PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Ian Robertson
Welcome back everybody to Inspector Toolbelt Talk. Today we have on a guest, Kari Cheek. How are you, Kari?

Kari Cheek
I’m doing great. How are you doing, Ian?

Ian Robertson
I’m doing fantastic. I’m really happy to have you on. I’ve actually kind of been watching you on Facebook forums and stuff. And I’m like, Oh, hey, somebody, somebody’s selling a website template. I’m like, that’s cool. And then I started looking into you, I’m like, wow, you’ve been around the industry for nine years. And you look like somebody that I wanted to talk to and actually to talk about our subject today. Before we get into our subject of basically how to become a successful female home inspector, tell us a little bit about yourself. And maybe that’ll help everybody understand why I’m so intrigued to have you on the show today.

Kari Cheek
Well for sure. Well, I’ll go back starting at the beginning. I won’t take too long but I did, I grew up in a really little town in Kentucky. It’s kind of the equivalent of Mayberry to be honest with you. I grew up with four brothers, no sisters, and we were homeschooled. That’s kind of a unique thing about me. So I always…

Ian Robertson
Wait, wait, wait, wait, you were homeschooled?

Kari Cheek
Yeah, I was homeschooled, all of us, except for my son.

Ian Robertson
Hey, so was I!

Kari Cheek
No, you’re kidding.

Ian Robertson
I were be homeschooled, yeah.

Kari Cheek
That is awesome, Ian.

Ian Robertson
That’s a joke between me and my brothers.

Kari Cheek
Well, kindred spirits, I think yeah, it’s, that’s, that’s hilarious. Do you ever have people commenting when they are talking to you? And they find that out? And they say, you were homeschooled? I couldn’t tell.

Ian Robertson
Yeah. I know. It’s just like, it’s like you were hit by a bus. I couldn’t tell you. Well, it’s funny. I never got past a ninth grade long, long story that I won’t get into. But yeah, homeschooled for, was it six to till I stopped. Yeah, so.

Kari Cheek
Gotcha. I was all the way..

Ian Robertson
You made it all the way obviously.

Kari Cheek
Well, all except for my junior, my sophomore and junior year, I went to a local high school here in central Kentucky. And then I actually went back to homeschool for my senior year. I couldn’t take it. So yeah, yeah, that that is really cool. But that’s growing up with boys. And the fact that I was homeschooled, they were really the biggest influences on me. And I think the reason I mentioned that is I think that’s one of the things where I’ve been really comfortable just with men and guys, you know, my whole life. So I feel like that helps to contribute to kind of what I’m doing now. But yeah, I went to the University of Kentucky, which is local to me, I went to UK, have a bachelor’s degree in English. I floundered for a couple years with what to do after college, I joined an AmeriCorps program. It’s called NCCC, that’s like the version of AmeriCorps, essentially, it’s kind of like a domestic Peace Corps that I did for 10 months. And that really, the focus was doing new construction with nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity I worked with down in Mobile, Alabama, I did restoration projects with that group, down in New Orleans, worked in Hattiesburg, Mississippi all over, but that kind of, I had, I had grown up around some building, and my dad’s not in construction, but he’s always like building some random shed or apartment or something on our property. So that was always something my brothers and I would help him with, and I was interested in. But when I got into AmeriCorps, I had some kind of more formal training and experience and kind of really got into the nitty gritty and realized, like, man, like, this is really fun. I really love this. The other aspect of being in that program is when I got out, like when you graduate from those, you really don’t make any money at all while you’re in them. But when you’re if you finish, then you get it was an over like a $5,200 grant, basically, that was for education. And I had at that point, I had already gone to college, I worked my way through college, I worked over 40 hours a week in multiple jobs and kind of, I’ve always been really a driven person like that. And that was kind of instilled in me from a young age and always been an entrepreneur too. I was always the kid with the lemonade stand and making crafts to try to sell and all of that. So anyways, with my Education Award, when I finished that program, it was like, Well, what a waste. You know, I didn’t really, there was nothing I wanted to do as far as like a master’s degree or that sort of thing. And so and I didn’t have student loans, and it was like, Okay, well, that’s just going to be lost. It was around that time. I had just gotten kind of a job when I got back with a company. I worked as a health and safety coordinator for an industrial service company when I got back from that program. Great job, great people, great work environment. It was just something that really, it didn’t really inspire me and I couldn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my career. It you know, just one of those type of jobs. And it was around that time I bought my first house and because I had loved that AmeriCorps program and that you know, working on construction and rehabilitation, I bought this real dump in Lexington, Kentucky. It needed a lot of work. But it was really small. It’s like 1000 square feet. 1960s house three bed one bath. So I bought it as a it was a short sale foreclosure. It’s a silent auction, basically. And I won the bid on that house. I want to say it was like, it was 68,500, I paid for my first house. It was really cheap. Well, but it needed a lot. So I, when I went to buy that house and had it inspected, I was so interested in what the inspector was doing. And I was that annoying client that followed him around the whole time and asked questions.

Ian Robertson
Wait, wait, wait. Was your father-in-law there, is that the quintessential two, like..

Kari Cheek
No, no, no, no.

Ian Robertson
You just double whammied the inspector.

Kari Cheek
No, no, it wasn’t that one. So maybe it wasn’t quite as bad. But it was, like I’m sure I was pretty annoying. But anyways, he went through his whole process. And I thought that looks like such a fun job. Like what do I have to do to get that job, you know, so when I started kind of looking into it just not real seriously at first, but I found out that the education grant that I had been awarded through my AmeriCorps service that applies to trades. And there was a school in Louisville, Kentucky that would teach my pre licensing training for being a home inspector. And my education grant would cover the cost of my training. So and even that school even worked with me where not only my training, because it didn’t cost that much. But even like they they were a third party seller of a beginner software, and a few things that I needed basically for getting started. So anyways, that was kind of that made it easier to take the leap I took, it was an eight day course I took eight or not eight, but I guess it would have been five vacation days or so from work, and went and took that course and kind of that was my my start, I guess into home inspection. So kind of a roundabout way of getting there. But yeah, that’s that was kind of where my interest came from, and sort of pursuing that interest from there.

Ian Robertson
Nice. I mean, there’s a lot of aspects to your background that apply very much to the home inspection field, even your English degree. I imagine that that helps a lot in report writing and communicating with your clients and know your background with your family. I think it’s interesting that now you fast forward nine years later, I believe it is, you’ve done, is it over 2000 inspections?

Kari Cheek
Absolutely. Yeah, I just hit 2000 like this January.

Ian Robertson
Oh, wow.

Kari Cheek
Yeah. And it was when I started, I was still working at my job where I was a professional, a safety professional for an industrial service company based out of Lexington. And I worked that job in that position for six years. So basically the first three years of that job, I just did that. And then at that stage, I had bought my house and I had done my training and I was setting up a business. So for the last three years of that job, I was doing home inspections on the side evenings and weekends. And then when I hit that three year mark, a few things happened. I had a high enough inspection volume where I had, I had surpassed the level of income I was making at my job that I didn’t really love doing. I also had met and become engaged and married my husband that year. So I was leaving my job, I was able to be covered under his health insurance, which that’s always such an expense. So that was kind of that was the catalyst for being able to take that leap into full time inspections in 2017. And then I’ve I’ve been a full time inspector since July of 2017. And my husband actually, because we met at that prior job, I was talking about an industrial service and he was actually able to leave that job and he came on board and is basically my assistant and an employee of Rosie Home Inspections, it’ll be four years ago this August. So now it’s something that you know, we kind of we have the life that we love, we we have a like kind of our dream house that we live in. And we’re able to work together every day, which we really love and can make our own schedule and all that stuff. So we’re kind of we’re at a really good point right now for both of us.

Ian Robertson
Man, that’s a beautiful story. And I’m just kind of being the business guy. I’m doing the numbers in my head, doing inspections part time, up until about 2017. You’ve done the bulk of those 2000 inspections in the past five or six years.

Kari Cheek
Yep, that’s right.

Ian Robertson
So your numbers have gone up.

Kari Cheek
Exactly. So yeah, we do consistently. And of course, the COVID years were those were good years for inspectors as far as our inspection volume. But yeah, we do. Our typical year now is like around 325 to 350 inspections. So I know that there are hardcore inspectors that will say, Well, you could be doing more and that is true. We’re actually really involved and anchored to our families. I have two stepchildren. And so my husband’s kids, they’re a little older. They’re 21 and 23. And we actually just had our first grandbaby. My, my stepdaughter had a baby this past January. So he’s almost four months old, and I with my four brothers, and actually, the crazy thing is, there’s five of us kids, we’ve all stayed local to the area, and to our parents, we all live within 15 minutes of each other, my brothers between them, I have nine nieces and nephews with, there’s another one coming in June. And so we’re really, really connected with our families, and you know, helping out where we can and just getting together. And that’s something that’s really, really important to us, and that we value. So even though there, there’s more things we could be doing as far as, we could do more inspections. But we made, we made a personal decision for ourselves years ago of that wasn’t our priority, we want to work and we want to make a good living, and we want to be able to provide for ourselves and our family. But we want to be able to do it you know, over the course of a Monday through Friday schedule, we don’t work weekends, we don’t work in the evenings. And working together, we can get through inspections fairly quickly. So our typical day looks like we started inspection at nine, meet with clients at 11. We started inspections at one, meet with clients at three. We’re usually home by 4pm every day with all of our paperwork and everything finished. So that was always our priority and something that we decided early on.

Ian Robertson
So, if I could high five you right now I would, because one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in business was working too much because I could because the volume was there. And I took it and I tell inspectors all the time. Don’t do that. Yes, you work to live, not live to work. If you live to work, one day, especially if you have a slow season or something dries up and you just have this weird emptiness. And you know, your family isn’t always going to be there. If you’re working all the time, and now you’re not and you’re like hey, no, I’m ready for you. Maybe they’re not. Yeah, so that’s a beautiful thing. So there’s my little soapbox speech on top of yours. But um, my wife always tells me that I’m awkward around women because I didn’t have sisters growing up. It was all brothers. And now I have a wife and a daughter. So forgive me if I have some awkward when I say this, but you don’t look old enough to have a grandmother or to be a grandmother. Like I’m not gonna ask you your age because I know that much. But you look way too young to be a grandma. Does that feel weird?

Kari Cheek
Not weird. I actually love it. My husband is 10 years older than me. I’m I just turned 37 I’ll tell you that. Ian, I’m not ashamed. But yeah, my husband is 10 years older than me. And so it makes a little more sense when you know that because I’m not quite old enough to have had my daughter, my stepdaughter. But it’s actually it’s super cool to like to be a grandma and be super young. I go by “Mima”. I always tell him that Mima loves him too, you know, so he knows who I am. I have lots of energy, and I feel like I can be the cool Mima, you know, so no, to me. It is it’s funny when I tell people that but for me, it’s not awkward. It’s really exciting. And it makes me really happy.

Ian Robertson
Okay, cool. And I can tell you had brothers because then I’m asking you weird questions, and you answer it with no problems. Cool. Yeah. But let’s delve into the subject a little bit, because I’ve never been a female home inspector. So I don’t know the answers to any of these questions. You know, starting, running, and becoming successful as a home inspection business in general has difficulties and challenges. And matter of fact, our industry has a low success rate. And I hate saying that, but it’s true. High failure rate, approximately 80% of home inspection businesses will fail within the first two years. And it’s let’s be honest, it’s a male dominated industry, I would guess 95 plus percent of home inspection companies are men, you know, single inspector firms are a couple of guys. But just an interesting little factoid. One of the top five home inspector or top six home inspection companies in the country is women run. It’s run by a woman, started, run, and grown to be one of the biggest inspection companies. I mean, not even just in this country, that means it’s in the world. So it’s definitely possible. But did you have any challenges starting out? Let’s let’s break it into two parts starting and growing. Did you have any trouble starting your company as a woman?

Kari Cheek
Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll preface this, Ian, with saying that and I think you just said it beautifully. Becoming a home inspector, it doesn’t matter who you are is challenging. And I don’t we all have our own paths to getting started and growing and everything. We all have different journeys. So it’s hard for me to necessarily compare that to a male inspector, but I can speculate, I think that every inspector has obstacles. I think that female inspectors it’s likely that we have one extra obstacle because it can be very, very difficult. And it is in the beginning to be taken seriously, I think I think when any inspector starts, like, if you kind of look the part, if you look like, especially if you’re going to introducing yourself to agents, like, let’s say, because that’s a big part is, you know, meeting agents handing out your business card, letting people know you exist as a business. And I think if you are a male inspector, and I’ll even go one step further and say, a white male inspector, because that’s the majority, I think that you start out with a certain amount of credibility, like say you’re in the middle. And then if you can prove that you have great inspection knowledge and great communication skills, then you can move up from there. I think that for women, and probably even other racial minorities, I think that you don’t start in the middle with having just if you don’t look the part. So I think you start lower. And then I think that if you can prove your inspection knowledge and your communication skills, then you can move up to the starting point of where somebody that looks, the part would normally be. And I could be wrong about that. But that’s definitely the impression I get. And there’s, there’s definitely those obstacles. And that’s not something, I think it probably is harder to make a start and to get your foot in the door to even get those like that initial word of mouth going of your company existence. But I will say it’s also just a fight every day, I think I remember in college, I took a communications course. And I remember learning kind of the psychology of how our brains will organize things. And specifically, I want to like talk about people and types of people. And so it’s human nature that we have like filing systems in our brains, where we are filing away all the data of things that we learn from birth to the point that we’re at. And so when we see something over and over in patterns, well, then you can make an assumption. So we’re talking about home inspectors. So if the home inspectors that I see and that I meet in my life, if those people are white men, then when I see an inspector that’s a white man, I don’t have to learn everything about him to understand where he’s coming from and his capabilities, because my brain recognizes like, Oh, I’ve seen that before. So now I can judge that book by its cover. And I can kind of go back to that filing system in my brain. And I can give him the same credibility that I’ve applied to people that I’ve met before him. So I think whenever you are a minority, like in a career path like this, I think that that’s the challenge is recognizing that when people see you, you don’t fit that pattern that they’re used to. And so like their brain kind of short circuits, and they’re trying to figure out like, like, I don’t understand, this does not compute with the filing system that I have. So and that’s not even, that’s not a criticism of when people see me and make an assumption about me that isn’t true. That’s not a criticism, because that is human nature. That is the way our brains are hardwired designed to work. So they’re not we’re not overwhelmed with anxiety, every time we step out the door, we have to have a way to process that information. Or like if you think of it in terms of a website, to have that like caching installed, so that we’re not having to relearn everything every time we walk out the door. And I did the same thing. Like even on the other side of it, if you think of like nursing, since that is a female dominated field. If you see a male nurse, then that might seem a little weird. It’s getting to be more common, but it kind of works both ways. So it’s not something to get offended by. But that is a challenge.

Ian Robertson
You know, it’s funny that you mentioned that, there was a social experiment that they did. I say social experiment, was actually a comedy show. But they sent this guy walking into secure buildings with a clipboard and a lab coat. And he got into like better than half of the buildings without question. Because people processed this guy about 40 years old clipboard, white coat, he looks the part and they just let him in. Because there was a trust factor there. I’m not going to pretend to know what it’s like for you or any other group. Just in my own experience. I looked like I was 12 until I was about 35. So you’ll never see a picture of me anywhere on any of my marketing from the beginning, because people would assume I didn’t know. I remember this one guy was a competitor. And I lost an inspection to him and I’m like, no offense to this competitor. If you’re out there listening to it. I hope you did well, but you were terrible 18 years ago, but they went with him and they’re like he just basically it comes down to he just looked the part and you know, had heard later on, they had a few issues. Nothing crazy, but no, it wasn’t that great of an inspector for him. So we do we do have this picture in our mind. I was just telling that to another inspector the other day, and it’s probably going to sound really bad. But he’s like 45 years old, has a little bit of gray looks young enough to get into an attic, but old enough to kind of command a room. So I’m like, why don’t you have pictures of yourself on your website? I’m like, that’s what everybody is kind of expecting. So be the guy with the clipboard and the lab coat walking into the building, yeah, but now you don’t have that advantage, right, as a woman. So how did you work around that, because because you obviously did, and in a relatively short period of time.

Kari Cheek
I think it’s probably my persistence. I think, my husband has kind of told me this because I’m, I wasn’t super self aware about it until he, you know, kind of saw it in me, and we’ve talked about this, but I have something inside of me. It’s just a drive that keeps going and going and going and going for whatever I decide to do. And I have a lot of interests. I’m kind of one of those people that feels slighted by the fact that I only have one life to live, because there’s so many things to do, there’s so many things to experience. And when I set my mind to something typically, like it has to be something that I’m interested in, and then I just have this like wheel in me like a hamster running in that wheel. I guess that’s probably stems back to my childhood. And I was raised in a really, really religious, a Christian background, my dad is actually a Methodist pastor. And I think that it might be that I don’t know if you’re religious or have any, like a Christian background, Ian, but there’s a Bible verse that is, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if you were working for the Lord, not for man, because you know, you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. And my spiritual beliefs have changed in a lot of ways since when I was a kid. But those were the types of building blocks that kind of made the foundation for who I am, my parents, they made a decision when we were kids of my, my dad always worked and my mom stayed home to run the household and to homeschool us and there was a lot of budgeting that had to be done, we always had what we needed, my mom could really run a house on a very, very, very small budget, and there wasn’t really much leftover. And so when I talked about I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life, that’s just in me, I just I have this drive where it’s like, I just take hold of something, and I push, push, push, push, push to make it happen, I don’t need outside validation, I like compliments like anybody else. I like being recognized for my achievements. But I don’t need them in order to keep that drive going. And to keep my passion going. I just, I never have. And it’s just the feeling that I get, like, I’m somebody that has a really hard time sitting still, or even relaxing or telling myself that it’s okay to take a break. Because even if I sit down, you know, in the evening to like watch TV, I’m like, if I’m sitting there without my laptop, and like, Oh, I just feel like there’s there’s something pushing on me like there should be something that I’m working on now to make my business better or you know, something I like to crochet I like crafts, I crochet. So it’s like I should be working on a blanket for whatever new niece or nephew was just born or now my grandson, even when I started when I got to the point when my husband came on with me. So you know, before that I was kind of a typical inspector who was working from 7am in the morning until 11pm at night, once he came on with me and we kind of we added more structure and more systems into our business and kind of cut down on so much time, I took up a hobby with my mom of like I had always wanted to try pottery. And so we went full bore into making pottery. And now my husband and I have built a pottery studio in our basement. And so I just there’s just something in me that never stops, I feel lazy if I am not doing something or thinking about something. So I think that that is probably a really important aspect for anyone. If you’re in a career path that maybe you do have one or more than one additional obstacles than the average person who gets into that career path. I think you probably do need something in you, that drives you because if you are just depending on outside validation, I think you’d probably get too discouraged and quit before you really gave yourself a chance to succeed.

Ian Robertson
You know, I think and not to be a reductionist about what you said. But tenacity comes to mind type A personality. I think a lot of our listeners can relate to that. Those of us who have been in the industry for a long time, like I love to work yeah, it may I feel good after I work like this is gonna sound totally weird, but I’m looking forward, I have this toilet that I need to go fix. And I’m like, oh, man, I could I could cut out the pipe here and it needs an expansion joint because it’s a long story. And I’m just like, that’s weird that I’m looking forward to that. But I think a lot of our listeners can relate to enjoying work, enjoying accomplishing things and being that type A tenacious kind of personality. But there was something in there that I think you said. But maybe maybe it just was reading between the lines. I think of Yoda, Do or do not. There is no try.

Kari Cheek
There is no try, yep,

Ian Robertson
Yep. And I’ve had a lot of inspectors tell me, I’m going to try this out. And I even told a guy, and I was probably going on a month now, he goes, I’m gonna try this out and see how it goes. I’m like, I’m very blunt. I’m like, you’ve already failed. You either do it all in or you’re done. Because 80% fail rate in the first two years. Half of those guys were trying hard. They were doing and they still failed. You try? That’s it, you’re just splashing in the water. So how did you turn that into practical application? Like, did you target a specific type of agent to market to or go to clients directly? Or like, how did you turn your tenacity and even your disadvantage into an advantage?

Kari Cheek
Well, yeah, I think I..well, one thing I did in the beginning, like my big, fancy marketing strategy was, my mom has a small soap making business, she makes this really great soap that’s great for your skin. And it’s made out of goat milk. And it’s packaged really cute, she packages it in fabric. And it’s like this great thing locally, everybody loves it. And so my first thing was a collaboration with my mom who my mom was, my mom is always my cheerleader. I think part of part of me being confident enough to just like, you know, I’m interested in home inspection. So I’m gonna go for it is that I was I was raised, my my mom’s father raised her in this way. And she raised me in this way of, like, there, there are no boundaries, figure out what you like, and what you want to do, and go get it. And not only was that something that my parents, they, you know, instilled in me that that was good. And that was what I needed to do was find my passions and work hard for them. But my mom in the beginning of my home inspection business, because this is it’s still a hard thing. I really the job that I had with the industrial company, it was good, and it paid good, and I was good at it. But when I said I wanted to pursue this, there was nothing that they said to discourage me from it. And my mom was my biggest cheerleader. And she, we had a collaboration where she made these soaps and she made special labels for them that had all of her normal info. But she put my Rosie Home Inspections logo, which is it looks different than it does now. I’ve had it professionally designed now. It used to be me with my Rosie the Riveter arm up because that’s where that’s where the Rosie Home Inspections come from. My company theme is Rosie the Riveter because I felt like, let’s embrace this female tenacity and hard work. So she made these special things. And then she, I took a day or two off of work first getting started because I had business cards made through Vistaprint. And she and I drove around we had I had made a list ahead of time, I didn’t have anything specific where I was like targeting certain offices, I basically just made a list from looking online of what are real estate offices like in my vicinity. And I made a list of the places and the addresses made up little bags that had those bars of soap and cards and the looked cute, you know, a little, a nice little bag with paper in it. And then she and I drove around and I was always the face I would go in by myself, but we would drive and she would wait and the cars wouldn’t have to park go in quickly. And you know, a lot of times for anybody who’s ever done that, it’s it’s horrible. Like it’s so especially when you’re first doing it because you don’t really believe in yourself yet. I had done the training and I had studied and studied and studied to pass that national exam with that giant textbook, I had inspected all of my friends and family members houses, you know, but you still when you walk into those offices, you don’t 100% believe in yourself yet, and you’re not even talking, you’re talking to the receptionist. So it really doesn’t even matter that much when you first go in usually, but it’s such a nerve wracking experience. I am definitely I’m an introvert, I can speak confidently, I can get up in front of groups of people, but I draw my energy from being by myself and being small. That’s just me. So these are like very high anxiety situations for me. But we went over two days and hit like, I don’t know, probably 25 or 30 offices or something like that. And each one is hard, introducing myself and giving card and so that was kind of the first step. I would follow up at some of those offices, but part of it too is just kind of being lucky of like if they have your card and they know your business exists. What I found was you couldn’t get your foot in the door until their inspector they normally used was really busy and slammed like in the spring market. And then it’s just like, Oh, they’re out of options, and they have this deadline. And so hey, who was that girl that dropped off that card. So my first two years, and again, I was working a full time job. So even my inspection appointments like I worked a nine to five. So my inspection slots would start at 6pm, and ends at 9pm. Or I’d be working Saturdays, that was the availability I could offer, which actually, the weekend availability is good, too. I think that helps when you’re new, because agents, a lot of times get into a pinch, and you got to work Saturdays or Sundays. So my first two years I did, my first year was like a handful of inspections, like maybe like four inspections. My second year was still really low, I think I probably did, like 20 inspections my second year. And then there was something after that, that just started to sort of snowball. And I think even when you’re only doing, you know, if you do 20 inspections one year, and you’re new, as long as you are providing a really good product, you’re still that’s that can create a snowball effect, where you know, even if there’s one agent now that believes in you, and they’ve you’ve proved yourself and they’ve seen what you’re capable of, well, then that one agent, even if they’re not doing high volume, but you might get, say six inspections a year from even a low volume agent, or something. And then often too, you get like, I found that if you send out notifications, after inspections to the listing agent, as well, and say, Thank you so much for allowing me to inspect this listing. Well, now you’ve connected with another agent, they haven’t necessarily seen your work, but they know that someone else believes in you enough to hire you. So some of those things like once you start to get in that cycle, then you can start to like all of a sudden, the year three, I had a much higher volume. And I was getting really busy at that point, because there was enough agents that knew me, and had seen the quality of my work that now I was starting to get a reputation.

Ian Robertson
You know, there’s a lot to unpack there and a lot of gold nuggets. The first thing I kind of noticed that you said is that you were lucky. So I’ve actually heard other people say that I’m going to actually just take issue with that because it wasn’t luck, you created opportunity because of your tenacity. So you were there, you made sure you were there so that when the opportunity arose, you were next in line. So a lot of people forget that, in general, in the inspection industry, let alone maybe a female inspector is that sometimes we go in, we talked to agents and nothing comes of it. We don’t go and plant a seed come out the next day and nothing’s growing. So we kick the dirt and walk away and forget it, the seed was planted, you created an opportunity for something to grow. So that way when they needed that last minute inspection, you were there. And you also a lot of people say play to your strengths you were playing to what people would perceive or as we mentioned earlier in the podcast, maybe set you down a couple of notches on the scale is being a female inspector, sometimes, you know if, you know like I avoided offices at first when I was younger, because I look young. But then I found out Oh sometimes, you know, sometimes the younger buyers like the younger looking inspector because then they felt more comfortable, you know, or something like that. So you probably found agents that were like, oh, cool, a female inspector, you know what I have a female buyer, you know, just making some weird connection in the head. Not that that has to do with anything, but they’re like, oh, you know what I could you have weekend inspections, awesome. I’ll squeeze you in there. We meet our tribes so to speak, and there’s gonna be people in every aspect of life that will connect with us buyers and agents out there are just like us, we just need to be there to find them. Then when we find them, they become a referring clients and referring agents for years to come. So I like how you you play to quote unquote perceived weakness. But then you also created opportunity, that wasn’t luck. That was, that was straight up you. You are creating opportunity. You are standing in line, ready and waiting. The other thing I noticed you said is you viewed 20 inspections your second year as a win, that is beautiful. A lot of people don’t know this about me. I think I did two inspections my first year, I own three inspection companies. I’ve done 1000s upon 1000s of inspections. I did two my first year, and I remember thinking I’m a failure. Don’t be angry at small beginnings. Yeah, they lead to somewhere your again your tenacity, your I’m going to keep doing this led you to push through those barriers. So anybody out there listening, female, male, think about that. If you’re struggling right now and you’re like I’ve only done two inspections last month, or if you did two inspections last month, you did the same number as me as my first year. You know, if you do 20 inspections last year, that’s the same as Kari, she did in her second year. So you’re a success story, not because of overnight success. And you just knew the right people and they’re just a meteoric rise to success. You dug the trenches, you you built the foundation, you blood, sweat and tears. That’s a beautiful thing, that’s not made up all over the place, that’s digging your heels in and get done. I love that.

Kari Cheek
Right. Thank you, Ian. I like that perspective.

Ian Robertson
Well, and it’s true, because there’s always going to be that one weirdo in our market that’s like, they started and then six months from now, they’re like, I’m on my 500th inspection this year. Yeah, that’s like, Okay, shut up, dude. You know, it’s like, those are the rarities. And I don’t know how much of its true or how much of it’s blowing smoke. But that’s not how things happen typically. Maybe his wife is an agent, or he worked in the mortgage industry, and he knew all the agents or who knows? I don’t know. Yeah, that’s real life, what you described.

Kari Cheek
I think sometimes too, the slow start can give you an advantage in that you can improve the quality of your work with every inspection you do without having like as much pressure because you can improve that process as you go without like having to churn out two inspections a day. So by the time you do get to where you’re doing a higher volume, it’s a really polished product.

Ian Robertson
And that’s really important for any home inspector, to have a polished product. And sometimes the meteoric rise just means a mediocre inspection service.

Kari Cheek
Right.

Ian Robertson
Not saying always, but you have time to clean up and refine and make things better. But I do want to make sure that we emphasize that point that you didn’t hide that you were a female inspector, you didn’t hide it.

Kari Cheek
I thought, I thought about it.

Ian Robertson
So the tale of two female inspectors, there was just one female inspector we were working with, she was super good. And I really wanted her to succeed, but she really didn’t want to, in her words, make things too girly, because people don’t want a female inspector. I’m like, just work that you are a female inspector, because you are, it’s is like, why, why hide that? So then all you’re doing is creating a false pretense. And then you show up and people are like, Oh, this isn;t what I was expecting. Yeah. And then somebody else could have been like, oh, I would love to have a female inspector that knows what she’s doing. You’re just avoiding opportunity, she ended up not making it. Whereas you took the opposite course, here I am. Let’s do this.

Kari Cheek
Well, and even that, so I did decide because I think with any marketing, you kind of have to deal in extreme. So when I was first getting my license, I was told by, like the the guy that was teaching my pre licensing course in Louisville, he let me know, when I went through that course that when I got my license, I would be one of three female home inspectors in the state of Kentucky at that point in time. And we’ve added a few more since then. But nine years ago, that was true. And so that when he told me that that’s when I seriously considered I thought, Okay, I have two options. I can either like go by my initials, so that people don’t know who that I am a woman like hide that fact just kind of tried to blend in basically, and it sounds like this, the other woman, you know, that was kind of her strategy, I seriously considered that strategy. Because it is, you know that it’s going to be a big hill to climb because you know, if you’re entering a field where you’d look different from everybody else, but you know, I don’t have a pink theme if you want to call that girly, but choosing Rosie Home Inspections for the theme of my company and my sister in law, she did like an amateur semi professional photography. She took photos of me dressed up like Rosie the Riveter with in that famous arm motion pose. So that was what I use on my, actually, that’s still on my business cards. That’s what I use for my marketing. That was my logo. I made magnets for the side of my car.

Ian Robertson
I think it’s still on your website too, Rosiehomeinspections.com.

Kari Cheek
Yep, yeah, exactly. You can still see the pictures of me, the logo itself now, in the word Rosie the “O” has the famous Rosie the Riveter bandana wrapped around the O. So you can still kind of get that theme in the color scheme. But that was a really conscious decision I made of I either need to go one way or the other. So if I’m going to promote myself that I’m a, that I am female, I’m not a female home inspector, I am a home inspector, and I’m female, then I need to embrace that and say, Look, I’m proud of this. I am happy to be here. And that whole theme kind of embodied how I felt about everything. If I had confidence going in. I know I look different from everybody else. But like, I am powerful, and I am making a difference. So that was kind of my whole thing behind Rosie Home Inspections. And people say all the time, they don’t realize my name is Kari, a lot of people, even agents I’ve worked for for years will call me Rosie, and then they’ll catch themselves and they’ll say oh, sorry. I mean, Kari. I’ll say no, to be honest with you. I’m flattered. I respond to either name. I am flattered when people call me Rosie because to me, that does that’s not just me that represents women who have stepped up into roles that aren’t traditional for them and been strong in those roles and made a difference and it tells me that like my marketing works. I don’t care that you don’t remember my name is Kari, the fact that you know that I’m I am Rosie, people talk about Rosie. To me, I feel like that is success in that marketing campaign.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, you know, and I have no social commentary on stuff, but I hate social constructs in general. I think most of them are arbitrary. Yes. Like a lot of times people say, Oh, sewing is a woman’s job. Most people don’t realize a couple hundred years ago, was actually a man’s job. And I forget was a World War One, I think maybe change that, or maybe one of the wars before that. And then it switched. Now it’s a woman’s job. Oh, social construct. I’m like, That seems pretty arbitrary. My daughter, I’ve had her using nail guns and everything since She’s five years old. And I dunno maybe if there’s any child labor laws, you know, lawyers listening to this..

Kari Cheek
Have to scratch that.

Ian Robertson
Yeah, exactly. She worked under the appropriate amount of time. I’m just kidding. But you know, it’s like, what, what does that have to do with anything if somebody’s capable of something. So I think most social constructs are pretty arbitrary. But it seems like you’ve pushed through those. And not only just done well, but have been very successful. You’ve built a successful business, you’re also selling your website theme to other inspectors. And you can see it again at Rosiehomeinspections.com.

Kari Cheek
And it’s actually, Ian, I actually, myself and another female home inspector in Kentucky. With that template, actually, we have created a side business that’s called Next Level Inspector Services. That site is nextlevelinspectorservices.com. And that’s actually where I’m selling that website template. We have different products where like Lunch and Learn PowerPoint presentations, things like that, where our idea was the stuff that we use in our own businesses that has helped us to grow, like other inspectors could benefit from that, too. And so that’s that was kind of our our theory. And our reason behind starting that as a side gig of like, we have all this information already. Let’s make it into a template so that other people can benefit from it too.

Ian Robertson
Awesome. Well, Kari, you’ve been a fantastic help today. We could go on all day talking about what you’ve done, and what you are continuing to do to grow your business. I tell you what, it’s great conversation. Thank you so much for being on, and look Kari up, we’ll put links in the transcript of this podcast, but Kari or Rosie, thank you so much for being on.

Kari Cheek
Thanks for having me, Ian. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Ian Robertson
Thank you.

Outro: On behalf of myself, Ian, and the entire ITB team, thank you for listening to this episode of inspector toolbelt talk. We also love hearing your feedback, so please drop us a line at [email protected].

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*The views and opinions expressed in this podcast, and the guests on it, do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Inspector Toolbelt and its associates.