Stop Building Alone With Jodie Lemon

Some weeks in business look like progress. Some weeks look like a three hour meeting that goes beautifully until the last ten minutes. In this episode of the YES! Women's Network Podcast, Jodie Lemon shares a real week inside her affordable housing work, and what she learned about who she leans on when a project starts sliding sideways.

Jodie builds affordable housing alongside her two sons, and her daughters contribute through mortgages and design. The story she tells is small in scale and large in meaning: a Zoom meeting with a mayor, five city council members, two engineers, her sons, and a colleague whose office she was sitting in. It went well. Then it did not. And what carried her through was not a better strategy. It was the people already in her corner.

What Jodie Lemon Learned When an Affordable Housing Meeting Went Sideways

The setup was solid. Jodie was downtown in Salt Lake, working from the office of a colleague she describes as a much bigger builder, someone she is grateful to have on her side. Everyone else joined by Zoom. For three hours, the conversation moved. They knew what to do with each remaining piece.

Then, in the final ten minutes, while Jodie was already packing up and her colleague was heading out the door, the meeting turned.

And then all of a sudden it started going sideways. And it was in the last 10 minutes of our meeting when I was packing up.

That detail matters more than it might seem. Anyone who has led a project knows that the collapse rarely happens when you are braced for it. It happens at the end, when you have relaxed, when your support has stepped away, when you assumed the hard part was behind you. Jodie does not dramatize it. She simply names what happened and then names what saved it.

One of her sons saw what was unfolding and jumped in to try to save it.

Why Having People in Your Corner Changes the Outcome

Jodie's language throughout the conversation returns to one phrase: in my corner. She uses it about her colleague, about her sons, about the bigger builders she partners with and calls on when she has a question.

This is not a soft sentiment tacked onto a business story. It is the mechanism that kept a difficult night from becoming a lost project. Her sons could step in because they knew the work.

The both of my boys that I've taught for many years, we've worked together since they were young, and they know what I feel like. They know the project. They know it as well or better than I do.

That kind of backup does not appear in a crisis. It is built over years of shared work, shared standards, and shared understanding. Jodie says she knows she can count on them, and that if she keeps that good relationship strong, they will be able to carry the work forward for many years, even after she is done building.

Relationships Are the Asset

Jodie is candid that her professional relationships function the same way. She leans on other builders when she has a question. She partners with them. She has made real relationships with people who are good to her, and she treats those relationships as the most valuable thing she has.

She calls the people who matter most to her the people in her dime. Family first, then the colleagues she can count on when life is hard. Not when life is easy or profitable. When it is hard.

What to Do When the Night Does Not Go Your Way

One of the most useful moments in this episode is how quickly Jodie releases the outcome. The meeting did not end the way she wanted. Her response is short and steady.

Even though that night didn't turn out the way we really wanted it to, that's fine. It's fine. We'll all work together. We'll find the solutions.

There is no panic and no self blame. There is a clear next move: keep working, keep talking, keep leaning on the people who know the project. That posture is available to any woman navigating a setback in her business, her career, or her family. The setback is real, and it is also not the end of the story.

If You Do Not Have Someone in Your Corner Yet

Jodie does not assume every listener already has this kind of support. She speaks directly to the woman who feels like she is building alone, and her instruction is refreshingly practical. Do not wait to be chosen. Go first.

Find somebody. Jump in. Be in their corner. Be that example. That is how you end up with people in yours. It is also, she says, how you end up happier, because working alongside people you value changes the experience of the work itself.

This is where the episode connects to something larger than real estate. Women growing stronger together is not a slogan. It is a strategy for the ten minutes when everything turns.

Action Steps

• Name your corner. Write down the three to five people you could call tonight if a project or a plan fell apart.
• Look for a gap. If that list is short, choose one person this week whose corner you can step into first, with no expectation of return.
• Teach what you know. Bring a family member, colleague, or younger woman deeper into your work so she understands it well enough to step in when you cannot.
• Build relationships before you need them. Reach out to one experienced person in your field with a genuine question, not a request.
• Practice the reset. When something goes sideways, say the next step out loud instead of replaying the failure.

If one line from this conversation is worth keeping, it is Jodie's reminder that the people you can count on when life is hard are the most valuable thing you have. Pick one name today and strengthen that connection, before you need it.