Leading with Finance & Entrepreneurship

A This episode is sponsored by Monograph and Arc IT. You'll hear more about them later on in the episode. I'm Evelyn Lee. And I'm Janine Chastain. We're collaborating on curated conversations to explore how the industry is changing. 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. Hello, Janine.

B Hey, Evelyn. Hey, disruptors.

A Today, we were interested in bringing in someone with a finance background, which is a little bit more technical to talk about simple things that firm owners can do to reframe their love or hate relationship with numbers. And what I love about our guest Belanly, is that she's also an entrepreneur in her own right. So she knows financially what it takes to run a large firm where she is CFO, but also what it takes to manage all different sizes and types of businesses. And her advice is really geared for everyone.

B As a small business owner, I can say firsthand that some of the financial advice that she's gonna give during this episode is so helpful when you're trying to figure out how to structure your financial management. And she's gonna go a little bit deeper into some of the things that she's developed as an entrepreneur to help other small business owners think about financial management.

A Bolanli Williams Ali sets a new standard of expectations for financial professionals. As chief financial officer for Mancini, Volanli brings a unique vision to the firm's leadership team and thrives on building relationships between finance and management teams to ensure the overall financial success of projects and her firm. At 36 years old, she is a true multi hyphenate. In addition to her c suite role, she is a mom of 2 and a dynamic leader in the built industry as the founder of several impact organizations for improving education in a low income school in Nigeria, where she was raised, empowering women in the AEC industry and at small design firms, as well as creating awareness about NGOs across Nigeria. Let's cut to the interview.

C So my current role is chief financial officer at Nancy Duffy, and what I do outside of the obvious, which is a lot to do with the finances of the companies, also run the companies and I'm an owner also, right? So, a lot of operational work goes into its strategy, in terms of determining what the vision of our company is going to be, how we're leading our people, what do we want to be known for in the industry, all of that is on my plate, right. So my main priority is to make sure the company is successful financially and that our people are taken care of.

A So a lot if you see the evolution of a lot of CFOs for architecture firms, actually most of them Mhmm. And even COOs, most of them come from architectural backgrounds or even have an architecture degree, but you have a very different kind of introduction into the profession. So what was your what's your background, first of all, to set the stage? And then kind of what it was your introduction in the AEC industry and your story of how you landed at NCD Duffy?

C So my background is in mathematics. And when I moved to the states, that wasn't what I originally, came here to study. I came here to study computer engineering. However, my first semester at Hunter College, I took physics. I sucked at it. So I said I needed to, find something new to do. I was fortunate to have a high school teacher who had identified, that I was strong in math. And from young, I always had an affinity for math.

C I had taken, you know, 1 or 2 courses in math at Hunter. And I I I picked up the phone, did my research, picked up the phone, and called my mother to say I was now going to be switching my major from computer engineering to math. The fortunate thing about Hunter is that Hunter had a bachelor's and accelerated master's program that allowed you do applied math, which meant you can apply to an industry. I had no idea what industry I was going to be working in, but, you know, that was my pitch essentially to my mom to convince her, to allow me to switch majors. Fortunately for me, she was very supportive. You know, I said I was going to do the math and then come SIA as a minor. I gave her the whole spiel. And that was how I transitioned into studying math.

C All of that went good and well, and, you know, fast forward to graduation. I had no internships done. I would interview but not interview well and so I wouldn't land an internship. And so I was like okay what am I going to do? At this point I'm an international student and I needed to get a job anywhere for me to be able to get a work experience here. Right. And I needed to be placed with the company to file. And I, I love this story so much about me because I say I can, that can vividly remember sitting down in the computer lab, you know, back then in college. And it was the New York Times classifieds.

C I searched. I saw this job opportunity for project accountant or junior project accountant. And the link to the industry was because in high school I had taken technical drawing. What are the odds? I was like, you know, this might be really exciting to work at an architectural firm. I really enjoy TV, even though I didn't pursue it. And I applied. Fortunately for me. I mean, I keep saying fortunately because it's just the way, everything rolled in a serendipitous way, but the interviewer happened to also study math.

C And so we connected on that. And, you know, I talked about this, I talked about my master's program. I really leaned into the value that I could bring even studying such a quote unquote hard topic. And, by the time, you know, the next day I was offered the position and that began my now 14 plus years career journey in the AEC industry.

B One of the things that I found really exciting about your story is in addition to just being very, determined person to find your way forward, but you made this jump into a pretty serious role when you started out at SOM in a financial role. You were doing accounting, and then I heard in the conversation that you had with Mark that you guys were doing project accounting, to help support these different teams that are running these really big projects there. When you made the jump from math into accounting, what was that transition like, and what was it like to jump into a firm setting?

C Yeah. So my first role, you know, like I say, the the title was a junior project accountant role, and that was actually at h w. And, essentially, what a junior project accountant did for me was, supporting project accountants. Right? So essentially, I was doing anything and everything to support the accounting group, within within HLW. And I got exposure into, like, seeing how projects run, trying to understand, like, I didn't fully understand when I took the role, but, like, now that I'm here, how can I make sure that, I grasp this position, and how I could bring value to the organization or bring value to the team? And so I started learning everything. I was like a sponge. Right? I was working closely with the project accountants. Whatever the senior project accountant needed, I was helping with.

C I started understanding what project accounting is, which is essentially working side by side with a project manager, making sure that, you know, from a financial perspective, their projects are successful. Right. And so for me, that leap was not too hard because my math degree allowed me think outside the box. It allowed me, approach problems, you know, from a very like unique way of thinking. Right? So in math, there's not only one way to solve a problem. Right? So if there were issues coming up on projects, just the way in which I approach, solving it, or, you know, providing solution, helped a lot. Right. So I, I took the skills and the knowledge I had from this, hard degree and applied it now to accounting.

C And I was fortunate enough to have people above me who were ready to invest in me. Right. Because I was eager to learn. So they were, they were willing to invest. And so that was the leap for me. And, and say it's on the ground training. Right. I was essentially just thrown in and it really, it really exposed my, my thoughts.

C It exposed my thinking. It exposed me to so much more of how this industry works. Right?

B And it's interesting because someone who's really able to excel at the finance part is not something that's common in this industry. So I I'm so curious to dig a little deeper on this. Like, you found something that you were really excited about, and you landed in an industry where financial management is not necessarily at the forefront of how architects are thinking about their projects. Some maybe, but, you know, most, I think it's not really their favorite topic. So how have you pursued this passion and perhaps even made it, an invested part of the firms that you've worked at to help support the architects?

C Yeah. So, you know, when I think of when when you think about, you know, architecture design firms, what is the bulk of, where your revenue is coming from? It's from your projects. And if your projects are not, financially successful, then you end up going out of business. Right? And so there's, you know, there's this thing that says, you know, 82 or this, research that shows that 82% of firms go out of business because they're not, really good at cash flow management. Right. And so when you think that the finances, right, projects and the financials is what is keeping your company, running, keeping your company profitable. You know, we'd love to do great design, but if you don't have your finances in order, you're constantly going to be, you know, worried you're not going to be able to produce, your product, right? Our product is, is the design we do. And if you can't, 1 fund it, you know, by 1 being able to hire good people to do great design there's going to be issues that will come up.

C And so, you know, for me going back to, to what you're, you had asked that for me was like the light bulb, right? I saw where there was a gap. I saw where I could really make myself part of the project team not separate from the project team. I'm really passionate you know like like I say as, you know, when I was an employee slash project accountant, my role was to make sure that my project manager is successful. Now as a leader my role is to make sure that the project accountants who are working for me are making my project managers successful. We are an integral piece of the puzzle. When you're when you change your your mindset or you you you really see yourself that way, you understand the importance of the work that you're doing.

A You know, I've worked at a number of firms. And literally, the first time on the interview your interview with Mark was the first time I actually heard the term project accountant. Uh-huh. And I've had, like, 20 years experience in architecture. And by all means right now, like, the size of Mancini Duffy is considered, what, like, a large architect like, anything above 40 is like a large architecture firm. So to all of those small and medium sized firm owners out there, like, is it is a project accountant someone who ends up wearing multiple hats? Is it someone you out to be integrated to the project team?

C Yeah. So, you know, probably for, for you, maybe the term yet, head is like, you know, a billing specialist, right? Someone who is in the accounting group that can just help produce bills, especially if you're a small size firm, Right? 1, 2, 3 percent firm. 1, either you are the 1, in that project accountant role when you have to put that hat on at the end of the month to do your billings. Right? So project accounting for, you know, for people who are listening is simply, you know, and a member of your accounting slash finance team, who is there not just to do your billings, but to help you see the blind spots that you might be missing financially, right? There's lots of power that comes, in your projects, right? One, they could be helping you manage or keep track of people who are supposed to be working on your projects, Right? How you guys create a budget, you create a project plan, you have people who are working on it, but who is helping you once you guys take off and you're designing who is, helping you watch to make sure that if if it's weekly, if it's monthly, you're staying on track. Right? So for me, a project accountant is one level above someone who's just doing billings for you. A biller just comes in. You tell them to create an invoice. They create it.

C It's sent to the client. A project accountant is working with you, throughout the month. How what is your project profitability? You had said in your project plan, you're going to be work you will have, like, 2 people working on your project for 40 hours. Well, 2 people are working for 80 hours. They're there to raise the flag. They're there to, you know, to, to, to I call it to to bring you back to focus, because all of these things affect how your project ends. Right? You want to make sure you're finishing your projects on time, on task, and within scope. There's this thing called the triple constraint.

C Right? It's scope, time, and costs. Right? If you if one of those 3 slips, your project is not going to end where you expect it to. And so for me, your project accountant or the definition of a project accountant is somebody who is working with you to make sure that all these different things from a financial perspective is staying on track. Your project is finishing to whatever profitability level you you had, expected it to be at the start of the project. You're busy. You're you're managing so many things, consultants, you know, you're you're working with your client. And so your project accountant is there to just help you help, be the home for all your all things finances for you on your projects.

B I'm just really excited because I know this is a major pain point for so many architects. So, like, I'm getting excited listening to you, and you've already mentioned a few of the pain points that I think are common. I'm hoping we could maybe go a little bit deeper on maybe, like, 2 to 3 things that you think are frequently overlooked by architects when it comes to project or financial management that they should be keeping their eye on?

C Yeah. So one of the the and I'll and I'll give you examples of things that I have done and that we do right now. Let's start, you know, I always say that things need to be watched on a rhythm, right? You, you you need to have financial rhythms in place to make sure that your projects don't go haywire. And so one of the things that I've I've noticed or, you know, that I noticed that project managers that I work with or project managers that, now that we're managing, are really appreciative of is 1, you know, down to the basics is time sheets. Right? Every week, you guys, you guys are going in, you're doing all of these elaborate projects. You know, you're you're forecasting and you're saying, okay, every week, this is what's going to happen. So are do you have a rhythm in place to make sure that your team is staying on track, right, to what you've you've projected them to work on a project. That's one, level I would put it.

C That's one level that you should start with. I had base. Right? I plan these people to work. Are they staying on track? So you want to put in a rhythm if it's weekly, if it's monthly, I say weekly, right? Because so many things can happen on a project from week to week. Right? You could, you could be on track and all of a sudden there's a major, issue that arises on the project and that could essentially blow out what you've planned. Right? So that's one thing I would say you should measure. And that goes into, you know, like when I mentioned that triple constraint that goes into the scope, right? Are you going out of scope? And if you're going out of scope, how does that affect the time that you need to work on it? Another thing that I think, that all that I've noticed that architects tend to overlook is your accounts receivable. Right? So all so so think about the the project cycle.

C Right? Throughout the month, your team has been working. You get to the end of the month. I'm just doing a very basic example, They get to the end of the month and you build you have to send out an invoice to your client. Well, you send out that invoice. Then what happens? Are you following up? Or has that AR accounts receivable now just, you know, gone into space and you've not followed up with your clients because once you issue an invoice, if you don't collect on it, then it doesn't become cash to help you run your business. Right? So one, make sure you're watching your time to make sure you're watching your invoices. And the third thing I will say is make sure you're looking at your project performance, right? So yes, you might be billing your clients. But how is your invoicing or how's your revenue looking against the time you're spending? Right? Have you blown your fee? Have you left money on the table by not going to ask for additional services that you are entitled to? Right? Because again maybe they've gone out of scope.

C Right? So those are the 3 things or if I were to think about the 3 things I wanted people to walk away with, watch your time, watch your watch your invoices, and watch how profitable, right, your projects are going to be. That is also going to help you know what kinds of projects are we successful at? What kind of projects did we not do so good at And how can we, fine tune our process to make sure we're running a firm? Right now, you're now talking all these invoices, all these projects, all become part of this larger firm. Right? How do we make sure that we're running a successful business?

A Yeah. I've always if you want another entrepreneurial idea, because I know you're very entrepreneurial in spirit, I always felt like architects need, like, the nice the nice version of the credit card collections agency to help them with the to help them with all of their ARs.

C Yes. But I I think that, you know, you've performed you've performed work. It's work that you've produced for a client. So, you know, it's it's yours. It's revenue that you've earned. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for what you worked on. I say, you know, our industry, we we operate like the bank. We, we, we do all this work.

C We send out our invoices and sometimes, you know, you might not be able to collect on time, right? But that's work you've already performed. You've had to pay your, your employees. You've had to pay yourself, right? If you're a small firm, you've had to either pay yourself or you've gone without pay because the cash hasn't come in. Right? So there is a disconnect or we have to try to minimize how long an invoice is aging so that the cash can come in. So you can actually do what you need to do in your business.

A I think that's some like, for some reason, I think that's, like, a cultural mindset shift that really needs to happen, especially within the AEC industry. But another like, talking about entrepreneurship and supporting your community and lifting people up, you've already created tools out there to help, especially the smaller and the medium sized firms to get them into financial rhythms. Did you wanna talk a little bit about those tools, and then this will start going into a little bit, kind of some of your entrepreneurial endeavors too?

C Yes. Sure. Sure. So, as I've been said, I have, a financial solution slash literacy, initiative called She Builds, Money. And for me again, you know, I started thinking I've been in this industry 14 years. How can I strengthen the industry at large? How can I take this financial knowledge that I now have to make sure that smaller firms who are coming up have the right tools or or or resources that they can lean into to to help them succeed? Right? And so that that literally is worth what birth she builds money. And, and like you had mentioned, I create, I've created some tools, very simple. So my whole motive is if you're a small firm, you need things explained to you in, in a simple way.

C You're not an accountant. You're not, you know, you didn't go to school for accounting. You, you, you're just trying to figure out your business. So you need someone who can break down the lingo in a way which is understandable to you. And so one of the tools that I created is the finance task at a glance, and that simply is a PDF spreadsheet a PDF document that tells you, okay, on a weekly basis, what should I be looking at? On a monthly basis, what should I be doing? On a daily basis, what should I be doing? Should I be checking my bank account? Should I be checking my cash? Right? On a weekly basis, should I be checking my time? On a monthly basis, did I send out my invoices? Right. And I, what I find is that, you know, this sorts of checklist format, one, empowers a small business owner, right? I have in one place, the things I need to do to make sure that, my business, the business side, the financial side is running well. The financial side is running well. Right? So that's, that was the idea behind creating this, this, it's almost like a cheat sheet.

C Right? And so, I implore business small business owners or or even large business owners. Right? If you don't have a system in place, this is something that, you have access to. The other thing that I created is something called the cost guide. And the cost guide simply is, a a a methodology for you to be able to figure out how much does it take to run my business every month? How much cash on average or how much are, how much cash on average do I need to operate this business? And so those are 2 free tools, that I've I've created. And then the last tool that I that it also exists on the Distributes Money initiative is the cash flow tool. Now the cash flow tool, I I was sitting there thinking, what is the one problem I can help solve for a business owner? Like, what is the pain pain points that a lot of business owners face and it's cashflow, right? Understanding how to manage cash that's coming in, collect cash, understanding that whole cashflow cycle of your business. And so the cashflow tool is there to empower you, to help you put in the right rhythms and to teach you how to to manage that process. And so that's also there too.

C And for me, there's a wellness piece to it. When we know what is happening with our money, we're able to, 1, sleep well at night, 2, do great design, right? It helps you really focus on doing why you got into business.

A Yeah. I think rhythm is so important because I definitely find myself, like, you know, what was a 10 minute task, next month becomes a 20 minute task, and then after it becomes a 20 minute task, you just wanna shelve it for as long as you can before you, like, get back to it.

C Yes. And that's what happens with with with finances. Right? Even even think about your our personal finances. We, you know, a lot of times we don't wanna see what we've been doing through the course of the month. We just wanna shove it away. Okay. There's some money there, so it's fine, but you can't do that when you're a business owner. 1, when your business is growing and you not have people who are working for you.

C Right? Because your people need to be paid. So you have to, like, there again, it's a mindset mindset shift. You have to pay attention to these things. If not, you're going to 1, maybe either remain small. If you have growth, you know, in your vision, if you're not paying attention to your finances, you will just remain stagnant. Right? And, you want to be able to grow that that you really have to understand why you're in business. What the vision is you have for your organization and unfortunately, slash fortunately, you have to pay attention to your finances. You can't do anything without having money.

B I have 2 follow-up questions on this because I've worked with so many, financial leaders and small firms who are who have the burden of chasing their architects around and asking them to complete their time sheets or are trying to get billings and, are trying to get information, getting their busy architects to actually follow through on these things. So the busyness is definitely a challenge. So one question I have is, what do you say to your architects at Mancini Duffy to keep them motivated on this task? And then second, for maybe some of our small firm owners who might be feeling overwhelmed when you're in triage mode where it feels so overwhelming you don't even know where to start. Like, what is, like, your recommendation for the 1st place to start?

C So far, for our MD project managers I mean, again, I've now been at MD, four and a half years. Right? And so here I come with, like, guys, we are going to start these rhythms. We're going to be having a weekly AR meeting. We're going to be you're going to be meeting with your project accountants at the end of the month. Right? A lot of new things I introduced to to the PMs. And, some you know, what happened, I think, and even up until this morning, right, there was a report that we're looking at, a time analysis report that really helped them see clearly, you know, maybe a disconnect between what they think should be happening or people who are feeling overwhelmed and how can they help solve, that issue. So what I find happens is we have really strong seasons where, you know, there's full buy in. There's buy in into why these rhythms are important and what they do for their projects.

C And when they begin to see the results, right, like you get to the end of the month, you see your project earnings, you see that the efforts that you put in actually, you know, are are converting to project profitability, that gives them the gusto to keep going. Now there's there are times when it might, you know, again, maybe just feel like routine or like, okay. We've oh, yes. We have our AR meeting. And so what I do with them is I I again pull them in. Guys, what can we do to revive this? Would we would we want to see our information presented a different way? Would we want to see it presented visually? Right? Because I'm working with designers. So visual representation. Right? I have to think about how I'm presenting the numbers to them so that, there's that connection.

C And so once we think about how we can, you know, fix it up, if it's getting too routine or we change the format, that helps us keep going with our rhythms. Right? We're not just stuck in one way. Now going to your to the path, part 2 of your question, which is I'm a small firm owner. I'm just, you know, I'm just getting into it. I have one Excel spreadsheet where all my numbers are just sitting everywhere and I don't know what to do. The first thing I would say is 1, just understand, where you are. Right. Understand what the reality is.

C It is not a moment for you to beat yourself up or to feel like you don't have a handle on things. But if you don't have that, reckoning, like, okay. I'm not doing so good with my finances, but I want to get to a position where I feel in control of it. If you don't have that mindset shift or, you know, make that connection, no matter what rhythms we put in place, it's not going to work because it's going to still feel like, you know, like really hard work or like just going against the grain for you. So I say the first thing you need to do is fix your mind, fix your fix how you see fix your relationship with the financial part of your business. Once you fix that relationship or once you recognize that relationship, then you now start thinking, okay, What is what is the one task I could do for 5 minutes? Right? That at the end of a Friday, I have something I actually have something tip called a 15 minute Friday. If finances is, you know, seems like this overwhelming thing for you to do, my trick is to break it down into bite size, easily digestible, routines or or rhythms that will will will not make it feel so overwhelming for you. So something called the 15 minute Fridays.

C Every Friday, book 15 minutes on your calendar and say, okay, what cash came into my business this week? What did I pay this week? Do I need to send out invoices this week? Right? It's almost like a maybe you pick 5 things, 5 areas that you need to check. Have I done my timesheet this week? And then once you start doing that and start exercising that, you know, building that habit, it's not going to feel as overwhelming.

A Let's take a break from this conversation to talk about our sponsor of this episode, Monograph. We're proud to partner with Monograph because they are helping to transform form the practice of architecture, one design studio at a time.

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A Be proactive with Monograph. So I wanted to get deeper into all of the entrepreneurial aspects that you're talking about. So you started about she builds money, but you have she builds way right? She builds waves. I'm missing a she builds.

C Yeah. She Builds Lives.

A She Builds Lives and then Yes. And then a lesser known entertainment company.

C Yes.

A So if you want to, you know, give a brief overview of each and then, like, tell me what, like, drives you as an entrepreneur. Sure. And then we I wanna reserve a little bit of space like, special space for reach as well.

C Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess I'd call myself an entrepreneur. Right? So I love the structure of a of a 9 to 5 going to an office, like being part of a firm, being part of an organization. However, I do feel like, you know, there I'm more than that. Right? So, like, I have other ways in which I can be of service. Once I've learned something, how can I give back? So for me, at my core, there's a lots of service or reaching back out to the community, giving back so that people who are now coming up or or, you know, peers or even above now have information that can help make their lives easier. Shebuild I'll start really briefly with Shebuilds Lives.

C Shebuilds Lives is my nonprofit, and that started now, eight and a half years ago. That actually started as me crocheting hats. 1st, you know, people were very interested you know, these hats. Right. So how can I donate this hats to NICUs? How you know, these hats. Right? So how can I donate this hats to NICUs? How can I, use it to raise money for maybe like, you know, women in shelter with with kids? Like, how can I connect connect these this skill that I have to give back to a set of people? Over the years, it has now evolved and, you know, I've always really been passionate about education. Clearly, you can see maybe there's, there's always some education or improving literacy piece of of of of things that I know, improving literacy for others. And so now it's evolved, to me really working to improve the quality of education in low income communities in Nigeria, right? So how can we provide resources and opportunities for, for children in these communities to give them a chance, to make them feel cared for, to make them feel like, you know, feel loved.

C I I mean, honestly, that that truly is it. Right? To make them feel that there's somebody who's invested in their growth. Right? They are no different than any of us who are clearly, you know, a bit privileged where I am. So if I'm in this position, how can I help? So that's She Builds Lives and I'll just share recently, where their children can come and learn, and it can now become a multifunctional, building. She builds waves started, when I became a leader within the industry. Right? And so I started thinking about ways in which I can hold space for other women who want to make waves in their careers and beyond. Again, because of my experience, because of you know all these interests that I've had and found a way to, create this path path, career path slash journey for myself. How can we now start having conversations when women feel okay to show up as their full selves, at work? Right? How can we challenge other leaders to on to see that this is a benefit to your organizations where people who have interest can feel, you know, bring themselves, bring at at at that point in time, you know, my kids were still a little bit younger, right, so my my life, my my outlook on work, I needed to to be able to connect with other women who were at these inflection points or pivotal points in their in their journeys, making them feel like they're not alone.

C Right? Like, all the interest they have, they can find a way to bring it and be successful in their careers. And so that was how she builds waves of birth. In this industry that I've created, that I've found my myself in and forged a path, how can I connect with other women? So those are the 2. And then, of course, she builds money because of my financial background. Right? And like like I said, a lot of it was real world experience. Right? On the ground experience. Now that I have this, how can I pour back to small firm owners? Particularly small firm owners. When you think about it, a good question of them are women.

C Right? Maybe they they were working in, bigger companies. Maybe, you know, motherhood came into the picture. They decided to go start their own thing. Well, how do, how can we create structure for them, you know, or create tools for them that they can now lean on to make sure that they're successful, when running their businesses. So those are the 3 main she builds right under the, she builds umbrella. And, you know, you had mentioned my, all my family. This is more so a family business, right, Helm Luxe. And, Helm Luxe really is, you know, for my husband and I, it's more so for our children.

C Right? So we're thinking how can we now think about our children and create a company that can, be there for them, be there for their legacy. Right? Like, essentially teaching them to, you know, they're 7 and about to be 6. My daughter's gonna be 8. How can we start teaching them about business or exposing them? Right. It's an exposure thing. How can we expose them to, how business is run? So we, we invested and got, some really beautiful rentals rent from us. Again, the Jersey area, they're enjoying it. And for us to, you know, we're learning so much about this business.

C We've never had to do anything like this before, and so we're trying to now see, you know, how can we strengthen it? How can we make sure it lasts? How can we make sure that it does what it needs to for our kids?

B I'm really curious about your entrepreneurial growth. I mean, obviously, you're talking about multiple business ventures. I'm sure there was a process of deciding when and how to grow and expand. So can you share a little bit about that journey and, like, what you learned?

C Yeah. Sure. So for me, it's always you know, I can have a 1,000,001 ideas, clearly. Right? So I could have I could have a lot of ideas of or, or, you know, ventures that I want to explore personally or as a family. And the, I the way I always start is by starting small, right? Start small, test it out. See if you actually like it, right? How would I know what I'm good at? What my strengths are? What my, my family strengths are? You know, collective strength is if you don't start small, right? So the vision is big, but then you, you, you start small. So just like with Shebuild, let me, let me use a nonprofit now. Right? With Shebuilds Lights, I started with 1 project a year.

C And here we are now 8 and a half years after, and we've well over thousands of children. But if I didn't start small or if I just, like, you know, again made myself feel overwhelmed, like, oh my goodness, how am I going to do all this? How am I going to register it? How am I going to make impact? Do I have to now, like, do 10 projects a year? No. Think about what your your capacity is and start that way. And and so, you know, I think people always feel like, wow, she has a lot going on. But the way I see it is, right, like there are different pots on the stove, but the heat is not turned up on everything all at once. Right? So, I I I I look at, you know, what in the current season that I'm in, in the current season my family's in, what should the focus be on? It doesn't mean that those things are not either running or, you know, or or even if it looks dormant. Right? It doesn't mean that I'm not focused on it. It just means that it's not priority now and I have to respect that.

C I have to respect that. So start small, but don't be afraid to start because there's never a perfect time. There truly isn't.

A We've had a lot of conversations about side hustles, and I don't want people to forget that you are a you are indeed a firm owner too. So as a firm owner, kind of what is and you believe, obviously, in in entrepreneurship and the side hustle. So what do you say to these these other owners that are just like, you know, if you're not doing architecture all the time, then it's not. Or if you're not working for me all the time, then, you know, you're wasting your creative thought capacity on something else or any number of things that they might say to to convince people not to do that.

C Yes. Listen, I think it makes people more creative. Right? That that that truly is is, something I, I feel strongly about. I feel that if employees feel that their employers, you know, or the owners of the firm are invested or even show interest in things that are are, you know, personal to them or they have, or they're really passionate about it allows your employees even show up better. For me personally, you know, finding, like, support when I was joining Mancini, made me want to do better work there. Right? I am now here with a company who, is very interested in this nonprofit work that I'm doing, or like, you know, this interest I have in education. It brings diversity to the floor. The other thing that I would like to say is, you know, for everyone's career, it's a long time.

C We spent so much time together that it's almost impossible for people not to well, not that it's almost impossible, but people have personal interest. And what happens over the course of your career is that they end up either, like, dying or becoming stagnant or pushing it aside. But we are spending a lot of time together in in our organizations together. Organizations are made up of regular people, human people who have, you know, well, one, maybe you might your sole interest might be architecture, but you might also have interest in other things. And so if you're spending all this much time, together, why not find out what makes your employee unique? Maybe they can bring that skill set to work, right? What if you have an employee who, is passionate about women, right, maybe they can start start a women's initiative in the organization to help foster, employee engagement, to help foster good health, to help foster good health. Right? Sometimes these projects that we're working on, they're tasking. And if your employee doesn't have an, an outlet on their own, even if, you know, they're not doing it during workouts, but if they don't have that outlet, then they're just going to be coming in and out. And so I found that, you know, when, I look at my team and, you know, they're sharing their ideas or sharing things that they're passionate about or, you know, like ideas that they might want to wants the firm to take a look at.

C We're we're stronger that way. Right. We're stronger that way. So I would say to the firm owners, be open, open your mind, you know, to new ways of, of, of thinking new ways of working and testing it out. Right. Even if you're not, a 100% say you're just going to jump in, but like maybe have a forum where you learn a little bit more about the people who work for you start there and, and see what difference it makes. It surely does make a difference. I mean, for me, my career path, it made a difference.

C And so maybe that's now has influenced how I lead. I think it truly, it it truly caused exponential growth for me in my career path.

A No. That's so great to actually hear a firm leader talk about her her journey and how it's supported the growth, your own personal growth. And and speaking of which, in addition to she builds WAVE, she builds life, and she builds money, I think this is an amazing time for you to be coming on to our podcast because you actually have a book coming out next month called build boldly. Yes. So did you want to talk to us a little bit about build boldly before you go? And we're at the top of the hour, so I also wanna be wary of your time as well.

C Sure. So build boldly is essentially my love letter to employees and leaders, of organizations out there. Right? So it is a book that I've written to help, firm owners, 1 challenge how they think about their employees challenge, how they support their employees. It's, it's a it's for an employee it's for you to really take ownership of your career path and your own journey. It's in your hands. And I say, you know, like a lot of people might say, okay, you're still in your career. You're young. I feel like this is the best time for me to write it now.

C Right? I'm still in the middle of my career, but I think that there's so much that we can learn. And also, like, so much for me to even grow into by learning about the things that I've written here.

B Before we get into our closing thoughts today, we wanted to share some info that we recently learned from the team at Arc IT.

A Did you know new business was affected by ransomware every 14 seconds in 2019 and will continue to be every 10 seconds by the end of 2021? It's easy to assume that it'll never happen to you, but this sobering statistic highlights the uncomfortable truth that new businesses are affected by ransomware attacks every day.

B 34% of businesses affected by ransomware took a week or longer to regain access to their data. When calculating the cost of ransomware attacks, it's vital that we remember the cost of operating without access to your data.

A ARC IT is offering a free 15 minute cybersecurity assessment to help you determine how secure your business is. During the assessment, Arc IT will help you identify your top three highest risk areas in your business.

B Speaking of risks, Arc IT is also sharing some helpful tips with practice disrupted listeners that you can implement tomorrow to ensure your business is secure from cybersecurity threats.

A Their latest tip is to protect your email from social engineering and phishing threats using advanced threat protection solutions like Mimecast.

B Tune in next week to hear the next tip from Arc IT. To take your security solutions further, contact arcit@www.getarkit.com/pd to set up your free 15 minute cybersecurity assessment or speak to them about custom solutions for your design firm. Honestly, I really enjoyed talking to Blonde, and I'm so glad that we brought her on the show because I think we haven't done really a finance dedicated episode since we started practice disrupted. And I think there's actually a lot to talk about within that conversation.

A Yes. I agree. And for any listeners out there, if this episode was at all helpful for you, please feel free to reach out and let us know if this is a type of content that you also want to see more of Because I feel she gave a lot of tangible insights or tangible kind of next steps that almost every practitioner out there can can take. And even if you are not a firm owner, there's definitely something to say about mindset shift and and things she talked about tools that could literally apply to, like, budget, personal budget, financial management as as well too.

B Yeah. I think that so many of us get into architecture because we're interested in projects and design and the creativity of building something, and the financial management part is something that comes a little bit later on in the process of discovery. But I think that Belanly comes up with some really good tips to make it accessible and to start thinking about how does good design result in a profitable project, and where what are the different ways that you can start to think about managing your project?

A Yeah. The whole notion of the the project accountant was new to me, but I also wanna you know, one thing that we didn't talk about in the episode as I'm thinking about it now is really about the need for greater transparency down to the Worker Bee or, you know, even the people doing the details. I think so often I was told to do something and I had to do it by when, but, like, not understanding the full picture. Like, here's what we're billing you out at. This is how many hours we need. Like, we've allotted for you to do construction documents if you go over those hours, and we start losing money on the project. So we need your insight to, 1, to say, like, there's no way that I could be like, there's no way I can finish the task you need me to finish in the amount of time that you've given me. Or 2, like, it's just like an extra motivator for me to, like, get things done sooner knowing that I'm like, every line I'm drawing is, like, directly related to project profitability on the back end.

B Yeah. I think that having a if the firm is big enough, having a project accountant to help the project manager really see the the full scope of everything they're trying to balance in the project could be a really powerful vehicle to, maximizing revenue potential and just, like, kind of avoiding that, like, dipping into the red. But, also, I think that, another area that we need to continue to push further on that we didn't get to in this conversation is alternative financial models in terms of practice. And I know that there are a lot of people out there interested in this topic, and I actually had one of our listeners ask me about that last week in the POA lab. I think we need to, at some point, come back to what are the possibilities for alternative models of, you know, building your finance around projects.

A Yeah. And I think it's not just finance around projects. Like, we also talk about the need to change the service the models of service delivery altogether. I'm thinking of a I'm thinking of somebody, and I'd love to hear from our listeners if this is meaningful to you too. But I took a course a while ago. She's local to Oakland, and I can't remember her name. But there is a person that works with for profit organizations and talking to them about how you how you pre how you get investors to your to get some initial capital to get your business going. So you don't have to do it all on your own.

A You don't have to go to the banks and do it. But she knows how to do it in a way that is not like your if you think about everything that we talk about relative to Silicon Valley and tech, Bringing on VC funding, bringing on investors means giving away equity, but there are other models out there where you can actually get investors, give them a return on an investment, pay off their investment, and don't give away equity. So if that is of interest to any of our listeners, please reach out, and I will try to remember the name name of this individuals. But there's definitely other models that I would say that are not even explored more fully in in architecture at all that we could begin to, apply to practice.

B Definitely. I wanna go further on that. And then on this episode, I think one thing that you told me stood out was this idea of the financial rhythms that she was talking about and that kind of mindset shift over to really prioritizing some kind of rhythm in your life around, either financial management or just in general other types of things that you're

A managing? That whole conversation about, like, you know, if you set aside 10 minutes every week and then as you even get more proficient about those 10 minutes, those 10 minutes might become those 5 minutes. But it's it's for me, like, that applies to so many other things in my life when I think about, like, if I if I put something on hold, the longer I put something on hold, the less likely I am to, like the harder it is for the more I procrastinate it, like, to start it. So it's really about, like, if you consistently bite things off in little chunks, then you'll then it's it's a lot more manageable than just, like, kind of procrastinating it. And then at at some point, you just have to like, the deadline hits all at once, and you have to do it all at once. So so so that spoke to me. But on the financial stuff, it also spoke to me, obviously, Like, you know, just understand where your books are at the end of each each week, and that'll either, I think, ease your mind about where where you are in your ability to play and pay your employees or, and I don't think it should set you up to, like, and I've definitely looked at my numbers and panicked before. But, you know, the reframe is there. You know, if if you are struggling with the numbers at the end of the week, then then you know where you need to refocus your energy for the next week to really push things forward.

A So so just get used to looking at your numbers. Don't don't procrastinate. You know, and if there's other areas in that life that in your life where that type of mindset and shift and getting into rhythm and revisiting often rather than revisiting it infrequently and in big doses, you know, begin to where where else can you move the needle?

B I actually did go sign up for She Builds Money, like, right after we got off this interview, and I highly recommend that if you're struggling with getting your rhythms figured out to also go purchase Blondley's offering because I think it's it's definitely helping me start to think about how do I set these rhythms in place for my own business since I'm managing this on my own, and thinking about the key areas that I need to ground myself on week to week month to month.

A Yeah. That's amazing. I'm glad you did that.

B I know. And we'll put the link in the show notes so that if you wanna sign up or take a look at it, you can figure out where to go.

A Yeah. And one of the last things that I just wanted to touch on again is, you know, Blonde is a firm owner. Right? And here she is doing all of these side hustles, and she's finding it that it's really springing along her own innovation and her passion to give back to the community. So, you know, we there's constant kind of talks in social media accounts about, like, the nature of moonlighting or doing your own thing. And I would hope that other architecture leaders, firm leaders out there can take this, as an opportunity to kind of let their people explore more and and let their creativity soar rather than kind of pampering it down for lack of a a better phrase right now. And on that note, she mentioned she has this book coming out. So this podcast is a little bit ahead of that, but it looks like presales will probably be open. So go we will put the link to build boldly down in the show notes, but check that out shortly.

A I think it's gonna be a book that not only talks about some of the things that we explored here, but really looks at, professional development mechanisms for, like, the mindset shift, you know, and how you build and design the life that you wanna live ultimately. Thank you for listening, and tune in next week. And if you would like to show us some love for Praxis Disrupted and what you're listening to today or any one of our episodes, please go ahead and leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts. 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.com backslash monograph so that Monograph knows that you heard about them from us.

B Thank you to Arc IT for their support of this episode. Don't forget to visit get arcit.com/pd to set up your free 15 minute cybersecurity assessment or custom solutions for your design firm.

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