We were lucky to catch up with JC Sykes recently and have shared our conversation below.

JC, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

The biggest trend I see in my industry is decline in recruitment, awareness, and leadership. In the age of technological development and advancement, physically demanding jobs are on the decline. Why work to possibly hurt yourself when you can become a millionaire TIKTOK sensation over night? The construction industry careers have very little awareness and support. Most schools removed the trades programs decades ago and are struggling to get them back at all. Most industry professionals are retiring without anyone to replace them. In just 5 years the number of construction workers has dropped from 10 million to over 7 million according to the bureau of statistics. I am not surprised by this trend whatsoever. The construction industry has always been known as a male dominated industrt that’s full of racist with little to no leadership opportunities for other ethnic groups. It is also well known for its mistreatment of women and it’s lack of support for women in the construction trades. The biggest concerns now are equality and transparency within the construction unions, lack of effective leadership and healthy work environments, biased mentalities against women in this male dominated industry, and the lack of accountability against the men who contribute to the abuse of women on job sites.
Many times I post pictures and videos of the work my company does and the completion of projects. Although my husband is the Master carpenter on site and in pictures, men in the industry, particularly union members, never miss an opportunity to attack me and every skill I possess. There’s a terrible ego problem when guys seems to think their way is the only way. I can be building the exact same thing my husband is building differently, and they will attempt to troll everything I do. I’m an alpha female that most men are not emotionally equipped to handle. I have had nasty spam reviews left on my social media business pages, I have received threatening inboxes, nasty racial slurs, union reps harassing my job sites to see if any union card holders are working for us. The rule is if you’re union you can’t do any side work or you’ll be fined. Both my husband and our crew were fined $1600 each for being caught doing side carpentry while we held a union card. This happened in 2019 and we all left the union permanently. The St. Louis/ Kansas city Carpenter’s union was later disbanded due to fraudulent leaders and money greed all the way to the top.
I believe this trend of lack of recruitment and awareness will continue due to lack of qualified and healthy leadership, continued discrimination and racism within the union, lack of equal opportunities for women, lack of modern mindsets. All of the attacks I receive come from white men of all ages. More women are reaching out to me worldwide to ask how I can help them build their confidence in this male dominated industry. Many women want me to come to their cities to teach them how to host their own DIY workshops. They have the skills, but lack the confidence to go up against the men who will troll them the way I am trolled. I often screenshot and expose all racist and abusers on my social media pages for transparency. I help the world see the monsters that keep the construction industry in a constant struggle for participation. Union leaders continue to pay the fines versus fixing an outdated system built by racist minds.
I will personally continue to train women and girls 5 years old and up as they are interested in learning some construction life skills that will benefit them. Women aren’t trying to take men’s jobs away, we work even harder to provide for our families.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

“JC is an influential writer of multiple genre’s”…

This award winning author is native to St. Louis, Missouri, and the mother of three daughters and one son. Their initials make up her award winning memoirs’ title; A.R.R.A. pronounced (era). A talented artist of many trades including carpentry. JC enjoys DIY projects. Giving back to her community through the Black Girls Build Inc nonprofit organization, this innovative woman strives to make a difference.

The trailblazing wife and mother began keeping a journal at nine years old. She is the embodiment of selflessness, the soul of determination, and the face of resilience.

JC is not one to live by common expectations of society. She’s a barrier breaker! Always pushing to be better than yesterday.

JC embraces and promotes,”learning to love yourself first”, as the mentor and leader she is. When this home grown entrepreneur puts her mind to something, there’s nothing that can stop her.

My purpose is to help women learn a skill that can benefit them personally and financially.
Relying less on the skills and knowledge of contractors and avoiding the headache of finding
ways to pay for small projects that can become pricey very quickly.

• Need #1: Always know the safety of building.
• Need #2: Learn how to use tools correctly and handle them safely.
• Need #3: Rapid training on wood building and remodeling techniques.

Here is a chance for women/girls to become self-sufficient where it counts most. Gain interest in a potential new career direction and save money by learning how to remodel your own homes, not waste thousands on bad hired help, and ultimately the opportunity to learn the necessary
skills that will allow you to do it yourself.
• Goal #1: Train women during hands-on workshops on necessary skills needed to DIY.
• Goal #2: Integrate DIY project building with cosmetic remodeling.
• Goal #3: Building confidence in stepping into what is dubbed a man’s job, ladylike.

I plan, organize, prep workshops, and START BUILDING!
• Map out all financial needs to execute each workshop.
• Lock in a permanent venue suitable for construction needs.
• Create workshop events with full details and dates.
• Student Registration and any necessary fees completed two weeks prior to class.
• Fees are determined from project to project to cover materials needed such as lumber,
fasteners, equipment, hand tools, electric tools, cordless tools, air compressor tools, and
safety gear/ PPE.
• 70 percent of our time and resources will be devoted to preparation of each workshop and
its success.

BGB has a well-earned reputation of providing a platform where female entrepreneurs and aspiring trades women of all diverse backgrounds, can share in each other’s experiences while
networking with one another. Diversity and inclusion have helped shape BGB into a platform of comfort and equality.
BGB has developed a solution to helping women learn trade skills by fully engaging in building
sessions with professionally trained female peers. We believe with the help of becoming a nonprofit organization, these workshops can become a weekly experience for the many women
interested in learning to DIY. Our solution easily integrates with a wide range of off-the-shelf DIY
results. It will enable women a growing mindset of individuality, self-sufficiency, confidence, and
gratification.
Most importantly, we provide the training and support for this new solution that ensures our guidance can teach skills quickly and realize productive improvements in homes, investment homes, sales closures, and customer satisfaction. BGB is seeking funding to purchase a permanent
location where workshops can take place. A location suitable for construction needs. My $500,000 visualized budget to create a safe and comfortable facility
equipped with necessary tools, restroom facilities that are often scarce for women on any construction jobsite, equipment, personal protective equipment, and space to host events.
Rationale:
I have decided to take on such responsibility because women deserve to learn and perfect skills that can be an asset to the construction trades, their families, and themselves. The
nonstop complaints of women spending thousands of dollars on bad contractors, now desiring to learn to DIY. The rare faces of female carpenters especially black female carpenters are often overwhelmed in the request from women wanting to work directly with a woman they can
connect with. Women stepping up to a plate full taking the initiative to do a job known predominantly to men. This alone has become encouragement to those familiar with Black Girls
Build Inc.

Our execution strategy incorporates proven methodologies, extremely qualified personnel, and a highly responsive approach to managing deliverables.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Growing up in a household with 6 other siblings including my twin brother, Chase, with a single working mother, I was the sensitive child that became the families scapegoat. The kid in the family who loved to read and learn new things, but was always teased for being a nerd. I survived a childhood full of trauma, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse but I had to keep the families secrets safe or else. I taught myself through reading, how to become self sufficient and to depend on no one, especially my parents. I always felt like the burden since I was the youngest and most inquisitive. I come from an entire family where the common negative statistics about the Black family usually met their marks. Most of the women were teens moms who dropped out of school to become the exact statistic I often read about. At 16 years old, I too became a teen mom. Following the footsteps of my mother and sisters was my greatest fear. My sister’s were drug addicts and alcoholics and my brothers were the drug dealers. My parents lives were still more important than their children’s well being.
After becoming a teen mom, wife, and military wife all in the same week at 16 years old, I was so accustomed to doing what my mother said or else, that when she signed for me to get married to a monster I prayed she’d save me from, I went with the flow out of fear of her wrath. I continued to bury my head in books to learn how to be a mother. I finished high school with my daughter at my side, on time, and with honors. When 9/11 took place, that tragic day actually saved my life from the monster I married. He had been UA/Unauthorized Absence from the Navy for months. I was a Junior in high school, stationed in Florida. Away from my family and any support. I was alone in the dark. I could never talk to my parents honestly. Some how I was always attention seeking. They usually figured since I always seemed to have things under control that my siblings needed them more. This trend never ended in my life.
When September 11, 2001 happened, My ex husband decided to return to the ship out of fear of being thrown in the brigg for being absent at a time of war. This was my escape opportunity. I went and withdrew from school after seeing the attacks on TV to prepare to home. I desperately missed my twin brother, my confidant, and my only true friend. I even missed my parents. I packed as much as my daughter and my things as possible that morning and scrapped up every penny to catch a greyhound home. The plan was for the military to ship the rest of our belongings, but being the menace to society that he was, after I was home in STL, he was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years. It was my get out of jail free card.
I became an emancipated single teen mom. I still refused to become another statistic. All I could hear was my mother telling the world how useless I was even with my intelligence. I moved in with an older cousin, enrolled myself back into school to finish strong. My daughter was with me every step of the way. I became the first high school graduate in my family, but that wasn’t enough. I always wanted to be a doctor like my mostly absent father. Being an academically inclined student all my life, I had studied the many grants and opportunities available to me at the time and I put myself through college. My college grades and consistent Dean’s list honor awarded me a hand picked internship at Washington University School of medicine in STL. I graduated top of my class in 2007. I now had 4 kids to inspire. My mother had consistently told me that “Just because you’re smart don’t mean nothing. You’re going to be just like the rest of us.” After hearing those words all my life while comforting her through whatever new man broke her heart, I learned to use her negative words as fuel for my determination. She met my step dad when I was 9 years old, and he became the gift God sent to rescue me from her bullying. My step-dad immediately recognized my passion to read and learn. He purchased me my first diary and my first Webster dictionary. My mother had forbid me for checking out anymore library books at school because I lost one and she had to pay a $12 fine. Lindell, my step-dad, would sneak me quarters to purchase books from the book mobile at school and scholastic books without her knowledge. He was the father I never had. He had been there for every graduation in my life even when my father wasn’t. When he didn’t show up to my college graduation, I was scared. A month and my birthday had come and gone without a word from my dad, just to find out he’d been murdered in California. I was devastated. He was into real estate in California and had a house for my kids and I as a graduation gift. I dedicated my memoir to him.
I was able to get on section 8 and welfare to provide my children and I after I graduated. No baby daddies were involved at their own discretion. They bailed the minute my boundaries didn’t fit their disrespect, abuse, or manipulation. I grew up fighting for everything, so physical abuse is not something I could ever endure from anyone no matter what or who. Defending myself is what I know best. After graduating from college as a nurse, Chase, my twin brother was diagnosed with HIV. We were both devastated. He and I both were victims of childhood molestation and sexual abuse by older brothers. Chase never felt like he could be a man. We both knew what happened to us, but vowed to never speak on it to protect our mother or else. His HIV grew into AIDS and I watched my twin brother die slowly from heartbreak. Years of regret and depression. He embraced his lifestyle but hated it deep down. He often told me he didn’t want to live, but wasn’t suicidal if that makes sense. He even told me that he had to die before me because he’d kill himself if I died first. The only time we ever really argued was when I told him how selfish this was. He explained that if he had to put up with our family without me, then he’d rather be dead. I now understand him more than ever. Chase died of AIDS on March 31, 2010, when we were 25 years old. Who I used to be became confused and eventually died with him. Chase was like the backbone of the family. He was a financially stable popular hairstylist with a popular reputation for being the best. This was the darkest time of my life. My relatives use death as an opportunity for personal gain. Nothing or no one has ever been more important than money and status quo in my bloodline. Having some of the top drug dealers in the family was what made our mother proud. It wasn’t having a child with dreams and goals who was doing the work to break toxic generational cycles. I quickly returned to my love of books and learning to cope with my twins absence. I took myself to therapy and therapy saved my life! Writing was always my first passion so writing became my therapy. My therapist asked me what I did for myself regularly and I replied without error, “I’m a mom.” That’s all I knew and it was the only priority. She then assigned my passion to me. She asked me to write how I felt. Like a good student, I went home and wrote. I often had nephews or niece’s at my safe house and they watched the kids as I wrote in silence. I wrote for 72 hours straight only stopping to drink water and relieve myself. That 72 hour Writing in 2009 became my first award winning book/memoir in 2017. My mother often told me I was wasting my time writing because no body reads. It was the ultimate push to publish my private journal. Before Chase died he told me to stop listening to what our mother said. He also told me to stop crying and fight back. I could never go against the covert narcissistic mother who would turn the world against me if I created boundaries. I wasn’t ready.
Only 6 months after Chase passed, my only son who is a twin was hospitalized in critical condition at 6 years old. I didn’t know what was wrong. He was diagnosed with TYPE 1 juvenile diabetes. His blood sugar was over 1000 and doctors were surprised he was still alive. I was devastated all over again. I stayed by his side and learned to live life as a diabetic that I was not. His diabetes became my diabetes until he was old enough to take over. It was so critical that I couldn’t keep a job. His blood sugars were crazy during his honeymoon phase in juvenile diabetes. I still sleep like a new mom and he is now 20.
Depression made it’s home inside my head and therapy continued to save my life. Depression was definitely there, but never taking complete control. I had a mission to succeed and my soul couldn’t rest or let up. I driven positively by hate and doubt from my mother.
In February 2011, it was the annual section 8 inspection time. The housing authority sent maintenance to replace a few old doors in my house, and that’s when I met my soul mate. I didn’t know it at the time and neither did he. He smiled the most beautiful smile i had seen in person on a man, and suddenly I felt like everything was going to be alright. I like to tell myself that my twin died and asked God to do him a solid favor, to send his twin a good rare man who needed and loved her the way she needed and loved back. My angel sent me an earth angel. We courted for 4 months without any physical relationships. Once we decided to become a couple he started introducing me to carpentry at my excited request! I had taken a wood shop class as a freshman in high school, but the term carpentry wasn’t used often. I had no idea what a carpenter was until he showed me the various avenues. I was a full-time mom, nurse to my son, still striving to break generational cycles, still hadn’t grieved my twin, was battling my ex husband who was now out of prison and trying to kill me, battling my mother over control of my own life, and still trying to lead by example. I refused to allow my mother’s words to manifest into reality. I worked as a float nurse while learning carpentry on the side.
I finally left my career in nursing permanently after the overwhelm of working in oncology for years. My husband and I eloped and wed in 2015
I joined the STL carpenter’s union in 2018 to quickly learn it was indeed true about it being a racist organization. I was quickly reminded that I’m a Black girl on my first day by an angry ego driven older white male superintendent because my safety glasses were on my head vs on my eyes. I had all of my gang box gear, it was negative degrees outside, and I hadn’t even made it onto the official work site yet. I felt like Forest Gump the moment he stepped on the bus to the army. I quickly learned that there was no leadership opportunities for blacks, and all women were scum in this male dominated industry according to the male ego, and harassment of women on the job sites. Me and any form of abuse will never get along. I left the union gladly to never return to it’s biased tone. Creating Black Girls Build Inc was my attempt to establish a safe place for ALL women to learn construction skills from a woman they can relate to. My biggest push back initially was the name “BLACK GIRLS BUILD.” A fact about myself, the founder, that was indeed meant for representation but not discrimination. I teach ALL women interested in learning from me. I have been attacked by racist on a regular basis. I now own the trademark. You want to know Resilience? Read my book! I have persevered in the face of some of the most extraordinary overwhelming odds. My biggest obstacle today is still my mother and relatives. I have now climbed to heights I was never meant to reach in their minds. Therapy is still my friend during the second phase of abuse of my life, which are now my adult children. My mother continues to use my children as weapons against me to attempt to kill my character. I cut her off over 11 years ago with the legal system involved. I have been exiled from my family as the one who ruined the family. Watching my adult children fall prey to my mother’s venomhas been even worse than losing Chase. Her manipulation and detrimental jealousy and envy of me continues to destroy the younger generations in our bloodline. I simply let go and let God. I did my job as a faithful devoted mother. I don’t owe anyone anything. Not even one dollar.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe the number one reason people love me, what I do, and what I represent is because of my transparency and willingness to be vulnerable. I’m a perfectly imperfect human and I know it. I have willingly shared my story of perseverance and resilience every step of the way. I learned through therapy that revealing is healing. So many women can relate to my trauma. Even more women want to know how I survived without resorting to drugs, alcohol, or sex addiction. People often call me strong and I don’t like it. Nothing I survived was fun. I have suffered much loss, now including my children. I had to learn boundaries for myself as a kind hearted giver. Once I began enforcing those boundaries for the first time in my life I became crazy, boogie, and arrogant. Our Mission at BLACK GIRLS BUILD INC is: BGB brings boldness and authority to ALL women and girls by providing exposure and opportunity to the construction industry. I have taken my twin brothers advice and stopped crying. I now fight for my dreams. I am bold in my approach to all things me. I have built a family who loves me for me and not what I can do for them. I teach kids who love to learn. I mentor teens who are in trouble spiritually and need a mentor. I became a certified life coach in 2017 to be able to lead positively. I visit elementary, middle, and high schools to introduce our youth to the construction trades. I plant seeds of all skilled trades including gardening as another avenue outside of college. Most students confide in me that they don’t want to go to college and that their parents are forcing them. My husband I company was recently rated #1 sub contractor for a local builder. After building over 20 new construction homes for this builder, we have never had any warranty recalls, negative comments about our crew. Women can take my workshops and ask all the questions their hearts desires about how to handle and recognize scam contractors and handymen. Women in domestic violent situations reach out to me to teach them how to change locks, kicked in doors, and broken windows by exes. I didn’t have anyone like me today, when I was in these women’s situations. It is my complete pleasure to help SAVE a woman from any forms of abuse that I survived. I am not a victim, I am a survivor turned advocate for more survivors. People know me as being tough, fierce, loving, kind, giving, raw, brutally honest, loyal, silly, goofy, intentional, and the new most common being weird. I think weird is the best compliment of an insult. Weird to me means, I am nothing like anyone else. That’s a win for me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jcsykes31.wixstudio.io/jcsykes-1
• Facebook: facebook.com/BGB2INC
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@j.c.sykes?_t=8nHCoQuWrV9&_r=1