People focused Project Management with Julia Starzyk

EP006

In this episode, I spoke with Julia Starzyk. Julia is the founder and managing director of Star Projects, which is an independent project and cost management consultancy based in London. They provide services for clients with luxury private residential properties.

We discussed:

*A people focused approach to project management.

*Being a woman in Construction

*The importance of Networking

Julia's Bio:

Julia Starzyk is a Project Quantity Surveyor and Construction Project Manager who founded her construction consultancy, Star Projects, just before the pandemic. Julia is 30 years old and, since arriving in London from Poland 11 years ago, has worked her way up in a male-dominated industry, from assistant site manager to commercial director of a construction company, gaining two Masters degrees in the process.

Julia has quantity surveyed and project-managed over 90 luxury renovations and listed building restorations, from converting a 150-year-old property in Mayfair into a luxury 7-bedroom hotel to a modern apartment based in Chancery Lane with raw concrete ceilings.

Nowadays Julia runs Star Projects, construction consultancy operating within private, high end residential market of London and Julia’s sweet spot is residential refurbishment ranging from £1M-£6M delivering perfectly tailored homes for the most sophisticated clientele.

Connect with Julia:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliastarzyk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starprojects.london/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliajstarzyk


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Transcript

https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/Zwz2_cjukMFVLZAX4kC-w5KKdgsGesiDijpA08w1tXMqFGusk8e9sSn9Mhkw6wXeNQ8NgTiaYDtSF-g4qdTBHkZ8ung?loadFrom=SharedLink

Intro (00:00):

Welcome to the Everyday Determinator podcast, with your host Anne Okafor, founder of the Determinator Collective. We want to help you get off that hamster wheel of life and turn you into an everyday determinator, by sharing stories from our guests who have overcome varying challenges in life and careers, and by reviewing and signposting you to helpful resources to start you on the journey to achieving your goals. For more information on the Determinator Collective, please visit www.anneokafor.co.uk. Thanks for listening, determinators.

Anne Okafor (00:50):

Hello determinators, and welcome to the everyday Determinator podcast. In this episode, we're speaking with Julia Starzyk. Julia is a founder and managing director of Star Projects, which is an independent project and cost management consultancy based in London. They provide services for clients with luxury private residential properties.

Anne Okafor (01:11):

Hi, Julia. It's great to have you here with us.

Julia Starzyk (01:14):

Hi Anne. It's good to see you.

Anne Okafor (01:16):

Great. I'm so excited to have this conversation today and learn a little bit more about Julia. I'm really interested to hear a little bit about Star Projects first. Can you tell us a little bit about the services that you offer and maybe a typical project that you would deliver?

Julia Starzyk (01:32):

Sure. I mean, the story of setting up Star Projects was quite interesting as well. I basically used to work in a construction company. I was a commercial director for one of the main contractors in London. For a variety of reasons, I put my resignation down last year in February, and in March we had the pandemic hit.

Anne Okafor (01:55):

That an interesting time for that.

Julia Starzyk (01:59):

That was great timing. I was a little bit scared to actually go back into the employment with someone new, given the situation, and given the market kind of feels, so I've decided to set up with my own and just give that a go and see what happens. I moved over from working on the contractors side to the client side, and planning the projects in the sense of programming and cost planning them.

Julia Starzyk (02:29):

I usually would sit down with the client at the beginning of the journey, put together a brief of what's actually important to them. What's the overall figure they have in mind, and then assess what it is they want to have done and the figure actually lines up.

Anne Okafor (02:46):

Yep.

Julia Starzyk (02:46):

Or if there is a big problem at the beginning, and we're missing about 50% of the value that we need. Yeah, that's pretty much how I start most of the work. Then, if the clients are happy with that initial scheme, let's say, then we go into putting the concept designs together. We'd bring all the consultants to the table. We'd be dealing with negotiating their fees as well. Yeah, just putting together the concept design, developing the design, running the tender, and then running the project, so that at the end we can pass the keys back to the client and say, "Here's your house. Welcome!"

Anne Okafor (03:31):

What type of, bring to life a typical project for me? What would that look like? A typical brief.

Julia Starzyk (03:38):

Well, a typical brief, there's usually some form of extending something. It's usually going down in the sense of the basement, going out in terms of any extension work, going up in terms of any loft space. So, a very typical, extending it somewhere. The cubicle just needs to be a bit more expanded, and then usually there's a full refurbishment, unless some of the parts staying. Perhaps some outside work, a bit of an landscaping garden works. Maybe a driveway, some form of that as well.

Julia Starzyk (04:14):

I quite like, I went fairly niche in terms of the size of the project, because I usually work on the projects between one to 6 million of the construction value. I used to work on the way bigger projects. I just think that people aren't really that personal about this type of work. It turns into more like a management monster where nobody really cares about it in the sense of, they don't treat it as personally, and as homey. They usually look at it more like an investment, really, just making it into a great space and filling a wishlist that they always dreamed of. But, it doesn't really have that element of personality of the owner. That's really what I like most. I just really like to see how you're actually changing somebody's life.

Anne Okafor (05:11):

Yep, and helping to bring that personality out, I guess. Looking at some of your projects on the website, you can see that many of them are very different and they all have a sort of personality to them. That must be great for a client to walk in and see themselves within that room.

Julia Starzyk (05:30):

Totally. I mean, there's no two clients the same, right? I mean, there's a handful of projects on my website. Loads of people, loads of clients I worked with, they want to be private. They want to stay anonymous, but even if they buy houses for their kids, or their children, or whoever, we've done a house for a very well known family where they bought a typical townhouse somewhere down in Fullham and it was converted into three flats for the three children they had. Each flat was completely different design scheme. Completely different aesthetic. Completely different taste, because it was for a completely different person. But again, another project I've worked on down in made [inaudible 00:06:18], it was for a client who handpicked all of his marble that was going into the house. I think there was about six and a half ton of marble.

Julia Starzyk (06:27):

Every single slab was hand selected, with the pattern, book matched to everything. It just shows how personal people treat finishes that go in, whereas on those massive schemes, 25 million plus, there's hardly ever an interest in elements like that. It does need to look spotless. It needs to match. It needs to be perfect. I don't think the client wouldn't necessarily go, well, I'm pretty sure the client wouldn't really go into the amount of detail and care to actually go to Italy, to hand select the slabs that are going to go into his bathroom.

Anne Okafor (07:10):

Would you say that that's probably the biggest difference that you've noticed, coming from the contractor side over to the client side? Or is there any other differences that you've noticed?

Julia Starzyk (07:21):

Well, one of the biggest differences that I've noticed, to be fair, is that on the client side, there's a lot of explanation process. I know it's going to sound bad now, but I think there is an element of counseling. My job there is that element of the reassurance that everything's fine. Everything's under control. Just let it go. You have to chill out a little bit. It's not the end of the world. Whereas, on the contractor side, it's usually about pushing the world forward and just getting the work done every day, every day, 1% extra. That's the biggest difference. You don't really worry as much about those single steps and elements. You worry more about the overall.

Anne Okafor (08:11):

Then on the client side, it's more of a singular, more personal kind of scenario really, I guess.

Julia Starzyk (08:18):

Yeah.

Anne Okafor (08:18):

I guess that mirrors your business values. I noted you have a people first business approach, which comes through in what you're telling me, and the reasons why that may be, and then understand that your three main values are teamwork, adaptability, and trust. Would you share with me why they are best aligned to your business, and why they're important? I think you've probably already touched on a little bit of that.

Julia Starzyk (08:46):

To be fair, I think there's a whole bunch of other values that I have in my business, but I just feel like, especially the trust, it's one of the most important, cause I know quite well, the market, especially here in London and high residential, is very much about telling people what they want to hear, not telling them what the truth is going to be. I'm very much against that because I think a person without knowing the full picture, and without understanding everything that we understand, they're not really capable of making a conscious decision. I'm always pro explaining to people, to an extent of what they need to know, to actually be able to make that decision, rather than just sugarcoating and just giving them that imaginate reality. That's never really going to be the true vision.

Anne Okafor (09:41):

Yeah.

Julia Starzyk (09:41):

I think that's one of the things that puts me in a completely different light, because, like I said, I know the market quite well without finger pointing at anyone. I just feel like not everybody is following that. There's a lot bullshit that is just the pretty pictures, and a lot of just assurance in the sense of, "It's going to be a right, mate."

Anne Okafor (10:11):

Yeah.

Julia Starzyk (10:12):

Then it doesn't really go that well. I'd rather put everything that I can put in the sense of resources and my knowledge, and just allow the client to make the decision, rather than just give them that unicorn dust. Yeah.

Anne Okafor (10:32):

I certainly think if I was a client, I'd prefer that approach, and I think knowing you from the various times that we've come across each other, I get that you're totally a direct approach, so that people can make the right decisions with the right information that you have at the time, rather than like you say, the unicorn dust, and everything's going to be amazing, without any sort of substance to back that up. You're very much providing them the correct information.

Julia Starzyk (11:00):

Yeah. I mean, I committed the post time ago on social media that was about all the TV programs out there, that kind of show the first 10 to 15 minutes of the house being a complete nightmare, and absolute shithold. Then we've got probably about 20 to 30 minutes of the process. Then, we have another 10 to 15 minutes, raving how fantastic it came out, the awesome finishes, everything was absolutely brilliant. But what usually isn't shown is the months of tears and sweat and the process, and not rarely what happens is couples split because the process is so draining.

Julia Starzyk (11:49):

There's so much stuff happening in every couple's life, in the sense of women get pregnant. They might have any complications with the pregnancy. If they decide to go into a renovation project, less alone trying to manage it themselves, then usually the level of stress, and the level of everything that is happening, the emotions, are just hitting the point of no return. I've seen that happening. It's not something I wish happened to anybody, but it's just something to be aware of that it's a stressful process. It's going to be painful. There's no easy way around it. It's just planning it as much as you can. If you really want to hear only the good things and the fantastic stories of successes, then you're probably looking in the wrong industry.

Anne Okafor (12:45):

It's probably likely going to be a more painful process, as well, if you go into it with that look. At least if you're prepared, then you've got an idea it;s going to be stressful. You can plan for that. You can put in contingencies and things like that. Whereas, if you go and think, everything's going to be amazing, and it will be amazing at the end of the project with no doubt, but that journey to get to finished projects is difficult.

Julia Starzyk (13:09):

It is. I mean, you probably know better than I do, with everything you did, that there's no shortcuts. There's no easy way around it. There's no magic wand that we can just wave and make things happen suddenly, in the background on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it is a painful process. What we can do is we can just minimize the risks and make sure that the process is optimized to whatever it is the end goal is. That's really what the trust is about. This is one of the values that I highly, hugely represent, cause to be fair, I think there's not enough of that out there.

Julia Starzyk (13:51):

Another one you mentioned is the adaptability. I work in the residential sector, usually hardly ever the people that I work with have any kind of idea of how our world operates. They usually don't understand it. They don't understand the processes. They don't understand the contracting, the rules, obligations coming from it. It's almost like trying to manage people who have no idea what they actually put themselves into. There is that element of, is that going to be okay if. To be fair, I usually say yes, unless it's something that I know they're going to regret at the end. I always say, it's good to change your mind. We need to remember as well, there's the element, I think the pandemic has proven this perfectly, that we never really know what's going to happen and we just need to kind of be ready for anything, that anything can happen. It's okay to change your mind as well. It's okay because at the end of the day, if that one thing is going to be giving you sleepless nights and it's going to be turning you to the bunch of unhappy people, then probably it's worth changing, even if it's going to cost a fortune, or a minimum, whatever it might be, then it's just worth doing. Right? Sooner the better.

Julia Starzyk (15:26):

But I usually, again, I just like to give all the information out to people so that they're capable of making the conscious decision. Cause you know, at the end of the day, it's their choice. It's their house. They're going to be the ones living there. We can only optimize the process for them. That's how it works.

Anne Okafor (15:48):

Great. It sounds very interesting what you do. Tell us a little bit about Julia. Did you initially set out for a career in construction? What did you want to be when you were a child? Did you imagine this career path?

Julia Starzyk (16:02):

Well, I think you've heard me say my story a few times. I wanted to be an architect and back in when I was 20, I failed the exams to actually get into the architecture study back in Poland, so I started building engineering instead because it was building next door. I never finished the first year, hated every second of it. I came to London for a summer back in 2010. That summer hasn't come to an end yet.

Anne Okafor (16:32):

You just stayed.

Julia Starzyk (16:34):

Yeah. It's still lasting. That's a long summer.

Anne Okafor (16:40):

Yeah. Good.

Julia Starzyk (16:40):

But yeah, I came to London. I worked a various professions for about 10 months, and then I found an advert about, I was looking more of an office role at the time, and I found an advert about a construction company looking for a junior project manager to help them on one of the projects. I said, "Well, sounds good to me." I applied. I got in. I just didn't realize at the time that the office was on site.

Anne Okafor (17:12):

Okay.

Julia Starzyk (17:13):

So, my first role was more side based. Well, it was called the junior project manager, but was actually more like an assistant side manager, where I was monitoring the progress, making sure everybody has all the materials ordered for the next few days, looking at whatever had to be planned and ordered for the next few months, and just generally trying to push the job forward every day. That's how it started really.

Anne Okafor (17:44):

[inaudible 00:17:44].

Julia Starzyk (17:45):

Yeah. I finished that project probably like 10 months later, and I changed the company to a little bit bigger one, and in that company I stayed for eight years. Fast forward eight years, here I am.

Anne Okafor (17:58):

Yeah. Did you have any mentors along the way when you started in your first company, or in the second company that you were there for eight years? Did you have any mentors along the way?

Julia Starzyk (18:11):

I, unfortunately, was unlucky and I never really had any mentor, or any mentoring scheme, or any form of a teacher, or somebody knowing how things should be done, who could share that knowledge with me. I had to learn everything by making mistakes, by reading a lot. Our ICS is super generous in types of information that they make available to everybody, even on their website. Luckily, there's the internet, is a fantastic source of information. It's just a matter of getting to it and understanding it, but unfortunately, I had to learn, make mistakes, fix them, and never really make them again. That's how I had to polish my trade. I wish there was a little bit more of this mentoring schemes available. Well, that's one of my missions for the future, to actually make it more available, cause I talk to quite a few, especially girls or ladies, young ladies, maybe 20, 25 year olds, who are just about to graduate as [inaudible 00:19:26] surveyors, or construction project managers, or any form of construction related degrees. They've never really been to site. They never really had a chance to work with somebody and see how this world operates. It's all good and well to see that through the university, and the books, and doing whatever you might be doing, projects within the class environment, but unless you actually get out there into the real world, you're never really going to experience that.

Anne Okafor (19:56):

Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. Do you think having a mentor for you in your circumstance would've made things easier, or different? Obviously, you said you unfortunately wish you had one. How do you think it would've helped, or how would you have liked it to help?

Julia Starzyk (20:13):

I mean, in my career, probably about four years down the line, there was a situation when we were working on a project, and it was a very difficult client. I mean, the architect that was on the project, he was absolutely brilliant. He's aesthetic and his architectural skills were fantastic, phenomenal, but his management skills, and in the sense of managing the client, and the client's expectations, were rubbish. That side of things was just absolutely forgotten about. Because of that, the client's attitude and the client's character, she was actually trying to push, bully everybody, to push them into that pretty picture of whatever she wanted to be. Not hard to imagine, we ended up in two or three adjudication processes at the time, and it was really, really stressful. It was really challenging. It was the first time when I actually experienced someone fighting just for the sake of proving that they're right.

Julia Starzyk (21:22):

So, I'm pretty sure that I've heard loads of things about me at the time that probably shouldn't have been said, that I was underqualified for the project, that I shouldn't be doing this. I took it very personally. At the time, if I had somebody explaining to me where the mistakes were done, how it should have been done, and why it went the way it went, I'd probably recover from it much quicker than I actually did. I'd probably understand it better and never have done these type of things again. But because I didn't have such an opportunity, I had to actually figure out myself what happened, and why did it end the way it ended, so yeah.

Anne Okafor (22:10):

I think, as well, the role of the mentor can be that support system as well. If you are in a bit of a rubbish situation, like that sounded, just that sort of reinforcement, cause sometimes things go wrong and it's not necessarily our fault, it's, things happen. I think having that from somebody maybe of help as well, I don't know about you, but I often find that sometimes in the industry, lots of people are very good technically, but there is a lack of those leadership and sort of what we call, I guess the term is soft skills or human skills. There seems to be sometimes a little bit of void and we just think, "We'll just shout at people until we get what we want." It's not really the best way to go about things, but there seems to be a bit of a void sometimes with those sorts of people.

Julia Starzyk (23:00):

Yeah. I still think that the construction industry generally is one big ego battle and there is that dated attitude of the person that shouts the loudest is the most important on site, but I think we're slowly moving away from it. Mentoring, whether it would be someone more experienced, whether it would be someone more qualified than me at the time, just to take the time and explain, would be absolutely incredible for me at the time to understand that it wasn't against me and it wasn't a personal battle, it was the money battle, and it was as simple as that. But to actually conclude with that, it took me a really long time, especially when people involve lawyers, and everything that could go wrong just goes wrong. You start doubting yourself and you start thinking like, "Where did I make mistake?" You start feeling guilty. Especially us, as females, we tend to just exaggerate things massively in our heads to a degree that it just makes us, "Why am I even here? What am I doing here? Maybe I shouldn't be working in that profession."

Anne Okafor (24:19):

I think it's really hard not to take things personally. When it's that sort of environment construction because where you're all in, you're in a project, you're all in, you put all your efforts in, it's hard not to take it personally at the best of times, or even when something small goes wrong, you do take it personally. It can be hard sometimes to separate that. Like you said, think if it gets to that stage where there's adjudication and lawyers, and you do start to look in word and say, "What could I have done?" There's some value in that reflection as well, but like you said, with the support of a mentor, you could have maybe separated the two, the project and and you're learning, with what was actually going on maybe politically and [crosstalk 00:25:03].

Julia Starzyk (25:03):

A good mentor is kind of capable of showing you the facts. The actual what happened, not what we think what happened. This is the crucial difference in everything that we experience, because when we get too attached emotionally, it's just hard to filter through those emotions and understand why this has happened, the way it has happened, rather than why do I think this has happened?

Anne Okafor (25:33):

Yeah. Just break it down into facts here, that's a really great point. Thinking about your role today, what's a typical day in the life of Julia like? What do you do on a typical day? Are you site visits? In the office? Somehow both? What does it look like?

Julia Starzyk (25:49):

It varies to be fair. I mean, I'm usually out and about in town for about a couple of days a week, either running around sites, or meeting the architects, or meeting people, talking to clients and just seeing the progress what's happening. I try to do about two to three days in the office, just focusing purely on making sure the clients get the progress reports, the cost plans, and at whatever the stage the project's at. Then, yeah, that's really how it lays. I do a little bit of meeting interesting people, networking, talking to them. Like we said, I'm probably going to start looking into setting my own podcast because it seems like there's a lot to talk about, especially in my little niche where everybody wants to go the backstage of the luxury living.

Anne Okafor (26:46):

Yeah, definitely.

Julia Starzyk (26:48):

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do nowadays and I quite enjoy it, I must say.

Anne Okafor (26:54):

Good. Well, you always seem like you're enjoying it anyway.

Julia Starzyk (26:57):

That's good.

Anne Okafor (27:00):

You mentioned some of the challenges that you faced along on the way, and you've mentioned a couple of ways about how you've overcome them, but what would be your top tips for overcoming the challenges? You mentioned earlier, sometimes it was going and finding more information, like reading up about things. Sometimes, I guess, it's just getting your head down and getting stuck in, getting through things. What other ways would you approach overcoming challenges as you come across them?

Julia Starzyk (27:26):

It always depends on what the challenge is, but I'd say it's good to understand that we're only human beings and we don't have to know it all. It's good to know who can help us and who might know, so have that source of information stuck somewhere in the background is always a good thing, but the first, most important thing, is just to accept that it's fine. It's okay that I don't know at all. Again, coming back to the no bullshit kind of attitude that I've got, I'm not really afraid of saying, "I don't know everything." I'd rather say, "I don't know. I'll find out and I'll get back to you," then try to create, or figure something out right here and there and just hope for the best. In terms of challenges, I don't personally think that Google is the most reliable source of information, especially when it comes to the construction work.

Julia Starzyk (28:29):

I usually talk to the specialists, rather than try to find a blog or something that's going to give me a half an answer of what I'm actually after. I'd love to always think that the main priority with the challenge should be, how do we get out of here? What next? Let's figure that out first, and then we can worry about finger pointing at whose fault it was, and why did that happen. That's really how I deal with most of the things, most of the problems or issues, cause even if someone makes a mistake, that's fine, even if we establish here and now it was my fault, or it was somebody's fault, or somebody made a mistake somewhere. That still doesn't really move us forward.

Anne Okafor (29:17):

Absolutely. Yeah, no, I completely agree with you. It's more about, how do we get past this? I really liked when you said, as well, it's about when you've got a network of people that you can trust to go to for information, or speak to the specialists. It's so important in construction, because there's lots of information out there. There's lots of conflicting, or ambiguous material, out there, as well. It is important to speak to the specialists and a trusted network of people who you know are not going to bullshit you as well, which I think is really important. You mentioned earlier on, you're often seen in clubhouse rooms, networking, connecting, how important would you say networking is for you for your business?

Julia Starzyk (30:02):

Well, for me, networking is really important, especially as a social element, and especially as a, you probably wouldn't say that, but I quite like to talk. In that respect, it's quite, it puts me in the good mood and it gives me the opportunity to actually talk to other people, bounce some ideas off people and understand other opinions. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I never really see much of a competition because, to be fair, I don't think I have any direct competition out there just because of the values that I represent, the way I think. I'm quite inclusive in the sense of working with other people. If somebody does something similar to what I do, brilliant, let's have a conversation. Let's have a coffee and let's just understand, how do we work? On what levels can we help each other in the sense of even bouncing ideas off? Cause there's so little of us that can actually deal with the problems that we're dealing with, that it's just good to have somebody who understands your issues, who understands the problems you're going through.

Julia Starzyk (31:20):

That's really what makes networking interesting for me. Even yesterday, I was in the Westminster and council, there was an event, Christmas drinks with the actual counselor. Yeah. I was just having a bit of a chit chat with everybody. There was a gentleman, he was, I don't think if he was selling it, but he was more like raising awareness of the product available in the market, which was a hugely overpriced water from Russia, but we just had a bit of a conversation and he said, "Actually, one of my sponsors, one of the people that I work with, he was looking into having a basement done somewhere in Kensington, would you be able to help?" I was like, "No problem. Let's have a conversation. I'm always happy to help if I can. If I can't help myself, I'm always happy to pass it on to somebody who can help." I think that's all it is. That's what makes networking really important for any business, I feel.

Anne Okafor (32:22):

You never know who's going to be in the room. That's the thing. There's been many times where I've maybe thought, "I'm not going to go," or, "Should I go, should I not go?" And then you go and you meet somebody really interesting and you're so glad you went. You know? I think that's one of the really special things about networking in general, but the clubhouse rooms as well, you just never know who's going to be in the room. I think we can learn something from everybody that we come into contact with as well, which is really a great thing, cause then we're always learning and picking up new things, or actually helping others as well.

Julia Starzyk (32:53):

Absolutely. I mean, running the business, it's a really, really lonely space to be in. Just having an opportunity to talk to somebody who feels the same is already a great opportunity, and a great thing, because you're not alone anymore because there's somebody there that feels pretty much the same as you.

Anne Okafor (33:15):

No. I mean, I think that's really important. It's [inaudible 00:33:16] what we talked about, that sort of trusted network of people that you can rely on if something goes wrong, or you need to find some information or something. It's knowing who you can speak to. I think it's really important in life in general, but in business, definitely. Part of that networking experience, you recently held a session at London build as a woman in construction ambassador. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that, how that came about? [inaudible 00:33:50]

Julia Starzyk (33:50):

To be fair, that was a little bit unexpected. I just got an email from them saying, would you like to be an ambassador? I just said, "Why not? It's not a bad thing."

Anne Okafor (34:01):

Absolutely.

Julia Starzyk (34:02):

Yeah, I actually ... Yeah, I was one of the ambassadors, but I haven't been doing any speeches or anything like that.

Julia Starzyk (34:09):

But there was a great, I think it was on the second day when there was a fantastic space for networking, especially for women in the construction industry. It was just brilliant to see so many females in one room, especially working in the similar industry. There was loads of interesting people. I think we were sitting at the table with one of the directors of [inaudible 00:34:36]. I was actually laughing because, next to my house, [inaudible 00:34:41] is being built. I just said, "Could you make sure that they're a bit quieter on the Saturday mornings?" Cause that's a little bit painful when they start doing whatever they're doing at eight o'clock on a Saturday.

Anne Okafor (34:55):

Especially when you've been doing construction work all week as well.

Julia Starzyk (34:59):

I don't really mind the week, because I'm awake, but Saturday is that day when I want to have a little bit of an extra sleepover and it would be nice if they could start at nine at least.

Anne Okafor (35:09):

Just like have an hour!

Anne Okafor (35:14):

Well I've seen the pictures. It looked incredible. I'm hoping that maybe I can come down and visit next year and join in, because it looked really great. Often, I think the only place that women, as in women in construction, I think the only place that I've been where there's more women in construction in the room than not, is the room on Fridays in clubhouse with Micheala and Hailey. Most of the time we're outnumbered. You'll know that as well, every room you go into you're the only person, or the minority in the room. So, it would be wonderful just to be in a space like that, where there's literally loads of women in construction, and to feel the buzz of that, and to speak to loads of people. Yeah, it looked incredible.

Julia Starzyk (35:57):

No, it was brilliant. I mean, to be perfectly honest, the whole event was just, I was shocked. I was shocked in a positive way. The only thing I could probably complain about is that there was probably about five or six stages, and the speeches that were given were so good that you just didn't know which one to go to. You wanted to be in multiple places at once. It was very difficult.

Anne Okafor (36:23):

Yeah. I suppose that's a good complaint to have in some way.

Julia Starzyk (36:26):

Yeah. In that respect, I wish that it was actually recorded in some forms so we could rewatch it.

Anne Okafor (36:36):

We've spoke about what you're doing just now and what you get up to in your day to day, but thinking ahead to the future, what are your ambitions? What's next for Julia and Star Projects?

Julia Starzyk (36:48):

Wow. What next? That's a very good question. I mean, I think I'd like to make it a little bit more predictable and a little bit more stable in terms of the projects that I work on, and the projects I take on. Slowly, I'd like to move over to that space of creating a bit of a more impact. I was quite surprised the other day when I posted in the Facebook group called Light Bulb, which is all about PR, and marketing, and putting together journalists with business owners. I posted about myself, who I am, what I do, and I had a fantastic response. I think I had about 60 comments or something like that. It was really incredible.

Julia Starzyk (37:35):

One of the comments was from a mom of a nine year old girl. She's dyslexic and she wants to be a builder. She wants to be demolishing houses, and building houses, and all of that stuff. I offered her a zoom call just to have a chit chat. When we spoke, I just thought, "Oh my God, it's the next generation of women in construction." I just love to see that. I just think, for this type of little girls, we just need to keep going, because they need to see that if we can succeed, they can as well.

Anne Okafor (38:13):

Absolutely. Definitely. Certainly, you're a good role model for the next generation. I'm sure that particular little girl will be inspired from having that conversation with you. So, well done. What do you do for self-care when you're not Julia, managing director of Star Projects, what do you like to get up to for relaxing hobbies?

Julia Starzyk (38:37):

I quite like to play tennis, but I'm still struggling to find a regular tennis buddy, so if you know anybody around myself, please just point them in my direction.

Anne Okafor (38:53):

Any of our listeners [crosstalk 00:38:53]. The can get in touch with you.

Julia Starzyk (38:54):

Yeah. But I quite like that, because it's one of those activities that is a little bit de braining. You can just focus on actually hitting the ball, and not really have 1,001 thoughts going through your brain at the same time. At the same time, I do try to go every day, for a walk with my dog, because A, she needs that and she just falls asleep after it. But I also need that, just to kind of get a little bit of a fresh perspective during the day. I try to do it pretty much every day if I can, because it's just something we need. It's just something that is really important to get into the daily life.

Anne Okafor (39:39):

[inaudible 00:39:39] Do you have any songs that you would put on, maybe if you've got a tough task coming up that day, or you just need to get out of a funk? Is there any songs that sort of drew you up? Would you have a go to song that puts you in a good mood? Puts you in a good stride?

Julia Starzyk (39:57):

I probably don't. I mean, I usually, when I go for a walk, I usually put my mom on the headphones because she loves to talk and she never really has an opportunity to talk to anybody else. It's almost like we're having a conversation every day. It's quite funny though, because my mom still lives in Poland, so she's about a thousand miles away from me. We actually talk every day. Our contact is probably better than when I used to live there. My mom is one of those people in the world that can just perk me right up. I could be boiling after the conversation with her. She's probably just one of the people in the world that can do it. At the same time, I quite like when she's talking to me about her day and what she's been up to, and how is her day going, about her dog, and what she had for breakfast, or whatever it might be. I just feel fully up to date as to what's going on.

Anne Okafor (40:57):

I think it's nice to put your focus on someone else sometimes as well and just not, like you say, it's another one of those things where you don't have to be with your own thoughts, and your to-do list, and all the things that you'll be managing for clients, and what cost plans you've got, what tenders you've got, all this sort of thing. I think just allowing your focus to be on someone, or something else, even if it is what they had for breakfast that morning, is a really good thing sometimes just to [crosstalk 00:41:23]

Julia Starzyk (41:23):

Especially if it's someone like a parent, or someone really close to you. If you care about somebody, then full attention goes towards that. Yeah, it's just a nice break during the day just to understand what's happening.

Anne Okafor (41:39):

It's nice to feel connected as well, so that we're not, I think sometimes it's easy, especially in this line of work, to get stuck all in with what we do. Sometimes it is nice just to be connected outwards into something else, or other people or families, and things like that. That's great. What would your three pieces of advice be? We spoke a lot about women in construction. What would your top three pieces of advice be for a woman, a young person, coming into this industry?

Julia Starzyk (42:12):

Just don't.

Anne Okafor (42:14):

What's that?

Julia Starzyk (42:19):

No, I'm joking obviously. The free pieces of advice, I think it's more about raising the awareness of the moment and just shouting loudly that construction is not only the shovel in the hand and the muddy boots. There's other paths of career that are not really associated with digging holes and fitting plasterboard onsite. I don't think people are quite aware of the opportunities that the construction industry has. That would be one of the first things, is to actually research the opportunities, because you might, if we say I'm an accountant, everybody knows what that means essentially, and what kind of job they do. When somebody says I'm a quantity surveyor, everyone is like, "What does that mean?"

Anne Okafor (43:15):

I tried to explain being a construction planner to a group of 15 brownies yesterday. That was fun.

Julia Starzyk (43:23):

Yeah. I can imagine. I mean, usually occupations like that, they don't really exist in people's minds. They don't really understand who those people are, and what did they do. In that respect, I think it would be a great thing, generally, to just have the awareness of the jobs available within the construction world.

Anne Okafor (43:46):

Definitely.

Julia Starzyk (43:47):

The other thing as well, I think it would be good if, I mean, to be fair, I don't really know how is that possible, it would be quite good for teenagers, or maybe even younger kids, not necessarily children, but kids, to just come on site, understand a little bit of, it's not that the houses are coming in a big container, and just unload it and here they are, but it's actually a process. There's a reason why this process is the way it is. Cause yeah, I think, especially today's teen and kids living in the world of Instagram and social media, they sometimes get a little bit detached from reality and they all think you can buy a house on Amazon and it's just going to come in the box flat backed.

Anne Okafor (44:41):

We're so used to everything just comes a click of a finger, or click of a mouse.

Julia Starzyk (44:47):

I'd really love to see a little bit more of human approach towards this type of things.

Anne Okafor (44:55):

Yeah.

Julia Starzyk (44:56):

And yeah, I mean, there's loads of shout, and there's loads of talking about the sustainability in construction, and all of those elements. I just think that usually it's a great marketing strategy, but there's very little of reality that goes into it. Again, I think especially the young people that are being fed all of that information, I think it's good for them to try and understand how the world operates and what's going on, and what those words mean, and that sometimes it actually is only the marketing and there's very little behind it. So that again, they can do their own judgment and assessment of what it is that's going on.

Anne Okafor (45:42):

Great. Thank you for sharing those. Where can our listeners connect with you online if they would like to learn more about Julia, or Star Projects? Where are you online that they can connect with you?

Julia Starzyk (45:55):

Well, they can definitely connect with me on clubhouse, cause that's where we met.

Anne Okafor (46:00):

Absolutely.

Julia Starzyk (46:01):

But in terms of social media, I'm on LinkedIn. Usually I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook as well. They can find me anywhere, I think. Are we going to drop some links in the descriptor?

Anne Okafor (46:11):

Yeah, I can drop the links in the descriptor, in the show notes, and there'll be a blog as well on my website, which will accompany this episode, so we will drop all of Julia's social media handles in there where people can connect, and your website and things like that. Whatever you want to pop in there, we can add.

Julia Starzyk (46:30):

Brilliant.

Anne Okafor (46:30):

Thank you for that, Julia. You're remarkable. It's been great having this conversation this afternoon. Whether you're bouncing back, or storming forward, the Determinator Collective is here for you. Stay remarkable determinators.

Speaker 1 (46:44):

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