EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage

EntreArchitect Live with Alex Gore of F9 Productions This week, Mark held his first live interview using Facebook live. Alex Gore from F9 Productions discussed his work with Daniel Libeskind, his firm in Longmont, Colorado, his podcast, Inside The Firm, sharing the behind-the-scenes with his partner, Lance Cayko, and his book The Creativity Code. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, EntreArchitect Live with Alex Gore of F9 Productions. Background Alex Gore grew up drawing wars of ants verses bees, playing backyard baseball, and being obsessed with Frank Lloyd Wright. After high school, he joined the national guard as a heavy equipment operator. There, he attended North Dakota State University and received a masters in architecture and construction management. He then worked under the world-famous architect Daniel Libeskind, teamed up with his best friend from college Lance Cayko to start F9 Productions. He’s the cohost of Inside the Firm Podcast and the author of The Creativity Code. How did you get to work for Daniel Libeskind? Going into Denver, Alex lined up several different interviews when he had a trip planned to be in town. He was back and forth with Libeskind, and was offered an internship first. Though he turned that down, he eventually was offered a full-time position. Did you carry any thoughts over from Libeskind to F9 Productions? Daniel Libeskind always did crazy fun projects, so Alex and Lance have tried to keep doing one fun project a year. They built a tiny house that was sustainable and cooler looking than traditional tiny houses. The goal was to make a commitment to do something cool every year. What are your thoughts on interning for a star firm? All of us interns worked a ton and were paid an hourly rate. At F9 Productions, interns are paid. When you’re sacrificing your time and energy in a studio culture environment, you have a lot to learn by doing that if that’s what you want to do. For F9 Productions, interns are just colleagues and designers who they work side by side with. How did F9 Productions start? When Alex got laid off by Libeskind, he called Lance and they made some plans. Eventually, Lance got laid off as well and Alex decided to move to Colorado and figure out how to work together. They worked as a tw0-man shop for a few years until they had consistent business in 2013-2014. Now, they have about ten people and even that feels stretched at times. The structure is a two-headed beast. They each have people who mainly work for one of them or the other, and in times of big projects they can pull from the other’s side. Depending on the project, they tend to hand off projects that are a better fit for the other person’s skills. Where did the name for F9 Productions come from? In college, Alex and Lance didn’t know if they really liked each other. When they finally realized each other had some useful skills, they worked closely together. They were on their computers all the time, and F9 was the key to render. They would tease their classmates who wanted to go home at the end of the day by saying, “Go ahead! Just hit F9 and the computer will do the work while you get some rest.” It’s progressed that their different companies now are set up following suit: F10, F11, F12 and F14. Are you going to sell your development units individually? We couldn’t separate the parcels, so they’ll be condos with an HOA. We’ll sell 6 on one side as units, and there’s still talk of renting the two on the other side. Do you think every architect should do development? Alex thinks the majority of architects should do their own development within their skills. Most people don’t because of the money issue. If there was a course in college that taught how to get a bank loan and find money to put down, more people would do it. It’s not rocket science. Jump in and mitigate risk. Alex and Lance built the first tiny house using their construction experience. They structured their firm to save money throughout the year and then eventually deciding what they wanted to do with that money. Can you define architecture? Narrowly, it’s the design of buildings or built structures. However some people believe the line moves and architecture becomes everything. Alex wants to pull architecture back to the design of buildings. He believes you can apply architecture thought and design principles to many other things. How are you designing your business? How are you building your life? What was the deciding factor in designing and building your own development? It came down to the numbers: could they get the land for under 18% of the valuation. Why did you start the podcast and what keeps you going? Alex and Lance started a podcast previous to Inside the Firm Podcast where they kind of talked about nothing, but they wanted to do something where they shared actual useful information. Their goal was to be two principals talking about what’s really happening inside the firm. Tell us about why you wrote The Creativity Code. It goes back to giving and teaching. Alex and Lance were growing, trying to hire people and they found that despite their design skills, they didn’t have particular skills that they were needed. They went to the local design school and asked to teach. Though they were told no to the design side, they were invited to teach the engineers. At the end of their senior year, the engineering students are supposed to do a whole building. They’ve been making really efficient boxes, and they wanted to see more creativity. How do you teach engineers to be more creative? Give them the tools and see what they can come up with. They were taught sketching techniques, design principles, and Revit. It works amazingly. After teaching the class, Alex tailored it into a book. The goal is to give the tools that allow people to create. Who’s taller? Lance is slightly taller, but Alex says he works harder to be better. Tell us about the free bonuses! If you buy the book, you can choose from one of three options: Want to learn Revit? You get 10% off for your firm! Have a phone call with Alex to answer any questions! Want us to promote your firm? We’ll give you a shoutout on Inside the Firm Podcast! Choose your favorite online at EntreArchitect.com/F9!   Connect with Alex online at F9Productions.com or email him at akg@f9productions.com. Visit him online on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Should we do more Facebook live sessions? Visit EntreArchitect.com/Group and let us know what you think! Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes The EntreArchitect Mastermind The Creativity Code: The Power of Visual Thinking by Gore Alex and Cayko Lance   The post EA190: EntreArchitect Live with Alex Gore of F9 Productions [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

Building a Large Firm by Starting Small with Tabitha Ponte of Ponte Health Tabitha Ponte is a licensed architect and builder, a philanthropist, a mother and a wife who’s leading Ponte Health. She’s based in Orlando, Florida, specializing in single source delivery, resources management and best outcomes serving the healthcare sector exclusively. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Building a Large Firm by Starting Small with Tabitha Ponte of Ponte Health. Origin Story Tabitha was seven or eight years old when she told her mother how she felt about spacial structures. She felt like she saw the void, not the stuff. In the car in Venezuela, where she spent her childhood, Tabitha’s mom told her all about architecture and engineering. Her mind was made up: she was going to be an architect. Tabitha had family members who were in architecture, one of whom designed and built his own house. She spent significant amounts time in that house and vividly remembers the influence that the fact that he built it himself had on her. She was very involved in music as a child, but always knew that she wanted to attend architecture school. She went to architecture school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and worked all through college. Because of this, she actually finished her IDP hours before she graduated college. Tabitha worked for three different firms all though college, and was eligible for her licensure exams the year she graduated. She worked to learn the business of architecture and construction from the inside. When she graduated she was given the opportunity to step into a leading role as an architectural project manager. Everything fell apart when the market crashed. Firms disappeared overnight and work halted. All of that eventually lead her into Chicago. She had visited Chicago previously, and thought that one day she may work there. Because of the market crash, she didn’t pursue architecture as her graduate degree; Tabitha studied construction instead at Illinois Tech, receiving a management and engineering degree. Tell us about a pivotal change in your career. Tabitha has worked to establish a holistic self in this field who is capable of design, resources management, leading job site and more. She wanted to create a school geared toward that kind of development of sharing what she knew, but felt so much pressure when working on a project to create a school. She got incredibly sick, and was required to make some serious life changes. A little over a year ago, she suffered a stroke. That was the last straw in choosing to walk away from the stress that was making her physically ill and stop pushing against a system that was fighting her. Where did you go next? Tabitha dropped everything in Chicago and traveled to fifteen states. She climbed several mountains and found so much bliss there that she thought she might stay. The cold of Chicago followed her to Portland, and she was ready to head back to Florida and to her family. She dove into public works construction and asset management, and found that the government agencies loved her: she’s licensed and could cross over to each different side and play each part well. While Tabitha was pregnant, she made the intentional choice to work from home. Her new look on life allowed her the time to be home with her daughter, read for personal development, exercise, and eat well. How did the transition into your new business happen? Tabitha remembers thinking that she didn’t want to be limited to construction administration rather than being in the field. She wanted to give back, so it made sense to become Ponte Health: the mission is to help expand the health community. Next was the leaping point. It’s really scary to leap, but she knew she could do it. The next step was to find some accessible office space, so Tabitha found a coworking space in Medical City. Next, she persevered to set up meetings with hospital systems. Many people said no upfront, but eventually she got some yesses. Her goal was to be focused and work to serve the right people in the right markets instead of just getting anything to just try to get by. The decision was deliberate: she thought through her dreams of market growth and how to find the need to serve. How many people are working with you currently? Right now there’s three people, but it’s often project dependent. Tabitha’s in the revolving cycle of what it means to be “net 30”, where when you work for someone like a hospital, they’ll sit on the invoice until the 30th day. It’s a difficult cycle to break when trying to build working capital within the firm. How do you fund the firm? In Tabitha’s case, she bootstrapped it and hoped for the best. She also has investors. They have a holdings company above the building company where, in Florida, her friends and family have leeway to buy into the company. There are limitations as to how much money they can give you. Currently they have about 55 micro-investors. If you can get a loan or have enough saved up, you will hopefully get to the point where a client will minimally fund your work without needing to struggle. For Ponte, it took them about a year. The second you go outside those boundaries, the SEC gets involved, perhaps a lawyer is involved to set your shares. How did you choose to spend your money when you were starting out? Instead of saving a few hundred dollars on themselves, they chose to invest that money into highly targeted ads. Early on, Tabitha invested in a marketing campaign in the Orlando Medical News. They made the effort to put their money into targeted campaigns who have helped push their message out into the world of potential clients.  Architects are great at talking to one another, but they’re not always great at talking to clients or potential clients. If you’re starting a firm, you need to stop and look at your reach. Are you connecting with the right people? Instead of connecting with architects or architects who are working on hospitals, Tabitha reestablished her social media to connect with those she wanted to serve: executives in the design or departments of hospital systems. How do you find work/life balance? Tabitha is very deliberate about separating her work life. It’s about being focused. You have to be focused with the work at hand, whether it’s your job or family. Tabitha doesn’t allow them to mix; she’s focused on one or another at one time. That ability to be hyper-focused is what allows her to rest well. She still has stress in her life, but it’s different because it’s her own self-imposed stress, not something put on her by a company or a boss. As a business owner, her stresses have changed and her ability to find balance has grown. Tell us about your campaign for Puerto Rico's babies. Because Tabitha’s mission is to help expand the healing community, the issues affecting babies post storm are in direct alignment with that mission. The various issues are compounding in Puerto Rico right now, so Tabitha has worked to connect with a pediatric hospital who is taking in all the small babies and children in the vicinity. She’s working to assist the hospital to meet their needs where they’re at with supplies of food and equipment. Want to get involved? Connect online by clicking HERE. If you donate $10 or more, you’ll receive access to a hour and a half self defense training! What’s the future look like for Ponte Health? They’re working to serve as an integral turnkey company. Tabitha is always reaching toward the goal of creating a true comprehensive health system along the lines of their own real estate development and more. She sees the company deeply involved in research, scientific-, building-, and technology-wise. What is the one thing that small firm architects can do today to build a better business tomorrow? “The two things I live by will change the way you see yourself. Read a lot about business, marketing, strategy, competitive advantage, leadership, and self reflection – not architecture. Talk to potential clients. Walk in the door, shake someone’s hand, and talk to them. Listen to what they have to say. You’ll be surprised where there’s space for you to serve them.”  – Tabitha Ponte, Ponte Health Connect with Tabitha online at pontehealth.com. Visit her online on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss and Arnold Schwarzenegger Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne Fascinate, Revised and Updated: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist by Sally Hogshead Donate to Ponte Health’s efforts to help Puerto Rico by clicking HERE    The post EA189: Building a Large Firm by Starting Small with Tabitha Ponte of Ponte Health [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

Using Emotions to Successfully Attract the Clients You Want Our prospective clients learn with their heads, but they decide with their hearts. After years of research, often, when a client chooses to work with an architect it simply comes down to their feelings. They choose their team by deciding who they like the most. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Using Emotions to Successfully Attract the Clients You Want. Do you ever make decisions based on emotion? We don’t always buy based on price or features, more often we buy because something makes us feel a certain way. When we’re developing a marketing strategy for our firms, we should consider the part that emotions play in the decisions that our clients make. Professor Antiono Damasio at University of Southern California argues that, emotion is a necessary ingredient to almost all decisions. When we are confronted with a decision, emotions from previous, related experiences affix values to the options we are considering. These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. Our feelings help us make our decisions. That’s why storytelling is so powerful; they trigger emotions and feelings. In EA140, architect storyteller Jeff Echols shared How To Use Your Story to Find the Work You Want. How can we craft our branding to be based on emotion? How do we use emotion to effectively find the clients we want? Here are 4 Fundamentals about Emotions to use in Marketing: Knowing Who We Serve Matters Without knowing who we serve, how can we have any idea how to emotionally connect with those people? Who are you serving? Who do you want to serve? Where do these people work and play? What makes them happy? What are they trying to achieve in their search for an architect? Sensorial Experiences Matter What does an architect do? When answering this question, think beyond the traditional descriptions. How can we develop strategies and services that are experienced with every sense? Do we have strategies around sight, sounds, touch, and more? Think along the lines of experiencing design through virtual reality or presenting hand-sketched schematic designs with freshly baked cookies. Do you think your client will talk to their friends about that type of meeting? Using an Imaginative Approach Matter Immaginative systems and strategies make the process more real for our clients. It causes them to pause and think about what’s different than they expected it to be. How can we create a different and imaginative website to trigger emotions? What experiences can we give that feel different? What can spice up our proposals to give pause? How can clients’ first point of contact feel different than another firm? The Words We Use Matter The words we choose have the opportunity to make a client feel one way or the other. In residential architecture, are we designing a house or creating a home? A house has a function, but a home is filled with feelings, love, and memory. Using intentionality with the words we use goes a long way. To learn more about emotional marketing, check out these books: Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping–Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond by Paco Underhill Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People by Marc Gobe I want to know your favorite book on marketing! Share on the EntreArchitect Facebook group today. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy Enrollment for the EntreArchitect Academy closes TODAY Friday, October 6, 2017 at 12 PM EST! To learn more and sign up NOW, visit EntreArchitect Academy! Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Dmitry Guzhanin The post EA188: Using Emotions to Successfully Attract the Clients You Want [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

60 Minute Business Plan for Small Firm Architects Did anyone tell you you needed to know how to run a business when you became an architect? Whether clients come knocking or not, it’s not so easy to keep them knocking. The solution is to write a business plan. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, 60 Minute Business Plan for Small Firm Architects. Maybe you’ve heard the words “business plan” and you feel yourself shutting down. Before you do that, let me share my vision. It came from years and years spent putting together my own various business plans. Finally, I put together a stripped down, one page version that I was able to put on paper quickly and develop as I went along. “The greatest value in creating a business plan is not the final document.  It’s the communication, the prioritization, the focus, the clarity, and learning that makes the process worthwhile.”  – Jim Horan Where are you now? Where do you want to be in the future? 5 Step Process for a Simple Business Plan for Small Firm Architects   Create a vision statement. Get a single piece of paper and write a single paragraph about your vision. What will your business look like? Where do you want to be? Do you want a high design firm? How much money are you making in your vision? What’s the big picture Consolidate that paragraph into a vision statement that embodies the essence of your vision. Describe your mission. Why did you become an architect? Why did you launch this firm? What propels you toward your vision? Develop simple strategies. Break it down into simple steps of how you’re going to reach your vision and mission. Create 5 steps and work your way backward from your end goal. What do you need to do to reach your goals? Make specific goals. Specify benchmarks that will lead you to execute your strategies. Be specific and give yourself a deadline for each. Commit to an action plan. What tasks will you complete to accomplish your goals? Who will work toward each goal? What does the time line look like? Find the steps required to reach your goals. Everything you need will go into this document. Once you’ve finalized your business plan, revisit it often. Revisit and revise your business plan 2-4 times a year to ensure that each piece is still relevant. This is an evolving document, and that’s okay! These periodic revisiting of your big ideas keeps you focused and wanting to push your firm further. What’s your vision for your architecture firm? Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy The One Page Business Plan for the Creative Entrepreneur by Jim Horan Enrollment for the EntreArchitect Academy closes Friday, October 6, 2017! To learn more and sign up NOW, visit EntreArchitect Academy! Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Kucher Serhii (edited) The post EA187: 60 Minute Business Plan for Small Firm Architects [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

Brandon Hubbard, The Architect’s Guide This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, The Architect’s Guide with Brandon Hubbard. Background Brandon is a licensed architect based in  San Francisco, California and the founder of TheArchitectsGuide.com, dedicated to helping architects with their job application and career goals.  He practiced architecture with Foster + Partners in London where he worked on several high profile design projects, including Heathrow Terminal 3, the Bloomberg Headquarters and the Samba Bank Tower. Currently he's a senior architect in Heller Manus Architects in San Francisco working on large scale commercial and residential projects. You may have seen him online posting about architecture careers on TheArchitectsGuide.com as well as a content provider at Arch Daily. Origin Story Brandon was born and raised in New Zealand until he was ten, when he moved to Montana. There he completed his schooling, including a masters in architecture from MSU Bozeman. During his last few years and after graduation he worked for a small firm in Bozeman.  The small, five-person firm landed a $100 million residential project. In a short amount of time, Brandon gained a lot of experience. Following graduation, he enjoyed working on that large-scale project. Looking around Bozeman, he didn't see a lot of similar work readily available. He decided to look abroad, applying to several firms in London. He joined Foster and Partners and was there for 7 years. During his time there, he worked on a client base in Madrid, Spain and rode out the recession in 2008. He moved to San Francisco in 2014 to work with Heller Manas. When he arrived, he had to complete a supplemental exam and then used his free time to start TheArchitectsGuide.com. What pulled you to London? Brandon had wanted to relocate to China, but he realized he had to be vaccinated for a six-month waiting period for a few different things. During the wait time, he looked at other places abroad and landed on London. After a few offers and a week-long visit, he ended up moving there. What brought you back to the US? Brandon felt like he reached a point where he had to decide on a country. He had family in the US and friends in London, and felt like he was always flying back and forth. Then, the AREs weren’t available in London, so he was constantly flying to and from. Based on the scale of his projects, he was between San Francisco and New York. Brandon wanted a change and to have the option of being more in the outdoors. What lessons would you want to share from that experience? One article Brandon wrote details why he thinks you maybe shouldn’t work abroad in architecture, Is Working Abroad Bad For Your Architecture Career?. There are pros and cons to everything. Depending on your goals, it could be great. If your goal is to meet a diverse group of people and work on interesting projects, moving abroad and outside of your own comfort zone may be a good idea. One downside may be the disconnect between the US based regulations and local codes versus those in Europe. What inspired you to help other architects with their job search process? Part of it came from the number of emails he received of people wanting his advice on how to get a job at an iconic firm. When he looked over their resumes and noticed common problems. He had a lot of conversations about what he did to get noticed and hired. Once he gave the same advice several times, he decided to take the knowledge he’d accumulated and turn it into TheArchitectsGuide.com. How did you get a job with only a 2-page portfolio? Brandon’s application portfolio had two pages, one for academic work and one for professional work. A lot of applications make the mistake of sharing too much text and not describing what you actually did on the project. Your potential employer doesn’t want to know what’s great about the project, they want to know your skills and how they played into your role on the project. People don’t have a lot of time to read through tons of lengthly applications. If your application is short, it’s kind of like a first date: you tell them a little bit about yourself instead of your entire life story. Build a little interest and allow them to invite you for an interview. The other component is to know who you’re sending your application to: are you sending it to an HR department or an architect directly? What would you recommend for architects who are looking to make a job move later in their careers? Decide where you want to go and how you can pull from your existing experience and apply that to where you want to go. If you’ve been doing small residential housing but now you want to work on airports, you have to translate the work that applies: you’ve been managing the project, working directly with the client, etc. Put yourself in the role of the hiring manager and find out what they’re looking for in the position that you want to fill.  What would you say to someone who’s tired of where they are and wants to move somewhere else? Sometimes employers can be intimidated by someone who’s been running a sole proprietorship for twenty years. Be clear in your cover letter and share why you’re wanting to make this transition. How important is it to build a relationship with potential employers online? Connecting on social media can be a really important component. It’s important not to bombard a firm with questions and retweets, but connecting online is a good way to let someone know you’re out there. If you go into it wanting a connection instead of having an agenda, you can begin to create a network that could open doors that you didn’t know existed. How can you get your resume noticed? If you’re creating a generic application and sending it out to a hundred firms, you’re not likely to get noticed. Instead, look at a firm’s work and target your experience and skills to that particular firm. If you’re willing to look at a firm that you want to and build a targeted application, you’re much more likely to succeed. Focus on what’s going to get the best results: creating a targeted application, building a concise portfolio, and networking. Spend your time on things that matter. What can people find on TheArchitectsGuide.com? There’s a job resources page with tons of article on the full range of topics. From start to end, how can you get what you want in an architecture position? There’s a coaching package where Brandon works with people one on one throughout the application process. He also has guide packages on applications, interviews and resumes, as well as a new compilation of job offers that goes out in a weekly email. What is the one thing that small firm architects can do today to build a better business tomorrow? “Really focus on what gets the best return on your investment of time and money. Be conscious of how you’re spending your time and treat it as a valuable resource.”  – Brandon Hubbard  Connect with Brandon online at TheArchitectsGuide.com or follow him on Facebook. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin     The post EA186: Brandon Hubbard, The Architect’s Guide [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm Do you want more control? More money? More happy clients? More architecture with better design? Is design/build the answer to our professions problems? Will building your own projects be the solution to success for your small firm? What does it take to run a successful design build firm? This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark speaks with Jim Zack and Declan Keefe about The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm. About Jim and Declan Jim Zack is based in San Francisco, California as the co-founder and partner at his design build firm, Zack de Vito: Design + Build. He visited EntreArchitect Podcast on EA102: Risks and Rewards with Architect Developer Jim Zack. He’s a current facilitator at EntreArchitect Academy’s Design/Build Mastermind Group. Declan Keefe is a founder and owner at Placetailor and a three-time guest at EntreArchitect Podcast: EA130: How to Build a Successful Architecture Firm That Works with Architect Declan Keefe, EA141: How to Build a Brand that Resonates with Your Most Valuable Clients, EA134: How to Get Started as an Architect Developer. How are your design/build firms structured? Jim has been involved in building things for a long time and he’s been in business for 25 years. He began working construction when he was 15 and was trained in carpentry long before he was an architect. Zack de Vito is organized as two different companies: one a construction company and one architecture firm. They’ve found that a lot of liability and contractual details organize themselves well in those two separate businesses. Conceptually, they try to make it feel like one company. Architects come to the office and sit and draw, and construction workers go to the site and build. As hard as they try to integrate the two day in and day out, it may not always be as seamless of a process. Zack de Vito has a project manager, estimator, a partner at the construction company, 6-10 carpenters, and 5-8 people in the office ranging from an interior designer to Jim’s wife, who performs office management and marketing for the firm. Placetailor is set up similarly although technically their architecture and construction companies are formally one business, where their development entity is a separate business. As far as scale, Placetailor has almost the same team setup as Zack de Vito. Their business came from a true design/build model where they weren’t doing any design for any other firms, and all their projects were able to be completed internally. In the last few years, they’ve switched to provide architecture for other builders as well. Even though they’re one business, they functionally work as architecture, construction and real estate development. Development is separated because it has a much higher level of risk involved. Was there a point where you went from  a traditional architecture firm to an architecture design/build firm? For Jim, it’s been an evolution. He’s entrepreneurial by spirit, and did a design/build project with his dad when he was 23 years old to design and build two house and each have one. Eventually he went to architecture school, bought a house and remodeled it. When he opened an office and started making things, his knowledge led him here. He wanted to be a cool designing architect who wanted to get his hands dirty. A lot of their work has been self-motivated projects where they design and build buildings that they owned. The more they did it, the more they realized they needed to start doing that for their clients as well. Declan’s business was started as a design/build firm. They saw a split between architects and builders in the industry that was leading to lower quality buildings and design, and they decided to do something about it. As they began to create higher quality buildings, they quickly got into high performance, energy efficient models, which launched them into the energy efficient design side that they’re working in now. The development side came from their desire to create consistent work; they decided to take the risk and create their own projects. They wanted to create a demonstration to other developers: if they could prove the business model to other developers, they would hire Placetailor to do the design/build work they wanted to be doing. Now they’re even doing development consulting where they share how they do things and find success doing it. Declan, how does your employee-owned business work? When someone becomes an owner, they are an equal part owner: they have an equal equity stake and a equal vote. Anyone who comes into Placetailor who sticks around for three years and meets a certain line of criterion, then they can become an owner too. Right now, there’s five owners and a sixth coming in at the new year. There are five more people in the company who, if they’re around in a few years, may also have an opportunity to become an owner. The ownership decisions are defined really clearly, and everyone has to be on board for a decision to move forward. As an ownership, they’ve decided what percentage of profits are evenly distributed among the owners. What advice would you give to someone looking into design/build? It depends on the market and the person. Jim is a “maker”, and the motivation to build is what got him to this place. You have to make a decision on the front end: are you a builder or a manager contractor? There are a lot of design companies who want to start managing constructing but are effectively managing owner builder projects. They’re set up so the client takes all the risk and they just kind of assist through the process. If you’re a young architect doing it on your own, and you’re doing it to have control, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons already. Declan believes you need to learn how to communicate, facilitate and manage. Do it because it’s the business model you believe in and it’s the way in which you want to work. If you want to be able to actually manage things, you need to do the work to gain the knowledge of what’s hard, what things cost, why to make one decision over another. If it’s possible and you’re willing, find someone who’s willing to take you under your wing and learn the skills you need to know. First, figure out why you’re doing this. If you’re looking for control over the project, you may be looking for more of an architect as developer role. What are some risks of being a design/build architect? Figuring out how to profit from construction is a huge challenge. There can be a naive attitude that the contractor figures out the price, puts a markup at the bottom and walks out with a bonus at the end. It’s taken them a lot of time to work out how to best manage their finances. The “huge markup” turns into nothing if you don’t manage it well. To build a building verses design it, there’s a lot more people involved. When you deal with more people, you have the risk of dealing with all the things that could happen with all the people that are involved. These things can happen in any business, but the more people the greater the risk. It makes things difficult on the hiring side; how do you know if someone is good at their skill until you get them in the field with your team? Every little decision affects your bottom line.  A big part of being a design/builder is trusting that you have the right people in place who can do their jobs. If you can’t let go, you won’t be able to do the job with all the moving pieces that go into it. The skillset of an architect is set up to think creatively about the business side, but often we see people falling into the same, easy business model. You can do your business differently if you want. What would you say is the best part of being a design/build architect? Jim enjoys going by the job site, seeing the development, the framing, the foundation, the finishing, and the final product. He loves being involved in the day to day construction. Declan loves having the team, those who are doing the job in the field, in the office, and on the investment end. There’s a wide range of amazing people they get to put together to make amazing things for their clients. Connect with Declan Keefe online at Placetailor.com and on Twitter @placetailor & Instagram. Connect with Jim Zack online at ZackdeVito.com or on Facebook. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy   Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Zolnierek The post EA185: The Passion, The Process and Problems of Running a Design/Build Architecture Firm [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

How to Establish a Lasting New Habit Do you have a goal you want to accomplish? A new strategy or business process? A life change you want to make in your personal life? Are you keeping that goal locked away in the back of your mind instead of sharing it with others? Let’s accomplish our goals together! This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, How to Establish a Lasting New Habit. Maybe you’re listening to this podcast in a transitional season: from one season to another, out of a vacation and back into your regular routines, back to school, or otherwise. Recently, Mark began a project to figure out how to live a healthier lifestyle and wrote about it in a blog post: 10 Simple Steps to Develop a Lasting New Habit. It’s not hard to establish bad habits. Mark could roll out of bed and into his comfy computer chair, where he could stay the whole day. Instead, he wanted to create a new, healthy lifestyle. As the summer got started, Mark decided to make some new commitments. Over the last 10 weeks, he has worked through a process to create a healthier lifestyle. 10 Simple Steps to Develop a Lasting New Habit Step 1: Understand Your Why In the past, Mark has tried to establish healthy habits like meditation and running with little success. So why now? Mark is ready to create a healthy lifestyle, a mindset shift, and a way to integrate this lifestyle into his identity.   Step 2: Keep It Simple Your new habit should be something that is hard to fail. We have so much going on, and if things are too complicated, you’re more likely to resist the change. For Mark’s 10X Project, he created a simple goal: each day do 10 minutes of stretching, 10 pushups, 10 crunches, walk for 10 minutes, run for 10 minutes, and meditate for 10 minutes.     Step 3: Give your Project a Name For Mark, the 10X in the name 10X Project is not only a reference to the quantities of 10 used through the exercises, but is also a reference to the improvement I may experience when I accomplish my goal. Can I improve my health by 10X with a lasting new habit? Will this new habit lead to other habits that may improve other parts of my life?   Step 4: Set a Goal In the past, Mark has often created ambiguous goals. This time, his goal was clear: each day do 10 minutes of stretching, 10 pushups, 10 crunches, walk for 10 minutes, run for 10 minutes, and meditate for 10 minutes. If he could establish that within 10 weeks, then hopefully the habit will lead to a healthier lifestyle down the road.   Step 5: Develop a Plan What are you going to do? How and when are you doing to do it? Create some structure. Determine what you’ll do if you miss a day. Step 6: Track Your Progress   In a journal, Mark tracked his progress through the days and weeks to reach his goal. You could also track using your personal calendar or an app that works well for you! Step 7: Find Some Accountability Usually we don’t like being held accountable, but it’s clear that accountability works. We’re more likely to achieve our goals by sharing our plans. Mark posted his 10X Project for all of his readers and continued to post on social media on occasion.   Step 8: Take Advantage of Life's Cycles When Mark started the 10X Project, he was in a transitional time with a different schedule and timing. Because of his family commitments, he had to be up early in the morning anyway. Why not use that time to start cementing a new habit?   Step 9: Reward Yourself After Mark completed his daily tasks to reach his goal, he’d grab breakfast and watch the sunrise over the Hudson River. It was incredible motivation for him to continue on his journey.   Step 10: Celebrate Did you reach your goal? Time to celebrate! This podcast is Mark’s celebration of his 10X Project. He’s made it through all 10 weeks, five days a week. The best part about the consistency is the motivation to continue. Mark has established a new habit, and he’s ready to push forward to continue creating a healthy lifestyle. Question: Did establish a new habit? Do you want to? Visit the The EntreArchitect Community Facebook Group and share your plan!   Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy     The post EA184: How to Establish a Lasting New Habit [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

How to Get Started as an Architect Developer This week, enjoy the Best of EntreArchitect Podcast as Mark R. LePage invites Declan Keefe of Placetailor back to share his knowledge about How to Get Started as an Architect Developer. For full show notes and a list of references from the original podcast, visit EntreArchitect.com/EA134. Connect with Declan Keefe online at Placetailor.com and on Twitter @placetailor & Instagram. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) CORE by BQE Software is designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial of CORE at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. The post How to Get Started as an Architect Developer (Best of EntreArchitect Podcast) appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

5 Steps to Success and Relevance in Architecture with Carol Kurth, FAIA Carol is the owner of Carol Kurth Architecture + Interiors in Bedford, New York. She specializes in architecture and interiors, and does some beautiful work. She’s a popular keynote speaker who’s sought after for her insights on architecture, design, sustainability and design trends. She’s won multiple awards and has been featured in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. She’s been featured on NBC News and MTV Cribs. She’s a long time friend of Mark’s and he’s learned so much from her. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, 5 Steps to Success and Relevance in Architecture with Carol Kurth, FAIA. Carol’s Origin Story Carol grew up in Washington Heights in the northern tip of Manhattan. Looking across the Hudson River, she could see the New Jersey cliffs in the distance. She was really interested in crafts growing up, particularly making dolls and doll houses. When she was 13, she took a class at The Cloisters on doll-making and the New York Times featured her. She ended up going to The Bronx High School of Science and loved her technical drawing and drafting class. A distant relative, Irwin Chanin, who was very philanthropic and had lots of buildings named after him. He also designed the Chanin Building. Carol was very close to his wife growing up, and her aunt recognized Carol’s passion for dolls and dollhouses and encouraged her. She attended City College’s School of Architecture and loved being at an architecture school in the middle of the city where your professors were practicing architects whose work in the city you could actually see. How did you start practicing architecture? Carol worked throughout school for professors or doing part-time jobs. She worked in Seattle for a while and then got a job at the end of her fourth year where she ended up becoming a partner, marrying her former husband, and building a practice. In 1995 she went off on her own and opened her firm in Bedford. She’s been specializing in residential and commercial architecture. Many are on complicated sites, and Carol has always been undaunted by cliffs. 5 Steps to Success and Relevance 1: Choose and develop a target market In the beginning, Carol was in a firm where they did a little bit of everything and she didn’t feel the passion there. For her, the passion always came from the site, the building, and the client’s vision. There’s no two sets of clients, budgets, or sites that are alike, and the variety is what she thrives on. She loves the wholistic vision of working with a client to find a site all the way down to deciding on the table settings. 2: Schedule time for marketing and public relations Architects were pretty much advised to market and advertise until 1978, and architects didn’t really get the message until the mid 1980s. There was a long lag time between the logistics of allowing marketing happened and when architects actually went to do it. Carol felt she was on the early end and was always fascinated with the media. What is the relevance of architecture and design to clients? How do we keep ourselves fresh and at the forefront? Big firms have big marketing and PR divisions in their firms, perhaps 3-5 people who are dealing with their marketing. That means small firms need to know that too. Carol would spend the first hour of her day returning calls to new clients or doing something public relations and marketing wise like writing a paragraph, scheduling a photoshoot, or reaching out to a magazine. With social media these days, most people are already marketing. If you hone in on that and take it to the next level, even just once a week, that will increase your marketing presence. One small firm issues is for single practitioners who do everything on their own. It’s very daunting. 3: Build a team and develop a strong culture Can you be your most effective and best self as an architect and professional as a sole proprietor? Maybe the model needs to be rethought to three people. Can you figure out how to delegate tasks? The time you spend teaching someone to do a task is an investment someone else moving the ball forward on that task. The next time, you’ll have that time available because someone else has taken that task on. What tasks do you not like or not excel at that you can hand off to someone else? 4: Build Your Network Get out there and interact with others. You have to put yourself out there. Sit down with real estate brokers and show them examples of your work to get your name out into your community. 5: Keep your network warm Once you’ve made initial connections, keep up with people. Carol is a big advocate of the hand-written thank you note. If she sees an article about a client in the newspaper, she clips it, writes a quick note and tosses it in the mail. After that, she might have an opportunity to catch up that leads to another opportunity. The little effort to touch base makes all the difference. How important do you you think submitting for awards is? Carol loves when her great project are recognized for the hard work that’s been done. Receiving awards adds value to the team and to the clients. Being an award-winning female architect makes a difference in the minds of many and increases moral. We want the architecture to resonate with our clients and for the team to feel proud of the work they’ve done. Do you have many systems in place? Whether they’re official or not, Carol has lists for marketing, projects and more. Most are handwritten since that works best for her. Her team has a calendar to map certain awards and has build the submission deadlines and processes into their overall process. What is the one thing that small firm architects can do today to build a better business tomorrow? “Take care of yourself, if you stay up all night you’re no use to anyone. Take steps to create work/life balance.” – Carol Kurth Connect with Carol online at  Carol Kurth Architecture + Interiors, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) Core by BQE Software is a brand new software designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy Photos of the Palisades Mohonk Mountain House     The post EA183: 5 Steps to Success and Relevance in Architecture with Carol Kurth, FAIA [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Building an Online Media Empire with Devon Tilly Devon is the Denver-based owner of Mountain View Window and Door, a nationally-recognized company providing windows and doors for high-end residential projects. He’s the creator and host of the Art of Construction Podcast and brand, cohosted by Kevin Keefe. There they talk about all things business, success, and building sustainable, thriving business. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Building an Online Media Empire with Devon Tilly of The Art of Construction Podcast. Devon’s Origin Story Devon was the oldest of five children whose father began as a contractor and worked himself up to district manager. Every time him and his large family moved, they would buy a house and fix it up. Devon was always interested in the art of construction and the marketing of construction. He is passionately interested in construction and has lived that life long enough to speak the language. Sometimes he felt the industry was too corporate (“what’s your lowest price”) or too construction (“we’ve always done it this way”). Devon moved to Colorado and earned his marketing degree, followed by a move into the construction world. He found he didn’t fit the corporate box very well as an expressive entrepreneur at heart. Thirteen years ago, he went to work for one of his customers. He loved the complication of construction that can either make or break the project. That passion drew him to focus on windows and doors. After meeting his wife, he bought a company out and started Mountain View Window and Door. Now, they have two locations in Colorado, twenty-eight employees, and are about to close on an expansion of Art of Construction. After being interviewed for The Chaise Lounge: Interior Design Podcast, Devon decided to follow a dream and begin a podcast of his own. How did you grow Mountain View Window and Door so quickly? The first step was to have a really good plan. Next, he assembled a support team of a board of directors and an advisory counsel. Devon’s team was led by his father in law, Greg, who copyrighted a presentation “The Full Life Perspective“. From that, he was able to develop his full life perspective. With a good plan, Devon knew he needed to take a risk to succeed. Him and Greg decided to buy a business. Greg helped him put his why together: to be the best supplier for windows, doors and hardware to contractors, architects and project designers in Colorado. As Devon put his plan together, he followed everything laid out in The E-Myth Revisited. He looked at different platforms to see what they did well and what they could improve on. He got his masters and figured out that he was a visionary leader. That was the key, to find out who he was and accelerate that.  Though most window and door companies wouldn’t hire a full-time, in-house marketing position, they did so that they could make changes and be active on the web. They hired an IT guy to create software and systems to scale in the future. What mistakes did you make along the way? Devon learned to hire slow and fire fast. At the beginning, he first hired really fast and filled the office up. None of the hires were bad people, but they didn’t fit the culture correctly. Where did the Art of Construction start and where is it going? The podcast began to grow the business, and Devon found that it really grew him. His goal was to learn and be able to teach the art of construction. The podcast has grown his business because he knows who he is, what the culture is, and where they’re going. One video they just released was about a house that he and his wife lived in, remodeled, and now rent out. Devon always wanted to do a show home on it, and, when it was all said and done, he loved getting to do it the way he wanted to showcase his project. From there, he started a monthly leads group where they discovered that everyone wants to do this, but small firms don’t have enough time and money. Devon decided to be the central point of creating a design center and project collaboration. Next week, they close on the property. They’re looking for Grand Junction collaborators in two ways: to be a lessee of some space to collaborate with others or to utilize a monthly membership in a coworking space. Do you have a consulting program? The Art of Construction has a master business acceleration program. It consists of three sessions including LinkedIn profile tips, presentation skills, and goal setting followed by access to a monthly group. What is the one thing that small firm architects can do today to build a better business tomorrow? “Set up a plan. If you’re running the show, read The E-Myth Revisited and Versitale Selling or get Audible to listen to the books. Always be learning.” – Devon Tilly   Want to learn more about the design center?  Connect with Devon online at TheArtOfConstruction.net and MtnView.us. Also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn! Visit our Platform Sponsors Freshbooks is the easy way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access your free 30 day trial at EntreArchitect.com/FreshBooks. (Enter EntreArchitect) CORE by BQE Software is designed specifically for architect’s project management! Get a free 15-day trial of CORE at EntreArchitect.com/BQE. ARCAT has huge libraries of free content, Specs, CAD, BIM and more. No registration required. Want to collaborate with colleagues in real time? Visit EntreArchitect.com/ARCAT and click Charrette for more information. Referenced in this Episode Leave a Rating and Review at iTunes EntreArchitect Academy Small Group Mastermind is for architects in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa facilitated by Katie Crepeau. Enrollment is limited to the first 10 members, so join today! The Chaise Lounge: Interior Design Podcast Art of Construction YouTube Channel Mountain View Window and Door YouTube Channel How The E-Myth Revisited Book Helped My Architecture Firm Succeed (podcast) The post EA182: Building an Online Media Empire with Devon Tilly of The Art of Construction Podcast [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up