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Episode 329: Humanizing Business with Sims Key and Alisha Coleman · The Growth Project

• 0:00
  You.
• 0:03
  Welcome to The Growth Project, a podcast brought to you by AMP doctor Drew Brannon here in our studio in Greenville, South Carolina today. Really excited and fired up about this conversation. If you have not been with us in the past, this podcast exists to help you optimize and enhance who you are and what you do.
• 0:23
  We are grateful at AMP to serve in the field of performance psychology and are all about helping you grow, develop, and become the the human that you desire to be today. Joined by some great folks from Equipped Studio. Those of you that are not yet familiar with equip will be very familiar with equip by the time we finish today.
• 0:44
  So let's jump into it.
• 0:45
  Alisha, I want to start with you. So we're joined by both Alicia Coleman and Sims Key, which full disclosure, Sims Keyes. Also, although he's better known for his fantastic work at equip, he's also my brother in law. So we'll get to you here shortly.
• 0:58
  But Alicia would love to as we kind of begin our conversation, if you would just share a little bit about your background, how did you find your way to equip?
• 1:07
  Yeah. So I grew up in western North Carolina and studied interior design at the University of Tennessee, and then went to Clemson for grad school in architecture, and was actually a coworker of some of the partners at equip and, my first big girl job and, then moved away from that, taught for a year and then moved to Columbia and was pursued by one of the partners to come back
• 1:31
  reared back, during Covid to the upstate and was able to come back into the office and then recently became a shareholder at equip. Well, congrats on that. What a fantastic journey and progression for you. Yeah, that is awesome. And then your counterpart here has been around for quite a while.
• 1:47
  They're still letting him hang around over there, which I guess he's earned that. So Sims put the pieces together for us please. About kind of, your journey with equip. Yeah. So thanks. True. So glad to be here. I grew up in Florence, South Carolina, the bustling city of Florence, South Carolina. We spent a lot of time together there, visiting parents and family.
• 2:08
  Grew up in Florence. I went to Furman University for, here in Greenville for undergrad. I got an art degree there, and, because I didn't know what else to do. So, had a little bit of creative juices in me. So I got an art degree, then went to Clemson for grad school and architecture. I had a, I went into Furman thinking, I would be a math major and quickly realized, I wasn't cut out for that.
• 2:32
  That was a big pivot, by the way. Yeah. Math. Not art. And my dad was like, oh, of math and art. I think he would be a good architect. So there's a lot of both of those. And what we do is. And my dad was an architect, never pushed me too hard, but encouraged me to seek it out.
• 2:48
  And then I went to Clemson for grad school after grad school, spent a few years in California working for, great firm out there. LS architects. And, then I moved back here 14 years ago and started working with my dad, in a remote position here in Greenville. Was his firm was in Florence, about three years later.
• 3:09
  This is now 11 years ago. I met the other three partners, the other three partners at a quip now. And, they were looking for something else to do, and, said, why don't you come and join us? And, when they joined us, we launched, we were a key architecture at the time, but then we decided, you know, it's more than just key now.
• 3:30
  So we're going to rebrand this thing. We're going to launch a new firm out of, out of this new ownership group and, and call it a quip studio. And, that's that's where. And you what year was that? So that was 2014, 2014. Okay. So 11 years in. So so let's I want to get it before we get into because because equip has done some incredible things in the way of accolades that you guys have earned, which is awesome.
• 3:55
  And so I kind of want to level set our conversation in that way. But before we get into those, you know, my curious brain always gets going on like, why equip? So why don't you take that one? Because you were, I would imagine, part of those conversations of and if you've never done that before, it's not exactly easy to land on.
• 4:14
  Like this is what we're going to call our company. Yeah. So, so take as we hit the run button. How did it become equip? Yeah. So we all got in a room, the four partners now and my dad at the time, and, we, we kind of batted around a bunch of different names and, the other three partners came from a firm where, they doing a lot of church design work.
• 4:36
  So one of the the mantras that they would use or the taglines that they would use is kind of equipping the church to do their work, to do their ministry. Well,
• 4:44
  through architecture. And so that tagline kind of stuck out to us, stuck with us. Also, the website was available, which was a huge, a number. The other names we we went through the website was not a but hey then if you again, if you've never done this before, that matters.
• 5:00
  That is a big deal. So those are the two that that that formula they are of, equipping our clients to do their work well, through architecture. And, the website being available was the magic formula. And at that stage of the game, the vision for what you hoped equip would become was what? Well, that's that's a good question.
• 5:21
  I mean, I think it's really been a, organic, foray into business for me because,
• 5:27
  as my dad kind of,
• 5:28
  started, moving into retirement and I started doing a little more business stuff. I just started thinking, like, how, how do we do business?
• 5:37
  And, and especially coming from, coming from a faith background where I really wanted to look to Jesus and the Bible as a model for leadership.
• 5:47
  as we try to lead other people, hire other people, guide other people in this profession,
• 5:52
  how can we do business in a way that honors, God and honors people?
• 5:56
  we just started trying out a bunch of things at first,
• 5:58
  but we knew that what we wanted to do was a little bit different from, typical architectural practices.
• 6:05
  And we have a bad stereotype in our field of overworking young people, of creating this barrier to, relationships and hobbies outside of the office that your work becomes, your life. And you really have to kind of a pay your dues mentality. You got to put your time in here, not make much money kind of stuff for, like I did when I was young.
• 6:28
  Until you're at a place where you can start doing the fun things like design, where you can start having flexibility in your job, where you can start actually making some money, where you can start having control over your career path and things like that. And, and we knew that that, that model for business, it felt dehumanizing to us.
• 6:46
  And so we started asking questions like, how can we set up a practice where the opposite of that actually happens? And we can actually, humanize, this practice and do business in a different way. I love that word of image to humanize business. There are quite a few examples out there maybe where that's not happening. And so that's not as much as an a criticism or an indictment on those folks as it is.
• 7:09
  I think it's, it's admirable to me that you guys have been really atypical from the beginning of how you've tried to do this. And so, so let me make a couple connections here. And, you know, beginning with it's interesting, we've talked on our podcast in the past about, and maybe you guys have read this. There's a great article that Harvard Business Review put out years ago about what they call their centennial companies.
• 7:30
  And so a Centennial Company is simply a company that existed for over a hundred years. And they've done they did a big study several years ago to to try to understand what makes those companies different. Like how do you pull that off? Yeah, everybody would love to be in business for 100 plus years. In reality, less than 1% of companies will.
• 7:48
  And two themes that resulted from that study that is heard in your comments.
• 7:53
  Sims would be number one, highly mission driven of like, look, we're going to be clear about how we want to go about this stuff. And although I guess technically the service you're providing or offering is architecture services and design services, you're not thinking about yourself strictly through that lens.
• 8:11
  And that's, that's consistent with this centennial. The second thing, was and is clarity in who we want to be value driven. Those types of things. So, who knows, maybe there are 100 years in your future if you can keep this model going. So let's let's pause here for a second, because you've laid out a, I think in a, in a very, descriptive way, what the hope was.
• 8:37
  And I want to now connect some of the, the awards that have been won to really kind of frame up the conversation even further. And then, Alisha, we're coming to you to talk about next to I'm about to talk about the niche that you guys are in. So just through a number, through the both the mentality and the blueprint that Sims just laid out for us there.
• 8:54
  Let me kind of go through these. We can't read all of these because we wouldn't have time to talk about anything else on the podcast today. So, and some of these lists I think people be very familiar with, beginning with Inc 5000, really pop Inc is a popular publication. Most folks are familiar and read it.
• 9:11
  They put annually put out what's called their fastest growing companies. Equip has been on that list 2017, 18, 19, 20, 24. They're great place to work. Certified 23, 2425 South Carolina fastest growing companies number 27 and 2023. Number 24 in 2024. And then I also want to highlight this South Carolina best in business, best architecture firm in 2020 for best commercial ad firm and best overall company.
• 9:41
  There were number three on the best overall company list in 2024, so and we could go on and on. I think obviously the clear takeaway here is you guys have done a heck of a job of creating a culture and delivering over delivering to your clients, and people have recognized that. So Alicia, help everybody better understand. I know we've established you guys are in architecture and design.
• 10:03
  What's the niche area that you guys really do? You know, call kind of your sweet spot? Yeah. Like Sam said, it kind of grew out of, three of the partners being heavy into church work,
• 10:13
  their previous firm. So I would say that's our bread and butter. We do church work all over the country, at this point, and then we do a little bit of everything else locally.
• 10:23
  So we have some higher ed,
• 10:24
  projects and, some health care. But I think with all of this, we really try to go after projects where the mission and vision of those companies align with ours. So we're not just going to go after every university project or every, health care project out there, but we really try to align with our clients in those areas.
• 10:45
  Yeah. And for us that really means like, is there a company that's thinking the same way that we are thinking about business, about how they're treating their people, how they're treating their, their clients as well. And so trying to create almost a network of, of like minded individuals that are doing that. And so we, we've always said we're we're committed to the church nationally from a design standpoint.
• 11:07
  We're also committed to our community in whatever capacity that might look like. And so far, this looks like a lot of work with, health care, a lot of work with higher ed locally and, some also we got a great, hotel project, with a, developer. There's like minded in a lot of ways. And, and we're excited about that project as well.
• 11:25
  So, yeah, anybody that has a similar vision mission to us. So the portfolio really kind of covers the gamut. Although you have done a ton in the church space, you guys are diverse and as well. So Alisha, I think you've got, a really interesting perspective I would imagine on equip in that you have sat in so many seats along the way.
• 11:43
  So you've I think you started part time remote, correct, with the quip. Yeah. And then you've progressed all the way to now a full time in the office and not just that, but a shareholder here. Actually part time. Okay. As a okay. But as a shareholder. So you've, you've gone from remote in Columbia to locally here in Greenville.
• 11:58
  And as a shareholder, can you just, you know, wide open here flexibility wise. Can you walk us through a little bit kind of your, your progression and your thoughts along the way, particularly in terms of like, why did you want to be a part of this, and why did you want to pick up your life and move from Columbia and come and really be a big part of the growth?
• 12:18
  Well, first of all, just to be able to be I do have, two, two daughters. So family is first and foremost for me. And to be able to do this job part time was huge, and I was part time at my firm before, but in a very limited like, you're only part time, you can only do this capacity.
• 12:36
  And so I think the biggest change for me coming to equip was there wasn't really a ceiling. Like there was never like, this is where you start because you are part time, because you are a mom and you want to be a mom first. And so, then I actually equipped hired me when I was like six months pregnant.
• 12:53
  So for them to even take a risk to bring me on remotely, you know, when I'm working a couple months and then I'm going to take you for months off, right. So that was I think that just speaks to the leadership in the culture and their mindset that they would even be willing to bring me on like that.
• 13:09
  And at the time, I just assumed I would be remote. Pretty much forever. And, then through some, career stuff for my husband, we ended up moving back to the upstate, and, so again, I'm in the office basically, when my kids are in school and I'm able to be a mom again when they're at home, I'm at home for the most part and put them first while not feeling like I'm having to leave my career in the background or choose one over the other.
• 13:37
  I think typically in architecture for women especially, you choose one or the other to be your main focus and to be able to feel like, you know, I mean, there are crazy weeks, but for the most part, to feel like I can truly be at home when I'm at home with my kids and my husband and then do the best architecture I can when I'm at work.
• 13:58
  Is that's just been a game changer in terms of what architecture usually looks like. Yeah. And so I'm obviously not that familiar with what the more conventional traditional world of architecture tends to be. And so that to me, you know, go back to your word you used earlier, Sims of like, we wanted to humanize how we went about our business.
• 14:15
  Well, that's internally as well, probably internally first. Right. And you take care of people internally for sure prior to doing anything else. So it sounds like you have felt that in a very deep way. Yeah. If you had told me, you know, even ten years ago that I would be able to I mean, even in school, people would or would say, oh, you can work from home, you can be part time.
• 14:31
  Like, no, not in architecture. Like that was always my answer. But the Lord has just been like, yeah, I'm going to prove you wrong and show you that you can be have a fulfilling career, but your family doesn't have to sacrifice that. So let's drill down on that for just a second, because I want to provide a concrete example here for our listeners in that, as you're hearing this and you're thinking about your business, your industry, whatever it might be, it may or may not translate in in the exact ways we're talking about here with Alisha's example, but the theme does.
• 14:57
  And so the theme is the importance of leaders being genuinely invested in their people, not just for or because of what they can bring to the organization, but who they are as humans. And I have heard, no shortage of examples over the years, especially from folks that work with maybe larger companies. And to be clear, you can work for a mega company and have a fantastic culture.
• 15:21
  But one of the places leaders can really get off track is creating an environment and a culture within your team, where people feel like the primary reason you're invested in them is so that they will bring a lot to the table, and there's a limited shelf life on that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, our vision from the get go has been to, our tagline for vision is to we exist to enrich people's lives by transforming the architectural experience.
• 15:49
  And so the typical architectural experience like we've talked about is not one that,
• 15:53
  would humanize a work environment, especially for a working mom. So how can we actually make someone's life better? Because they work at a quirk. And so for Alicia,
• 16:04
  she's not only able to work and be a mom, but she's actually able to be a better mom because she works at a club.
• 16:10
  And typically, typically, work is a barrier to healthy home life, healthy hobbies, healthy physical life, healthy mental life. So how can we use our firm actually to help people be better in each of those areas? And it really, it really takes thinking outside of the box and holding yourselves accountable and and things like that. So yeah, that's, that's the goal.
• 16:31
  That's really cool because I think especially and then I've seen this and heard this so many times, anytime a person attaches the word can't to some type of thing they wish they could be doing in their life that they aren't, it's almost always in the same sense with some limiting factor associated with work. Yeah, I travel too much.
• 16:48
  My schedule's too bad. My boss is too tough. Whatever it is like, I can't because of this work variable. Yeah. And so you guys have tried to really kind of bust through the barrier of that. It sounds like. Yeah. And and
• 16:59
  life is just life is really hard. And so, the goal is, is to, is to help, help care for people when they go through situations like that.
• 17:08
  Yep. Okay. So then let's, let's speak to this Sims and Alicia because, because I'm, I'm now hearing the voice in my head that I know is maybe others have as they're driving down the road, wherever they're going, there's podcasts, they're saying, okay, well done guys. You have created a deeply humanizing culture and doing some really unique things.
• 17:30
  Maybe not, however, but whenever it like we got to stay in business. Right. Like we gotta churn results whether that's for shareholders, whether that's for stockholders, whether whoever that like like we've got to be effective. So let's now talk about that a little bit because I don't want anyone to walk away from this conversation making a mistake of thinking that you guys have just created a great culture.
• 17:53
  You know, we believe that, leveraging your people and investing in your people is the greatest competitive advantage a company can harness. So, Sims, can you walk us through a little bit some of the growth of equip over the years? And we certainly don't need to hear specific dollars and cents, but can you talk about kind of growth related to projects, revenue, etc., and then also the team?
• 18:15
  Yeah, yeah, I mean, unfortunately a lot of this has to do with dollars and cents because when we, a traditional like financially based practice, when would make decisions based on what can make us more efficient, what can make us more profitable. And then when you do that, you have to sacrifice people. A lot of times, if that's your driving influence.
• 18:38
  But if it's not, not your driving influence, if, humanizing people and caring for people is your driving influence, then sometimes financially you suffer, right? And so, one of the things that we knew from the get go is whatever the multiple is from, from a typical partner at architectural firm to the lowest person, whatever multiple is, we're not going to be able to fulfill that in our own personal lives as partners.
• 19:03
  Like we're going to have to give up some of our power and, and money in order to empower other people. And so generosity is one of our core values. And that that goes down to our pocketbooks. And we have to be we have to be okay with sacrificing, being as profitable as we could possibly be or as efficient as we possibly can be, because we give them more PTO, because we provide space for people to, to, have mentorship opportunities, because we do fun things at our firm, because we have a Monday huddle every week where we, get to know each other and gather around the table to,
• 19:35
  to catch up on
• 19:35
  life. And so,
• 19:37
  we, we knew from the get go that we had to in order to do something different, that we had to think differently about it.
• 19:43
  And in terms of growth, we, we approached it kind of the same way. We're not going to hire up to in order to fulfill some, glamorous project that we just took on,
• 19:54
  because, a typical architectural practice or a typical, corporate America would hire for a big project if they got one, because it would be super profitable.
• 20:03
  And then if that project went away or you didn't have one that follows, you would typically maybe get rid of some of those people.
• 20:09
  But that is not how we've tried to grow. We've tried to grow by hiring great people. And then trusting that the work
• 20:16
  would come organic through that. And so not hiring, we haven't hired,
• 20:19
  huge swaths.
• 20:20
  We haven't hired really fast. We've grown about 3 or 4 people a year.
• 20:24
  So we started with with five of us, and now we're at 40 after ten years, 11 years. And so trying to trying to hire smart,
• 20:32
  we, Patrick go on to earnest, humble, hungry, smart, to hire the right people and, get the right people and use their gifts to help our firm grow and to be a better version of ourselves as a firm.
• 20:44
  you know, Sandy Gibbs is is our business development guy. He does a great job, networking. We have a great relationships with churches across the country. And we believe that when we take care of our people, they're going to take care of our clients.
• 20:55
  so they they feel that they're cared for and loved, by, by our firm.
• 20:59
  And so our clients have felt that from our people because they know how to extend that as well. And then we've just seen a lot of repeat work because of that growth through,
• 21:07
  repeat churches, but also churches telling other churches about, equip and also in town. And we're able to work with people in town.
• 21:14
  We continue to get work with those same people over and over again.
• 21:17
  So that's our growth has been really organic and, and, smart and slow and in a way, and not and not reckless,
• 21:25
  because we don't want to jeopardize,
• 21:26
  over hiring or or getting kind of over our skis in that that's so a clear theme. I here in their Sims and this is I hear this from leaders plenty in different industries is, you guys have had a heavy internal focus, like, let's build the plane very thoughtfully and trust that by doing it that way, there will be external success that comes with that, that results will follow in you know, I think if we're honest, a lot of leaders out there can be
• 21:54
  kind of afraid to do that. Like they feel like they've got to direct more time and energy and attention externally, right, of like, you know, whether it's securing business or is prioritizing what the client might need,
• 22:05
  those types of things. And you guys have flipped that model a good bit and said, you know, we're going to be suit hyper focused on doing great, excellent things internally and let that drive the engine.
• 22:16
  Yeah, is what I hear. Yeah. And when you're hiring only 1 or 2 people at a time, and if there's some margin there to absorb kind of some fluctuations in business, we felt okay with that. Like and again, that might that might require a little bit of a hit to the pocket of the shareholders. Right. And we're okay with that.
• 22:33
  Like we just,
• 22:34
  in order to hire the right people for the long term, we've, we've understood, the gives and takes of that. So, Alicia, let's let's come to you with a question. I haven't we've talked a lot already about some of the specific elements of the culture that is has been created and continued and continues to be kind of sustain and equip.
• 22:53
  Where have you seen or how have you seen that culture really prove to be a competitive advantage for you all, whether that be in relationships with clients, whether that be in recruiting retention, like where have you seen the culture really show up in some measurable ways? Yeah. Well, one of our core values is family centric, and I think probably almost every company across the country would say, yeah, we're family centric.
• 23:17
  Yeah. That's a that word just thrown out there. Let's be honest. Right.
• 23:20
  But I think it really lives it out. And one thing that we tell, our clients when we do some additional meetings with them is we want to become part of your family so that we can think like you. And it just makes us better because we're making a million decisions on every single project.
• 23:36
  And if we went to the owner with every single one of those, it would drive them crazy. But if we can get to know them well enough and become part of their family,
• 23:45
  and understand how they think and how they operate, it just makes us better.
• 23:49
  So you get from the outset of, like, as you guys kind of set the tempo with potential clients, you're using the language it sounds like, yeah, of, hey, this is our language.
• 24:00
  When we work together, when we partner together, we see you very much as how we see each other day in and day out. Yeah. And then we I just recently finished up a project locally. And to hear the pastor, from the pulpit say, you know, we have relationships with all these people in the front row that we're celebrating in grand opening.
• 24:17
  And so to hear that at the end of a project, not that the project every day was smooth, but at the end of the day, to know that they felt like we were part of their team and pull in with them. And for them, you know, was huge. And then I think that translates internally. Also, like I think almost anybody in our office would say, this is my equip family.
• 24:36
  Like, you know, I think we just have really strong bonds. And because of the culture have put prioritizing that, and building relationships internally that that example highlights why I am so jealous of that. You architects in the world. Because when you guys get to the end of a project, there's like something very clear and established to like, speak for, like, there it is.
• 24:59
  You know, in the world of psychology, although you get maybe some glimpses of that in certain ways. It's different than like there has a, there is now a building standing there. Yeah. And I can point to him be like, wow, that was a fun thing to be a part of. But once there's a building, there's no more work.
• 25:11
  Well, it's not jealous of that part quite as much, but at the same time, I don't think you guys have had trouble, finding the next one. Yeah. Following that, yeah. One of the things I want to add to what Alicia brought up is that, we we tell people honestly, like, if you want to make as much money as you can possibly make, equip is probably not the place for you.
• 25:32
  But what we're what we're going to provide for you is a place that cares about you and provides you, support for areas outside of your life. And so because of that, we've actually never had anybody leave a club for more money for another firm.
• 25:45
  We've had people leave for a number of other reasons moving away or different opportunities, but nobody's ever left for more money, which I think I think is very interesting.
• 25:53
  And and that really, that really speaks to how valued and, cared for people feel when they work at a club.
• 26:01
  retention has been a huge part of us, like, as we've invested in great people.
• 26:07
  most people have ended up staying and that's been a huge asset. For us, I would say along with that, people, because of the leadership being very transparent with where the firm is, you know, financially that looks that's one thing that I've seen a big difference in a club and some other firms is just we know what the forecast is looking like.
• 26:25
  And we, you know, signs and the partners are very open with with where we are. And so just being able to buy in because you feel like they're leading you. Well and they're not, you know, they don't have all these closed door conversations and you never know what's going on. Big picture. And those are both, I think, significant statements you guys just made, particularly as it relates to retention, people really, really underestimate and can be very short sighted about how expensive it is to lose people, you know.
• 26:52
  And although it's not strictly about the dollars and cents,
• 26:55
  certainly not what we believe or what you guys believe, it's amazing to me how many shortsighted decisions get made where people willingly will, like, let people go or create a culture that almost like necessitates them going. And they and they just don't understand how costly it is to not just from a dollar sense, but think about the energy drain.
• 27:13
  Yeah. You know, and I hear it a lot from people, the energy drain associated with another person leaving. Yeah. And we've got to go back to the hiring process. And it's, it's a it's a huge time energy suck for leaders. Yeah. And I think back to your question about how you still got to stay in business, even though you have fun and have a great culture.
• 27:31
  I mean, part of that is our people are incredibly efficient because when they're working, they're all like, they're both here. And then also we're just not we're not spending a whole lot of time in recruiting and retaining people, and having to replace people. And so there are areas where a great culture gives you, a leg up on efficiency.
• 27:51
  I mean, we we consistently are very, very in track with market standards on profitability. And,
• 27:57
  a percentage of profit per, per revenue, every year. And so that's and that's not because we're overworking our people or we're, nickel and diming our, our, our clients. It's because our people are incredibly efficient and good at what they do, and we're giving them space and, and empowering them to do work.
• 28:14
  Well,
• 28:15
  I'm glad you touched on that, because those are the kind of things that that certain people, depending on how they're wired, need to hear. Yeah, of like, hey, we're not just,
• 28:24
  picking some great values and upholding them, like, we're tracking things and I know you're in the details. I mean, having having seen your Disneyworld daily itineraries years ago.
• 28:36
  My man can be in the details. All right. He can lay it out there with a very scheduled approach. So I know you're looking at those things. Yeah.
• 28:44
  I just had to show up. It was kind of nice. Honestly, I didn't have to wonder if this was the best. You know, should we be going over to Space Mountain right now, or would it be better to hit in the 1:00 window?
• 28:55
  I didn't have to worry about that. Had a game of five. Yeah, okay. I think we wrote 34 odds that day. Be close to see Magic Kingdom, right. It's exactly what I was was referring to. All right, Alicia, let me hit you with this one. And maybe this is something you guys talk about. Maybe it isn't. I want you to feel a lot of freedom to answer this.
• 29:14
  And that is. How is the word success defined at equip? Like since I said, it's never been about the bottom line. You know, being the most profitable. I think success is, if we have a healthy,
• 29:33
  work life wholeness with our, for our employees and then also, you know, delivering well for our clients. So I think having successful projects at the end of the day is a measure of success and return clients, but then also that our culture, is able to be maintained and that our people have work life wholeness, which I think is even more than you hear work life balance a lot, but really leaning into the wholeness of
• 30:00
  work in life. What's the difference? I think balance is you're teetering back and forth, you know, have one. You know, if you think of like a scale, you know, one is always kind of heavier than the other one. And then wholeness is like, I can wholly, fully be the best architect I can be, but I can also be the best mom I can be.
• 30:20
  And so it just feels different to me in the kind of the mental picture of what I get with balance versus wholeness. So for you, the thought of wholeness means you don't feel like in any of your roles or getting cheated, I think is what you're saying, or that there's any less of you showing up to, whether it be the mom role, the spouse role, etc., right?
• 30:41
  Yeah, yeah, all of that. Anything you would add to that about what success means to you all?
• 30:45
  we measure success in two ways. How much are people,
• 30:48
  enjoy coming to work and feel cared for at work. And then how much our clients,
• 30:52
  felt like they got a, a great value out of the work we did
• 30:55
  for them.
• 30:56
  And so those are the two ways we measure, measure success, regardless of the profitability of that year. Now that helps. And we're able to share profits with our people. And everybody gets excited about that.
• 31:08
  But it's definitely not the measure of success.
• 31:10
  one thing that I think also sets the quip apart from my previous firms is the mentorship program that we have. So, you know, every month every employee meets with a mentor. And we're really try to not shy away from the hard questions and really understanding where people are and, you know, both personally and professionally.
• 31:31
  And, we do roadmaps. So every it's about two years. We do a roadmap. So the firm kind of says this is kind of the trajectory we see you on. And then you put that beside the trajectory that the person feels like they're on and try to get alignment there and talk through growth strategies,
• 31:49
  really normalizing growth and not, thinking there's an expectation that you should already be good at everything.
• 31:56
  but I feel like the biggest thing is, like Sam said, you know, we we have,
• 32:01
  weekly check ins,
• 32:03
  where we see them. So sometimes ask these kinds of questions, very pointed questions to get response just to feel the temperature of the office as a whole. But then we also have one on ones monthly where, you know, it's a more of a personal relationship and you can really dig in a little more there.
• 32:20
  Yeah, yeah. We realize that. Yeah, we could say everything we want to say about this vision and the core values we want to create, but unless we have the processes in place to make those happen, yes, they're not going to happen. So we try to weave, John, the deans, one of our partners, has done a great job of helping us set up systems so that we can actually fulfill the core values and the vision that we want to fulfill, because they're not going to happen on their own.
• 32:43
  Like we're going to default to, thinking about ourselves and making making decisions based on the bottom line. And, but if we have systems set in place, not only is a system set in place, but we have accountability measures because we're so, we try to be vulnerable with the firm. And so we're asking the firm, how are we doing in these areas that we say we want to be?
• 33:02
  And so getting feedback from them, real time, like, like I was reading from here to say we're ways that you felt celebrated were a ways that we can help you do your job better and be a better support for you. As we found that we can't do it without without having those processes in place, that that's the difference, right?
• 33:21
  Because it is not difficult to grab your leadership team and find some great, cool place to go. Do your offsite and get real busy on the whiteboard and feel awesome coming away. And you're driving back down the road and man, like, you know, we we crushed it. Yeah. And you know what? Monday morning will be here soon. And if you don't have the right as you said, some systems and processes to fill the gaps and drive the behaviors and the thought patterns that you want.
• 33:52
  Hate to say this, but that offsite is going to be of limited value. Yeah. Yeah. And and we realized we like as, as I mentioned at the beginning, like we didn't know what we were doing when we started. We just knew we want to do something a little bit different. Yeah. So we've had to ask, people like us, you didn't ask me to say this.
• 34:10
  We've had to ask people like a line in town. Will gray has helped us a ton. But using people that actually know what they're doing, you know, the first week of employment with our with our for our new employees, we send them over to you guys to, to do a, post self-discovery, course called self-awareness is a huge part of of learning about yourself, of growing as an individual, but also figuring out how to work well as a team.
• 34:34
  And so sitting over to you guys, you guys can help them, think about themselves and how they work together and communicate well, and how they handle stress and how they respond to different situations has been a has been a huge part. And so if I, if I would have one piece of advice for other business owners, that would be like seek out helps you get mentorship, seek out consultants that actually have done this, hundreds of times that can help steer you in the right direction.
• 34:57
  So be great in your lane and then have good allies who work can be in their lane and provide resources. You absolutely. Okay. So let's let's kind of heading into the fourth lap here, fourth quarter or whatever you want to go with. And I want to spend a kind of in some of our closing minutes focused on let's have a little fun with this.
• 35:16
  So looking down the tunnel, I'm going to start with you, Alicia. And you can be kind of loading up here. Your thoughts? Sam's looking down the tunnel in the way of vision for where we hope to go, and this could be about a function or a combination of, on the business side, it could be on, you know, certainly the internal side, whatever it might be.
• 35:37
  But when you look down that tunnel in with aspirations, what do you hope you might realize eventually? Or what do you hope equip might realize eventually as it moves down that tunnel? Well, internally we I guess about a year ago started, what we have dubbed equip 3.0, which is kind of the grow up stage. So kind of a maturing of, you know, we're not a startup, we're established, we're not going anywhere.
• 36:02
  So now what do we need to do? And so we're really digging into like Sam's was talking about the systems and getting those things in place for a scale up. And we don't know what that scale up's going to look like. But, I just think that equip is doing something special, and I think people are attracted to it.
• 36:19
  And so I just think we're going to see consistent growth over the next however many years we're able to continue doing this thing. Awesome. Yeah. I think from the get go, as you've kind of heard, we've been we've kind of been a culture forward, culture first firm. Yeah. And wow, that's created a great culture. I think there's other areas that we can grow in.
• 36:39
  I think we can grow, continue to push our boundaries on design. We can continue to push our our boundaries on, quality. We continue to we continue to push culture, we continue to push our boundaries on systems
• 36:50
  and I say those four because,
• 36:52
  we've actually done something really fun, which, you'll get a kick out of this.
• 36:56
  Not because you like Harry Potter. Quite the opposite. Don't quiz me. But I know almost nothing about Harry Potter. So those are the. Those are the four operational principles that equip me. Okay? And, each of the partners kind of falls into one of those mindsets, by default. And so we've, we've, created these different houses similar to Harry, Harry Potter,
• 37:18
  these houses are actually responsible for helping, energize that aspect of the, of the business.
• 37:24
  So whether that's culture, design, quality and systems, they correspond, to one of the partners, kind of mindsets. And those houses me quarterly. They talk about how can the firm improve in this particular area. And so I think as we move forward, this is the way that we've decided, okay, we have we feel like we we're doing something different here.
• 37:45
  We feel like we've done some things right. Let's kind of try to capture some of the things we feel like we're doing right and empower our, our younger people to help push those principles into the company, into the future, so that,
• 37:58
  when the partners do end up retiring or leaving,
• 38:00
  equip doesn't lose the essence of who they are.
• 38:03
  Yeah. And so we're trying to empower the young people. Back to that generosity.
• 38:07
  Core value to, to use their gifts and talents to further, further the firm in each of those four different ways. I love that. Yeah, I know there are households associated with Harry Potter. So how is this not how Kansas?
• 38:24
  Where did that idea come from to to go through the Harry Potter? Yeah, by way of example of the Harry Potter. So we've always said it equipped that, the four partners together, individually, we're not great architects, but together we make a really, really good architect. And so the four headed monster, we, we, we kind of have been talking through the years about how we, how different we all are and how different we think,
• 38:47
  and we started kind of putting words to that in language to that, like where we kind of, we talked in the, in the early years about how, we needed like when we first started, we
• 38:57
  needed to buy a TV. And this was such a huge deal when we first starting out. Right? Because, I wanted to, you know, I was on the financial side, I did. I wanted to make sure we didn't spend too much money. Sandy was in the design side. He wanted to make sure it looked impressive to everybody around.
• 39:11
  And like, this was great. Great looking. Jonathan wanted to make sure that it was the right technology from a system standpoint that integrated with everything that we had. And, Dwight, from the quality, just wanted to make sure it was a good quality, like, this TV is going to last. And so we had to realize that's just a small, example of of the firm at large and how we kind of think through and work together, when we make everyday decisions.
• 39:36
  And
• 39:36
  how can we empower our people to move into the firm and move into their profession and thinking about business and in similar ways? And so our people have have natural bounce as well, and they can help, even take us to the next step. And so as we think about growth, we, we don't have a number that we're trying to get to, financially or,
• 39:56
  numerically in terms of team members, but we know we want to continue to lean into these houses of, design quality systems culture.
• 40:04
  We want to make sure all those are there and, hire the right people as we go along to do that. And so, we'll probably continue with an organic type of growth, trying to stay flexible with trying to stay efficient, trying to stay, smart in our growth, and not get over our skis as we've been able to do so far.
• 40:23
  And, kind of see where the Lord takes us from there. But, that's kind of as we think about growth in the future. That's. And we we never want to lose who we are. It's kind of the mantra. We've always said, well, clearly you guys are doing some incredible things. You need to be really be proud of what you're doing.
• 40:40
  I hope that you are, and I want to I want to kind of close with the story, and I feel this feels like the right story. And we've we've kind of walk through the progression here of, the tremendous growth of equip, the dedication and commitment to internal culture, of humanizing people, bringing added thoughtfulness to our business.
• 40:57
  All of the above. So just I was there at the beginning. So you hopefully probably remember the story. And the financial guy was definitely the one who drove this decision. But a couple offices ago, this would have been like 2011 or 2014 timeline. Okay. Do you know this story? You probably know where I'm going with this, that you were not yet a part of this.
• 41:15
  Obviously, their first office was like a basement. All right. So this is a basement in downtown Greenville that I guess somebody who was a fire marshal said it was okay to to have people work down there. So windows. No. So so the brother in law over here was asked to help move in the new office. Right. And so here's what that entailed.
• 41:37
  That day I walked in there and all I see is a bunch of steel poles and a bunch of pieces of wood that look like, almost kind of like a butcher block type piece of wood. It wasn't plywood. It wasn't probably also high quality butcher block. And what were we doing? We were building desks. Okay. But this wasn't an actual desk where you, like, order the thing and they give you the pieces.
• 42:00
  This was like pipes from Home Depot and pieces of wood from, I don't know where 84 lumber, maybe. And so we're putting these things together and standing them up and, you know, believe it or not, I think most of them were. We actually got it to where they were straight and not tilted in that kind of thing.
• 42:15
  But I think that's a really cool image, not just the basement space, but also the economically driven decision on the desks to think about, like where you guys stand today. And, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to do that if you had 40 people at that stage of the game that might have, you know, comprised more than just an afternoon.
• 42:35
  But wow, I hopefully you guys can reflect on that particular use Sims. Given that, you know, where you guys were at that stage and to think like, wow, what a what a remarkable progression we have enjoyed it. And not at all that the, the you know, the time of growth is over in the least. But a really cool transformation that I hope you guys are proud of.
• 42:57
  And, I'm excited about what might be around the next corner for equip. Yeah, I think I think one of the things that we can easily fall into is when we, do look around and say, oh, we have 40 people. Oh, that's great. Is, there's a verse in Romans that says, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
• 43:14
  And so constantly reminding ourselves that everything we have is a gift from God, and we are to be stewards of those things. Another verse in Galatians says, let us not grow weary of doing good. And so both do not think of our selves more highly than we also think, and not grow weary of doing good for other people.
• 43:32
  That's kind of the mindset that we want to just take into this next kind of equip 3.0 and even do a quick 4.0, whatever that looks like is, is trying to approach this with humility and servanthood and, a stewardship mentality for other people and creating a place that people love to come to work is awesome.
• 43:51
  Okay. So as we kind of wrap up, any final thoughts from you over there, Alicia, as we close, I'm just going to throw that in your lap. Yeah.
• 43:58
  Now just I think one thing that I always we have a ton of young employees that have only worked at equip and just, they probably get sick of me telling them like, this is great.
• 44:09
  Not all like this. Like, this is this is unique. This is special. And so,
• 44:14
  just continuing to be, a unique and special place, I think, you know, just sets us up for success and makes us attractive to. Yeah, for the future. Hopefully they'll listen. I always say wisdom is our ability to learn from others, right? Anyone can learn from your own story when you get slapped on the hand or whatever that might be.
• 44:32
  But can you learn effectively from others? Hopefully they can. Yeah, without going out and seeing for themselves that right. That really was a great place. Awesome. Okay, well big time thanks to you, Alicia. And Sam's also for for joining us on the Growth Project today. And for those of you that tuned in, so many takeaways, so many examples of, what prioritizing culture, can do to transform humans to transform your business, your organization.
• 45:00
  So hopefully it is a loud and resounding and reinforced message of why this is worth your time, your effort, and your resources. So hopefully leaders can really hear that in a in a significant way and, begin the process of putting things into play for your teams. Thank you for tuning in. If you continue to find, value in what we are doing here at the Growth Project, we always appreciate reviews.
• 45:26
  You can find us both on Apple Podcasts and also Spotify. Give us feedback, let us know how we're doing and what we're doing to power your growth, and we will look forward to our next conversation coming up here real shortly. Thank you. Thanks so much, drew. Thank you.