Context & Clarity for Small Firm Architects

What’s your niche? Do you have one or do you call yourself a generalist? I’m really interested in finding out if you have a niched specialty. If you’re a residential architect, do you specialize in a certain style or a certain location or geography? If you work on hospitality projects, do you specialize in certain types of restaurants? I know in the medical world, there are lots of specialties, even deeper than say medical office buildings. Do you do surgical suites or some other super-specialized project type? How much more specialized can you get? How deep can your niche go? Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Like all sciences, we're continually learning about building science. It is, by definition very technical, and with the cost of building materials skyrocketing, the need to understand and evolve the science rapidly is more important than ever. That all sounds pretty overwhelming to me, so how do we keep up? How do we make understanding building science fun?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

The cost of some building materials has risen more than 170% over the past year. Changes like that obviously impact construction costs. Some firms are seeing projects put on hold to 'wait it out,' while others have clients canceling projects because suddenly they can only afford a portion of what they'd hoped for. This is our current reality, so how will this explosion of costs effect your practice in the long-term?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

I don't really think 'would you respond' is the right question. When it comes to competing for work, you need to have a strategy and system in place that allows you to be efficient with your time, effort, and resources. Believe it or not, there's a fundamental list of questions in a Go/No-Go process that's a reliable predictor of your success rate when you compete for projects.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Tell me about yourself...That's the question we'll start with Today on Context & Clarity LIVE.Jeff Echols and Katharine White MacPhail will Michele Grace Hottel, Jay Caroli, and James Polk, three members of the Context & Clarity community.This week we get a rare opportunity to 'meet' three members of what has truly become the Context & Clarity community. If all goes well, these community spotlights will become a regular Context & Clarity feature.Join the conversation, Thursday at 4:00 pm ET.Context & Clarity LIVE is live-streamed on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, and YouTube.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

For an architect, licensure is the heart of the profession, different licensing requirements from state to state or country to country can be confusing, expensive, and time consuming. What if there was a national license in the United States? Or an international license that allowed you to practice without borders? How would it benefit your practice?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

We're back to our mini-series on the digital and social media platforms that architects could use and this week we'll take a little different angle. Podcasting may not fit neatly into the digital or social media box. It is definitely digital, but it really falls into a content category more than a digital or social platform, but I wanted to talk about podcasts, because almost all of our Context & Clarity LIVE guests have podcasts. Katharine has the Talking Home Renovations with the House Maven podcast, I have the Build Your Brand podcast plus this one and together we have the Context & Clarity LIVE podcast episodes. So what’s in it for architects? Architecture is such a visual medium, how would you benefit from producing audio-only content?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

I've got Jury Duty this week, so that's a good excuse for us to accelerate our planning for what we hope will become a regular Context & Clarity feature. We’ve invited a few members from our live audience to join us on-screen and introduce themselves. It’s a rare opportunity because most of the time, the audience just sees me or me and Katharine if it’s Thursday, and we’re getting to know each other through comments posted on the screen. Now, we’ll ask a few from our audience to tell us about themselves.Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Can you make money while you sleep? I know if you've built your business around charging an hourly fee, that question may really push the limits for you, but I also think it's an important question for you to consider. The definition of passive income is money you earn that doesn’t require you to do a lot of active work to continue making it. Basically, you do the work and create the value upfront and then sell it over and over again to create an income stream. My real question is, what's one small piece of what you already do that you could sell over and over again for passive income?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access

Do you choose your work or does your work choose you? I think that's an interesting question because it could take the conversation in a couple of different directions. Should we talk about the pragmatic? Are you attracting the work you want or are you settling for what comes in the door? OR... Should we talk about the philosophical? What role does fate, serendipity, whatever you want to call it, play in where you start, where you go, and what you do?How will you answer the question?Mentioned in this episode:All AccessAll Access