My pitch to the architecture profession
Back in late March, I put together a 300-word pitch to appear on a panel at the National Conference, taking place in Melbourne in May 2024. I wasn’t selected, but these ideas form the basis of my upcoming book, and I’m hopeful I’ll have a chance to discuss them with you at a future event.
In the meantime, I welcome your insights and input around my pitch to the profession - feel free to email me if you’d like to share your feedback, suggestions or constructive criticism.
Rachael Bernstone and the Fearless Girl statue by Kristen Visbal in New York City (2017)
I established Sounds Like Design to promote architects and architecture in 2016, and I’ve been advocating for the inclusion of business development and marketing in the NSCA for three years.
I've developed a CPD course on these topics for architects; the first of its kind in Australia, and possibly globally. Based on my Six Channel System of marketing for architects, this online, self-guided program can be completed in just 3 weeks.
My intention is to upskill architects – from practice owners and directors to those responsible for business development, and advocates – fast and at scale!, so they can better respond to the triple-threat challenges of:
Climate Emergency,
Housing Crisis, and
Designing for Country (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging).
In the face of these challenges, access to good design is an equity issue; and only architects have the requisite skills to holistically tackle these seemingly intractable problems.
Architecture is undergoing a profound transformation - from client-as-patron to client-as-customer models – which presents new opportunities to make good design more accessible to more people.
But, to do that effectively, architects must communicate their value to government regulators, policy makers, future clients, and the broader community, and I’m committed to helping them to do that.
How can we help you transform your architecture practice, and the profession?
Sounds Like Design offers three services to architects in Small, Medium and Large sizes, as follows:
Small - the Acupuncture Service is a “book-an-hour” session with me, where architects can seek my input around any business development or marketing topic of their choice. You can book your session online and select an online calendar appointment at a time that suits us both.
Medium - the self-guided, online CPD course Architecture Marketing 360 is a 101-style course about modern marketing. It outlines Sounds Like Design’s proprietary Six Channel System and the processes that we developed to help architects navigate the complexity of the marketing landscape, so you can build a pipeline of clients and projects you love working on. You can work through the course at your own pace, in as little as three weeks and you’ll get an implementation plan to follow at the end.
Large - our one-on-one consulting package Review + Reset takes place over 3 months. It’s a deep-dive into your current business development and marketing activities, where we co-create your new blueprint, enabling you to delegate and automate key tasks, and free up your time for the creative work you really love doing.
If you’d like to get more clarity around which of our services is the best fit for you right now, you can take our quiz here.