My Three Favorite Blogs

I keep my eye out for interesting people and ideas on Twitter. Three of my favorite people and their blogs are:
Matt Handal - Help Everybody Everyday
A/E/C Marketing Advice, Training, and Support Group

Mel Lester - E-Quip Blog
Practice Management Insights for A/E firm managers

Bob Borson - The Life of an Architect
what's it like to be and work with an architect

Here is a sample from each of them. Check them out. 
  

Matt Handal - Helping Everyone Everyday
The Networking Mistake That Causes Distrust. Are You Making It?

I see it all the time. People go to networking events and immediately give people a reason to distrust them. And worst of all, they have no idea they are doing it. So, I’m going to explain what this mistake is and give you an easy way to avoid it.
But first, let me tell you a personal story.

I used to say, “I’m not a shmoozer.” I hated going to networking events because I had to turn into someone else, someone that wasn’t me.

Oh man, it was painful. Here I was walking into an event with people twice my age. I was wearing a suit and tie, which would only come out for funerals and networking events.

I knew what I had to do…get these people to give my firm work. I had to get these people, who I had nothing in common with, to like me so I could steal away their project before someone else did. It was a lot of pressure, which made me nervous.

Just going up to people, knowing that I wanted something from them, was awkward. But I put on a big smile and did my best to play mister friendly sales guy    Read More...
 

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Mel Lester - E-Quip Blog
Can You Escape The Commoditization Trap?

Over the years, I've heard a lot of angst expressed about the growing commoditization trend in the A/E industry. Yet I've not seen many firms do much about it. Firm leaders are often quick to blame our profession for much of the problem ("we're too eager to discount our fees," etc.), but too many of them seem to think there's little they can do to escape the commodity trap.

The fact is that in every industry overtaken by commoditization, there are always companies that have found a way out. Take personal computers, for example. While most computer manufacturers have been grappling for their piece of a shrinking market by continually offering more for less, Apple has resolutely balked at joining the fray. They've charged significantly more than their competitors and yet have seen their U.S. market share grow from 4% in 2006 to almost 14% in 2012. And this while the performance differences between Macs and PCs have narrowed.    Read More... 
 

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Bob Borson - The Life of an Architect
The Ethereal Decision-Making Process For The Creative Mind

The decision-making process can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. Me? I prefer simple because it’s simple. That seems pretty obvious to me but I am constantly amazed just how often I see people who make the decision-making process sooooooo complicated.

But don’t mistake simple for easy. That’s why there are millions of ways that people process decisions – or at least I think there are millions of ways. Have you ever sat down and thought about your own decision-making process? I haven’t – which is part of the reason I decided to write this post.    Read More...

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