ⁠https://shoplowes.me/4i2zfaI⁠​⁠Connect with Us!​Web:⁠⁠ ⁠myhandymaam.com⁠⁠​⁠Socials:⁠⁠ @howtohandymaam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/howtohandymaam⁠⁠⁠Credits Host -Samantha Pearl​Host- Arly Streed Host - Emily Pearl ReistMusic - Thomas Streed

Hi folks, welcome to Side quest #1 where we give you a little bits of bonus snippets from the field.

These episodes are really truly a side quest from our main episodes, which if you've listened to those, you'll understand why that is.

We'll share little bits of stories and challenges, successes from the field.

0:18

Also some crazy stuff and the background of life.

Teaching women to care for their own homes is so important to us.

Well, Arlie, our listeners know by now that we own My Handyman.

It's a home repair and remodeling company, obviously, and we have mostly women working in the field and behind the scenes, but they don't necessarily know your story of how you came to be such a critical part of our team.

0:40

Can you share how that happened and why it matters to you?

Well, let's see how it happened.

Was many many moons ago a Mama meta Dada don't just.

Kidding me?

Well, my parents were both kind of Macgyvers.

0:58

My mom just, I mean, they both just always were like, we need to do something and let's let's do it ourselves.

And I just kind of adopted that mentality as I grew up.

And the older I got, the more I would work my dad in the barn because he, well, we have a giant barn and he has like all tools known to man.

1:25

And we would always make Christmas presents for each other growing up when I was younger.

And then when I got older, my siblings started to like get jobs and buy presents.

But I still have like enough time in my life to make presents.

And so I would do that with my dad every year.

1:41

And our cat Addie, who has now passed, but she was an amazing helper.

And then when COVID hit, I was in college and I just did my school online.

But then I also, would, you know, make a whole bunch of weird stuff I found on Pinterest with my dad.

2:02

And then I finished college and I graduated and I was looking for a job in a lab, like a science lab because that was a science girl.

And then my organic chemistry professor, Suzanne Lewis, shout out, was friends with you on Facebook, because you are.

2:21

Being Samantha.

Yes, and she sent me a Facebook post that was like my handyman was looking for somebody for a full time job or whatever.

And so I was like, I'll do that.

So I called like 20 minutes after I got it.

2:39

I got the like application or whatever from Doctor Lewis.

And then I called and I was like, hi, my name's Arlie, I'm awesome, hire me, I'll start tomorrow.

Thank you.

Goodbye.

And then I just started working here and I have just joined the cult of being a handyman forever.

3:02

And this job is kind of hard 'cause it's frustrating.

And sometimes it gets a little bit like tedious and repetitive.

Not very often does it get repetitive, but sometimes.

But it's the community and the like environment.

3:20

And when I was younger, I always wanted to do something that like, felt kind of like this.

I didn't know exactly what that looked like, but now that I'm here, I realized that I really wanted to feel like I was doing something special and doing it with people that I liked, 'cause, you know, you're not gonna like every part of your job, but it's important to like the things that happen every single day, which are like your interactions with people.

3:47

So I really started to like like the atmosphere that they cultivated when I got here.

Like I started to try to like adopt that and then pass that on to like the other people that we hired on and.

And what is that culture that you're referring to?

4:03

It's.

Just like being there for each other and being kind and understanding and giving people grace, even if maybe they don't deserve it.

And, you know, just being a good villager, like we've talked about being a good villager before, and that's important in all areas of your life.

4:23

And we really take it super seriously here.

And then a couple months ago, well, it was maybe longer than that, we started working for a domestic violence shelter in, in our area.

4:42

Well, kind of in our area.

And one of the women there was like, I was never allowed to do any of this stuff.

And like I I don't even I think that really to do.

From an outside perspective, that was really, I don't an inflection point for you.

4:58

Yeah, just the way it wasn't a change of direction, it was same direction.

But for you it was like a big like like outsizing of what you already were interested in doing.

It had a new IT just felt different from you after that.

It felt more, I guess valuable.

5:18

Maybe that's not the right word, I'm not sure.

But like a podcast, we, we, we kind of been talking about that for a while and kind of because we're goofy and fun and we like talking to each other and we like talking about what we do.

But then when I was there at the shelter, I was like, there's some people who could benefit from this in a way that isn't just helpful, but makes them feel safe.

5:43

Like if we could give these women like a little bit of confidence that they can do this stuff in their own home and they don't have to ask somebody who looks like somebody who has hurt them before into their home like that.

You know, I I can't imagine how valuable that would feel and how like comforting it would feel if somebody cares, somebody on the Internet cares about you and wants you to learn something so you have a little bit more control of your life.

6:12

Yeah.

And that bring like brought it kind of to a whole new level of importance for me.

Like it was, it went from like kind of a fun idea to like something that I felt was like super meaningful and and, and full of purpose.

But in.

Each of us coming from a different background and making our way into the handy handy field.

6:33

It's so relevant to the people who listen and watch because six years ago all of us were in the exact same spot that all of the homeowners that have very little experience are in right now.

So it's totally doable and you can really come from any background.

And Emily is a great example of that.

So Arley also, but Emily in particular is an artist really by trade, maybe isn't right by soul.

6:54

Like she just is an artist.

And yet here you are, Emily, you find yourself in the role of business development manager and those two things don't really seem to overlap.

But how?

How have you found that you are able to do what's uniquely important to you in a role that doesn't seem like it would be a good fit?

7:11

Well, one thing that helps is because we built our own business is we built my role to suit who I am specifically.

But I'm also, I would also say part of being an artist is like building stuff out of something that isn't there, which lends it really well to being a handyman and seeing the vision.

7:33

Like I can picture rooms in my head.

Like when you moved into this house and you talked about what you wanted it to look like, I can picture in my head exactly what it looks like right now.

And that's one reason I can create art.

But also I'm an illustrative artist.

7:48

So I do hand blottering and not like cartoons, but like almost like Winnie the Pooh style illustration is my style.

So one thing that's really fun is because I'm like, I do like kind of fun and whimsy art.

I do love working with my hands and learning this stuff because it's so concrete.

8:06

Like it feels like quite like the Ying to the Yang that is my art style.

And also I'm just kind of like a hippie as a human.

So, but also I think one reason my role works so well is you and I complement each other so much, which is really why I don't think this business would have worked out had we not been such a good partnership.

8:29

But the your type anus to my type Venus.

But I still like I can rein it in most of the time.

But.

It just really plays well together and you always need someone who's a little kooky and willing to try things and yeah.

8:46

Yeah, it's been an interesting journey for me because I am very Type A in a lot of ways, but I'm also someone who is incredibly impulsive.

And normally that that's good because that creates something like an idea will spark and then I'm like, let's do it and then think about it later.

9:09

So that's, you know, not always a great thing, but it is it has been handy in building a business and I'm working as entrepreneurs and what's most important for me, like I love the work we do in particular, like coming from a, a family, like historically of tradespeople.

9:26

So I just think it's really cool.

But what I like best in my specific role is being able to create the environment in which I want to work.

And I think that's really what we've done over the last six years and in particular since Arlie joined us in 2023 is just that it's kind of like a like we're magnets and when we got within proximity of each other, we just snapped together.

9:52

Say it's like an infection and we just infected each other and then it's like we clear up an air infection but one of us still has it so we pass it around or.

Well, that's one way to describe it too.

So sweet.

Charlie was our first full time employee.

She was, yes.

10:08

Well, that's it for today.

Thank you for joining us on our side quest, and we'll see you again this Friday for our next full episode.

Yay.

Episode 3 Bye.