Heather Flynn - Inspirational Women

FULL INTERVIEW

MG: Where were you born and raised?

HEATHER: My mom is from Washington D.C. and my father was from Kokomo, IN. They fatefully met in 1984 at a crawfish boil in Lake Charles, LA. As the story goes, they fell in love immediately and got married 6 weeks later. I was born out of love 4 years later in the same town they met.

MG: If not Louisiana, what led to you move here? When?

HEATHER: My growing up years was split between two places. I spent my younger years growing up in Lake Charles, but after my parents divorced at the end of my eighth grade year, I lived with my mom and brother in Austin, Texas for over a decade completing high school and undergraduate coursework. Family led me back to Louisiana to take care of a grandfather figure in Deridder experiencing Alzheimer’s. I had residency in the state again and decided to pursue my Master’s at LSU, mostly in part because of the schools offering a specialization in Gerontological studies.  

MG: In which city do you mostly reside?

HEATHER: I have remained in the Baton Rouge area since graduating.

MG: What is you educational background and/or experience?

HEATHER: I have both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Work, with gerontological specialization under the Master’s degree.

MG: Currently, where are you employed?

HEATHER: I am self-employed. I invest in real estate, breathing new life into run down homes and offering creative financing solutions to people who need to sell their homes but are unable to do so under the traditional route. I am also a consultant for a local construction company, Brothers Construction Company of Baton Rouge, Inc.

MG: What is your job title?

HEATHER: I am the owner of Heather Helps Houses and Fierce Property Solutions. Under real estate, creative financing specialist. Under construction, I consult on company systems that facilitate tasks related to insurance claims processing and project management.

MG: If you haven’t lived in Louisiana your entire life, what led you to move here?

HEATHER: I stayed in Baton Rouge after grad school because it’s where I’ve built my business and met my business partner.

MG: What is your favorite part about living here?

HEATHER: I love the people. And I love the food. I guess I really just love the culture and tenacity of the people. I love how no matter what hard knocks get thrown at us (ahem… Hurricanes and flooding), the people band together, we “figure it out” and support one another.  

MG: What is an event in your life that significantly changed the course of it?

HEATHER: I always had big plans to be a life-long, committed social worker. In fact, in the years around 2008 – 2012, I felt it so strongly as a ‘calling’ that if you had told me I would choose another avenue to support myself, I would have never believed it. My first job after graduating with my bachelor’s was as a case manager at a homeless shelter in Texas. Shortly after starting the job, I tested positive for tuberculosis exposure and began treatment to ensure that I would never become actively infected, and thereby contagious. And boy was that hard on my body! Back then, I was in my early 20’s and sustained myself on coffee and cigarettes – my delicate health and mental health balance began to crumble. I took some time off from work, and pursuing my masters and I moved to Deridder to renovate a 1900’s era house and take care of my Grandpa, which really took more of the form of hanging out with him. By the end of that year, I thoroughly enjoyed getting back to my remodeling roots from my dad and caring for a man increasingly living in a different world, or at least a different time in his mind. I decided I would go back for my Master’s degree, this time at LSU where I could get a specialization in working with older adults. I graduated with my master’s degree in 2015 and received a really decent job offer, decent in social work career terms. But truth be told, it was a really low job offer, barely breaking the salary I earned with my bachelors in Texas. But a different opportunity arose at the same time, an opportunity to learn and practice real estate investing. After going through everything I went through before my master’s, I couldn’t bear to face the same toll on my health, so I jumped into the unknown and very scary world, at the time, of entrepreneurship.

MG: What negative impacts did that event have for you, even if only temporary?

HEATHER: I was really scared for the future and would I have what it takes. But moreover I felt guilty to be turning away from a profession I had once felt so called to do.

MG: What good came out of that event for you? How did it improve your life?

HEATHER: I met one of the most important and influential people in my life, my business and life partner, Harry Wells. He’s been a wealth of knowledge in construction and has taught me a lot about negotiation. He’s always filled the gaps in my life.

MG: How do you feel you have overcome that event?

HEATHER: I took a leap of faith and believed in myself to create something out of nothing and I succeeded. Along the way, I’ve met many amazing people and built an awesome tribe. If I hadn’t gone through all my early social work practice experiences, I would never have built the life I am living right now and that life is pretty darn cool.  

MG: What advice would you give to someone who is going through something similar? 

HEATHER: Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. The worst someone can do is tell you no. As long as you’re asking, you have a 50% chance of getting exactly what you want. But if you never ask, you won’t get a thing.

MG: When was a time that you stuck up for yourself and how did that enhance your life?

HEATHER: On my 3rd or 4th investment project, I had a bad contractor experience. I was far too trusting and was financially taken advantage. Because I was an investor and none of the houses that were left unfinished were my actual home, there was very little in the way of legal retribution. It has made me more analytical and prudent in my agreements with others. And I never make a decision on my own. I always consult others who are either smarter than me in a specific area or who I know will give me their honest perspective.

MG: Have you received any special awards, recognition, or acknowledgements?

HEATHER: In 2019, I led Brothers Construction Company of Baton Rouge  to win the Better Business Bureau torch awards for Ethics in Business.

MG: What quality about yourself are you most grateful for?

HEATHER: Empathic - Compassion.

MG: What about yourself are you most proud?

HEATHER: Tenacity – I get knocked down and I get up again.

Grit. Do not accept defeat. Conviction. Strategic Planning.

MG: What do you consider to be your life motto?

HEATHER: Never surrender

MG: Who inspires, or has inspired, you in your life?

HEATHER: My mom, she’s always been the rock of our family. She is the definition of a strong woman. She never backs down and she never gives up.

MG: Here can be the hardest one for many, tell us about yourself. Anything additional you want to share? It can be anything from your favorite recipe, to the worst time of your life. Anything more you want to share with us.

HEATHER: I’m a macaroni and cheese connoisseur.

I’m an animal lover—both dogs and cats, but right now I only have one cat named, Friday Flynn who was rescued as a kitten from inside of a wall in a dilapidated house on Good Friday.

I love painting, drawing, etc., but I don’t often find the time to express myself creatively. My palette these days has been renovating kitchens and bathrooms.