The SHHHH
Dear Doctor,
We’re often told we’re “the best design firm no one has heard of.” Flattering … and frustrating.
Much of our strongest work was built for a large architecture firm, so while the projects of our new firm are visible, our firm isn’t. Now we’re building our own identity, and we don’t need mass attention. We need the right decision-makers to know we exist.
In a world of endless content, awards, and social noise, what actually creates meaningful visibility with clients who value what we do?
If you had to choose one or two channels, aside from word of mouth, that truly influence clients, what would they be?
—— The Shhh…(We are a secret.)
Dear The Shhh…,
It’s quite clear to the Doctor that you’ve spent years as the best supporting actor in other peoples’ films. Through hard work, you’ve built a great portfolio and gotten rave reviews…but still you have zero name recognition. The cure? Stop playing the supporting role and start being the main character in your own movie.
But here’s the thing, Shhh—and it’s actually good news. Ever play bobbing for apples? You dunk your head in a barrel and try to grab one of the apples with your teeth? Well, you’re not the apple that sunk to the bottom of proverbial barrel. You’re the one floating on the top. Put it another way: you have the track record, the expertise, the clients who already know what you can do. What you don’t have yet is your name associated with that work. So let’s write you a ‘script for fixing that.
Now, the Doctor has a bunch of thoughts on the matter. You asked for one or two channels, and the Doctor is going to give you those. And while she might give you some strong medicine, The Doctor always gives it with a smile and maybe even a gentle push out the door.
My first piece of advice is to rev up your thought leadership. That means, you gotta sell your ideas, not just your projects and those pretty little pictures you took of them. If we’re trading secrets, then I have one for you, too: here’s something that most firms never figure out—every project you do has a shelf life, kind of like a bottle of good wine. You finish it, you photograph it, you post it—and then, like, in only two month’s it’s yesterday’s snooze. But, unlike projects, ideas don’t expire, they inspire.
This is where the Doctor needs you to shift your mindset. In other wordies, stop thinking about selling buildings and start thinking about peddling your expertise and talent. For example, lots of firms can do nice work, you know and I know it. But when you talk about the future of your clients’ industries and the problems your clients haven’t even anticipated yet (which they should, because otherwise it’s going to come back and bite them on the you-know-what)—you are putting your creativity front and center.
And that, dear Shhh, is what clients are actually paying for. They’re not hiring you because of what you built last year. They’re hiring you because they trust that you will figure out what they need next. So promoting your thinking isn’t a consolation prize for not having enough projects in your own name yet. It is, in fact, the smarter play. This is what everyone else is getting wrong, the thing that will make you stand out by getting it right.
But before you start writing and speaking into the void, the Doctor needs you to get very, very clear about what kind of work you actually want to be doing, and who you want to be doing it for. Because here is another way that a lot of firms go wrong: they show up everywhere and end up being nowhere. Pick your lane, Shhh. If it’s healthcare, then the conferences you should be submitting abstracts to are ASHE and the Health Facilities Symposium, and the publications you should be pitching are the ones your clients actually read, such as Health Facilities Management, Modern Healthcare, and the trade press that lands on the desks of the decision-makers you want calling you. If it’s academic work, then SCUP is your target. Life sciences? Get yourself to I2SL and the Lab Design Conference.
The point is that the right bylined article in the right publication does something a project photo simply cannot: it puts you in front of decision-makers who didn’t know you existed five minutes ago but really do need to know you.
The Doctor’s second ‘script is LinkedIn. And by that the Doctor means using LinkedIn as a platform for your ideas, not a gallery for your projects. This is where your people are, Shhh, looking for individual experts with a consistent point of view, not just as firms posting project updates. The people who do it well are posting about how they think, sharing the article they just wrote, wading into the conversation about trends that matters to their clients, telling stories in ways that makes decision-makers think, I need to know these people. Smart people hire other smart people, and smart people are on LinkedIn right now, watching to see who is worth knowing, interacting with them, and forming professional relationships.
These two channels are like peanut butter and jelly (two of the best inventions; good on their own, spectacular when combined). Meaning: you can write a thought leadership piece and then share it on LinkedIn. You can speak at a conference, and then post what you said. Every idea you put into the world is a window into your thinking and a door that opens up new opportunities. It’s not going to be for everyone, and it doesn’t need to be. It needs to be geared to exactly the right people, which is precisely what you said you needed, and this is how you can do it.
The Doctor’s diagnosis is simple: it’s not what you are doing that’s wrong, it’s just that you need to tell people not just what, but also how and why.
Now go forth, claim your spotlight, and build your influence, and get your 15 minutes of fame…or more! The Doctor will be watching.
— The Doctor
