Our Women in Residential Construction Conference took place in September, and during the two-day virtual conference we had the chance to hear from women across the residential construction indsutry through various sessions and panels. One of those panels involved Jeanne Conger and Kathy Hannun, two leaders in the construction space. 

Conger is the CCO of On3, a technology company focused on improving business performance, and Hannun is the founder and CTO of Dandelion Energy, a leading residential geothermal company. The two have been in the industry for many years, and during their session they discuss how their experiences led them to the leadership roles they have today, how other women in the industry can find career growth opportunities, and the importance of building a strong support network. 

If you missed the 2026 conference and want to hear more conversations like this one, you can still register for on-demand sessions at the Women in Residential Construction Conference website. 

Welcome back to Women at WIRC, where our editors from sister media brands—Pro Builder, Pro Remodeler, and Custom Builder—sit down with standout women across home building, remodeling, and design. We share their stories and business insights, and explore how women are reshaping the residential building industry.

Catherine Sweeney: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Women at WIRC podcast. I’m Catherine Sweeney, one of your hosts.Today, we have a little bit of a different episode for you. Back in September, we hosted our Women in Residential Construction Conference. Hopefully a lot of you attended but if not, we wanted to give a little taste of some of the conversations we had while there. 

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jeanne Conger and Kathy Hannun. Jeanne is the CCO at On3, a technology company focused on improving business performance across the construction industry. And Kathy is the founder and CTO of Dandelion Energy, a leading residential geothermal company. Both Kathy and Jeanne have years of experience working in leadership roles, and that’s what you’ll hear us talk about. We talked a lot about how women in construction can seek out opportunities to grow in their careers and why learning how to advocate for yourself really matters. It was so fun getting to talk to them so I’m excited to share that with you all today. 

Catherine: Hi Kathy, hi Jeanne. Thank you so much for joining me today. Really appreciate it. Just to kick things off, would you mind just sharing a little bit about yourselves, and your roles at your companies for anyone who might not be familiar? Jeanne, do you wanna start us off?

Jeanne: Sure. First of all, thank you for inviting us. This is an extraordinary opportunity and what an honor. I have been in the industry... If I told you how long, I'd lie about my age, so it's been decades in this industry. And I started as a college intern in construction. Truth be told, it was because I just wanted to be where the guys were.

They said, "Hey, you can be in sales or marketing. Which one do you wanna be?" And I said, "Neither. I wanna be over there with the guys." So it took me a good 10 years to admit it, but once I started in that role, there was no stopping. It's an addictive [00:01:00] industry for a thousand reasons. So I grew up in production home building, public builders, private builders, grew to be a division president and an EVP over seven markets, and then during COVID had this brilliant idea to go out on my own.

I don't know how brilliant it was, because we didn't quite know that COVID was going to be COVID. And so now I have three different companies, which makes me a little bit crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. And the opportunities that it affords to really... Herding cats is what I would equate it to.

Once you've herded cats successfully, you decide, "Oh, I wanna do that again. Yay." So I balance between home building, construction, a tech company that serves the construction industry, and then, building and remodeling real estate.

Kathy: I'm looking forward to hearing more from you because three [00:02:00] companies, I can't imagine. My name is Kathy Hannun. I founded one company, which seems like more than enough to keep me busy. But I've, I founded Dan- a company called Dandelion Energy, whose mission is to make geothermal heating and cooling just a much more practical, widely adopted way of heating and cooling homes in the United States, and our focus is working with production home builders and multifamily developers to do that.

Traditionally, geothermal's been more of a luxury product, typically found in very fancy, high-end, more mansions. But, what most people don't know is today it's actually less expensive upfront in some markets than just conventional furnaces or air source heat pumps. So we're really trying to spread the word that you can get this high-end system for actually less money upfront than the conventional alternatives, and homeowners really like it.

My role at the company has evolved over [00:03:00] time, but today I'm the CTO of Dandelion.

Catherine: So you're both obviously in leadership roles. How would you define leadership for you? Or, in other words, what would you say your style of leadership is? And either of you can take it.

Jeanne: Kathy, you can start.

Kathy: Sure. Thank you, Jeanne. Yeah, I think for me, I find I'm a more effective leader when I'm in there, doing the work alongside my teammates and really understanding the problems directly. I think, especially in a startup, I would say, or a smaller company, you can't really afford to have the style of leadership that might be more effective in large companies where you're really… large company leaders can be experts in managing people and organizations, and really just focusing on that, like cross-functional alignment, resourcing, personnel. You do need that in a [00:04:00] startup, but I would say, you can't only have that.

So what that looks like for me is, in any part of the company that's struggling or could use an extra pair of hands, I'm constantly just getting involved and looking at the problems or the data or the installation or whatever it is, talking to customers directly, and I think that gives me a good perspective of what's needed and how we become an increasingly excellent company over time.

Jeanne: Well said. I think holistic leadership is something we as women have learned to do. And for me, all of the mentors that I had were male. And I had one mentor, and this really resonated with me at one point in my career where it was so brutal, that I had a boss that nothing was ever good enough. I call him my best worst boss, and, because I never would have become the leader that I am today, I wouldn't have been able to own my own business had he not pushed and [00:05:00] shoved me. But one of my mentors in that same company who was feeling all the pain, he said, "Look, at the end of the day, you don't have to like any of this. All you have to do is survive it."

And I hate that was some of the best advice that I ever had, but it really is. It resonates in a way that we, I'm a fixer by nature. I want everybody to be happy. I want customers to be happy, employees to be happy, team members. I would like the world to be happy.

And we don't always get that. And when you are in a leadership role and things aren't going the way you want them to be, there are times where you have to digest, "I don't have to like this. All I have to do is make sure everybody else survives this," especially when you're going through downturns or tariffs or scary interest rates like we are right now.

I think having the ability to pivot... And Kathy, I love what you said about really doing all of it. I think for me, [00:06:00] especially in a man's industry, gosh, still we're not accepted, and I imagine, Kathy, you run into it sometimes as well, where people assume you can't possibly be the leader. There's no way.

It's “who's your boss? Where's your boss?” But even in those roles, it's important to be boots on the ground. You have to be willing to do what you're asking someone else to do, and I think it gives you credibility and kind of elevates leadership when you tell someone, "You know what? Let me do it with you."

"I'm not asking you to do something that I wouldn't also do." We don't have to like doing all the things that we need to do to be successful. And that's a hard one to digest because we sometimes feel like, gosh, I only want to like what I'm doing all the time." What world is that possible?

Kathy: I love that. I think what really resonates with me about what you just said too is I can tell you have a really strong internal focus of control of just like if you don't like a [00:07:00] situation, either you survive it because it's worth it to you, because you have something else to gain, or you change your situation.

But like you have to do that for yourself and make that decision. No one else is gonna do it for you. And I think I completely agree that in my own personal journey of going from an employee early in my career to then a leader, that was a big shift that was pretty profound when I started the company, just realizing like I can't just complain about things I don't like.

Jeanne: Like it just, I'm, I'm the founder CEO right now at the beginning, like it's on me to do something about it. But actually that's true of everyone. It was just very clear when I was in that founder role Yeah, and it's interesting because I am blessed enough to have some people that I mentor because of professional women and building through NAHB, and it's almost like we're being taught through social media that if there's something that somebody says that you don't like, they're gaslighting you.

[00:08:00] we have found all these terms to add on to something that we don't like, and at the end of the day, what station in life must you be at where there's anything that you don't like, that everything is gonna be rainbows and butterflies? So it's tough. I don't wanna be somebody's mentor and teaching them how to be hard necessarily, but trying to bridge the gap between victim and victor I feel is a role that we as female leaders need to fill.

Sometimes that's tough conversations on what being a victim or a victor is. It's like, "You're right. Chuck said something to you. Sorry, Chuck. Chuck said something to you that you didn't like. Why do you need to carry that?" You can say, "Great. I don't like that. Here's what I'm gonna do next."

Not to Chuck, not about Chuck. You're just moving on. It's okay to move on. We don't have to sit in the moment. We don't have to [00:09:00] log it in our diary. It just is, just next. And if Chuck is being very difficult to work with, it's like challenging yourself where- Yeah... am I skilled enough to conquer Chuck?

What do I need to do as a person in business so that my skills are so well developed that I can handle Chuck and do so in a productive way that doesn't cause... ideally that doesn't cause unnecessary drama. Maybe you have to cause a little, maybe not, but, there's no… don't let your emotions play into it if you can. Just be practical because in the end, you have objectives and you can't let Chuck get in the way of them, right? So it's like what is your plan for dealing with Chuck? Let's not complain about Chuck. Let's strategize here.

Catherine: I'm curious too, because you're talking about your network, and whether that's a mentor or a mentee or just a colleague, what has having a network meant for [00:10:00] you, and how has that impacted your career journey going forward?

Kathy: I'll let you go first this time, Jeanne.

Jeanne: I love that. So having a network for me, especially as a leader, sometimes we feel that, gosh, I don't wanna go to one of my team members. I don't wanna go to one of my employees and unload the things that I'm feeling or going through that day.

That's really not appropriate. It's not theirs to carry. As a leader, we should be, I don't wanna say sheltering necessarily, but let me be the sponge for something that may be perceived as not as positive as, as I would like it to be for the team. Having a network has allowed me to get some perspective.

One of the most brilliant things that someone in my network told me is a great way to diffuse a Chuck, because we all have a Chuck. This is the new Karen, by the way. Like, why do the girls get the Karens? Get the guys, let's just call him Chuck. But we have Chucks in our life that [00:11:00] just, gosh, they're oppositional, and no matter what you say, they will come across as an Eeyore.

And the advice that I got is to use these four words: You could be right. So if somebody is ranting and saying bad things or trying to stir up other team members and creating drama, you can say, "You could be right." Because what do they say at that point? "No, I'm not." somebody who's really oppositional, that shuts them down.

I didn't say you were right, Chuck. I said you could be right. And then another four words, help me understand your X. So help me understand your attitude about whatever it is. Help me understand your philosophy about XYZ. Help me understand fill in the blank. You're giving them a platform to tell you what it really is about, and sometimes just saying you could be right [00:12:00] is enough of a diffuser where it creates calm where there was no opportunity for calm, and it allows you to go back to whatever the mission at hand was.

I learned both of those strategies from my network and other leaders in a way that, where are you gonna find that?

Kathy: Yeah.I agree with that entirely, that having that network, it's so helpful for getting those specific tactics and approaches that have worked for others in a similar position. I think also, you were saying earlier, Jeanne, we are socialized to like to please, to not make people angry. A lot of my friends and family that I'm lucky to spend time with outside work are courteous, gentle people, very kind, and don't like to upset if they don't have to. And it's, in business, especially, in a leadership position, sometimes you need [00:13:00] to dial up the assertiveness and make the hard decision.

Maybe you need to do a layoff. Maybe you need to fire someone, right? These situations come up that you don't have to deal with as often in day-to-day personal life. And I think for me, having a network of other entrepreneurs that have similar positions in their companies has been useful because it normalizes the experience.

So I might feel very... when I was new at the job, I felt very bad when I had to fire someone, and it was, like, emotionally very difficult. I would literally, be anxious about it for days before it was coming, and I... it would, ruin my whole day. And it is very hard, obviously. I still feel bad that I have to fire people, but now I don't have that level of anxiety at all because of it, I just have a lot more confidence about why.

When it's necessary, and it's gonna be good for everyone, and I've seen it play out a lot of times, and it's fine. It's just part of the job. I think having that peer network, [00:14:00] you really see that these other people are dealing with the same things, and that they're kind, nice people that are good, and they also have to do layoffs or fire people or, navigate difficult decisions, and it just makes it less challenging personally, or at least it has for me, to know that I'm not alone in it.

Jeanne: Yeah. In male-dominated industries, I think having a network of female leaders is crucial because we think differently. We connect the dots a little differently. We react not always from logic first. We sprinkle in feelings and emotion and maybe a more holistic view than some of our male peers.

So I think having a female network is crucial to success because you have like-minded people. You don't have to copy somebody else's leadership style because it's all you've seen or known. So having events like [00:15:00] this is really crucial for growth regardless of what stage we are in our careers.

Where would any of us be without the collaborative efforts and collective efforts of everyone who came before us? And gosh, I learn from new team members all the time.

Catherine: Obviously, having a network is super important, but I'm curious for people who are maybe just starting out in the industry, women specifically, how would you suggest they go about building a network, or maybe you can talk to your own experiences? How did you build a network?

Kathy: I think one way is just being friendly with people and genuinely building relationships and friendships at work. and I don't think... I think sometimes when people are told to network, it can feel very contrived and difficult. It's hard to go up to a stranger and make them your mentor. I think, like any relationship in life, a lot of the best ones happen when you have a real [00:16:00] connection, like an interpersonal connection with someone that is authentic. so my advice would be to look for those people that you genuinely like, and you just have a spark between you, and you enjoy talking to them and hearing their advice, and just stay in touch.

Jeanne: And I think that's a good way over time to both find the people that will become your most important mentors and also just to have that network. Yeah, and you have to be where like-minded people are. So my assumption is-... if they're watching this podcast, it's women in construction. It's somebody who is looking for like-minded people.

It's the perfect place to start. Look for other organizations locally or nationally. I started with the National Association of Home Builders Professional Women in Building. There wasn't one where I live in Texas, which is interesting. We have a city of 2.2 million, and there was no [00:17:00] Professional Women in Building.

So I was a member at large because I just, I needed something that I wasn't getting where I was working for a public home builder, there just weren't many other people in my role, or in my city. It's how do I find someone that I could connect with? And it's become a huge network. The other day I was at the Sunbelt Builders Show in San Antonio, and somebody that I really admire who owns a home building company in Houston asked if I would mentor her.

I was honored, and I'm still, kind of awestruck thinking, "Gosh, I think she should mentor me." So it's interesting to see how collaboration, it doesn't have to be mentor/mentee. What if it's just a weekly call to, to collaborate, to learn from each other? So I would love to say that your network doesn't have to be someone that you perceive in a higher role than yours, or a lateral role.

It doesn't [00:18:00] matter what the role is. There are things that we all have, available to give and to receive from like-minded people. Forget the hierarchy. Forget the nomenclature of mentor and mentee. What does it look like to have someone that you could call and talk something out with?

That's really the biggest recommendation. Find the like-minded people and then build from there. I was so honored that person would ask me, so ask. I also think that just being in touch with people, I think sometimes we feel like, "Oh, I don't wanna bother that person." But the best networkers that have just the most success building those relationships that are so helpful, I notice they just never hesitate.

Kathy: They don't worry. Somebody can ignore your text. It's not that annoying. just to send a Christmas card or a holiday card or send a text or, call so- send an email if there's something you think somebody should know. It's so helpful. I think, with human relationships, the [00:19:00] frequency, just, if you see someone's name come up regularly for a long period of time, you feel like you know them, and then that familiarity makes it very easy to sustain and build that relationship. So one piece of specific advice I would give is just, try not to hesitate. Try not to worry about it. Just, reach out to people that you like, and you- it's very hard to actually be annoying to… you'd have to, really be intense- to reach out to get to that level.

Catherine: Yeah. And I'm curious, too, just on the topic of, being new to the industry or, someone who's growing their career, what advice would you give to someone who's maybe struggling in their career journey, or maybe they feel like they're being overlooked by the Chucks of the world or being overlooked for opportunities? What would you say to them?

Jeanne: The word of the year for me, which this is, if truth be told, second year in a row I've chosen the same word: [00:20:00] pivot. Just pivot. It's okay if that doesn't work for you. What would it look like if you pivot? You don't have to eject. This thing happened that makes me unhappy, or I don't like the Chuck that I work for.

Again, pivot. You don't have to leave the industry. You don't have to leave the company. What if? What would it look like if you pivoted? If you're not happy where you are, what's one thing that you could do? Just one thing. It's small steps and pivots. Home building or construction has never killed anyone that I know of that wasn't involved in a specific accident. So all we have to do is survive this to enable us to learn, to grow, and pivot, and avoid the Chucks or outlive the Chucks.

Kathy: When I was early in my career, I worked at Google, and I had what my peers would have considered to be a dream job. I got to [00:21:00] work for very senior people in a very exciting part of the company.

I got to travel around the world, and I didn't like it. and I felt like there must be something wrong with me because I recognized how lucky I was, and I was thinking to myself, "If I don't like this job, I will never like a job. What is wrong with me?" and what I got myself to do is just, I was an opportunity hunter.

If any opportunity came up, I would try to pursue it if it looked interesting. And eventually that approach, after, you try a lot of things that aren't good, right? No one knows the perfect thing, so you just... It's a numbers game. You just try things and you learn. So I did that, and eventually I moved from a marketing role, which didn't work well for me, into a product role, where I flourished, and it was like night and day.

It was one change, and my career was on a totally different trajectory. I had no idea that would be the change that mattered. I just had [00:22:00] to try, like- That was a pivot rather than an eject... That was a pivot. Exactly. Totally. It was a pivot. And I think that, it's important, again, to just ta- I- it's your responsibility to figure that out for yourself, and, complaining about the external circumstances that you can't control might bring emotional relief, but it will not actually help you at all-

to achieve a result. So- said... so I think it's fine to complain, and I do my fair share of it. Don't get me wrong. I think, yeah, just, you pivot, try things, be patient, 'cause as long as you try things and you're earnest and hardworking and try them genuinely, you'll find the thing that you like.

Jeanne: I don't know who to quote, but there is something called failing forward. You're not failing if you learned something from that experience. You fail forward. You can learn and grow. So [00:23:00] pivoting is part of learning and growing, and I, I love that. Yeah, not to be paralyzed. It wasn't in your written work path to go from marketing to product.

Kathy: No, I had no idea. Yeah... I think that, yeah, it's important not to get paralyzed by like- One thing as an entrepreneur you get a lot of exposure to is making decisions under uncertainty, and I think that's something that you don't get a lot of exposure to as a young person. We're in school, there's a path. As a young person, most of us don't have a lot of chances to make decisions under uncertainty, and so we're under this false impression that you need clarity in order to make a decision as to what the right decision is. And then part of becoming an adult and moving into your career is realizing no one knows.

Becoming higher up in your career is basically an increasing embrace of I'm gonna have the courage to make a decision, [00:24:00] and, try to do so in a skillful way even though-... I don't know the answer for sure, and actually no one does. And it's developing the strategies to do that.

Jeanne: So I would say early in your career is a great time to practice, and one of the things to practice with is just, your own career, right? And how to set it in a direction that will ultimately work well. And there's a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that I won't butcher, but I will paraphrase, and it's basically that there is… you must do the thing that you don't wanna do. You have to stop and face fear in the face to move forward. So I love that because it's true. There are so many scary things about leadership at every single level. We would love to have certainty. There will never be certainty within our industries, within our jobs.

Gosh, it's hard to have certainty even in your home with [00:25:00] children, with life in general. But if we did it anyway, just do it anyway, and mitigate as much risk as you can. But if you understand, if this doesn't work, I'm going to pivot. I'm going to find... I'm gonna do this, and if things change, we don't have to have all of the roadmaps laid out for every scenario that there is.

It's not possible. We are not necessarily Wall Street analysts that can foresee the world, which if you look right now, you can see that Wall Street has not done a great job of forecasting what's going on today, for example, or yesterday or last week or next week. But if we have the ability to look fear in the face and do it anyway, we will not fail.

We can pivot, we can learn, we can grow, but we won't stop. We don't have to stop if we don't want to [00:26:00]

Catherine: Yeah. Thank you both, and I wanna be mindful of both of your time. But, before I let you go today, I just wanna ask, are there any final thoughts or bits of advice that you'd like to leave the audience with today?

Kathy: I love leaving with what Jeanne just said, which is, developing the skill of looking fear in the face and then moving forward. That is probably the number one thing that has helped me in my career, and I just couldn't agree more. So I really like that you brought that up, and I think it's a great note to end on.

Catherine: Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you both.

Thanks for listening to Women at WIRC. This podcast is a spinoff of our annual Women in Residential Construction Conference, which we’ve hosted since 2016. You can learn more about the conference and see when we’ll be in your area by visiting womensconstructionconference.com. Women at Work is a production of Endeavor Business Media, a division of Endeavor B2B. Until next time, keep up the good work.