Designing Success: Boutique Architecture with Partner Nate Webster

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:37hey there welcome to this week's episode of epic entrepreneurs i'm super pumped today but before i get to our guest i just want to remind you we've got coming up on september 23rd the the ashville business summit the website is wnc summit.com make sure to get your tickets out there on there look i'm pumped today we've got nate webster he's a partner in arca design i'm going going to let him tell you what that is. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Bill Gilliland. I own Action Coach Business Growth Partners and one of the founders of the Asheville Business Summit. So, Nate, hey, tell us about you and ARCA.

1:17Yeah, thanks for having me on. It's a first podcast appearance for me, so it should be fun. But yeah, my name is Nate Webster. I'm a partner at ARCA Design. We're here in Asheville, North Carolina, and And we're a small boutique architecture firm. We definitely primarily provide commercial design services, but we kind of dip our toe into the residential design market as well. And yeah, we kind of intentionally try to keep ourselves in that boutique kind of category to allow us to be a little bit more nimble and work on a variety of project types. but yeah I grew up in this area from Waynesville and my dad's a residential contractor so I kind of grew up with that interest of construction and the technical aspects of what that is and then in high school started to develop an interest in design and creative kind of explorations and then I had a teacher Coach Reinhart was my drafting teacher and he encouraged me to look into architecture as it kind of combines those two things.

2:24And then went to school at UNC Charlotte and studied there and had planned to kind of move around to different cities and get the experience of working in larger markets and some larger firms, but had a great job offer with ARCA coming out of school. And yeah, it's kind of the rest is history, I guess, as they say. But yeah, it's been a great, a great setup for me here. It's pretty hard to say no to Western North Carolina, right? For sure. Yeah, I knew that growing up here and growing up in Wingsville, I knew that I wanted to settle here and raise my family here, but didn't expect for it to be immediately after school.

3:02But I wouldn't have it any other way. Yeah, I was actually born in Asheville. Didn't actually grow up there. Grew up down in South Carolina. But we knew we'd be back. And it took us a little longer than we thought. Actually, we got here a little quicker than we thought because we thought it might just be a retirement. thing. But yeah, so we've been back a while. But yeah, let me ask you, I got a question about the boutique thing. What does that mean? How would you define that? I would say that that's something that our founding partners, Brian Moffitt and Alan McGuinn, intentionally set up when they started our firm.

3:41So they both come from a background that's more kind of a larger regional corporate firm model where they were in a an Asheville office of a firm that had offices in Winston-Salem and Charlotte up in Virginia and in South Carolina and there were definitely some pros to that to that model but there were some some cons and I think a lot of architecture firms and there are definitely benefits to it but end up having a focus or a niche that they work within. And I think that that was something that they didn't want to necessarily do. So when we say that we're a boutique firm, I think that that just echoes the level of care and kind of attention that each design gets.

4:30They're all kind of custom-tailored solutions to the client's needs and to their whatever site requirements they may have, whether it's an existing building or a vacant lot. Yeah, and I love that. Well, let me ask you some business stuff. If you had to start from square one in business, what would you do differently? man that's a good question i you and i had kind of talked a little bit earlier and touched on the fact that my role at arcan design as as a one of the partners is is a little bit fresher i became a partner here in 2021 um so i feel like in some ways i'm still very much and i i'm sure i would say the same thing 30 years from now but learning about being a business owner every day But I think that we are in some ways we try to keep everything kind of streamlined, maybe to a fault where we maintain responsibilities of things that would maybe be better performed by other people.

5:37so having other people on staff that could maybe do some of those tasks like for instance the role that marketing plays in our firm we kind of have kind of ebb and ebb and flow with what role that plays in how we how we do that I mean like in our office I end up managing all the social media outreach and stuff like that which when that's on the forefront of my mind I I think it's, I do a decent job at it, but it's certainly not my priority. And so to kind of to think about marketing in a in a in a different way, I think would be pretty useful. But then at the same time, in our business, it's so much about client relationship.

6:20And so much of our of our work comes from repeat clients or client reference references from contractors. There's a big part of our industry is kind of helping each other out with referencing contractors to owners that need that and vice versa. Contractors will give our reference to people often. So we think of what we do every day as a form of marketing, that our client relationships that we maintain and the work that we put out is marketing in a sense. But I think that you can do that to a fault as well to where you kind of put the traditional marketing on the back burner. Yeah, I mean, you likely didn't go to school to be an architect to do marketing.

7:08But on the other hand, you know, in a professional services firms, a lot of times the partners are the rainmakers. You know, so they're the ones that have to bring in the business for the firm. So it's an interesting question. It's great learning. So what else have you learned? And what are some of the other learnings that you've had as an owner and an employer since 2021 when you became a partner?

7:35That's a good question. It's probably one that I should reflect on on a regular basis to be better equipped in my day-to-day work. But I think we've had some experiences where I don't think I mentioned where us being a smaller firm, we have five architects on staff and three of us are our active partners. And but there's within the way that we've structured our company at this point, there's not a ton of delegation that that happens. We do have people that come in, like we just had our summer intern to go back to school. And that's definitely a blind spot for me in terms of when we have staff in the office, whether they're temporary or longer term, being in the mindset and well-equipped to be able to pass on tasks to other people that we've got that are certainly in the position to be able to perform those.

8:39and I think that in the near future we'll be expanding our workforce a little bit. So that's something that I think your question was more what have I learned, but that might be forecasting a little bit. Something that I'm going to be needing to learn a little bit more is rather than kind of getting in that tunnel vision of knowing everything that you've got to get done and trying to do it yourself, learning how to communicate the way that you need something to be done and to be able to have those tasks done is a really valuable knowledge and asset for sure. Yeah, I think one of the great transitions as a business owner is when you can move from the question, how can I do something to who can I get to do it?

9:32Yes. That's it. Yeah, that's a great transition. Let me let me what do you I mean, you've you've been a partner for a little while. What are some of the misconceptions about being a partner in the in the marketplace? I think my answer would be limited really just to the architecture field, but maybe in the professional services field as a whole. But I think that a common misconception that I would think is that, and it's very true what you said about the partners kind of bringing in work and finding the leads and stuff like that. But at least in the way that we've set it up at ARCA is we may be responsible for that.

10:15And that is kind of the biggest transition from being an employee to a partner is that that responsibility and burden to generate the work. But we still are just as involved in the execution of the work. Um, so I think, and that's kind of where, when, uh, Brian and Alan, um, started ARCA and wanted to retain some of those, the pros of that kind of larger regional corporate business model. but then get rid of some of the cons. Alan had led that Asheville office and his entire kind of, not entire, but the vast majority of his workload was to maintain those relationships and bring in new work and had really lost that hands-on aspect of the design tasks that we all kind of love so much.

11:06And with, at least with the way that we've set it up at ARCA, All the partners are certainly responsible for bringing in work, but we remain intimately involved with the design process with these projects. Yeah, and I love that. Hey, what do you attribute your growth to?

11:30In our case, I would say that it's definitely just the level of service and quality of service provided. and we we talk about growth often and how we want to approach it because i think that a lot of times growth is seen as adding employees or or needing to get more office space and stuff like that and we're at a breaking point where we need to do that for sure um but we've certainly seen growth in terms of revenue and and uh and not only the the number of projects that we're working on, but the quality of projects that we're working on is a big thing. But I think that we attribute that to the quality of service that we provide and being able to do it in a timely and cost-effective manner, I think, in terms of the value that's provided.

12:22Yeah, and I like it. So it always comes up that everybody thinks there's a difference between, there's a big contrast between business and personal life. So how do you balance the demands of business in your personal life? That's another thing where I think that our model is a little bit different than a lot of other architecture firm models, or at least what I had come to expect coming out of school. And my first job out of school was at Arca Design, but I'd worked at a number of architecture firms while I was in school and to get me through that time as well. But it was pretty apparent in my initial interviews with the company that there was an abnormal emphasis placed on home life and family, which was very attractive to me as someone who that that's is my number one priority for sure um have a wife and two two girls two daughters at home and another one on the way and congratulations that's awesome thank you yeah thanks but um that um yeah i'm very blessed to be in an office where there is not the expectation that my family suffer for in the name of my business or what I've got going on.

13:51Yeah, that's a great, that's a great, to me, that's a great advertisement for Archer because you've created a culture there that allows for that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's at the risk of going off on a little bit of a tangent. My wife is also an architect and is one of our architects here at Arca Design. But when our first daughter was born, she had spent the kind of normal 12-week maternity leave at home. And she was getting ready to have to come back into the office. And at the time, I was not a partner. And one of our founding partners, Brian, was asking me how my wife, Cindy, felt about coming back into the office.

14:34I said oh you know she's uh some days she's excited about it and some days it's tragic the thought of of uh having to leave the baby and not be with her and this was in 2018 um so before COVID and all that kind of stuff and and just off the cuff you just said well well you know if if she wants to she can just work from home until the baby's a year old and and and and that'll be fine we'll see where it goes so that was before the work from home craze and all that and uh you know, that's not an employee handbook or anything like that. That's just the, uh, our, the leadership of our firm prioritizing our family health.

15:09And, and, uh, and that's just one example of many ways that, uh, that, uh, our, our company has, has, uh, prioritized our, our personal lives. Um, and I think that that, uh, reflects in the care that we bring into our work and, and, uh, into each project. Yeah, it goes to my next question a little bit, but how do you, and maybe this hasn't come up yet for you, but what do you look for in employees?

15:41That's a great question. We've been talking about that a little bit recently. We've had the same, so the only employees that we brought on since i've become a partner have been part-time um so like some ranterns and i think that for us with only having five people culture fit is a big thing yeah um and because we've been working together for for 10 at least david and brian and i are the current partners we've all been working together for 10 years and alan and brian have been working together for i don't even know how long um Probably 20. But and not that we want to create like a homogenous work culture, but there's there's a rapport that that we would want to maintain.

16:29So culture fit is a good is a big thing. And in our field, design talent is really the biggest thing. I mean, when I was in school, I had really explored the possibility of going into get my postgraduate degree. and at the time I was contemplating wanting to potentially pursue being a professor which would require that but when it became clear to me that I really just wanted to practice through counsel from some other architects and others they advised me that the postgraduate was not necessarily essential in terms of marketability in the professional environment Not that there's not benefit to that.

17:13There certainly is. But if we're evaluating two applicants for a job and one doesn't have as impressive a portfolio but has a master's degree and another has all the credentials that they need but it's a bachelor's degree but they have a really impressive portfolio and a good work product, then we're going to lean more towards the design talent and work product. Yeah, well, the results matter, right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's go to the quickfire round. So I've got, this is just like a couple of sentences on each topic. The BEPIC is an acronym that we came up with a number of years ago that's helpful for success.

17:59So the B stands for bring the energy. So what are your thoughts around energy? i think that uh in our case where i i would say that at times i can be lacking for sure but i think that it's important um we're we're uh can be a pretty restrained group in our office um but uh to bring the energy and excitement to to each project and each problem that needs to be solved i mean that's really what most careers are but that certainly uh rings true in architecture is is problem solving. And if you don't approach each, each problem with the same enthusiasm, then you're not going to, you risk not finding as a successful solution.

18:43So. Yeah. I mean, there's different forms of energy, right? It doesn't have to be like rah, rah, you know, all the time, but you know, you can bring good energy to, like you said, solving a problem or designing a space or building or, you know, whatever. Yeah. So I think it's great all right so what's your thought about the e is education what's your thought about education in terms of like a continuing aspect or education as a training tool um initially it can be anything i mean it's about you know you know when we when we came up with this the idea was you know that i was looking for an acronym for success like what what are some of the characteristics of very successful people and one of them i found was that they were continuously educating.

19:30Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. I mean, there's, I saw one of your previous episodes, you were talking with a guy that funny enough, his office was, is kind of down the same road, but does a construction continuing education programs. Yeah. Yeah. In architecture, there's some pretty strenuous, strenuous, but pretty strict outlines in terms of what we have to fulfill on a continuing education standpoint. I think a lot of times that can be, that can result in just kind of checking a box and not necessarily being super fruitful. But one form of continuing education that I try to prioritize that wouldn't necessarily be credentialed in any way is in our field precedent study.

20:17So I try to take time, not necessarily on a daily basis, but try to be intentional about taking time and looking at work that other architects around the world are doing to kind of get inspired by what other folks are doing, find other ways to solve problems or other types of materials that people are using so that we don't just get into solving problems the same way over and over again. And so I think that would be one way that I, at least in my aspect, try to focus on maintaining an education and keeping tabs on that. Sorry. Yeah. I mean, there's the education that you have to have, which is the continuing education credits that you have in your profession.

21:07That rarely is enough for success. That's just enough to keep you certified as an actual practicing architect. And there's a lot of that in a lot of professions. And I think, I know in my early career, I took the education that came to me, and I didn't do a lot of self-education. So I applaud you for doing the proactive self-education that's going to help you be more successful in your business, whether that's technical or business education or whatever it is. That's awesome. so yeah education is a funny thing in architecture um i had the first architect that i worked for when i was in school told me something that i don't think i'll ever forget he said architects are poorly educated but highly trained but so in architecture there's a a pretty um a pretty strenuous education that we have to get to to get the the accredited degrees to be able to to continue on in our path to licensure.

22:06And it's a great process. Some people hate it and some people love it just with what's asked of you. But really, you spend five or six years focusing on what ends up being about 10 % or 15 % of, I think, what the actual day-to-day being an architect is. So that education is really entirely, almost entirely focused on the conceptual design aspect and then so really you spend a long period of time focused on that and then when you get done with school and start your uh required internship and exam period um that's you really kind of hit the ground running with your education then because there's so much uh more in the technical aspect and climate relations and contract negotiation and stuff like that that is a huge part of what we do on the day-to-day that we don't necessarily um get educated as good as we You probably should in school, I would say.

23:04The school is great, but the real education starts after school. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. No, I like it. All right. The P in Epic is planning, and it seems like an appropriate thing to talk about as an architect. Yeah, yeah. Planning. Man, that's a noun and an adjective in our – or sorry, a noun and a verb in our field. Definitely. I mean, I definitely immediately jumped to kind of master planning, which is an aspect of something that we will do for clients often at the beginning stages of a project and often in collaboration with other consultants, engineers and landscape architects. But yeah, that's one that's wide arching for sure.

23:47I mean, planning really branches into what I would say we do on a daily basis for sure. But yeah, planning in terms of the design process as a whole, what we're trying to accomplish with each phase. Yeah, that's a big one for sure. Yeah. Yeah. So the I is inspiration. So where do you find inspiration? Yeah, I think I kind of touched on that with the education piece. I mean, I, I personally find it by appreciating and looking at work of other architects that I admire and other folks. I think some other people in our office might find it more by walking around some of our communities like Bitmore Village and some of the areas of Asheville where we have beautiful pieces of preserved historic architecture.

24:41But yeah, that's one of the things that's really neat about our field is that you're surrounded by it all the time. I read a quote once. It was this book that was, I think it was called Interviews in New York or something, where they would just interview random people. And they asked this woman what her favorite art form was, and that's kind of a contentious debate within the architecture field, is whether architecture is, in fact, in an art form or not. One of those arguments can kind of come across as a little bit more pretentious, But her reason for saying that architecture was her favorite art form was because everybody has a frame of reference for it.

25:23So like there's art and music and everybody has experienced things in different ways, but everybody experiences and has a frame of reference for architecture in a pretty intimate way. And we try to keep that in mind when we're working on smaller scale projects like houses. I work on the majority of our residential work in our firm. And, and it's, it's always, I always try to prioritize that being a collaborative effort because while I'm the, I may be the design professional, the people that I'm designing the house for have lived in a number of houses throughout their lives and have very valid perspectives on what they find to be successful and unsuccessful.

26:03So yeah, definitely keep an open mind in terms of what they bring to the table and what they might suggest. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. I think, I mean, one of the cool things about architecture to me is it's art and it's functional. So it's not just, you know, there's, there's, to me, that's great. Cause that, that may, that may, that's the sort of intersection of form and function. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a great, great thing. All right. The C in Epic is commitment. What are your thoughts around committing and commitment? I mean, I was raised to value that extremely. So, yeah, it's kind of just a given thing.

26:51If you commit to perform a task or to meet someone's needs on a client relation basis, It's just you kind of you have to have to see that through. And it's kind of hard to imagine that not being the case. I mean, it's I don't really know of a viable alternative. Yeah, I love it. Love it. Yeah. It's a sort of way of life. You do what you do what you're saying. I love that. Yeah. It's a way of life for you. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a it's not a it's the decision. been made. Yeah, I love that. All right, so what words of advice would you give to other professionals or other business owners who are looking to grow?

27:47Man, while the I think that highlights to me that what has kind of maybe been something that we've overlooked in our growth, like what we were talking about earlier with with the marketing aspect um i would imagine that young business owners like myself that maybe don't have the structure that's been established under them like i've been fortunate to have here with arca might need feel the need to prioritize um marketing campaigns or really kind of um doing big pushes on social media and catchy stuff like that but i would say focus on your craft you know Like really hone in on what it is that you do and that your number one marketing tool should be to perform your craft as good as possible.

28:37I love that. Perform your craft as best you can. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, it's an interesting one in construction. We have a lot of clients in building and construction, professional services, but you do have to do some self-promotion. I've known plenty of builders who are great builders who didn't make it because their marketing just wasn't good enough. They didn't, or they were too perfectionistic. It's an interesting one. Absolutely. Let's wrap it up here. What is the best way for someone to get in touch with you? Somebody wants to do business or partner with you or they need some architectural services.

29:26What is the best way for them to get a hold of you? Yeah, I would say just to reach out to us via our website is arca-design.com. There's a contact tab there where it'll send to kind of our general email. my personal email is nate.webster at arca-design.com and yeah like I don't think I really touched on it great but we're a smaller architecture firm we'll work on everything from from a small two you know two bedroom house to we did the Asheville Art Museum downtown so 30 million dollar art museum to 30 or sorry 20 million dollar art museum to 30 million dollar medical manufacturing plant, we really kind of have a wide, wide range of projects that we work on.

30:17So really no project is off the table, but yeah, we're always eager to do what we can to improve the beauty of our built environment. And we try to approach each project with that same level of care. No, I love that. Yeah, I love that. That is, I mean, it's one of the advantages of being nimble, you can decide, hey, do we want to do this project or not? And is it a good project for us? Is it a good project for our communities? Yeah, it's a good project for the client. So it's a win-win, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I love that. Hey, so fantastic. Thanks for being part of us community and for all you're doing.

31:00We certainly are looking forward to seeing your continued growth.