How Slowing Down at the Start Saves Time and Money on Complex Projects | Ep. 385

Melissa Drew spent 20 years building complex projects for national contractors. She climbed through Holder Construction and Gilbane Building Company. Then she walked away and started her own firm. InSite BUILD is a construction management company on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and in four years, it’s become the firm owners call when the stakes are high and the margin for error is thin.

In this episode of Construction Genius, Melissa sits down with Eric Anderton to talk about what actually goes wrong when teams rush the start of a project, how to build trust on both sides of a contract, and what it takes to run your own construction company when the market you serve has two choices for most trades.

Key Takeaways:

• Two extra weeks of planning at the start of a multi-year project can prevent months of rework
• Superintendents need permission to slow down. That permission has to come from leadership
• Trust is built in small moments, not just when the big problems hit
• Hiring for a startup construction firm means finding people who love the work, not just the structure
• When your team is full of introverts, pressure makes them go quiet. A leader’s job is to keep the conversation going

Listen or Watch the Episode

Slow Down to Speed Up: Why Two Extra Weeks of Planning Changes Everything

The pressure to start building the day you get notice to proceed is real. Melissa knows that. She also knows what happens when teams give in to it. Rework. Cost overruns. Frustrated crews doing something twice because nobody stopped long enough to do it right the first time.

Her approach is simple. Pause. Plan. Communicate. On a multi-year project, two extra weeks at the front end can mean the difference between building it once and tearing it out later.

“Everybody kind of knows if you barely have time to build it once, how the heck do you have time to build it two or three times?”

And it starts with the superintendent. Melissa insists the field leader is in the room during planning. So are the project manager and key subcontractor superintendents. The decisions happen with the builders. Not in a corporate office three states away.

Building Trust on Both Sides of the Contract

As a construction manager, Melissa sits between the owner and the contractor. She’s hired by the state entity that administers the project. That could mean universities, institutions, or the Department of General Services. Both sides need to feel like she’s got their interests in mind.

Most CMs default to the owner’s side. Melissa doesn’t. She’s intentional about making contractors feel valued too. Because those contractors are the ones who deliver the project. If you treat them like they’re just there to take orders, you lose the thing that makes a job run well.

“I think part of what I wanted to do differently with InSite is to be able to say we have to have our contractors’ interests in mind as well.”

Trust, in Melissa’s world, is built in small moments. It’s the change order you worked through together. It’s the grace you gave someone when they stumbled. Those small wins create the credibility you need when the big problems show up.

Starting a Construction Company After 20 Years in the Industry

Melissa didn’t plan to start a company. She made the leap in her 40s, when confidence and relationships came together at the right time. She’d spent two decades investing in a company. Leaving felt risky. But she realized the relationships she’d built on the Eastern Shore were the real asset, not the corporate name on her business card.

“I feel like so young in my career, I got so much more to go do now.”

The hardest part? Learning the business side. She’s good at building projects. Every founder says the same thing. The surprise is everything else. Accounting, systems, hiring. And when you’re wearing every hat, the learning curve is steep.

Hiring for a Startup Construction Firm

Melissa is upfront with candidates. InSite BUILD is a startup. Not every system is locked down. Some days feel like drinking from a fire hose. That’s not for everyone, and she’d rather know that before the hire.

What she looks for above everything else is a passion for building. She’s hired from adjacent industries. Design, architecture. Some of those hires work. But when the pressure builds and the days get long, the people who love construction are the ones who stick.

Managing Emotions and Leading Under Pressure

Melissa’s team has done personality assessments. They use the Berkman method. What they discovered is that most of the team are introverts. When pressure builds, their instinct is to retreat to their offices, shut the door, and solve problems alone.

That instinct will kill a project. Melissa knows it. So she’s the one who calls the team back together. She makes sure they keep talking when the natural response is to go quiet.

And when it gets personal? She takes a walk. Gets out of the trailer. Looks at the big picture instead of the argument in front of her. It’s not complicated. It just takes discipline.

Listen to the full episode for more on Melissa’s approach to managing risk, handling non-performing subcontractors, and her vision for InSite BUILD’s next chapter.

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Resources

Connect with Melissa Drew:

InSite BUILD: https://www.insite-build.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadrew