Balancing Business Growth and Real Life: Lessons in Leadership, Burnout, and Self-Awareness With Trish Flores

In this episode, I sit down with Trish Flores, a rising leader in the construction and engineering industry whose journey is a masterclass in resilience, authentic leadership, and personal growth. From starting her career in the Philippines with a degree in architecture to navigating leadership in the fast-paced U.S. construction sector, Trish shares powerful insights on balancing professional ambition with personal life—especially as a mom, business development leader, and first-generation immigrant.

We dive deep into what it really takes to scale without burning out, manage energy instead of time, and lead with confidence even when imposter syndrome creeps in. If you’re an entrepreneur, agency owner, or business leader at a career crossroads, this conversation will resonate. We explore lessons in self-awareness, how to lead teams through relational equity—not just authority—and how to pursue growth while protecting what matters most. Whether you’re navigating burnout, managing a team, or redefining your leadership path, this episode is full of practical insights you can apply immediately.

Connect with Trish Flores

You can connect with Trish on LinkedIn at Trish Idora. Just search her name on the platform and follow her professional journey in business development and leadership in the construction industry.

Books Mentioned

• How to Win Frie

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Trish Flores
• 5:07 Early Career Path in Architecture
• 9:55 Starting From the Bottom Up
• 15:48 Moving to the US: Cultural Transitions
• 25:33 Finding Work-Life Balance
• 31:33 Career Crossroads and Future Plans
• 37:24 Leadership Growth and Development

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:37

It is an honor today to have Trish Flores on the podcast. Trish is a professional with diverse experience in architecture, construction and business growth. As the business development manager at Pro Engineering Consulting, she is passionate about helping companies expand their reach and build strong client relationships across the US. With a background in architecture and project management, she has managed everything from construction sites to business pitches, working with clients like Cox Communications and Cushman Wakefield. Her journey started with a degree in architecture from the University of San Tomas in the Philippines, where she also earned her professional license. Since then, she's worn many hats, from coordinating and managing construction projects to selling and business growth strategy. She brings a blend of technical skills and business insight that makes her a dynamic force in her field. Trish, I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for being on the show.

Trish Flores: 1:36

Thank you, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure, very excited to do this with you.

Intro/Outro: 1:42

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:58

So I would love to start with a little bit of your story for our listeners. Share some of your story, particularly around your journey and development as a leader. How did you get started?

Trish Flores: 2:11

Of course I want to touch base on the bio that I have, because it sounds really important, you know. But I want to simplify it a little bit so just to make myself a little bit more relatable. Start with my background. You know, having the architectural background allowed me to have a lot of technical knowledge. So that's a huge step for me to really, you know, have a little bit of confidence to get into the construction industry, right, because being a leader I mean, as far as my experience, it's kind of hard to lead people without having the knowledge or even just to relate to them as far as like, where am I at as far as knowledge? What else do I need to learn and how do I gain that knowledge? So, you know, that kind of was the starting point for me.

Trish Flores: 2:55

I was very lucky, very blessed, to have very supportive parents when I decided to pursue architecture During my time in the university. I kind of it was very good because we had the opportunity to have a career path kind of seminar. You know, where do you find yourself in architecture and construction? Because it's huge, it's a very, very diverse, very, very wide, and the horizon is wide for construction. So eventually I discovered myself enjoying more interface with people and I imagined myself in the project execution right away, you know. But it was a discovery. You know, I tried to analyze early on what are my strengths and what are my weaknesses. I think that is very applicable, you know, to the young professionals who are looking to specialize into their chosen career, because we all have most professionals. They would have their, you know, backgrounds, whether education or experience. Some professionals, they go straight into experience and they gain that knowledge and you know technical knowledge through their experience. So from there I started and then I was able to identify hey, I want to do more management. What is it about management? Is it going to be project management or construction management? And then I figure what's the first step? What will equip me with the practical knowledge? Because now, whatever I learned in the university has to be applied. So then I identified okay, I want to be hands-on, on-site, I want to see the tools, I want to see what this is in a drawing from a drawing. What does this look like in person? So from there, that was my first step.

Trish Flores: 4:34

After that I just kind of started, really, really humble, in the sense that I went after small businesses to apply for because I wanted to wear many hats. I wanted to have that exposure. I was so hungry to learn and you know, when you're younger you have well, not so much to lose. In a sense, you're just there and hungry and you want to learn and I started there. That was my background and life, like I told you, life took me here in the United States and I continued to pursue what I thought I had already some saved in there, like knowledge and experience. That was my background and it took me to working with a telecoms company as a project manager, although I did not start as a project manager.

Trish Flores: 5:26

So my key all the time is to start from the bottom, start from the very basics. If you want to learn something and gain mastery over time, I always believe that you need to start at the bottom, learn the nitty-gritty part so that when you go to the management your resourcefulness kicks in naturally because you know the way around. You start from the bottom, or the level one or the entry-level kind of job. They ask you to go through the process the long way. You become the coordinator, you become the project manager, you become the decision maker. It equips you to kind of be resourceful and, at the same time, you're able to make decisions quicker.

Trish Flores: 6:13

You know which parts to skip. You know which one can be a little bit more shortened or fast-paced. You know those that you need to consider. Okay, this is really going to take a long time, but what can we do while this is taking that time? So you're gaining a lot of experience in terms of managing the time and then, of course, managing the people, because you would know what can be done and cannot be done in. You know considering time and money and everything else that goes into a project. And then, eventually you know I became a mom, so I had to choose between project management, construction management. You know my passion for being on site and then you know do I become a project manager at home?

Dr. William Attaway: 6:54

Nice.

Trish Flores: 6:55

Project manager at home. You know, do I? How do I start? To date Dishes, baby cooking, and it weighed more to me. It was more important I don't want to miss the first steps, the first milestones of my baby. So I opted to do business development. But I could not go too far from construction and so I was very blessed to be hired by Pro Engineering. I am doing business development for them, covering the Southwest region. I started mainly in Nevada. I'm also covering now Arizona, texas, washington and a little bit of the Bay Area.

Trish Flores: 7:31

But you know they're giving me. It's a small business, family-run company. It's great because, like I said, I love working with small businesses because it allows me to just expand. You know where I want to expand, of course with approval, but you know there's a lot of room for learning and I love that. And this allows me to have the flexibility to wear my very important hat, which is being a mom. So that's how I went from Philippines to now here in front of you, and it's humbling to talk about where I have been and now sharing my experience, although sometimes I think I'm still not qualified. So just a disclaimer here my experience is basically based really more on my personal experience and I'm still basing all of my decision-making and considerations on a theoretical level. I try to do that as much as I can and then pick up where this is actually effective for me and some of them are not and then I try to adjust and personalize it the way it would be applicable to me.

Dr. William Attaway: 8:38

Yeah, you know I love that and I think there's so many things that jump out in what you just shared. I mean the resilience that you have shown throughout this whole process I love that word, I think that's so true the resourcefulness to pick up and move countries and change. I mean, my goodness, what a dramatic shift. Like what are some of the things that you learned in that shift coming to the US? Because you know as similar as people are and people are people. You know we talk about this a lot, yet cultures matter and cultures can be so incredibly different. And so, like what were some of the things that you discovered and learned as you made that move?

Trish Flores: 9:19

Where do I start that move? Where do I start? There's a lot of things, okay. Well, let's start first with the imperial system and the metric system. I mean, the United States is so special that we have to use inches and miles and footage here, but you know, that alone is a representation of how huge the shift is. You know, I had to change my way, not my way of thinking, but to relate to how people think here, to relate how people their lifestyle. You know, because, especially in construction, there are also cultures in construction, different.

Trish Flores: 10:00

And then now uprooting myself, going to a first world country which is fast-paced, so fast-paced, the culture there is language barrier and so on and so forth. And I came here without and this is different cases for everybody who migrates here, different cases. Some people migrate here and they have a job ready for them. Right, good for you. I love that for you, because everything is set. You know, everything is set, everything is taken care of.

Trish Flores: 10:30

For myself it was more of a family, personal decision. So when I moved here there was nothing ready for me as far as career is concerned. So I had to actually think what do I do? Where do I start? Yes, I do have something in my backpack that I do have an education. But there were questions in mind such as do I qualify, what do I need to do? What are the technical things? So when I moved here after giving birth, I focused on more of the technical stuff.

Trish Flores: 10:59

First, my education. Number one do they qualify my degree? And so I went through the qualification of my degree so that I can use it. So it's a tip for everybody. You know you can have your for those who graduated outside of the United States, you can have your degree evaluated by education associations that qualify your degree. They're going to evaluate it. They give you your GPA If, in case you are asked, you know what's your GPA. When you graduate a university, they have a course by course evaluation and then you would have a qualification that hey, it states here, you're certified, you're a bachelor's degree holder, and that allows you an open doors for you in such a way you can go after your dream companies and at the same time, it equips you if you want to study further.

Trish Flores: 11:49

So you have to open those kind of doors for you so that you have something, because the first thing that I kind of experienced here mentally was my insecurity in terms of like, wait, I feel a little bit good and better when I was home because I was, you know, solid, my core was there, my family was there, my education was there, my school was known there. My school is like nobody knows my school here. So you kind of have to back up yourself with those kinds of stuff. I want to say like a little bit more practical approach on how do you load yourself up, that you have kind of like an ammunition and say, hey, I'm reliable. Number one this is my education. Number two your references.

Trish Flores: 12:30

It's very hard to prove the references, so my advice is to really speak from your experience, you know, really give them all the information that nobody would know but somebody who has experienced that construction field that you have, if you have to walk them through one of the interviews. If I may share one of the interviews that I did and it was a great question it was like can you walk me through once you are handed a job or a site? Can you walk me through how you do it? So that interview was great because it was really a showcase of what I know first, questions that I encountered in an interview first time, and I was like this is great because in my head I didn't have to prove that I have my degree. Through that I can prove that I have experience. So sometimes as an advice, you know, if you're going after a job and you don't trust that they would qualify you because of your degree or your diploma is not from here, walk them through, walk them through and then let your experience and your knowledge kind of prove yourself.

Trish Flores: 13:38

And then after that I started to look for jobs that will align me and direct me towards where I want to be. So the very first job that I got from here when I moved to Las Vegas was an admin assistant for a construction company. But I was never afraid to start there and, mind you, I was already a project coordinator, I already had experience. But from there I was able to affirm myself okay, it's not too bad, I actually know these things, these things, these things. And I slowly checked off the ones. I need to learn this. I don't need to learn this anymore, I don't need.

Trish Flores: 14:12

So start humbly, because it will gear you up and give you that um feed the you know kind of the insecurities that that are in your head, because um it'll, it starts everywhere, in a sense that when you step out of the house and you're new to a country, you don't know where to go.

Trish Flores: 14:31

So start, start at the very basic and never be afraid because trust that what you know is going to take you there and you know being and touching on that resilience and resourcefulness I guess my country taught me that the the difference of being raised in a third world country where resources are not as accessible. You know, um, sending money here is so quick. You know um. So in a, in a, in a bigger, in a bigger picture, in a workplace there's so much stuff that can be done right. But coming from where I was, there was a lot of delays. There were a lot of reason for delays internet, phone calls, the traffic so that alone allowed me to have like, wow, I can actually have so much in my plate. So the resilience actually gave me a lot of I want to say a lot of push that I can expand here because everything is so efficient. But I have to warn people too that having so much in your plate will lead you to burnout.

Dr. William Attaway: 15:48

Yeah.

Trish Flores: 15:49

Yeah, it's very true.

Trish Flores: 15:51

I mean, I was just, I was so excited it did burn me out for a little bit and I had to find that groove of taking pauses, taking pauses in between, and of course I had to juggle, being a mom too, so I had to juggle and find that perfect pause so that I can maintain the consistency in every day. Yeah, I mean being raised, raised in the third world, having appreciation for how much, how, how hard it is to earn money, um, you know, the efficiency, um, just the power of the consumer's power to do business here is just way up there. So it inspires me, it drives me and it created a lot of like motivation for me to go further, because I can really expand my growth here.

Dr. William Attaway: 16:42

Talking about balance and learning how to operate at a healthy and sustainable pace. This is something that I work with clients on regularly. I was just working with a client this morning on that, actually, because that's a real struggle, and particularly when you're when you're dealing with a family, as you, as you have navigated those waters. What are some, what are some ways that you focus on that, that you think about balance, that you think about you know, understanding that it's never going to be perfectly balanced that word's a bit of a misnomer. You know there's always going to be heavier seasons on one side or the other. But how do you do what you do in such a way that you bring the excellence that you bring at work and that you don't neglect what matters most at home?

Trish Flores: 17:27

Right, like I said, the first thing is finding the right time to pause those little breaks. Never take them for granted. If there is a 30-minute drive that's going to set you back, enjoy it. You know that 30-minute drive, enjoy it, savor it. Play some music If you love listening to a podcast, enjoy it. Don't even let it get into your head with the things that you cannot control anymore. You know, if you're late for a meeting, give them a heads up, get into your car, play some music, get your mood better than it was so that when you get there your mood is good, you're able to say sorry, nobody can shake you, and you're able to say what you want to say and deliver the meeting. Handle the meeting. You know, facilitate those. Number one. Number two I try to distribute my energy and not start high, and this is an everyday thing for me, because in the morning I would wake up, prepare my kiddo's lunch, wake him up, prepare, and then I have my eight-morning meeting as I'm driving to school. You know like checking the time. So I try to distribute my energy, not start high, because it will lead you to burnout for the day. Just focus on the day, you know. Distribute the energy so that your eight to ten, the two hours, it's not going to lead you to burnout because you're not spending your 80% energy right away. And this happens because there are good days, right, there are good days, and you just wake up and you're like, let's go, let's go, let's go, calm yourself, distribute it. You know, like, if you have and that could be better, you know you probably just have 50% Distribute that 50%. Distribute that 50%. Go easy on yourself and say I'm going to really take my lunch break today, eat, eat my lunch, take my lunch. Phone is a waste If you can't. You know, just appreciate the quick pauses, because those quick pauses, the little ones, actually piles up together and you have small breathers. So that's how I actually just try to balance and I hope it works.

Trish Flores: 19:48

For for some people out here, and you know, the longer vacations, of course they work, but not all of us can afford it in terms of money, in terms of time, you know, just, sometimes it doesn't work. So for me what works is the little breaks. I'm trying to distribute the time that I have and energy that I have throughout the day and just easier on myself If I only have for the mothers out there, right, I have a four-year-old. So If I can only give 5% and I got this from a book, but I can't remember which book it kind of gave me that motivation.

Trish Flores: 20:28

Your kid will love you still, no matter what, even if you only gave him 5% for the day. You still are the best mom, the best dad, even if you were only able to give 5% to him that day. So you know like I think that's important, for it's giving me goosebumps because when I encountered this it made me realize they don't know any better. But just even if you sat down with them, read a book and you're half asleep, but you're there, you're touching them, there's physical touch, you know that 5% matters to them and they don't know the 5% over 100%, they just know you. So that's a great reminder. I think that's a great reminder especially for moms. Moms have like really big mom guilt, big mom guilt. So I feel for you, ladies, and remember that five, 10%, your baby sees you it matters to them.

Dr. William Attaway: 22:40

You're still the best mom, you're still the best dad. Yeah, that's good, that's great encouragement. So, looking ahead, you think about your career going forward. What is there in the construction and engineering industry that you would love to step into and explore next?

Trish Flores: 22:56

Honestly, I'm at a crossroads of my career right now, thinking what do I want to be a master of? That is something that I'm working on right now. Right now, what's in front of me is business development right, and I'm working with mechanical, electrical, plumbing and structural engineers. So I do service business to business, design, service, sales and business development. So right now I'm at a crossroads, you know, evaluating whether this is something that I want to do for the rest of my life and where can it take me to the next level? Or do I actually shift my focus on project management and get that PMP certification and take me to the next level? Or do I actually shift my focus on project management and get that PMP certification and take me the next level? This is just transparency, because I think there's a lot of professionals right now with a degree and everything and trying to figure out where do we specialize on? Because I think for the next I don't know 10, 15, 20 years, there's going to be a lack of, you know, specialized professionals. So I want to really figure out right now what do I specialize on. But right now I'm still passionate about project management.

Trish Flores: 24:00

But you know, it's hard to predict because I'm dealing with a lot of things personally right now and I'm letting it kind of play out in front of me and I'm really happy doing MEP right now and business development, because it grows my network.

Trish Flores: 24:22

It grows my network, I meet a lot of people and that alone, you know, it allows me to learn more about the United States. The funny thing is like I still am learning about the jokes, the small talks, the football teams, the basketball teams. So right now I think I'm staying here because that feeds my knowledge on to how I shift and really root myself in the society, in the community that I am in. So, career wise, right, I am actually matching it with what I need personal, so that when my personal life is stable, then I can really focus on my career. Right now I'm putting it as a match-up of where I'm going and I am very aware that I still need a lot of knowledge in terms of the lifestyle, culture, community, and once I get that straight and solid, then I will actually be more confident to really say, okay, now I'm ready to take a next step.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:21

That's really good and I think that's why I used to recognize seasons. You know, not every season is the same and you have to determine different priorities in different seasons. Definitely, definitely, and you have to determine different priorities in different seasons.

Trish Flores: 25:29

Definitely, definitely. Awareness, awareness in your career, awareness in your personal life that will allow you to get in touch where you are, so that you don't put a lot of pressure. You know this timeline at 35, at 40, I need to be this and that, because not everybody has the same timeline.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:51

That's right. That's exactly right. So, thinking about your journey so far, you know you have to lead at a higher level today than you did just a few years ago, and you're going to have to lead at a higher level still a few years from now. How do you stay on top of your game? How do you level up with the new leadership skills that your company and your clients and your team are going to need you to have?

Trish Flores: 26:17

Well, leveling up always entails learning, right? So yes.

Trish Flores: 26:23

So I try to find ways. How do I learn? First and foremost, I do think that learning from people, especially the people that you work with, you manage, whether it's a coworker or somebody higher than you you learn from them. How do they work their pace, how do they communicate? Because then those communications, those interfaces, give you a lot of different perspectives, faces, give you a lot of different perspective, and then eventually you'll figure out and realize, hey, it's the same kind of perspective that I experienced, and now you're dealing with another person B you know, and then find you a good mentor. Find you a good mentor because mentorship goes a long way. These mentors, these mentors, already probably most likely have experienced what you have experienced and they would have great insights on how to deal with challenging situations. And I think leadership the most challenging is always interfaced with people right, different types of people.

Trish Flores: 27:25

There's a lot of like self-help books how to deal with difficult people, how to deal with my personality types. You know, and all of this, and I think that you know ever, learning about people is the most important thing about leadership. You know how to be relatable and touching to that. You know, one of my favorite books is Dale Carnegie's how to Win Friends and Influence People, because the influence that you have is the key to be a good leader, whether you're going to have a good influence or a bad influence, and influencing people is basically the essence of leadership. How do you influence the team to actually move in one direction? How do you influence a particular individual to actually go with a team? Because you have people that will go Australian and some people that doesn't really want to work as a team player. How do you relate to them? How do you communicate to them?

Trish Flores: 28:21

I tend to help myself with knowledge on getting to know more about the people, especially the people that I work with Always have my dad with me, who is my mentor in terms of my career. I always go to him like, hey, I have this issue at work, how do I deal with this? How do I communicate? Sometimes I already have a solution and I go check with him Do you think this is going to work and, if I continue with this, what could be the possible outcomes that I haven't seen or listed down? And then I also consult with friends that I think would have a great input, whether it's business-wise, based on their experience. Choose those people and surround yourself with people who can actually guide you, shape you in terms of just dealing with people. I think those are key.

Trish Flores: 29:13

And, of course, you know, read books, listen. If not, if you're not a reader, listen to podcasts because the resources right now is so awesome. You just you can't. You can't. Just. You know there's option for you now to like listen to podcasts and just equip yourself and basically, do not be afraid to apply these. You know accountability. You know being accountable for your actions, being open to communication. I think those are what kind of helps me out in terms of going up to the leadership.

Trish Flores: 29:47

And you know, of course, taking what I learned Don't ever forget the things like, oh, I'm not going to ever do that again because it didn't work before. And never lose your authenticity. I think that's number one Never lose your authenticity. It was a hard shift for me, coming from a different country, because I had to kind of adjust because there's seniority back home. Here there's none. It's very personable approach. Here you can call your boss their first name. You don't have to say ma'am or sir. You can actually assert yourself. So find that authenticity wherever, whichever culture you're in, and try to communicate your true self without being you're in and try to communicate your true self without you know being, because if you hesitate to become yourself, it's harder to lead.

Dr. William Attaway: 30:37

That's a good word, trish. This has just been so well done. You have shared so many, so many golden insights, so much wisdom today. I'm so grateful for your generosity and being on the show and sharing with our listeners about your journey so far, and I know it's not done yet. I believe your best days are ahead of you.

Trish Flores: 30:57

Thank you, I hope so too. I pray for it too, yeah.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:02

I know our listeners are going to want to continue to learn from you and to learn more about what you're doing. What is the best way for them to do that?

Trish Flores: 31:10

They can connect with me through LinkedIn. I don't know at the top of my head of my link, but they can Google me. My name in LinkedIn is Trish Idora.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:21

We will have that in the show notes, no worries.

Trish Flores: 31:23

Perfect. Thank you so much, william, I appreciate it.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:28

Thank you for being here.

Trish Flores: 31:30

Of course it was my pleasure.

Dr. William Attaway: 31:32

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 32:08

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, non-profits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you, just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro/Outro: 32:52

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.