Breaking Barriers in Construction, Mentoring and Early Talent

In this episode of the We Are PoWEr Podcast, Simone Roche MBE sits down with Renee Preston, CEO at Gallaway Construction and Founder of Construction for Women, to talk about changing the landscape of the construction industry and creating more opportunities for women to thrive.

Renee shares her personal journey into construction, the experiences that shaped her career, and the work she’s doing to open doors for the next generation through mentoring and early talent programmes.

Together, Simone and Renee explore the barriers that still exist in the sector, the importance of representation on building sites and how confidence challenges like impostor syndrome can impact careers even for the most capable professionals.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
➡️ Renee’s pathway into the construction industry
➡️ Changing the landscape of a traditional building site
➡️ Barriers women can face in construction careers
➡️ Mentoring and supporting the next generation
➡️ Navigating impostor syndrome in the workplace
➡️ The mission behind Construction for Women 

#WeArePoWEr #WomenInConstruction #WomenInLeadership

Find out more about We Are PoWEr here.  💫

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome to the We Are Power Podcast. If this is your first time here, the We Are Power Podcast is the podcast for you, your career, and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As We Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and We Are Power.

unknown 0:44

Everybody's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Well, today I am joined on the teal sofa by Renee Preston, Queen of Changing Construction. You have been busy, busy, busy. And also, you've been a double award, Northern Power Women Awards decade finalist and also a finalist for Galloway Construction, which is your organization as well. So way to get busy. Thank you. And it's all about this is all about recognizing your you are an impact-led leader, aren't you? That's what's important to you. So rather than me read out all of the things that are on your byline, all of your titles, how do you describe the work you do and what you're trying to change?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Um I'm trying to change the landscape of uh a building site, having worked on building sites for years and being the only female. Um, I mean, the stats speak for themselves. We've got 14% uh over across the built environment and 2% on sites. Um I'm working to change that. I've got a five-year plan. I want to step onto those sites and see a sea of women, and um, I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

So let's just rewind, right, to where it all started. When you look back, what were those early influences that shaped your pathway into construction?

Repositioning A Company With Impact

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Well, I construction uh found me. I was married into construction. Um Married to the job. So I yeah, literally. So I um I've worn many hats. I've um hard hats, of course, right? No, it's chef's hats, hard hats. I've been a chef. I've had my own uh I would say catering company. Uh used to be a caterer at the House of Lords. I've um I've had my own nutrition company, um, which was we sold lifestyle blends all around the country. I created them all raw food blends. So yeah, I've I've had many different guises. Um my passion is marketing, my passion is seeing something, taking the raw essence of something, and and finding the best out of it, find and and then and then putting it on that pedestal and showing everybody what we can create and what what best practice looks like. So construction, um, my husband, um, after we had the children, asked me to join Galloway. And my first thought was, oh, how am I gonna market this? You know, what's the story? Um but and I I went into the company and I sat back and I said, Well, look, I've got I've had my own businesses, I've run my I've run my own businesses successfully. And if you want me to be a part of this, it's gotta be 50-50. We've got to run it together. Um, and you've got to give me the scope to show you what I think needs to be changed. Uh, and to be honest, we worked brilliantly together. I sat back good first three to six months watching and seeing and realizing that I did not want to inherit a dinosaur of a company. I didn't want to be a company that sponsored local school shirts and and you know, you know, just the bare minimum. I wanted to be impactful in we are building the community, not just building the buildings within that community. And that was the message that I sold straight from the get-go. And it's been our success ever since.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

But when you talked about wanting to sort of disrupt, if you like, and do things a little bit different, what was the thing you remember way back from sort of those early days when you went, I'm not doing that, and I'm not doing that. What was the first thing you did? Well, I'm doing that, and I'm really proud of that.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Uh, the early talent programme I was exceptionally proud of. Um, we we started off by going into schools and just threshing out a 12-week programme, which again, most people would be like, Well, some people just go into a school and do like a STEM session for an hour or so and clear off. And I've never done things by half. So I was like, I'm going in, I'm all in. Let's show them what the construction industry is all about. And also that reverse mentorship, they might have some really great ideas and really great suggestions, and and and it's it's sparking that excitement in them from the get-go. And I was really excited to start that and launch that. Also terrifying because it's it's easy being with your peers, isn't it? As soon as you're with kids and they're asking all these different questions, you're like, whoa. Um, but I think that gave me a real excitement for what is possible in the construction industry, and it also got me really frustrated early doors that we've got a neat crisis, we've got a skills shortage, we've got some really engaging kids out there. We've got these awful unconscious biases around sort of like what used to be the thick kids went into construction. They weren't no one, there aren't any kids that are thick kids. What but are they neurodiverse? Have they been, you know, I'm neurodiverse, so I can see it straight away. I can see the attraction piece around wanting to be in construction and being neurodiverse. So join up the dots and let's support that, nurture it. And yeah, it's like you say, I am that disruptor for change because I can see in that disruption how we can join up the dots and fix so many problems within the industry. And if you had a magic wand right now, what would you do with it?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Who would you point it at? No, there's a hot, then so there's too much of a list.

Lowering Barriers For 16-Year-Olds On Site

SPEAKER_00 6:20

That was a massive question. I mean, put me on the spot. Um if I had a magic wand, I would tell all the tier one contractors they must um change their policy and have 16-year-olds um to be able to work on sites, and most of them it's 18, which is a massive barrier to entry. We're basically telling uh you know school leavers that you've got to wait for two years to be part of our industry, and therefore you have to go to college for two years. And as I just said, if if you've been institutionalised for that long and you just want to break through and get a job, or on the other side, and the flip side of this is you have to get a job. You want to go out, you want to earn, you want to support the family. You know, we've got four generations with unemployment in our country. There's you know, I speak to kids, I I teach at colleges, I was teaching a load of bricklayers the other day, like they were only 16, and I'm just getting in their heads a little bit and and sort of seeing what it is that they want and what they see as the future of the their careers. And a lot of them want to get on site and learn at grassroots, and that's how we we back in the day there was YTS schemes with 16-year-olds working on sites, they do learn at grassroots, they make the bruise, they you know, they fill the skips, they sweep the floors, they learn, they watch, they shadow, and we're not we're not allowing that to happen right now.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

And it's the people factor, isn't it? Let them at the people that are also at the grassroots level because that's how you learn. Yeah, you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Sometimes it's a tough way, there's a bit of tough love. Yeah, but it's also like with the mentoring programme, when we've got a lot of um university students on the mentoring programme, they're just finished in uni, and um they'll speak to me and they'll say, So I'm I'm a project manager, um, and I've I I've I've been looking for a job for six months and and I've not I've not got you know any even an interview. And I'll say, What what job are you trying to get? Project management. Yeah, but just because you've studied something doesn't mean to to say something a box, you know, you're not gonna let a surgeon loose on a patient if they've only read a book. You know, so why do you and they're not taught, they're not told that you've got to learn at that grassroots level. You know, and I'll say in the mentoring sessions, I'm like, I would absolutely have you in as an assistant site manager role. Work your way through, you know. So it's about managing expectations as well. Have you always been a disruptor?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Have you grown into this role?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Were you a disruptor in the kitchen when you were a chef? I've always been a disruptor. I remember my brother telling me years ago that men are chefs and women are cooks.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Wow, I'd love to see how that conversation went. Yeah, yeah.

Managing Expectations And Grassroots Learning

SPEAKER_00 9:07

And so his name? My brother Law can you watch it now? She's done all right. And so I've I've suffered that unconscious bias, whether it was being a chef in a kitchen or a female, oh sorry, a female on a building site. There are those unconscious biases that have always been around. And so yeah, I've I've always wanted to shake up that norm and and prove people wrong.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Was there a moment, was there that defining moment that you realized actually it's on me to to make the change here?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

I mean, it's on both of us because I I can't I'm my role um in construction has always been up to the spade in the ground. Um so I reach out to the client base, find the clients. Um but there's been a big shift in construction over the last few years in that a company who is passionate about changing the environment in which they work in, be it environmentally, be it through social value, then you obviously get rewarded in the tender process. So and everyone started to sit up and listen. I was doing it way before there was even such a thing as people mentioning social value. However, um what we have to offer is huge because we do make an impact in the environment. So local authorities, NHS, education, they're all the type of clients that that grasp with both hands the type of company like Galloway and say, absolutely, we want to work with them. Um it just so happens that we've also been in the industry for 24 years and we've got the skill set to do everything else. So, so the golden goose maybe, you know, is is um is how some might look at it.

Building A Movement: Construction For Women

SPEAKER_01 11:07

And and did it take that? Because sometimes it takes money talks, right? And it takes you to be getting those big, bold contracts because you're getting them, because you've got this, all this good stuff. You've got the skills, like you say, you've got the expertise, you've got the knowledge, you've got the experience, but you've also got all this extra stuff, all the side hustles that you've been doing around building community talent added in to get you getting these contracts. And that must have been the bit that the wider industry and maybe competitors around you stood up and went, Oh, actually, this this is a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Oh, I mean, for sure. A lot of people will meet me and say, Can you can you come in and advise us? Can you can you come in and and and help us and tell us what it is we do? And I mean, I set up construction for women two years ago, and it it was at the beginning, it was a um an initiative by Galloway, but it's become so huge, and I'm so passionate about it. I've taken it away from Galloway in essence that it's now a CIC, it's a standalone CIC. And so for those people that come to me and say, Oh, can you help me? Yes, there's a company there that's doing it. We're trying to reduce this skills back, we're trying to get more women into the industry, we're educating at you know, year nine level, we're giving taste today for construction. And and up until now, the two years that I've set construction for women up, I haven't had a penny of funding. So it's all it's all been the passion. Ten years in. Yeah, it's the it's the passion. And um, but it, you know, the awards got to stand for something. And I I looked at all the awards last year, I saw the industry pat me on the back, and it was great. It made me feel exceptionally proud. I was incredibly humbled. It was like 15 awards in one year. I was like, oh my god. And construction news wrote a piece last week and called me the Ante Deck of the uh of the Which one's what the construction was. And I was like, I'll take that actually.

Scaling Mentoring And Social Value

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I will take that and I will enjoy it. Maybe the trait changes when it's showing an anna. Yeah, not an egg. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So talk to us about uh women in construction. What is your because you're not somebody, let you say, you're all in, you don't do things by halves. Um you've had a gala not so long ago, and the whole you have big ambitions is about how to raise a million social value in one night. Do you have a um a wider is it do you have a five-year plan for women in construction?

National Site Standard For Female Operatives

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yes, I mean, um the platform for the mentoring, we've got 180 women being mentored at the moment, it's growing daily. Uh, this is all done manually. Um, and it's between me and my fabulous marketing assistant, Harry, um, who I nick from Galloway, and we we work tirelessly to support, and I get phone calls and I get LinkedIn messages, and um, you know, I've got an a female ex-prisoner that's a bricklayer that spoke to me yesterday and she's like, Will you be my mentor? And there's that moment of intake, and then you go, Yes, yes, I will. Um, there's so many people that need mentoring, there's so many women at the beginning of the career, women coming into the industry. Another lady yesterday's 45, uh, she's a project manager now, she retrained and came into the industry. She's still looking for mentors, still looking for support. We understand that if you have a mentor, you're 80% more likely to stay in industry, and we have a huge retention problem. My five-year plan is to grow the platform so much so that we have a huge alumni. So this year I've got the um next generation conferences, and we're hosting them uh in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, London, uh, Liverpool, Newcastle, maybe Belfast. So huge undertaking. 100 women each, all will get a mentor. So I'm taking 300 women to UK Reef this year. That's with the next gen conferences. That's an awful lot of women that I've now promised a mentor. But that support, that growth, what we can do, how we can retain, that needs the technology. So the next step for me is um I've set up Building Impact Tech, um, and that tech company sits above. Uh, and we now just we now start growing that platform. Um, and we're able to, with the joys of AI and new technology, we can build the biggest mentoring platform in the UK. Uh, at the moment, I've got the biggest mentoring platform in construction, um, which I'm very proud of. I want to grow it further. I want to make sure that if a female wants a mentor in the industry, then they get one. And we can do that and we can facilitate that. And the likes of the gala is uh when I'm raising, when I say I'm raising a million pounds worth of social value in one evening, you know, I get the people in the room to understand that the mentoring and the mentors, that that's a big, that's a big part of that. So they don't get to leave the room unless they've signed up to become a mentor. No such thing as a free dinner, right? No, it's just things a free dinner. You can have some lovely wine and a nice three course meal, but you've still got to sign up to become a mentor.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And you are, as I said at the start, you're an impact lad leader, and that kind of brings us on to something that you have, something quite significant that you have delivered. So you've authored, launched the Construction for Women National Site standard for female operatives, which you launched just at that House of Lords. Did you have it? We're used to chef, by the way, as you said earlier. Oh, and I got married there. So well, there you go. So yeah, there's lots of synergy for me. So sometimes it is, you need that, it's gotta be right. But for just talk to us about for people outside of construction, what is this standard and why does it matter so much?

Zero Tolerance And Speaking Up

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah, you would actually think that it exists in the first place, yeah, you would, um, but it's not. So the standard is so we've been mentoring for two years. I got a lot of feedback from the mentors. Um, and there's certain practices on Site that make you feel that you're not welcome and you're not part of it. And I use this analogy a lot, but a locked toilet is basically saying that we're not not just that we're not ready for you, but also that you're not welcome, you know, for inclusive. It's just totally not inclusive. And I mean, this standard is it it goes way beyond a locked toilet, but that's the mean it's the most common thing that women say, thank you, thank you for actually launching the site standard. And it's around the PPE and ill-fitting PPE, and you know, not standing on a building site with size eight um boots on because you know they haven't got the correct fitting ones. I mean, I'm actually a size four and they don't sell size four site boots. They only start at five, so I've always worn like extra socks on site. Um, so it's about this, but it's about best practice, changing the rams, um, changing the induction process, having people ready for females on site, and what does that look like? And what is that best practice? Follow the guidelines of the National Site Standard for Female Officers, sign the addendum, make sure that you're part of it. There's an awful lot. I mean, on I mean, we talk about the lock toilets and the PPE, but what we don't talk about is the is people taking ownership and calling out when something's just fundamentally not right. Uh, and there's a lot of women that I speak to, and it's not even an unconscious bias, it's a complete bias for them being there. And the language choices and the topic of conversations and the way they're addressed is not acceptable. And this standard protects that. And you know, I've got I've got a young lady that I've mentored who's suffered an awful lot of sexual harassment on site. Profanities written all over the site about her, from one end to the other. It the graffiti wasn't taken down for quite some time. There were sniggers, there was jibes, there was, you know, and what was said about her, it was horrific. You know, and she'd sit in the toilets crying, and that wasn't addressed quick enough for my liking at all. And so the standard stops anything like that. It just says, We are not gonna take this anymore.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Zero tolerance, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:55

It's zero tolerance for that kind of behaviour. And what advice could you give to that?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Young woman who's uh sitting in the toilet uh that was open, thank goodness. But crying, what advice can you give her?

Vision: Culture Change Over 15 Years

SPEAKER_00 20:08

I mean, I'm really proud of this particular woman because she I've mentored her through a lot. Well, in fact, well, I was mentoring, and it was three months in before she told me this situation, and there'd been other instances as well, and there's but she she saw it through, she's risen above it, she's a massive supporter of construction for women, um, but she's got involved at this end now, and she's she's not so much at the beginning of it. She's still a young lady, she's still in her 20s, but she's holding the ladder for the others as well, like we always say, and she's really proud of that. She's she's speaking out. The advice I gave her was speak out, call it out. Um, and there's also other instances with with female operatives whether being asked to take the minutes, being asked to make the brews. And I I kind of always say, like subtle changes, just walk in with a green smoothie one day and say, I'm caffeine free, guys, make your own brews. You don't have to make it this thing of don't make a massive deal of it. Don't walk in like oh, I'm female, I'm not making the brews, because it kind of almost makes it worse. Just slowly, slowly catch the monkey. And what the national site standard is doing, it's not here to call out, it's not here to shame, it's here to gradually change that toxic culture that we've had. And the only way we do that is slowly make those changes.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

And we sat here in um a few years' time, maybe 15th anniversary of the awards or something like that. What? Um what has it achieved?

Mentoring Secrets And Tackling Imposter Syndrome

SPEAKER_00 21:53

The landscape's changed, the culture's changed. You know, we've been talking 14% in the built environment with 2% on site for six, seven years. We've been talking it a long time, and it might shift 14, 15 up in it, but it's if you compare it to other industry, we're woefully behind and we've got a skill shortage. Fast forward it 15 years, implement the national site standard, support construction for women, support year nine taste today, support training platforms. We've got a very, very different landscape. And it's all small things, but the sum of all those parts adds up to something so important in 15 years, like you say, you don't realise the impact you can make in one day until you see that person two years, three years down the line. There's a young lady that came on one of my taste days two years ago. She was it, she was at school, finishing school, thinking about what to do. She then joined um Warrington Vale Royal College and she went on a construction course. She's smashing LinkedIn at the moment. I'm so proud of her. She out of through the mentoring programme, she she realised the importance, as you do, because you're a master at here, of building that network. And I teach all, I try and support all the young ladies that come in front of us for construction for women and say, you know, build out your build out your network. Um, so she's doing that. Um I can just see the confidence just in two years. And it's never too early to build that network. Never too early to start that network. But just see seeing that the impact that we can make. I delivered a year nine taste today for 90 girls in Croydon, and it was very, very different to any of the others I've delivered. It was an area of extreme deprivation, and the joy from these young girls being on this taste today, learning bricklaying, learning interior design, you know, having sessions in electrical sessions and making um a holder for the mobile phones in, you know, so they actually put it down for once and put it in a holster. Um, but at the end of the day, they were like, thank you so much. We we actually like didn't even realise how much money we could make, what careers were available. And the exciting thing for me now is when you say 15 years, if I was thinking them at year nine, like I want one of them to walk up to me at a networking event in 15 years' time and say, I was one of those girls and I'm here now. And I don't just want, I know it'll happen. It will.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

And I know it's obvious to all of our watchlist watchers and listeners that mentoring is at the heart of everything you do and what you're passionate about. It brings you to life, your eyes are aflame, you know. Um, what's the secret recipe? Going back to the chef analogy again. What's the secret recipe to great mentoring?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Listen, listen to what to what they need. A lot of um the people that come to mentor, they're like, oh, I don't know how, I don't know how to do it, what you know what to do, and and also they a lot of people think that they need you know match an architect with an architect, and it's simply it isn't that it's listen to their fears, and very often when you do lean in, it's imposter syndrome, and it's it's just chipping away at that imposter syndrome, which will never go away. I always think of that like I'm showing my age now, but that Ali McBeal thing that you know, like on her shoulder, and it's it's always gonna be there, you know. I I'm always gonna feel that feeling of oh my god, does that actually anyone want to really listen to what I've got to say? 15 awards last year, just saying. So we're getting it. So that Pastor St. Job is flicked off the shoulder. But there are some days when it will come back, and that's fine. And it's it's yeah, it's leaning in, it's understanding that, but listen to the person that you're listen to the person that you are mentoring and and hear what it is that they need.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

And and there's also everything is a there's a human side to everything, and this is a very you're very human-centered, aren't you? And but a lot of this takes its toll, doesn't it? It takes your energy, it takes that emotional labour and resilience. And you've talked spoken a lot about sort of balanced workplaces being better for everyone's mental health. Just talk to us a bit more about that.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Are we talking about everyone else's or mine? Because um, Matt, yeah, um it is that it's very difficult. You go down a rabbit hole, don't you? Um, and I'm so passionate about making a change, and not just in the construction industry, but a change across in you know all industries for women to be seen and heard, and yet striking that balance. And I've got a seven and a nine-year-old, and I work with my husband, so we don't, you know, we work together, we everything, you know, it's it's trying to strike that balance is is very difficult. However, I just took time at Christmas and we went and I fulfilled a lifelong dream, and we've bought a place in France. Um and it took, I don't actually know whether you know this, but um, I had cancer last year. I had breast cancer. Um, and it took having that to realise that I needed to address the balance of my life an awful lot more and allow myself that time to share, make memories with the family. Um, and I'm so thrilled I did it because we've you know we've just had this time in France in in the Alps at Christmas, it snowed on Christmas Eve, it snowed on Christmas Day, and then the sun came out and the glitter was in the air, and my seven-year-old said, Mommy, Father Christmas has left all the glitter from his sleigh, and it just that one sentence in that one moment, like took a lot of the pain away, it made me realise how important it all is, you know. And I can remember saying something similar to my dad. He took us to Disney when I was the same age as Paige, and I said, Is this my real life? Am I dreaming? And you realise that, like, generationally, we need time, we need that balance, and if we don't give ourselves that balance, then it'll slip away. And how are you now, really? I'm great. Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. I think I'm good, I'm good at talking about it, and I squirreled it away last year, and I focused heavily on making an impact for everybody else. Um, and I can't continue to do that unless I look after myself.

Defining Tradition And Global Ambition

SPEAKER_01 28:59

So But this is why you're building an army around you as well, right? Yeah. Build the army around you. So you need to impose your own self-care. There'll be people watching again, listening today that have are living with um cancer right now. What what advice would you give your who are juggling, trying to find harmony in what they do? How would you encourage them to try and take that, make their glitter moment?

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah, they need to be kind to themselves, they need to um don't live in that fear, uh, which is difficult, isn't it? Because as soon as you get the cancer word, I mean my sister died of cancer, my mum's had it, long history of it. But you can't you can't let it eat into your everyday because it'll take the joy out of your day. You have to rise above it, and there's so much success around treatment plans now. It's very different to many years ago, especially breast cancer. I mean, it's had an awful lot of of money thrown at it, uh, is a very common cancer for for people to get. So I just would say, yeah, don't let it take over your life, live every moment and enjoy your family.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And your LinkedIn profile says, I'm not here to follow tradition, I'm here to define it. What does that mean? That's Renee being a bit cheeky there, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Anything's possible and I and it's and uh everything is limitless. And I think for a long time, I we talked about that imposture syndrome before. I would walk in the room and and and it would almost be like, well, are they bettered? Are they more informed? That you know, have I, you know, I'm a have I got something worthy to say? And then as as you get older and as as you start to lead and as you start to reflect on that person and who that person is, it's got me quite annoyed. Because I think, gosh, if I didn't have that in that thing in my head, like whispering that negative message, what could I have done? Because the maybe the cancer, the awards stage I'm at in life, my confidence has gone off the chart. I mean, my family and friends are like, oh god, you were confident before, like, this is incredible. And I'm not gonna shy away from that. I'm not gonna be a bashful about the fact that I feel confident and empowered, because I I want to share that with everybody and get people to stop feeling there's a limit to who they are and what they can be, and smash through those barriers and make those changes and stand in parliament and tell the MPs and tell the Prime Minister to listen because we need to make a change, because we need to support more women in industry. That's boundless. I can do whatever I want to do, and I can say it to whoever I want to say it. And I will take it globally. You know, I'm off to Saudi next or this year to say the same in Saudi. In a in probably the most hostile environment there has ever been in history for women. Um, I'm gonna replicate everything I'm doing here. So it is limitless. What you can do is limitless, and don't don't think for one second that I've reached where I need to be and stop. I'm not gonna stop.

Power Jar: Who Would Play You

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Now, before we just or as we delve into the power jar, so let's lean over to the power jar. What is what was your recipe of choice when you were in the kitchen, when you were a chef?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Well, what's my favourite dish to make? Make. You can ponder while you look at the question. Um, I've got a like a staple, and it's actually gonna sound quite posh, and it's not really, but I like like if it was the kids' christenings or anything like that, if I or like if clients or for me, or any, or if you've got friends coming around, I've got like, and I I like to do a nice buffet, but a posh buffet. And it used to be a tarragon chicken and a poached salmon with a grabiche dressing, so that does sound quite posh now. But Googling Grabiche. So grabiche dressing is like a French dressing with um with boiled eggs smashed into it, and it just makes it makes it all creamy and lovely, and you pour it over the salmon that's and it's like to be honest, and then you put load of dill and parsley in it, so it's all green and lovely, but it's actually really quick and easy to make. Fancy christening there, right? Fancy christenings. Or if you've just got mates coming around on a Sunday, you can't you can do that with some boiled new potatoes. And I was like, oh wow. So yeah, that that's that's one of my stuff.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

That's when one the first hat she wore. Now tell us when you've delved into that power jar, what is the question from one of our previous guests? Well, write a question, pop it in the jar for an unsuspecting future guest.

Closing Thanks And Subscription Info

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Oh, this is mean, this one. If there was a movie or series made about your life so far, who would you want to play you and why? Well, so in my um time when I had the nutrition company, I was in LA and I was actually, it was very trendy. I was living in Venice Canals, and opposite me Sandra Bullock.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Oh, I can see it. I can see it. And I'm in the studio here watching like mouth open. Yes. So I can see.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

Did you make a salmon with your salmon creatures in the butt? I think that her name popped into my head that fucking she gritty and she's gonna be and she's everything that I suppose, isn't she? She's she's a very powerful gritty woman. Now that is perfect because that she's got abs of steel, which I have not found.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

But this, what a way to close out the podcast now because I don't know about you if you're watching or listening now. All I can now see is Renee on that speed bus, like not stopping until she has created a fair, equitable world in the world of construction and beyond, not just in the UK, but across the world, created mentors for every woman. And she's not stopping till she gets off that bus with Sanja Bullock.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

No, I better get myself back and knock on a door and ask.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

She still lives there. Renee, thank you so much for joining me on the couch today. Um, keep going. Thank you. Keep being amazing. Thanks for your keep being awesome and keep well, invite me around for the salmon. I'm in. I'm in for the salmon. You know, sounds great, doesn't it? Um Sunday salmon. Sunday salmon, yeah, absolutely. And just keep being amazing. Keep being amazing. And thank you for everything you do. Oh no, thank you for your support. I feel absolutely honoured to be on the sofa.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

So thank you very much.

unknown 36:18

Ta-da!

SPEAKER_01 36:19

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