You're not a “real” architect though.
I was always getting approached for one-to-one work but I knew that you know and I did look
do I'd take on some architects?
Do I take on some people that can help me do this?
And again it was like, no I don't, that's not the practice I want.
I made a decision at the beginning of this year I wanted to try and see how I could go
with the course sales and not do one-to-one and so I thought okay I'm gonna be really
strict with myself I'm going to say no to these one-to-one services and then start really
investing some effort and energy in the courses.
So I want to take a moment and decode the business model here.
When Amelia talks about one-to-one services she's talking about the traditional practice
of architecture serving clients.
So one-on-one client work, one client equals one project when that project is complete
you need to find another client.
When she talks about one-to-many services she's talking about products.
So Amelia has sort of two businesses that exist under her sort of banner: there's Design
by Amelia Lee which is a custom residential design service and then there is the Undercover
Architect which is predominantly a product-based business where she's selling courses.
I've never had to market the one-to-one services I think the blog and then the podcast you
know which got started at the end of 2016 that has enabled people to get to know me
in a way that they can't get to know a lot of Architects.
The they've been able then to self-select whether I'm the right fit for them and the
clients that I've worked with inside Undercover Architect are some of the best clients I've
ever worked with in my career because they they have already built a relationship of
trust with me by the time they turn up and decide that they want to work with me.
Over the last 12 months my revenue has plateaued but the proportion of one to one to one to
many split has fundamentally changed and for me that's then an opportunity to continue
to grow the business in a way that's actually scalable because I don't need to have a big
team, I can help lots of people and do it in a way that works for them and works for
me.
If you look on both of those websites you'll notice that she's using something called content
marketing now they don't teach you marketing in school in architecture school but if you
want a successful business you need to learn how to be a marketer.
Content marketing is essentially creating content and information around things that
people are searching for online.
So you'll notice Amelia has an email list she has a blog she has all of her social media
profiles and she also has her podcast and each one of those creates content curates
information and delivers it to people who are searching for that information online.
That's how she reaches her audience and then she uses those channels to funnel them back
to her products.
I've said to other architects yeah I probably spend a day day and a half a week doing my
blog on my podcast and they're like, what?
What?
How does that earn you money?
Like you know and I'm like well are you spending money on marketing?
I don't spend a lot of money on marketing because I'm teaching I'm seeking to educate
that has always been my goal first I want to educate help and serve and I do that with
a belief that then the right people will come to choose what to work with me.
I think you really have to flip your switch on how you think about your business to do
this type of work.
Consistency is what counts and I've learned that I couldn't just do it for six months
and then I let it fall away and expect it to still have any profile.
In hindsight it kind of probably looks like I had this linear path to where I got to it
didn't it's never felt like that.
I did start Undercover Architect with some pretty clear ideas about how I wanted my lifestyle
and the business to align with each other now I'm not there yet I'm still working far
more than I would like to be in terms of the number of hours that I'm spending doing this
and the amount of work I'm putting into it.
For the last maybe 18 months I've got far better at working out, ok what does the year
ahead need to look like?
What are financial targets?
What does that mean in terms of launch?
I actually have a calendar where I at the beginning of each year I do it in November
now the year before and I have a big calendar and I put all the kids school holidays in
I put the kids birthdays I put anything else that I know that I need to have and then everything
gets planned around sort of those blocked out times.
I've looked at how many hours I had each month and I then work out what my hourly rate needed
to be based on the month.
Yeah Easter I couldn't earn as much so my monthly target for that was lower than perhaps
June where I was capable of working more.
It's just starting to get like none of its perfect, what gets measured gets managed.
So you need to like put some pinpoints in something and start tracking your progress
in it and I've learned over time what the metrics are that work for me in terms of what
I follow to see growth.
So I do the planning in November that has a financial target and sort of an understanding
of time.
I'd then do 90-day goals and I boil what I need to deliver down into 90-day time frames
and then of course I then boil those down into individual tasks that are deliverable
each week and there's things that I just have to happen like the podcast or stuff and the
website and those types of things on a on a weekly basis.
The blog of course was like driving people to me that were really awesome to work with
who already turned up trusting me.
The podcast has elevated that to a new level because it when you're in somebody's ear for
half an hour a week that's a very different relationship and connection created so people
email me saying I feel like I know you I have to remind myself that I've never met you in
person.
Most people don't use architects and so you know they're doing this anyway and for me
for us to get information in front of them only builds up the value and knowledge base
of the industry.
And I've had people say to me well if you give it all away for free are people going
to pay you for it?
And it's like, they do!
And, they pay me more now than they paid me before.
So I think that you what it enables you to do is cut through and create a relationship
with a person before they turn up.
I don't have to elicit their trust anymore they turn up trusting me which means that
they actually listen to what I do and they build the buildings that we work together
on rather than you punching out all these projects that never get built you know I think
that there's just so much possibility even if you just have your website and you just
put you know like this is what it looks like to work with me and you have 10 blogs that
say: okay this is what we do then and this is what we do then this is.
Like people are looking for information and you know there's a there's a rule that in
the sales process people are turning up to you and they're sort of like already 70 percent
of the way of making their decision because they've done all of this research and you
have to undo a lot of that research all of that you know a lot of the time because they've
turned up with all this misinformation.
If you can cut through that and arrive at the beginning of that process and guide them
through the journey that you normally take then that is a way of actually then helping
them and helping them arrive at you in an informed way that then makes them a really
great client to work with.
Architects we're all doing quite similar things we're talking about orientation we're talking
about space planning we're talking about functionality you know like but you will still do it your
unique way you'll have your unique personality and you'll attract your own unique people.
People go, I'm gonna start a podcast, my advice always is just know you're in it for the long
game this isn't an overnight thing like the work I have done to get this business to where
it is and it's nowhere near where I want it to be so for me this has always been a long-term
commitment.
I don't plan on kind of at this stage ever really stopping doing undercover architect
and I'm 44 now so this for me as a legacy you know project.
I've seen bloggers in my industry come and go and they just obviously didn't understand
how much tenacity it was going to take to do it.
It's not easy but for me it's been so worthwhile.
So this model it's not for everyone and it's definitely drawn some criticism for her especially
from other architects.
You’re not a real architect though.
Yeah I get that I get I do get people that saying to me well you're not you're not designing
buildings.
And that's what they think.
You know I find it really challenging, architecture is such a diverse industry so many people
are doing so many different things.
You know when I worked in a hundred strong practice I saw there were architects that
were really great at delivery and that's all that they did, they never did a drawing in
their life.
Other architects who only worked at design hated being on site, you know so that was
a it was a company full of specializations with people working to their strengths to
create a project you know it was a team sport.
So I kind of feel like, as I said, there's so many architects out there who are very
happy to deliver buildings to their clients and I just want to and do it in a really,
really, great way that supports the client getting what they want, I just want to help
people find them.
And I've found that I've got this ability to simplify, I didn't know I had this ability
to simplify what seems complex for some people into like a system and a step-by-step process,
and so for me to work to that ability of like educating and teaching people is where my
strength lies.
You know you can't help but see these beautiful big buildings and these iconic structures
that people are building and going gosh, have I missed the boat like you know I was working
on that kind of stuff if I'd stuck with it but I couldn't I couldn't be the mum I am
I couldn't I'd be working ridiculous hours or I'd be doing a really small like I'd be
doing the lobby fit out.
People are always going to judge you it says far more about them than it does about you.
So yeah I just think you just gotta thick skin, roll-on set.
What’s that Brene Brown saying?
If you're not in the arena then your opinion doesn't really matter.