I’m the co-founder of blüStone Marketing and author of the best-selling book, [re]Wired!, which is one of the most recommended AEC marketing books on the market.
When I first started in this business, I was a draftsman at a board with an old-fashioned parallel bar, some set squares and a 2H lead holder. That was way back in 1974.
To say that a lot has changed since then is the understatement of the century.
Back in those dark ages, I didn’t even know that marketing was a thing. It certainly wasn’t allowed in the noble professions of architecture and engineering! Back then you couldn’t even publish a business card as an advertisement without getting your wrist slapped.
That would have been unfair competition to your fellow noble professionals!
Fast forward to today, and we’ve got cut-your-heart-out-with-a-rusty-knife-and-eat-it-for-breakfast competition.
By the mid-eighties, it was obvious that things in this business were changing fast, and I began experimenting with some innovative ideas about how to manage and promote AEC services.
It was clearly time to redirect my creativity.
My career as an architect lasted about ten years. While my architectural design skills could be described as adequate, I found that I had a real knack for this marketing thing. So, in the early 90’s I hung up my architect’s hat and dove full time into marketing, business development and sales.
Since then, I have written almost 20 books on selling your AEC services, taught tens of thousands of engineers and architects in training seminars, advised thousands of firms around the globe, and helped them win billions of dollars of profitable projects.
Along the way I’ve developed some truly ground-breaking approaches and techniques that have revolutionized how firms market themselves and win work.
These past 40 years have seen massive and radical change in this profession. And I’m proud to have led and introduced many of the innovations in marketing and sales that have helped architects and engineers keep pace with the global revolution.
I guess, at heart, I'm a change junkie.
For almost forty years my design creativity has been funneled into ground-breaking approaches to promote and sell professional design services. And today, in the world of social media and digital marketing, I’m still knee-deep in new ways, new approaches, and new ideas for marketing your firm.
And of course, there are a lot of things that have changed in my life since that very first drafting board.
Today, I live in the tropics with my wife, Gail. We love sporty cars, the South of France, and border-hopping to visit our families in Canada.
And I still wake up in the night with even more ideas about how to help your firm win a steady supply of profitable work.
