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BOA - 491 - Free Architects

Enoch Sears40min

Enoch Sears

00:00

If you can make it rain, you control the game. Hello and welcome back, architect Nation. I'm Enoch Sears and this is the show where you'll discover tips, strategies and secrets for running a more profitable and impactful architectural practice as a small firm architect. Today's episode is sponsored by Inscape. Inscape is a plugin software that simplifies real time visualization. For us in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Whether your go to design application is Revit, SketchUp, Rhino ArchiCAD, or Vectorworks Inscape lets you instantly create high quality renderings by syncing data from your 3d model without additional import or export needed, easily navigate every aspect of your design in real time, and identify and resolve any issues that you come across. Plus, you can immerse your clients as an added bonus in VR to provide a real tangible sense of the project. Inscape is used by over 500,000 monthly users across 150 countries, and you can experience it yourself. We encourage you to go check it out at chaos dash inscape.com forward slash trial dash 14 or simply by Googling, try and escape you can also find the link in the notes of this podcast episode. So today, I'm joined by my co host Ryan Willard Ryan, how are you doing today?

Rion Willard

01:13

I'm fabulous Enoch. Thank you for having me here, as always,

Enoch Sears

01:17

absolutely good. We're going to be talking about exciting topic today. And we're talking about how to become a free architect or the free architects journey. What do we mean when we say free architect? While there was a study done in the middle of last century, about 1960, where there was a researcher went out and was researching how wealth and how money and how living situations impacted people's internal joy and happiness. And what he actually found was that to a certain level, yes, income does matter. Because if we're struggling financially, then it's going to be hard to feel happy and joyful and life, we're going to be stressed out constantly. But whatever, what he found really increased people's happiness and joy was what he called freedom or in other words, the ability to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, how they want to do it, and under what circumstances they want to do it or in other words, this idea of agency. So we're going to be talking about this in today's podcast. But this is what we call the free architects journey. So that's what we mean when we say free architect, as an architect, being able to have the agency to do what you want to do, how you want to do it, when you want to do it, with whom you want to do it. All these things go into freedom. Now, step number one going on this journey to free architect is a transformation what we call grinder to Rainmaker. Now a grinder, or aka an architectural slave is someone who is constantly caught up in the weeds, always stressed out about the money the business has become their prison, instead of making it their passion. So as a grinder, which is where I mean, let's face it, at one way or another, all of us business owners can can identify with a part of our life where a grinder, right? So it's not it's like a black or white thing, but it definitely is. There's layers of gradation of how much we're grinding in the business, and especially running architectural practice. A lot of times what we find is small practice owners find themselves in this role of grinder, which is where they're wearing so many hats. They're doing so many things. They feel like they're maybe their revenues plateaued. They have cashflow worries, they're just getting by, maybe they have smaller, even negative profits. There's an up and down roller coaster of the cash flow they're dealing with maybe even running on fumes financially, perhaps they just feel like things aren't streamlined enough. So they're not doing what they want to do in the business. No time for design. They're putting out fires all the time working long hours. Again, growth and revenue have plateaued. design time gets interrupted, there's no time for uninterrupted architecture time where you get to focus on simply design. Project Delivery is chaotic, rough and bumpy. Too much time spent managing projects and constantly feeling like you're the fixer in the business meaning when things go south, you have to jump in and fix things yourself. Now this list could go on and on and on. Today, we're particularly going to talk about step number one from moving out of being a grinder. And it's simply this idea of becoming a rainmaker and Ryan, we discovered this over the past decade or so, in our own practices, it was pretty obvious. But also as we started to consult with and work with other architectural practice owners, typically as a small practice owner, some of the challenges they face and you may be facing if you're running a small practice today is simply the idea of overwhelm too many things to do too little time to do them. Not being able to hire staff or team members, maybe dealing with clients that are constantly questioning your fees or telling you too expensive. Well, when we look at all these things, it's easy to say and as architects, oftentimes, we fall into the idea that I just need to get more efficient. I just need to have the right processes in place. These are all band aids, but the We'll fix for this problem is becoming what we call a rainmaker because the number one thing as a small firm architect you can do to move towards become a free architect. Step number one, do not pass go unless you become a rainmaker and here a Business of Architecture we've defined very clearly what it means to be a rainmaker. And it means that you're bringing in $200,000 per full time equivalent employees. So that means if I'm a solo architect, I'm bringing in $200,000 in revenue, this doesn't count consulting revenue, it doesn't count any reimbursable expenses. It's like the money that I have that I'm actually charging for the services that I do if it totals $200,000. And I'm a solo practitioner. Great. Then, Andrew, our definition, well done. If you're a rainmaker, let's move on to step number two. Now, if you have four people in the practice, that means that you're running a million dollar practice, that means that you're bringing in a million dollars worth of architectural fees over your or perhaps less, right, so we go five, that would be five, five people, you're bringing in a million dollars. Okay? So we look at two people, that'd be 400,003 people, 600,004 people, 100,005 people, a million, etc, etc, on up the rim. So you may ask enough, how did you come up with this number? Well, these are the numbers that we find that our high performing clients are able to able to achieve some of them very easily, and some of them far surpass them. So we have clients who are pulling in $400,000 per full time equivalent employee. So we feel this is a reasonable number. You know, if I was put into any architectural practice tomorrow, I am 100% Certain confident that I could go and I could generate through selling, which is what we're going to talk about today $200,000. In fees over the course of a year, bring in that much work, which isn't. It's not a stretch, it's it's it's not that hard. It is hard for us, we've never been trained in it. And certainly architects This is one of the shortcomings of architectural education is that it doesn't touch on management. It doesn't touch on the topic that we're talking about today, which is how to bring in the work, how to make it rain in your architectural practice. Because if you can rate make it rain, you control the game. If you can make it rain, you control the game. Ryan, what are some of the problems that architects might be facing that they can use as symptoms or things that are surefire signs that that they are not operating at the level of what we call the Rainmaker, other than obviously, we give them very clear financial metrics. So that's it's an easy yes or no. But what are some of the challenges that are faced in a business? When? When there's no Rainmaker in the business when perhaps the firm owner is not a rainmaker

Rion Willard

07:36

financial instability is probably the first one that's the most obvious to recognize, we see the feast or famine cycle. So often in architecture, if you have become resigned to the fact that that's just how architecture is, and that it's seasonal. And sometimes we're, we've got no money coming in. And other times you've got loads of money coming in, you know, and you've kind of adapted your lifestyle to deal with that you've made excuses for it. You've reduced outgoings you've just limited your your business and your way of living to accommodate the financial feast or famine cycle, but you're exhausted by it. I think that's one of the that's one of the easiest things to recognize. And I think we see it in businesses as well when people kind of defend it. Right? That's how architecture is. It's always been like that you can't change the economic reality of architecture. People say that to me, I've had an architect say that to me,

Enoch Sears

08:38

they argue argue for it. And well, here's the thing as human beings, we argue for the status quo. We argue for our smallness, we argue for mediocrity, we argue for the state. Look, I do it too. It's not like it's not like it's just all architects out there. It's Enoch does it. You know, I do it in different areas of my life. But it's something that we need to be aware of. It's so easy to fall into that trap of resignation. This is just the way it is. This is the way the industry works. I was talking with an architect just yesterday, who came to us wanting to inquire about smart practice and wondering if it was going to be a fit to help her grow her practice. And the challenges that she was facing. She's been in business for four years. And during that amount of time, you know, its work has been a coin toss. It's been happenstance, meaning that the product She's won, it seems like it's been through luck. It's been through just the whims of the economy, the whims of people who prefer to work the whims of, of whether she won the project or not. And the past two years have been very, very difficult and very dry. And as I asked her why this was I said, Well, you know, from your perspective, why is this and she gave a multitude of very compelling reasons. We don't have the same experience. People see us as new. They go with more experienced firms, they go with larger firms. I'm just a sole practitioner. You know, I only have four years. As of my firm, as opposed to them looking at the total experience we have. And there's one thing in common with all of these reasons, which are that they were all outside of her. In other words, they were all. They were all the external environment. I mean, they're all something being done to me. Right. And so in this conversation, I asked her a very, very important question. I said, well, well, how about things within your control? Like, what are you not currently doing that you should be doing? And then the conversation started to get interesting? Because then we started to understand that okay, well, you know, she doesn't really know how to make it right. No one's ever taught to that. And most architects fall in the same boat, right. But typically, the way practices work is you go out on your own, and you have a book of work based upon the past projects or clients you've had in the past. And it's very rare that an architect actually needs to get out there, hustle and build up a book of business, when they start their practice, or if they do, then they they make it happen. And then they quickly walk away from that because it's uncomfortable, or it does take a lot of hustling. And so they settle into this zone of comfort, which ultimately puts an architectural practice at risk for when the work begins to dry up.

Rion Willard

11:11

I think that's quite interesting, because it points to, you know, another, another kind of thing that happens to a business without rainmakers is you just stagnate. There's stagnant growth. And you quite rightly point out this idea that a lot of architects when they first set up their own business, whether it's through inspiration, or desperation, they've been fired from a job, and they've got no other options, and they've got to bring some money in, they set up their own business. And if they don't have projects already, there's a point where they get panicked, or worried or concerned, because I've got to keep the lights on, we've got a mortgage to pay, I've got children's to feed, and there's a discomfort there. Because the pain of not fulfilling on all those responsibilities Is it far outweighs the discomfort of having to pick up the phone and make some uncomfortable phone calls. So people do it, they make they go outside of their comfort zone. And they pick up the phone, and they start building relationships, they start making emails, they start, you know, hosting events, or whatever it is they got to do to bring in the work and they do it and they win some work. And then as you say, they're like, Ah, I don't have to do that again. And no, no, no more of that. That's fine. And then what happens is, then, most likely, as long as you don't do work, that's totally shit. Most likely, you're gonna get a referral from that client that you've just served. However, nine times out of 10 it's going to be the same level of project after the one you've just completed. Very rarely do you have a domestic client for example, who's going to bring an airport to your, to your to your lap the next day? Okay, again, I'm being a bit extreme there with my examples, but to make to make a point, that if we're if we end up not having any rainmakers, or we stop our own rainmaking, because the the immediate threat has disappeared, then it's very likely the business begins to stagnate. I like it when we see some of our sole practitioners that we have here working Business of Architecture as clients because they're, they're hungry. And sometimes they like we've only got like, I've only got three months left of cash. And you know what, they're the ones that often go off and do extraordinary things.

Enoch Sears

13:39

Yeah, absolutely. It's this interesting interplay between the pressure of having to do something versus the desire to do something because certainly it's, it's easier I found in my own life to want to exert myself or push myself out of my comfort zone, when the comfort zone is simply survival, as opposed to, it's to gain some extra thing, right? So for all my bills are paid, if I'm being able to pay my team members of my staff members and we have a slight profit margin above and beyond that, well, happy days, just put the head down and get to work. And so we end up neglecting doing the important work, which is the rainmaking work. Okay. Now, one thing to also mention here as well is, most small firm architects have no right calling themselves rainmakers, they aren't rainmakers, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing bad with that. They may be excellent, excellent architects, great designers, fantastic people who are contributing in powerful ways to the world. But that's very different from being a rainmaker a rainmaker, specifically as someone that can go out rain or shine, recession or boom time and actually land very lucrative projects and contracts even when you're competing against other people who are better resourced, who are perhaps even cheaper than your than you are than you are in terms of your fees. Now some of the other challenges that you're faced as a small practice when you're not a rainmaker is having the over reliance on existing relationships. I'm having a lot of small or perhaps poorly paid projects. And another thing is not not being seen as a specialist. So this is sort of tangentially aligned. But again, in this conversation I was having with an architect recently, you know, it's, it's not uncommon for people to ask you as an architect, what is it that you do? What do you do everything you do, you know, what kind of architecture Do you focus on? And certainly within architecture, architects, we love to be generalists. It's very rare that there's an architect who really loves being a specialist that there certainly are some firms that excel in that area. But more often than not architects, like be generalists, not only for the creative impact of being able to have our fingers and lots of different things that stimulate his creativity, but also for the idea of wanting to not put all of our eggs in one basket, right? Wanting to have some, some diversification. However, when someone asks us that question, if they're a client, we can really get ourselves into a lot of trouble if we respond with the generalist idea unless we have a really good answer for it. Because too often, if a client's asking that they have a particular kind of product, what they really want to hear, what they're hoping to hear is, I am a specialist in your type of project. And, you know, and then what that actually means. Now, it's one thing to say that, but it's another thing to back it up. And this is where we get into positioning and the messaging that you have out there marketplace, which is a whole, a whole different podcast for today. But those are, these are some of the problems that small firms face today. When the owner is not a rainmaker,

Rion Willard

16:43

the one more I'd add to that, which is kind of riffing off what we've already just said. But if you're finding business competitive, like if you're, if you've got that experience of like, I can't win these projects, I'm being beaten by other other firms, other firms seem to be winning the work that I want to have that kind of experience where you put a lot you felt, you put lots of energy into it, you did your best thing. You put loads of effort into these beautiful presentations and portfolios, and then you lose the project. And you've kind of on that cycle. There's the sense of increased competition, and then you see other practices emerging. That is part and parcel of not having a rainmaker in the biz.

Enoch Sears

17:26

Exactly, exactly. And the the danger with that is too often when we go through those processes, let's say because, again, I was the very same architect I was speaking to yesterday, she talked about how she'd spent an enormous amount of time putting together response to an RFP for a particular project, and ended up losing the project. And the danger that we face. Not being schooled in the in the arts of business, in the science and the art of selling is that we just simply think, well, I just didn't win that one, I guess, you know, it's just the luck of the draw. They just there's something that I like about me, instead of recognizing that no actually winning work, there is a science to it. It's an A plus B plus C. Now there is art to it as well. But let's be very clear. First of all, we want to get the science down. If we don't get the science done, the arts not going to matter. Okay, because we need to have both. And one of the sciences of winning work is that, well, there's there's quite a bit, but when we're going after these projects like these RFPs, we need to understand that we're missing a piece if we didn't land the project. And especially for going after an RFP, the missing piece is probably the relationship meaning an existing relationship with one of the people on the committee who's doing the selection or the client, etc. And so this opens up the conversation that we have around our topic today, which is that of Rainmaker.

Rion Willard

18:51

Great. So what does it look like with a business that is rainmaking? I think that's quite it's worth looking at. And I would certainly say that business that's competent with the Rainmaker, you're going to have this ability to be able to win projects against other firms, you're not competing on price. Right? So imagine a scenario where you're still winning work. I love it. When our clients tell us this. They're like, we won the project. And you know, the client said you were the most expensive

Enoch Sears

19:22

flipping grinder Miss they nailed it. They got something right. They really

Rion Willard

19:26

notice it. Yeah, they understood what the client's problems were. They listened to the client, they were artful in the conversation that they were having with the with the client, they knew what the what the emotional motivators were, in the in the sales process, and they also dealt with the objections powerfully. They didn't they didn't receive they didn't discount their fees. They didn't have to go back and forth. Or if there were kind of objections they were they were handled and they were handled. witness sophisticated kind of reversal method that we often teach the kind of answering questions with another question and help the client to actually answer their own questions and discover their own pains and problems and articulate them.

Enoch Sears

20:16

Absolutely. And so when we look, let's look at some of the other possibilities here. When, when an architectural practice is making it rain has a rainmaker, you have a powerful business network. So you're actively cultivating a powerful business network, not just resting on the laurels, but making sure that you continue to grow and expand that business network. This can lead to growth opportunities for the practice, more revenue, higher level projects. And what's really interesting here is, is this this, this concept called stirring the pot, which was taught to me a couple of years back by a marketing consultant that we hired. And she said, in UK, here's the thing with marketing a lot of times, a lot of times, yes, you'll be able to have some direct. You can measure directly the return on investment of these certain marketing activities. But so what we've seen is a lot of times when you're just out there, when you're stirring the pot, so to speak, and in this term that as a rainmaker, when you're out there, building relationships, talking to people, following up with people continuing to keep that relationship warm, then opportunities will come synchronicities will happen, things that you might not have foreseen will come out of left field and magically your referrals will go up anything. Oh, look at that. Our referrals have gone up. Why is that? And sometimes we don't link the two we don't link the fact that Well, the reason why our referrals have gone up is because we're out there rainmaking. So we see this a lot of time here at Business of Architecture where a lot of times the applications to for people to join smart practice will go up based upon a podcast that we that we issue or a conversation I had with one of our referral partners, people in the industry who who who share our message with their audience. And so these are things that we can't exactly plan on. But they're all important parts of being a rainmaker. Now last but not least, and not even last. But one of the most important and valuable possibilities with being a rainmaker is that you're making a shit ton of money. Absolutely, like getting filthy rich, I'm just filthy rich. Here Business of Architecture, we talk about this idea of, of a big money architect. And the reason we do that is number one, there is a bit of very, very intentional in your face against the architectural meme of the architectural culture that disdains money that looks down upon, making money. And even the conversation of money, which granted isn't just architecture, it's society in general has a difficult time with money. So here Business of Architecture, we make it very clear that there's no shame around money that as a matter of fact, money brings you agency. As we mentioned, the beginning when you have lots of money, you're bringing in lots of money as a practice, it gives you agency you can you can buy back your time, you have more free time, you have less overwhelm, you can take more time off, you can take more time resting. There was something very important that I learned several years ago, many many years ago, actually, when I was still in college, this I was really into kind of bodybuilding, I grew up like a very skinny, scrawny guy and wasn't really happy with my body, especially when you know, you want to look good for the girls. So I've spent a lot of time in the gym. And I began to learn that there's this idea of of plateauing, meaning if we go and we just exercise the same muscles again, and again, our muscles just get used to it, that kind of plateau, they don't grow any, our body doesn't respond anymore. And so to shake that up, you go in and you do a radically different exercise, or you can do something like taking a week off. So this is why these rest periods are so insanely important that you actually need to take a little bit of time off, to be able to grow and to be able to actually produce. So going back to you as a firm owner, if you don't, if you're constantly on the grind, if you're not allowing yourself to have the free time to be able to take a vacation to Cabo to be able to take you know, a week off without having to answer emails without having to answer the phone and just recharge the impact of this on our psyche, on our energy on our desire or drive on our feeling of purpose or feeling of mission can be absolutely devastating.

Rion Willard

24:12

Absolutely. And I think you know, this idea that profit gives agency and the money is the is one of the unspoken tools for for agency and being able to make an impact on the missions and things that you're important about. You know, it's it's so so crucial you know, if you're earning big money, you're being you're having you're commanding high fees, you have a choice number one of being able to choose the kind of projects that you want to choose and work on. Okay, because you know, the skills are sales and marketing. Therefore, you're gonna have, you're gonna be able to do the projects that are more fulfilling for you. And there's a there's a big misconception that if you're making big money, you're somehow doing terrible projects, or you sell your soul or you're doing something awful. I mean, that's like, it's not the case. I mean, the architects that we have hips for architecture who are earning the most adore the projects that they love doing, that they're doing. They love Yeah, it's

Enoch Sears

25:16

yeah. It's very, it's very, very old school thinking, right? I mean, I kind of relate it to the path of spirituality. Okay, so like, in the path of spirituality that I've been on a spiritual journey myself for the past 1020 years. But as we look at this concept of spirituality, the old school spiritual, you know, you locked yourself away in a monastery, you prayed for 12 hours a day, you went on these long fasts and you went on these pilgrimage, you know, you were you're a guru in the Indians in the Indian, the Himalayan foothills, you know, and you just, you know, survived on one bowl of rice a day. Well, today's today that spirituality still exists. But today, things have changed. Meaning that today, it's about bridging the two worlds, it's about bridging the world of money, and the world of passion, the world of passion in the world of profit. So I'm gonna use passion as a synonym for spirituality here. But you know, as an architect, you're probably less there's probably, if you're an architecture, my my premonition is my hallucination is that there's a part of you that feels called to be in this profession. Like, there's a part of you that feels like this is not just a job for you, there's a part of you that feels this is a soul level, being level, internal, calling that you have to bring forth something important and powerful and beautiful, and our short term time period that you're on the earth, right? Now, the key is, how do you link that up to the profit? Right? How do you win at both games win at the passion game, and then also win at the profit game, because in the past, the two have been mutually exclusive. In the past, they've also been, like, you've mentioned, Ryan, especially in this, this, this archetype still exists in architecture, which is, hey, if we're going to do great design and great work, we must do it at the sacrifice of the profit will charge less. Because we just are we'll work we'll put a lot more into the project, and we're actually getting paid for, because we care about it. So very much. And this is just overcompensation or compensation for the fact that we as architects just don't know how to sell. In other words, we can't sell the value, we can't sell the value we actually provide. That's what actually is happening. We're spending a lot more time on the projects, and we're getting paid for. Because we're like, Well, I can't sell stuff because I kind of feel that I really need to to get paid handsomely on this project. So it's much easier just to take a smaller salary, to put a lot of free work to have my team put a lot of free work to make our profits anemic, which just then creates all of these catastrophic and terrible side effects in the architecture industry. Meaning, you know, mid level career professionals leaving architecture, having chronically low wages, having architectural practices that are constantly being slammed by the feast or famine cycle, having financial and business instability. All of these are impacts of that. So when we look at the let's have a look at the principles right here. So when we look at the principles of becoming a rainmaker, there's a couple different mindset shifts that need to happen. And we could probably have a list of these 2020 long, but we're going to we're going to start with four. And principle number one is, if you're not winning projects, it's your fault. All right. Now, this may sound a little harsh, and yes, I'm going to be your stern grandfather here. And what do I mean by if you're not winning products, it's your fault. Well, if you're not winning projects, sure, there's 1,000,001, things that you could blame, that are outside of your control, you could blame the economy, you could blame the fact that you don't have the portfolio, you could blame the fact that your clients see you as inexperience, you could blame the fact that you don't know the right people, you could blame the fact that you're a woman, you could blame the fact you're the minority, you could blame the fact that you're not a woman, you could blame the fact that you're not a minority. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Right, we all have these very logical reasons why we're not succeeding. The problem with that is great, and they can all be very, very true. But there's again, there's no agency, there's no power in that it leaves us unable to make an impact, unable to make a change, unable to actually change our situation and make something powerful happen in the world. Now. If we flip that around, and we say, okay, like the old stoics did, back in the day, I'm a big fan of stoic philosophy. They said simply this. They said, focus on what you can control. There's a subtle shift here. When we focus on what we can control we can say, Okay, I can't control the business network I have now. I can't control who I know now. I can't control what was about to say I can't control whether I'm a woman or a man but again, this is a new world. So, you know, but within the realm of you know, gender issues aside you know, there are certain things gonna be difficult to control? So it leaves us in a place, what then do I focus on? What then do I focus on? So we can focus on. So this is what we mean by that step number principle number one is really need to take the approach of, hey, if I'm not winning great projects, like the products I'm winning right now are a result of who I've been in the past the choices I'm making. And if I want to change those, well, I need to make some changes in how I approach things.

Rion Willard

30:26

Absolutely. So it really kind of ARCs back into this year of being inactive versus proactive with your, with your input in your in your marketing. Okay. So when we're being inactive, were just, we're at the impact of circumstance. We're at the impact of the economy, we're at the impact of clients, we're at the impact of, you know, the AIA or the Rebbe. Okay, it's all down to them. They should be promoting architects, they should be doing this. My pipelines dried up. Okay. And we hear this a lot. But my pipelines dried up because of XY and Z. knits never a pipeline has dried up. Because I've done fuckable marketing and selling over the last six months. I just haven't done anything. Okay, there's always some sort of X excuse to why that's happening. And again, I know that might sound harsh, but actually there's a lot of freedom that comes with, like what you're saying in it, because what can I control? You know, how if I've been responsible for this, this pipeline, it's your pipeline, no one else is going to fill it up for you. You've got to go and fill it up.

Enoch Sears

31:39

Absolutely. And the good thing is, is that there are strategies that work for every architect and every architecture firm. So when we talk about Rainmaker, so one thing that you know, one very important thing we teach our Business of Architecture, you know, for architects who come join our program, and and we take them on the journey of we help them become rainmakers is that there's a particular strategy that's going to work well for you, there's a certain strategy, that's great that for you, that may not be a great fit for someone else. Okay. I'm going to read off the other three principles here, Ryan, and then we'll just go through this quickly, because I know both you and I have a meeting right now and we gotta, we gotta bounce. Okay, so number two is chicken marketing is not bold marketing, what we mean by that chicken marketing are things that are in our comfort zones that don't get a big result. Generally speaking, making a post on social media, sending someone an email, kind of staying behind the scenes, we call this chicken marketing, bold marketing is getting out there, picking up the phone, going to a networking event, going to a conference where you meet people showing up at someone's office, like doing bold things that put us out of our comfort zone.

Rion Willard

32:44

You know, one thing I'm going to say about chicken marketing, this is going to annoy a lot of people. But I think in general, the whole world of website design is chicken marketing.

Enoch Sears

32:57

100% 100%, because you'll discharged

Rion Willard

33:00

this, this is something that architecture firms spend six months doing designing their flipping website, no one ever talks about how they're going to drive traffic to the website. No one ever talks about how that website is going to convert prospects into sales. It's basically always a nice looking, if it's going if it's going to be there to give you more confidence. Okay, that's great. Give yourself a pat in the back. Very nice. And and why are you also talking to web designers who have never sold anything online about making a website which is going to be bringing in new leads for this company, just it's not going to it's not going to do that it's just except the website design is a much more passive thing. And I think you have to earn the right to design your design and build your own website really, you know, I've been there when some projects and have some say that you've got 15 grand sitting about sitting around so that you can invest and get a really beautiful looking website which which which can complement your, your proactive sales approach.

Enoch Sears

34:06

Exactly. Exactly. Beautiful. Consider a bit of myself Ryan, you brought me back to flashbacks when I started my my first practice I like I rewrote my website like six times in one year, I was like, spending all this time on it like this is going to be the one thing that was going to help me win work. So this ties into number three, or principle number three, which is of becoming a rainmaker, which is having a reverence for sales. So what happens in architecture oftentimes, is we look down our nose upon the entire industry of selling, we say sellings below us, we don't even want to be associated with that word. So there's a couple aspects to having reverence for selling or sales. The number one is recognizing a true artist of sales, who knows how to present and knows how to pitch who knows how to empathetically understand someone in a conversation and knows how to pull the right psychological levers to help explain their value. There's a real art to it, and it deserves reference. Now there's another kind of reverence Ryan, that you were talking to me about earlier, when we put together this list,

Rion Willard

35:05

which is the sales is a skill to be learned. Absolutely. And that we can be humble in it. And actually, you know, experienced a bit of humility was set with sales and just admit and acknowledged, you know what, I'm not a good salesperson. Okay, even if you think you are, and people who think they are normally the most kind of dangerous, because then they never do. They never learned any sales techniques, they never learn anything new. And they just continue on doing what they're doing. But most people are not naturally great salespeople, just to start off with, and to actually slow down and see sales, sales as a skill, that there are a way to master it, and that it's something that we continually want to be learning for the rest of our lives. And that sales is also not just about winning work. Okay, it is in this context that we're talking about. But there's far broader applications for being a good salesperson, which are leading your teams, which are leading the client through every stage of the design process, to even broader to actually improving the dynamics and the interpersonal relationships that you have for people that you care about. Because you're able to compassionately and sensitively lead people to new conclusions, you're able to create new conclusions with people through, you know, being masterful with the sales conversation. So really having a reverence for it, seeing it as a life skill, not just a sort of sleazy, slimy, front end, trickery to try and manipulate people into winning work that that mindset is so toxic, to have around running. You shouldn't be running a business. If you think that just you shouldn't get a job, go get a job. It's not it's really unhelpful, and it will permeate through the rest of your business and your everyone is going to be suffering as a result.

Enoch Sears

36:58

Yeah, well said. Right. Well, there you have it. We could go on and talk in a lot more about this concept of Rainmaker. We'll certainly talk about it more here on the podcast. Principle number four Ryan I have down was it's a skill. So I guess that that is important to touch upon. You kind of did touch upon it. But I guess. Yeah, but let me backtrack a little before we end up here. Let me just say our principle number four is that rainmaking is a skill. So oftentimes, we think and I've thought in the past that, you know, making it rain is simply a tactic. Meaning I just needed to know what do I do or what marketing consultant or hire or social media the bad place to get work? Those are all thinking that's all thinking very myopically. And the truth is, the truth is, is that making becoming a rainmaker is a skill set, and it's a being of who you are, how you show up in the moment, in difficult situations, how you handle certain objections, the processes and systems you have to explain your value. Like it's very, very complex to really become a rainmaker. It's much it's much more complex than taking a three week you know, LinkedIn learning course, where they teach you about digital marketing or sales. So that's our principle number four, which is it is a skill set, just like learning how to ride a bike, just like learning how to swing a golf club and actually get it in the hole. In par, like these things need need to be practiced over time. It takes time. So the good news is, now you're aware, maybe you've thought about yourself from a new perspective, understanding that rainmaking is a skill. And then understanding that rainmaking as an architect is the single most important skill that you can have. There's no skill that you can have that's more valuable or important than making it rain. Because at one point every single project started with that project being one. And this is the skill of rainmaking.

Rion Willard

38:45

Absolutely. We, as I've said many times before, when I worked at RSA hp, which had Rogers practice in London, he used to very boldly say the first rule of architecture is when the project and then the second one architecture was to charge high fees.

Enoch Sears

39:01

Beautiful. You do that and you have become a rainmaker. So well. Well done. audience. Thank you for listening to us today. Ryan, thank you for being here. And again, for those of you listening today, here at Business of Architecture, we help small firm owners make this transition in their practice, and the abundance that can open up for you when you become a rainmaker, you're literally writing your own ticket. So to find out more about how we do that, and then schedule a concert with our team, go to business of architecture.com forward slash smart or just go to smart practice method.com. And that's a wrap. Oh, yeah, one more thing. If you haven't already, head on over to iTunes and leave a review. We'd love to read your name out here on the show. Today's episode is sponsored by escape. Escape is a plugin software that simplifies real time visualization for us in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Whether your go to design application is Revit SketchUp, Rhino ArchiCAD or Vectorworks Inscape lets you instantly create high quality renderings by syncing data from a 3d model without additional import or export needed, easily navigate every aspect of your design in real time, and identify and resolve any issues that you come across. Plus, you can immerse your clients as an added bonus in VR to provide a real tangible sense of the project. And scape is used by over 500,000 monthly users across 150 countries. And you can express yourself, we encourage you to go check it out at chaos, Dash inscape.com forward slash trial dash 14 or simply by Googling, try and escape. You can also find the link in the notes of this podcast episode. The views expressed on the show by my guests do not represent those of the hosts and I make no representation, promise guarantee pledge warranty, contract, bond or commitment except to help you conquer the world. Carpe Diem

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