An Interview with Crystal Caldwell, DSW Pre-Construction Manager

Check out our DSW Team Deep Dive with Crystal Caldwell, a Pre-Construction Manager for DSW.

In this interview, Crystal shares her experience working in the disaster recovery industry for over 20 years.

Crystal motivates her team by emphasizing that making a difference in the lives of impacted families starts with their work within pre-construction!

In her interview with us, she stated, "We are the first step towards success! If we do not create a clear path to success and deliver the perfect package to construction, we are setting construction up to fail, which becomes a domino effect. My team sets our standards high so that the company continues to operate at a high caliber!”

Read the transcript below:

What does a normal day look like for you?

Crystal:

A normal day is usually filled with meetings for all of the new programs that we become a part of. I usually do CPR reviews, which is called Critical Path review with all of my team members to discuss our path forward for the day, so that we can get homeowners into their homes faster. With zero problems. It usually starts about 630 in the morning and ends about seven o'clock at night. There are several areas that I touch in from the start of the job, from the time we received the assignment, on up until we handed over to construction, and sometimes I even get involved in construction, things come up there as well. Try to help everywhere one in every area. And try to make sure that my pre construction team is there as kind of a stepping stone in case anyone needs us. There are problems that come across, and we're just kind of there to assist everyone so that we can be successful with all the jobs that we are doin

What is your favorite part of the job?

Crystal:

Homeowners and getting them into their home after they've been out of them for sometimes five or six years. Knowing that they finally are able to be back inside of a home that they can live in. With AC sometimes they don't have floors, sometimes they have no home at all. Just knowing that we were part of that process to have them to be able to move back in and, and have their families over or have a place to put their clothes, it's a great feeling

What brought you into this industry?

Crystal:

So what brought me into this industry was I was a receptionist for a company that won a contract through TLO to turn homes into apartments. And it escalated quickly. And I started walking the jobs and in designing the homes and realized I love construction. And then Harvey hit. And when Harvey hit that was my opening to go and start working on the disaster, which I never expected was going to be as thrilling and fulfilling as it was. But this job has definitely shown me that jobs do not have to be boring. There's something new every day, you deal with different things every day. And I think that that's probably one of the things that led me to stay with this path.

What makes DSW different?

Crystal:

With DSW, there is never a we don't settle. There's always room for improvement. And we strive to find the perfect process. And even when we get the process down, we're always pushed to make sure that we are excellent at that process. Here with DSW it's been very different because I feel like I'll I'll get to that growth level. And then I'm like, Okay, I got here in and then they're like, well, Crystal, what else can you do? A lot of people look at that, like, an employer is never happy. I look at it, as my employer wants me to be the best and do the most that I can do as an individual. And to have someone stand behind me like that has been extremely different. It's appreciated. And I believe working with DSW has made me become better in my progress in my profession than pushing me in in their expectations. It's really showing me that I have came up I've come a long way. It brought me out of my shell for sure. And that's much appreciated.

Tell us about your experience supporting families during some of the hardest times in their lives.

Crystal:

Um, so this is kind of difficult for me and supporting families and going through things with them. There's been one in particular that I just I just got them. She's going into her house now. Her son has brain cancer, and she has not had a home. They've been living in a hotel for four and a half years. And she sent me a video of him walking into the house. And it was great because he's not going to make it much longer. Probably about four more months. And just to know that I was able to get him back that bedroom for him to go and lay his head down in, and to see the look on her face, because she's been very, very upset about it, she lost her mother right when they lost their home. And so it's been that was one of the, I think that's the most that has stuck out to me, there's been several but for that home in particular, it was great to know that he is going to be able to lay his head somewhere besides a hotel room where he's been since he was diagnosed. And just to know that they're going to be able to have family come and visit him and, and be able to, he'll be able to be as comfortable as he can be inside of his own place. It was it made me feel like I finally did something right.

Having that element with employees being so connected to the homeowners you serve, is that unique to DSW?

Crystal:

I will say yes, I have worked for two other companies besides DSW. Here at DSW I believe it's the type of people that are in the higher positions that have made each and every one of us realize that building houses isn't just I mean, of course, you know, everything's about profit. But that's not the only thing here. One of our biggest things in DFW is the grandma theory, you treat these, these people like they were your grandma, would you want to treat your grandmother like like this. And if you say no to yourself, then you know that you're not doing your job, right. And no one that I've worked for has ever had anything like that. And that's one of our core values here, we strive very hard towards that. And if we do not do that, then we don't have a place for the DSW.

How is the industry changing?

Crystal:

So before, you would see just these regular, you could point them out, and they were program homes, when you drove through a neighborhood in you can tell a program home, you know, just from driving down the street, and, you know, compared to a custom built home. With these new programs coming out, I have noticed that they are putting more effort into the engineering and the quality that they're giving these homeowners now. It's it's been exceptional, it's been a home where where, you know, I've looked at it, and I've been like, Man, this is a nice house, you know, I just feel like now it's leading more into the new, the new vibe, you know, instead of trying to be like, Oh, this is the free house the government gave them. And I think that that helps the homeowners to feel proud of the home that we're giving them after they've lost everything that they have. So I would say that it's definitely going in a positive direction. And as far as the the quality of the home that they want us to build and, and the beauty of it, it's not just a regular vinyl siding home anymore, you your homeowners are getting a lot of the perks that a custom built homeowner could get.

What you do is hard. How do you motivate your team?

Crystal:

So to motivate my team, there's a lot of different elements to get my team motivated. Every day, like I said, we have a meeting and I have meeting a meeting with them individually and I have a meeting with them as a group. Each person is different. And so each person it's just they're just like my children. You know, I deal with each person is different. But as a group, I always tell them, you know, we're making the difference. This is where our job starts. In our department, we get handed an assignment and we are the first step towards success. If we do not do a clear path of success and deliver the perfect package to construction, then we are setting construction up to fail and it becomes a domino effect. So if we set our standard and we set our standard like this is how we are going to be and this is we are number one, then that's how our company will be going forward. So in my girls mind, their motivation is we're at the top and we're going to set our standards for our company so that when we hand this off to our team, they know hey, we started you at the top. We didn't start you in the middle. We didn't start at the bottom. We started you at the top and you're right here with us. And I think they take a lot of pride in that and they push themselves hard because they know like we are going to stay at the top so when we are ready to hand this job off to them. They're at the top right there with us and we stick our heads up high and our chest poked out because they are about to build the best home they ever built and that's how my girls look at it.