From Phoenix with Purpose - Hannah Hackathorn & Ben Ayers (S3-13)

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Today we have Hannah Hackathorn and Ben Ayers and they are architects with Mancini Duffy in Phoenix, Arizona and they have their own studio there.
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So we had a fun episode with them uh just talking about how they enhance the world around them, what they're doing with uh their company and just all that kind of good stuff.
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So what did you, what really drew you into this episode today?
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think at the beginning part of it, I was like, okay, we're talking about architecture and all this stuff, which obviously that's what they do, so that's important.
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It's more of the how-to.
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But when we kind of got into the why of why they do what they do, and then that's when I was like, okay.
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uh But sincerity, right?
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So I've always heard from mom that people don't care what you know until they know that you care.
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People don't care what you do until they know that you care about what you do is something that I kind of would summarize this into for the intro is that if people don't sense that you care about them or they care about the way you work and how you do your job efficiently, they're not going to want you to work for them or do stuff for them um just because they don't want somebody that doesn't want to do their job to do the job.
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What about you?
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What'd you find?
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Yeah, I mean, that definitely struck a nerve and really just, I've got a few notes here on my notepad.
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I learned a lot from them about how the personality, the behavior that you need to have and the personality you need to have when you're leading others and when you're working with clients and customers, which is no ego.
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That was the thing that really.
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hit me the hardest.
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I mean, and especially in this industry, because we're talking about architects, we're talking about engineers, we're talking about contractors, and we're known, I mean, capital E engineer, capital A architect, we're known to provide our opinion, we're known for that type of thing.
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So, to say no ego is really, that strikes a nerve.
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and it's hard to do, and it's a good reminder.
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We all, I think we know that for the most part.
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but it's a good reminder and I really appreciated them.
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And it seems like they really walk the talk on that.
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feel like it would be easy to have an ego as an architect or an engineer because you know what you're doing.
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You have all these calculations and all these things you have to know how to do in order to do it and uh provide the product that you provide.
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And if you don't know how to do it, but then not having ego, like you said, that's important and that's what attracts people to provide business to.
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So those are some of the things I learned and we learned about so much more we talked about different aspects of You know what what they're doing with Mancini Duffy and the innovation Not to mention some of the cool projects are working on and and just just a fun episode with the two of them name is Madeline Richardson and this is the Enhanced It's fine, Kevin.
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And this is the host.
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I've been doing this two years.
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We've been doing the Enhance podcast for about two years.
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This is Andy Richardson, the host of the podcast.
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He's been an engineer for a long time.
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Let's jump to the intro.
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Welcome to AAC podcast.
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We learned the the why behind C-E-C professionals so that you can learn your why.
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Well hey Ben, hey Hannah, welcome to the Enhance Podcast today.
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Thank you for having us.
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Definitely.
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glad to have both of you on.
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So I like to start out just for fun to ask something to get your brain working.
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So, and by the way, these questions may or may not be on the list, but I'll ask Ben first.
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So Ben, you're an architect.
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what is, if you know, unlimited budget, what's something that you would design for the Phoenix community?
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you as an architect.
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Wow, good question.
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I've never even pondered the idea of an unlimited budget, so that's a big question for me to think about.
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think, you know, um the one of the things that I have seen over and over over the years here, there's kind of this kind of one big idea, Andy, that I can remember being in school and there were projects that looked at this, but it was this idea of taking a huge area of Phoenix and just putting a huge amount of shade.
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that and I've seen that kind of idea come yeah it's come over and over again and I wouldn't do the whole city by any stretch of the imagination to know but what I would say the reason I bring that up is it's funny right now I just we're doing another kind of big study project right now for Arizona State University and um The big idea, again, this has kind of been happening over and over again, was take the whole site and do a huge canopy over the whole thing and shade and all the buildings kind of live, parking lives, everything lives under the shade.
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And so, I don't know, I'd love to do, and it never really happens in the way that you think it is, but I remember, you know, When I was in school, I remember Jack DiBartolo, which is a very well-known architect here in the valley, had a concept for this huge park in downtown Phoenix.
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The whole thing had this shape canopy.
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And so, anyway, I do something like that.
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I've never been to Arizona.
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I've never been to Phoenix.
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I'm in the southeast.
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But we're known for our heat down here, but I'm guessing it's pretty hot there.
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Is that the main issue?
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Yeah, definitely.
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So I spent a lot of years in South Florida and I'll tell you right now, ah this is far better than what you put up with.
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The humidity is just, it's terrible.
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It is dry, but it does get, if you ever opened up the oven, know, the joke is Andy, when you open up the oven, that heat that comes out when you're, you know, 400 degrees oven, that's exactly what it feels like when you go outside in the middle of summer.
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Okay, so it's funny because they always talk about the humidity here and I've got one of my kids, just picks on us, he's like, you know, stop talking about the humidity.
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But it's funny.
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uh that's an interesting take.
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So thanks for sharing that, Ben.
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So Hannah, we'll give you a stab at the same question.
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You get the advantage of a couple minutes of thinking through this.
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The personal side, I would have loved to create an animal sanctuary.
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I think if money was no object, I would love to have my own rescue organization where I can rescue all kinds of animals and have a huge property and take care of them.
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That's my, if I won lotto and I don't have to work for a living, that probably will be the case.
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But selfishly, so I grew up in metropolitan city, I grew up in Seoul and then I moved to America at the age of 13 and I've lived in New York for a bulk of my life and bulk of my careers back in East Coast.
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So I think selfishly if I could, I would create a driving free city where I don't ever have to drive to anywhere.
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It's walkability.
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You have your restaurants and stores and things within your vicinity where you can walk.
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I think that selfish side of me, the convenience side of living in New York City that I miss so much having moved here and having to drive to go everywhere.
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Anywhere.
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Anywhere.
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So it would be driving less car free city.
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Car free Phoenix.
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So Phoenix is a very, you have to drive a car pretty much.
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yeah.
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yeah, like I have to get a carton of milk.
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I gotta drive to the stores.
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I miss the walk.
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Yeah, there are pockets that are walkable, uh but not a lot.
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It is very much a driving culture.
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It's funny, just having a chat with a young guy that might be coming to our office to work here that he's from New York, he's living in New York City.
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And he's freaking out about one, he's like, can actually get a one bedroom apartment.
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He was excited about that.
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But then he was a...
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Can I get away with not having a car?
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Can I get a motorcycle?
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And we're like, no, no, you need a mean you can, but...
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that choice.
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Yeah, then the heat or the rain.
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guess is there a rainy season too or?
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Yeah, we're supposed to.
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Yeah, we have a monsoon, yeah.
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Theoretically.
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Yes, when it happens it does pour, but...
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Yeah, it's violent rain when we get it, but it's much less frequent than it used to be.
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Awesome.
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But I guess Seoul was more of a walking community.
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Bye! Yes, I mean, I just, all my life I've lived in a city of some sort.
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growing up it was just, you walked everywhere.
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You go to a store, you go to your neighbor's house, your friend's house, it's all walkable.
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Or there's a public transportation that can take you any places.
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And that's very similar in New York as well.
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It was actually easier to walk to places and sometimes faster than taking a taxi, I mean you rely on Subway.
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So when I first moved out to the Valley area five years ago, the idea of having to drive everywhere was a bit daunting.
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And I didn't get my driver license until in my mid-30s.
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So for me, I still consider myself as a uh younger driver, young drivers who's still learning the ways and I don't like it.
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I hate driving and Ben knows that because I'm making drive everywhere.
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Okay.
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uh Well, quick connection point, Hannah.
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uh I don't know if you knew this.
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Jessica, the podcast manager, she's from, not from there, but she's currently in Korea, South Korea.
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So, but uh she had, that's where, uh that's where she's living now.
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So I just thought it was a fun connection point.
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But yeah, so, and Really one of the big reasons that I think we want one of the big things we want to talk about today I think is uh This Phoenix studio or office that you guys are both co-directing um So congratulations on that and is that and is that fairly new news that this is?
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Almost two years.
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so relatively new.
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ah It kind of happened very fast and furious.
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Ben and I, we used to work together in another large architectural company based in Phoenix.
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We were two studio directors there.
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ah And we really got a lot of opportunity to collaborate with each other.
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His team was working on my project, vice versa.
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So we got to kind of learn more about each other, our leadership styles.
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in the perfect ideal world if we could have our own office that we're running, what would that be like?
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ah So a lot of brainstorming, ideating, maybe commiserating, all of the above.
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ah And that led to one day I received a call from friend of mine who happened to be a recruiter and he was working with Mancini to help place a person in Seattle office.
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And that just kind of led to questions about, you know, what is Mancini doing?
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um I've actually had a lot of history back with Mancini.
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This is actually my third time back.
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I worked Mancini as an intern when I was in college in New York City.
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I worked there a little over 13 years ago when I was pregnant with my child, who's now 13.
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So when I've kind of heard about all the different things that Mancini is doing with a new leadership under Christian Giordano, who I've known, his wife and I went to school together.
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So there's all this weird mix of connection and synergy.
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And then when I just kind of through, we pitched the idea or we quickly threw the ideas at wall, would Christian ever consider opening an office in Phoenix?
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It's happening market, a lot moving here.
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ah And that kind of led to reconnecting with Christian, introducing Ben, and rest was a history.
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Everything just moved in.
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rapid speed from there.
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I think from the initial conversation to us actually putting ink to paper was a little over a month maybe if that.
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so we've really never had a chance to look back and say, whoa, are we doing the right thing?
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It just was like, we gotta go.
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This is an opportunity we can say no to.
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And I've kind of cornered Ben into coming on this journey with me, but.
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Yes, it's been pretty wild.
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Awesome.
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What's your take on that, Ben?
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Starting up this new studio in Phoenix under Mancini Duffy.
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I guess Duffy kind of gets the boot.
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uh there, just not as...
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Well, no, everything...
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You know, we were not actively looking at anything, and I think that what she says commiserating, a lot of it was us complaining back and forth.
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We got to work together for a while.
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I've been here in the Valley my whole career, for the most part.
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I had one year...
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What do you call it, Hannah?
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Oh, sabbatical.
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I a year sabbatical in Colorado.
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But I've been here all of my career, and I've kind of been at a few different firms.
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And so the last one that we working at is...
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pretty significant firm and so for me that experience completely changed the trajectory of my career frankly.
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um Where I saw myself going before that was different from where that landed and so I have to be grateful for that experience because it taught me that I could do this.
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um And so then I think one of the things that we, there are certain things from leadership in that role that we were able to start to see that worked really well and some things that didn't.
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And so one of those was this idea of kind of co-leadership.
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And so when Hannah got that call and that evening when she called me, I remember it very, very well because she called and said, hey, know, all the whining we've been doing, I got a real opportunity here, but I don't want to do it by myself.
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And what do you think?
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And of course, I turned around and said I need to ask my wife first.
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So, you we talked about that and then very quickly it happened, obviously.
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So it was really exciting.
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It was something that we felt that we worked together really, really well.
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We had a kind of uh strong alignment of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do.
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And so, yeah, it was kind of one of those things that you can't say no to, as she said.
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Yeah, awesome.
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And what is your current uh profile or makeup of your studio currently?
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it the two of you?
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You have a team?
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Yeah, we have a team.
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uh So we were a team of six.
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And we were able to kind of jump in very, very quickly and build that out because of some projects that came with us that were unanticipated.
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So uh that allowed us to kind of grow really quickly.
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our attitude on that was, well, one, get bodies in here that could help us deliver the work.
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So that was the primary.
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But secondary to that, too, was we've had this attitude of, we get a really strong core team that has every aspect of a team.
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And so we could take on any type of project if we had every role covered.
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And so, yeah, I'll let you chime in on that one too, Hannah, but that was an attitude.
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So the makeup of it, I'll let her talk a little bit about.
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Yeah, I mean, we anticipate it's starting kind of slow.
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And as Ben said, the client who we're really fortunate, they wanted to work with us that did expedite our growth substantially.
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But the one of the beautiful thing even from going into joining Mancini and opening an office in Phoenix, we knew that we could tap into all the amazing talent and resource across all our other offices.
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And that has been true case of when we first opened and that's still the case when, you know, even two years in, there's a lot of level of collaboration and sharing the resources and sharing the talent to position ourselves to win and to really be able to service our client to our fullest ability.
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So, you know, and I think it also keeps our team a lot more engaged and exciting because they're not only getting an opportunity to work on projects that's locally based here, but they're also getting some unique opportunities located in East Coast or other locations that they may not necessarily been exposed to.
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So it's been really exciting to see not only us, but our team able to share that knowledge and experience across.
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Yeah, yeah, it seems like you have the best of both worlds you you are it's like you're starting a new business and a sense like an entrepreneur But at the same time you have this resource.
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So yeah, if you were to uh Maybe tell somebody at Mancini so I'll go with the mancini too, but but if you were to talk to somebody there or For example, maybe a colleague, you know, because we have our we have AEC architects, engineers and contractors.
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you know, what was your decision matrix for that in terms of, hey, because I'm sure that crossed your mind.
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Let's just start up our own deal.
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Or.
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yeah.
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you know, could just be the Hanna show or the Vint show.
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That would have been an option.
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uh Or you could stay where you are.
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Anyway, there's a litany of options, but you chose this, which is to plug into a bigger company.
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So what was your decision process for that?
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I think it was probably a little bit easier for me because I had history with Mancini.
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Although the Mancini has gone through a lot of changes even from the time that I used to work there as an intern and the time that now we join as one of the office leader.
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uh I think what really drew me to Mancini again is there's a really combination of the history rich legacy We're a hundred plus years old firm.
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There's a very enriched history about who we are, how the firm was created.
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But there was also the sense of new innovation and trying to be forefront in technology and constantly paving the way and trying new ways to improve our design process and the way that we collaborate with our clients, our partners and extended partners.
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I think to me that was really the one part and having also met with the rest of the leadership, the sense of camaraderie and willingness to really support and uplift each other.
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That was really awakening moment where I'm like this is the exact type of culture and the brand that I want to be part of it again.
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you Awesome.
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Well, that's a good answer.
00:19:49.144 --> 00:19:50.449
So Ben, what do you think?
00:19:50.449 --> 00:19:52.584
Is telling the truth there?
00:19:52.718 --> 00:20:02.837
Absolutely, tell them the Coming here for me was something that obviously she had the familiarity, she had the history.
00:20:03.094 --> 00:20:08.006
is a little bit new uh to kind of see a firm like Mancini.
00:20:08.006 --> 00:20:12.298
It was different, but you nailed it on the head earlier, Andy, with what you said.
00:20:12.298 --> 00:20:20.261
You know, in our commiserating, ah we did, obviously there were conversations about doing our own thing uh without a doubt.
00:20:20.261 --> 00:20:33.288
And that would have been something that we talked about, but when you have an operating like this that takes those things that are on the risky side of the ad equation and takes those away, it made it very, very easy decision in some ways.
00:20:33.288 --> 00:20:35.348
um In other ways it was harder too.
00:20:35.348 --> 00:20:45.412
I mean I think where we were before was a uh very significant firm, um the largest design firm in the world.
00:20:45.412 --> 00:20:47.652
Everyone will know what that is I think at this point.
00:20:48.046 --> 00:20:49.558
I'm going in right now.
00:20:52.403 --> 00:20:55.115
you know, lot of resources, a lot of things there that were really good.
00:20:55.115 --> 00:20:59.434
And so we had this, you know, situation kind of presented to us.
00:20:59.434 --> 00:21:02.596
So it's very, very different in the sense of that.
00:21:02.676 --> 00:21:24.827
but, you know, eh as I started to get to know Christian, the leadership at the firm, see what they've been doing, the attitude they have, as Hannah said, this one of the things that was really appealing to me was this kind of attitude of being the, tip of the spear when it comes to technology and integration in our process and looking to the future.
00:21:24.827 --> 00:21:25.567
How do we lead that?
00:21:25.567 --> 00:21:27.288
We want to be in front of this.
00:21:27.488 --> 00:21:29.128
We develop our own technology.
00:21:29.128 --> 00:21:33.450
have our own coders and software engineers on staff that build things.
00:21:33.450 --> 00:21:34.211
We build apps.
00:21:34.211 --> 00:21:35.790
We utilize AI.
00:21:35.790 --> 00:21:40.653
um I've never seen that in the way that Mancini does it anywhere else.
00:21:40.653 --> 00:21:49.256
So that attitude with this kind of true You know, I had talked in the past a lot about being at a firm that was entrepreneurial, Andy.
00:21:49.256 --> 00:21:52.156
I had no idea what I was talking about.
00:21:52.156 --> 00:22:05.532
This like true entrepreneurial attitude where, you know, Hannah and I have been given this opportunity and the leadership has basically said, tell us what you'd want to do, what's your plan here?
00:22:05.532 --> 00:22:06.804
Okay, that's great.
00:22:06.804 --> 00:22:07.483
We love that.
00:22:07.483 --> 00:22:08.464
How can we support you?
00:22:08.464 --> 00:22:09.505
What do you need?
00:22:09.585 --> 00:22:11.597
That's from day one, what we've had.
00:22:11.597 --> 00:22:17.976
uh How many studios do they have currently at Mancini?
00:22:18.596 --> 00:22:21.829
Six, six, six nationally.
00:22:22.688 --> 00:22:23.498
Okay, thanks.
00:22:23.498 --> 00:22:25.821
still relatively small farm, Andy.
00:22:25.821 --> 00:22:35.925
mean, if you compare us to the world's largest, you know, some other offices where Just a single office, may have five, six hundred people.
00:22:36.224 --> 00:22:39.786
Nationally, we're, I think, reaching now about 160.
00:22:39.806 --> 00:22:40.546
Yeah.
00:22:41.066 --> 00:22:42.645
Or maybe we're now at 180.
00:22:42.645 --> 00:22:45.546
We did go through a pretty large growth this year.
00:22:45.546 --> 00:22:54.066
So if you think about that across six offices across North America, we're a pretty small team in comparison.
00:22:54.066 --> 00:22:58.375
But I think that also allow us to be a little nimble.
00:22:58.375 --> 00:23:05.165
and able to accommodate our clients and pivot things slightly different ways to be able to accommodate our clients.
00:23:05.165 --> 00:23:34.622
Okay, yeah, and I was just getting a sense of that because you've mentioned both of you mentioned innovation and I mean you mentioned AI as one example what what is something that's working really well or what is something that has has made an impact from an innovation standpoint at your local studio maybe or at the the bigger Well, I can tell you what I'm really excited about because we've both been exposed to this and it's it's fairly well, it's still iterative.
00:23:34.622 --> 00:23:36.162
It's still going through processes.
00:23:36.261 --> 00:23:37.761
But sorry, I hand I want to talk about this.
00:23:37.761 --> 00:23:50.961
So Mika, which stands for I'm going to completely Yeah, I'm going to that the man Cini information and knowledge Assistant.
00:23:50.961 --> 00:23:52.382
No, I don't know if that's right.
00:23:52.382 --> 00:23:53.582
They might be wrong.
00:23:53.582 --> 00:24:02.724
Anyway, Mika has kind of become this thing that I would say it's more like Apple, know, iPhone, iWatch, Mika.
00:24:02.765 --> 00:24:19.913
And so Mika was, I think initially, and again, I'm probably gonna make this all up on my own and all the people back in New York will kill me later, but what I saw this was, was this idea of Mika becoming kind of our version of taking some of these things that you see in the world from, you know, AR.
00:24:20.321 --> 00:24:24.594
VR, AI stuff, know, all of this and much smarter people doing things with it.
00:24:24.594 --> 00:24:30.266
So anyway, the point of that Andy is so it's a good example of this because I just started playing with it myself to learn it.
00:24:30.885 --> 00:24:39.380
We utilize like every firm in the world it feels like right now some form or different types of rendering engines that could help us from an AI front.
00:24:39.380 --> 00:24:41.480
They're just incredibly fast.
00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:45.951
It's crazy how you can iterate and get ideas out on the table.
00:24:46.032 --> 00:24:49.594
The issue that everyone has is the control of what that is.
00:24:49.791 --> 00:24:56.659
And so one of the tools that Mika has been developing is what I call a prompt engineer.
00:24:56.659 --> 00:25:02.755
And it's a way to have a lot more control into what the graphic output could be.
00:25:03.556 --> 00:25:08.401
So it's a very cool software that was, again, just internal, it's just ours.
00:25:08.401 --> 00:25:20.511
um But we go through and I have a young guy in our New York office that's been helping me and he learned it in a day and has been out putting stuff and now he's completely in love with it.
00:25:20.511 --> 00:25:22.663
He thinks it's the best thing he's ever worked with.
00:25:22.804 --> 00:25:25.144
And so, you know, something like that.
00:25:25.144 --> 00:25:26.886
Andy, I'm very, very excited about it.
00:25:26.886 --> 00:25:29.157
And that, by the way, the MECA, it's kind of all over the place.
00:25:29.157 --> 00:25:31.288
I swear every week we get a new...
00:25:31.769 --> 00:25:41.243
We were in our business development national meeting talking through things and a couple of people like, well, we've created this new dashboard that we use Mika to do this and that.
00:25:41.243 --> 00:25:53.710
Now, if you're interested in finding a consultant that we've worked with in Montana, here's a list of every consultant that we've worked with that has licensure there and all this and this and it's all automated.
00:25:53.710 --> 00:25:55.760
can just do that.
00:25:55.760 --> 00:26:01.644
There's new dashboards of new information that's all being enabled through Mika and AI and all of these things.
00:26:01.644 --> 00:26:10.578
And again, it's all our own people that are kind of seeing, you know, people will recognize a problem and ask them, hey guys, what do think about this?
00:26:10.578 --> 00:26:15.780
Can we figure out a way to do this better or come up with this or collate this information in this way?
00:26:15.780 --> 00:26:19.265
And they just go and do really smart things that's over my head.
00:26:19.265 --> 00:26:20.703
It's just amazing.
00:26:20.703 --> 00:26:25.892
So it's sort of like your mancini information and knowledge assistant.
00:26:25.892 --> 00:26:33.373
So it's like your internal assistant to help do things, really, simple way of saying it, I guess.
00:26:33.471 --> 00:26:36.259
Yeah, and I'm again, I probably am saying that wrong.
00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:44.825
Yeah uh But this rendering thing, what's the significance of that with your business?
00:26:46.273 --> 00:26:47.255
yes.
00:26:48.402 --> 00:26:59.086
Go ahead, I mean, if you think about, and the whole idea is also if you think about how we communicate with our clients and also with our consultants as well, right?
00:26:59.086 --> 00:27:08.385
Sometimes the picture does a lot more than if you just write things or, you know, and also we're dealing with a client, they may not necessarily know how to read a drawing.
00:27:08.385 --> 00:27:19.346
And I think there is definitely some fashion in our industry, the way that we collaborate with our client that feels a little bit antiquated and a little bit broken.
00:27:19.463 --> 00:27:31.980
And it's not the 3D visualizations, anything that's new, but how do we promote that level of collaboration and use the technology to really enable the quality of collaboration, right?
00:27:31.980 --> 00:27:32.961
And the speed.
00:27:32.961 --> 00:27:33.821
Yeah, and the speed.
00:27:33.821 --> 00:27:38.964
And the speed is really the result of using these technology to be able to collaborate.
00:27:38.964 --> 00:27:47.349
So the clients actually, when they're making the decision, they're able to see and understand exactly what they're basing their decisions on.
00:27:47.630 --> 00:27:52.811
ah People talk about, well, AI is going to take over our profession.
00:27:52.811 --> 00:28:03.615
No, we are still prompting in terms of the design concept and the overall, controlling the overall look and feel and the design intent behind it.
00:28:03.615 --> 00:28:09.377
It just happened to project or create a lot of output in a speed time.
00:28:10.124 --> 00:28:13.205
the method that we used to do and having to model everything.
00:28:13.205 --> 00:28:23.141
Because sometimes you have to tease a couple of different ideas and present in front of the client for them to react to, then give us a feedback and then we can refine that further.
00:28:23.141 --> 00:28:29.664
So I do think that it's much more clear collaboration and clear communication with our clients.
00:28:29.664 --> 00:28:31.415
I think that's really the beauty of it.
00:28:31.415 --> 00:28:37.339
to illustrate a little bit to you Andy, could give you, so that the young man I was just telling you about earlier.
00:28:37.917 --> 00:28:45.622
When I did things and we're doing kind of this fun study, it is all the fun things from school that everyone from a design standpoint loves to do.
00:28:45.622 --> 00:28:47.461
That's really what we've been doing.
00:28:47.643 --> 00:28:51.954
And so if you kind of look back to those days, and I would think about when I used to do this, right?
00:28:51.954 --> 00:29:02.383
So you're putting a context analysis diagram together and you're just basically snipping out, you know, taking a Google map or a topo or whatever, right?
00:29:02.383 --> 00:29:07.872
Something that's a static image and you're kind of, you mark over the top and you put an illustrator and you're doing all these cool arrows.
00:29:07.872 --> 00:29:09.451
and you know whatever.
00:29:09.732 --> 00:29:16.096
And it can look beautiful, it's amazing, but there's a time to that that kind of takes a bit.
00:29:16.096 --> 00:29:31.022
So when he took this, you know, we said we needed kind of these three context diagrams that looked from a level pretty high up that's looking at all of downtown Phoenix and extending out and then slowly zooming into our site.
00:29:31.103 --> 00:29:41.442
And so he did that and he took a very, very simple 3D massing of the downtown took And I can't even talk to you exactly how it done, Andy, because I don't know.
00:29:41.781 --> 00:29:58.221
But the point is that the output of this was instead of this kind 2D flat contextual analysis diagram that we've all seen and done, it's now this kind of axonometric got, you know, it's 3D, but it's all kind of got the stylistic feel to the whole thing.
00:29:58.221 --> 00:30:02.162
And it's all carried out through all levels of that diagram.
00:30:02.162 --> 00:30:06.369
And when the client sees that and says, how did you do that?
00:30:06.451 --> 00:30:09.261
know, like, so, and that's the, that's what I'm saying.
00:30:09.261 --> 00:30:12.053
Like, and that was done very, very fast.
00:30:12.053 --> 00:30:14.534
And so he was able to kind of help with that.
00:30:14.534 --> 00:30:24.356
And then I give him, you know, very simple ideas and we're doing very simple massing diagrams to look at what ideas could be for the actual architecture and the design.
00:30:24.356 --> 00:30:28.134
We're not intended to figure this out right now.
00:30:28.134 --> 00:30:35.413
This is all really, really, really early conversations, but then you can take that and I wish I could show you the output.
00:30:36.374 --> 00:30:45.634
Absolutely beautiful renderings that show the experience of what it is like to be in the middle of this kind of small campus.
00:30:45.791 --> 00:30:48.184
And again, done in hours.
00:30:48.184 --> 00:30:49.416
All of this was done in hours.
00:30:49.416 --> 00:30:57.537
Whereas before, remember having 12 computers lined up to do all the renderings overnight because I'm slaved out all of these computers to do that.
00:30:57.537 --> 00:31:02.624
And no, this is instantaneous through just going online.
00:31:02.624 --> 00:31:03.163
It's immediate.
00:31:03.163 --> 00:31:04.586
It's absolutely incredible.
00:31:04.739 --> 00:31:17.003
Yeah, I mean the the adage of fast cheap or good is really being challenged right now with this technologies that we're seeing.
00:31:17.003 --> 00:31:22.167
uh And it sounds like Mika is one that really is helping you guys.
00:31:23.189 --> 00:31:26.801
with innovation, everybody wants to be innovative.
00:31:26.801 --> 00:31:34.617
I mean, you mentioned that earlier that we thought we were entrepreneurial, we thought we were innovative, but maybe not as much as we thought.
00:31:36.220 --> 00:31:41.144
Because I think you have to have a culture that supports that.
00:31:41.144 --> 00:31:44.356
that's a little bit I've learned about innovation.
00:31:44.356 --> 00:31:52.781
So what is it about this current company and what you're doing in your studio that allows for that?
00:31:53.678 --> 00:31:59.637
I think that energy almost comes from top down and bottom up.
00:31:59.637 --> 00:32:12.458
I mean, we've got president who is constantly looking to be better and try something new and not afraid to fail and learn from it and move on.
00:32:13.337 --> 00:32:23.278
He himself is showing us by example and also sharing what he's learning, an article he may have read, and then he's sharing with the rest of the team.
00:32:23.321 --> 00:32:32.078
And with that mindset, we have all this amazing young talent who's coming into our company and sharing their ideas.
00:32:32.078 --> 00:32:35.372
So I think the one part is that everybody has a voice here.
00:32:35.372 --> 00:32:49.483
ah There is no really that sense of hierarchy where just because you're a young professional who's just coming into our industry that you don't have any saying, you don't have any voice.
00:32:49.483 --> 00:33:00.605
think culturally we've kind of allowed for people to be able to share their ideas and have the sense of the security to speak their minds.
00:33:00.605 --> 00:33:15.757
And through that, there's so many unique opportunities and these programs have been mentioned, whether it's MECA or Tool Belt, which is another on program that we use quite often, really blossom from there.
00:33:17.685 --> 00:33:29.393
I think that's a really hard culture to find, know, place where everybody feels safe and secure to be able to speak their mind and share their ideas and be welcomed by that.
00:33:29.393 --> 00:33:32.213
I think that's a really unique environment here.
00:33:32.238 --> 00:33:34.138
I think you nailed it, Hannah.
00:33:34.138 --> 00:33:40.020
Having somebody from a leadership standpoint of the firm that believes that, Andy is critical.
00:33:41.241 --> 00:33:52.688
When we have our leadership strategic meetings that we do, for example, there's a section of that where it's basically them posing and wanting us to talk about, well, what do we want to do next?
00:33:52.688 --> 00:33:54.087
What's the future of this?
00:33:54.087 --> 00:34:01.060
So there's an investment of time and money from the perspective of our leadership to look forward and say, OK, what is the future?
00:34:01.060 --> 00:34:02.192
Where are we going?
00:34:02.192 --> 00:34:03.212
want to do.
00:34:03.491 --> 00:34:09.552
And then the other side of that, I think Hannah, nailed it, is when Hannah and I started hiring, that was...
00:34:09.782 --> 00:34:16.293
A lot of the conversations for us was about making sure we get the hiring right as best as we can.
00:34:16.293 --> 00:34:20.505
I mean, you're never going to know until they're here and you're working, right?
00:34:20.606 --> 00:34:24.755
But we had very, very strong ideas of what we were looking for.
00:34:24.755 --> 00:34:29.389
And one of those things that kind of aligns to this a little bit, Andy, is this idea of ownership.
00:34:29.630 --> 00:34:37.472
We wanted every single person that comes in the door to feel like they own a piece of this, that they all own it.
00:34:37.605 --> 00:34:40.085
And that attitude is a bit important.
00:34:40.085 --> 00:34:49.889
Part of our other story, and it was like even where we are physically in our office right now, for example, this was another one of those crazy little star aligning things on our path of opening this office.
00:34:49.889 --> 00:34:56.931
You know, we were doing the co-working thing and this office came about as a sublease opportunity that somebody just walked away from.
00:34:57.150 --> 00:35:13.608
And we moved in here and uh everyone in our office has basically put, I mean, I couldn't even quantify it, but the sweat equity part of this was because we inherited a lot of things, a lot of furniture and things like that, and it wasn't in the best shape.
00:35:13.608 --> 00:35:19.130
So our attitude has been like, well, let's take it little by little and make it better and come up with ways to do this.
00:35:19.130 --> 00:35:20.101
What do you call it Hannah?
00:35:20.101 --> 00:35:22.032
The cheap and cheerful.
00:35:22.512 --> 00:35:25.773
How do we do it in a way that we get the furniture we want?
00:35:25.773 --> 00:35:27.373
How do we get it the way that?
00:35:27.726 --> 00:35:37.132
We're all building things, we're all painting things, we're all demoing walls, we're doing things, but we do it on our own and we're doing it on the cheap.
00:35:37.132 --> 00:35:39.393
And everybody got involved in that, right?
00:35:39.393 --> 00:35:45.134
So that sense of ownership, that's something we looked for from the beginning of every single person that we hired.
00:35:45.134 --> 00:35:47.873
And that sounds like it was a lot of fun too.
00:35:47.873 --> 00:35:53.333
I mean, I'm sure it helped build some community in that local area.
00:35:53.373 --> 00:35:56.173
Getting paint on each other and all that fun stuff, right?
00:35:56.173 --> 00:35:56.893
Yep.
00:35:57.001 --> 00:36:00.885
Yeah, a lot of ideas flowing and mess.
00:36:03.068 --> 00:36:04.630
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.
00:36:04.630 --> 00:36:10.853
But so all these things sound really awesome, but you've got to get some work, right?
00:36:10.853 --> 00:36:13.753
Which you've done a great job of.
00:36:13.753 --> 00:36:16.054
I mean, two years ago, you started getting work.
00:36:16.054 --> 00:36:30.501
And I mean, what is it that you brought to the Phoenix community that they felt the businesses or clients feel like, we want to hire Hannah and Ben and Mancini Duffy to help with this?
00:36:31.342 --> 00:36:32.590
You want to start a hand or do you me to?
00:36:32.590 --> 00:36:34.797
Uh, go ahead.
00:36:34.797 --> 00:36:37.829
I think we're gonna probably say the same thing I know where you're going to go.
00:36:37.829 --> 00:36:40.653
I think let's we'll do it this way.
00:36:40.653 --> 00:36:53.219
So I think there's a couple of things Andy for us that you know as part of our again our commiserating and things like that there was certain things that we recognized that was opportunities for us to take advantage of.
00:36:53.333 --> 00:37:01.817
And so I'll let Hannah talk about a little bit on the side of some of that was, you know, her background is significant in design build.
00:37:01.958 --> 00:37:04.998
She's done a very large portion of her career working in that.
00:37:04.998 --> 00:37:11.621
And there were opportunities around design build that kind of presented themselves for us and the way that we both like to work, which is highly collaborative.
00:37:11.702 --> 00:37:20.865
I'm, you know, in Arizona, we don't have a lot of design build work, Andy, that's never been, you know, I'd say 90 % of the work that we do here has been CIMAR.
00:37:20.865 --> 00:37:25.547
um And so that's been most of my career.
00:37:25.547 --> 00:37:35.952
But there is a lot of experience of, you know, one of the things Hannah and I used to do a lot and at the old place was develop kind of like this idea of, you know, I have this schedule that I use a lot.
00:37:35.952 --> 00:37:41.735
It's called a modified CMAR, which is really what CMAR should be, frankly, at the end of the day, but it hasn't been for quite some time.
00:37:41.735 --> 00:37:43.356
So there's that part of it.
00:37:43.356 --> 00:37:56.134
But the other part of it, I think, is we recognized You know, in Phoenix, everybody's a little bit different as far as different markets are concerned, but there were certain things that we saw and we thought we could get in front of.
00:37:56.134 --> 00:38:05.847
So as an example of that, Andy, was a lot of the clients that we work with are complaining about this idea that Nobody's owning that process.
00:38:05.847 --> 00:38:09.967
want an architect, you know, when they look for an architect, they want somebody that's going to lead.
00:38:09.989 --> 00:38:19.641
They want somebody that's not going to just basically throw team members under the bus or, you know, other consultants or the builder or whatever, right?
00:38:19.641 --> 00:38:21.893
It's somebody own it, take it.
00:38:22.213 --> 00:38:24.753
And we're very siloed.
00:38:24.878 --> 00:38:27.378
in a lot of the firms here, the way that we approach things.
00:38:27.378 --> 00:38:33.818
And so one of the things that Hannah and I, we used to complain a lot about was that idea of everything being siloed.
00:38:33.818 --> 00:38:43.858
One of my favorite things is she never heard of, you know, until she came to Arizona, she had never heard of a, oh my goodness, deferred submittal.
00:38:44.637 --> 00:38:46.077
Didn't know what that was.
00:38:46.077 --> 00:38:51.717
And so, that idea of kind of deferring something that you're not owning that process.
00:38:51.717 --> 00:38:53.577
And I understand where those things came from, right?
00:38:53.577 --> 00:38:55.338
We all get where it comes from.
00:38:55.338 --> 00:39:00.097
But as the designers, as the architects, we should be really owning that and coordinating and have it.
00:39:00.097 --> 00:39:10.697
And so we saw a lot of clients complain about things like that, Walking into a room, have specific, one client in particular that he was telling me, he's like, walked into this one big space.
00:39:11.211 --> 00:39:15.605
And I looked up at the ceiling and the lighting, the sprinklers, nothing's coordinated.
00:39:15.605 --> 00:39:17.396
It's all in the wrong thing, wrong spots.
00:39:17.396 --> 00:39:17.907
It's messy.
00:39:17.907 --> 00:39:19.347
He's like, who's fixing this?
00:39:19.347 --> 00:39:21.228
Who's owning this problem?
00:39:21.409 --> 00:39:28.875
Well, of course they fixed that room, but there's six of them in a row, Andy, and the other five weren't followed up on and did the exact same thing.
00:39:29.135 --> 00:39:30.456
And he was livid.
00:39:30.717 --> 00:39:32.873
And it's just, you know, things like that.
00:39:32.873 --> 00:39:38.996
And so that siloed approach, this idea of not owning was something that we saw a lot of clients complaining.
00:39:38.996 --> 00:39:51.278
And what we thought was, well, everybody's trying to make things faster and cheaper from the design perspective, but they're all really complaining about no one owning anything and that it's all not coordinated and well done.
00:39:51.659 --> 00:40:01.842
What if we try to build it that way where our process was about we own it all or not making every decision with a CYA mentality, right?
00:40:02.297 --> 00:40:06.541
We're just taking care of the customer and taking care of our clients.
00:40:06.603 --> 00:40:23.860
So that was one thing for me That was one the things we talked about and then Hannah let you talk about the the design build portion of that too because that was another part Yeah, mean, design bill, I mean, you've kind of took words out of my mouth and a lot of those uh aspects of what bugs me.
00:40:23.860 --> 00:40:30.954
he certainly heard me complain enough about this diverse middle and the asylum mentality.
00:40:30.954 --> 00:40:42.760
I think one of the things that perhaps may be resonating with a lot of clients that we've been working and fortunate to work with them For us, this is not just designing a space.
00:40:42.760 --> 00:40:51.119
For us, it's learning about the client's needs and what problem we're really trying to solve on behalf of our client.
00:40:51.119 --> 00:41:00.768
So once we understand the problem that we're trying to solve, all the decisions really around it, it's not just creating a space.
00:41:00.768 --> 00:41:05.460
It's not just creating a pretty uh output of a space.
00:41:06.286 --> 00:41:18.856
I think by doing so, we have a lot more empathy of what our clients are going through and why they have to make certain decisions, whether it's cutting the budget, whether they have to move the schedule or whatever that is.
00:41:18.856 --> 00:41:24.440
And we take on some of the risk and be very nimble with them and go along the journey with them.
00:41:24.440 --> 00:41:27.922
And that's been really resonating with a lot of our clients.
00:41:27.922 --> 00:41:32.376
We just had a really, really great feedback from our client for exact reason.
00:41:32.376 --> 00:41:34.036
There has been a lot of changes.
00:41:34.036 --> 00:41:37.188
There has been a lot of budget revision.
00:41:37.188 --> 00:41:49.474
And our team has been uh on top of it along every step of the way, because we know that was one of their problem solving that we had to take on part of the ownership and responsibility.
00:41:49.474 --> 00:42:01.623
And I think one of the feedback they said, somebody else, another design firm that they're working with, the moment there were so many changes and the moment there was a reduction of budget and change in schedule to do things faster.
00:42:01.623 --> 00:42:03.735
those teams just start to check out.
00:42:04.514 --> 00:42:15.688
They were no longer engaged in that project like they were in the very earlier on when they first won the project, whereas what they said they saw in us was completely opposite.
00:42:15.688 --> 00:42:17.548
We were more engaged, we hands-on.
00:42:17.548 --> 00:42:25.902
We were still very upfront at the table with them, trying to help them address their situation that they're going through.
00:42:25.931 --> 00:42:38.052
I think that's the mentality Ben and I from the get-go when we commiserated or contemplated about doing our own thing or even opening an office with Mancini and Phoenix was that mentality.
00:42:38.052 --> 00:42:43.956
We're here, we treat every client as if this is our first client and our last client.
00:42:43.976 --> 00:42:48.440
We also have something to prove in this market because we're relatively new.
00:42:48.440 --> 00:42:54.826
A lot of people don't know who we are uh while the Mancini name in East Coast is very established.
00:42:54.827 --> 00:42:59.112
In the Valley area, we're one of the newbies and new players in town.
00:42:59.112 --> 00:43:07.884
So um I think that mentality will stick with us no matter how long we've been in the market, no matter how long we'll be in Phoenix area.
00:43:07.884 --> 00:43:10.793
But you got something to prove it sounds like, right?
00:43:10.987 --> 00:43:20.228
We do we absolutely do But what is that the only thing that drives that mentality that you mentioned is what what is driving that?
00:43:20.543 --> 00:43:27.007
Collaboration, I mean, we're certainly not the expert of everything.
00:43:27.007 --> 00:43:33.713
When it comes to mechanical, electrical, those engineering scope of work, yes, we know enough to be dangerous, but we're not the expert.
00:43:33.713 --> 00:43:46.643
So with part of the design bill, what that taught me is bringing all the players at the table in as early as possible and even taking the client along with that journey of collaboration from the get-go.
00:43:46.643 --> 00:43:52.586
uh We focus a lot on the outcome, like what the final product looks like.
00:43:52.586 --> 00:43:56.108
And we spent a lot of time on winning the project, right?
00:43:56.108 --> 00:43:59.708
Everybody put their best foot forward, best effort to win the project.
00:43:59.708 --> 00:44:06.150
during that journey, I I think that that's as equally important because that's what you remember.
00:44:06.150 --> 00:44:11.032
You remember, that project, that team that I worked with, that was such a pleasant experience.
00:44:11.032 --> 00:44:21.114
And everybody, you know, they had their best foot forward at the table and everybody came here to help you know, create a solution.
00:44:21.114 --> 00:44:26.150
I think that's something that's always in back of our mind in every single project.
00:44:26.150 --> 00:44:29.744
How do we create the best journey for all players?
00:44:29.744 --> 00:44:33.038
Not just us, not just a client, but all the consultants as well.
00:44:33.038 --> 00:44:42.617
In micro-inditude, we talked about this a lot too before we came here, this idea that there's a lot of design firms that you put a lot of energy in that first portion to get the job.
00:44:42.878 --> 00:44:46.617
There's a lot of energy and you're, you're, you are right there.
00:44:46.617 --> 00:44:49.737
You're, you know, you're putting all your energy towards it.
00:44:49.737 --> 00:44:51.217
You're trying to get what you can.
00:44:51.217 --> 00:44:59.878
And then you end up kind of in that last 5 % doing the same thing again, because you're trying to kind of get this thing to out the door and be done and get your fee and get everything right here.
00:44:59.878 --> 00:45:03.458
you, well, what about that whole 90 % in the middle?
00:45:03.731 --> 00:45:04.922
And we don't talk about that enough.
00:45:04.922 --> 00:45:13.092
And so we spent a lot of time talking about that, that it's just this relentless pursuit of constantly doing that.
00:45:13.092 --> 00:45:15.476
And like a great example is what Hannah's talking about.
00:45:15.476 --> 00:45:19.836
That was an actual conversation she had just a little while ago from a feedback, from a client perspective.
00:45:20.137 --> 00:45:22.889
So she's really good about that.
00:45:22.889 --> 00:45:23.699
You've had what?
00:45:23.699 --> 00:45:27.760
Probably three of those kind of conversations with them already at this point.
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:30.021
And we just started CDs, Andy.
00:45:30.021 --> 00:45:35.501
So there's this pretty consistent like, Asking for feedback where where are we right now?
00:45:35.501 --> 00:45:36.342
How are we doing?
00:45:36.342 --> 00:45:37.072
What are we doing?
00:45:37.072 --> 00:45:37.911
Well, what are we doing?
00:45:37.911 --> 00:45:51.818
Not so well So constantly kind of getting that and just this again a relentless kind of Just don't put your foot on the brake at all Because that's you know, that's the hard stuff.
00:45:51.818 --> 00:45:53.199
It's not everything in the middle.
00:45:53.199 --> 00:45:59.878
That's where it's hard That's where you really show up for a climbing and they're gonna be happy Yeah.
00:45:59.942 --> 00:46:02.762
I mean that definitely sounds really awesome now.
00:46:02.762 --> 00:46:25.416
Here's the challenge is Well, I'm not going there I'm going to the point of How do you how do you package all that up you just said and like, you know Very well, but how do you package that up and share that with a client who's like I'm looking at five different architects right now That is...
00:46:25.963 --> 00:46:26.704
That is hard.
00:46:26.704 --> 00:46:27.853
TBD.
00:46:27.994 --> 00:46:32.905
I we have a lot of great competition in the Valley as well.
00:46:32.905 --> 00:46:34.836
There's a lot of amazing firm.
00:46:34.836 --> 00:46:55.387
But I think it's a genuine, you know, when you spend time with a client and willingness to invest a little bit of effort and share your genuine interest and em you I guess your effort and your passion into it so far it's been really resonating with us.
00:46:55.387 --> 00:47:09.471
Clients has been seeing it right through and from the get-go they're like, okay, well, there's something that we're saying that seems to be, we don't know exactly what it is, but there's something we're saying to our client that's resonating with them.
00:47:09.471 --> 00:47:11.362
And it seems simple, right?
00:47:11.362 --> 00:47:20.833
Like if you really break it down, it's that interaction and compassion and willingness to really be there for your client to solve the problem.
00:47:21.302 --> 00:47:28.795
But I think, and we've been guilty of that as well in the past, but we kind of forget why we're doing it, right?
00:47:28.795 --> 00:47:39.155
Like we get so wrapped up in the journey of the schedule and deadline and budget and the fee and then trying to get our team to be much more efficient and so that we can make money.
00:47:39.697 --> 00:47:41.648
All of that is still as equally important.
00:47:41.648 --> 00:48:00.797
Of course, we were, not in business if we can't make money, but I think you If we just kind of take a one step back and look at why we're doing what we're doing and trying to be there for on behalf of client, I don't know what that magic is, but I think it's been resonating.
00:48:01.358 --> 00:48:07.898
Well, it's a mixed bag and to your point, it's a really hard thing to do because it's not going to work 100 % of the time, obviously.
00:48:07.898 --> 00:48:14.498
mean, I think that you're trying to find, we've always had the attitude of kind of quality over quantity when it comes to clients.
00:48:14.498 --> 00:48:18.338
We want to find partnerships and we want to have people that will be doing this for a while.
00:48:18.478 --> 00:48:31.934
And I think part of that is that, you know, in the traditional sense of the word, think Hannah and I, one of the things that You know as co-leadership one of the things that we used to talk about was you both have strengths and weaknesses And that's one of the reasons we love it.
00:48:31.934 --> 00:48:39.313
You help each other in that way Neither is really probably the traditional kind of business development folks.
00:48:39.313 --> 00:48:41.554
mean we did you know that's not our bag.
00:48:41.554 --> 00:49:00.088
I guess is the way I would put it but The way that we've seen this is you know what we look for is just a chance And then usually when we're given an opportunity and we go through, we can do really well because that's how we, you know, basically the proof's in the pudding to your point, Andy, about the way that we work.
00:49:00.168 --> 00:49:01.960
And so that's been really successful for us.
00:49:01.960 --> 00:49:06.273
And I think I'll tell just like this funny little anecdote sort of thing.
00:49:06.273 --> 00:49:10.242
It's a slightly embarrassing, but I think it'll tell the story because I think it's funny.
00:49:10.295 --> 00:49:12.557
Well, not to you, it's actually going to be for me.
00:49:12.557 --> 00:49:19.362
And so one of the things that I really, really believe in is, you know, sincerity is a hard thing to fake.
00:49:20.398 --> 00:49:27.364
uh And so the relationship is something that's really important to us.
00:49:27.505 --> 00:49:35.744
And so a little while back our president was here and we were going and you know when we try to get leadership here we want them to meet with as many people as we can.
00:49:35.744 --> 00:49:41.960
We're trying to introduce them as we build the name Mancini and Christian's are really energetic guys.
00:49:42.922 --> 00:49:46.802
a very dynamic person that you can get and have really good meetings with.
00:49:46.844 --> 00:49:55.766
And so as we had him here and we're running around all over the place, breakfast, lunch, dinner, in the mornings, meetings in the afternoons, whoever we can.
00:49:56.128 --> 00:49:59.539
He said something that was really funny to me at the end of the trip.
00:49:59.539 --> 00:50:09.335
And he said, you know, I think And I don't remember exactly the way he said it, Hannah, but he was talking, he was like, I think there's going to be a new way for me to kind of judge how some of the leaders work in our other offices.
00:50:09.335 --> 00:50:15.498
He says, I've never seen this before, Ben, but every time that you went and we met with some clients, they all hugged you.
00:50:16.278 --> 00:50:16.400
wow.
00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:17.489
He's like, I've never seen that.
00:50:17.489 --> 00:50:22.273
And he said, I think that was something that was kind of eye-opening to me.
00:50:22.273 --> 00:50:33.838
And so that, for me, like, I took that as a big compliment because You know, I try to be really sincere and when I develop a friendship with a client, you know, that's something that's real.
00:50:33.838 --> 00:50:35.309
It's not something that I'm trying to fake.
00:50:35.309 --> 00:50:37.510
And so we're there to try to do what's best for them.
00:50:37.510 --> 00:50:40.552
We really are representing them in the best way that we can.
00:50:40.552 --> 00:50:42.141
Yes, the business stuff's important.
00:50:42.141 --> 00:50:44.632
Yes, all of those things.
00:50:44.833 --> 00:50:53.916
But if you're prioritizing kind of the client, their needs, what they're looking for, you know, all of those things, the rest of it kind of will follow.
00:50:53.916 --> 00:50:55.490
That's my philosophy.
00:50:55.490 --> 00:50:56.858
you No ego.
00:50:56.858 --> 00:50:59.728
think that's another big thing, right?
00:50:59.768 --> 00:51:02.373
That was a big, how do we not even talk about that?
00:51:02.440 --> 00:51:16.096
Yeah, think that's something that we even, one of the criteria when we interview potential candidates to join our team because you Ego can, it's very transparent.
00:51:16.096 --> 00:51:19.518
When somebody's ego, it shows up, right?
00:51:19.518 --> 00:51:21.340
And it's pretty apparent.
00:51:21.340 --> 00:51:27.596
And I think that genuine, the sincerity that Ben's talking about, for us, we're not above it all.
00:51:27.596 --> 00:51:29.936
We just happen to be in this journey.
00:51:29.936 --> 00:51:38.465
We happen to have a little more experience in interiors and architecture or design build or whatever that may be than our client.
00:51:38.465 --> 00:51:41.773
We're bringing that level of service to our client.
00:51:41.773 --> 00:51:45.385
you we're a service industry at the end of the day.
00:51:45.766 --> 00:51:48.965
So I think we really, that's always in back of our mind.
00:51:48.965 --> 00:51:53.465
We always say check your ego at the door before you come in here because that's not welcome.
00:51:53.525 --> 00:51:57.405
And I think that shows up in that level of sincerity as well.
00:51:57.405 --> 00:52:12.244
I mean, both Ben and I, we have a client who texts us to ask us questions whether it's about project or something random because we want to build that relationship It's not about how big the project is, how much money we're going to make off of that project.
00:52:12.244 --> 00:52:22.974
It could start from something so small, but we care about building that relationship because it'll result in us potentially helping them with bigger projects down the road.
00:52:22.974 --> 00:52:28.429
And I think that's been the true testament of all the projects and the clients that we're meeting so far.
00:52:28.429 --> 00:52:30.574
you Yeah, awesome.
00:52:30.574 --> 00:52:38.054
Yeah, I mean you got to be good at what you do, which I mean I'm sure everybody in your community and your area is pretty good.
00:52:38.393 --> 00:52:42.793
So this type of thing you're talking about is that's the difference maker.
00:52:42.793 --> 00:52:49.193
You buy from who you like and you know these are ways to really connect with people.
00:52:49.193 --> 00:52:55.213
So what I'm hearing Ben is I need to start hugging my clients in order to get that.
00:52:55.213 --> 00:52:55.853
Right?
00:52:55.853 --> 00:52:57.199
Is that what you're basically saying?
00:52:57.199 --> 00:52:58.143
You never know.
00:52:58.143 --> 00:52:59.898
It certainly doesn't hurt.
00:53:00.427 --> 00:53:06.039
I'm kidding of course, anyway.
00:53:07.523 --> 00:53:09.467
That's my attempt at a joke.
00:53:10.262 --> 00:53:12.342
It's okay.
00:53:12.342 --> 00:53:19.666
so, but Hannah, you were talking about, obviously this is the Enhance Podcast, I really like to dig into your why.
00:53:19.666 --> 00:53:20.626
know, why you do it.
00:53:20.626 --> 00:53:21.927
I think we've hit on that.
00:53:21.927 --> 00:53:26.289
So while we're there, let's go ahead and just really dig in that a little bit more.
00:53:26.289 --> 00:53:42.206
mean, ah what is it that you feel enhances the world, either you or Ben, or actually both of you, of course, but what do you feel that you personally, your studio does that enhances the world around you.
00:53:43.581 --> 00:53:54.389
I think we're creating something that impacts people and their emotion, how they feel, their productivity.
00:53:55.050 --> 00:54:00.353
Anything that provokes that moment of emotion to me.
00:54:00.898 --> 00:54:02.639
that successful projects.
00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:23.797
And I think our team, whether it's through the journey of the design journey from winning the project all the way down to punch list and having client along the journey with us, or their team walking into a space that we've created and seeing their sense of excitement or how their mood changes.
00:54:23.797 --> 00:54:27.449
I think that's kind of why I do what we do.
00:54:27.449 --> 00:54:32.077
um And I think that's how our team does what they do.
00:54:32.077 --> 00:54:38.760
uh It impacts in their lives in small ways, but it's meaningful.
00:54:38.760 --> 00:54:41.501
ah It's the connection.
00:54:41.501 --> 00:54:48.123
It's what we created together impacting not only that one individual, but their community.
00:54:48.123 --> 00:54:53.146
ah I mean, I don't know how much more you can ask more than that.
00:54:53.146 --> 00:54:54.846
It's a bit of a gift.
00:54:54.987 --> 00:55:04.402
Yeah Well, and I like what you said earlier too, because the process itself was important to you.
00:55:04.402 --> 00:55:19.742
Not just, I mean, the finish is super important and starting is obviously important, but the actual enjoyment of the process itself, that's, when you enjoy that, then I can tell.
00:55:20.076 --> 00:55:25.215
I can tell why people want to work with you and why you are making the world better.
00:55:25.338 --> 00:55:27.440
Ben, what about yourself?
00:55:32.215 --> 00:55:36.327
going further and further in my career, that's slightly changed, think a little bit.
00:55:36.327 --> 00:55:38.878
My answer would be different now, I guess, than what it was earlier.
00:55:38.878 --> 00:55:45.211
But my story is a little unique, and in the sense that, so I studied something else for a while before I came to architecture.
00:55:45.211 --> 00:55:51.454
And so as I kind of went through that, and I was evaluating and understanding myself a little bit more, I've started to realize things.
00:55:51.454 --> 00:55:55.856
So I believe that architects inherently are problem solvers.
00:55:55.856 --> 00:55:59.858
I mean, I think that's what our education is about, is problem solving.
00:55:59.998 --> 00:56:08.704
And so I've recognized that about myself, That's one of the things I'm a strategy guy, I'm a problem guy, I like to resolve things.
00:56:09.206 --> 00:56:16.871
So that combined with this nature of where I am, my why is really about that.
00:56:16.871 --> 00:56:38.478
The other aspect of that to me is too is one of my absolute favorite things about this job I've learned over the years too is when we dive in and you're learning something new, uh You know, as a good example of this, um you know, we've, I've had some good experiences working with native tribes and we're working with two native tribes right now.
00:56:38.478 --> 00:56:43.829
That was one of the things that we didn't anticipate coming our way, but for some reason we're getting that work.
00:56:43.989 --> 00:56:58.614
And so the dive into the history and the culture and the people when you're researching and learning about that is something I just, that's one of the things for me that I absolutely love.
00:56:59.349 --> 00:57:06.041
And that's one of the great things about architecture too is that in every project, a long time ago I did this really cool.
00:57:06.041 --> 00:57:10.539
And here's a uh little quiz for you too, So do you remember the show The Pretender?
00:57:10.539 --> 00:57:13.572
You ever heard of that?
00:57:13.693 --> 00:57:15.806
the Marvel thing or is that?
00:57:15.806 --> 00:57:17.288
No, different.
00:57:17.288 --> 00:57:17.737
There was a...
00:57:17.737 --> 00:57:18.688
Sorry.
00:57:18.688 --> 00:57:19.980
No, no, you're good.
00:57:19.980 --> 00:57:20.760
I'm dating myself.
00:57:20.760 --> 00:57:21.585
But there was a show.
00:57:21.585 --> 00:57:28.817
It was about a guy who was a genius and the context of the show is he would go around and each show he had to become somebody.
00:57:29.099 --> 00:57:33.295
different to resolve and help this family or this person or whatever it is.
00:57:33.295 --> 00:57:38.981
so on this episode he had to be a doctor or he had to be, you know, whatever.
00:57:38.981 --> 00:57:45.847
And so he was so brilliant and so smart that he was able to adapt and become whatever that role was for that episode.
00:57:46.092 --> 00:57:53.175
And so for me, a lot of what we do on a project by project basis is we have to become an expert about something for every project and it's unique.
00:57:53.175 --> 00:58:03.101
And that's another thing I absolutely love about what I do is that idea that every project offers each of us an opportunity to learn new things.
00:58:03.101 --> 00:58:05.353
so anyway, those are the things for me that.
00:58:05.353 --> 00:58:19.041
em the creative side of what Hannah's saying that the creation thing, you know, obviously that's a high that we all get to feel, doing something and building something and seeing it come to life.
00:58:19.041 --> 00:58:21.963
But really for me, it's actually kind of the earlier stuff.
00:58:21.963 --> 00:58:26.344
It's the figuring it out and trying to understand what the problem is.
00:58:26.344 --> 00:58:33.797
um You know, the other, what I used to do, like where I thought I was gonna go, is I wanted to be an emergency room physician.
00:58:33.797 --> 00:58:35.628
So I went through school for a while.
00:58:35.628 --> 00:58:37.860
I worked in an ER for five years.
00:58:38.161 --> 00:58:44.545
So what's funny is later on in life I realized an architect and an emergency doc are almost the same job.
00:58:44.684 --> 00:58:46.275
Because it's all about problem solving.
00:58:46.275 --> 00:58:46.976
It really is.
00:58:46.976 --> 00:58:51.369
I know it sounds weird and I tell people that, but you think about it, you're presented a case.
00:58:51.800 --> 00:58:54.432
There's a lot of variables and you're trying to figure out what those are.
00:58:54.432 --> 00:58:56.414
Some of them are really apparent.
00:58:56.414 --> 00:59:01.518
Some you've got to figure out through testing or figure out the programming or whatever it might be.
00:59:01.539 --> 00:59:05.943
And then it's about taking all of that information and kind of resolving it to an outcome.
00:59:05.943 --> 00:59:12.048
In an emergency room environment, it's about stabilizing a patient and getting them out the door or wherever it might be.
00:59:12.048 --> 00:59:17.833
For an architect, it's about resolving this into this design that fixes all of those problems.
00:59:18.059 --> 00:59:19.391
And so it's the same process.
00:59:19.391 --> 00:59:20.692
I didn't know that back then.
00:59:20.692 --> 00:59:21.713
I didn't know.
00:59:21.713 --> 00:59:22.534
Yep.
00:59:22.534 --> 00:59:24.485
Yeah, there are no architecture emergencies.
00:59:24.485 --> 00:59:25.876
We say that a lot.
00:59:26.478 --> 00:59:28.920
but the point is, is I think for me, that's my why.
00:59:28.920 --> 00:59:34.844
That's for, it was, it is that process that for me that drives me every single day.
00:59:35.400 --> 00:59:41.998
is taking them through their emergency, so to speak, and solving that problem.
00:59:42.030 --> 00:59:43.170
Yeah.
00:59:43.210 --> 00:59:56.349
Some of those, by the way, and we've all probably had projects where those are really easy to understand, or they'll come to you and say, is our problem, and then you realize that's not really what their problem is.
00:59:56.349 --> 00:59:58.050
How many times does that happen?
00:59:58.409 --> 01:00:01.670
You figure that out along the way a little bit.
01:00:02.989 --> 01:00:08.829
I think the future where we go, the way, is a recognition of that.
01:00:09.750 --> 01:00:11.452
They'll be like, well, we're running out of space.
01:00:11.452 --> 01:00:15.014
need to build this whole new building because we need more desks.
01:00:15.054 --> 01:00:17.617
Well, is there other ways to resolve that issue?
01:00:17.858 --> 01:00:18.869
Could you do it differently?
01:00:18.869 --> 01:00:23.402
Could you add another overnight kind of thing?
01:00:23.402 --> 01:00:25.405
Or could you do partially remote?
01:00:25.405 --> 01:00:30.108
you do like there are any number of ways to that solution to resolve that issue?
01:00:30.188 --> 01:00:33.001
We should be paid no matter what the solution is.
01:00:33.001 --> 01:00:35.172
It might not be building a building anymore.
01:00:35.750 --> 01:00:37.440
Yeah, I mean that's really interesting.
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:50.456
I've had that experience too where it was, I thought I wanted something and it actually kind of like to the no ego point, takes a little bit of, it almost takes the opposite of that, right?
01:00:50.456 --> 01:00:55.798
Because you have to tell them, I really think, you have to balance that guess is what I'm saying.
01:00:55.798 --> 01:01:00.030
You have to tell them, hey, I really think you don't need extra space.
01:01:00.030 --> 01:01:01.922
What you need is to like reconfigure this.
01:01:01.922 --> 01:01:05.548
oh or something, I don't know, as an example.
01:01:05.590 --> 01:01:11.501
what is an example that you can think of where you solve somebody's problem?
01:01:13.985 --> 01:01:16.277
Well, let's stay relevant to where we are right now.
01:01:16.277 --> 01:01:20.760
think so one of the projects that we're working on is um with it.
01:01:20.760 --> 01:01:25.072
That's when the tribal projects was working with one of the tribes here in Arizona, the Wallopi tribe.
01:01:25.072 --> 01:01:28.195
And we've talked about this one a lot, but we're still under construction.
01:01:28.195 --> 01:01:39.501
And so uh just high level version of this problem without diving too deep into it was they're located in the very northwest corner of the state.
01:01:39.554 --> 01:01:40.835
very remote.
01:01:40.835 --> 01:01:46.179
Peach Springs is the name of the town and by the way when I say that here almost no one knows what that is in Arizona.
01:01:46.179 --> 01:02:01.815
Like it's that's you know they have no cell service there's nothing there's And so they wanted to build, had a bunch of money that came to them through COVID and they wanted to use it to build a tribal administration building like their city hall, their capital kind of a building.
01:02:01.815 --> 01:02:10.199
And tribes, they have a lot of difficulty with doing projects when it's situations like this where it's remote.
01:02:10.278 --> 01:02:16.782
They get taken advantage of, it's very expensive because you're asking designers and builders to go in the middle of nowhere.
01:02:16.782 --> 01:02:20.744
So all of these challenges that they do on a day to day basis.
01:02:20.744 --> 01:02:26.498
And so we were part of a team that was helping kind of get in front of that and trying to help resolve those problems.
01:02:26.498 --> 01:02:30.693
But specifically to that building itself, we knew it was gonna be difficult.
01:02:30.693 --> 01:02:36.398
And so one of the ways that we worked to kind of solve that problem, Andy, was saying, okay, well.
01:02:37.097 --> 01:02:41.222
We know that getting trades up there, getting people to work is going to be difficult.
01:02:41.222 --> 01:02:44.164
how do we do something that maybe would make things quicker?
01:02:44.164 --> 01:02:56.396
And so the way they resolved that was we came up with a scheme of kind of breaking the building up into four different modules and each one is a highly customized pre-engineered metal building.
01:02:56.621 --> 01:02:58.663
and then we connected them all together.
01:02:58.663 --> 01:03:08.802
So it's one building, but the way that the erection of the primary structure and the skin and all those things could happen really, really quickly, because it's kind of an off the shelf component.
01:03:08.802 --> 01:03:20.592
Of course, we made it difficult doing customization pieces to this, but anyway, the theory anyway was taking advantage of things that are gonna make this faster and easier.
01:03:20.773 --> 01:03:24.213
And so that was a resolution of a huge issue that they had.
01:03:24.277 --> 01:03:30.387
And so we're finally now we're under construction, the skin starting to go on these buildings and we're starting to see it come to life.
01:03:30.510 --> 01:03:43.735
And we're getting the response to that, which is this, you One of the main clients, I think Hannah brought him up earlier, uh is the CFO for the tribe and he called the other day just to talk about it.
01:03:43.735 --> 01:03:45.585
He's like, I can't believe this.
01:03:45.585 --> 01:03:48.896
uh He's so animated and so excited.
01:03:48.896 --> 01:03:56.974
And that has been a very rewarding project for us because of that kind of reaction where people are like, know, can't believe this.
01:03:56.974 --> 01:04:09.514
is also perfect example where we had all the players earlier on engage into the project, know, including clients and took along that journey of decision making.
01:04:09.514 --> 01:04:13.733
When we have to make the decisions in a timely manner, there was reason behind it.
01:04:13.733 --> 01:04:16.074
There were certain things that we had to value engineers.
01:04:16.074 --> 01:04:17.753
There was reason behind it.
01:04:17.753 --> 01:04:19.733
And client knew every step of the way.
01:04:19.733 --> 01:04:24.213
And he was even sitting at the table with us when we're having this discussion.
01:04:24.773 --> 01:04:25.038
So...
01:04:25.038 --> 01:04:35.177
the end product and what he's starting to see in the job side, it feels a lot more fruitful because he's been along the entire journey rather than just a portion of decision making.
01:04:35.277 --> 01:04:35.358
Right?
01:04:35.358 --> 01:04:41.438
So, and I think all the teammates that who's been working on the project, I mean, there was no ego.
01:04:41.438 --> 01:04:43.478
There was no ego of MEP.
01:04:43.478 --> 01:04:44.777
There's no ego of structural.
01:04:44.777 --> 01:04:45.898
There's no ego.
01:04:45.898 --> 01:04:46.237
Right.
01:04:46.237 --> 01:04:47.958
We had zero time.
01:04:47.958 --> 01:04:51.806
Everybody had to come to the table with a solution and idea.
01:04:51.806 --> 01:04:55.170
of how we can come up with a solution for it.
01:04:55.170 --> 01:05:03.681
that probably is a perfect example as to the culture and the value that we try to instill in our office.
01:05:04.072 --> 01:05:04.835
That's awesome.
01:05:04.835 --> 01:05:13.960
It sounds like a successful project and just a great example of how your team is really enjoying working with both of you.
01:05:14.400 --> 01:05:22.664
So I want to just hit on a couple more questions and then let you get back to the heat there in Phoenix.
01:05:22.664 --> 01:05:34.750
uh what is, we didn't really hit on this, but what is your profile of work that you really like to do or is there a type of work that you're focusing on right now?
01:05:36.148 --> 01:05:40.670
We, mean, sort of office environment has been our bread and butter.
01:05:40.670 --> 01:05:44.882
That's something that both Ben and I have a pretty extensive experiences in.
01:05:44.882 --> 01:05:55.246
uh Multifamily is something that we're really trying to develop here further too, uh along with residential tapping into our resources and talents we've got.
01:05:55.246 --> 01:06:03.289
uh Hospitality, that's probably the one market where we're really trying to penetrate into and showcase our capabilities.
01:06:03.289 --> 01:06:10.612
uh If Ben and I had a perfect way, think, um what am I looking for?
01:06:10.612 --> 01:06:17.396
um It's not mixed use, but it's, I'm losing my The board may be here.
01:06:18.110 --> 01:06:21.561
No, um I'm not sure where you're going.
01:06:22.766 --> 01:06:26.786
my god I'm having a brain moment maybe I need more coffee.
01:06:27.686 --> 01:06:37.485
It's not mixed use like in an ideal way like if we had a perfect way we talked about it in converting gas station into a thank you adaptive reuse.
01:06:37.786 --> 01:06:41.266
I think that will be our goal.
01:06:42.626 --> 01:06:58.715
Yeah I mean there are just so many great opportunity here in our market that's kind of abandoned or left dormant that they could be converted into the supporting community, whether it's mixed use, whether it's other functions.
01:06:58.715 --> 01:07:02.137
So I think that will be our passion project.
01:07:02.199 --> 01:07:03.731
Yeah, for sure.
01:07:03.769 --> 01:07:05.454
I think we've been really lucky, Andy.
01:07:05.454 --> 01:07:10.641
em When we first started this, obviously we built up kind of a business plan where we wanted to go.
01:07:10.641 --> 01:07:16.489
That got completely shot down when clients came with us that we didn't expect and blew that all up.
01:07:16.960 --> 01:07:18.922
Out of that though, we've been really fortunate.
01:07:18.922 --> 01:07:20.373
We're super diverse.
01:07:20.373 --> 01:07:33.911
So a lot of the project types that we've worked and everything she talked about, you know, in addition to ah we've done every type of office, we've done higher education, we've done, you know, we've been really very, very lucky that way.
01:07:33.911 --> 01:07:43.228
I think what we're trying to do though is The only one that I would add to the list of what Hannah was just talking about, those are kind of core where we're working towards is kind of the municipal side.
01:07:43.228 --> 01:07:52.251
So civic um is one that, it really, guess you could call it maybe public, but so civic and higher education is another one that we're working on.
01:07:52.251 --> 01:07:56.791
um We think it's really important to be diverse as far as both on the private and the public.
01:07:56.791 --> 01:08:01.434
ah I have a significant amount of experience myself working with municipal.
01:08:01.434 --> 01:08:10.858
um and higher education clients, anything public really, a lot of different entities, whether it's municipalities or the state or whatever it might be.
01:08:10.858 --> 01:08:14.378
So I think those are kind of the core of where we go on.
01:08:14.378 --> 01:08:19.957
mean, we're very fortunate as a firm that we do work in many, many practice areas like a lot of firms do.
01:08:19.957 --> 01:08:22.729
But for us, yeah, those are kind of the bit of the focus right now.
01:08:22.729 --> 01:08:35.484
Yeah, okay awesome and you've got a company again back to the benefit of a bigger company because I mean you could say hey our our home office can deal with that part because maybe you're not able to handle it locally etc.
01:08:35.484 --> 01:09:09.072
uh So awesome well I want to because of the way this conversation went I wanted to if you're open to it, just a different like question because both of you seem like you get along really well and uh I just wanted to just say, hey, I wanted each of you to just say something about the other and anything that maybe the audience would want to know about or maybe um people don't know about you.
01:09:09.072 --> 01:09:12.083
So anything that you feel is relevant.
01:09:12.083 --> 01:09:13.902
It could be, you know, probably.
01:09:13.902 --> 01:09:21.274
make it I was hoping you'd you know not use ego right?
01:09:22.993 --> 01:09:23.793
Nah I'm just kidding.
01:09:23.793 --> 01:09:32.413
yeah if you could you know this felt like the way the conversation went that would be a fun question to ask so I'll let you guys decide who wants to go first.
01:09:33.037 --> 01:09:34.761
That's a really good question.
01:09:34.761 --> 01:09:38.743
I mean, something that they might not know about each other.
01:09:38.743 --> 01:09:40.265
Okay, so I think...
01:09:40.265 --> 01:09:41.203
Is that the question?
01:09:41.203 --> 01:09:42.213
Something that...
01:09:42.213 --> 01:09:58.181
Just something about Hannah, so Ben, something about Hannah that the audience might want to know or maybe that your, even like your team doesn't know, so just something interesting basically about Hannah and likewise about Ben, so about the other person.
01:09:58.365 --> 01:10:02.328
The face I think is, that she's making right now is telling.
01:10:02.328 --> 01:10:03.368
So, okay.
01:10:03.368 --> 01:10:07.840
So I'm guessing what she'll say will be very, you know, responsive to what I say.
01:10:07.840 --> 01:10:13.493
You know, I think, okay, so yeah, you're right on Andy.
01:10:13.493 --> 01:10:17.725
We've been very fortunate, so I'm trying to think how long.
01:10:17.725 --> 01:10:21.827
So we worked together three and a half years at the other.
01:10:21.827 --> 01:10:24.684
So we've been what, like four and a half, five years at this point.
01:10:24.684 --> 01:10:26.533
longer than that for some reason.
01:10:26.533 --> 01:10:28.697
something, so it's been a little bit.
01:10:28.697 --> 01:10:44.132
So I think um if I was to kind of approach this in a couple different ways, think one of the funny things I'll say, this might be a kind of fun moment, is I think that my wife and Hannah have a better relationship than I do in some ways.
01:10:46.327 --> 01:10:51.554
That is Like they would pick her over me any day of the week, so there's that that side of it.
01:10:51.554 --> 01:11:05.123
I think that's been very frustrating And so a little factoid too by the way with that Andy that might be interesting is I'm the only guy in this office So that's been another piece that's been interesting.
01:11:05.123 --> 01:11:20.109
There's a lot of feminine energy in this office em So there's that and then I think Getting so much work Yeah, it makes things fun.
01:11:20.109 --> 01:11:21.030
I'll say that.
01:11:21.030 --> 01:11:25.492
I think from kind of working with Hannah though, I'll add something on that side of it too.
01:11:25.492 --> 01:11:40.416
So one of the things that I'm super grateful for and I think one of the things that has been a real benefit is that Hannah is really, really good at kind of the details uh in many ways.
01:11:40.416 --> 01:12:03.765
And so one of the things that I've always struggled with, and I remember my mentor when I was young, I worked at another bigger firm and he was great and I loved working with him and we used to talk a lot about, I tended to be, you know, I'd put the blinders on and I would bore in and I would just go and I'd get too far down a road and not realize I need to kind of pull back out a little bit.
01:12:03.765 --> 01:12:10.929
And we had a lot of those conversations about, you know, when you're at 50,000 foot elevation and when you're at 500 and knowing when.
01:12:11.137 --> 01:12:15.088
because I get enamored with an idea or kind of problem solving kind of thing, right?
01:12:15.088 --> 01:12:16.449
Andy and I just kind of keep going.
01:12:16.449 --> 01:12:21.242
And so when you're doing that, a lot of times you miss some of the little details.
01:12:21.242 --> 01:12:24.682
uh You're kind of just going after something.
01:12:25.462 --> 01:12:28.224
And I've been known for that problem slightly.
01:12:28.224 --> 01:12:37.850
So one of the things that's been great is having Hannah as a partner with me that is helping me You know, as I said at the very beginning, this was not the path I saw for myself, right?
01:12:37.850 --> 01:12:45.347
I learned a lot of things in the last several years of working where we were together in a leadership role that I could do things that I didn't know I could.
01:12:45.627 --> 01:12:55.216
And a lot of that came from working with Hannah and this ability to kind of push me a little bit better to kind of recognize that and stay on top of things that I needed to.
01:12:55.277 --> 01:13:08.305
And so I think that was one of the things, I think her attentiveness and detail-oriented and knowing you know, holding us to account in a good way on that has been something that I really, really appreciate about working with Anna.
01:13:10.176 --> 01:13:32.713
Aww, shocks! uh You know, when, as I said earlier, when this opportunity to potentially open an office for Mancini Phoenix, I could have had many options of people who I, you know, called to join me in this journey.
01:13:32.877 --> 01:13:34.586
That was like the third choice.
01:13:35.039 --> 01:13:36.451
Okay, whatever.
01:13:36.470 --> 01:13:37.891
He was the one and only.
01:13:37.891 --> 01:13:44.765
um I knew he shared that genuine vision, caring for the clients.
01:13:44.765 --> 01:13:54.863
And one of the things that every single client that Ben has ever worked with, I have yet to met any client who he doesn't build a meaningful relationship with.
01:13:54.863 --> 01:14:00.185
I think it's his genuine sincerity approach to each project and their...
01:14:00.322 --> 01:14:06.627
the problems that they're dealing with, he approached with such a care and compassion.
01:14:06.627 --> 01:14:12.490
And I think because of that, he always tend to build this really concrete relationship with his client.
01:14:12.490 --> 01:14:24.479
And that fundamental, that core value that he has, I knew that was exactly who I wanted in my partner to grow this office, to open this office.
01:14:24.479 --> 01:14:25.940
And that has been the case.
01:14:25.940 --> 01:14:50.838
And I think I get very focused in Big Picture and he tells me that I'm an agent of chaos sometimes because I'm constantly thinking for the what's next, what can we do differently, know, what's the next vision, where do we grow and how do we grow to their bit of a bulldog once I bite I don't let go, keep on I just go after it and go after it.
01:14:50.838 --> 01:14:54.117
Whereas I think Ben creates that sense of calm.
01:14:54.117 --> 01:14:55.747
He's like, okay, pull back one second.
01:14:55.747 --> 01:14:59.551
Let's strategically think through rather than rushing through it.
01:14:59.551 --> 01:15:10.507
So I think there has been really great balance of his personal strength and my personal strength that really complement each other and even his work style.
01:15:10.507 --> 01:15:21.506
I mean, he creates these beautiful sketches and he has ability to share his ideas with team and communicate at the design director level that he operated even in the past.
01:15:21.622 --> 01:15:27.326
I think that's something that I really appreciate what he's able to offer to our team as well.
01:15:28.135 --> 01:15:28.729
Thank you.
01:15:28.729 --> 01:15:29.180
awesome.
01:15:29.180 --> 01:15:30.610
Yeah, thank you for doing that.
01:15:30.610 --> 01:15:43.074
ah Both of you, I know that was maybe uncomfortable, uh but I mean that's what you guys do.
01:15:43.074 --> 01:15:45.435
You're sincere, so it seemed like appropriate.
01:15:45.435 --> 01:15:51.207
uh It wasn't on the questionnaire, but it was something I felt like it was going to be fun.
01:15:51.207 --> 01:15:52.649
thanks for sharing that.
01:15:52.649 --> 01:15:54.457
I was expecting a joke about Dr.
01:15:54.457 --> 01:15:55.079
Pepper, but I...
01:15:55.079 --> 01:15:57.345
uh I, you know, mean that's given.
01:15:57.345 --> 01:15:58.658
He's he's Dr.
01:15:58.658 --> 01:15:59.689
Pepper addict.
01:15:59.689 --> 01:16:00.211
Okay.
01:16:00.211 --> 01:16:03.510
uh We'll get that going.
01:16:03.510 --> 01:16:05.710
I to the doctor school or is it?
01:16:05.710 --> 01:16:22.399
oh No, that's a The way I see that so I don't drink I don't smoke I don't you know do hard drugs Andy I thought and I did convert to diet a long time ago at least for my wife so that helped me a lot But the way I see that is like at least I'm not mainlining heroin or something.
01:16:22.399 --> 01:16:26.350
I you know I have a diet doctor per pepper problem, okay?
01:16:26.350 --> 01:16:27.157
Yeah.
01:16:27.210 --> 01:16:28.372
Dr.
01:16:28.372 --> 01:16:38.481
connoisseur he goes to specific places to get his soda and has to be ony at McDonald's Okay, you gotta you gotta get that Dr.
01:16:38.481 --> 01:16:39.421
Pepperino.
01:16:41.481 --> 01:16:42.601
But awesome.
01:16:42.601 --> 01:16:46.122
Well, this has been a really fun episode with both of you.
01:16:46.122 --> 01:16:47.921
I've learned a lot about...
01:16:47.921 --> 01:16:53.641
Oh, I did have one other question because I wanted to get one other fun fact from you because I've been to Arizona or Phoenix.
01:16:53.641 --> 01:17:01.141
So could you just tell me, I don't know, something interesting about Phoenix, anything you feel, or Arizona.
01:17:01.141 --> 01:17:04.742
So something else about Phoenix or Arizona that we might should know about.
01:17:05.613 --> 01:17:11.673
Oh man, well, so I've been here, well that's one funny thing.
01:17:11.673 --> 01:17:13.913
You've been here kind of a certain amount of time.
01:17:13.913 --> 01:17:16.833
They can say, we all joke around that you qualify as Native.
01:17:16.833 --> 01:17:19.894
So I've been here since 97 and I guess that qualifies as Native.
01:17:19.894 --> 01:17:21.373
But I'm actually Canadian.
01:17:21.373 --> 01:17:22.613
Oh really?
01:17:22.654 --> 01:17:25.014
Yeah, so that's the funny thing on was tough.
01:17:25.804 --> 01:17:30.327
Yeah, no, no, it's it's I question myself every every summer why I live here.
01:17:30.327 --> 01:17:46.287
So I would say, em you know, one of the things that I love about Arizona is, you know, a lot of people come here and I and I even complain about this at times like the shades of tan and brown Andy are very, strong like that.
01:17:46.287 --> 01:17:47.807
And that's a joke, right?
01:17:47.807 --> 01:18:08.882
But what I will say, though, is there is a aesthetic, there is an experience to what Arizona is from just when you go out and you actually see the sky, you see the sun, you see especially a sunset and a sunrise and the environment and the context that we live in in kind of a native desert landscape.
01:18:08.882 --> 01:18:12.125
There is nothing else like it than here.
01:18:12.326 --> 01:18:16.529
I have never seen anything in the world that is like Arizona.
01:18:16.649 --> 01:18:39.233
And so I think that is a lot of the reason that you see some of these architects, designers, storytellers, photographers, know, the creative types that come here and they're inspired by it because there really is just something very, very unique and very, special about a desert landscape and specifically in Arizona, the Sonoran Desert landscape that isn't nowhere else.
01:18:39.353 --> 01:18:40.894
That's one thing I would say.
01:18:41.010 --> 01:18:42.752
Yeah, I would agree.
01:18:43.014 --> 01:18:47.581
the greenery, you know, I think when my East Coast friends...
01:18:47.725 --> 01:20:01.414
heard that I'm moving here they're like why are you going to desert like there's nothing nothing is alive there it's not true there's the blossom I mean right now like everything during our winter season that's when things blossom here so you get this beautiful fragrant of smell whenever you walk and there's certain scent to the desert that I can't quite pinpoint but it is beautiful and I've really grown accustomed to and realizing how much of their different you know landscape that that's here that is so stunning so that is true there's no the sunset sunrise here I mean that's I've never seen colors like that the unique unique things and things that this scare me there's something here called Haboob which I never learned it until I moved here which is a sandstorm or the dust storms that come through and so in front of storms Andy they'll whip up those you know huge cloud that comes but you do get a warning on your phone and the first time I got it it says Haboob and it tells you the time that it's coming pull over to the side stay alive that's the warning that they give you.
01:20:01.869 --> 01:20:09.399
I'm like what did I do living here other than that it's been amazing So that's serious.
01:20:09.399 --> 01:20:11.363
I mean this is a serious thing.
01:20:11.773 --> 01:20:13.543
yeah, it is.
01:20:13.543 --> 01:20:15.565
People don't realize that we do have a monsoon season.
01:20:15.565 --> 01:20:18.028
Like I said, it's not as bad as it used to be.
01:20:18.948 --> 01:20:25.274
They're violent, they're very strong winds, lightning, thunder, heavy rains when it does come.
01:20:25.274 --> 01:20:26.136
And yeah, there's been...
01:20:26.136 --> 01:20:31.815
uh You know, we have laws that are revolving around that.
01:20:31.815 --> 01:20:38.823
So, for example, the washes that come here, they can get violently going from a flood standpoint when the rains are hard, coming down really hard.
01:20:38.823 --> 01:20:42.367
And people will drive through that thinking that, it doesn't look that bad, and I'll drive through it.
01:20:42.367 --> 01:20:45.248
So they call it stupid motorist laws.
01:20:45.492 --> 01:20:56.024
And it's when you decide that if you want to take your car through one of those washes and you get washed away and you have to be rescued or whatever, you're paying the bill for every single person on that fire rescue team.
01:20:56.154 --> 01:20:57.045
wow.
01:20:57.045 --> 01:21:09.849
you know, so yeah, those storms that come through, they're beautiful at times, Like, you see the photos of those dust storms when they're first coming and, you you've got a mile high kind of dust cloud that's coming violently at you.
01:21:09.849 --> 01:21:11.269
It's really pretty, actually, at first.
01:21:11.269 --> 01:21:13.449
But yeah, when you're in it, it sucks.
01:21:14.061 --> 01:21:17.381
you know whether these were the answers you were hoping for.
01:21:19.373 --> 01:21:34.038
I I think every place on the planet and in the US has its environmental issues, know, like you have hurricanes, you have these, ah but we just have to learn to deal with them, I guess.
01:21:34.038 --> 01:21:37.953
But that's a weird place to end it, I suppose.
01:21:39.841 --> 01:21:44.252
Let's just cut it earlier and just talk about the sunrises and the sunsets.
01:21:44.832 --> 01:21:49.259
Ignore my Haboo I mean it's an interesting fun fact.
01:21:49.259 --> 01:21:50.581
I mean I'll probably remember that one.
01:21:50.581 --> 01:21:59.448
So I want to have that stupid motorist tax or whatever happen.
01:22:00.769 --> 01:22:07.734
But was there anything else that you wanted to mention today or that I didn't get on?
01:22:07.789 --> 01:22:08.850
It was great to meet you.
01:22:08.850 --> 01:22:09.989
I think this was a lot of fun.
01:22:09.989 --> 01:22:12.569
think we've been fortunate.
01:22:12.569 --> 01:22:15.270
We've done a few different kind of podcasts talking about different things.
01:22:15.270 --> 01:22:23.409
And I think this one was kind of refreshing in the sense, where it was more about kind of us and the office and kind of...
01:22:23.409 --> 01:22:24.869
Yeah, it's a little bit more...
01:22:24.869 --> 01:22:26.229
It was a very different conversation.
01:22:26.229 --> 01:22:26.869
So I appreciate that.
01:22:26.869 --> 01:22:28.225
It was fun to talk with you.
01:22:28.225 --> 01:22:29.726
Yeah, it was uh lot of fun.
01:22:29.726 --> 01:22:31.726
I learned a lot about some different things.
01:22:31.726 --> 01:22:36.859
So I'm an entrepreneur myself, like whenever people bring that up.
01:22:36.859 --> 01:22:40.150
So if I spent a little too much on that, then that's why.
01:22:40.150 --> 01:22:42.502
So glad you hung on that one for a little while.
01:22:42.502 --> 01:22:44.212
But I think people can learn from that.
01:22:44.212 --> 01:22:49.465
We have a lot of business owners and uh people that maybe want to hang a shingle one day.
01:22:49.465 --> 01:22:52.555
So I thought, why don't we give them some input on that?
01:22:52.555 --> 01:22:56.557
So also Hannah, Ben, it was great to have you today.
01:22:56.970 --> 01:23:01.016
and I wish you all the success in your studio there.
01:23:01.216 --> 01:23:02.032
Thank you.
01:23:02.032 --> 01:23:02.394
it.
01:23:02.394 --> 01:23:03.341
Come and visit us.
01:23:03.341 --> 01:23:04.677
Just not during my season.
01:23:04.677 --> 01:23:06.067
gonna check it out, yeah.
01:23:06.461 --> 01:23:22.207
In the winter, Bye uh Thanks for listening to today's episode of Enhance and please leave a like, subscribe, follow and we'll see you next time.