Standing up and standing out as a woman in metal roofing

MCS Influencer Haley Iselin says there's something that women inherently have that make things more cohesive.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with MCS Influencer Haley Iselin. You can read the interview below or watch the recording.

Alex Tolle: Hello, I'm Alex Tolle with MetalCoffeeShop.com and I am here for the March Influencer response with my friend, Haley. How's it going, Haley?

Haley Iselin: Good, how are you?

Alex Tolle: Good. Excited to be doing this interview with you today.

Haley Iselin: Same. Thank you.

Alex Tolle: This topic is really great. So, how have women influenced the metal industry overall and why should more women consider careers in metal?

Haley Iselin: Sure. I mean, I have a couple different things to say on that from my own experience and then from some of the incredible women I've met in the industry over the years. I've almost been doing this 21 years now. When I started, I was a salesperson. And I realized right away that I was the only girl salesman on our team, and I seemed to be able to gain a lot of trust from our employees and customers just naturally. I don't know if that's just a natural female tendency or not, but it really proved itself to be helpful in sales. And so, it was really great to have that. I could be totally authentic and natural and got to develop so many great relationships with customers and turn those into partnerships. So, that was one thing that was really cool about being a woman in a male-dominated industry.

We also had a woman on our crew for the longest time who was an installer. And one of the things that my dad always noticed was how well she brought the whole team together. So, again, there was something about maybe a female characteristic that naturally brought all the team together a lot better and got them talking and got them open. And so, I think it's just something that maybe we inherently have that brought these tendencies and made it way more cohesive. And that benefited everybody, because we not only then got ideas from very different perspectives and belief systems, but it really balanced out the whole environment.

Right now, our company, we're a small distributor and we have three full-time women and one full-time guy, and then we have a part-time. So, I think also that's pretty cool for our customers' experience. We deal with a lot of do-it-yourselfers and homeowners, and I think they really like that.

The other thing, though, about getting women into the industry is that there's so much opportunity for great pay, for leadership opportunities. Or if you just are a hands-on person and you want to work in the field, there's so many areas. And not needing a ton of education or training to get in, it allows a lot of opportunities for women in lots of different areas of life. We've even had many moms that could work part-time while kids were at school and really learn a lot about the trades and with the technology. Some brilliant minds have been on our company that have helped us develop systems and softwares to work with what we're doing here out in the field. And we owe that to several really great women. So, there's just so many opportunities in a vast array of areas for women to consider in this industry.

Alex Tolle: I love it. And it's so true. And you guys are leading by example, showing how women can be super successful and really bring your team together.

Haley Iselin: Yeah, thank you. Me too. It feels great to be in this industry, again. I think it's very well receptive. When I first started, there was a little resistance sometimes from a certain generation. But once you broke that small gap, if you had a little bit of confidence to break it, then it was so great. So, yeah. Maybe there's that tiny bit of challenge, but it was worth it, for sure.

Alex Tolle: Absolutely. Well, Haley, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time to answer our March Metal Influencer question.

Haley Iselin: My pleasure, Alex. Thank you so much. It was so nice to meet you.