I Didn't Take the Straight Road. I Took the One That Was Actually Built.
Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, my father used to drive me through the McKnight neighborhood on Sunday afternoons. Block after block of Victorian houses — turrets, wraparound porches, the kind of craftsmanship you don't see much of anymore. I was in love with every single one of them.
I planned to study architectural engineering at NC A&T. I was going to design buildings like those.
Life had other plans.
My Story
The road in was longer than I expected.
I started at Springfield Technical Community College, found my way into their architectural technologies program, and graduated in 2008. Then I enrolled in a CADD program at Porter & Chester — and during our commercial building design phase, I discovered structural design and never looked back. I wanted to be a structural engineer. What I found instead was something I didn't expect to love even more.
I landed an administrative role at a growing general contracting company in Easthampton — the only construction-adjacent position I could find. I showed up to handle administrative work and support their Estimator. I stayed because I fell completely in love with construction itself. The constant change. The complexity. Watching something move from a drawing on paper to a structure standing in the world. I wanted more of it, and I kept finding ways to get it.
Over the next 15+ years, I built deep expertise in estimating, bid strategy, business development, and project management — not because someone handed me a roadmap, but because I went looking for knowledge in every room I was allowed into.
I didn't just learn the business side. I lived it.
At one point, I started my own general contracting business and successfully ran a job from start to finish. I came out the other side with something money can't buy: a complete picture of what it actually takes.
The stress of running the job, managing the money, sourcing labor, tracking materials — all at once, all on you. It's a lot for anyone. I succeeded because I knew how to do all of the pieces. But I also learned something important about myself: I love every part of this industry except doing the physical work with my own hands. I have deep respect for the supers, the laborers, the business owners grinding through it every day. I just know now that my role is to be the person who helps them do it better — not to be out there doing it alongside them.
At least not until I'm more than a one-woman show. 😄
What I kept seeing — and couldn't ignore.
Most construction businesses keep their roles siloed. Estimators don't see enough business development in practice. Project managers don't see the financials beyond their project — and sometimes don't even understand the profit structure behind it. Nobody gets the full picture.
I started seeing the full picture when I helped my husband build our HVAC business. And what I saw stopped me: he was exceptional at his trade and had almost no framework for running the business around it. He wasn't the exception. He was the rule.
Contractor after contractor. Business owner after business owner. People who could out-work, out-build, and out-hustle anyone in the field — but nobody had ever taught them how to price a job, write a real proposal, or understand where their money was going.
Early in my career, I did freelance project management work for a business owner in Northern Virginia who had landed a promising opportunity. He brought me with him to a meeting with a drywall company to help secure a subcontracting relationship. I walked into that room and negotiated the contract for him — because he needed someone who could speak the language of the business, not just the trade.
That moment never left me.
That's what Robinson Legacy Builders is built on.
From Bid to Bank — my forthcoming book — is the resource I wished existed for every person I've watched struggle with the business side of an industry that rarely teaches it. It's for the contractor who wins jobs and wonders where the money went. For the small business owner who's brilliant in the field but underwater in the office. For anyone who built their skills on the job and is ready to build the business around them.
I know this world. I've lived it, managed it, negotiated it, and built it — from both sides of the table.
If you're ready to stop guessing and start building something that actually works — you're in the right place.