EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage

Risks & Rewards as an Architect Developer For the month of August at EntreArchitect Podcast, we’re focusing on Personal Development and we encourage you to dedicate some time to building a better you. This week, enjoy the Best of EntreArchitect Podcast as Mark R. LePage speaks with Jim Zack of San Fransisco-based Zack de Vito Architecture about the Risks and Rewards as an Architect Developer. For full show notes and a list of references from the original podcast, visit EntreArchitect.com/EA102. Connect with Jim online at ZackdeVito.com or find him on LinkedIn. Enrollment for the EntreArchitect Academy opens in September! To learn more and sign up for our early-bird mailing list, visit EntreArchitect Academy today! Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post Risks & Rewards as an Architect Developer (Best of EntreArchitect Podcast) appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Passive Income for Architects For the month of August at EntreArchitect Podcast, we’re focusing on Personal Development and we encourage you to dedicate some time to building a better you. This week, enjoy the Best of EntreArchitect Podcast as Mark R. LePage speaks with Eric Reinholdt of 30X40 Design Workshop about Passive Income for Architects. For full show notes and a list of references from the original podcast, visit EntreArchitect.com/EA089. Connect with Eric online at ThirtybyForty.com, or find him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Enrollment for the EntreArchitect Academy opens in September! To learn more and sign up for our early-bird mailing list, visit EntreArchitect Academy today! Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post Passive Income for Architects (Best of EntreArchitect Podcast) appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up

  Branding for Architects For the month of August at EntreArchitect Podcast, we’re focusing on Personal Development and we encourage you to dedicate some time to building a better you. This week, enjoy the Best of EntreArchitect Podcast as Mark R. LePage speaks with Emily Hall about the importance of Branding for Architects. For full show notes and a list of references from the podcast, visit EntreArchitect.com/EA065. Find Emily online at UnionStudioArch.com, and connect on Twitter @unionstudioarch, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Enrollment for the EntreArchitect Academy opens in September! To learn more and sign up for our early-bird mailing list, visit EntreArchitect Academy Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post Branding for Architects (Best of EntreArchitect Podcast) appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, we invited Declan Keefe of Placetailor back to share his knowledge about How to Get Started as an Architect Developer. To hear Declan’s origin story about how he was hired by a firm as a student and ended up owning it less than three years later, check out EntreArchitect Podcast Episode 130. Placetailor is an architecture firm that provides architecture services, construction services, and real estate development. They look at architecture as the genesis of ideas, and wanted to figure out how they were going to take control over the revenue and profit side of the business. After taking over a company that was in quite a bit of debt, the team decided they needed a “silver bullet” to pull them out: real estate development. They saw a conjuncture between architecture and real estate development in that they’re including an important piece in the middle of the relationship – the builder – where most of the revenue exists. Depending on how you set up the structure of your business, we know for sure that profits feed through the construction arm. The Architect as Developer model would function as a developer who expenses architecture as an overhead cost and relies on the profits from development to pay itself back on the architecture side. The major difference is that you can’t pay the entire cost of construction on the profits on development (Architect as Developer), whereas you can potentially pay the entire cost of the architecture fees on the profits from development (Architect as Builder-Developer). Placetailor has a design-build business and then they have a development, LLC for each project, for a few reasons. First is liability: if one of the projects fail, the entire business doesn’t have to go under. Also, they’re an employee-owned cooperative. Different members of the cooperative can be on different projects, as well as leave an opening to bring in people who aren’t within the coop to be partial owners in the project if needed. How to Get Started as an Architect Developer Step 1: Find an Opportunity Declan and his partner, Evan, walk around a neighborhood to see the land that’s available and what’s going on in the area to see if there’s an opportunity, usually for residential condo-based development. Then there’s a little research into the properties, the leans, who owns it, and any complexities they may or may not want to deal with. Step 2: Is it a good decision as a financial model?  Placetailor has created a lot of spreadsheet tools to do both quick and detailed analyses. If the number at the end looks like it could be a decent project, they decide to go after it. Step 3: Put an Offer In Based on the analysis, they know how high they can go and where to start with an offer. Don’t get attached emotionally and be prepared to walk away if it doesn’t work out. Step 4: Financing If/when the offer is accepted, they have to figure out the financials behind it. There’s a few approaches: they’ve used a crowd-funding approach and they worked to pitch their brand with confidence to people who they knew cared about it. They said, “We’re doing something new, we want to push the boundaries of high-performance building and we want to test it in the real estate development world.” Step 5: Establish Contacts Keep track of people who are interested in what you’re doing and may want to get involved. When you meet people at conferences or have people reach out, keep in touch with them to let them know next phases of your company. Step 6: Be Prepared to Move Fast Things move quickly. It’s potential that your investors may not have done this often, and you need to ask if it’s realistic for them to receive a proposal and get the money moving in the next 48 hours to two weeks. If so, great. If not, make a note of their time frame…maybe they’ll be helpful at the closing. Step 7: Get the Bank Involved What you need and what your terms are is going to look different with each bank. Figure out your equity from the value of the land (paid for outright from investors) + the value of the time we put into the project + the value of the design. From there, the bank brings a loan-to-value based on the risk factor from looking at the numbers. Step 8: Guarantors  If you’re like many startup architects, you’ve got nothing in the bank and don’t own your own house or car…you live that lifestyle. Now you’re looking for another partner who will sign onto your project for some return on something to take on the risk and help back you up on this project. Step 9: Profit Profit may not be the #1 goal in some of our projects from the development side. We get to decide which entities does it make sense for us to bring in profit on this project, and this shifts from project to project. Step 10: Complete the Project Now you do what you do as an architect! Follow the construction schedule, get the releases that are hopefully ahead of schedule, and the money is flowing through your development entity to pay the contractor who bills the project until it’s done. Step 10: List It for Sale Put it on MLS, show it, and sell it to whoever gives the right terms. Uniquely, some Placetailor developments are pre-sold before they can even be put on the market. When people show up to buy something you’ve developed, they’re coming to buy a brand and a story that you’re creating. What’s the one thing that small firm architects can do today to build a better business for tomorrow? “Stop doing whatever you’re doing right now and take the time to think about your long-term plan. Don’t let yourself be distracted by anything else, this is your time to really think about tit. Don’t just do the budget based, “I want to make $500 million next year”, think about what you want out of your firm based on the day-to-day. What is the work you want to be doing? I think that’s really important across the board, but definitely as it relates to Architect-as-Developer. This isn’t the work for everyone. It’s scary, it’s risky, it could put you in a really bad position and you need to understand the risks if you’re going to go ahead with that. It really is the case that it’s really more enjoyable to just keep doing architecture. Sitting back and understanding that is really important, because the dollar at the end of the day isn’t the only story and it can be easy to get caught up in that.” – Declan Keefe, Architect, Builder, Developer Connect with Declan Keefe online at Placetailor.com and on Twitter @placetailor & Instagram. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post EA134: How to Get Started as an Architect Developer [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Do you have an idea for a new product, service or business? Today, with all the tools available and so many of them free, you no longer have an excuse. If it’s something you really want and the only thing standing in your way is fear, just try! Mark R. LePage is talking with someone who’s been doing just that ever since he discovered a need in grad school and couldn’t find the solution, so he decided to create the solution himself. Learn how he started his many companies, how he’s managing each project, and the tools he uses to communicate with his virtual teams. This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark R. LePage is joined by Robert Yuen, co-founder of SectionCut.com  and Monograph.io, as he shares his thoughts on The Power of Trying.  Born and raised in Chicago, Robert was the son of Chinese immigrants who played with legos, imagined building and creating things. He took drafting and architectural classes in high school and competed city-wide in various contests. He had a great mentor teacher who helped steer him in the path of architecture to use his passion and abilities in design. He went to the University of Illinois Chicago, where he won a traveling fellowship and spent a year backpacking around 20+ countries. Upon his return, he worked small, high-end residential before he decided to attend grad school at the University of Michigan. With a heavy focus on technology, Robert started to figure out exactly what focus he wanted to have. Most recently he’s gone full time with his many projects as an entrepreneur. After realizing a lack in the profession during both in school and out of school, he asked himself how he could most effectively save the things that were valuable to him in a way that was easy for him to find again. As an answer to that question, SectionCut.com was created as a platform for a collective of designers and architects to share what’s going on in today’s practice. Through back and forth conversations between Robert and a few freelancers, they decided to try out an agency model. Dixon & Moe was established to provide tech design and software consulting to large firms. Their current location in San Fransisco gives them the opportunity provide support from up-and-coming startups to big companies. Monograph.io started as more of a blogging platform for makers. It was critiqued and reborn to be a simple, portfolio-building website for architects. Architects want to be found, and since Monograph is so focused on architects, they can design their own technology and SEO algorithms to allow an architect of a specific type or region to get connected easily. Coming soon may be a simple, technology-based RFP plugin, project management and staff management, and accounting plugins. During Robert’s earlier days in the industry, he did a lot of computer-intensive, heavy 3D modeling and renderings, where he noticed most of his time was spent not working, but waiting for the computer to produce what he needed. BigFluffy.io is an idea to solve that problem: a computer on the web. Here you can have access to your machine through a browser that you can rent as often as you want and increase or decrease your power to speed up what you need to do. How are you getting all this done? Not all projects are going on at the same time. He heavily values his co-founders and partners. Robert doesn’t believe in starting businesses solo because of all the moving parts and the need for a team that you trust to to get the project off the ground. Having a team means each person brings their own strengths and weaknesses Do you manage employees for any of your projects? For SectionCut.com, a virtual assistant who assists with day-to-day tasks. In the area of partners, he worked to find people who would be the best fit to build on his skill sets. What are some of the tools you’re using for communication? Slack // Almost no emailing, all team communication is primarily via Slack Appear.In // Video conferencing weekly meetings whether there’s issues or not; Appear.In is easy because you don’t need an account, you just need the right url for the meeting Trello // Used as a simple to-do list for company-wide items for Monograph.io Google Docs // All documentation, spreadsheets, etc. are on Google Drive, and anything outside of that is on Dropbox Robert’s final prompt: Try! If you don’t try, there’s a 100% guarantee that nothing will succeed. Even if it’s a 1% success, that’s better than zero. Keep your priorities straight and work on the things that are a few steps ahead of you. Find Robert on any one of his project websites at SectionCut.com, Monograph.io, Dixon & Moe and BigFluffy.io, or get in touch with him at robert@monograph.io.  Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post EA133: The Power of Trying with Robert Yuen of SectionCut.com [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

The road to success is a long and bumpy ride. For us licensed architects, we all dealt with the challenge of passing the Architect Registration Exam. For those of you studying to pass the ARE today, you’re working through that challenge right now. This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark R. LePage discusses How to Pass the Architect Registration Exam with Michael Riscica. As a creative child, Michael loved to draw, build model cars and create. After high school, he landed a job with an interior design school that told him he could have it if he learned CAD. He followed that with a few community college classes, and then attended the Boston Architecture College (BAC) at night while he worked full time. When he moved to Long Island, he finished his degree at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIY). During this time, he traveled and participated in various extracurricular activities. Where school previously hadn’t been one of his strong suits, the design studios in architecture school brought a passion where he realized he could have a career as an architect.  While living in Boston, he fell deeply in love with cycling and began researching to complete a 400 mile bike ride from Boston to New York. In 2005, his dream of cycling across America was born and achieved when he rode from Virginia to Washington. In 2006, he hiked the Appalachian Trail for several weeks.  After graduating in 2007, he made another trip across the US with a group of friends and decided to stay in Portland, where he’s lived and worked ever since. He began studying for his AREs in 2009, and had to take a two-year break because he was so burned out and exhausted. When he got back into it, he checked out for the entire year of 2013 and did almost nothing but studying and taking the exams, successfully receiving his license at the end of that year. With no room for creativity in the past few years of studying, he felt like he needed a new creative project: writing a blog for young architects. He put full effort into Young Architect, sharing study successes, failure stories and the experience of going through the AREs. When several of his articles went viral, he used some content to write How to Pass the Architecture Registration Exam. With a lot of inquiries to help others get ready for their exams, he created the ARE Bootcamp to fill the gap between architecture school and preparing for the exam itself. In the ARE Bootcamp, small groups gather weekly  for 10 weeks to move through a syllabus of what to study, how to recall the necessary information, and figuring out how to get up to speed to study for the exam. Once you take the program, you’re in the community forever. Michael’s been running the current ARE Bootcamp on his latest tour where he’s racked up 2800 miles in the last 50 days since the Philadelphia AIA Convention. He’ll be in Portland sometime soon to connect with the World Domination Summit, a conference for creative people who are doing various projects to change the world. Connect with Michael online at YoungArchitect.com and visit his Coast2Coast Bike Ride Blog, on LinkedIn, Instagram & Twitter @BikeTouring999, and Facebook. Look for his trail of robot stickers across the US! Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Referenced in This Episode How to Pass the Architecture Registration Exam by Michael Riscica [book] Young Architect ARE Bootcamp EntreArchitect Special Session Webinar: “Which BIM tool is best for us small firm architects and how do we successfully make that transition from CAD to BIM?” Register for the FREE, 3-part EntreArchitect Special Session Webinar on July 19th, 20th, and 21st with representatives from Vectorworks, ARCHICAD and Revit by visiting EntreArchitect.com/BIMWebinar. The post EA132: Cycling, Licensing and How to Pass the Architect Registration Exam with Michael Riscica [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Most of us, when we launched our firms, we started solo, working by ourselves from a small private studio and wearing every hat required to run a successful architecture firm. We worked that way for as long as we could, but we finally reached a point when we knew it was time to get some help but how? Where do I look? What if I hire the wrong person? How am I going to pay them week after week. That first hire is a pivotal point in every successful architecture firm. This week at EntreArchitect Podcast residential architect Marica McKeel joined Mark R. LePage to talk about How to Overcome the Fear of Hiring Your First Employee. Marica’s journey began when she was recruited as a diver at North Carolina State University, where she decided to study architecture. After graduating, she moved back to Tampa to work for a commercial architecture firm. When she had a project for a multi-family space, she realized she loved the residential side of architecture. She pursued a masters at Parsons Fashion, Art and Design School in New York, where she fell in love with the New York City. She was hired at Santiago Calatrava, where she worked on the Chicago Spire, the PATH Station at Ground Zero and Santiago’s personal home in Connecticut. In 2010, after seeing the great desire for weekend homes by those who lived and worked in the city, she ventured out to start her own residential architecture firm. In the last year, she went from a solo firm to three employees. Q: How long were you in business before your first employee? A: 4 years. Q: What made you say, “I need to get an employee”? A: I was trying to maintain a client-happy business. If I failed at that because I was unable to keep up with my projects, I was doing my clients a disservice. Q: How did you start out hiring someone? A: I hired a contractor I was familiar with who worked about 60% of the time to test the waters. I quickly realized that he had other things going on and he wasn’t 100% focused on being part of my team. Q: Do you see that first hire as a mistake? A: I see it as a stepping stone. If I were to give someone advice, I would say you don’t need that stepping stone. For me, I needed someone quickly and I probably would have rushed a hiring decision. Q: What role did you hire for the first time? Was it a high level or low level person? A: You’re typically supposed to hire a high level person so you don’t have to teach as much. I hired someone straight out of undergrad at an entry-level role, and her energy and excitement might be more important than anything else. Q: What was the process you went through to hire the first person? A: I put out a job ad on Archinect and filtered through those applications. I was looking for those who did their research: they knew who I was, what type of work I did and what was important to me. I wanted them to want to work for my firm. Q: Once you found your top 3, how did you decide on the right person? A: Mostly based on the conversation, but I could have probably narrowed it down to the cover letter. As architects, we have to present ourselves well. Q: Can you tell us about hire #2? A: The second hire was someone I’d worked with for years and always hoped would come to work for me eventually. She called two months after the first hire, and I said, “Absolutely. Let’s do this.” She is a partner without having a partner. She runs the office and loves a challenge, so I was able to unload a lot of my responsibility to her so I could get back to being an architect. Q: Why did you choose to hire a third employee in less than a year? A: Mainly because we needed to be more team focused and our contractor was ready to go do his own thing. We had passion and design, but we didn’t have detail strength, so that’s what we were looking for. We needed an experienced, unique person who was willing to come into a strong team. Plus, now we were three people looking for someone instead of just one; all three of us had to like him, interview him, and be on the same page. Q: Where are you planning to go in the future? A: We’re working to establish ourselves as a team, and we’re figuring out how to go full-speed ahead. Connect with Marica and Studio MM online at MaricaMcKeel.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter @ArchitectMM. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post EA131: How to Overcome the Fear of Hiring Your First Employee with Architect Marica McKeel [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

This month, we’re shifting our focus from technology to management. How do we build a successful business? How do we build the right systems and team? How can we efficiently and effectively do what we do as architects in the most profitable way? This week on EntreArchitect Podcast, Declan Keefe of Placetailor talks about How to Build a Successful Architecture Firm That Works.  Declan spent his younger years focused on photography and fine arts before realizing that wasn’t the direction he wanted to go. He began to think about architecture as large-scale, “occupiable” sculpture, convincing himself that it was okay to transfer into architecture without compromising his creative path. While still in school, Declan found a job as a founding employee to start Placetailor, a firm that wanted to fully integrate the design and building process of architecture. Every member of the team had to have an understanding and a base skill set of being able to both design and build. Three years into the business, when he was a project manager and still in school, the founder of the company stepped away. Rather than allowing Placetailor to die, Declan stepped into the role of owner in 2013. Placetailor is working to provide a fun experience for clients by creating a brand with loud colors, snarky commentary, and relevance to the times. While splitting his time between design and working in the field, Declan realized that they needed to do some work to actually run a business. He put his head down in the office to figure out how to let people know who Placetailor was and how to convince potential clients that what they’re doing is a good idea. His plan was to transfer the business into an employee-owned cooperative. They began to test the boundaries of where architecture and construction met, and to figure out their roles in high-performance and energy-efficient buildings. How did he work to make that transition to a successful cooperative? Help each other to balance different strengths and weaknesses Incentivize with a three-year vesting period prior to becoming an employee-owner Test geographic and technological boundaries Strategized to streamline systems on larger scales for sustainability Developed bylaws as a cooperative, an operating agreement and general rules and guidelines for how they operate as a team How do they dream and decide on which decisions to move forward? A dream is born Decide how much time & money can be allotted to pursue that dream Invest in the idea first before someone else does Let ideas work through the architecture, development, construction and investment arms Prepare for meetings by trying to anticipate where different people are going to end up so the meeting can continue to think through impacts on the business Use digital minutes to track decisions throughout meetings Connect with Declan online at Placetailor.com and on Twitter @placetailor & Instagram. Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post EA130: How to Build a Successful Architecture Firm That Works with Architect Declan Keefe [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Have you ever had a great big idea for a product or service? Something bigger or completely different from what you're doing now? Do you ever wonder what your life would be like, if you pursued that idea? This week we're chatting with someone who had an idea in architecture school inspired by the technology he was using every day. He decided to take that path and pursue his passion. This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, we go From Architect to Tech StartUp with Qi Su of Modelo.io. From childhood, Qi was surrounded by structural engineering, architecture and design, and artwork, and eventually decided to major in architecture – his second love behind soccer – at University of Southern California. He then pursued a degree combining design and computer development through Harvard University. It was there working with the different softwares that he had the inspiration for Modelo. Modelo is a browser-based building and design collaboration and presentation platform for architects, engineers and general contractors offering trial-based hosting, management, communication and presentation services, allowing you and your clients to visualize,  and markup 3D models through any browser no matter the CAD service you use. Modelo’s Startup Timeline March ’14: Qi was accepted into an accelerator, sort of an ecosystem for startups to launch and develop your idea, the company officially launched. April ’14: Since it was important to Qi to have someone to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with, he found his partner and co-founder, Tian Deng, to join the Modelo team. September ’14: The first prototype was released to much excitement from users. January ’15: After fundraising and pitching to investors, funding was received and they were able to hire people to grow the team. January ’17: Development of the software will be completed and ready to launch. Visit Modelo.io to sign up and try it for free!  Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) The post EA129: From Architect to Tech Startup with Qi Su of Modelo.io [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Frosty & Fired UpBuild Smart

Technology It can help us in so many ways. All month long, we've been sharing information here at EntreArchitect Podcast and over at the blog on the many ways that technology can help us be better architects. At times, technology can be a burden. It can be overwhelming. It can be complicated and frustrating. It can be time consuming and distracting. Truthfully, technology can be downright stressful. Over two years ago Mark decided to step away from news in every form: TV, radio, print and internet. The day he stopped listening to all that stuff and started paying attention to the things that actually were in his control, his stress was radically reduced. Mark encourages you to commit to a full media blackout by eliminating any technology that causes you stress. What if we could use technology to reduce our stress? This week at EntreArchitect Podcast, Mark will share 5 Ways to Use Technology to Reduce Our Stress. Mark’s commitment is to make the world a better place by doing more things within his control, and you can do the same thing. Music // Music has always been used to reduce stress. We have access to music anytime and anywhere depending on what we’re in the mood for. Meditation // As meditation has become more mainstream, more are turning to this focused practice of sitting in silence for a period of time. Check out our list of recommended apps below. Exercise // Of course we can exercise without technology, but there’s so many ways to use great technology to help you get out there and get moving! Find things that work with your activities to keep you motivated. Use technology to set reminders and block time to exercise! Automation // We’re doing so many things every day and all day long, and the easiest way to slim down that burden is to automate things. Check out the post on the blog this week,  How to Automate Your Small Firm Architecture Studio, for ideas how to do this and keep searching for others that work for you. The fewer tasks we have, the less stressed we’ll be. Develop Systems // It’s so important to the success of our businesses and to our health. Developing systems allow us to feel confident that the work will get done without us so we can focus on the things we love. Developing systems is the most important goal that you can set for your success. What are some ways you use technology to reduce your stress? Tell us about them in the comments below! Visit our Platform Sponsor FreshBooks The easiest way to send invoices, manage expenses, and track your time. Access Your 30-Day Free Trial at FreshBooks.com/architect (Enter EntreArchitect) Referenced in This Episode 10% Happier by Dan Harris (book), 10% Happier Website, and 10% Happier Meditation App Meditation Apps: Headspace, Omvana, Buddhify, Mindfulness, and Calm Apps for Exercise: RunKeeper Apps for Automation: Zapier and IFTTT System Development: Evernote, Google Drive, and Trello Photo Credit:Shutterstock / Seyomedo The post EA128: 5 Ways to Use Technology to Reduce Our Stress [Podcast] appeared first on EntreArchitect // Small Firm Entrepreneur Architects. Mentioned in this episode:Build SmartFrosty & Fired Up