Episode 15: Marsha Faulkner: Classical Design in a Digital Era

When Marsha Faulkner agreed to serve as President of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art's Florida Chapter, she thought she was stewarding a thriving organization. Instead, she discovered she'd be rebuilding it from the ground up—while continuing to run her interior design firm, Studio M.

In this episode, Marsha shares what it's like to implement an organization's first-ever budget, transition from a single-city chapter to a statewide network spanning 7+ locations, and hire two new staff positions while maintaining programming excellence. She reveals the "ham sandwich" problem—eight years of valuable recorded content sitting unused while seeking sustainable revenue—and how she's building systems to unlock that archive.

We explore how classical design principles apply to climate-resilient coastal architecture in Florida, the unexpected synergies between running a design firm and leading a nonprofit, and why materials science and traditional aesthetics aren't at odds. Marsha also discusses the transatlantic differences in approaching classical design, from sourcing craftspeople to preservation attitudes, and shares her vision for ICAA as a potential international craft knowledge network.

The conversation gets personal as Marsha reflects on discovering her own capacity—learning she can do far more than she thought possible through focus, delegation, and time management. She credits Navy SEAL David Goggins' philosophy: when you think you're at your breaking point, you're probably not.

Whether you're leading an organization through unexpected challenges, balancing multiple professional roles, or thinking about how timeless design principles address modern problems, this episode offers both practical wisdom and inspiration.

Guest: Marsha Faulkner, Principal of Studio M Interior Design & President, ICAA Florida Chapter

Find Marsha:

Studio M Interior Design: www.StudioMInteriorDesign.net
ICAA Florida: www.ICAAFL.org
Instagram: @StudioMInteriorDesign, @MarshaFaulkner, @ICAAFloridaChapter


Now, Near, and the Future examines business, culture, and innovation through three temporal lenses—NOW (current state), NEAR (3-5 years), and FUTURE (15-20 years). Hosted by Quinn Harrington (Jacksonville) and Naila Mir (London), the podcast features leaders navigating transformation across industries.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or YouTube. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn @nownearfuture or visit nownearfuture.com.

Transcript

Quinn (00:04.553)
Welcome to Now, Mir, and the Future with Nyla Mir and Quinn Harrington. A podcast that's part crystal ball, part microscope, and part rocket ship.

Quinn (00:29.683)
Welcome to Now and You're in the Future. I'm Quinn Harrington.

Naila (00:32.913)
and I'm Naila Muir. Today we're talking about what happens when you think about signing up to lead the thriving organization and discover you're actually rebuilding one from the ground up.

Quinn (00:47.509)
Our guest is Marcia Faulkner, a longtime client and dear friend of mine, and also principal of Studio M Interior Design here in Jacksonville. And she's serving an unprecedented third year as president of the ICAA Florida Chapter. Marcia, when you took on this role, did you know you'd be creating the organization's first ever budget?

Marsha (01:09.358)
No, Quinn, I did not. Well, first, thank you for having me. This is such a treat for me.

to be a guest on your podcast. I'm a huge fan and I have worked with Quinn for a very long time and I love everything you guys do. So I did not realize that that was going to be the case. I sort of thought that it was going to look a lot differently than it has turned out looking, but it is very rewarding, challenging. It's keeping me on my toes. There's a great team around me. So it has definitely taken on, you know, a different, looks very different than what

Quinn (01:21.19)
Aw, thanks.

Marsha (01:47.95)
I thought it was going to be when I signed up. So often the case, yes.

Quinn (01:51.317)
That is so often the case.

Naila (01:57.015)
Excellent. So we have three different segments now, near and the future. So I'm going to start with what's happening now. So you're in your third year as chapter president, which

Marsha (02:09.386)
I actually, I'm actually serving my second year right now. I did agree to take on an unprecedented third year. It's usually a two year active role as president and one year as a immediate past president to serve sort of as an advisory and to keep that historical context of, what happened the previous couple of years going. So, but I did agree to take on a third year and that was because we did find ourselves in the middle of sort of a rebuild.

Naila (02:12.964)
Okay, second year.

Naila (02:39.631)
Right and so you're going into your, you've got two years unprecedented to have a third year and you became a director, the chapter director because the previous one retired after seven years is it?

Marsha (02:40.3)
So yes, I'm right in middle.

Marsha (02:49.075)
That's correct.

Marsha (02:56.392)
So yes, so she did. had a chapter director for seven years and then she found herself needing to step down from her role just because of personal issues and family. She needed to take care of her family business. And so she did. She left our little group back over the summer and she kind of agreed to stay on and help as needed. We then found ourselves in a place where we needed to hire a new chapter director and we ensued that undertaking.

I think in July, we looked at lots of different resumes and we had a lot of interest in that position. At the same time, when we looked at the group as the totality of the group and what we were trying to do and how it had grown to the place that it had, we realized that we probably needed to take part of that role and separate it into a second position. And so we actually did that and then

hired both of those people at the same time. Their start dates were October and then that ensued training. And here we are 90 days later in the thick of it. It's kind of like drinking from a fire hose on some days. As we went through, you know, when you have somebody that's holds a position for a long time and I would say seven years is a long time. There's just things that are feel like they're sort of organically happening. And then when you

Quinn (04:11.027)
Yeah, for sure.

Naila (04:24.945)
Mm-hmm.

Marsha (04:26.082)
try to change over you realize no there's you know passwords and workarounds and all these other things that need to be now consolidated and so piece by piece we've been looking at each part of that organization and restructuring it into a more of a seamless platform for all of our committees and all of our

volunteers, our staff, and then our board of course.

Naila (04:57.435)
So you've jumped.

Quinn (04:57.491)
And for our guests who aren't familiar with ICAA, just tell us briefly what is the organization and what does it do?

Marsha (05:03.598)
Sure. The Institute for Classical Architecture and Art is what the acronym stands for. We're the Florida chapter. The main chapter is in New York and there are, I believe, 15 chapters across the country. Our goal is education for classical design and principles of classical design. It's just the education of that. It's something that isn't taught a lot in architectural schools.

specific schools that their main focus is classical architecture. However, as a broad course of study, it's not widely taught. we just saw, you know, a group of small individuals in New York back in, I think, the 80s were hanging out in their apartment and they were like, we need a group to represent how we feel about design. And they put together what is now the ICAA and it just feels a need.

So that's kind of what we do. We're an education-based nonprofit organization.

Naila (06:10.213)
That is interesting. I think we've got a lot more to talk about because I want to talk about classical designs, especially when I'm sitting in London and what does that look like based in America? But is it right that you also are running another business, Studio So you're running two kind of businesses. How do you even manage? How does that even work in your world?

Quinn (06:10.485)
Excellent.

Marsha (06:26.146)
Yes.

Marsha (06:32.084)
So it's getting better.

Naila (06:34.659)
Yeah.

Marsha (06:35.118)
It, yeah, so there was a moment when our previous chapter director stepped down and we didn't have a new chapter director that things ramped up and it was a little hectic for me over the summer. For me and for the entire executive committee of our organization, we all had to just step in and fill that role, which we did. It was a lot. We finally did put into place a new chapter director. And I feel like after the 30, the 90 days that we've trained and sort of gotten her up to speed.

I feel like things are starting to settle down now. And so really it just comes down to time management and that's something, you know, I think we all struggle with that a little bit and how do you balance, you know, your work day with your personal life? How do you not overdo it? You know, making time for the things that matter. So it's just time management. you know, dedicate before Studio hours, after Studio and weekend hours to the Institute for Classical

architecture and art and then during the week, during the days, I try to be here and present for my clients, my design clients and my Yes. Yes.

Naila (07:44.689)
I understand that. Being a new mom, have my own business and I'm still trying to balance. I'm not there yet, getting there.

Marsha (07:52.95)
Yes. Yes.

Quinn (07:54.494)
And you also have your own nonprofit initiatives, Naila, so yeah.

Naila (07:57.346)
my God, that too. It's in education. It's a UK based mainly to raise funds to support education in South Asia. So I'm Pakistani. So going back to my roots and helping education over there, as we know, education is key for development and everything else. So yeah, I understand this whole thing and I'm still trying to balance. I might come to you for learning some tips.

Marsha (07:58.497)
gosh, what do you do? See, I didn't know that.

Marsha (08:16.695)
It is.

Marsha (08:23.08)
You know, one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors is Three Cups of Tea by John Crackauer. Have you ever read that?

Naila (08:33.222)
but it's going down on my notes.

Marsha (08:35.054)
Okay, well I believe he was in Pakistan and the three cups of tea was, is a, I guess a practice of doing business. When you're in some of the outlying little towns or little communities, you always have three cups of tea before you discuss business. And so it was him, it's a, you know, it's a autobiography and it was him going in trying to help build a school. And it's a great book.

Naila (09:03.709)
I will. And that is and that is crazy because, know, before 12 noon, I have three cups of tea. Yes, I will check it out. I do. Yeah, I will check it out. Quinn, I know you're waiting to ask for a question.

Marsha (09:04.847)
He's a great writer, so you should check that out. It's old now, but it's great.

Marsha (09:14.318)
Do you? See? There you go. So it's true. Yeah.

Marsha (09:25.852)
I think I lost her. She'll be back. It's London.

Quinn (09:27.701)
She'll be back.

Quinn (09:31.305)
Yeah, you know, internet is spotty.

Marsha (09:34.89)
It is. It is. I was working with my clients in Diamond Head, Oahu this week, and we obviously are doing things over Zoom, and we had those moments too. I'd be in the middle of presenting something and the screen would freeze. And so, you know, I noticed some of the things we're going to talk about are technology. And so here we are. This is where we are today, everyone. You know, and we all just figure it out and she'll be back in a minute.

Quinn (09:49.98)
boy.

Quinn (09:58.824)
Indeed. Okay.

Quinn (10:04.372)
No big deal.

Marsha (10:05.474)
No, it's not a big deal.

Marsha (10:19.566)
Well, while we're pausing and waiting, do you all shoot this episode all the way through and I guess then edit it later? Okay, very good. How long? Okay, very good.

Quinn (10:29.318)
And by we, I mean Rachel does that now. So yeah, I passed the torch on that. We had all of season one and.

Marsha (10:35.788)
I love that. pass a lot of torches these days too. should have said, actually, when Nala asked how to balance, I should have said delegate because I have had to delegate a lot. Okay. Yeah, we need, yeah, absolutely. Delegate, surround yourself with competent people and delegate. And then get out of your own way. That's the hardest part really. Remind me to talk about that,

Quinn (10:42.89)
Yeah. Well, you still have a chance if you. Yeah, I like that.

Quinn (10:54.922)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn (10:58.783)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Marsha (11:04.951)
Ahem.

Quinn (11:06.422)
Pap, are you getting any messages from Naila?

Marsha (11:11.16)
There is a chat going, there's four messages in it.

Marsha (11:21.848)
Yeah, it is. It is.

Quinn (11:22.667)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn (11:45.718)
gonna flip away here for a second. She's sending me an email or.

Marsha (11:50.934)
Have you guys been busy?

Quinn (11:54.166)
Uh, yeah, I was down in Orlando for a Nielsen conference and got to hang out with some friends, made some new ones. Had a pretty wild opening night party with like four or five hundred people.

Marsha (12:01.102)
Marsha (12:12.61)
Wow, they knew how to party, huh?

Quinn (12:13.398)
Yeah. Oh, they do. Yeah. You know, people from all over the world, know, China, South America, everywhere. So it was pretty cool.

Marsha (12:24.312)
That's awesome.

Quinn (12:27.574)
and they put up one of the videos I created. I didn't know they were gonna use it for the conference, they put up one of my videos up there on the big giant screen, so that was pretty cool.

Marsha (12:40.922)
that's awesome.

Naila (12:43.044)
Sorry, I don't know what happened. We've had rain and my wifi went, so I'm now on my phone data. Let's see if this stays okay. What did I miss?

Quinn (12:52.37)
Okay. Nothing. We just kind of paused.

Marsha (12:55.778)
We passed.

Naila (12:56.918)
Alright, okay, so sorry.

Marsha (12:59.656)
No, don't worry. We laughed about how this episode's going to touch on digital age technology and you disappeared. this is where we're at.

Quinn (13:08.18)
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm.

Naila (13:08.432)
I caught that

Quinn (13:12.16)
So during the break, we talked a little bit about, Marcia talked a little bit about the key to managing is delegating and getting out of your own way. So Marcia, if you'd like to expand on that a little bit, we'd love to hear your thoughts about how you approach that.

Marsha (13:24.536)
Yes.

Naila (13:26.788)
Yes.

Marsha (13:27.818)
Sure.

Sure, when Nala asked a minute ago, how do I manage both businesses, one of the key things that I did forget to mention was delegating.

And getting out of my own way and the delegating was the first step putting good people around me on both teams Hiring with the ICA was definitely important, but I also have a very strong team here at studio. I'm right now It's probably the strongest team I've ever had which is allowing me this time Yeah, and so just saying hey, I need help with this I mean it's not easy for somebody who's kind of done it all by myself for so long to ask for help

Quinn (13:59.702)
That's great.

Marsha (14:10.544)
So that was the first step and I'm not good, I'm not great at it, but I'm learning. Um, and so I, you know, I ask for help and then getting out of my own way, that's recognizing that even though they're not doing it the way that I would do it, it doesn't mean that it's wrong. doesn't mean that they need me to come rushing in and change things and recognizing that really that's not how you build relationships with people. Nobody wants to be micromanaged like that. So.

Naila (14:40.11)
Mm-hmm.

Marsha (14:40.464)
That's probably been the biggest challenge for me is just recognizing when I need to be quiet and let other people take the reins. And so that is a work in progress. I'd love to say that I've mastered it and I'm, you know, just kicking butt everywhere I go, but I still, there are still times where, you know, a deadline's approaching panic sets in and I feel like I need to jump in. so holding myself back from doing that and remembering that we're a team and saying, okay, how do

we get ourselves where we need to be? What do we need? What are the next steps? Because we have exactly five minutes or whatever the case might be. But so I'm getting better. I hope that by the time I retire, that I'll be perfect. But who knows? It's a journey. Life is a windy road. Yeah.

Quinn (15:16.288)
Yeah.

Quinn (15:23.796)
Yeah. You will have mastered that challenge. So under your watch, you've also created the Teofilo Victoria Lecture Series. Did I pronounce that right?

Naila (15:29.306)
you

Marsha (15:39.831)
Yes, you did, Teofilo Victoria Lecture Series. Well done. I did not create it in full disclosure. It was created by Rafael Portanendo and a few others on our board. And that was in response to Teofilo Victoria. He was one of our early presidents of our Florida chapter and also integral in really growing the chapter. He recognized that our main headquarters should be Palm Beach, which is really kind of, I

Quinn (15:45.684)
Yeah, it's under your tenure.

Marsha (16:09.814)
the epicenter of classical design for the state of Florida. Addison Meisner of course lived and did a lot of work there and sort of set the tone for what we kind of know as this sort of Florida vernacular Mediterranean style. So when Mr. Victoria came on and as our president he said you know we really need to be based out of Palm Beach let's set up an office here so he did that. When he did that is when we really saw growth with our chapter. We started

Naila (16:19.536)
Thank

Marsha (16:39.664)
started getting a lot of new members. We started being able to raise more money to hold more events. And it just kind of grew from there. He was actually the one who brought our first chapter director on. He said, you know, it's great that you guys in Jacksonville got this chapter started and it's great that you've had somebody helping you sort of on the side part time, but it's time to grow up and get serious. And so let's hire someone. So he was integral in doing that. And he just really started a lot of the

practices that we still hold dear today. He started the Addison Meisner Awards program and that's our annual, largest annual fundraiser. It's where people, designers, architects, landscape architects can submit work, contractors can submit work, even a layperson could potentially submit a project that they've worked on for a design award and we hold that dinner and awards

ceremony annually in the spring. So he started that. We're now on our 14th annual Addison Meisner Awards. That's coming up April, I want to say it's the 17th, think, Saturday. And it's at the Biltmore in Coral Gables. We finally outgrew Palm Beach and had to make a move to a little bigger space. So we selected the Biltmore as a classical building.

Quinn (17:58.853)
wow, that's awesome.

Was he a famous architect or?

Marsha (18:04.83)
Yes, so Professor Victoria was a professor at the University of Miami for 40 years and also, yes, also owned his own design practice, architectural design practice with his wife Maria down in Coral Gables.

Quinn (18:12.144)
wow.

Quinn (18:23.358)
any famous properties, atees, that people would know about.

Marsha (18:26.54)
You know, famous, no, probably not famous, I wouldn't say, but certainly beautiful work. And they did do some multifamily. So there are projects that you could drive around down in Miami and Palm Beach in those South Florida areas and see their work. And it is, you know, it's very timeless and beautiful.

Quinn (18:29.994)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Quinn (18:48.16)
You do a lot of work down in the South Florida, right?

Marsha (18:51.564)
Yes, I have done some work down there. I'm starting to do more.

Quinn (18:53.663)
Anything recent?

Anything recent?

Marsha (18:58.73)
We just finished up a condo in a high-rise down in Coconut Grove, which is my favorite part of Miami, and had that photographed. so hopefully we'll be rolling those pictures out soon. And now, yeah, and now we're, I've got a couple other things that are in the works, but nothing completed yet.

Quinn (19:20.0)
Yeah, your product cycle just takes a long time.

Marsha (19:24.3)
It does. We become family members.

Quinn (19:27.357)
Yeah.

Marsha (19:28.75)
It's funny because I was telling you over the break about Diamond Head Oahu. It's a house I'm working on with some clients there and I'm helping them, you know, with the planning and furniture and everything finishes. And, you know, in the process you do, you get to know people so well. I, you know, kind of doing the furniture and I'm like, okay, I think I'd like this room and this is where I want to sit to have my coffee. And they just joke right along. That's perfect. That'll be Marsha's chair. I mean, it's, you know, and that's kind of, it's

what happens, you know, we get to know each other very, well over the course of the years it takes to complete these custom projects. We don't rush. There's no rushing. Everything is thoughtful.

Quinn (20:00.212)
I love that. I love that.

Naila (20:10.0)
So in your role with ICCA, has that made you a better designer or has your design background helped you as an organizational leader?

Marsha (20:23.97)
You know, I think it's a little bit of both, but I do believe that my design aesthetic has gotten stronger just with the influence of the people that I've been around and the courses that I'm taking. It's also reignited a fire in me that, you know, I love to hand draw and I love to do watercolor and I love to just spend time sketching. And that is at the core of the ICAA. so attending those events and helping create those events and then just even

with just watching the events unfold. It's very inspiring and you can't help but come back to the studio and, you know, think about something you saw and something you spent two hours drawing and think, gosh, how do I take what I just saw and bring that into my current work? And so it happens organically. I couldn't even pinpoint exactly, you know, a specific instance where it happened. It just tends to become

Naila (21:13.232)
Hmm.

Marsha (21:23.824)
It goes into your psyche and it just comes out in your work in ways that I can't even pinpoint. So yes, I would say both, but definitely they've influenced me probably more than I've influenced them.

Naila (21:32.132)
Mm-hmm

Quinn (21:37.33)
and any unusual synergies between the people that you work with at ICAA that like benefit your clients.

Naila (21:37.762)
Okay.

Marsha (21:45.741)
You know, yes, because the organization right now our board is made up of architects, landscape architects and interior designers. So that's what I do for a living. So yes, we all speak the same language and you know, we learn from each other. And again, it's in organic ways. I, yeah, I mean, I think that that's nice. are looking in the future, hopefully to expand a little bit. Our organization is an organization of education

And so we do want to invite and include all walks of life. So even to, you know, down to a lay person who's not, you know, technically educated in design or architecture, but just has an affection for it or appreciation of it and wants to, you know, wants to belong. We, at one point in time, we had an art historian on our board. She had to step down, unfortunately, but we're looking, you know, in the future towards

Naila (22:33.071)
Hmm.

Marsha (22:45.584)
having artists, art historians, preservationists, anybody really, attorneys, who just loves classical architecture. So hopefully we can include everyone in what we're trying to do. It's really just to develop a love and a passion. But right now we're all in the same sort of boat, so we do speak the same language and there's definitely a synergy there for sure, to answer your question.

Quinn (23:07.808)
that.

Quinn (23:14.88)
Beautiful. Shall we go around the room?

Marsha (23:15.504)
question.

Naila (23:17.072)
Okay, shall we? Okay.

Quinn (23:20.946)
Around the Room.

Quinn (23:24.982)
So let's catch our breath and take a moment to recover from all that wonderful insight that we got. We do this thing called Around the Room, which is basically what has everybody been up to that doesn't involve rebuilding organizations or running design firms? Do you want to start, Naila?

Naila (23:46.906)
Well, other than my building my organization, which I will not touch upon because I have a growth plan, but Isa, my little daughter who's turning two, is my next little thing who keeps me busy. Yes, she's at this age of two and I'm now wondering whether she needs to be potty trained or not. I'm thinking about, you know, nurseries and we're going on a holiday. So that's the best thing happening right now. Finally going for a week somewhere.

Marsha (24:02.03)
you

Quinn (24:16.106)
that's wonderful. teaching her that not everything needs to go in her mouth.

Naila (24:21.194)
I that won't I told you logic she's not gonna understand I have to keep wiping her hands instead

Quinn (24:24.724)
Yes. Yeah.

Yes. Well, potty training is like

Once that happens, you have passed a major milestone in parenting. when you switch to pull-ups and not diapers. So I know, Marsha, you have nieces and nephews,

Naila (24:38.383)
Seriously. That's it. My next aim. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see.

Marsha (24:50.016)
I do. Well, I have two nephews. They are definitely potty trained. One is 33 and the other one is 29. If they're not potty trained, I'm apologizing to their wives right now. So sorry. It's not my fault.

Quinn (24:52.447)
huh.

Naila (24:55.889)
Ha

Quinn (25:01.59)
you

Quinn (25:05.59)
Me, I'm eagerly waiting on my passport renewal to arrive so I can book my flight to London. I'm hoping to be going over spring break in March to kick around London, hang out with Naila some, and we're gonna record an episode of our podcast together for the first time.

Naila (25:06.065)
you

Marsha (25:08.366)
you

Marsha (25:13.88)
Fantastic.

Naila (25:20.612)
Yay!

Naila (25:29.957)
Yes, live together. Yeah, quite excited.

Marsha (25:30.798)
Oh, that's fantastic. I love that. And just as a little sidebar, not to wrap my work back into things, but King Charles is the supporter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art. Please do. And tell him Marsha invites him to Florida. I'm sure he'll jump on a jet and come right over. But no, he is a supporter. He's a huge proponent for classical design and architecture.

Quinn (25:43.114)
Well, if I run into him, will tell him thank you on your behalf.

Yes. Yeah.

Naila (25:49.302)
wow, it makes sense.

Naila (25:55.889)
That makes...

Quinn (26:01.184)
Well, he does live in a pretty fancy palace and yeah. Have you ever been inside?

Naila (26:03.513)
Yes, which was what I was saying.

Marsha (26:04.654)
It's Mikey. He does. Have I been inside? I have not. No, I missed the invitation. So sorry. But I have stood outside of Buckingham Palace. So yes, I've been there.

Quinn (26:10.24)
Buckingham Palace? No. What about you, Nyala? Have you ever done a tour or anything?

Naila (26:13.733)
Yes.

Naila (26:17.799)
Naila (26:22.028)
I? Yes.

Quinn (26:25.396)
You have been inside Buckingham Palace?

Naila (26:28.558)
no. No! Are you talking to me? No. Can you hear me?

Marsha (26:28.855)
Nala, have you?

Marsha (26:32.94)
Yes.

Marsha (26:37.193)
we lost her.

Naila (26:37.487)
Yeah, no I haven't but I've been to the gardens because I was invited to a big tea party so that was exciting. I don't think I saw him though.

Quinn (26:40.981)
Okay.

Marsha (26:46.445)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Quinn (26:50.078)
No, I'm sure he's behind. I have been I, you know, I just saw the outside of it and, you know, the guards in the gardens are beautiful and I love the Victoria and Albert Museum. And there's just so much to look at and see while you're there. So I was only there for a couple of days and that's actually when I first met Nyla was doing a shoot for

Marsha (26:51.598)
How about you, Quinn? Have you been?

Quinn (27:19.094)
for Nielsen when back when she was working at Unilever and so flew to London sat down with her for 20 minutes interviewed her and then that was it and Didn't talk for like over 10 years So we reconnected on LinkedIn and she actually responded back to ask me if I if She wanted to get coffee and I was like, well, I'm in Florida. So that might be a challenge But we hit it off and now we have a podcast together

Marsha (27:33.284)
wow.

Naila (27:33.403)
Seriously, yeah

Marsha (27:45.9)
Not with this new technology.

Quinn (27:48.328)
Yeah, now we have a podcast together and-

Naila (27:49.041)
I'm

Quinn (27:53.152)
Things are good. What about you, Marcia? Anything on your plate that's

Naila (27:55.279)
Yeah, I'm glad you connected.

Marsha (27:59.095)
Yeah, I'm glad you guys connected too because this is a really fun podcast. I've enjoyed watching it.

Quinn (28:04.516)
thanks. Well, season two, this will this is third episode, I believe. We've got some great guests lined up, present company included. So we're really excited to to to get these out and share with our our viewers.

Marsha (28:23.618)
fun. Well, yes. So on my plate, I'm going to Japan on March 17th to see the cherry blossoms. Yes. So we have a huge tour through Kyoto, Tokyo and gosh, where else are we going? Several other little places. I'm very excited. I'm going with my girlfriends, Lisa Galinsky and Susan Doris. And so yeah, so we're going to go over there and just, you know, I've never been to any

Quinn (28:29.227)
wow.

Quinn (28:46.558)
Okay.

Marsha (28:53.552)
Asian countries. very excited to do that and looking forward to it. Starting to already think about wardrobe and all the things. So it's right around the corner.

Quinn (29:02.774)
I'll have to connect you up with my friends Jan and John here at Bioshe. John is Japanese and Jan has been learning Japanese and they go over there probably a couple times a year. So there'd be like a great resource to tap into to have an idea of what to do or what not to do.

Marsha (29:06.798)
Marsha (29:13.677)
Wow.

Marsha (29:18.349)
Okay.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

thank you. Please do. We've been, you know, it's funny, the minute you sign up to do something like that, suddenly, and we're going to talk about AI in a little while, but suddenly AI is listening. And so I'm getting, you know, ads and apps, download this app and you find out where you need to eat when you're in Tokyo. And so everything is, is more Asian based right now. It's really interesting. So we're excited. very excited. We have another call with our travel agent coming.

Quinn (29:52.758)
Cool.

Marsha (29:55.553)
up I think March 2nd which is my birthday. We're gonna have that call and that'll be our last planning call but we've got dinners set up. We're doing a Japanese tea ceremony. We're gonna go you know obviously see the cherry blossoms which is the reason for going. I will be there with my sketch pad and my watercolors and just eat the good food and see the sights and wander around. I'm just so excited.

Quinn (30:01.727)
What?

Naila (30:12.293)
That's it.

That's amazing.

Naila (30:19.845)
You're gonna love it.

Quinn (30:22.986)
Somebody else has a birthday on March 2nd.

Naila (30:23.023)
Yeah did you did you say your birthday's yeah my birthday's March 2nd yeah

Marsha (30:25.51)
Who?

Your birthday? No way. my God. Are you serious? I love that. I love it so much. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. Well, happy pre-birthday. Yes. I knew I liked you. One other thing I have to say. Hold on. I got to say one other thing.

Naila (30:37.166)
Yeah creative yeah Pisces are the creative ones hey that's why thank you that's good to know I'm connected

Quinn (30:49.45)
All right, on that note, let's properly introduce our guests. Go ahead. Yep.

Naila (30:50.348)
Hahaha!

Marsha (30:55.278)
We share a birthday with Dr. Seuss. There you go. All right, moving on. Dr. Seuss is March 2nd. Right? Sorry, Quinn, go ahead.

Naila (30:59.728)
Yeah

Quinn (31:01.142)
Three of the greatest of all time. Okay. To properly introduce our guest, Marcia Faulkner is the principal of Studio Interior Design, a Jacksonville based firm known for timeless classical design that honors architectural integrity, but she's also serving as president of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Arts Florida Chapter.

Naila (31:03.288)
Amazing.

Quinn (31:25.898)
What makes Marsha's story particularly compelling is that she took on the ICAA leadership role thinking that she was stewarding a thriving organization, which it is, only discovered that she needed to rebuild its operational foundation while maintaining programming excellence and managing statewide expansion. She's done all this while continuing to run Studio and serve clients across Florida, the Bahamas, Ohio. Aren't you doing one in Montana now?

Marsha (31:50.287)
Not Montana, a couple in Texas, Colorado. I think you're thinking of Colorado and Oahu. Hawaii, yes.

Quinn (31:54.548)
Wyoming. Aren't you doing. Wahoo. And that's Hawaii. We're going to have to expand the map here. Under her leadership ICA Florida has implemented its first formal budget created the TOFILO Victoria Lecture Series and expanded from serving a single city to seven plus locations statewide. She's also discovering that the organization is in her strategic planners words.

Naila (32:00.722)
Hawaii.

Marsha (32:04.494)
It's a global market.

Naila (32:04.924)
Hahaha

Quinn (32:22.824)
sitting on a ham sandwich while starving to death. Eight years of valuable content sitting unused. Marsha, where can people find you on you and Studio online?

Naila (32:30.034)
you

Marsha (32:34.734)
www.StudioMInteriorDesign.net

Quinn (32:40.625)
And how about Instagram?

Marsha (32:42.7)
Marsha Faulkner, I think it's Marsha Faulkner ID, interior design. I did something like that.

Quinn (32:49.206)
something like that. Anyhow, just go in and do a search for Marsha Faulkner on Instagram. She's also on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Marsha (32:54.37)
Jacksonville, Florida Studio It'll come up.

Yes, all the places, all the platforms, not Twitter or X or whatever it's called now. Not there. Just stay away from one of them. That'll take my entire free time.

Naila (33:04.72)
Yeah, same.

Quinn (33:13.558)
Since I.

took over and monopolized the last segment. Naila, I'll let you lead this.

Naila (33:22.794)
okay, so we're shifting to the near future and we have to go to the future, are we not?

Quinn (33:27.178)
near future hold on near yes

Naila (33:32.368)
We are at the near future, which is the next three to five years. Marsha, your strategic planner told you that ICCA Florida is sitting on a hand sandwich starving to death, which Quinn just said. We are guarding your content archive. That's such a vivid image. That's why I was laughing. What does that actually mean?

Marsha (33:54.056)
Well...

I mean, it's funny that we're focusing on that one thing. She said a lot of other brilliant things as well. That just kind of resonated with us because we realized when she said that just how much, you know, work has been done and documented. And we just haven't had the structure to roll that out. And so that's what she really meant. It's recognizing, you know, you get into the grind every

Naila (33:58.546)
Yeah

Marsha (34:24.968)
I feel like this happens to me at Studio as well where you're just working and you're working and you're trying to make sure you're meeting every deadline and making sure that all of your clients are feeling that they're getting your full attention and your very best efforts. know, the builders always, you know, need drawings and clarification and site meetings and the architectural teams need your drawings and your insight. And so you're trying to keep all these things going and it just feels like a grind. And so one thing that the

strategic plan did for us and I will go ahead and correlate this with Studio For me, it's when we actually step back and photograph a finished project. So the strategic plan and photography for me at my job, those two things made us sit back and go, wow, we have done a lot here, you know? And it's on the backs of all of the people that came before us. you know, some of the things, it's so sweet.

and kind of you, Quinn, to keep crediting me with all of these things. And yes, you know, we're overseeing those things and implementing them and making sure that they roll out smoothly now. But a lot of the work is done on the backs of the people who came before me. And it's just taking a minute, putting a pin in all of the things that are going on and saying, we've done a lot of good things here, and now how do we organize and get those things rolled out? So for us, that, for me, when she said that in our strategic plan, our facilitator said that,

Naila (35:48.498)
Hmm.

Marsha (35:54.561)
It just made me and I believe our board go, wow, we really do have a lot. We're sitting on a gold mine here and it's time to figure out how to best utilize the things that we've done in the past. And that's what we're doing. And so it's taking shape. It is a slow process. It's like turning the Titanic. It takes a minute. We have no shortage of fantastic volunteers. mean, the people that I work with on the ICAA chapter board,

Quinn (36:06.646)
Yeah.

Marsha (36:24.514)
in the committees. They're the most incredible group of people I've ever met. Enthusiastic, smart, energetic, loyal.

They're just go-getters and they have great ideas and they make them happen. And so when you work with a group of powerhouses like that, it's not that we're short of ideas or energy. It's how do we organize it and best, you know, put it out into the universe. And so for us pumping the brakes and saying, okay, we just need a few, you know, months to get our ducks in a row. That's been what we've been trying to do. And it's also kind of difficult because we do have a group of just absolute go-getters.

Quinn (36:59.68)
Mm-hmm.

Marsha (37:04.496)
and nobody wants to pump the brakes. We all just want to keep going forward and doing great things. So that's, in my opinion, that's what she meant by that and that's, we're heeding that and looking forward now and our plan, our strategic plan is a rolling plan and it's a three to five year plan so nothing's gonna happen overnight but certainly we have now goals to work for, you know, towards in the future.

Quinn (37:28.416)
So Claude, one of my favorite AI chatbots, has, yes, my friend Claude, has just rolled out this new feature called Cowork. And so it's like the first generation of what's called a Gentic AI, meaning that you can set a series of tasks and it will just run in the background and do stuff for you.

Naila (37:33.555)
friends.

Thank

Quinn (37:57.878)
Because you know when you enter a prompt and then you wait and then you enter a prompt and wait, it's not really designed to handle volume at scale, eight years worth of information. So that may be a tool that you could use to begin to organize this content, pull out the best stuff. There's also a new

tool inside of this video gen tool called LTX that does audio to video. So for example if your podcast is audio only or you want to generate video on top of audio it will do that for you. Probably one of the coolest things that you might consider doing is creating your own LLM which is a large language model.

And Google offers one called Notebook. And so what I did is I took all of the transcripts from Now, Near, and the Future and created a mini LLM based on that. So I could go in and ask questions like, you know, what were Marcia's key insights in episode eight? You what are the funniest moments that Naila shared over season one?

Naila (38:58.929)
Yes.

Quinn (39:24.982)
Who is the most engaging guest? and it doesn't matter whether it's you know 10 episodes or 100 or a thousand you're literally creating your own Large language model that you can assign a personality to you can provide instructions so that might be a way for you to be able to Organize this information in a way and use the latest AI tools to help you parse through you know

Marsha (39:43.448)
Wow.

Quinn (39:55.232)
hundreds, maybe thousands of individual documents.

Marsha (39:59.811)
That's really cool.

Naila (40:00.209)
Are you doing that? You know the challenge here. So AI with Quinn, the amount of times we talk every week, I spend a lot more time trying to prompt AI. Should I not just get someone who's better at prompting and doing it for me than doing it myself? The question to you, Quinn.

Quinn (40:08.171)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn (40:18.346)
Well, I certainly do. mean, especially in the video gen stuff. Pepper, our producer, you know, she's got 40 years of experience producing everything from feature films to national TV spots. She started to get into AI generation. And so we also work with one of our directors of photography who is a cinematographer and

understands how to speak the language. And what a lot of people do is they, a lot of people what they do is they use ChatGBT to help write prompts. So I know you're using it for specific purposes, but you know, yeah, I would try to get some help if you're feeling like

It's more than you want to take on.

Naila (41:22.588)
Yes.

Marsha (41:22.776)
Well, remember what we were saying earlier, surround yourself with a good team, delegate and get out of the way. Yeah. Look at me wrapping it back around.

Naila (41:28.264)
the art that's exactly it. Exactly. And that's the thing. Back to our topic. The art of delegation is on my list and I'm learning that. But I have a question for you, Marsha, about you touched upon volunteers and then you've got these super

Quinn (41:29.428)
Way to bring it back to the core conversation, Marcia. Our new co-host, Marcia Faulkner, is now going to steer us.

You

Marsha (41:49.517)
Yes.

Naila (41:51.378)
powerhouse volunteers. How do you keep them engaged? How do you keep them engaged? What does your engagement look like? Have you learnt anything new from them?

Marsha (41:53.186)
We really do.

Marsha (42:01.033)
gosh, every single solitary day. I think the best way that we've figured out how to keep people engaged is to let, you you invite people into the fold.

You invite them to come and attend meetings, attend phone calls, Zoom meetings. Of course, everybody's doing Google Meet and Teams and Zoom. We're all doing that now. So you invite them to sit in and you invite them to listen and you invite them to events. And eventually when people engage that way and just sort of stand back for a little while and see what you're doing, they start to develop a passion for something. And it's a call to arms. So every so often you just invite

them to lead something or host an event or engage themselves in a way that in an atmosphere that they are interested in. And I think when you let people pick the area that they feel like they can either add value or they have an interest in and you let them develop their programs, then that passion just comes out. And so then you find yourself having to rein it back in.

That's been, for us, we do not have, like I said, we do not have a problem with content generation, setting up events, the events that we do, we all hold ourselves to a very high standard and everybody.

Naila (43:14.558)
He

Marsha (43:27.678)
who, know, our group of volunteers all has agreed in a gentleman's agreement to uphold those standards with every single thing we do. So every print material, every, every event, every, you know, everything that we do has the ICAA fingerprints on it. And it's at a level that we're all very proud of. And so I think for volunteers to keep them engaged and interested, you can't micromanage. You have to be clear with what

Naila (43:36.382)
Hmm.

Marsha (43:57.505)
what we're trying to do. You have to have a schedule, a budget, and you have to let them do it. Let them plug in where they're interested and then embrace that. And obviously these things are shaped in our committees. Somebody will pitch an idea. Somebody else will layer onto that idea. And the next thing you know, it's rolling and it's coming together. And then from there we find, that's also how we raise sponsorship dollars is we find people who are not in the committee doing the work, but they want to also

Naila (44:01.32)
Hmm. Yeah.

Marsha (44:27.448)
participate and be a part and so maybe they have some dollars that they can you know donate to the cause and then they help us put these events together that way so we just bring people into the fold where there's an interest and a passion and that seems to be a formula that's worked for us.

Naila (44:42.632)
Yeah, growing the community. Quinn, I know we're at time, so we've got across the pond. It's time for that. Do you want to get into it?

Marsha (44:44.854)
Yes.

Quinn (44:52.95)
Time for Across the Pond. No, that was the wrong button.

Quinn (45:01.876)
I'll eventually get this right. Marcia, classical architecture and design has European roots. Italy, France, England, Spain. One thing I noticed when I was in Barcelona a couple years ago is you have all of the ancient, wonderful

Marsha (45:05.024)
It's only episode eight. You've got time.

Naila (45:09.78)
you

Marsha (45:13.784)
win.

Marsha (45:21.76)
Thank

Quinn (45:31.03)
designs, you know, are showcase the heritage of the architecture of that region. But there I noticed one thing that's different than America in the fact that you could have a building that was built in the 1700s and right next to it would be like a completely modern glass structure.

Sometimes I see even like traditional buildings with modern structures on top of them. Like they don't have that same sense of, you know, continuity from different parts of town. Like they don't seem to have a problem mixing it all together where in, say, for example, like Palm Beach, they have very, very specific standards, you know, for

for architecture, want to create like a seamless, continuous look and nothing can be out of place. Why do think there's a difference between the way Europeans view classical architecture versus here in the United States?

Marsha (46:53.442)
That is a multi-layered question. So I have a few responses probably to that. I think the obvious low-hanging fruit response would be that Europe is definitely centuries older than America. We're a young country. We're 250 years old and we are the children of Great Britain. And so a lot of our federal buildings and whatnot have taken on the classical look of what we

Naila (46:55.988)
you

Marsha (47:23.396)
brought with us over the pond, across the pond. See how I did that? I just did that again. So I think that's like one obvious thing, but the other thing I'd like to just touch on is...

Really, what we're trying to educate people on is not that you have to love a classical building with columns. It's the classical principles of creating space. And that's where you get into the design work. We're not the aesthetic police. We're not here to tell you that a modern structure can't be beautiful. It can if you're practicing the classical principles of putting that building together. So one thing that I want to say, when I see sort of

looking elements that are scabbed onto or attached to a more classical appointed building is, you the architects who are hired to do that are typically masterful architects who have studied classical principles of design and then they apply them to a modern aesthetic and that can be beautiful. And so we're even starting to see that you mentioned Palm Beach, you know, Palm Beach does have standards that they want to uphold and they're very strict about those standards.

But again, under the umbrella of what they're looking for, you can still go in with a little more modern look as long as you're applying proper proportions and materiality and there's rhythm and all kinds of different principles that when applied to a modern structure, those can feel good too. And it's just, all about a human scale and making a space that you're in feel...

like something you recognize and feel comfortable in. And when you practice good design principles when you're doing your work, any aesthetic can hold that same value. So we've seen a lot of modern buildings that are bad. They're just not done well. And in my opinion, and this is solely my opinion, but the reason for that is maybe those architects weren't taught classical principles when they were learning design.

Marsha (49:30.736)
But most of the great architects, know, Frank Gehry and, you know, ones that we've heard of, Frank Lloyd Wright, I mean, they studied classical principles of design before they figured out what their particular style was. And then they took what they learned and they developed their style.

It doesn't have to be, you know, Corinthian columns and dental molding and, you know, a freeze and all of the things. It doesn't have to be that necessarily. It could be something more modern with a cantilevered, you know, roof line or an extended scupper off the side of the building. don't know, whatever those elements are, as long as they work with the overall design, I think it can be successful no matter what the aesthetic is.

Naila (50:15.773)
Is that what you mean by classical principle? I'm not a designer. So I'm listening to classical principles, but I'm not, I don't understand what that means.

Marsha (50:18.35)
It's okay.

Marsha (50:23.022)
So we we try to employ things like there's a there's a human scale you've probably seen and see now I'm gonna forget oh Marsha you're gonna have to edit this part out Just edit that part out

The classical principles of design would be things like scale, rhythm, proportion. You're looking to, no matter what it is, you want to try to relate your designs to a human being. How does the human being relate? So when you're designing columns, there is a proportion of the column at the top and how that travels down to the bottom. And it's based on the height of the building and the width of the building and the spacing and all of the mathematical requirements that go into making something pleasing.

Naila (50:46.165)
Okay.

Naila (50:53.748)
Okay.

Marsha (51:10.0)
And so when you learn those things and you apply it to everything, it's not just the outside of a building, but I could be doing paneling and trims and moldings inside of one room and I'm still looking for those proportions. How does the crown relate to the height of the room and the width of the room and the base and all of those things come into play? So it's mathematics and then you look for rhythms and you look for harmony. And so those are things that are taught in classical

programs over the course of four to six years. So it's nothing we can get too deep into here, but just knowing that they exist and trying to learn about them and then apply them to your projects, that's what makes a room or a building feel pleasing. know, sometimes you go into a room and maybe the room is a 10 by 10 room and it's got a 14 foot ceiling and you just feel like you're in, you know, this huge volume of space and it echoes and it's not comfortable to be in that space and that's because the proportions are

Naila (51:45.279)
Hmm.

Naila (52:00.68)
Hmm.

Marsha (52:09.846)
of wax. it's just applying those ideas of how to put together space and how to decorate space to a project. And then you can make it look however you want it to look. It can be contemporary, can be modern, transitional, classical, traditional, all of the different things. God, I hope so. I fumbled at the beginning.

Naila (52:11.605)
Got it.

Naila (52:23.667)
That's helpful.

Naila (52:30.538)
That is helpful. Thank you. Yes, that is helpful. No, that was good. Thank you. Quinn, do you have a question or should I wrap up this segment?

Quinn (52:30.902)
pretty well said. I think you're a good representative of a a brand so...

Marsha (52:40.002)
The pressure is on. You're welcome.

Quinn (52:48.034)
no, I think we covered that well. You want to move to the future? All right, let me press the button.

Naila (52:52.829)
Yeah? Yes?

Naila (52:58.897)
it's me leading the session. so, Marsha, we usually say we've got a crystal ball. So take out the crystal ball and we're going to 15 to 20 years in the future. So classical design, preservation focused by nature, but you're implementing some of the most innovative organizational changes in ICAA Florida. How do you reconcile tradition with transformation?

Quinn (52:59.978)
That's you.

Marsha (53:30.77)
in the arc. I'm sorry, can you ask me that question one more time? I think I missed part of it.

Naila (53:34.357)
No, that's fine. And Quinn, jump in if you want to help me explain this a bit more. But we're looking at classical design, but you're also looking at innovation in your organizational changes when it comes to ICCA. So how do you either balance or marry them together between tradition, so classical design thinking and innovation and transformation and

Marsha (53:44.939)
Okay.

Naila (54:04.093)
all these technologies that are coming in place, what are you, you know, balancing?

Marsha (54:11.662)
So are you asking sort of how we see technology playing into our education of classical design? Is that what you're asking?

Quinn (54:19.924)
Well, yeah, but it's also kind of thinking about the traditions of classical art and architecture with innovation that's going to take place over the next 15 to 20 years. New materials, new building techniques, new codes, a changing client.

Naila (54:21.023)
Yeah.

Naila (54:37.056)
future.

Marsha (54:38.136)
Sure.

Quinn (54:47.936)
perspective of what clients want. How do you balance that? How do you maintain the core of classical architecture and

Marsha (55:00.014)
So I'm not sure if this is gonna answer your question properly, but when you were both speaking, I was thinking about what it looks like now and what it looked like in the past and where it's going in the future. And this is true of what I do for a living, but it's also true of life. We can't forget the past as we move into the future. We just can't. If we do, we're gonna have trouble.

And I think that's across the board. I mean, we're seeing the political climate, social climate, certainly what I do for a living, you know, we're seeing innovation and technology and advancements and changes everywhere. Socially, since COVID, people don't go out as much anymore. The social interaction is missing. And now I'm starting to see a swing where, you know, the younger generation is like, why don't we put our phones down and have a conversation over, you know, over a cup of tea at a table? And to them, that's innovative.

Naila (55:28.223)
Hmm.

Marsha (55:52.737)
To me, that's how I grew up. So I think it's important that we carry the past with us as we go into the future and we don't

Naila (55:58.582)
Hmm.

Marsha (56:00.663)
just put aside everything that we've learned to embrace the new. You have to integrate it. You have to, you know, make time for it. We can't ignore our elderly. You know, they have a lot to offer. You need to sit down and have a conversation and listen to what they have to say. If we ignore the past, we're going to find ourselves making the same mistakes in the future. And so I think it's a broader conversation than even just design. Certainly in my industry, there's all kinds of new tools of the trade that are

available to help us do our work and those are wonderful tools but at the same time you still need to know how to pick up a pencil and sketch what you see and spend time studying things from the past and regardless of again regardless of aesthetic if you don't particularly like the way the White House looks you don't like a federal building then don't go sit there and sketch that. If you prefer the Louvre and what I.M. Pei did with the pyramid

in the middle of the Louvre, go there and sketch that. mean, it's observing what's around you and remembering that it all came from somewhere and not discounting the importance of that as you move forward in the future with your work. So I think it's just, it's important for us to remember that in our daily lives as well as in our work for sure. hope that I'm able, whatever the foundation I'm working on now for the ICAA that I hope that that sets the groundwork

Naila (57:23.689)
I agree.

Marsha (57:30.577)
for us to be able to continue to embrace the past with passion and admiration as we move forward in the future with technology.

Naila (57:40.758)
Hmm.

Quinn (57:41.33)
Excellent. So I wanted to shift gears a little bit because I know that living in Florida and you doing a lot of work in Florida and the Caribbean and in the southeast, there's been changes to climate and that has affected coastal architecture. Florida faces unique challenges, sea level rise, hurricanes, extreme heat.

Naila (57:43.264)
That's it.

Marsha (58:04.653)
Yes.

Quinn (58:10.582)
How can classical design principles help address these modern challenges?

Marsha (58:16.066)
Well.

In terms of the principles, mean, they're there for aesthetic beauty as well as functionality. So I think just inherent into how we put together structures that's inherently going to help enhance us meet our current ecological challenges.

But we also, this is where technology I think plays a really great role in the sense that every time, sadly we learn from tragedy. So every time we have a big storm that comes in and is devastating, we do learn from that. We come out of it on the other side and we think how can we do it better and make sure this doesn't happen again and products change, they get better, materials get stronger. We learned from the 2024 hurricane.

season on the west coast of Florida that we really need to be moving back off the coast a little bit as the waters rise and come onto our land. We're figuring out that, hey, we're pretty close to the water line where it sits today and that's changing and this is what we're projecting is going to happen over the next 20, 30, 50 years. So we need to start stepping back now. And so we're figuring these things out as we move forward with the changes in the

weather and the changes in the world and we're figuring out new materials are always being developed and new ways of strengthening things and making things better. I think we're, know that our industry is an industry that is excited when we get presented new materials. All of the contractors that I work with and the architects that I work with are all very excited when they see something better come on the market. It's almost like we crave that. And so we're a very open

Marsha (01:00:08.528)
industry to doing new things and embracing new materials and new techniques. All of the contractors and architects I work with are great at staying abreast of everything that's coming onto the market and new ways of building. They stay educated and we all try to do that. So I think the good news is the building industry, at least in the state of Florida, is excited and ready for the future and our response time

for when tragedy strikes has come from taking way too long down to we're ready to go. So something happens, there's an immediate response, products start rolling out as fast as they can and we start embracing those things and learn as we move forward. So I think just staying educated and being aware is important.

Naila (01:00:59.499)
Mm.

Yeah, and helping maybe solve, you know, the problems and more secure architecture like in Pakistan. had an earthquake, a massive one that hit 10 million people. We started then building earthquake proof.

Marsha (01:01:16.642)
Oof.

Naila (01:01:20.619)
houses that Japan's been doing forever. They haven't cracked it for flood proof because we get flooded and the last big one we had was 33 million people affected. That's nearly as big as a country like Australia, but they haven't cracked it because it's not about the design, it's got other factors that involve. So you talked about the future. What is the future? What does ICCA Florida look like in 20 years? You've got all this wealth of craft knowledge, you've got the volunteers. What is going to be your big money?

Marsha (01:01:23.384)
Yes.

Naila (01:01:50.553)
milestone in the next, like what do see yourself as ICA in 20 years time?

Marsha (01:01:56.335)
gosh, an ICAA in 20 years. I mean, I'm hoping that we are three times as big as we are now and that we just have a huge following and that our programming is amazing. And I mean, maybe we can spread internationally. I mean, this is kind of fun. We have our jury weekend coming up next weekend in Palm Beach and we've invited a professional interior designer, a professional architect, and then also from London, Clive Alsla.

Naila (01:02:03.316)
Okay.

Marsha (01:02:26.248)
is coming and he's going to be one of three jurors that helps us pick our design winners. So, you know, and I mentioned King Charles earlier, he wrote a prologue to one of our programs at the national level. I have that on my library shelf. So I see this sort of international synergy coming together. Certainly, you know, we'd love to have designers, architects, builders from Pakistan come over and talk to us about the things you've learned. I mean, it's,

Naila (01:02:36.077)
Yep.

Naila (01:02:40.876)
Wow.

you

Marsha (01:02:56.118)
I would love to see this just have, you know, outreaching fingers and more of a global market and kind of, you know, we can all learn from each other, of course. And I think that would be wonderful if that was the case. I hope it doesn't change too much. I hope that we maintain our level of quality as we grow. Because sometimes I know that happens to people and I'd like us to, you know, hold on to what we hold dear and near to our hearts and keep that as our focus, but expand.

Naila (01:02:56.247)
That's good.

Naila (01:03:10.101)
Yeah.

Marsha (01:03:25.968)
and include more, you know, more laypeople and international and all of those things. think it would be super fun for the future.

Naila (01:03:34.027)
That sounds great. And get onto other podcasts, similar ones, maybe some in Pakistan and some in London and spread the word. Yes. All right, Quinn.

Marsha (01:03:40.878)
That'd be great. I would love that.

Quinn (01:03:48.054)
Shall we go to the wrap?

Naila (01:03:49.407)
Shall we?

Quinn (01:03:52.372)
Marcia, before we let you go, here's the meta question that brings everything full circle. What has this experience taught you about your own capacity that you didn't know you had before?

Marsha (01:04:05.656)
So that is such a great question. I follow a gentleman on Instagram, David Goggins, and I don't know if you all have heard of him, but he's kind of, he was an ex-Navy SEAL, among other things, and he's kind of an extremist. But his whole thing is, or his whole message is, we can do so much more than we think we can. You know, when you feel like you're at your breaking point, just take a deep breath, because I promise you,

or not. And I think that's what I've learned. I thought I was busy before, and then I took on this role and I was like, no, I wasn't that busy before. I can do these things. I think it's taught me that with focus, with delegation, with time management, with those principles we talked about earlier, you can do so much more than you thought you could. And that's, you know, that has been...

That has been interesting for me because I would have told you I did not have one free second before I became president of this chapter. And but I do. I did. I did have free seconds and I still have free seconds. Somehow in all of this, I've managed to figure out a nice life balance. And I think that ebbs and flows to I don't think we can expect that our lives are going to be perfectly balanced all of the time. You know, sometimes we're out of balance and we have to work to get

Naila (01:05:31.384)
Mm.

Marsha (01:05:35.3)
back to that, but you just have to keep your nose down and keep going and stay positive and just know that this too shall pass. This is my mother's favorite saying, this too shall pass, it's temporary. And we probably do have the capacity to do more than we think.

Quinn (01:05:50.046)
I love to watch your your journey over the last couple of years and taking on this this huge endeavor. Very proud of you as my friend for all that you have accomplished and will continue to accomplish now, near and the future. And speaking of that, that wraps up this episode of Now, Near and the Future. You can find us on all the usual platforms, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, and you can watch us on YouTube.

Marsha (01:06:04.206)
Thank you.

Quinn (01:06:18.634)
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at now near future or visit us at now near future.com.

Naila (01:06:27.958)
And if you're involved in a professional organization or thinking about classical design for your next project, this episode is definitely something you want to share.

Quinn (01:06:38.464)
Marsha, you want to remind us where we can find Studio learn about ICAA Florida, and connect with you?

Marsha (01:06:42.382)
Sure. You can find my website is www.StudioMInteriorDesign.net. You can also find the ICAA Florida chapter online at ICAAFL.org. And we are on Instagram as well. StudioMInteriorDesign, Marsha Faulkner and ICAA Florida chapter.

Naila (01:07:09.122)
Great. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and I definitely learnt a lot. And maybe when I walk across London, I'm going to understand a bit more about design and the fact that you're the same day as me as birthday, even better. But thank you for being here.

Marsha (01:07:18.552)
Thank

I know that's so great. I'll be thinking about you in a little bit. Thank you for having me.

Naila (01:07:26.921)
Yeah. Thank you.

Quinn (01:07:29.27)
Thank you. As always, stay curious and keep dreaming.

Naila (01:07:33.878)
and we'll see you in the future.

Naila (01:07:58.381)
Yeah.