How Richard Taylor Reinvented Architecture

Most homeowners don't avoid renovations because they're lazy—they avoid them because they don't know where to start. Richard Taylor built SketchHaus to change that.

Summary:
We sit down with licensed architect Richard Taylor, founder of SketchHaus Architects, to explore how he reimagined the traditional architecture business for today's homeowners. Richard shares the reality of life after architecture school, his journey through New York during the 2008 recession, and how those experiences ultimately led him to build a company focused on transparency, speed, and accessibility.

We discuss the mindset shift from technician to business owner, why duct-taped systems eventually limit growth, and how landing one major client forced Richard to learn the art of delegation. He also explains how COVID became the catalyst for rebuilding his company into a flat-fee architecture firm that removes the confusion and sticker shock many homeowners experience before starting a renovation.

Richard also introduces SketchHaus AI, which creates realistic exterior facelift concepts, along with the SketchHaus Builders Network that helps homeowners obtain competitive contractor bids with confidence. Whether you're planning a home addition or building a service business that can scale, this episode is packed with practical lessons on simplifying complicated industries.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari

💡 GOLD NUGGETS 

• The reality gap between architecture school and the real world
• How the 2008 recession changed Richard's career path
• The client that forced him to become a true business owner
• Why systems—not talent—determine whether you can scale
• How COVID inspired a completely new business model
• Flat-fee architecture that removes pricing uncertainty
• SketchHaus AI and making renovation ideas easy to visualize
• The Builders Network that simplifies finding qualified contractors

🔗 Guest Links

• Website: https://sketchhaus.com
• Instagram: @sketchhaus
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardtayloraia/

🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari

• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website | https://chrislalomia.com

Subscribe to Small Business Safari, share this episode with someone planning a renovation or growing a service business, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway!

Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!

Transcript

Architecture Dreams Meet Real Work

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And that's where it started kicking off. I graduated like all architecture students. So you have architects that listen to this podcast amongst the millions of listeners. I'm sure you do.

SPEAKER_05 0:08

I'm hey, architects, hit me up, Chris at the trusted toolbox, and I'll get you in touch with Richard because he is truly a renaissance man.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Yeah. Yeah. Ding. So they uh the students know that they graduate college with the ambition of changing the world. And the first day in your new job, nothing is more disappointing.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

You're reconfiguring a Domino's pizza or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

You're designing toilet partitions. You're doing toilet partition details in a 500,000 square foot building.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

The definition of disillusionment.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Oh man, it's the worst. Uh, so we say the uh there's only one thing more different. The education of architecture and the profession of architecture is so different. It's like finding out that your new bride is nothing but a man with nice legs.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Oh, following your passion. And then we find out that your new bride is a man with good legs. Nice legs. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you travers to the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from getting your own personal and professional goals.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari.

Music, Cooking, And The Renaissance Setup

SPEAKER_05 1:49

Alan, we got another great show. We got to get rock and roll. That music gets me going every single time. I'm telling you what, music gets you in the flow, Alan. 100%. You know what? I think a lot of people talk about this. You listen to music when you cook. I do listen to music while I cook. I try to I try to watch TV or have the TV playing, and it's no good. Nope. What do I listen to? Um, it depends. Like if I'm by myself, believe it or not, I'll rock a little country every once in a while. If I'm doing some cast iron cooking, just to kind of get in the mood. Um, there is a great playlist uh or uh song thing out there called French cooking music, and it's cool. Yeah, yeah, pretty cool. So it's in the mood.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

I I listen to the music that's kind of matches whatever I'm cooking. So if I'm doing uh Cuban food, then it's gonna be Cuban.

SPEAKER_05 2:35

Oh, look at you.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Yeah, it's a lot of fun, and uh and it's infected my kids, so it drives them crazy if they go to somebody's house for dinner and there's no music.

SPEAKER_05 2:43

You know, Alan, it it kind of makes me think that we're kind of renaissance men, you know? We kind of have still kind of uh we're kind of a little a little obese.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Uh no, we're renaissance. We revel in our excess.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

We do, yeah, uh, and we do revel in our excess. Uh and cheers to that. We got bourbon on tap today. Let's go. Clinky clink, clink, and we've got a great episode on tap, everybody. You're driving around your truck, maybe you're walking around, maybe you're killing on the treadmill a little bit, just kind of getting this all in. This episode is going to be one where you're going to be renaissanced. Because we have a true renaissance man with us today in person. When I give you the dossier of what I know about this guy, and I don't even know everything.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

Well, first of all, he's tall and freaking good looking and good hair, which I know.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

And he gets a five o'clock shadow at like two o'clock in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Yeah, I know. He just like clenches that beard comes out.

SPEAKER_05 3:32

You know, it's one of those things, too, as a kid. Uh, you know, we love looking old early because you could buy beer. I mean, this guy probably was buying beer at eight years old. Coming in with a full beer, going, hey son, I'm a little short for my age. Uh, can I buy for my friends back there? I'll take a 24-pack of daddy lights. But he is not that guy, Alan. He is a renaissance man. Why is he such a renaissance man? And he's already shaking his head. He's like, I don't even want to hear this. Oh boy. Oh, he's gonna fucking get it. Here we go. So I meet Richard Taylor, who is uh he is uh the founder of Sketch House Architects. That's one thing. But then we start talking more and more, and I've as I got to know him. Uh, he has married a lady who is from overseas, he has uh a racing car, he has a rental property, he has built his own website in a hundred hours.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

A modern Renaissance.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

And what is he originally? He is a classically trained and licensed architect because he really was at Taylor Works originally, and he also has lived in Manhattan at the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The man is truly a renaissance man. We are bringing you guys sophistication as you've never fucking seen it before. This guy is it. We need to lower the bar here.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Good luck, Richard.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

All right, Richard Taylor, sketch house architects. Richard, welcome to the show. This is exciting.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Uh, super excited to be here.

SPEAKER_05 4:57

Yeah. So let's go back.

Finding His Own Passion For Design

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Let's let's talk about houses. No, let's talk about uh you go, you grow up as a son of an architect. That's right. And you decided to say, you know what, I'm gonna follow that dream. Where'd you grow up, by the way?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I grew up here in Atlanta, and that's not exactly how it worked out. My father's an architect, my mother's an architect, I got a half-brother's an architect, cousin, so it's in the family. Um, my father's actually a fellow in the AIA, which is he's an award-winning architect. I wanted to do anything but architecture, actually. I uh I tried to resist it. I was like, I'm gonna become a pilot. So I went to the airport and uh I did end up getting my pilot's license and uh the adding to the renaissance. So every time this happens, I'm just gonna go ding. But I couldn't, I could not fight it. It's architecture is such a beautiful profession, it's creation, it's it's alchemy. We make things out of nothing and we delight clients.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

So at Thanksgiving, is it like, hey, uh, I saw that last one, and it's like you know, well it's all right, you mailed that one in.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

You know, my board of directors is my family. So they it's they they know everything about sketch house and they uh tailor workshop, and uh they're they're my the they're my advisors, they're the people who know the most about architecture. Um, and uh we talk about it all the time. So it's your family. I in fact, I was over at my mom and dad's house, and uh we're talking about the history uh is a history of architecture in Atlanta. Jim Brewer and uh I'm sorry, Marcel Brewer, who designed the uh library, the public library downtown. It's a uh brutalist style architecture in Atlanta, it is an incredible piece of architecture, and we sit and nerd out about that kind of stuff in our family. I've been in that library. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

I when I worked downtown, I went over there.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Were you looking for a book?

SPEAKER_05 6:42

I was uh I'll tell you the story. Uh back, but this is why we have this podcast, everybody. Why do we do this? Because when I tried to start my own business, I had to go to Barnes and Noble and buy starting a business for dummies, MBA for dummies. You know, and then I went uh up the street when I worked downtown and I went to the library to hide for quote unquote lunch and went to look for books in there uh to find out things about how to be an entrepreneur and how to start your own business. It's a little nuts that we didn't know about you like it's very resourceful. Yeah, is that a renaissance? No, yeah. That was I didn't know I do have a Fulton Cardi Reberry card now. Do you it's probably expired? No, I reappeared.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Yeah, that's right. Well, I'm on a lot of lists, Richard. I mean, do we have a lot of buildings that are interesting to you in Atlanta? Because I when I took a tour of the Fox Theater and then found out how many amazing buildings like that we used to have, and then they were just destroyed in the victorious 70s.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

We do tear down our history here in Atlanta, uh, but we have some great pieces, great architects that have uh put their stamp. Uh John Portman is uh is a biggie. We're very proud of him in Atlanta. Uh he built downtown Atlanta. Uh he and then he became a developer, which even added to his resume. Uh Max Scoggin, Meryl Elam. Uh Max Scog Scoggin was the uh dean of architecture at Harvard, and he's here in Atlanta. Uh so we Atlanta's got some good architecture. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

So uh let's go back to the beginning because that's one of the threads I wanted to pull on. Uh he even said, I just went over to mom and dad's, and we geeked out about architecture. So following a passion, even if he was trying to vehemently get away from it, shows you that it's truly still a passion. And we'll get into as you have your passion, it helps you run your business. And we're gonna get into the does the owner really stay passionate about the true technician part of his business or not. But let's go back to this again. So you wrestled around with it. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

And then you went to college, went to college and excelled. And I was a dry, I was a horrible high school student. Um, I was highly distracted, I was very passionate and driven to do a lot of things. School was not on that list. Uh, but when I went to college, I redefined myself. I said, I can be anybody I want to be. And this is true for any student. You can go and redefine yourself, redesign, say, what do I want to be? Write it down on paper, design your life, and then execute it. And I found that worked so well. And so when I was in college, I became the president of the school and uh straight a student, which was unusual for me.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Did you go away?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I had to go away. I went to Auburn University, the prestigious school of Auburn University. We did have a really good school of architecture.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

It was uh that's a really renowned school. Yeah, really cool.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

The school of architecture is terrific there. Um, but um the you know, I I came in a little bit with an ego because I'm coming from a family of architects. Um, but there I found a new passion for architecture that was mine, not a taught passion. It wasn't something that I inherited. I made it my own passion, and that's where it started kicking off. I graduated like all architecture students. So you have architects that listen to this podcast amongst the millions of listeners, I'm sure you do.

SPEAKER_05 9:55

I'm hey, architects, hit me up, Chris at the trusted toolbox, and I'll get you in touch with Richard because he is truly a renaissance man.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah, yeah. Ding. So they uh the students know that they graduate college with the ambition of changing the world. And the first day in your new job, nothing is more disappointing.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

You're like you're reconfiguring a Domino's pizza or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

You're designing toilet partitions, you're doing toilet partition details in a 500,000 square foot building.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

The definition of disillusionment.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Oh man, it's the worst. Uh, so we say the uh there's only one thing more different. The education of architecture and the profession of architecture is so different. It's like finding out that your new bride is nothing but a man with nice legs.

SPEAKER_05 10:49

Oh, following your passion. Then we find out that your new bride is a man with good legs.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Nice legs.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Uh yeah, but no, they you get put at the bottom of the food chain in the in your new office. You're gonna be doing toilet partition details, and you do that enough and enough, and then you grow, and then they start having you design layouts and walls and details.

SPEAKER_05 11:09

And when you got your first toilet partition design assignment, did you sit there and go, Um, maybe you don't know who I am? Let me let me show you. I was the president of our school. Um, my parents are renowned architects. Um, I got a lot more horsepower, and they went there and said, Hey, son, sit down.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

They they said, Yeah, we all do. We've heard that story before.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

But the flip side of that could be I'm gonna innovate the most badass toilet partition you've ever seen in your life. Watch this.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I tried. I we I we honestly just see that thing. I was on a parking deck.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Richard, we don't need flames on the partitions.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Oh, that's when you come out of the bathroom.

SPEAKER_05 12:36

This is true.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

The uh I I was asked to design a parking deck, just a stair detail, and I thought, man, what if the stairs inverted on the bottom side of this? So the stairs actually zigzag going down, um, so that you look at the underside of the steps and you see the stair pattern going. Well, MCS or look. Yeah, and uh my my principal architect, his name's Mark Reese, he was so good with me in that moment because he was like, I'm not going to squash your vision, but there is a reality to design and construction, means and methods, that says that is not that's gonna be very expensive and it's not gonna happen, but let's explore the idea. And I just thought that was great coaching on his part. He didn't just tell me that's ridiculous. Uh, he said, let's talk to the concrete engineer about that.

SPEAKER_05 13:19

Who's his name again?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Mark Reese.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

He was Mark Reese, got a shout out on this one. Mark, I wish he would have been there for me when I was my first time uh as a manager of people, because there are no dumb ideas, there are no dumb questions, there are just big piling, steaming heaps of shit. Um, and if you go to my office today in our conference room, I tell all of my guys there are never any dumb questions, never any dumb ideas, never dumb comments. However, there are times where you can be a steaming pile of shit. And we had the green poopy emoji over sitting on the whiteboard. So I love that he embraced and and and and you got another mentor, somebody who actually inspired you even further. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, and your first job was where? First job was Raven Roche, Rector, and Reese here in Atlanta, Georgia. So you're in Atlanta first. Yeah, okay. A lot of Rs. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

You know, it they that's another thing about architecture.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

I'd love to have you on the firm, but it doesn't start with the name.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

We're gonna get into what Richard has done. Stay tuned for this, guys. You want to stay uh stay very close because we'll get him there. Because what he has done with architecture is he's really made it approachable for a lot of people uh to have an architect work on your home. But one of the things that architects are very, very, very, very, very, very, very well known for is a very large ego. There are a lot of ours in there. I gotta have my name on that board, son. Why? So sketchhouse, you don't see Richard Taylor on that. Now there's Taylor works. We'll get into that one later, but I don't think that was his. But the R R R R R I mean it's it. It's like lawyers, which I can pick on them too, because none of them are gonna listen to this thing anyway, because they're not businessmen, they're idiots, they're all out there trying to figure out how to sue people.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

You know, I can say that because my son's about to be a lawyer. There's a group of people you don't want to piss off. I would say it'd be lawyers, Chris. Just a little piece of advice. Gold nugget for today.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

Hey, I got horsepower, I got a pocket judge in North Carolina. Don't worry about it. He's in my pocket, it's all good. As an Italian, it's a very good thing. In fact, that's gonna be on my epitaph. Here lies Chris Lalomia. He had a pocket judge. Forget proud jail forbid, proud father, pocket judge. I had a pocket judge. Take that, Godfather.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

I love what you said about the ego, though. That's a that's a big part. I mean, that is, I think we're taught to have egos. We're taught that the the beauty of the star architect, the next Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gary, Stephen Hall. Uh in fact, in college, I read an article that's called Architecture Without Ego. And that was the title of the article. And it was how we remove your vanity from your design, serve homeowners, serve clients. Uh, it doesn't have to be homeowners, just clients. Serve them with good design, but listen to your clients, listen to what they need. And I think that that's not often taught a lot or it's not impressed a lot upon students.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Interesting. And we're coming back to that. Pin that one because he wrote that in college. And yet today, when we talk about sketchhouse architects and what they do, that's where I've been. Um, I'm very impressed with Richard. Uh, he he doesn't like when I say that stuff, but I you know I really enjoy having him around and when we talk a lot. Um, but the sketchhouse architects is truly a uh I think a renaissance idea, which is why I brought up ding Renaissance. All right, let's go back to the journey. So, why New York? Well, you left Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Uh, my ego. I wanted to be at the center of the universe, and New York

New York Ego And Recession Reality

SPEAKER_01 16:42

City sure felt like that. That's uh architects go to New York to go change the world. And boy, I got a lot of toilet partition details in New York City.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

Uh works just for everybody. If you're shitting in New York, there's a good chance you're probably shitting at one of Richard Taylor's uh partitions. That's right. So go ahead and scratch your name in there, going, Hey Richard, I chat here. This is a Richard Taylor's toilet partition. Oh my god, you know what? I feel like I could just evacuate so much better. I'm inspired some scale. He has really inspired me.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Toilet partitions to the stars. All right. Well, it was the 08 recession that made me leave. Uh so I've worked there and uh I was climbing the ladders and then the 08 recession. Uh our I was working in an office, Kutanucky Bernstein Architects, and they um great firm. Uh, but we were we had three big developer clients. 08 just destroyed all the architects and all the developers, obviously the whole country, uh, whole world uh felt that. So we had to go through layoffs. I um end up going over to Portugal with my new wife, and uh we were going to make it work in Portugal, only to discover that Portugal was in a deeper recession than the United States. Um, and they were old at it.

SPEAKER_05 17:57

So they isn't that interesting because in 2008, um, which we don't bring up much around Alan because he's already twitching. Don't worry. I don't I don't really remember it. He actually has to knock it out. Uh not to. Yeah, we always thought that it was a US-based uh and US focused recession, and it wasn't because again, going back to just the impact that we have, not to be so myopic on the Americas, but I had never heard that from somebody else that they had a problem overseas and ate like we did.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Oh yeah, oh yeah, it permeated across around the world. Uh in Portugal, uh we tried to hustle, we tried to make things happen, couldn't get anything to stir up in Portugal. So we my father had a project in Atlanta. He said, Come back and give me a hand. I came back to Atlanta, helped him out. He actually taught me Revit. That's the latest and greatest technology and architecture is called Revit building information modeling. My 80-year-old father teaching me new technology was pretty special. So he and I did a project where I was working for him here in Atlanta, and that was in um 2011. And then I was out fishing for new projects with a with a small fishing line, and

Landing Chick-fil-A And Becoming An Owner

SPEAKER_01 19:09

I hooked Chick-fil-A.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Uh oh, and Alan. Alan. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:16

Do chime in, Alan. I know you have questions. No, no, I want to hear more.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Go. I I I they called themselves CFA, and I was certain that meant CF Architects. And it was an RFP. They were putting out a request for proposals. I said, All right, let me put in my proposal for the CFA. Uh, they said, Well, how do you feel about working for Chick-fil-A? And I said, Oh, yeah, is that your client? And he says, No, we are Chick-fil-A. I thought, holy smokes, yeah. Uh uh, let's do this. We designed drive-through canopies, uh, a couple of uh items or um experiences within the restaurant. That then kicked off more work. I then got uh that's where the transition from employee to business owner clicked in. I said, give me all the work, more than I could possibly do myself. And then I started hiring people to do the work for me or with me. Uh, that was a big transition for me because that's when I learned I can do more than what I can do with my two hands. I have two hands, I can work, now I can do the work of six hands.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

So you'd never wanted to be your own. That wasn't the I mean the goal originally was that I've always wanted to run my own business as a kid. You know, I watched my dad. No, I I wanted to change the world. That's at one Chick-fil-A at a time. At one Chick-fil-A at a time, at one toilet partition at a time. So uh so this is when it hit. Now, this project, uh, did it come under the guise of your father's business or no?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

I I I was out on my own. We my dad and I worked together under a 1099, and it never we never did partner up. He didn't want to hand over any of the business to me. And I think maybe I was interested in starting my own, so I started Taylor Workshop. Regret naming it Taylor Workshop. I learned that lesson later. Uh I didn't want my name in it. That's it's hard to scale when you're the gold nugget there.

SPEAKER_05 21:06

But uh gold nugget ding! Uh Renaissance man ding. So, but but we have egos, Richard. That's right, that's right. Uh I mean, those architects put their names in the in the thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

They always do. Yeah, you're the star, you're the star of the operation, and you want to be that. Um, and I was that for Taylor Workshop until I learned that people were hiring me, they weren't hiring my company. I learned this 10 years later that they wanted to hire Richard Taylor, not the company. And that's hard to scale. I only have two hands, and I had learned this lesson about delegation and multiplying your hands. I have a friend in New York, he calls me, he says, uh, uh gosh, Richard, I work 80 hours a week. I I I'm the hardest worker you'll ever meet. I work 80 hours a week. I said, That's interesting. I I work uh 240 hours a week. The work comes through me, delegates to employees, much more work can get done. I then became the magnet for new work, and uh, but I was still the kingpin. They still wanted Richard Taylor as a part of the deal. Uh, that's really how when we started Sketch House, I was like, this is gonna be a not a superstar uh centric operation. Right. So Taylor Workshop was not the family business, that was your own. Yeah, that started in 2011. My dad had Taylor architecture. Uh, there is a parallel with a famous architect named Renzo Piano. He has Renzo Piano Studio and Renzo Piano Workshop. And I thought that was a nice parallel. I'm gonna just copy paste that a little bit. I was also setting up with the Secretary of State.

SPEAKER_05 22:39

He just he just noted somebody that we've never heard of, right? Ding. Ding.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

That's all I'm gonna do. Is that the definition of Renaissance man that they know just a little more than we do? Ding.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Well, for this guy, it is ding. I mean, honestly. Obviously, Secretary of State. I wrote down Taylor Workshop LLC. And how dumb was that? Because now the name of the company for a little while was Taylor Workshop LLC LLC. So it was a very uh impulsive thing. I was just very quick, uh, made that, but I didn't give it a lot of thought. But um but you jumped in, jumped right in.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

I and then you know what? Even though we will, you jump in. That's right. Right. Hold my beer and watch this. Here we go. Yeah. So how old were you then? And how encumbered with were you with like life? Like meaning, did you have a house? Did you have kids?

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Do you had a wife? Yeah, I must have been 30. I had a wife, no kids, um, no house. Uh this was back in 2011. So we were still very hungry and eating ramen noodles and uh trying to trying to make ends meet.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

Point I'm bringing up is I think people ask me all the time, I started my business at 37. Uh, Alan, again, corporate refugee, started his business older as well. You know, we filled up our toolbox with a number of tools and we felt like we could go out and jump. I don't tell you you have to do that, but I also can't tell you that at 19 years old, if your YouTube influencer is your goal, um, and just jumping in, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean, you gotta be thoughtful about it. You jumped in, but you had a certain tool set already built up that I think his toolkit was much more well developed than many people. What do you think, Alan?

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Yeah, 100%. Well, I you had the family history of it, and uh you also had the wherewithal that when you caught that big fish, you didn't freak out, you just figured out how to handle it, and then you realized it was an opportunity.

SPEAKER_05 24:32

So, for many of our listeners, and again, uh Richard, some of our listeners are overseas. Uh, we're in Australia, Europe, uh, China. Actually, I think we're on Mars and uh and the moon now.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

They're both galaxies, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

We're in a galactic here. So Chick-fil-A is a big deal here in the southeast. That's a big and it can't say whale because it's chicken. It's a it's a it's a it's a big chicken, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 24:55

I think it's the highest, uh maybe it's the most profitable QSR restaurant uh in America. Uh oh, QSR for us. Oh, quick service. Another word, it's a nice word for fast food.

SPEAKER_05 25:05

Easy Allen, I know, but I'm a handyman. I don't know all the shit. Maybe our listeners don't know. I don't know. I'm just a gay man. Your strange words confused me. Wait, Renaissance, QSR.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Ding. All right. So you get that gig. But being present, uh and stepping up to the opportunity, I gotta say, it's that was so lucky. That was a very, very lucky opportunity, but I was ready for it and I I leaped in. Um, and I, you know, I don't think I was prepared for it. Uh, I did not have the tools. I did not have all the tools. I was I didn't

Duct-Taped Systems And Hard Resets

SPEAKER_01 25:33

have a CPA, I barely had an LLC, uh, no project management software. I was a one-man show, but uh as it started to grow, I started to duct tape on systems. And by the end of say by 2020, Taylor Workshop was like a jalopy. There was, you know, things taped on to the side, and I had chicken wire holding this on there, and I had you know, invoices were done all over.

SPEAKER_05 26:01

You know, my mental image there is Herbie the Love Bug when they're trying to uh strap them all together and keep them moving. And here comes here comes Taylor Workshop, just bouncing along down the road.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

We're doing work. The cut the client didn't know how, but it was we were hard to unravel that once you've got all that tape. That is exactly right. And when we started Sketch House, I I was determined to do it right from the day one. From day one, do it right, uh, get all the systems in place. And that that was a big learning lesson for me. Is because you start building stuff on, and once you get your invoice system working the way it does, you can't undo it.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

That's a great point, Alan. That hurt me to say that. Oh my god, I can't even say that. So shut up, Alan. I gotta finish. No, stop. You know, I'm muting your mic for you. Nope, nope, don't let that drink in. That's a great point. So obviously, when you by hooker crook, you just kill go, go, go, go, go, because that's what we do. You're hustling ramen noodles, apartment, wife. Hey, wife, look, I I'm changing the world. Watch this. And you're like sticking shit on, you're putting bubblegum, you're putting chicken wire around this thing, you're making it all happen. And then you learn from that and said, I get a chance to reset because we have heard this before. If you had a chance to start all over again, knowing what you know now, what would you do now? And you did it with Sketch House.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Well, how but so before we get to that though, I mean, just a piece of advice for people listening, going, I'm driving that car right now with all the wire. I mean, how do you unravel that while your ship is at sea?

SPEAKER_01 27:28

This would be very intentional. I mean, you have to really commit to something. I like invoices was a big one for me. I had a guy that was you doing invoices on Excel sheets, and we're doing it took me two days uh to do invoices. Uh yeah, we're putting out 16 or 20 invoices a month, and um, and it was all done on Excel. And I just I actually asked him, I said, if you can figure out a faster way to do invoices, I will pay you the same and you do less work. And he he didn't do that. I think that he got the job security out of spending so much time doing invoices and timesheets and uh everything that went into the invoice, and the invoices were two or three pages long.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

So that's a big invoice nobody ever read for a toilet for a toilet partition. Uh we were past toilet partitions at that point.

SPEAKER_05 28:11

Yeah, he's he's he's you're you're you're eating his chicken now, Chick-fil-A boy.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

I can't believe they don't have that all in-house, by the way, just as an aside.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

No. Uh Chick-fil-A? Yeah, they are unique in that sense. Uh, so we've done a lot of work with Walmart, and Walmart is all in-house. So it's very hard to penetrate, say, Walmart. Uh, but Chick-fil-A is very different in that sense that they outsource everything. They want to have their the employees of the support center, they call it, it's the HQ. They are the thinkers, they are the Blue Horizon thinkers, and they are then empowered to go hire the people to implement and do. Uh, they don't bring that in-house. Um, they have at times brought people in and then they they cycle through, but they're unique in that sense.

SPEAKER_05 28:54

All right. So uh you you did this. And so in the middle of this, you're building this, you got the you got the whole machines rolling. And then when did you come up with Sketch House Architects?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

In 2020, when COVID hit, uh, we had Delta Airlines, Porsche, IHG was a big client, focus brands, inspire

COVID Forces A Business Model Pivot

SPEAKER_01 29:11

brands as Arby's, Dunkin' Donuts. So we were doing lots and lots of work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in 2020, we were just cooking. I mean, this is dream come true. Um, and uh 20 COVID hit, everybody shuttered up. Uh, I was we had to shrink the office down. I sent out a uh this might be an interesting story. They uh sent out a a survey to all the employees and said, guys, we have to pivot, we have to innovate, we have to, we have to change if we're gonna survive. I'm looking for ideas. So I opened up the table, said, I'm I'm I'm your leader. How many employees at that time? Uh I think we had 16 at that time. Okay. Uh I got two responses.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

I think everybody And this is you you said this out because you're hoping somebody comes up with the magic bullet so you don't have to lay them off. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 29:58

That's a big part of it. We had to do a lot of layoffs. We were we also the the PPP program, if you guys remember that. Uh they were all W-2 employees at that point. They were all W-2'd. Um, somehow I I changed banks to this long story short. I I did not get the PPP. Uh, I changed from Chase Bank because I was told if you go to a smaller bank, you have a better chance of getting the PPP, and then I could keep people on longer. You did not get uh I did not get the PPP, so I uh I forget the details of that, but I had a CPA that was helping me lead lead me through all this stuff. I hope he's gone. Nope, she's a trusted partner.

SPEAKER_05 30:33

Um, but he is about to get a whole lot of Chris telling her what the teetotal were you doing. I got the PPP.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Good for you. That's really one. I got PP.

SPEAKER_05 30:43

Everybody got the PPP. You know what? I got I know guys driving Maserati's and their PPP. Uh no, I have one guy.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

Yeah, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

I mean, I heard I heard people I'm just telling you. I that's the only reason I can bring up just to protect his relationship. We should keep moving.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

So the I was gonna say a boat named PPP, that'd be hilarious. That'd be a funny one.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

Uh well, we got uh that was my license place on my Maserati. I did I mention that did somebody got a Maserati? I'm not saying who did. No, I didn't. I brought my people back with it, guys. Come on, give me a break.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

But I got two responses from two uh stellar employees that were they said, We're on board with Taylor Workshop, let's let's uh let's evolve. And guess who I kept? I dug a deep in my pocket and I kept the gold nugget.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Respond to your boss on an email like that.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

100% participate, be a part of the team.

SPEAKER_05 31:38

If you've never seen the uh movie uh Jerry McGuire, that reminds me of the manifesto in the very beginning. Who is with me? Who is with me?

SPEAKER_06 31:46

That's what it was like.

SPEAKER_05 31:47

I'm taking the goldfish and I'm taking uh whoever the hot blonde was. Renee Zellwiger. That's right. Come up with me.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Oh that's what it felt like. Yeah, it's like let's let's do this together. Uh, the two people I kept, we started we've we pivoted, we tried to find other uh streams of uh revenue, uh other services we could provide. We had a um client.

SPEAKER_05 32:09

GT architects out there going, hey, we can steam clean your house, we can we can fumigate everything.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

I I would wash your car, I would shine your shoes. It might be back then.

SPEAKER_05 32:19

Back then, we actually uh one of my guys tell me, Chris, we need to pivot to cleaning offices and cleaning houses with the fumigation stuff that will kill all of it.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:28

Because we all had the magic elixir because uh nobody nope, nobody did.

unknown 32:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Uh we did a project uh for a homeowner and we charged them $14,000 to design them in addition to their house. That is actually a reasonable in the ballpark price to design a home. They did not build the house. They they took the drawings, they're very happy with us, they paid, everything was good. And I just thought, gosh, what a waste of drawings. What a waste of $14,000. Why don't we figure out a new way to engage homeowners with feasibility studies? Quick sketches, let's get uh ideas out on paper, put you in front of a builder. We identified that the biggest threshold for the homeowner is get bids. Homeowners hate getting bids, it's hard to do, it's hard to find builders. Um, and you can't talk to a builder if you don't want to draw.

SPEAKER_05 33:22

You know, at this podcast, Alan. Um you you may have been talking to one at Alan. All right, continue. Can we go back to our guests, please, Alan? No, I want to talk about this particular. You know what you're about to get your don't you work, we're mute, well Cindy, mute mic too, please.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Well, we also identified that architects are a pain point as well, and um homeowners don't want to call an architect because architects are l uh they sound like someone's rich people can afford it. Yeah, it it sounds expensive. Yeah, uh it's like oh I'm not who am I? I'm not you know, I still who might afford an architect.

SPEAKER_05 34:00

So let's let's go back to this now, Alan. Alan, yes, you and your palatial match and at Shake Rag uh Country Club, where you are now, you want to put on uh an addition to your house. Uh-huh. Will you h ask people to come give you bids as contractors and give you ideas? Or would you hire an architect first? And if you had to do the higher architect, how much do you think you'd pay for that?

SPEAKER_03 34:24

So are you talking about a true addition?

SPEAKER_05 34:26

I would assume like let's say we off the back, because I know your house, let's say let's say we take your deck and you want to make that a screened in porch, four seasons room.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

No, I think I go let's go back to the addition.

SPEAKER_05 34:37

All right, if it's an in-law suite, big thing with a Grammy and Grampian.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

No, because if it's if it's kind of just reworking something in the house, I talk to you and we kind of do it on the slide, nobody knows. Yeah, right. But if I'm actually adding something out of the house, yes, of course I think I need an architect. You do? Yeah. How much do you think you pay for that? I I don't know, but it sounds really expensive.

SPEAKER_05 34:56

Does, right? Yeah. I mean, like, give me a number. I don't know. Let's pick a number. Let's ask one. Ask Google. Google will tell you. All right. Alan's out for oh jeez. For the love. Uh all right, he's muted. So back to you and me, Richard. Thank God. It's just you and me now. Uh, guys, we'll continue this talk.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

The

The Homeowner Roadmap Problem

SPEAKER_03 35:16

percentage of the total construction cost. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

Right.

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Well, but you don't know the total construction cost yet. How confusing is that? So I'm I'm gonna say, oh, it's a hundred grand.

SPEAKER_05 35:24

All right. So you expect to pay 10 grand for an architect.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:27

Would you do that? Or would you hire would you call somebody like Chris and say, Chris, come over and give me a free estimate?

SPEAKER_03 35:34

No, it it really kind of depends on what I'm intending to do with this space. I mean, if it's but I think I need an architect for that digital.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

What I'm hearing is there's no roadmap to this. And homeowners are all finding the same uh problem is they don't know where to start. They think I want to build something. Let's go to a builder.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

It's right on the net. And my assumption is the builder has an architect on it. A lot of builders do. Yeah. Yeah. The design build thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

And they so we identified that is that you want to build something, let's go to a builder. And that's the biggest mistake a homeowner can make is going right to a builder. Builders love drawings. When you show up with a builder to a builder with uh drawings in hand, boy, they can start estimating they can send it to their frame or their sheetrock or their plumber. They get bids back of their subcontractors, and their job is so easy and they know exactly what you want. But when you think I got to hire an architect, it's gonna be, I think your Google reserves result probably said five to 15 or 14 something percent, something like that. Um, say it's gonna be 7.5% of construction costs. Well, what's construction cost? I don't even know. It's just like a homeowner.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

It's a chicken or the eggs tonight.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

Yeah, the home gets confused by the I think that's the problem. Because again, architects are not approachable. Let's go back to where we set this up. They're such press, aren't they? Prenodonis? Yeah, they are your scarves. We brought him on, and uh we brought him on, and he's he's he's drinking, but we got him drunk first. So the best.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

I know he looked at the bourbon, he's like, Really? That I'm drinking that. I know that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 37:02

Wow, I know Mictor's rye, huh? A little fiddler's. I mean, by the way, this is uh so here's what uh he did, and here's what the outsider looking in, and that's why I was telling him I was like, This part is genius because I've talked to so many homeowners over the years, and you're like, hey, I just want to do a little addition. No, there's no such thing as a little addition, there's a big addition. Well, I'm just gonna get some guys out here to give me some bids to give you bids on what? Well, they know. No, they don't know. So why wouldn't you start with an architect? Well, because architects, um, Google just told me it's 10% of construction cost. Well, how much do you're hoping to spend? Oh, about 10 grand. No, you're not gonna spend a thousand. So, all right, well, I know it's a real addition. So I don't know, I guess we're thinking like 150, 200. I don't want to spend 20 grand on an architect because I need all that money for the construction pot.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Which for on a project that size seems so stupid to me because if I'm gonna spend 200 grand on my house, I want it to be cool. I want uh I want that special partition with the flames, you know, right? Yeah, I know I don't want some chucking a truck to go, oh, put some walls here, you know.

SPEAKER_05 38:08

I think that's where we're thinking about this wrong. And that's where I when I looked uh and I talked with Richard about his business model and the business, again, back to growing a business and what he did. I was like, this is genius. You're the approachable architect. Because if you go to Sketchhouse Architects,

Clear Pricing, AI Facelifts, Builder Bids

SPEAKER_05 38:24

it's a cool site.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Sketchhouse.com, yeah. H-A U Sky.

SPEAKER_05 38:28

Yeah, but I was about to do Sketchhouse AI. He did the Euro thing with the H US. Yeah, he's been giving me Sketchhouse AI. Yeah, he is ding. All right, so if I go to your website today and I just want to get a facelift on my house, I just want to update the front of my house. How much does that cost? I can tell you it's right on the website. I know it is.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

You'll go to the facelift. And the facelift is interesting because you don't need a permit to repaint or put um shutters on your house, uh, to re the visual, to change the the aesthetic of your house. Uh, so we have an AI uh program called Sketch House AI, and uh you'll go to the facelift and that will take you there. Uh and that you can just use the app and take a picture of your house. You can draw on top of the picture, upload it through the AI, and it kicks out a brand new design. Send that design to your builder. Uh, your builder will know do I need a permit for this? Like if you're adding dormers to the roof, that's might require a permit. Uh otherwise, the once you get past the facelift, then you can send that back to Sketchhouse. If you want to add an addition, go through the next step, which is additions and renovations.

SPEAKER_05 39:36

All right. And on your website, it's very clear. One of the things you did was you took a page out of Marcus Sheridan's. They ask you, answer. Here's my pricing. You want this, it's this. You want that, it's this. If you want this, it's that. I mean, you just so Alan's looking it up right now, and right on your website, it says for as low as 19.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

Well, I don't want to date it, but uh today it's 1905. I'd go check on the website.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

1905. Why didn't you go 1899? 1905. Is that is that a homage to some architect?

SPEAKER_01 40:09

We have we actually moved that up and down and found a sweet spot. Uh 1899. So for 1905, you get what? 1905, you're gonna get enough information to engage builders. We also have the Sketch House Builders Network, which you can use, which will give you three competitive bids. Uh, because that's also a big pinch point for homeowners, is that they don't uh they get the drawings. What next? The biggest question we get asked is hey, do you guys know any uh builders? So we've set you up with three competitive bids on the drawings we provided you at 1905 for additions, renovations. Um, new construction is a different price, 3250 currently.

SPEAKER_05 40:45

Um so hang on, 3250. Again, we just got done talking about doing addition for 10 grand. For 10 grand. We talked about 10 grand, and you just said 1905, 3250. That's not 10 grand, Alan. I don't know if I'm not doing my math very well anymore, but no, we're coming in at less than one percent of construction cost.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

And what's though, how pissed off is the architecture? I'm so glad you asked that. Yeah, so the your fan Thanksgiving sucks, and dad's like, I can't eat because you screwed me.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

I can't, I'm so glad you asked that because that that is a big that's a good talking point. The people were telling me you're undercutting the profession. Yeah, and I just say, No, no, not no, we are not undercutting the profession. We're opening the doors for more people to have access to architects.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

We're bringing the bango, bongo, ding. He just did it. What did he just do? He just said, You have a market as architects and with super ego. You grew the pie. You just grew the pie. You just grew your market exponentially with offering this. If you can get this out there to people to understand, because I think uh as an approachable architect, it's it's not a word that people use, it's not a first thought for many people in home services in a house thinking about I gotta move my mom and dad in the basement, I've got to add on an in-law suite because now my family has grown so big. I'm now lacked because I got a 2.75% mortgage and I can take my HELOC. I got a ton of home equity now. I'm gonna blow this thing out in the back and we're gonna stay here because we love living in a in the eighth worst, you know, Atlanta is the eighth worst traffic market. Uh Richard said, I love that you guys live outside the perimeter. I've never been out here. Yeah, actually asked if he had to have some back deals. So I said, Richard, please come out here. And he said, Well, I live in Atlanta. Do I have to get shots before I come to your country? I'm like, it's only 20 miles, man. It's okay. But I think make your freaking AI assistant go away.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Just click that X button, that big X at the bottom left.

SPEAKER_05 42:46

That is incredible type of stuff. Thank you, Sean. You know what? Smartless needs you. You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna tell Bateman that you need another Sean, and I've got one for you. So you go back to this with Sketch House. You launched it, you've gone. Tell us how it's gone as you've scaled the business.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

I was gosh, just today I was having a conversation with a client. Uh, you know, we don't we don't get we don't get rich on one project, okay? So like an architect at those rates. I mean I'm with your dad. Yeah, well, I want to actually I want to go back to get off my line, you kids. Thank you, Alan. The uh well, what what we'll say is the when people come and they uh an architect typically does four to six projects a year, okay. And they make their salary. How many? Four to six. I certainly like architects do like an architect might do um you know four projects a year. Uh so they're gonna make their quarterly salary on your project. That's why they're charging seven and a half percent or ten percent of construction costs, they're gonna make thirty, four thousand dollars on your project. We said, let's serve the 99% of people behind us. We come out of college, we're architects, we're trained to go chase the biggest, baddest, most expensive projects, find the richest clients. And I'm gonna say something. Architects are notorious lap dogs for rich people. And that's not gonna go over well with a lot of my uh colleagues. That's the title of the podcast, Brady. Architects, lap dogs for rich people.

SPEAKER_05 44:14

Title Architects are not lap are lap dogs for uh rich people. And we are breaking the mold. That's right. So we said, let's turn And we are busting the balls? No, I don't think we're working later.

SPEAKER_01 44:27

Busting down the walls. How about that? I like that. Oh, busting down the walls of architects, yeah. Turned around and said there's 1.6 million houses, freestanding houses in Greater Atlanta. Every single one of them should have a pocket architect if they're gonna do an addition renovation or scrape and rebuild, whatever it is. Speaks my innards.

SPEAKER_03 44:43

Yeah, he did it. Yeah, I'm gonna have that on my two tone. Pocket judge, pocket architect. I have a pocket architect.

SPEAKER_05 44:49

And it's a website with it's not beloved husband and father. No, I have a pocket judge.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

So we just turned around and served homeowners. It was really easy. I was like, gosh, why aren't we doing why why is nobody else doing this? Uh it's they're out there.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

You're bringing architecture to the masses, the the unwashed architecture. The the heathens, the approachable architecture.

SPEAKER_05 45:11

I mean, no, no, not heathens and peasants. Approachable peasants is what I always say. He is not washing feet. He is not the Pope. Beloved. Thank you. Okay, my blessed. Continuing on.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

So we we we don't make money on one project, but we do on six projects a week. And that's our average.

Volume, Quality Control, And Expansion

SPEAKER_01 45:33

We're doing about four to six projects every week. Uh new clients. Um, and it's a volume play, it's a wholesale play. So the homeowner is the great winner in this in this business model, is that they're getting very affordable architecture. We also don't have time to waste on a project because we have to get to the next one. So if somebody feels like nobody's ever accused us of sitting on the clock, we don't do it. We have a pipeline of projects, we got to get your project done and out, and then we're on to the next project. So we're not running up any kind of clock on your process.

SPEAKER_03 46:03

So for you to go from designing toilet partitions and you've got the big ego and New York and all this stuff, to this, uh there's a couple of components in here that are pretty uh probably outside your uh area of expertise. Big time. Had to build a website, had to employ AI to uh you know, take an image of your house and come up with something based on some sort of search terms or or parameters that they put in. And then there's the other component of you're you're finding contractors that you're kind of putting your name on, you know, when you get the three bids because you could do a great job and that guy sucks, and the next thing you know, it's it's back on you. So I mean, there's a lot more to this than just designing a cool way to bring architecture to the masses.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

I think the uh with the S the Sketchhouse Builders Network, we know we've done over 800 projects in the last five years. So we've worked with hundreds of builders, and I've seen the good and the bad and the ugly. Um, we have a short list of builders who I would hire to build my own house. They're great communicators, they're great um project managers, uh, and they're also follow the sketch house logic of let's be fast and affordable. Let's serve homeowners. I'm looking for I'm a I'm a I'm a servant myself. Uh, so I look for builders that have that same mentality. Uh the trusted toolbox is that actually. I mean, it's the you guys serve homeowners, great service, fast, and it's affordable and great communication. And that's um, that's the kind of partnership that we're always looking for. Uh, that because we serve homeowners. We want to make sure that you're getting a you guys need to get a room.

SPEAKER_05 47:40

Hey, easy, easy. Hey, I get a little plug, huh? I get a little plug.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

You deserve the as they say today.

SPEAKER_05 47:47

You get some flowers.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

I agree 100%.

SPEAKER_05 47:49

All right, Chris has great communication. I know we're coming to the end of the pod. Um, so Richard, let's get this plugged out there because I said Renaissance.

SPEAKER_03 47:55

He gave me the the the time is winding up in the middle of his accolades of you. You you I thought you would have given me the uh stretch stretch.

SPEAKER_05 48:02

More accolades, more hey, stop, stop, stop, please, stop more, stop, stop. No, you can't. Okay, a little more. Please, okay, a little more. Stop. Okay, a little more. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Sorry, I didn't hear that.

SPEAKER_05 48:14

Oh, the ego is not stroked enough. Okay, thank you. Okay, very much. No, but guys, so uh Taylor Workshop, Sketchhouse Architects, Sketchhouse AI.

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Sketchhouse AI.com. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

It's because that's why I was struggling with uh putting this in.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

There's two different websites.

SPEAKER_05 48:32

There's a new website. He built it. Check this out. What? My Renaissance ding man just said, Hey, I'm gonna go build my own website. And I think I can do better than any other AI tool out there that can render an idea that you have for your house. So he says, I'm gonna build my own website. He does it in a hundred hours. The best part though is he looks at me and goes, Hey, Chris, it's really easy. I'm like, Do you realize you're talking to a guy who just literally two days ago put a nail right through his finger? I used the hand clamp, shot the gun, and there it went. Just dinged it right off. I just missed. It's all right, it's good. Don't worry. Uh that's not like the first one. That's many years of that. My job is on the ground. It's that number two. So uh yeah. And my back is still. Oh, it's the middle finger, people. The hand clamp, the middle finger seems to be. That thing, I and I have so go back. It's a good day when I get two. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's it's a warm hug, is one of my friends says. When Chris says F you, he goes, it's just like a warm hug. It is. Which is he goes, it just means that you really care about me. He's been three. You really don't. No, nope. I agree. Uh, so going back to it, let's talk about the business you got, get everybody out there, let's find out how to find you.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

Sketchhouse sketch house spelled sketch h-a-us sketchhouse.com. It's a German spelling of sketchhouse, and there's a reason. There's there's some poetry behind it. You're kind of cool. It's this it's the school of bauhaus. Their motto was start from zero. And that's exactly our mission with Sketchhouse. Let's start from zero, let's redefine the profession of architecture for the homeowner. Let's be easy approachable. The turbotax of architecture, if you will. What uh urgent care did to the medical world, what uh turbotax did for CPAs and LegalZoom did for law. We want Sketchhouse is for the this profession of architecture. Make it easy, approachable. Opens the door of the profession. Everybody now has an architect. Um, sketchhouse.com, and uh we'd love to serve all your homeowners and call trust and toolbox. Quick question. Just call the trust. Thank you. Just residential? Sketchhouse is residential. Taylor Workshop is commercial. All right.

SPEAKER_05 50:41

Okay. So back up only in Atlanta right now.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

We're in, I'm glad you asked. We're Atlanta. We have operations in Texas, uh, uh Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Illinois, and licensed in Florida. We just have opened up a brick and mortar in Jacksonville, which will serve Tallahassee, Jacksonville, all the coastal regions. So somebody outside of those areas can they still use the 100%. Okay. Uh we are doing a project in um Bennebunk, uh Kennebornport. That's it. Kennebunkport, Maine.

SPEAKER_05 51:09

Um, so or anybody that starts with a B ends with USH.

unknown 51:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

I like what I do with that. Uh it's like a mile away from his compound.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

No shit. Yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

So the whole the whole country. In fact, we have a project in Portugal. Uh, it's just anywhere in the world, but uh, we're licensed.

SPEAKER_05 51:26

All right, that's not fair.

SPEAKER_01 51:27

Yeah, back to public button.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

He did it. This has been awesome. Richard Taylor, so glad you came back on this or came to this podcast. Thanks. Uh we go

Where To Find SketchHouse And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_05 51:36

applause. Everybody, as they say now today, the kids say, give everybody your flowers. Give them some flowers, man. This has been a great episode. If you can learn something about your business, gotta think outside the box, man. You're like, hey, I'm an architect. Why should I listen to this? Because he just took a business and just radicalized it and made it happen. You can do that too. We can all do this, man. I'll tell you what, business is hard, but you can make it easy. No, you can't. It's still hard. You just gotta stick to the blocking attack and make it happen. That's why we give this stuff to you. I didn't have to go to the library. You all you gotta do is listen to my podcast, baby. Come on, the small business safari. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your kids. You know what? I think we're family friendly. You know, if they can't handle an F-bomb, then they're not around. All right, let's go. We gotta make some money, Alan. I gotta get out of here because I got some sales shit to do. Let's get the fuck out of here. Gotta go. Cheers, everybody. Good Lord. Oh, God.

SPEAKER_04 52:28

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world small business number two. Until next time, make it breaking.