Women are revolutionizing the business world.

In fact, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, women own more than 12 million businesses. For some women, that means leading in male-dominated industries, like construction and automotive, and redefining female roles at work. 

Below, we share two leaders’ approaches to leadership and how they tackle the challenges of being the only woman in the room.

Chelsea Herbert, President and Operations Manager  

4C’s Trucking and Excavation

Chelsea Herbert often relives the conversation with her dad about what it takes to thrive in construction as a woman.

“You have to be stronger; you have to be faster,” she remembers him saying. “They’re going to question everything you say even when you’re right.”

Now, as a leader of a complete site work development company, she knows what he meant.

Herbert, 33, credits her athletic background and her dad’s “girls can do anything” attitude to leading well in a traditionally male-dominated world. After her college nanny job — one of three she held — cut her hours, Herbert asked her dad for work.

“I’m the minority in most rooms at work; there are a lot more women in construction now than when I started,” she said. ”I think I have a pretty confident and strong personality; I can’t downplay the difficulty of it, though. Just because I was confident doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard.”

In 2011, she started with the pipe group which gave her a newfound respect for the people who worked for 4C’s. From then on, she pushed forth to learn project management and more. Herbert admits she sometimes gets talked over or ignored, but she embraces those people with empathy instead of anger.

“Those guys didn’t start in a world where women worked,” she said. “That’s not an excuse because you have to adjust with the times. I think the only way to find the middle ground in an argument is to have empathy.”

While she may make her living in construction, Herbert said the field has given her surprising access to side hustles.

“4C’s is my day job, I jokingly say; it’s afforded me the opportunity to be involved in other businesses and do other cool things,” said Herbert. “I think being a woman in a male-dominated industry has contributed to me having the confidence to do these things.”

One recent example: getting into real estate. Last year, she purchased a downtown Bunnell home that came on the market that she’s “loved since I was a kid.”

Her husband wanted to know her plans for the 5,500-square-foot space.

“I don’t know but I’ll figure it out,” she told him. A few days later at 3 a.m., the idea came. She woke him up, saying that it couldn’t wait until morning — she was going to create a collective of businesses.

After opening in March 2024 and successfully signing about six leases, she realized, “Wait a minute, these are all women.”

Herbert hadn’t planned it that way, but it worked out.

“All of these women are collaborating,” she said. “We’re marketing for each other. We’re working with each other, together. Most of us are working moms or grandmothers. You get encouragement from each other.”

As for advice to other women, she said believing in yourself makes all the difference.

“Believe in your ability and learn from the people around you,” she said. “Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you might be the only woman in the room. There is space for women in this industry.”

Letti Bozard-Spencer, Dealer Partner

Bozard Ford Lincoln

Letti Bozard-Spencer never planned to work at her family car dealership.

After all, she got her MBA from Embry-Riddle and aimed for a career in banking and finance.

But when her dad, who operated the Bozard Ford Lincoln dealership, received a cancer diagnosis, she needed to learn the family business

“What I thought was only going to be a pitstop on the way to my actual career turned out to be a 20-plus year career in an industry that I love,” she said.

Despite the dealership being a long-time family business — her grandparents opened it in 1949 — Bozard-Spencer never worked there even as a teen. So, when she was thrust into the dealership, she often got “backhanded comments or dismissals” because she was a female and the owner’s daughter.

Instead of taking the comments to heart, she used those as inspirational fuel.

“My father taught me to focus on those who opened their door to me and learn as much as I could from them,” she said. “I have always been grateful for that advice and those door-openers.”

When she thinks about her career, she recalls being the only woman and often the youngest and least experienced automotive person. She said committing herself to learning about the business and customers built a strong foundation for her leadership style.

“Even as my presence and opinion became more accepted, I held tightly to the girl I was in the beginning, always willing to ask questions and challenge myself and others,” she said.

Bozard-Spencer has three pieces of advice for women in business: Develop a keen self-awareness. Be a lifelong learner. Lastly, don’t be afraid to love what you do and who you do it with. 

“The world needs the unique ability to love that women have and so does the workplace,” she said. “Don’t let any narrative out there convince you that loving people isn’t what this is all about.”