It's been it's been an incredible start

to the podcast over the last year or so.

And as the year closes out, I really

feel like it was only appropriate or it

is only appropriate to take a moment and

reflect back on the lessons learned and the biggest takeaways from the conversations I've recorded and released

so far this year. Just to say this upfront, there are still several episodes recorded that haven't been released yet. They're coming. I know I'm behind. Go figure.

But hopefully early in the new year, everything will be headed out. But what I wanted to talk about today isn't a recap of individual episodes. It's more

about what surprised me. I knew that these conversations would be fun. I knew that they'd be informative. What I didn't quite expect was how often I'd leave a recording and immediately open my business journal that I keep and start writing down different things about the industry, different takeaways,

different things that challenged me to

think how I want my company to operate.

I wrote about relationships. I wrote

about where things feel broken and where

they feel misaligned. So, I want to walk through on this,

let's call it episode, a few of those

lessons, not tied to any specific guests or anything like that, but instead tied to the ideas themselves. Maybe the biggest one that has been

across almost every single episode without their without me intentionally

trying for that to be the case is that

trust has to be taught, not assumed.

One of the earliest realizations I had

is that trust is a much bigger issue in this industry than we like to admit. We

talk all about collaboration, this that and the other. We talk about team approaches, but you can't just say you

want a team approach and then expect clients to understand what that why that matters. In today's world, people are inundated with information. They're told to question everything. And unless we

take responsibility for educating them about why alignment matters, why trust across the entire team matters, then the system breaks down. And when trust isn't

clearly established, what happens is subtle but in my opinion very dangerous.

Teams start jockeying for position, for influence, for the ear of the client.

And that dynam dynamic doesn't serve

anyone. not the architect and not the

builder and certainly not the work itself. So knowing that trust doesn't just happen automatically anymore. We have to

acknowledge it has to be explained, modeled and reinforced.

And for me that means it's actually an industry obligation as a whole. Calm is

in control. Control feels calm. This one

really stuck with me at one point.

Someone said something that was incredibly simple but incredibly revealing. They were just describing a

project of theirs as kind of just being

easy. Not because it was small or not

complicated or anything like that, but because of simply who was involved. And

that made me reflect on how we show up as professionals. Everything about truly excellent work feels calm, not rushed, not reactive,

not chaotic. We've all been on those projects where there's countless fire drills and you seem to lose the plot. And so for me, calm doesn't mean passive. It means prepared. It means

thoughtful. It means bringing solutions instead of noise. Everyone in the process wants to feel in control. We

have to acknowledge that clients want it. Architects need it. Builders are expected to provide it. And in my opinion, when control is done

right, it feels calm.

That idea has specifically informed how I think about leadership, communication,

and responsibility for me within my own company. And that

this concept of calm isn't just like a personality trait. It's a professional discipline that takes practice.

Listening is a form of leadership.

This one challenged me personally.

There are

moments that I have to stop and ask myself whether I'm forcing details into a project because I want them to represent the company as a whole or the

next phase of what Fernhill will be or

because they are what the project itself actually needs. There are absolutely

projects where I'm being hired to assert a strong point of view to push to elevate and challenge assumptions. And

truthfully, I love that work.

We're good at it. But not every project

needs that. Sometimes the best outcome

comes from a listening more than asserting and from understanding what

the client actually wants, not what we

think they should want. Granted, we have

an obligation to make sure everyone always stays informed, >> but at the end of the day, it is

the client's project. And I think that

building dream homes is

less about imposing a vision and more about interpreting one correctly.

And in order to do so, speaking for myself, I think it requires humility. It

requires restraint. And it requires the

willingness to separate the ego from the service itself. Listening isn't passive.

It's how real problems get solved. And I have to remind myself of that.

Discipline design beats accidental creativity. One phrase that we use internally here is that the best projects are

disciplined design executed at the highest level. And when I say

disciplined, I don't mean

conservative. I mean intentional.

Creativity doesn't just happen by accident. In my opinion, great work

isn't random. The process has to be

intentional. The decisions have to be intentional. The execution has to be

intentional. And I think that's what modern building demands.

So when discipline and creativity work

together, I don't think that the result is rigid. I think a better word would actually be that it's refined. Another lesson,

alignment makes better work.

I've learned about myself that I do the best work when I'm seen as a creative partner, not just an executive.

When there's mutual respect between the

disciplines, you know, whether that's the architect, designer, trades people, engineers,

um, any outside consultant, everything from top to bottom, the work just gets better. Full stop.

But I don't think that alignment just happens by chance. Like I said before, it starts with the owner. It requires education and it

require everyone in the room to understand that role. That's part of why this podcast exists.

It's part of how we interact with clients. It's part of the broader effort to make the process clearer, healthier, and more honest. The biggest thing I've

learned about myself through all of this is that I want to be challenged.

Not just arbitrarily so but

>> I want to be challenged

to build really good things to solve complex problems to make budget smart

and disciplined decisions without defaulting to cheap or reactionary thinking. Sometimes the best solution for me is more efficient. Sometimes it's more expensive. Sometimes it's more architecturally ambitious. The point is

it's complicated and complexity requires intention and

intention requires trust. So the

overarching takeaway for me is this. I

set out with the goal of building the coolest [ __ ] out there. And something

I've learned is that

I think if I'm not doing that, at least in a capacity that feels honest to

myself, I think I'll just do something else. And it's not because I'm bored, not because it's hard, not because I think I'm better than or anything along those lines. But I just think that life is too

too [ __ ] short to do just average work. And

I'm thankful for this podcast because the this first year of it didn't teach

me how to be louder. It taught me how to

be clear and clarity about values,

standards, and intent. Is what builds

trust in construction, in collaboration,

and also potentially most importantly in the work itself. So thanks to everyone

who's been a part of this ride for the last year. There is a lot more to come. We have very very very big plans for

this upcoming year and I'm excited to

see where this journey takes us.