Architecture, And: Publishing

A This episode of practice disrupted is supported by Monograph. The cloud based practice operations solution built for architects by architects. Section Cut, the interactive virtual conference from our friends at Monograph. Learn more at sectioncut.com.

B And Twinmotion the simple real time rendering solution to create high quality imagery client presentations and interactive experiences that help communicate your design ideas fast. I'm Evelyn Lee. And I'm Janine Chastain. We're collaborating on curated conversations to explore how the industry is changing.

A Together, we'll find ways to create new solutions to current challenges while elevating the value of architects.

B Welcome to Practice Disrupted.

A Hi, listeners. Hi, Janine.

B Hey, Evelyn. Hey, disruptors.

A The person that we're bringing to Practice Disrupted this week is not a stranger to the podcast. She's been on one of the voices from the Future of the Profession conversations from season 1. However, we wanted to bring Laura back to talk about her role as a published architect and her interest in helping the future of the profession.

B So Laura's a friend of ours from the AIA. We've known her as she's navigated various leadership opportunities in her career, including project architect in various leadership positions with the YAF. What really inspires me about Laura is she's so focused on learning. And in every pursuit you'll see in her career, she's really looking for opportunities to grow, and she's always sharing what she's learning back with her friends and her peers. And, really, I just think Laura is trying to do good in the world with her architecture education and training, so we're excited to have this conversation with her today.

A Laura and I served on the Young Architects Forum together, and, she is also a past chair of that committee. I've seen Laura grow over her time at the AIA. It's it's really interesting. I have this distinct memory, and I've actually never told her about this. So if she listens to this podcast again, it'll be interesting to see if she shares the same memory. But I have this distinct memory of us being at an AIA reception, and she was relatively new, especially on the national scene. She didn't know every bit a lot of people. And she, she kept circling back to conversations I was having as I was going from various different group to group.

A But, like, it was it spoke to kind of her tenacity and her intrigue and her, like, her own hopes to kinda learn more, meet new people, and just begin to, like, you know, have conversations about how can she get more involved with this association and do so in a meaningful way. So it was interesting for us to then just speak about it, for the podcast.

B And Laura really caught my eye because of social media. If if you're not following Laura, she has a massive record of all of the things she's done through her career and her leadership and her learning opportunities. So I met her on social media, and then she was actually celebrating her birthday in San Francisco, and that was the first time we met. And she came to my office, and we met up.

A I had no idea that's the first time you guys met. That's funny.

B Yeah. And, anyway, I'll jump to her bio, because it'll explain all of these various leadership roles that she's actually involved in. Laura is an architect at Ratio headquartered in Indianapolis and the founder of L2 Design LLC, a published author and creator of A. R. E. Sketches and the little architect's alphabet her passion for the profession drives her to mentor young professionals and volunteer in her community she's a 2017 Young Architect Award winner a past chair of the Young Architects Forum past president of AIA Indianapolis, and was recently elected as an at large representative on the AIA National Strategic Council. Her website and blog offer unique insights into professional practice together with inspiration and tips for young architects.

A Great. Let's cut to the conversation.

B I feel like there's so much to dive into on this conversation, and I wanna start by asking you what drives you in all of these leadership roles and pursuits?

C I mean, I think that what we will see probably is, like, a continuing thread in our conversation is just a desire to share knowledge and, like, do the things I'm passionate about. And I tend to go full tilt towards those things, so there's not really a lot of balance in that, which in years past has been easier said than done and easier to do now with a fiancee and balancing time from a a personal perspective. It gets a little hard sometimes to balance that out. Trying to to find that is always a daily or weekly check-in. But, yeah, I would say the drive is definitely just general passion for the profession and to make it the best, we possibly can and to remove those hurdles by sharing knowledge, for future professionals.

A Oh, thank you for that. And if any of you want to find out more about what Laura is doing, we'll be sure to include all of the links to her social threads down in the show notes for our listeners. But I wanted to jump in, Laura. So Janine kind of gave a quick bio of everything you're doing. Why don't you do your own kind of self introduction and tell us a little bit more about who you are, what you're working on, what you're most excited about in the coming months, and then we'll jump into your publications.

C Yeah. As Janine mentioned, I'm a project architect at Ratio Design, which is headquartered in Indianapolis but we have 5 offices in 4 different states currently, and one overseas office in Korea. So that is my my day job, but as Janine also alluded to, I actually, own my own business, L squared Design, which actually just celebrated its 10th anniversary last week. Oh, congrats. Thanks. And that honestly is a is some of the big pieces of my background because I'm from Indianapolis. I went to Ball State for both my undergrad and grad school. I graduated into the recession.

C So I always joke that at that point in time, I was the least hireable architect because I was a female trying to find my legs in the profession, married to the military, and moving every year, and not yet licensed. So I actually decided to found my business because I wanted to create something that I could pour that passion into, and would move with me instead of having to start over every single time. So that has now become kind of the umbrella under which I can do some of these side passion projects while still learning and getting the tools that I need as a young architect in a commercial setting. So it lets me test my marketing skills or my business acumen or, as we will be talking about today, the idea of publishing books and sharing what you know in different ways. So that is that's a big piece of that story, and I will continue obviously to to grow that or let it morph because it's my own in whatever way I need to. Obviously, when I started it, I didn't expect it to be a place where I like a business that held published books. You know? I expected it to be something that did residential work and custom furniture. It still does some of those to a certain extent, but one of the things that I have learned in this process is is the importance of being fluid in kind of living out those passions.

A You started off by talking about how the thread of this conversation is going to be about educating the future of the profession. And I think you've you've actually found great success in your publications. So for those of you who don't know what we're referring to, Laura has 3 books, that you can find on on Amazon. Please tell us if you can find them and other places too. But a ARE sketches volume 1 and 2, but since the first volume was so successful. And also, the little architect's alphabet, which my kids both love, all drawn electronically by you and published on the platform. So tell us a little bit about why publications? I think people think writing a book is such a daunting process. I think you've come at it from a very unique and new angle that makes it work for for you and how you wanted to deliver a book.

C Yeah. So I mean, the ARE sketches journey was organic in and of itself. And it was kind of brought out of a need that I saw for young architects to better understand the material outside of the giant ballast book that we all studied in the process of getting licensed. So I found myself in the process of making friends nationally, like through Twitter or Instagram, sharing our lessons learned, after we would take our tests. And I just happened to mention at one point that I found myself, sketching what I was reading so that I could better understand it and better recall it from a visual standpoint while I was testing. They asked me to share those with them, so I obviously wanted to professionalize them a little before I did. And that then kind of snowballed into the first book because people wanted to, have a kind of bound way to study these things. I've had buyers reach out and say, you know, it's a it's a great 20 minute study break on the train on their way to and from work, but it's also just a good way to kind of break down sometimes not so easy to understand material into, like, bite sized visual information.

C So that's how kind of the ARA sketches formed into that first foray into publishing. And from there, it kind of just you know, it's easier once you've done it once. But, yeah, it's all just a general digital sketching. I just do it on my iPad, through paper, which used to be a 53, app, but it's now owned by WeTransfer. So I try to keep it really low key, just only the information you need to understand something. And as you mentioned, there's 2 volumes right now. I'm working on a 3rd. The first two volumes were more closely linked to ARE 4 point o, although the content didn't really change from the shift.

C So the content of those two books still works for the 5 point o tests. They just kind of shifted around where that happens in those tests. And then in the process of doing those, I mean, between the two books was a combined, like, 500 sketches. So you really start to hone in what do you need for a sketch, what do you need to be able to get an idea across, Which then obviously lends itself to future sketches, you know, once you get into the rhythm of something. And then with the little architect's alphabet, you know, that was a monkey of its own because my sister decided to have her own little monkey. And my adorable nephew is so curious and so wonderful, and I wanted to get him interested in the world around him. And I wanted to get so many other young kids interested in the world around them and interested in architecture and what that means. So I decided to kind of take those lessons learned from the Aries sketches and do an ABC book that's all about architecture and design.

B What I love about all three of these books is that you connected this idea that architects are visual learners and acknowledge that there are different learning styles in your work and and generated this maybe it started as a process that you use for yourself, but in doing so, you really opened up a whole new way for people to access this information and digest it, which, when I was studying and I used your books, I found really helpful because, oftentimes, especially with the Aries, you're you're reading very thick chapters. You're trying to retain it. In the 1st several years doing AERI work, I was a note taker, and I was trying to transcribe a lot of information. But when I used your tools, I started thinking about it from a sketch component, and I found that extremely enlightening for helping me retain some of the information. So I just wanna give you, a kudos for that. I I I think it's an effective tool, and it's smart because it really addresses a need in the market that wasn't there.

C Thank you. I'm glad it helped.

A Unfortunately, I was licensed before the parts were published.

C Well, you were just a badass. So

A I'm also the oldest one in this conversation. So I don't know what version of the AIREs I took, but there were 9 tests at the time.

C Oh, yeah. That might have been, like, 3 or something. I can't remember.

A So you you didn't go through the process of, like, finding an agent or a publisher. Can you talk to our readers a little bit about what self publishing is, and why you chose to go the route you did?

C Yeah. Obviously, having never done this before, the idea of working with an agent or finding an agent just seemed really daunting to me, especially for something as niche as what I was attempting to do. I didn't know if there would be a market for what I needed or for what I was creating. So I knew that I needed to be able to create print on demand kind of scenarios. I didn't want to shell out 1,000 of dollars to a publisher hoping that this thing, you know, took off the ground for a 100 copies or whatever that meant, and then having to hold them in in my house that is constantly under construction. So, and I honestly do not remember who specifically suggested CreateSpace, which is Amazon's publishing arm, but I decided to do some research into that and a handful of other options. If you think about, you know, the the old ways of printing portfolios before we all went digital, you know, like Lulu and a handful of other online publishing platforms, CreateSpace was the most economical option. And from a larger book publishing industry aspect, Amazon holds, like, an 85% market share of all online book sales.

C And if you don't start with them, you have to pay a secondary distribution fee to get into their stream. So from even simply from a business sense, it made the most sense because that then helped me keep the price of the book down as low as I possibly could in that process. And because I knew what it was like. Right? Like, I had just gotten licensed. I knew it costs so much to get not just the main study books, whether it was Ballast or Kaplan or whatever you were using, but all of the kind of ancillary study material cost money. And then the test cost money, and then all of those other things add up. So I was trying to keep it economical while still giving people the information and making some money for the time invested in it. So CreateSpace kind of ended up being that platform for me.

C And if you have any sort of background in design, it is really easy to take on because they basically just need a PDF, and they will give you the templates or the sizes for all of the book options and the bleeds required. I'm getting really technical right now, but they basically will give you everything that you need. And from a design background, you know what all of that stuff means. So you can just run away with it and start setting it up. And then they have their own editing process on the back end when you upload your PDF. So they make sure that it's gonna print okay. And from that point on, it's just a print on demand option.

A So you you already admitted to going a little bit more technical, but you you also talked, alluded to, you know, those those reasons why you went with Amazon given the market share. Are there any other skills or experiences that you learned from this exercise that you've translated into your life and the work that you do at ratio or even within your own practice?

C From a marketing perspective, trying to learn how you market a book is interesting because you're doing that without the help of an agent, or the help of a a bigger business behind you. So that is those are definitely lessons learned. The general business aspect of managing how a book gets to people. When I first published the very first book, I had more time on my hands, and I wanted it to be personal to the people who received the book. So I had an option where you could buy on Amazon, but you could also buy it directly through me. And if you bought it through me, you got a little handmade bookmark to help you kind of guide your way through it. So there are a handful of people in the world who actually have a handmade bookmark with my signature that, you know, was just a little incentive to help them kind of keep going through it. And that's where, you know, having to check-in and understand what your time is and what your balance is matters.

C Because at some point, I had to say, okay, I'm too busy. I can't navigate having these books at home, printing out shipping labels, and getting them to, a post office or to UPS to make sure that the people who wanted these books because they needed to study because they had a test, got them in a timely manner. It was just easier to kind of funnel them all to Amazon and make sure they got it quickly. So that is kind of all sorts of larger managerial things of business and publishing. From a visual thinking standpoint, it has led to other opportunities. AI National actually hired me, to create some diagrams for their brick website, for one of their editorials.

A I had no idea.

C Yeah.

A So You always learn something new in these conversations. Sorry. Go ahead.

C Yeah. So that was a fun, thing. And honestly, like, I I do occasional searches. I have Google alerts set up for ARE sketches and for, certain different keywords. But I will also just randomly get, emails from teachers across the world saying, I wanna use this one sketch of yours that I found online. How do I credit you or do you need anything else from me? Or, I will find that, you know, there are actually different towns across the US that are actually using my zoning sketches to help explain to architects taking their test how zoning works or how the National Historic Standards rules work, and they're hosting them on their town's zoning website to help explain to the people that live there how their zoning works. So, it's kind of had more wings than I expected and helped me continue to understand how you explain things visually. And if you can do so easily, you have a better ability to connect and connect an idea with a client or with whoever you're talking to.

C Ratio is now actually looking into some different software to help take some of our images and turn them into GIFs almost, make interactive diagrams for some of our different presentations that we do. And because of the airy sketches, because of these different passion projects that I have seen through, I was one of the first people that they thought of to, like, let's give you some time to learn this software because you clearly understand how to take an idea and make it something that everyone can understand.

B Wow. That's really exciting to hear that they're connecting the dots. And, like, you've done something that's a reflection of who you are, and your company is acknowledging that and and listening to that and asking you to step up into a leadership role that honors that, which is really nice to hear. I'm glad you started to tee up reach. I wanna ask you. Now you you've gone through this process three times, and you're moving into the 4th time. Maybe you could give us some context on scale. Like, how many months was that first process versus the times that you repeated it? Did it take less time later? And then I'm also curious about on the back end after it was published, the reach that you've had in terms of how many books you've been able to sell, how the impact has surprised you with some of the people reading your books?

C Yeah. So the how to from the ARE sketches side is obviously content dependent. I'm working on the first version of the book for ARE 5, and I was able to translate, I would say, 50% of the sketches from 4 point o, but I'm still having to make, you know, another 250 to 300 sketches. Because in the process of them translating to the 5 point o series, they condensed the test, which means there's more content per test. And my goal in providing this, at least what I found helpful to make sure I was covering all of the content and then helpful for people reading along is it's basically a visual narrative that lines up 1 for 1 with Ballast. So not that they need my help with marketing, but if you have them side by side, you know exactly what's happening from a visual perspective because it's like sentence for sentence, word for word. Here's an image that matches what's happening from a general idea standpoint. So the build up to each book in that sense is content driven.

C So there are some of the tests that are shorter, there are some that are longer, but it also helps to be in the flow and to understand how you want to document things. So it took a while for the first book for me to understand what I wanted that kind of visual to look like, and it has shifted a little over time. From a reach standpoint, as we've talked about, obviously, the ARA sketches is a very niche market. So having a, like, professional peer network online was super helpful because I had people that I was already talking to that were going through their testing process and they knew people who were going through their testing process. So it was very much a natural organic word-of-mouth process. The Little Architects Alphabet was obviously entirely different. It's an entirely different market and an entirely different group of people. So it's been interesting to see who has reached out to me or what I can understand of where the book is being purchased.

C That's the one downside to Amazon is you don't get a lot of those metrics of, like, where books are happening. But just understanding too, because I will occasionally get, you know, Amazon payouts from the UK or from somewhere in the EU. So, like, I can get a somewhat of a sense, and I would never have expected it to land over there. So that's kind of cool to see. And different people that have reached out to me as it relates to just thanking me because it's getting their kids interested because, you know, when they go for a walk or they go for a drive, they comment that the kid is paying attention and asking about the stuff they're seeing. And they're they see a correlation to understanding that, with reading the book, which I think is personally awesome. Like, that's that's what you want to see.

B So it's a com it is

C a different market. I marketed it relatively similarly to the ARE sketches outside of the fact that I didn't, like, create a newsletter, for that. And then I just tried to share it with people that I like Evelyn that I knew had kids and just tried to kind of humbly bring that process forward.

B I think, Evelyn and I both were early adopters. I mean, I I have all your books, but the especially the, Little Architects Alphabet. I I definitely got a copy for my nephew who is very interested in architecture, and he loves building. And so we got it from him, and then, of course, it was, like, leading up to the holidays. So I sat and read it with my husband who's, like, an architect, and we were really impressed. Like, some of the words that you there were some tough words in there that I don't know if I had to pick a a word for the letter that I would have come up with much. But even then, I know it was I know it's designed for kids, but I found it still very informative and kinda interesting to think about what words you picked. And then I know, Evelyn, you got it for your kids too.

A Yeah. No. I I got it. And, yeah, they love they're very well, special well, my 5 year old is still very visual, but definitely my 3 year old still is is very visual. So she enjoys looking through all the pictures, and and asking, she just on every page, though, she's like, what's that? What's that?

C Yeah. I would say that that was probably one of the things just in different marketing, tools continuing to evolve and ideas of, you know, how to think through sharing that a project is happening to kind of build buzz with a little architect's alphabet, I was able to, do that perhaps in newer or different ways, specific to word selection. Right? Because there were times where I would just hit a brick wall and I'd be like, well, I could do this, but it seems really obvious. Let's just, like, ask Instagram. Like let's make a story. Like give me an answer. What do you think of when when you hear this letter? And obviously there are some that just still are really hard unless you get super technical. So like trying to think of one for z, like you're better off doing a shape or I think I did, like, a shape and a z clip, which then you have to explain, like, what the heck that means.

A What is this?

B Yeah. Those were brilliant. I thought that was really clever.

C Yeah. And I tried to kind of create an option so that the book could grow as kids grew. Like, start with something simple, and a kid just generally understands, like, b is for brick. But then as they get older, they can understand, well, there's all different types of bricks and different ways you can put bricks together. And there's, there's so many other pieces to it, that there's this depth to architecture that that you don't see unless you're a professional.

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A Sound complicated? Well, what if I told you that Twinmotion enables anyone to present the biggest ideas in the easiest way possible, regardless of previous CG experience. To download your exclusive free trial, head to twinmotion.linkback/disrupted. That's twinmotion.linkback/disrupted. Now you you've talked about, like, how all of your images has been have been shared out. It's exciting to see that, like, planning to hear that they're landing on planning websites. But for you personally in your own career, I feel like it's even elevated people being aware of of you as an individual. So have you at least that's the sense I'm getting. Is that is that a correct sense? You know? And has it led to other things in terms of just publications or, talking pieces? Like, what what has it done for your career?

C I think a combination of things definitely led to me speaking at conferences or being asked to speak at conferences in different AI components or you know state or regional conferences. So there's that kind of knowledge sharing and thought leadership there of being recognized as kind of a visual thinker with a business mind. So that obviously helps, you continue to grow as a young professional to get those experiences. From an AIA, a lot of it has been kind of integral to AIA, but it's also been interesting, like, as we have opened new offices or hired, people throughout our different offices in different locations, I will occasionally have people message me like, oh my god. I didn't realize you were this person. Like, I used that study material. I do try to be relatively humble about it. Like, I've provided my material to ratio to be able to use, and I help them kind of keep our internal library updated with resources as it relates to the process of getting licensed.

C But I'm not, like, flashy about it, so it's more of a people connecting the dots on their own in the office. Because to me, it's just it's more about getting a person licensed. It's like that's the end goal. So there's been some of those, like, fun conversations that happen. I think it's also what we were talking about earlier of just having that kind of visual thinking background that can more quickly lend me to leading or helping guide a conversation in meetings because I can sketch through an idea quickly. So that obviously has a wealth of help in all sorts of settings from commercial projects to 1 on 1 conversations.

B I kinda wanna dig in on this idea of your desire to get people licensed. I mean, I think it's interesting because this is a conversation between 3 very different types of leaders, all very passionate about leading the profession forward, and we all have ties to the a. Why is it important to you to share knowledge and to lift up that next generation and get more people licensed?

C I think because I understand that my process wasn't easy, and I know, you know, it's almost like we share our battle scars when we talk about the idea of getting licensed or the path to getting licensed. And it doesn't have to be that way. And I also am very pro, like, removal of the old guard mentality of having to have those battle scars. Because the larger point is that as an architect, we should be constantly learning. Like the environment around us, the materials available to us, the way we practice should be constantly evolving, is constantly evolving whether we evolve or not. So it's not like you have to learn all of these things and then finally test and you know everything you need to know for the rest of your career. You just need to get licensed. You need to have a general understanding of how this works and then also understand that you're gonna keep learning.

C So we might as well get through that hurdle as quickly as we feel we're able to. So the process of sharing that knowledge just helps that person get there.

A Along those lines, you've been chair of the YF. You're now on the National Strategic Council, and I know a lot of our listeners probably have no idea what that is. We can get into that another day. But what are your hopes for the future of the profession? Where where would you like to see it go, and where do you think there's the best, biggest, greatest opportunities for change?

C I think, honestly, this transition to whatever the new hybrid work or whether firms continue to actually transition or whether they just try and go full back into all in office is gonna be a key indicator for a lot of people and for our profession because we do like to do the things that we know how to do and continue to do them well. And it's really hard to sometimes take in that new material or have an appetite to be the the firm that is on the cutting edge because there's liability. There's all sorts of scariness in that. It's an it's a new risk. But I think the the new process of hybrid work will give us a chance for testing out what that looks like in a variety of ways. Because if you have a better appetite to just let your employees work in the best way possible, then you're focused on creating the best work. But I think that we also have a general ability to to be nimble. Like we're creative and we need to do a better job of understanding what that means in how we solve all sorts of problems.

C So I think that there is a desire especially for young professionals to be more socially sustainably aware of all varieties of how a project is put together and how it serves a community. So that I think is one of our biggest points for growth too. It's not just how the employee works, but what the employee produces or how the architect works in general, employee or not, and what their work creates in the real world. There's definitely that momentum there in younger professionals. I don't know. Evelyn, I know you're a fellow now, but I would still qualify you as a young professional desiring to shake up the world. But I think there is that kind of hope. I especially have that hope for our profession to continue to to move forward and to think more broadly as to how we deliver a project or the types of projects we actually are creating.

B From your point of view, why do you think practice needs to be disrupted, and why do you think that the profession needs to evolve?

C Because the only constant is change. And if we can't figure out how to help share what we know to continue to improve the environment around us, then what the heck is our point? If we can't figure out how to create better spaces that serve everyone as compared to our continued understanding of our history of architecture that has created spaces to serve privileged communities, then, like, what are we doing? There's so many reasons beyond the social and equity aspect of why we need to get disrupted. We've there's so many technology reasons as it relates to new materials, as it relates to sustainability. We're still using really old building methods in a lot of ways that maybe aren't inherently sustainable. Maybe they are, but maybe we should think about why we're constantly doing things the way we've always done them because that's not a good reason.

B As a leader of the AIA, I just am curious from your point of view. You're a practicing architect. You have a lot of demands on your plate. What advice do you have for other practicing architects out there listening about getting involved with the AIA or getting involved in a leadership capacity to help drive change?

C I am a huge proponent of just volunteering and that you get out of the AIA, what you put into it. You get out of so many things in life, what you put into it. But especially the AIA, it's a volunteer member organization. So every single thing happening of major significance, IDEA was started by a volunteer who decided to see it through, who they who decided to do the work. And maybe they didn't very likely didn't do all of the work themselves, but they at least, like, raised their hand and said, I think this is worth talking about or fighting for or any variety of things. Because one of the biggest detracting comments that I see about people when they ask, well, why should I join the AIA is what good does it do me? Like, what benefit does it provide? And I can directly count a variety of benefits in my life that link back to the AIA and my membership because of network provided, because of all of these leadership opportunities that give me a chance to grow, that then give me a chance to do better at my daily work. I mean, heck, even my job at ratio links back to AI network meeting people at local events who can then vouch for me in a future interview. Right? So there's so many different ways to make it work for you that you just you really just need to get involved.

C And hopefully, you live somewhere where the component is readily willing to, like, take you on. I mean, our, executive director at AI Indiana is fantastic. And when I showed up for my first meeting and I had an idea on how to make something better, he was like, great. Do it. You can take this on. Also because he knew that architects generally show up to meetings with ideas and no one ever actually does it. So it also gives you the space to grow if you do want to do the work.

A And then just to come full circle back on on on the books, you know, if if there are other individuals that are out there saying, like, I I have an idea that I want to get published. Any any thoughts for those individuals in particular?

C Just sit down and do it. Carve yourself out 30 minutes, an hour, whatever it takes at least 3 times a week to get yourself in a groove, and figure out after a couple weeks if there's a thread, if there's a commonality, if there's something there. If you have an aptitude for writing, just write like tweet, you know, start a blog, start a newsletter, do whatever you need to do Because as long as you're sharing your knowledge, there is definitely going to be at least one person who finds it valuable, and that's the goal in the long run. But you have to actually, like, do the work.

A Yeah. What's next for you? I mean, are are you do you have enough on your plate? Do you have any other ideas turning around in your head?

C I mentioned the next version of the Aresketches book, which is persistently, slowly getting done. The next version of the little architect's alphabet or the little architect's something, so that I can turn it into a series is on the way because I also have a niece on the way. So I gotta get started for her. And, yeah, I don't know. I've I'm trying to be very open to where those passions take me and how I continue to help the profession. So I think those are those are the known things. The the unknown is a lot more fun.

A So I'm glad we brought on Laura because I've always talked about the importance of publishing and writing. Writing has always been a big part of my career, and it has helped me in a lot of different ways. So it was good to get her perspective, especially because she's gone the extra mile of putting these three books out.

B It's been inspiring to see Laura go through this process from her early AOC sketches and figuring out how to draw those and then put them into a published, set of a collection, basically, and then now take on the little architect's alphabet. I don't know too many architects who are focused in this publishing space, so it's nice to have a little bit more

A and I know it's typically more famous architects that have these kind of monographs that they put out of the firm. But even even well, even the Daughertys put out a monograph of kind of their work. So there is this notion that, you know, like architects do put together a collection of of their work and and put it out in some type of hardbound form. I think the ability to do that, I guess, is a lot easier than it has been in the past. Like, it's self publishing is easy. And I realized that Laura's Laura's books are usually delivered in paperback, but there there is the ability to kick something like more hard hardback and bound and formal and really, you know, really if you are interested in creating the kind of that firm monograph, like, here's another opportunity to do that too and use it as a get a giveaway to clients or what, you know, what have you.

B Yeah. I guess that's true. I've been on the back end of a few, architecture firms who've put out publications, and I guess I don't really I don't really think about them as books. I I feel like they're I mean, they're books, but they're, like, basically portfolios usually. But being on the marketing side, it's kind of a like, when you know what goes on behind the scenes of that process, it's it's it's much different than, I think, an individual who's taking on a a topic who's trying to create a publication, which I don't know. Listening to Laura really made me think about our own conversations on this iterative process that we go through in creating content week to week. It's just a process of exploring a lot of ideas and trying to figure out, like, the through line in terms of what you're creating.

A It's also a way to continually refine the message. Right? Like, there have been a few times where I've had a conversation with you or with our guests, and I recall this story. And then I was like, oh, that's a great story that I should be using in every single presentation that I'm giving related to this topic too. But that wouldn't have been teased out of me if it weren't for putting myself out there, if it weren't for having the conversation. So I I think it's also taking those tidbits away. And then, I I mean, to some degree, I guess, the entrepreneur in me is always, like, searching for ways to repackage, repurpose, reuse content that we already have, but also how that process creates new content that we can, like, quickly, like, put into that that cycle as well, I guess. Mhmm.

B Yeah. I I feel like most of the time I'm trying to explore something that has been on my mind for a while, and I I try to research around those ideas and come up with content that responds to my process for trying to solve that problem personally. And, usually, that's how I end up developing the different episodes that I've been taking the lead on more so, but it's been really cool because through the process of doing this podcast, like, we have conversations that I go into the interview, and I have no idea what we're. I don't really know the person or I'm not sure what their expertise is, and then there's all these unexpected parts of the conversation that unfold that are very and it yields divergent parts of the exploration that, I think has made made me surprised in a lot of ways, actually. Can you can you

A tell us what one of those surprises are? Now I'm putting you back on the spot.

B Well, I think I go back to Dave. Dave Fanon has been on our show twice. I knew who he was, but I didn't know him. And so I didn't and I didn't really know his story. You know, we threw angle at him with our first episode about retaining talent, and he I mean, it was just so cool. Like, he just picked it up and ran with it in terms of, like, content that, you know, he had been researching in his own career that matched the content that we were exploring with our questions. And so I walked away feeling like he really understood the problems that we were talking about, and that was reaffirming in a lot of ways. And, also, it was just really nice hearing what a unique journey he had had in his own career that I don't know that had been fully told.

B Yeah. No. I I agree. I've I've kind of enjoy exploring those aspects,

A and I and I learned something new, right, just even in the intro to this conversation. So of of friends that I've had for years, it's interesting to find out how you and Laura actually connected.

B We talked a little bit about work life balance in this episode, which, Evelyn, you have some thoughts on this that may be worth sharing.

A I don't know if it's good thoughts. And frankly I mean, I understand why people do it. But, you know, I'm one of those people that get asked a lot, how do you do everything that you do, with the podcast and practice disrupted and Slack and my AIA National involvement and being a mother of 2. So I don't know if I'm the best role model for what everybody or what anybody has in mind for work life balance, but I would also say that for me, it's not necessarily about finding what is a balance. It's about understanding what makes you happiest and what drives your passion and working it into your schedule in a way that you can commit enough time to it to see it continue to grow. I'm definitely one of those people that has a hard time saying no. But I've always struggled with this idea of work life balance because it's a scale. Right? And when I'm with my family, I'm with my family.

A I'm trying like, I'm trying to compartmentalize. I'm not trying to think about work. And when I'm doing work, you know, I'm trying to shut out my daughter who is, like, very loudly having lunch. No. Because my office has no door, and it's adjacent to to the kitchen or dining table. So, really, for me, it's not it's not a balance. It's it's just about understanding what keeps you happy and driving driving towards things that give you energy in a good way. Because I'm definitely not a role model, if you're just purely talking about balance.

A A lot of my work does happen between 10 PM and 2 AM. You know? And then the workday starts again at 7:30, and that's a schedule that most people probably don't want to maintain. But also, like, that means that everything that I get really excited about, I I can fit it in my day. And and maybe that's what motivates me to go on so little of sleep, but that's kind of my my own philosophy on it.

B Well, I do think you're a unique person, and I've really in embraced, like, being able to see how you operate behind the scenes because I I've also wondered, like, well, how does she get all this done? It it's a lot for those who don't know you very well. Evelyn, you just work your ass off. I mean, to be frank, like, you're right. Evelyn will stay up till late hours in the morning to make sure that something's done. I think you're also really good at multitasking. I think you've trained yourself to be a multitasker and be able to kinda have multiple things going on and being able to sort through that in your brain really efficiently in order to push through on multiple things at the same time, which not everybody is able to do. And I think that, in my observation, that that's been one of your strengths that you're able to push forward to maximize your time. It is Thank you for that.

B No. It's a good skill to have. I mean, I used to multitask a lot, but I found that I I really do better when I can do one thing at a time. And so I've I've leaned more towards, lean management principles, which is about kind of lining things up in a logical order so that when you pursue tasks, they fall like dominoes, which it works until it doesn't. I'm learning a lot from you in terms of how you try to create efficiencies and speed where you can so that you don't waste time.

A I I mean, I've definitely gone down the productivity hole because I'm all about processes, but sometimes those processes fall apart, and I totally acknowledge that. But then, like, tomorrow is another day. Like, if everything falls apart next day, tomorrow is another day to kind of start it all over and to recenter yourself. Yeah. I think my my next project, you know, after practice of architecture becomes wildly successful and practice disrupted is like, I I might have to it it might be like, you know, when I finally leave tech, which I've been enjoying too much to think about leaving, but, is that there are so few productivity coaches out there that are female. So maybe maybe that's my next the next thing I take on.

B I wanna say one more tip that for any, especially our female listeners that I I've learned from you is just, the honesty and the transparency. You own what's going on in your life, and you communicate that openly so that people don't have misguided expectations about what you're able to commit to or not or why even you might have your daughter with you in the middle of a presentation, which has happened.

A Happens multiple times. Yes.

B I think it's actually, that's a really good skill. And I've been trying to adopt that. Just being more direct, being more transparent, trying to communicate as much as possible about what realistically my constraints are. So that's a good recommendation for anyone out there who's practicing that skill.

A Yeah. And I think if anything, this environment, this remote environment, which as we see the rise in Delta, the Delta variant looks like it may continue for some time if things get worse. And this is not this I'm not saying anything new. Right? We've seen glimpses into people's homes that through Zoom, we have kind of a new experience and knowledge of our coworkers, our friends, and and their home life and what they're going through. And I think the the more successful leaders have really been able to kind of say, like, here's here's why where I am. You can meet me at the same place that I am. So one of our one of our directors, she was telling me about how she kicks off her meetings, and I thought it was really interesting. So I'd like to share.

A She kicks off the meeting. Like, one of the things she says is what it's like to be me today. So it's just kind of an opportunity for everyone to say this is what I'm dealing with. And it could be personally, professionally, but it's just a it's just if you're looking for that icebreaker, if you're looking for that moment that you wanna build a little camaraderie on on the Zoom call, I think that's an interesting way to start a meeting. You know, what it's like to be me today? And if the if the leader can start with, like, being open and transparent, then I think you'll find that those people that report up to you will be more likely to follow in your footsteps.

B I think that's a great recommendation and certainly something we need in quiet architecture studios.

A Yes. And on that note, thank you for listening and please tune in next week. Thank you again to our podcast partner, Monograph. Learn how Monograph can help you take control of your firm's financial health. Follow the link in our show notes or visit practice of architecture dot com backslash monograph so that Monograph knows that you heard about them from us. To reserve a seat at their first ever interactive virtual conference, visit sectioncut.com

B today. Thank you to Twinmotion for their support of this podcast episode. Visit twinmotion.link/ disrupted and try Twinmotion for free.

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