When Yessenia Lauzardo started Rise Interiors in Miami, the advice she got was that the market was full.

Yessy's father was abruptly laid off from his construction job during the recession. She didn't just help him find work, she built a company around it and made him her first employee. Eleven years later, that leap of faith has become a thriving Miami remodeling business known for high-end transformations and a deeply personal approach to every client.

In this episode of The Handshake Podcast, host Ashley DePiano sits down with Yessy to talk about the messy, rewarding reality of growing a construction business: scaling up, downsizing when growth outpaced capacity, and rebuilding toward what she calls her "2.0 version."

We get into:

-Starting from small handyman repairs and teaching herself the commercial side on YouTube
-Why she's still on the job site instead of behind a desk
-The permitting nightmare that can stall projects for months — and cost clients
-Competing against cut-rate handymen (and the clients who come back after a bad job)
-Balancing a growing company with raising a family
-The 1940s home she's renovating for a client seven years in the making
-Her best advice for anyone entering the trades: save for a rainy day, stay involved, and don't give up

A conversation about craftsmanship, reputation, and why people hire the person, not just the company.