EP.33 - Built on Solid Ground: Rachel André on the Quiet Work That Holds Everything Together

Every road you drive, every bridge you cross, every runway you land on in Central Florida — there's a foundation beneath it that most people never think about. In this episode of the Dynamic Leaders Podcast, hosts Roy Richardson and Sean Murphy sit down with Rachel Frederick André, President and Principal in Charge of GEC, one of Central Florida's most established geotechnical engineering firms with over 35 years of continuous operation.

Rachel's story begins in Haiti, where she passed a highly competitive national engineering entrance exam before being pushed to leave by her mother amid the country's political unrest in the early 1990s. She arrived in the U.S. at 19, earned two engineering degrees from UCF, and built a 27-year career working on some of Florida's most consequential infrastructure projects — including SunRail, the I-4 Ultimate, the Wekiva Parkway, and the Orlando International Airport South Terminal.

In this conversation, Rachel pulls back the curtain on what geotechnical engineering actually is and why it is the silent backbone of every structure built. She shares the arc of her career: eight years at GEC, a gutsy decision to leave and spread her wings, 12 years building her skills and network across Central Florida, and eventually returning as President when founder Gary was ready to retire — a transition she spent a year and a half training for, in private.

This episode goes deep on the leadership lessons that don't make it into textbooks: staying calm when it feels like the world is ending, building a culture where people stay for 30-plus years in an industry notorious for turnover, why service must always come before profit, and what it means to lead as a woman-owned and minority-owned business in a field where both are still rare.

Rachel also opens up about the personal side of her journey — 11 years of piano, a multilingual upbringing, a mother who refused to let fear win, and a worldview shaped by visiting eight countries in a single year. Roy and Sean connect her story to their own Caribbean roots, making this one of the most personal and candid conversations in the show's history.

Whether you are an aspiring engineer, a business owner navigating a leadership transition, or simply someone who wants to understand the quiet, precision-driven work that holds civilization together, this episode delivers.

Topics covered:

• What geotechnical engineering is and why it matters
• Building a career and network in a niche technical field
• Leading a successful ownership transition
• Running a woman-owned, minority-owned business in engineering
• Immigrant resilience, multilingualism, and cultural identity
• Sustaining company culture through rapid growth

Connect with the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast Hosts:

• LinkedIn: Roy Richardson
• LinkedIn: Sean Murphy

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The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, a Cybersecurity Firm that serves the information security needs of small—and medium-sized businesses.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Infrastructure Matters

Roy Richardson 0:03

Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Welcome back to the Dynamic Leaders Podcast. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, joined by my insightful co-host and trusting sounding board, Sean Murphy. Sean, another day, another week. Here we are, just wrapped up from all the amazing times that we've had with the World Cup. 39 days of matches, and it was so nice to see, you know, just the melting pot of cultures, different backgrounds of people just coming together and just having fun. And what a great break and a great summer. Really excited about this segment.

Sean Murphy 0:49

Same, man. I cannot wait. You know, it's funny. We had a session a couple of months ago, not even a couple of months ago, it was Juneteenth, right? It's like, how do you explain that? And then here we are with someone of Haitian descent, born and raised there, as we concluded. And I, since I can remember as an 18, 16-year-old, that's the one thing that I do follow in soccer is the World Cup. So I've followed the World Cup for all of these years of watching it. So I was glued to my television like it was March Madness. So to have Rachel on is is an honor. I'm looking forward to it. And uh we couldn't have scripted any better.

Roy Richardson 1:27

Yeah. And you know, here's the interesting thing, right? We live in a society, and particularly in Orlando, where you know Central Florida is so spread out, and we don't really have we have mass transit, but we don't have mass transit that they have in Europe. So we use the roads, right? Right. And and so every road that you have driven, every bridge you've crossed, every runway that you have landed on in this area, there's a foundation underneath of it that most people never ever think about, right? You don't even think about it. That's right. No, that's right. And and so that today's conversation is about the discipline and quiet leadership it takes to build things that have to be right the first time. And our guest, folks, is Rachel Frederick André, who is the president and principal in charge of GEC, one of Central Florida's most established engineering firms with over 35 years of continuous operation. Rachel came to the U.S. from Haiti to attend UCF, earned both her engineering degrees there, and has spent 27 years on some of Florida's most consequential infrastructure, such as Sunrail, the I-4 Ultimate, the Wakiva Pike Parkway, and the Orlando International Airport South Terminal, before stepping into the president's role, leading a team of 57 at a company recognized as both woman-owned and minority-owned. Before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, helping organizations grow with confidence by protecting the systems and data they depend on so innovation never comes at the cost of trust. Now, Rachel, before Sean and I dive in, I gotta say it. You know, Sakpasé? I had to ask. I had to ask because I know what it means to leave a Caribbean island, pack a bag, and bet yourself in a country where you're starting from scratch. I did it myself from the Dutch and French island of St. Martin Saint Martin. And and the moment I read your story, I felt that, you know, and and so welcome, so genuinely glad you're here, so welcome.

Rachel André 3:30

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure, such an honor, and having the shared experience like you talked about. I've been to St. Martin, by the way. Oh, nice. Very cool. Nice, nice. I did uh a few years ago. I like to travel. I mean, we're gonna talk about that. And a few years ago, I decided, you know what, I'm gonna do like a little island hopping thing. So we picked St. Bart's, St. Martin, and Anguilla. We did those two. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Roy Richardson 3:52

Uh as a matter of fact, I was just one of my clients just went down. They were in Anguilla, I think, two months ago, and then they went back this weekend. They went to St. Martin, St. Bart's, you know, some of the other islands around. So very good. We'll have to catch up on that. Yes, yes. Next time you're ready to go, you tell me, and I'll make sure that you see it from the local perspective.

Sean Murphy 4:11

I will. Oh, awesome. Well, Rachel, welcome again. People are gonna hear this story, they're gonna realize that the roads they drive every day did not just happen.

Piano Discipline And Early Identity

Roy Richardson 4:24

Yeah.

Sean Murphy 4:24

I know I I used to go over to Jones High School and teach financial literacy. And I used to tell the kids, I'm like, in this room, there's probably 700 companies that's created something in here, and you just don't know, right? So let's start somewhere a little less about your resume and more about you as a person. So piano at the age of five, all the way to 16. Yes. You know, 11 years of that's 11 years of some serious commitment, right?

Rachel André 4:55

Yes.

Sean Murphy 4:55

Do you do you miss it? And what did those years at the keys give you that no engineering class could ever do?

Rachel André 5:05

Well, it's it's gonna be a funny answer. My mom always was always adamant, I'm the oldest of three. My mom is always adamant about career, you know, academics and all of that, but she's also big about you have to play a sport and you have to do some sort of artistic thing. Very cool. So I was never into sports, but I did ballet also, by the way, for eight years while I was doing piano. Of course, the academics, huge, huge, huge. So I had to pick an instrument when I was five, and I said the piano, because I've always loved the piano. My mom is big on the art, so she would take us to play, she would take us to you know, concerts, all kinds of things, classical music, live, all kinds, everything. The all kinds of um art. Like my house is filled with art, paintings, uh, sculptures, all kinds of things. So anyway, I had to pick an instrument. I picked the piano, and I just I love the piano, still my favorite, favorite instrument. Yes, I miss it, but there's just no time. I still have my piano back home in Haiti, and my mom still reminds me, yeah, you left your piano there, you know, just gathering stuff. So it's still there, because I'm the only one who played. I'm the only one who played.

Sean Murphy 6:13

Now, now was there was there something in those years that you learned that engineering and that your classes couldn't teach you?

Rachel André 6:21

Well, yes, yes. And it's kind of a sad thing. I've you know, I've I've done recitals and all those things, and I was okay. I was never a great player. So that's what I was like, yeah, I've always liked math. You know, you if you're a smart kid, you do well back home. You gotta be an engineer or a doctor or an attorney, or one of those. My dad was an engineer, and I've always loved math and all of that. So I was like, well, I guess engineering because I knew piano wasn't gonna be a career for me. As much as I love it, I wasn't good enough because some other kids, I mean, some of my friends were fantastic. So that's why they taught me.

Sean Murphy 6:57

Very, very cool.

Travel And Living In Many Languages

Roy Richardson 6:59

Nice, nice. And you know, let's then talk about your travel. At least two or three international trips per year, eight countries in the last 12 months alone.

Sean Murphy 7:08

Last year, yeah.

Roy Richardson 7:09

That's not a vacation habit. I would say it's more of a worldview.

Rachel André 7:14

Yes.

Roy Richardson 7:14

Where does that come from and which destination surprised you the most?

Rachel André 7:18

Again, my mom. My mom is big on cultures and all that. So she taught us a lot when we were younger. She traveled with us, she she made sure, you know, the language thing. Of course, in Haiti, if you're from Haiti, you're gonna speak Creole. And if you go to a decent school, you will learn French. The school I went to, they taught us Spanish. We I learned I learned Latin, I did Greek, I did etymology, and of course, Spanish, you know, all these. So I've always been into cultures and different foods, different environments, different countries, you know, world, geography, all of that. I've always been interested in that. And moving to the US has been was a fantastic, fantastic opportunity because you get to see everybody. In Haiti, you know, you're kind of limited. But here, that was like, whoa, you know? So when she we would travel here for vacation in the summer, she would, you know, she would take us with her and all of that. So my dad didn't like to travel, so he stayed home. But my mom, you know, she would travel with us, and that's why it came from, I think.

Sean Murphy 8:15

So your dad was an engineer. Was your mom a professional as well?

Rachel André 8:19

My mom is a pharmacist, but she's retired now. She's a pharmacist, yes. Oh, very cool. Oh, wow. So she did, she she had her own drugstore, which she didn't manage. My grandmother did. And my and my mom also, she was a pharmaceutical rep. That's what she did full-time.

Sean Murphy 8:32

Were they U.S. educated or were they?

Rachel André 8:35

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Sean Murphy 8:36

Okay.

Rachel André 8:37

Oh, yeah. Oh, very cool.

Sean Murphy 8:38

Yep, very, very cool.

Rachel André 8:39

Yeah, that's one of the reasons my my my father never wanted to be here. He never wanted to leave Haiti. He's mother, he's siblings, they all moved to the U.S. He's like, I'm not going anywhere.

Sean Murphy 8:47

I'm not going anywhere. Because we have it all right here. That's right, that's right. Yeah. I don't, I, I can't listen. I I have a I have a good friend, she's Jamaican, and she's like a big sister. She's, you know, 70 something years old. And and so, you know, she's a big curator of art. She has a gallery in College Park, and I love collecting art myself. Years ago, she would tell me, Oh, Sean, you need to travel. And I'm like, why? I'm like, America has it all right here. You know what I mean? So I get it. So you mentioned the four languages that you speak. And, you know, I I guess Latin is like your emergency language, maybe.

Rachel André 9:21

No, no, I don't even, I mean, I I think I lost, I lost a lot of the Latin, but the the etymology, the knowing the roots of words, that's how I retain it. That's what you got. That's not one of the four. That's not one of Latin is not one of the four.

Sean Murphy 9:34

Oh, okay, got it. All right. So listen, when it truly matters, which one of the languages you think in.

Rachel André 9:42

I think for when it comes to work professional, it's English. Because you know, I left Haiti when I was 19, came to college here. So my whole college education has been in English.

Roy Richardson 9:51

English, yeah. Got it.

Rachel André 9:52

But if I'm if I'm if I'm at home talking to family, it's probably French or Creole. It's mostly Creole, probably.

Sean Murphy 9:58

Okay.

Rachel André 9:59

Yeah.

Sean Murphy 9:59

I thought maybe there's like you might not be one to give up the secret sauce. Maybe that's what it is.

Rachel André 10:04

No, no, no, that's no secret sauce.

Sean Murphy 10:07

So my kids, my kids, I had them in the foreign language academy downtown, right? Oh, yeah. And I'm like, y'all, I'm gonna I'm gonna have y'all's brain wired to be able to pick up languages so that you can have a cheat code.

Rachel André 10:19

You know, the the thing to is to start them early. My daughter is is fluent in French, she's fluent in Spanish, and of course, she speaks English, and she speaks Creole too. She's better at Spanish than I am, because I'm I pushed her from the time she was very young. She was she went to a multilingual school on purpose. That's that's the key. Start early.

Sean Murphy 10:38

Early, yes. No, my they they started at elementary, and I'm I'm uh they they don't they don't that you know they're jocks, right? So they don't really use it. But I'm like, okay, when you get to college, you're gonna understand it's gonna pay off.

Roy Richardson 10:50

Yeah, it's gonna pay off. You know, it's amazing how many, you know, we are from different areas of the Caribbean, how much similarities there are, right? I mean, my wife and I speak five languages, right? So so Dutch, French, uh, Spanish, Popimento, and English, right? And and we've we've actually when we kid about this all the time. We my my wife grew up in in the Netherlands, so she thinks from a very European perspective. You know, it's it's black or white, there's no gray. I grew up here in the US, so there's that gray in between black and white. But when we are speaking with each other, it's not uncommon for us to start in one language and weave in and out of languages. And as a cyber as a cybersecurity professional, I often make the joke that we have our own encryption system because nobody's exactly what I was gonna say.

Rachel André 11:37

People, um I'm at work, right? If my mom or my daughter somebody calls me my brother and I switch, and they're like, What, what, what, what are you doing? And I'm like, I have no idea. I switch to no, no, I I couldn't tell you. Sometimes they say, You were just speaking something that I'm like, I have no idea. I don't know. Yeah, it just it just comes natural. Yeah, exactly.

Roy Richardson 11:56

Yeah,

Leaving Haiti And Starting From Scratch

Roy Richardson 11:57

yeah. You know, Rachel here, what strikes me is is, and I say this as someone who also packed a bag from the Caribbean island border plane, trusting that it was going to work out. I left St. Martin at a very young age for a school and career in the U.S. And I know that that mix of determination and shared nerve, what it means. So I want to understand your version of that moment. You know, Haiti to Orlando for engineering school, that's not a small leap. What was what was life back in in in Haiti or Haiti, right? And and what did you see in yourself that made you believe that this was possible?

Rachel André 12:33

This is another one that's probably gonna surprise you. I never wanted to come here. Well, you're you're you're your you're your daddy's daughter, right? Exactly. And I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you the full story. I was 18, I was 19, just finished my whole you know, school in Haiti, and I wanted to go to engineering school. So I went to I they 3,000 kids took the exam. They only picked 150 at the best engineering school, the public school engineering school in Haiti. That's where my dad went, and I was one of the 150. I was one of the top. And I was lucky, so I'm like, oh yeah. At the same time, I started dating my first boyfriend, and I was in love, and he was in love, and and my mom was like, it's funny how those things happen, eh? I was in '92, '93 in Haiti, and that's where really the unrest really started. And my mom was like, You gotta go. I'm like, I'm not going anywhere. Are you kidding? I'm in love. You getting married, da-da-da-da. So, but my mom, oh my, she was like, Nope, you're going, you're going. But I was like, So your mom is like, No, we got a plan. You're gonna stick to the plan. You're the oldest, you're going, and the other ones are gonna follow. So that's what happened. I did not want to leave, but I'm glad I did. I already spoke English. I had been to the US for vacation and things. So I was I honestly, I think about it now, thinking, looking back, I'm like, I was very naive because I wasn't worried about anything. I had the I had a green card already because my grandmother, like I said, had moved to the US when she was younger, and she had brought her kids, the old, she had three kids. My dad was the youngest, so the older two with their families decided to come to the US. My daddy's the one who never wanted to come. And so every time my grandmother would try to force my dad to do it, he would say no. So my mom and my grandmother, her her daughter, her mother-in-law, had to do this without my hand, without my dad. So they said the two of those ladies had to be like, okay, forget him. Let's just take care of it because they had to make sure the kids had the opportunity. He doesn't want it, that's fine. So my mom and my grandmother made it work, got us the interview and everything. So we got the green card. Fun story I don't know, five, six years later, after we got the green card, my dad sent his green card back to the US government. He said, no, thank you. That was funny. He's not interested. But anyway, so yes, that's how it happened. I I didn't want to do it, but I'm glad I did. And when I came here again, I was not worried about anything. I she was she sent me to New York, but I like New York, but it was too cold for me. That was in February. And I'm like, I'm okay, so so I shipped myself back to Florida and I had the cousin here in Fort Lauderdale. She said, Why don't you come and stay with me? So that's what I did. I moved into her house and I was there for two years. I applied for the community college there. I was there for two years, graduated, and then I said, Okay, I want to go into civil engineering. FIU at the time in Fort Lauderdale didn't have civil, so that's why I said, okay, Orlando. And I picked Orlando because a few years before that, I think when we when I was 12, my mom took us to Orlando and we did a bunch of the parks.

Sean Murphy 15:44

Oh, God.

Rachel André 15:45

So I loved Orlando.

Sean Murphy 15:46

Right.

Rachel André 15:47

Yeah, yeah. So I decided, okay, Orlando it is. There's a good UCF is there, so that's why I decided on Orlando.

Sean Murphy 15:54

Amazing. You know the crazy thing, Roy. Y'all talk about coming to America for an a better opportunity, right? Well, my mama did that.

Roy Richardson 16:02

We were Eddie Murphy.

Sean Murphy 16:03

Right, but but no, you were Eddie Murphy. I was Eddie Murphy too. My mom put me on a Greyhound bus in '84 from New Orleans for a better life in Florida, right? And uh I'm I'm like you, Rachel. I came here, I was excited about the opportunity. And it's just looking back, the last 42 years have just been. I was on the phone with someone earlier saying, man, I'm pinching myself how crazy life has become. But anyway, Roy, you had anything else or should I move on?

Roy Richardson 16:29

No, I I you know it's it's it's amazing when you think of it. And you just mentioned thinking back 42 years, and and I think back of my journey, and I'm sure Rachel thinks back of hers, but we also, you know, look at that one degree, right, where that may not have happened, right? And what that could have looked like, right? And and and how that is for for so many out there. Take it away, Sean.

Sean Murphy 16:50

Something had to be instilled in you back in Haiti, right? A standard, a work ethic. I know your dad was an engineer, your mom was a professional. Sounds like your grandmother. Sounds like your grandparents were professionals as well. They were, yes. You know, a way to carry yourself. That followed you here and never left.

Rachel André 17:10

Well, like you said, it's it's the one thing from being from the islands, you have you see how you have the abundance here, you have everything here. You throw things away, you just buy more. Back home, we're not like that. You know, whatever you have, you preserve it, you conserve it. And whatever opportunity you have, you run with it. And and that's what it was, you know. And you always I I went to a we went to a parochial school, you know, very, I mean, really, I mean, fantastic, incredible. The education I got there was just incredible. And and that's that's the same thing, the way, you know, the academics, they really, really push the academics. I see what kids are doing here compared to back home. It's it's a totally different thing. Um yeah, and it's not just the academics, they taught us so many other things, and and you know, being driven and and and doing the best with what you got. That's what it is. And I had the I was lucky. I was I'm one of the lucky ones. I came here, I already spoke English. I I had a green card. And I was and I did well in school. So when I came here with my transcripts and everything, I was able to, I did what they called CLEP. I was able to just because the cloud, there are a lot of classes that I took at at my high school in Haiti, which was what you guys consider a STEM school here. I went that's what I went to, the school I went to in Haiti. Classes that I took in at that school that I never took here in engineering school. Super like advanced science courses, like optics, advanced physics. We did all that. So I went to Haiti, but not here. In Haiti, exactly. Give me my engineering, and I have a master's degree in engineering. I started a PhD in engineering, I didn't finish. So that's another tidbit. I'm a drop, I'm a dropout.

Sean Murphy 18:48

Um I'm gonna forgive you for that. There's nothing wrong with that.

Rachel André 18:52

So yeah, so they they you know, reading, learning, continuing to learn, learn, learn, do the best you can. That's that's where it came from, I think.

Roy Richardson 19:00

Yeah, and I can I can relate to that in the sense that, you know, so I I did my my elementary school up to in in in St. Martin, and then and then I moved over here to the U.S. But even in the fifth grade, Sean, we had to know every country that it was out there. We had to be able to identify the country in the map, identify the head, the capital of the country, the languages, the rivers, the mountain ranges, the whole nine yards. So, you know, here you are at at a very young age, and you have an entire atlas that's laid out for you. Right. And and you know, and yeah, that was I was surprised when I came to school here that you know that was actually an elective, whereas back home, that was at a very young age a mandatory requirement. Yes, you know.

Rachel André 19:47

I had to learn the whole period I I knew the periodic table. First to last, everything. Yes. I'm not I lost a lot of it now, but I oh yeah, I'm not sure.

Sean Murphy 19:56

Yeah, but back then, well, I I would submit to you, I would submit to you all the America that I grew up in was what you're talking about. And I think that's a new because I remember my so I got a degree in economics from the University of Miami. It was in the School of Arts and Sciences, but I minored in business administration and I did it in the School of Arts and Sciences so that I can learn the cultural things of life so that I can know about art. Because I grew up in the projects of New Orleans. We didn't know any of that stuff. And so my mom used to send me to the library in the summer, and I got this huge fascination for different cultures around the world. So when I meet you, and you might remember this when I first met you, I'm always asking questions about, hey, where are you from? Tell me your story. And so I love that kind of stuff. But my favorite professor in all of college was an English professor from Ghana, and we used to call her Nana from Ghana. And she, matter of fact, you remind me of her. And she was a bulldog about just keeping the standard up. And she used to challenge the students. She's like, Y'all come from all of these wealthy, y'all, y'all, y'all come here dressed like you're poor and acting like you're poor instead of, you know, and poor people want to be like you. So anyway, I really appreciate what y'all are saying there, but I I yearn for a day when our country goes back to that. But let me ask you this was there one person? I know you've talked about your mom, your dad, your grandmother. Was there one person that their voice you still hear when you're making hard calls today?

Rachel André 21:32

Well, if you're talking about work, I think it's still Gary. I told you guys about Gary, the the gentleman who mentored me, and who hired me at GEC as a as an intern. I still call him, you know. I mean, we talk all the time. If I need something, you know. Yeah, when it comes to work, that's what it is. When it comes to management and things like that, yes.

Sean Murphy 21:50

Very cool.

Rachel André 21:51

If it's if it's about my personal life, I probably think a lot about my mom and my grandmother.

Roy Richardson 21:55

Yeah, and I can tell you the the moms and the grandmothers and and and I'm sure. you know, it it's how do you say very similar. Uh they carry a lot of weight. And a lot of weight. And they have a lot of final say with regards to how things are. And much like like you said, uh Rachel, it was, you know, being become an engineer, become a doctor, become a lawyer, one of those professions, and and you know that that was where the uh the lines went. But you came here, you went to engineering school, you you got two degrees, so you figured it out. And what you built since then and and what you've helped built underneath this region, I mean that deserves its own conversation, right?

Geotechnical Engineering Explained Simply

Roy Richardson 22:39

You know, Sunrail, I-4 Ultimate, the Wakaiva Parkway, Orlando International Airport, South Terminal, these are the arteries of Central Florida. And underneath all of it, literally, is geotechnical work that most people never think about. So when most people hear about geotechnical engineering, I'm sure you know their eyes may glaze over. Yes. But give us the real version. You know, what is it? Why does it matter? And what happens when it goes wrong?

Rachel André 23:10

Oh well most people have no idea what you're saying when you say geotechnical engineering. The people who have an idea they think sinkholes which you know in central Florida. And that's really part of it. But I'm gonna be honest I've never worked on a sinkhole in my life. We have engineers here who have done it. That's not that's not what I have specialized in personally. But geotechnical engineering geo geo, soils, dirt that's really what we do. It's all about infrastructure. If you're building a bridge, if you're building a road if you're building a a structure you know the building we are in right now we we all you know all the different buildings anything that has to interact with soils any and any structure anything you're building or even ponds walls that you want to have a geotechnical engineering study. Meaning you go in with some equipment you kind of test the soils you can retrieve samples and you test the soils to see okay can the soil withstand whatever I'm trying to build that's really the gist of it.

Roy Richardson 24:10

Nice so on a project like I4 Ultimate or Sunrail what is GEC's actual role?

Rachel André 24:17

Okay so we come on we come in early well the the first part is they come up with a concept like a in the planning phases you come up with the concept okay we want to build this road so you look at what's out there the geology out there okay if you're gonna build a road here you have a river here you have you have another road here do you want an interchange with this thing? There's a a slough here so you're gonna have to have a bridge or a culvert those all those kinds of things and of course the kind of things we look at are the types of soils things like that to see okay if is it feasible and if it is feasible what are the recommendations that we're gonna we're gonna have to give to the engineers to build this to design it and to build it so we would come in you you give us the layout what you want to build and then depending on what's gonna be in this location that location this location that location we would do different types of studies so if it's a bridge we have a certain type of boring like a like a you drill through certain depth to see okay can I build a bridge here and so what kind of foundation if it's gonna be a pond you do a different type of boring and a different kind of study. So that's that's our role we can we give the recommendation so we work with all the engineers the structural the roadway engineers the water engineers all of them the architects to put all this together.

Roy Richardson 25:39

As you were describing that there I I was I was you know playing back the Wokaiva Parkway in my head having known what it was before to what it is today and the vast majority of it is elevated particularly for the wildlife because it's in the it's in the Wokaiva Park but going through even you know thinking on that from Mopopka going all the way back over to to Lake Mary Sanford area I mean yeah you're you're traversing all sorts of different challenges there sensitive areas water bodies and uh different soil types and different things like that. Pretty amazing so so what what does your team do? What does GEC do? What makes you different compared to what everybody else is doing out there.

Rachel André 26:22

Well as geotechnical engineers so we have our own lab where we test the soils that we collect we also have our own drill rigs. We have like nine of them right now for different types of terrain some of them are you know that's the rig that you use to kind of go deep into the soil to collect right the you know the information that you need.

Sean Murphy 26:40

So we have all those in-house and and of course as the engineer you you give us the layout where you're gonna have bridge you're gonna have wall you're gonna have a pond you're gonna have a road it's gonna be embankment whatever it is then we decide what kind of what kind of uh boring are we gonna take over there how deep is it gonna go sometimes it may go deeper or shallower depending on what we find you know in the moment and then when you collect all that information it comes back to us we look at it we look at the the the soils that we've collected we collect the water samples too you know and all of that and we do different types of tests depending on what you're looking for depending on the structure the improvement that you're trying to to to make we would do the testing and then we come up with recommendations for the structural engineer to build the foundation of the bridge for the drainage engineer to decide okay how big is the pond going to be how deep does the pond have to be all that stuff so we're really working with everybody else we're supporting no pun intended everybody else and they're no seriously I mean that's what it is that's what it is yeah absolutely hey hey so 25 years of continuous operation right and a client list that 35 not yes I'm sorry 35 not 25 but but but but a client list of Florida Department of Transportation Central Florida Expressway Orlando International Airport um those are not transactional relationships and so you earn trust like that over decades and you keep it even when you know climates shift how do you build it and how do you protect it?

Rachel André 28:14

Yeah

Trust Based Business And Client Value

Rachel André 28:15

well I'm gonna be honest I I didn't build it I came on board when the company was about 11 12 years old when Gary hired me and of course I learned under him and all of that and by the time I became when I became president of the company the company was already around 29 ish years so I was president uh when we celebrated our 30th which we couldn't have do anything because it was COVID I caught COVID two weeks before we announced that I was taking over oh my God I'm not kidding I'm not kidding so I caught COVID and I called Gary I'm saying okay guess what he's like oh okay well just after we close come and get your computer because you know I had to quarantine got my computer worked from home for the week then I came back on one Monday and then that Friday is when we announced so yeah so anyway Gary built it Gary built it and the thing is about he hired the right people and then I'm building on that I'm growing the on top of that so he put the foundation in place so so was it F dot or the expressway that did Sunrail or was that a city sunrail was a it was a conglomerate I mean sunrail was a dot had a part in it the city had a part in everybody I mean it was a a partnership really now now you had to build some kind of partnership was it was any of that new that you this is this is how it works for us because we we are very niche part of engineering of civil engineering so we do have some contracts where we we we work directly under the client the cities the counties you know those kinds of things but most of the time we are part of a team so there are a lot of very big civil engineering firms here in Central Florida that do infrastructure those are the prime civil the the ones on the big um the big umbrella and then under them you have structural you have geotechnical engineers you have drainage engineers you have hydrologists you know all those other disciplines we're one of those disciplines so we the big thing for us is to develop relationships with those primes and through that we get to work with the big agencies CFX Turnpike Expressway airport those guys so they get to know us they get to know our work so that even if we work with somebody under somebody else they're familiar with our work and our work ethic and all of that listen I know you don't want to give the secret sauce away about how you build your relationships you can say it in French or Creole if you want to I can tell you I will tell I I'm not hiding anything the way the way to build it is I I hear people you know talk about business you can tell the motivation we were talking about this it's I'm not motivated I mean it's a business yes you have 57 people you have to feed in their families but I'm not motivated by money I'm motivated by doing good work. Work yeah and that's really it yes you anticipate what your client needs you know how the process works we we we as you can imagine we come in early we have to do our part so we can give everybody else what they need to do their part. So you have to come in early and give them what they need. So it's very deadline driven you cannot make them late you cannot be the one to make them late. So it's about okay you anticipate what your client needs you know the process and you do what you got to do. There's been times it's it's about being of value and it's not just about the technical the engineering part. The big thing for me you can help them outside of that. For example through my relationship with the DOT I've helped a lot of my clients either because I I knew something or I knew somebody that I could talk to about a problem that they had. So you bring value to the team that's how you build those relationships.

Roy Richardson 31:48

And you know I would I would say this I would say this Sean that's a very very island way Caribbean you know and and and I say this not to to put anywhere else down but it's uh and the islands is is who you know and the relationships that you build is what gets you and moves you forward. That's it and and and to the point where you know in French there's a saying you know contract to confidence meaning that you know you know for sure that if you enter into that relationship with Rachel and her company you can you can bet your confidence and rest assured that it's going to be executed to to to the to the fullest that's exactly what it that's it that's a secret sauce.

Sean Murphy 32:27

Yeah reliable reliable I think that that's a skill that was resonate around the world when we were because we're all about the same age right and it was hey your word is your bond it's don't make it about money and and and we some kind of way have lost that right we've we've we gotta we gotta hit the quick home run and Rachel when I read your background I was like very excited I'm like yeah this is someone who is not about money but about purpose and the money will come.

Roy Richardson 33:00

The money follows that's right that's right that's right that's right yeah and and Sean let me say this you know and uh you you're uh on on behalf of Rachel and I here we we consider you uh an honorary honorary so you know don't worry about that man you we got you brother we got you wanna so so Rachel let me go off a little bit here on what Sean said just now Gary built a company you you've been with a company for 20 something years he entrusted you with it but here's the hardest part that people don't really see I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit for which is how do you continue the success of that company under a new leader maintain and build a culture maintain and build new relationships to drive the organization forward which you have been able to do so I don't think my dairy you're giving yourself enough credit.

Rachel André 33:54

Thank

Leaving Then Returning To Lead GEC

Rachel André 33:55

you thank you well I think well remember I was with the company for eight years and then I left for 12. I was still in Central Florida and here's the kicker it was an agonizing decision for me because I love the company I love what they stand for. I love I love Gary and I see eye to eye so our vision is the same about you know service and all of that. So it was a hard decision but I eventually decided to leave because I wanted to do more I wanted to spread my wings and do more things I wanted to do marketing and all of that. So I was gone for 12 years and what that allowed me to do is develop relationships outside of the ones that I already had here. So and by the way if you guys remember one of the last things I did before I came back to GEC is after my second battle of unemployment I I only had well I had two job offers but the one that really made sense was the one where where I had to open an office here for a company out of Pittsburgh and so I had to build a whole office on my own buy the rigs build a lab something I had never done before I had no secretary I had nothing it was me I had to do all that and I did it and that really developed made me develop a set of skills on my own and of course what that also did is I had to do the marketing I did the I I managed all the projects I did everything myself yes I had to hire the technicians train them everything so one thing I didn't have to worry about is getting paid because remember I was working under an established company out of Pittsburgh but I still had to build Florida right so what that did for me is that not only did I develop skills nobody else had on my own but I also had to continue developing that network. So I made new relationships developed new relationships new clients so when I came back to GEC I brought all that with me with you yeah absolutely practical skills so I was able to you know spread it you know develop relationships and there were some clients GEC had lost along the way for you know whatever reason they came back with me yeah yes so and I and I continue to do a lot of the marketing and developing and that's the thing I I tell you know our staff here all the time doesn't matter how good a marketing a job I do of marketing if you don't give the client good service they're not coming back that's yeah that is true that's that's your priority.

Roy Richardson 36:15

And you said something before you know that you you decided to give up your PhD but I would venture to say that you probably walk back in the door with a PhD under your arm. Right? Given the real world experience you gained from putting that company together and everything else which was a much broader field than just engineering because you had to touch on every area of an operation so it helped prepare you for where you are today.

Rachel André 36:43

Absolutely absolutely you are correct and that this seems to be the theme of my life people ask me oh how did you plan this did you visit I never planned to build to open a business I never plan to have a business people along the way always told me hey you should start something for yourself. We will support you. Gary told me this his old partners told me this but I I was a young mom I was not interested in doing all this heavy lifting but what I found is once I left GEC every step after that even the unemployment that played a role in me getting to where I am today. And again I never planned it I wasn't following money and even when I was worried about money what I what I found out is every opportunity that came came with more money more opportunities and it really what was happening is everybody was watching. Yeah I didn't know that I'm just doing my job right but people were watching and that's what happened for me because they saw wait a minute she was able to do this on her own.

Roy Richardson 37:38

So yeah building credibility building trust and and no there's the network also as well right the network and and I was just going to say there's there's no better testimonial I would say than the credibility of others who look at what you've done and be able to to give you a thumbs up on that right and and and and stare you onto others. So

AI Risks In Engineering Judgment

Roy Richardson 37:58

as we you know and and thank you for first of all congrats amazing amazing be able to put that all together as we turn more towards today you know one thing that is reshaping conversations inside every technical field right now and I hear it constantly in our work at Aurora InfoTech is is artificial intelligence right and given what you told us during our prep, you know, you're watching in your industry, Rachel, I want to spend a few minutes here. You said something in your prep that I want to quote back to you because it was specific and honest. You said you're not worried that AI replaces the geotechnical engineers you're worried that people in your industry will be too quick to rely on it and get careless and that the engineer shortage that you're already dealing with is going to make that temptation even harder to resist.

Rachel André 38:47

Yeah that is a very precise concern walk us through that well what so we're looking at dirt right people are looking at dirt okay it's dirt it's always dirt but that's not true you have in especially in Florida with the geology the way it is you have sand you have clay there are places where you have you have limestone there's a lot of limestone in deep sometimes it's shallow which leads to the formation of sinkholes and things like that. So another thing that we worry about as geotechnical engineers is water tables. Where's the water level? Usually here it's pretty shallow but different regions different areas have different water level elevations which informs the recommendations that we give the civil engineers when they're building or you know designing whatever it is. Right. What I find is it it there it's very tempting to take an old report because by the way for you you you guys know engineers usually produce plans right a set of plans. In our case as we we're the only group of engineers that don't really produce plans. We do produce certain sheets big plan sheets that go in the plans but we also write a report the reports are probably more actual you got it got it but very often they very often people don't really look at the report oh and so yeah yeah don't we need to know if the ground's gonna move if we call that's the thing we there's a lot more details that we go into with the report what I find is some people get very complacent oh dirty's dirt this is sand whatever everything but it's not it's it's it's really not that simple very often it's a simple project no problem but some people might miss the one little thing that could change the whole situation certain recommendations and things like that. So I I'm worried that AI makes things too easy. You find something that's already canned you go through it haphazardly you're busy and you don't really take the time to look at this project on its own at its own project to see what the conditions are so you can tailor it to it. So that's why I'm saying I don't I'm not worried about because if you if you want good work good geotechnical work you're not I'm not I'm not using this I'm using I want an engineer with experience to look at this for me. Got it amazing yeah that's that's what I'm that's what I mean by AI cannot cannot do this. It's it's kind of an art especially I mean think about it we can't drill every two feet every three feet so we have to decide okay this is what I'm looking at I can I can drill maybe four borings or five depending on what you're looking at. So you have to look at the thing as a whole and make recommendations and of course you have to look at your soils map and so all those things you put you piece together to come up with recommendations. I don't see AI doing that.

Roy Richardson 41:41

No and you're you're absolutely right on that and and I I will add something here before I transition to to Sean I saw something today that that actually speaks to that. In the recent World Cup if you looked at it almost every team that was out there had these neon pink shoes. Yes right and they were all from they were all from different manufacturers. And so what what ended up happening and I saw a case study on this today the all these manufacturers wanted to come out with the next big thing and they were doing some studies in terms of what would be the the colors and blah blah blah for the next you know couple years etc but apparently they all use the same company for their research and the company which is right now may actually may actually have been using AI right and and they were keeping this like clandestine from each other right and and all of a sudden the teams come out on on oh yeah oops everybody and so you could not really tell the different brands because they're all pink and they're all the same color so yeah got it and and that and and that's what I'm worried about.

Rachel André 42:42

That's that's what I'm I'm I'm talking about.

Sean Murphy 42:44

Let's stay on that dig deeper into the version of AI that you engineers would actually want to see the one that makes the work better faster or safer in a way that serves the people for your projects I think there are things we can do.

Rachel André 43:00

For example for us we produce a report but we also have to produce sheets that have a summary of the boring data that we collect. Okay I think maybe AI has a play a a part to play on this but you can't just rely on it. You really have to go through it. It saves you time on one end but you still have to verify your work because your CL is going on this thing.

Sean Murphy 43:21

I'm just happy to know that I wasn't the only one that thought that the engineering reports were boring. I'm hearing it from an engineer herself that it was boring you know I was a little I was feeling a little self-conscious sometimes when I because I have a buddy that's an engineer and I'm like hey man let me read that let me look at those reports you know and I'm like boy this is some boring stuff man it can be very dry I I will tell you that it can be very dry but trust me you need those guys you need us yeah and I guess my my my personality is a little bit different.

Rachel André 43:54

I hear that all the time I'm very gregarious are you sure you're an engineer? Yeah Flavor, right? Yeah, but yeah, we we tend to be boring, but that's because we're methodical and you know we focus on what we're doing and we we focus on what's important.

Roy Richardson 44:10

Yeah, so that kind of clarity, what the work is for and who it serves shows up in everything that you lead and do today. And and I want to speak a little bit about that. GEC today, 57 employees, 17 licensed professionals, 30 field trucks, and nine drill rigs. What you've built, inherited, and earned, and continue to build is something most leaders never get close to.

Sean Murphy 44:35

Yeah. So you did an internship in grad school, eight years at the company, made that hard decision to leave. Then Gary calls and says, Come back, like, welcome home. Walk us through that arc. What was it like to walk back and knowing it more, having seen more? And uh, when did it truly sink in that this company would be yours one day?

Rachel André 45:01

Well, to be honest, like I said, I stayed in touch with Gary. And apparently Gary was watching and paying attention. So, I mean, again, I was still in Orlando. I never left Orlando, so I was here. So they saw, they they saw my progression. I went to this company and then got lost the job with the recession. I went to that company. So we stayed in touch, so he knew what I was doing. And when I accepted that position to open the office for the Pittsburgh company here in Orlando, that's really when things started to make sense. When I built the office, because let me tell you, throughout my I've been here throughout my career, so 27 some years here in Central Florida, I've seen a lot of geotechnical companies from out of state come to Orlando and then close their doors within a year or two. Oh, yeah. That company that I opened the office for, they only they read that that was 12 some years ago. No, 15 some years ago. They, I mean, I was there for six years. And then when I left, the company was still around, still functioning, still again. This is not something that's easy to build something like this in Central Florida.

Sean Murphy 46:05

Right.

Rachel André 46:05

Because of all the competition and everything. What those guys understood was that what we do is local. All these other companies, they would hire us, they would have somebody who's already at their office in Pittsburgh, for example, and then send this guy here. It's not gonna work. They don't know you, they don't know your work ethic, they don't know your experience. Things are very different, especially and they don't have the relationships. They don't have the relationship, exactly. So that's what those guys did. That's the difference. So when when Gary called, again, I stayed in touch with him, but when he called me, it's interesting when we first started talking about that, there was another company very well known here that has since sold. They wanted me to buy them out so that I could go go work there and buy the lady out because she wanted to retire. But I wasn't the company looked on the surface very successful, but I had concerns about what things look like in the background. So I know Gary, I called Gary, I said, Hey, this is what's happening. And he said, Are you sure you want to do this? How about you come back? Because I was thinking about I'm retiring, and I you're the one that wanted to, you know, buy me out. And I'm like, Well, I've already been talking to her. Let's let's see if we can work this out. So what nobody knows, I guess they're gonna find out now. But when I was when I was negotiating with that other lady, Gary was in the background looking at the report at the contracts with me and that kind of thing. And he said, Rachel, this is not good, this isn't good. And you know, I trust him. So I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm not gonna buy you out, I'm gonna come in, work in the company, and that was before Gary, right? The other company. Yeah, I worked with them for about a year just to see how the operations were. And I was right, my instincts were right. They there was a lot of, they were not functioning in an optimal way over there. And I tried to fix things before making the decision to buy them out, but the then owner would not really support me in that decision. So that's why I said, okay, I'm leaving. So I left a week shy of a year at that company. Got it. And that's when Gary, so so then when I was talking to Gary, he said, okay, that's the plan. So if you're not going there, great. Just come to GEC, you're gonna work directly under me for a year and a half. The only people who knew about this were his partners at the time. So I worked under him to kind of train as the president for a year and a half, and then I took over. So I already knew that was the plan. Yeah, I just had to come in, you know, train a little bit because there's a lot more to ownership than just the engineering and the stuff I had learned before.

Sean Murphy 48:28

I I love the fact that you leaned into a relationship like that. And I'm using the analogy of a bird throwing out the baby to teach them how to fly, right? And you've come back to the home and and look, yeah, that that I I studied back when I was a stockbroker for 10 years. You know, we heard about these second generation companies falling apart, or the the owners sell to the next generation. Again, they're blowing them up left and right. So again, kudos to you on what you've done so far. And I can't wait to see what the future has.

Roy Richardson 49:01

Yeah, you know, and you know what's remarkable about all of this? I mean, Rachel has stepped in, she took over what Gary builds. He uh, like you said, you know, set her free and she came back to the nest. But Gary's still there, and and and he's still there as GEC's chief engineer, still, you know, a sounding board for for you, Rachel. Absolutely. And so what did you watch Gary do the way he stayed calm when you brought him something that felt like the end of the world that you now find yourself doing for your own personality? Same thing, yeah.

Rachel André 49:34

And that I I tell him that all the time. He's not even aware of it. He he doesn't call himself a mentor, but when I think about a mentor, that's what he is. He doesn't call he said, I'm just your friend. I'm just your friend. You know, and well, one thing I remember I was a young engineer, I wasn't even a licensed engineer yet. And there was another engineer, he was a friend of mine, he's since died, but he was an engineer here at the company, senior to me. And I guess as engineers do, you know, we struggle with social interaction sometimes. So I went out, Gary walked into my office one day, and I he was red and I saw fumes coming out of his ears. Right, right. You know, I'm kidding, of course. But he was Gary, he was not happy. I'm like, okay, what's what's going on? He said, Well, so and so, that engineer I was telling you about, the senior engineer, said something to a client that really, really angered him, angered the client. He said, The client called me irate, and I told him, Let me call you back. So he came to my office, he said, It's your problem now, you fix it. That was it. So I said, Okay, and I knew the client, so I I called the client, I said, Okay, so this engineer is no longer working on the project, and he was screaming on the phone, and I listened and I said, Let me, I'm trying to hear you, you gotta tell me what's going on. I know you're unhappy, but don't scream, just tell me what happened so I can fix it. To this day, when when this guy puts us on teams, he doesn't want to work with anybody else. That's what it is. Fix their problem. They don't care about anything else, fix the problem. And I think that that's that's that's one of the things you know he taught me. Focus on what's what's the goal. The person is unhappy, hear them out, let them talk, and then fix the problem. And I would I would go to him with with situations, and I'm like, oh my god, he's gonna be so mad at me. He's like, no, okay, this is what you can do, you know, that kind of thing. So that's one of the things that's helping me to stay calm, even though in my head I'm like, okay, no, but he's always I've always seen him calm, even though he's mad, he's unhappy, you know, again, smoke's coming out of his ears, it doesn't matter. Stay calm, fix it. That's what I do.

Sean Murphy 51:46

You're you're leading a woman-owned, minority-owned, SBE in a field where both are like crazy rare, right? That visibility carries weight, whether you sought it or not. How do you hold that responsibility without letting it become a burden? Because that's a huge responsibility.

Rachel André 52:06

Well, I try not to look at all that stuff. This is what people say. Well, women, minority.

Sean Murphy 52:12

Hey, I'm just I'm building something.

Rachel André 52:14

I'm I'm I'm I'm just I'm I'm just as smart, if not smarter, than a lot of those people who now who are not women or not minorities.

Sean Murphy 52:21

What's the problem?

Rachel André 52:22

What's the problem? So I don't really, I don't really I don't care. It's it's it's uh it's about focusing on the goal, focusing on the work. And I don't think people hire me because I'm I'm a small business. Uh they don't hire me because I'm minority, because I'm a woman, because I'm back. They hire me because I know what I'm doing and I'm gonna do a good job. So that's what I focus on.

Sean Murphy 52:41

Yeah, it ain't about it ain't about the the the race or the the the it's about getting the job done. Simple as that. That's right.

Rachel André 52:51

Do you know what you're doing?

Sean Murphy 52:52

That's right.

Rachel André 52:53

Can you get it done? That's all it is. That's all it is.

Roy Richardson 52:57

Yeah,

Rapid Fire Plus Career Advice

Roy Richardson 52:58

so uh let's uh let's pick up the pace a little bit and and go to your uh your rapid fire.

Sean Murphy 53:04

One of my favorite sessions. So I want to ask the few things, just one word that that comes to mind. There's a book for the unemployed stretch, heavily marked, highlighted, dog eared. Yes. What is it and where did it I brought it? Okay, what's it called?

Rachel André 53:27

It's called Simple Abundance. A day book of comfort and joy. So there's a little there's 366 passages, a page, a page and a half. They're not long, they're not very long. So it's very short passages, one one per day. So that's why it's called a day book of comfort and joy. You know, when you're down in the dump, say, you know, something to pick you up. And I I relied on that book for years. I haven't cracked it open in a while because I've been so so busy, but it's it's in my library. I picked it up, I picked it up the other day because I'm like, oh shit.

Sean Murphy 54:03

It's probably embedded. Yeah, yeah. Yes, it is. Very cool. Absolutely. There you go. Most overrated word or buzzword in the engineering infrastructure industry right now.

Rachel André 54:14

Sustainability.

Sean Murphy 54:16

What one habit that keeps things steady, the thing that makes tomorrow more manageable for you?

Rachel André 54:21

Delegate, delegate if you can. I've I've I've I this is something I've always struggled with, but I'm a lot better with it now. Uh, we're kind of short staff, so I'm we're looking for somebody in the to help us on the account in the accounting department. So I've had to take on a lot more of that, which of course that means I'm buried, but when you can, delegate.

Roy Richardson 54:41

Amen to that. Amen to that. So bragging rights round here, Rachel. And I'm just gonna name these off and and then you know, tell me which one gets the bigger reaction at the dinner table, right? So three languages or four, right? Four. Eight countries in a single year, yeah, or president of a 35-year firm behind Sunrail I-4, Ultimate, and OIA. Which which one gets the biggest reaction at a dinner table?

Rachel André 55:08

Probably the languages, and then I say second would be the eight countries in a year.

Roy Richardson 55:15

Eight countries in a year, yeah.

Rachel André 55:16

Yeah, the languages is a big thing because, as you know, people here typically they try to stay within the English. So the fact that you're fluent in other languages, it's kind of they think it's impressive, but let me tell you, it's not. If you start early, it's not.

Sean Murphy 55:29

It is very impressive to speak multiple. That's why my kids, I'm like, look, y'all are gonna learn a language. You're gonna your brain is your brains are gonna be wired early so that you'll be able to pick up a yes. I have a number of your kids for a 17-year-old. But they started no, no, no, but they started in the kindergarten. So I had them in a foreign language academy at down at Hillcrest down in in downtown Orlando. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rachel André 55:57

So Chris, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sybil, my yeah, my my daughter Sybil went to a multilinguage emergency in uh Aceola County. So that's when she really yeah. I'm gonna give you a little bit of you know, a little tip, something I use when my daughter was growing up. In the morning, when they're getting ready, I would turn on live French or live Spanish radio.

Sean Murphy 56:19

Yes, yes, I have them. I have them. I'm like, hey, when you're playing your video games, put it in Spanish. Yes, you know what they're doing. So now you're getting the language behind it. Because you're dad, because your mom and dad can't teach you the language. Ain't nobody in this we're not speaking it.

Roy Richardson 56:36

And and and and you know, before we had to, you know, really spend years and years immersing ourselves in a language, and now there are all these apps that can really do that.

Rachel André 56:45

My car is set up in French. Oh, very cool. My car is set up in French.

Roy Richardson 56:48

French. Yeah.

Rachel André 56:49

Yes, and I I'm thinking about switching it to Spanish, you know, just to shake things up a bit.

Roy Richardson 56:54

But my my my my wife has uh has her GPS in Dutch. Oh, there you go.

Rachel André 56:59

Yeah, so you stay practicing.

Roy Richardson 57:01

Before we get philosophical, let's get practical. You have 27 years in the field and three pieces of advice you'd pass forward. Walk us through them. And Sean, I'm gonna kick this off to you.

Sean Murphy 57:14

Go into a field you love, because that is what carries you when things get hard. Give us a specific moment, one where loving what you do was genuinely the only thing that got you through it.

Rachel André 57:31

Okay. My second bout, my second bout of unemployment for 10 months, like I told you. So, you know, sending resumes, nothing's happening. And then at some point, a friend of mine said, you know, I she's a she's a planner and an architect, and she said, you know, I recently got a mediator's license.

Sean Murphy 57:51

And I said, Oh, okay.

Rachel André 57:53

So I went, took a course, a mediator's course, and I got, and I became, I had my mediator's license in a few months. And then of course, I I I always wanted to go back to engineering. But in the meantime, while I was after I got the mediator's license, you have to have a certain number of hours training under a licensed, experienced mediator. While I was in the course, the people I was I was uh working with, they were always talking about this that super the super mediator in Orlando. I can't remember his name now. Everybody's talking about the guy like he's a legend or something. I said okay. So then I was like, I have to get some hours so I can get my license. I looked up the guy, picked up the phone, called him, he said, Oh, okay, why don't you come and work with me?

Sean Murphy 58:36

He put his pants on just like that, too.

Rachel André 58:39

I trained under him. He because I I I sent him, he wanted to see my resume to see whether I was legit. He saw it, he said, Oh, okay, so you're just not working. I said, I'm not working, still looking for engineering work, but you know, let me do this. And I I really enjoyed it, I worked with him for several months. I trained under him like three, four, five, six months, and I I loved it. And I loved it, and I even got job offers and everything, but I was like, no, I'm going back to engineering because you know it was the recession and I knew things were gonna pick up again. Okay, so that's one of the, I mean, because I could have gone into mediation, but I I I stuck to it, and then that's when I got the job with the company from Pittsburgh.

Roy Richardson 59:15

Nice. And and in your second piece of advice here, and and I love this mindset, you know, service over profit. And and you said it yourself, you're not primarily motivated by money, but by how good a job you can do and how well you can serve. That is a posture, not a strategy. How do you sustain it when the business still needs and you know has bills to pay and 57 people depending on you?

Rachel André 59:43

Well, I've I will say I have I have declined opportunities because they didn't align with my vision or my ethics or you know, all that. Psychology. Yeah, that that doesn't that doesn't scare me. It's uh it you know, I'm lucky I haven't been in a situation where it was so monumental that I had to make a hard decision. It it it's that a hard decision. If you, you know, you can you do it? Can you do it? Can you do a great job at it? Yeah.

Sean Murphy 1:00:13

You know, the the the third one, I can't wait to hear you answer this because last weekend I made a post on Facebook about how I allowed myself not to protect my vacation time. And it caused me to have a situation with a 40-year relationship of mine. And it was a family member that is like a little brother, and we're, you know, we got at odds because I didn't protect my time. So protecting your time outside of work, why is that a non-negotiable for you? I I I'm going through it now and I'm like, it will be a non-negotiable for me, not as career advice, but at the level of your values. Tell me about that.

Rachel André 1:01:07

Well, the way I see it, you that you can't compartmentalize your life. I I can't. You know, I understand, you know, I'm a professional, I'm the president of a company, I have a daughter, I have family, I have, you know, all those things, but you can't really completely separate those things. So at the core, if I'm gonna do a good job professionally, right, I need to be good with myself. And in order to be good with myself, I have to protect my time, my my mental health, and all of that, which means the time because this is very stressful, it's very taxing, as much as I love it. It's stressful, it's taxing. You need the time, you need the recul, how do you say that? The step back, you need the the the step back, you need that time to decompress, and and and and so so you can be full, so you can be, so you can have energy to do this day in and day out. So you have to protect yourself, absolutely.

Sean Murphy 1:02:08

And and and a lot of the stuff that we do is mental, right? And so there's this notion that you're not doing anything, but your brain is like a computer modem. It's going, it's going to it's it can get overworked and overattached, and that's what happened to me. Which I typically in the past I've normally protected myself, but somehow I got killed. Yeah.

Roy Richardson 1:02:32

So anyway, I yeah, I know. I mean, uh, I I saw I saw the post that you put out there, and so right on uh on what you said there as well, Rachel. You know, I I would one one thing I wanted to ask, and I'm gonna throw one in here because I I told you three, but but I want to add a fort one, is you know, if you were talking to a young engineer just starting out today, maybe someone from Haiti or from Saint Matin or from, you know, Okeechobee, or even here in Orlando, right? That feels like a long way from where they want to be, you know, looking at this country the way you once did, what was the one thing you would tell them to develop before anything else?

Rachel André 1:03:13

Well, the first thing is you have to develop your skills. If, okay, you you decide where you want to go. The first thing to do is develop the skills. Learn the job. Learn if and and you cannot allow yourself to get distracted because there's a lot of distraction out there. Decide, go for it. And then the next big thing as you're building is to develop the network, develop the relationships. Because I can tell you, every single time, either you know, I I lost my job or I wanted something else, it's the relationships that got me there. The last time I really interviewed, interviewed for a job was this one. Was that not this one, my very first interview with GitHub?

Sean Murphy 1:03:55

Yeah, when you get here. Yeah, got it.

Rachel André 1:03:56

Yeah, because after that, it was always opportunities. People are calling me in, you know, even after you know, when I got my opportunity with Aceola County. Hey, Rachel, is this you? Yeah, it's me. So that was the public works director at Aceola County. This is so and so. I'm like, oh, how are you doing? He's like, hey, I saw your resume floating out there. You have to come in because it's formality, but it's your job.

Sean Murphy 1:04:17

Right, right. Yes.

Rachel André 1:04:19

Then the next one, the next one where I got the opportunity from the firm in um in Pittsburgh, I was driving from an interview at the DOT in the panhandle. While I was driving back from the interview, I got a call from them and they said, Hey, the job is yours if you want it. I'm like, sorry, I can't take the job because my daughter is here in Orlando. I went on the interview because I'm like, okay, I'm looking for a job. This was the first interview I had after eight, nine months. So I said, I can't take the job. So I'm driving and then my phone rings. It's a friend, he's a structural engineer. I went to school with. He's like, Hey, Rachel, what are you up to? I haven't seen you in a while. Oh, you know, I'm looking for a job. He said, Are you serious? Let me call you back. He called me back. This the company he was working for, he had opened an office in Orlando for them. They're out of Pittsburgh. And he said, they were, but they were a structural company. That company, structural company in Pittsburgh, had a sister company that does geotechnical engineering. And the owner of that company wanted to open an Orlando office. He connected me to this guy, and that was it. How I got the job.

Roy Richardson 1:05:18

Wow.

Rachel André 1:05:19

So everything else, it's network, it's who you know. It's who you know. So hone your skills, build your network.

Roy Richardson 1:05:27

Yep, yep. Great advice. And and and and you are uh a living testament of of how that has worked out, right? Right. So let's slow things down a bit and look at the big picture. We're rounding up on the top of uh of the segment here. So we've got a couple more to go and then we'll have uh Sean take us home. So, you know, Sean, take us take us away on this one.

Balance Culture And Caring Leadership

Sean Murphy 1:05:48

The laptop always come on vacation, right? Eight countries, one hour emails a day, short breaks scattered throughout the year. What does real balance? Look like for you, not the vision the version people post about the actual one you've made work for you.

Rachel André 1:06:09

Well, like I said, you can't, I can't compartmentalize, I can't break myself up. It's it's my life. I love it. That's the way it is. But when you when you need a break, you gotta take it. And you have to be able to say, okay, like I said, even the one-hour email a day, that doesn't bother me because I have the rest of the day. That's that's good enough for me. And to be honest, I don't want to be fully, I hear people talking about fully unplugging. I would have anxiety if I didn't plug it out. I don't want that. I I don't want that. I I want to know what's going on at all times. I just need to be able to maybe not be in the office or not have to be at my computer if I don't have to. So one one one hour of email a day while I'm on vacation, that's nothing.

Roy Richardson 1:06:49

Yeah, you know, I can I can relate to that as well. And and you know, before moving back here and owning a telecom, a company in the islands, I would come on vacation here with my family. But back in the day, we had this thing called the BlackBerry that was always on our hip. You remember you would you would take it off you would take it off your your hip and you would still feel your hip move vibrating, right? Right? And and and I realized after a couple trips that what was supposed to be downtime and vacation, that when I got back to the islands, I was more tired than when I left because we're constantly keeping track of things. And then so one time I said, you know, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm I made a pact with my wife. I'm gonna spend one hour on emails. It'll be 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening. And I took that blackberry and I put it in a drawer for the rest of the day. Best decision I ever made, you know, from a mental state from everything else, you know.

Rachel André 1:07:47

Yes, same year.

Roy Richardson 1:07:49

Your grandmother, right? Dulka, right? Right. Yes, someone you described as having compassion for the whole world, that is a remarkable thing to say about a person. What did she actually give you and how do you see her in a way that you lead today?

Rachel André 1:08:06

I I love people. I hope that transpires. I hope it shows. And I I I care for my staff deeply. And and one of the things is I make it a point to stay in touch with them. How's your wife? You know, if I remember somebody was having an operation, somebody had an accident, whatever. Those you stay in touch with your people. I remember today, this happened today. One of my engineers had to put together a big proposal for one of the expressway projects. And um, I told him, okay, put it together, I will help you Friday afternoon to kind of I'll go through it with you so we can clean it up and finalize it and all that. And while we're talking, I can't remember at the beginning how you doing, how are the kids? Because I know he's in there, they're empty nesters. And I remember one of his boys is in the is in the service. I can't remember, army, navy, whatever, one of them. And I said, Hey, how are the guys doing? The boys doing. He said, Oh, so and so is being deployed again. He's going in the Middle East, and you could tell. And I'm like, okay, we're not talking about work anymore. We started talking about, you know, okay, how are you feeling? How you know, and of course, I'm listening to him, letting him talk. How's your wife taking it? How are you doing? How is he doing? You know, so for 10-15 minutes, that's how we talked about it. And he kept like, well, Rachel, we gotta talk about no let's talk about you. How are you doing? How's your you know inside of things because I you you can't you can't focus on the work when you're so worried about your your child. So, you know, we talked about it and everything, and then I I gave him a little time and I said, Hey, by the way, if you want to talk some more, you know, you can call me. I know we have to get this done. If you want to talk more, you can always call me. So we we we we left that topic, got into the engineering, we got the thing done, and he was very grateful for that. And I invited him, hey, if you want to talk this weekend, you call me. I think that's what it's about. Do you have to recognize your your people are not robots, they're not just professionals, they have lives. You know, you support them.

Sean Murphy 1:09:56

I I I love what you just said, and so I want, you know, typically we ask these questions, hey, what does 10 years look like for your company, right? And and a lot of times when people ask those questions, you're talking about revenue-wise, you know, how many clients you have and stuff like that. What does thriving mean in your version of the company?

Rachel André 1:10:18

Well, I think, I think for me, I'm doing everything I want to do. I'm doing, I think I'm managing the company the way I want it managed. We're very relaxed here, you know, because of especially with the change in in how everything works, we don't really physically go to meetings anymore. People don't really come here. So it's very relaxed. I want to maintain it that way. I want to keep the company growing. You know, with I I would like to maintain the culture. That's really what I would like. Even when we get bigger, I'd like to be able to maintain the culture. And we just went through a pretty major growth spurts. Okay. Um, we when I when I when I took over, we were at 35, 36 employees, two years, and then now, no, no, yeah, 35, 36. And then we steadily increased, and then over the last two years we hired 20 people. So it's it's you know, yeah, yeah. So it's been kind of steady, you know. So for me, it's about the culture, and I think there's something little known about a GEC. A lot of people, they'll stay here forever. We have people who have been here for 30 plus years. That is amazing. Some of our technicians have been with us for 35 years in an industry that's that is notorious for turnovers. So a lot of people leave, they come back because of the culture, because of how we manage it. And I'm hoping to keep that going, even if if you know, if we grow to a certain size, of course, you know, dynamics change, things change a little bit. You have to streamline some things, but at the same time, I'm trying to maintain that culture as as much as I can.

Sean Murphy 1:11:43

Excellent. And if the story teaches one lesson long after you're done telling, what do you hope that lesson is?

Rachel André 1:11:51

Oh, that's a that's a tough one. You know, okay, I I think this is the lesson. This is the lesson, this is the lesson for me. If I don't love this anymore, I'm out of here.

Sean Murphy 1:12:02

I'm out of here. Yes, yes.

Roy Richardson 1:12:04

Yes.

Rachel André 1:12:05

If I don't like what I'm doing, I don't like the people I'm working with, what's the point?

Sean Murphy 1:12:08

Right. That is true.

Rachel André 1:12:09

Yeah, you you you you love what you do, you see the point of what you do. Central Florida's growing, growing, growing. Construction, construction. We have a role to play, and I can do it supporting it. So I'm supporting the community. We're earning a decent living for everybody here. We're helping the community grow. I think that's it. And if I love it, great. Once I'm tired of it, I don't know when that's gonna be, then I'm gonna have to move on to something else that I like. Got it.

Roy Richardson 1:12:34

And and I'm I'm I've always said, you know, if you're if you can get up in the morning, you're passionate about what you do and and you know, go for it. But the minute that passion is. It's not a job. Exactly. It's not a job. Exactly, right? So, Rachel, I gotta ask you my trademark question here that I tend to throw out to every one of our guests. And

Dream Advisors And Last Lessons

Roy Richardson 1:12:53

and and we we we have varying results on this, and and Sean and I have seen a culmination of boards here, right? You know, that that are amazing. But if you had the opportunity to put together a dream board of advisors, anyone from any point in time, past or present, who would be on your board and why?

Rachel André 1:13:15

Ooh, different people. Gary, of course, I always want to have him. My advisor at UCF, who's still there. We talked to each other, we've been on panels together, Dr. Shobra. He was he actually he was instrumental in everything because he's the one we hire from UCF, we hire interns from UCF, and that's how I started here. He's the one who set up because Gary was looking for an intern who recommended me that job. So he's another one, yeah. Of course. And then Toussaint Louverture, who's one of the heroes of independence. Yeah, Toussaint L'Avature.

Roy Richardson 1:13:46

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes.

Rachel André 1:13:48

Yeah, I've always been impressed, you know, Desaline, Petro, all these guys. Toussaint Louvertu, he's always very cool. Yeah, I mean, you know, fear fierce, fierce, fearlessness. Yes, just just go.

Roy Richardson 1:13:59

Yes, do it. I I I read a piece. Uh you're you're you're speaking about Toussaint L'Avature. I read a piece where the Le Grenadiers, the the the soccer team, wanted to actually have it, have it, have his his symbol, or they had uh a kit, the jerseys, with with with his you know, um um portrait on it. That's but unfortunately give it on the horse. On the horse, right? I remember that. Unfortunately, FIFA would not allow it because of the the political statements, etc. So yeah. Yes.

Rachel André 1:14:28

And I was mad about that.

Roy Richardson 1:14:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you. I hear you. I hear you. I hear you. Got it. Sean, take us home.

Sean Murphy 1:14:35

Yeah, Rachel, man, what an incredible time. Enjoy, enjoyed, enjoyed it. Thank you for your time. But what stands out about this story, the thing that will stay with me is the consistency of the theme that you have here. No chasing titles, no engineering, a path to the top of the org chart. Just excellent work, just excellent work. A genuine love for what you do and showing up fully in a field work for clients for and for the team. And now, you know, the right doors kept opening up. And and I I I know that, and a lot of people listening today needed to hear that, I believe. Um, and that's one of the reasons why we've done this podcast. Thank you for being so open and so genuine with your time and on your story. Yeah.

Rachel André 1:15:26

Thank you for having me. It's it's it's been a pleasure.

Roy Richardson 1:15:29

And and you know, Rachel, like I said, when we started this, amazing when I when I read your story and that could relate to so many things. But to have a fellow Caribbean Islander on here and to see what you have been able to do, and more so not only going into an organization, working there, but deciding to leave, spreading your wings, picking up all that knowledge, coming back in with that PhD of life, so to say, and and business. And and you said something just now or earlier, you know, you want to protect your culture. And that's usually the biggest challenge, right? Whenever you either take over a company or you expand a company too quickly, is how do we not dilute grandma's recipe, right, for for chicken soup, right? How do we how do we ensure that it keeps tasting the same and that the company keeps moving forward? And so what comes through in everything that you share today is a kind of leadership that is grounded in craft, not ego. A career built on principle that if the work is done exceptionally well and the people around you are truly served, everything else follows. That is rare. It is also exactly what the infrastructure holding this region together deserves. People who feel the full weight of getting it right every single time. And personally, as I said, from one Caribbean kid who bet on themselves in this country to another, you know, this conversation meant a great deal. And we are genuinely grateful you came and shared your story with us. Keep plugging away. And and I look forward to us getting together all soon in person and sharing more with each other. So mercy beaucoup. Well, thank you so much for having me.

Rachel André 1:17:06

It's been it's been such a pleasure. I I I love it. That was a fun conversation.

Sean Murphy 1:17:10

Very good. Thank you. And finally,

Events Guest Invite And Closing

Sean Murphy 1:17:12

as we wrap up this episode, I want to invite you to our CEO Leadership Forums event. It's a purpose-driven community of CEOs, founders, and business leaders committed to growth, impact, and legacy. Our goal at CEO Leadership Forums is to inspire and equip 1,500 CEOs and leaders by 2028. And that's in partnership with Valencia and strategic partners like CEO Nexus. So join us on August 25th, where we will discuss leading beyond the algorithm, what great leaders look like or great leadership looks like in an AI drip world. And you can find details at www.ceoleadershipforms.com. And until next time, stay curious, stay driven, and keep leading with purpose.

Roy Richardson 1:18:08

Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Are you a business owner or leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest on our program. Our goal is simple. We provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you got started, the challenges you faced along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you or you know someone who fits these criteria, then be sure to get in touch with us by visiting our website linked in the episode description below. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next episode goes live. Or if you'd rather listen to us during your car rides, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using your podcatcher. Thanks again, and remember, keep crushing it.