AEC Marketing for Principals

Strategic marketing for AEC firms starts with a simple discipline: understanding the business before producing the deliverable. Katie sits down with Kevin Johnson, Senior Director of Marketing and Sales Enablement at H.J. Russell & Company, to talk about what it actually takes to build a marketing function that operations leaders trust enough to bring in early. Kevin shares the mindset shift that changed how his team operates, moving from "make this for us" requests to a real seat at the table, and why that shift only happens through relationships, not mandates.Kevin sees marketing and sales as working toward the same goal. Marketing helps build awareness and gives seller-doers the tools and messaging they need to have stronger conversations with clients. But that connection also has to happen internally. Kevin talks about the importance of understanding what operations and technical leaders are dealing with every day, from managing risk and protecting margins to handling urgent job site issues. When marketing understands those pressures, it becomes much easier to get their attention, earn their trust, and work together more effectively. Kevin shares a firsthand look at what it takes to introduce a CRM into an established AEC firm that had never used one before. Instead of rolling it out across the company all at once, his team started small, built the system behind the scenes, and introduced it gradually. As people began to see the value, adoption grew naturally, eventually reaching about 70 percent utilization in a year and a half. He describes the process as “crawl, walk, run” and connects it to another leadership principle he follows: fire bullets, then cannonballs. Start small, test what works, prove the value, and then make the bigger investment once you know you are headed in the right direction.Marketing as a growth partner is the vision Kevin closes on, urging AEC firms to stop treating marketing as a production shop that simply executes requests and start treating it as a genuine growth partner that helps generate leads, strengthen client relationships, and hit the firm's financial goals. For any marketing or business development leader working to build trust between departments, this conversation offers a clear, tested path forward.Key TakeawaysStrategic marketing starts with understanding the business first. Learn the firm's goals and pipeline before producing deliverables, so requests shift from "make this for us" to "here's what we're trying to do."Marketing and sales enablement function best as one growth strategy. Marketing builds the content and positioning; seller-doers put it directly into clients' hands.Introducing a CRM, or any new system, works better as a crawl, walk, run process. Build quietly, prove value in small wins, then scale adoption once trust is established.Understanding an internal client's day-to-day world, their deadlines, risk, and pressure, leads to more collaborative requests and faster responses than transactional asks.The goal is for AEC firms to see marketing as a growth partner that helps generate leads and grow the business, not just a production shop that fulfills ordersConnect with Kevin JohnsonSr. Director Marketing & Sales Enablement, H. J. Russell & Companyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-johnson-91046814/ https://www.hjrussell.com/Connect with Katie Cash:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

Project management in AEC firms generally doesn't go beyond the technical aspects of the business, such as schedules, budgets, and quality controls that keep a building on track. Marketing rarely gets the same discipline. Even though marketing teams juggle their own budgets, deadlines, and quality standards every week.  Listen in as Katie Cash talks with Meredith Schroeder, Director of Operations at Smartegies, about why AEC marketing departments need real project management systems, not just good intentions and a color-coded whiteboard.Marketing workflow visibility comes up early as the clearest sign that a team has outgrown its current systems. Meredith shares the telltale signs of a reactive marketing department: missed deadlines, last-minute requests, and no single place to see the full workload, and explains why a new tool or process document rarely fixes the problem on its own. She and Katie also dig into proposal management, tracing what it takes to coordinate a dozen internal contributors who do not report to marketing while chasing a must-win RFP deadline that never moves.AEC marketing operations round out the conversation with a practical look at staffing versus workflow problems, and how time tracking data can show whether a team truly needs more people or simply needs better prioritization. Meredith closes with her five core project management practices: creating alignment early, building timelines around reality, making it easy for others to contribute, making the work visible, and owning the deliverable, along with her top tip for listeners: start before you start.Key TakeawaysMarketing departments deliver against budgets, schedules, and quality standards just like technical teams, and benefit from the same project management discipline.Reactive, last-minute work is usually a visibility problem, not a staffing problem. Get the full workload in one place before deciding you need to hire.Internal clients respond better to specific, well-resourced requests than to vague asks dropped on short notice.Time tracking by task, not by a single daily bucket, reveals where a marketing team's hours actually go and whether workload is balanced fairly.Meredith's five practices: create alignment early, build timelines around reality, make it easy for others to contribute, make the work visible, and own the deliverable.Connect with Meredith SchroederDirector of Operations, Smartegieshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mer-schroeder/https://smartegies.com/Resources Mentioned in Episode:SmartSkills Session: *you do have to have a subscription or pay to hear this webinar* https://www.bigmarker.com/smartegies/smartskills-work-smarter-not-harderConnect with Katie Cash:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

Higher education capital planning, university procurement, and what it really takes to win AEC work with a public university anchor this conversation with Howard Wertheimer, FAIA Emeritus, LEED AP, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities at UNC-Chapel Hill.Howard has spent more than two decades on both sides of the design and construction table. He built his career in private practice, including 21 years as a Partner and Principal at Lord, Aeck and Sargent, before moving into ownership and institutional leadership roles at Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt University, and now UNC-Chapel Hill, where he oversees planning, design, construction, and operations across nearly 20 million square feet of campus facilities.Host Katie Cash sits down with Howard to unpack how UNC's capital improvement plan comes together, from early pre-planning and budgeting through board approval, and what firms need to understand about the state's advertising and procurement process. Howard explains why attention to detail on proposals, from accurate references to correctly spelled university names, matters more than most firms realize, and how outdated reference contacts can quietly sink a submission. He also shares how UNC brought in an independent cost estimator to reconcile budgets on a CM at-risk delivery project and saved three million dollars on a single job, along with a look at the 950-acre former airport site UNC recently acquired for future campus development.Whether a firm is chasing its first project with a public university or working to strengthen a long-standing relationship, Howard's perspective from both sides of the table offers a clear, practical roadmap. It is a conversation packed with guidance for any AEC firm serious about growing its higher education practice.Key TakeawaysSweat the details. Typos, misspelled university names, and language copied from a previous proposal read as a lack of care and are one of the fastest ways to lose credibility with a selection committee.Keep references current and relevant. Outdated contact information undermines a proposal before anyone picks up the phone, and a reference tied to the wrong project type can do just as much damage.Local presence builds trust. For out-of-state firms pursuing public university work, having someone who can be on site within a day matters, especially on the construction side.Independent cost estimating pays for itself. Bringing in a third-party estimator to reconcile budgets between the design team and the CM helped UNC save three million dollars on a single project.Connect with Howard Wertheimer, FAIA Emeritus, LEED AP, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities, The University of NC at Chapel Hillhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-wertheimer-faia-emeritus-leed-ap-6711454/Resources Mentioned in Episode:The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, official website and facilities RFQ postingsGeorgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Howard's previous institutionUniversity of North Carolina System, Board of GovernorsUNC-Chapel Hill Board of TrusteesNorth Carolina State Construction Office (SCO)Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Georgia TechClough Undergraduate Commons, Georgia TechKrone Engineered Biosystems Building, Georgia Tech, AIA COTE Top Ten award winner, LEED PlatinumHoward Wertheimer's contact email: [email protected] with Katie:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

AI promised AEC marketing teams more speed. What it delivered was a mirror.Katie Cash sits down with Rachelle Ray, Head of AEC Marketing Innovation at OpenAsset, about what has genuinely changed in proposal production since AI entered the workflow, and what has simply been exposed rather than fixed. Rachelle brings a rare dual perspective, having led marketing and proposals inside an architecture firm before moving to the vendor side, and she is direct about where AI creates real value and where it introduces contractual risk that firms are not yet prepared to manage.Katie and Rachelle also discuss the guardrails firms need before rolling AI out firm-wide, from approved and prohibited language lists to structured training and review processes.Key Takeaways:Speeding up misaligned pursuits with AI does not save resources; it burns them faster.AI-generated proposal language can create real contractual risk without a review process in place.Firms that succeed with AI treat it as a firm-wide rollout, with training and guardrails, not a single toggle switch.The AEC marketers who thrive in the AI era will build data literacy, relationship intelligence, and systems thinking.Knowledge management, capturing what lives in people's heads, is becoming essential infrastructure for AI to work well.Connect with Rachelle Ray, Head of AEC Marketing Innovation, OpenAssethttps://openasset.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelle-ray-marketing/Connect with Katie:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

AEC marketing is shifting from a reactive, proposal-driven function into a strategic discipline that drives demand. Justin Davidson of JE Dunn has helped lead that change from the inside.Katie Cash talks with Justin about how that shift played out inside one of the country's largest builders, where JE Dunn built a dedicated vertical market model for its fast-growing industrial and manufacturing practice. He shares why a strong digital footprint now wins work from clients who find the firm online, and how video content and AI-optimized search are reshaping the way owners choose their builders.Whether you support a single office or a national vertical, these lessons will help you move upstream and earn a seat at the strategy table. Listen to hear how JE Dunn turned marketing into a growth engine.AEC marketingconstruction marketing strategymarketing and business development alignment vertical market marketing video marketing for constructioncontent generation industrial and manufacturing constructiondigital footprint for AEC firms AI optimized searchJE DunnConnect with Justin Davidson, Marketing Director - Advanced Facilities Group, JE DunnLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindavidson09/JE Dunn: https://jedunn.com/Connect with Katie Cash:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

If your firm is still waiting for the RFP to show up before getting serious about winning the work, you are already behind. Katie Cash chats with Noel Brady, Co-Founder and COO of ProjectMark, the CRM built specifically for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. They talk about what it actually takes to build a firm that grows with intention. Noel challenges the deeply ingrained belief that winning work is about personal relationships alone and makes the case that sustainable growth requires systematizing those relationships so they become a firm-wide asset rather than a liability that leaves when a key person leaves. From pipeline conversion ratios to the go/no-go decisions firms get wrong, this episode is an honest guide to replacing gut instinct with clean, actionable data. Noel and Katie also dig into the cultural and behavioral shifts that distinguish firms that merely talk about being data-driven from those that actually do it. If your firm is ready to stop reacting and start leading, this episode is the place to start.•        AEC business development•        CRM for AEC firms•        architecture engineering construction marketing•        AEC firm growth strategy•        go/no-go decisions AEC•        pipeline conversion ratio•        data-driven AEC•        seller doer AEC•        project pursuit strategy•        RFP strategy architecture firmsConnect with Noel Brady, Co-Founder & COO, ProjectMarkLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noel-brady-mscsi-mrics-aaaa4547/ProjectMark: https://www.projectmark.com/Connect with Katie:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

The old AEC marketing playbook is no longer enough, and as the AEC truth teller, Judy Sparks is here to say what the industry has been too polite to admit out loud… the way you’ve always done it is quietly costing you work. Judy Sparks, Founder and CEO of Smartegies and Amazon bestselling author of "The Modern AEC Marketer," joins Katie Cash for a candid milestone conversation.  This is episode 100, and they are celebrating with some long-overdue industry truths.   The way you’ve always done work as an AEC firm has changed.  And it’s time for your firm to catch up.  There is a disconnect between how AEC leaders think about marketing and how marketing actually works. Judy talks about the gap, from treating the marketing funnel as a discipline rather than a diagram, to why top-of-funnel investment is where most firms are quietly losing ground. She also walks through a practical alignment exercise that will quickly reveal who your firm’s highest-value customers are and how to reach them.  If you are ready to advocate for a seat at the leadership table, this episode will help create a clearer path for you to get there. Connect with Judy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judysparks/Connect with Katie:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/https://smartegies.com/Grab Judy Sparks’ new book, The Modern AEC Marketer: How the Next Generation Will Lead the Industry Forward:  https://a.co/d/0hNpFy1G Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  

Podcasting may be the most underutilized business development tool in the AEC industry right now.Tom Schwab, CEO and Founder of Interview Valet, is joining Katie Cash to explain why they believe podcast marketing deserves a real seat at the table in every AEC firm’s growth strategy. Podcasting goes far beyond content creation; it’s a strategic driver for relationships, reputation, and revenue. From podcast guesting to launching your own show, Katie and Tom discuss how architects, engineers, and construction professionals can build trust, deepen client relationships, and improve visibility in both traditional and AI-driven search.Podcast interviews can be used to influence decision makers, strengthen trust, and create evergreen marketing assets.  Katie and Tom even break down the realistic expectations around time, ROI, and how to align podcasting efforts with real business outcomes.Podcast marketing is no longer just for consumer brands. For AEC firms ready to grow their reputation, strengthen relationships, and drive revenue, the microphone may be the most strategic tool in your marketing mix.Connect with Tom Schwab, CEO & Founder, Interview Valet:https://interviewvalet.com/aecConnect with Katie:  https://smartegies.com/Grab Judy Sparks’ new book, The Modern AEC Marketer: How the Next Generation Will Lead the Industry Forward:  https://a.co/d/0hNpFy1G Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

Good leadership in architecture has never been just about knowing how to design a building.Tory Winn, Principal and Co-Managing Director of Gensler's Atlanta office, has thought a lot about what it actually takes to lead well in this industry, and it comes down to people. How you build a team, how you show up for clients, how you bring someone along who's just starting out.In a conversation with Katie Cash, she talked about why Gensler still believes in getting people in the same room, what mentorship looks like when it's done right, and how firms can stay true to who they are even as the workforce changes around them. She also touched on AI, not as a threat to creativity, but as a tool that helps designers show clients what they're imagining before the words are even there.The throughline in everything she described? Leadership is less about having the answers and more about making sure the people around you feel like they're part of something.The firms that get that right, the ones that invest in culture, in connection, in the next generation, those are the ones doing the most interesting work.Connect with Tory WinnPrincipal & Co-Managing Director, Gensler Atlantahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tory-winn-ncidq-iida-97a087178/https://www.gensler.com/Connect with Katie:  https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

Great engineering firms do not scale on talent alone. They scale on repeatable systems and a culture of accountability.Suzie Engel, PE, President and Owner of Motz Engineering, shares how she transformed her firm by building a process-driven culture that improves communication, protects quality, and creates better client experiences. By implementing structured systems, data tracking, and clear accountability across teams, Motz Engineering delivers consistent results while empowering engineers to focus on solving complex problems.Suzie also discusses how sharing lessons learned across departments strengthens leadership, improves future project outcomes, and helps engineering firms grow without chaos. For AEC leaders looking to raise standards while protecting team culture, this conversation offers practical insights you can apply immediately.Connect with Suzie Engel, PEPresident and Owner, Motz Engineeringhttps://www.motzengineering.com/Connect with Katie:  https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals.  Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help.  Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.”  Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!  And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.