805conversations

Designing for the Environment

"They have to build what's on the paper, except when they don't." Dennis on working with builders.

Dennis Thompson, Principal at Thompson-Naylor Architects in Santa Barbara, sat with Mark and Patrick to talk about his love of design and the environment. These two passions have driven him to become one of the most influential architects in the region. Dennis loves teaching and has been sharing his talents and mentoring for his entire career, most recently at the UCSB Bren Schoof of Environmental Science and Management.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

Why he's so fond of working with residential projects

The Role of Visualization in his field

Why constraints are so important

Mark talked about his favorite book, The Universal Traveler, as it was written by two Cal Poly Architecture professors in the 70's

His most fun house? One he designed after the devasting Tea Fire in Santa Barbara

Why planning for the environment is powerful and how he's been recognized for this focus by his peers with a Fellowship in the AIA for Green Building

Using natural light - taking advantage of south-facing windows and summer shade

His thread of work extends to religious and non-profit buildings and residential projects

Why a personal connection is so important when he embarks on a project

He's got an interesting take on the two types of clients he has. Listen to learn more

His favorite films that feature architects, including; It's Complicated with Satna Barbara's Steve Martin and his favorite youtube from Seinfeld's George Costanza, "I want to be an Architect."

He explains what a charette is and why it's vital to the process

What's LEED?

His future vision suggests that Homes will produce more energy than they use - Net Zero Energy as part of the California Progressive movement.

I confess to loving conversations with Architects. We had several in the early days of Wavefront, all from the Cornell School of Architecture. Fascinating people. If you'd like to hear another local architect's story, listen to Brian Cearnal's episode.

"The only constant is change."

Ray Estrada has been doing news in Santa Barbara for years. He sat with Mark and Patrick to talk about his new home base, the Impact Hub on State Street. His experience is now being focused on working with young startups and helping them navigate the world of getting attention from the local press.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

-His role at the Impact Hub working with their events - see updated list here

-His story about working for the BBC in Central America

-Working for the Santa Barbara News-Press 30 years ago

-What drives business in Santa Barbara? Tourism. Tech. And Real Estate

-Oh, yeah, he also recently had open heart surgery. And is looking great.

-Writing about the regional differences between North County and South County

-What's it like working at a Startup Weekend

-His advice for young entrepreneurs that are pitching a story: Why is this compelling? Is it a local thing? What's your business and what's its purpose?

-Why you don't want to say in the email subject line that it's a PRESS RELEASE

-His take on email subject lines.

Ray is a wealth of information. If you find yourself in downtown Santa Barbara, near the Impact Hub, drop him and let him make you a cup of coffee and pitch him your idea. Tell him you heard about him on 805conversations.

Vlad Vaiman, Ph.D. and professor at California Lutheran University talked with Mark and Patrick about his life starting in Russia, with many stops along the way to the 805. He's a noted authority on Talent Management, which is where we spent most of the conversation

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

-Leaving Russia at age 21 and moving to Wyoming to go to school

-Then Canada, Switzerland, Austria and Iceland

-His early education was as a Mechanical Engineer (Oil and Gas)

-How did he get attracted to the Business School

-What is the current state of HR (Human Relations) -it's the intersection of Organizational Dynamics and Organizational Behavior

-The biggest takeaway from this episode was a broad discussion about -Talent Management and an acronym that we should all memorize: -ADRM;

--- A = Attract

--- D = Develop

--- R = Retain

--- M = Motivate

Listen to the full episode and take notes if you manage any group of people. This episode was a Master Class in 20 minutes.

"Great Leaders Make Great Coaches"

-How to recognize and leverage High-Potential employees in the workforce

-He talked about his outside interests, Start-up Kids and it's impact

-He is also the Assistant Dean, working with Gerhard, who's been on the show before, and explained the MBA-EP program that attracts EP - Experienced Professionals to the University

As Mark mentioned on the show, he's keenly interested in Talent Management and wants to thank Vlad for helped unpack ADRM for him.

"Your website needs to be about me (the visitor), not you."

"Is authenticity marketing an oxymoron?"

Christopher Michael, the founder of PXLPod Web Strategy, has been on the show a couple of times. He updated Mark and Patrick on his current thinking about the web, and it's misperceptions. Christopher and Mark met in 2010 while working on TEDxAmericanRiviera. He's now the CTO for TEDxSantaBarbara and works in close collaboration with Mark on various projects, making sure Mark stays out of his own way when it comes to the web.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

What's the real job of your website?

-- To welcome the visitor and appeal to them

-- To provide the visitor with something with which they can RELATE

-- The site needs to communicate that you can heal the visitor's pain or problem

-- The visitor needs to feel inspired that they've found a real solution

-- The visitor needs to feel confident that you are the person who can successfully apply that solution

-- The site needs to build trust and relatedness

How important your website has become and how much has changed on the web

Why you should look at your site with new eyes

The Salesperson and the Conversation

... we talked a lot about the 'conversation' you start on the web with a prospect

What's the job of your business card? Your Facebook page? Your Twitter account?

We continued to talk about the Tone of Voice of the site - it's all about the visitor - not about YOU

Christopher's Common Mistakes people make when putting their web presence together

-- Not understanding the process of a sales pipeline

-- Failing to realize that people need to be assured. We all need to fee food about solving the problems that get in our way.

-- Expecting your site to sell for you.

-- Hiding behind WE - Gotta be REAL with people. It's endearing, and people nowadays can smell subterfuge a mile away.

-- Trust Trust Trust Trust. There's the filter with which everything needs to be processed. "Would I trust ME, given how I've presented myself on my site?"

Why Christophers' motto is, "Give a shit. No really."

Is authenticity marketing an oxymoron?

Parting advice: "The more myself I can be - the more like-minded customers I can attract."

We didn't have time to talk a lot about one of the people he looks to for inspiration. Take a look at Paul Jarvis for that.

We also will ask Christopher to come back and talk about his passion for photography. If you'd like to see Santa Barbara, and other locations from a different point of view, check out his site, Misha Media and his most current work on Facebook.

Eat like a local, shoot like a pro

I hate being a tourist. That's why this is not about the tour."

Tara Jones, the founder of Santa Barbara's Eat This, Shoot That, is a ball of energy and provided a stimulating and mouth watering conversation with Mark and Patrick. Her business and the journey to her dream venture is inspiring. She also writes for Noozhawk.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

-How she got started doing photo workshops

-How the recession in 2008 forced her to rethink everything and the journey she took to explore options

-Best quote about being a wedding photographer: "If you've been to 5 weddings, you've been to them all."

-She grew up in an entrepreneurial family - grandparents, and parents. Her Dad had seven businesses

-How going to Brooks Institute of Photography (RIP Brooks - such a loss)

-How a friend in Boston got her to think that Food Tours were in her future

-How following her passion turned into the right path to follow

-"What do I love to do? And how can I get paid to do it?"

-The story of her first tour

-Why the Funk Zone is perfect for her tours

-Loved this comment: "Goal for the tours? Stay off State Street." Why?

-How the SB restaurant scene is changing so fast, it's hard to keep up with

-Taking the Strength Finders Test (Marcus Buckingham rocks) to help figure out what she wanted to do - even though her parents paid for a very nice photography degree at Brooks

-Her Dragon? Staying on top of the pack and not paying attention to upstarts in her market

-How you sell people on coming back - We sell them a feeling. (Love that)

-She wrote a book too: 100 Things to do in Santa Barbara before you die. -These books are a franchise - if you want to write one in your town, click here. Cool idea

Thanks for joining us on the show Tara. We wish you the best and love that you're doing a great job showing the cruisers what SB is all about.

I'm a generalist to the extreme

"We accept the top 100% of applicants"

Geoff Green is the CEO of the SBCC Foundation. He talked with Mark and Patrick about his road to SBCC and how Social Justice has become a central theme in his life.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

-A bit of background on Santa Barbara City College (SBCC)

-How California has structured, it's higher ed program with the UC system, the CSU campuses, and the 113 Community Colleges

-There are 2.6M students in California's community colleges

-How working at Yosemite was a dream job, but not a long term viable place to work

-He comes from a family of teachers - mom, dad, aunts and his brother

-What about being a CEO intrigues him? Figuring out the Big Picture

-His passion, Education, and Access to it - which it turns out is a social justice issue

-His biggest surprise since coming to the Foundation? They have the same problems as smaller organizations

-What the SBCC Promise Program is all about and a brief history of the --Promise program in the United States

-Promise Programs promise free education - a big part of Bernie Sanders platform in his 2016 bid for President

-What are the keys to student success?

--- Being a full-time student vs. part time

--- Early enrollments (right out of high school)

--- Access to counselors and mentors

Geoff is one of the most networked people in Santa Barbara, and his work at the Fund for Santa Barbara was a perfect place for him to hone those skills that serve him well.

Photo credit: J.C. Corliss / Noozhawk

"Everyone wants green grass, not tall grass"

Bill Camarillo is the CEO of Agromin; a pioneer in the sustainable management of biodegradable resources. He talked with Mark and Patrick and presented a master class in soil and science.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

Learn what a waste stream is and how much we cavalierly waste resources

How he managed to get 4 degrees while being a Marine, including an MBA from University of Redlands

What are 'fugitive emissions' - hint: methane

Why 200 types of soil mixes are not enough

What is the perfect soil? It depends

The green grass/tall grass quote stems from a conversation related to a new produce, Turf Rescue. Amazing story behind its development. Pay attention if you have a lawn

How extremes create opportunities for innovation

"We chase carbon."

How his business is all about science

Book recommendation: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and what To Do About It. There's an excellent management lesson here for entrepreneurs which speaks to your role as Visionary, Technician or Organizer and why a balanced view of yourself is critical

How it works at Agromin - how they do their jobs and the challenges the business presents on a daily basis

How their business is Demand Pull vs. Supply Push

One thing he thinks about a lot is how to make the business go faster. Great explanation of how long it takes nature to break down organic waste vs. how technology can speed it up

Bill's a client of Tolman & Wiker Insurance, one of our sponsors, and he spoke at length about the challenges his business faces from a risk management point of view. The biggest problem is describing the business. Are they Mining, Waste, a Nursery? Or Agriculture? The answer is yes.

"We marry art and science together" how Bill describes what they do at Agromin

Love this quote at the end of the show

"We sell responsibility"

Patrick and I marveled at how fascinating Bill portrayed his business. He clearly loves what he does, and his passion is infectious.

THE ROLE OF THE PHILOSOPHER IN TECHNOLOGY

"Teaching is like planting a seed rather than moving a tree.”

Ryan Jenkins, Asst. Professor of Ethics at Cal Poly, helped Mark and Patrick explore the paths you can quickly travel down with talking about ethics and just about any business topic. Professor Jenkins and Mark met when he was on the TEDxCalPoly stage in 2016. That talk led to this fascinating conversation and got Mark to mention that “we ought to have more philosophers on the show” to Patrick.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

-Here’s a link to his TEDxTalk – “It depends on who you ask.”

-Ryan has written extensively, and one of the paths we traveled was about the moral implications of design decisions. We’ve had a lot of designers on the show, so you know we’re interested in the topic.

-Here’s a question for developers, is the product or service inadvertently emotionally damaging to someone else?

-One of his classes is The Philosophy of Technology – read what his students think of him here

-We talked about how he only gets 40 hours of time with the students and has a lot of content to fit into that small amount of time.

-We spent time dissecting his interest in Military Ethics. He’s written several papers on this topic.

-If you have not seen the movie Zero Days, about Stuxnet, stop reading now and bookmark it for later.

-IS the use of drones for killing right or wrong?

-The problem of Attribution – concealing the origin of the attack, a quick history lesson

-The forensics of cyber war

-Talking about Snowden, Chelsea Manning and the ethics of whistleblowing

-What’s the difference between Normative Ethics and Situational Ethics

-Technological determinism – detailed explanation here for those that want a deep-dive into this topic

-Book recommendation, from Mark: The Inevitable – Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, by Kevin Kelly

-How you would he suggest a child is before we have that first philosophical conversation? The answer? As soon as they can talk. This was an excellent ending for a thought-provoking show.

Show page http://805connect.com/the-nature-of-value-ryan-jenkins-professor/

It all starts with an idea

"Let's talk about uncertainty reduction."

Ken Sterling is the EVP at Big Speak and a lecturer at UCSB. He met with Mark and Patrick to talk about his passion for business, writing, teaching and helping others with it.

It all starts with an idea gets to the heart of what he is scouting talent for Big Speak, and planning his next article for INC Magazine.

This wide-ranging conversation covered a lot of ground including:

• The business of speaking and how to launch a career as a public speaker

• How to get listed at Big Speak (one of the nation's largest speakers bureau)

- Have a book

- Have footage of you speaking

- If you can, get on the TED stage (the ultimate credibility creator)

• Why writing a book is so important for a speaking career

• Building your professional speaking career - you'll need a website and a team

• Experience with the Fortune 1000 will help a lot

•What he loves about lecturing at UCSB's Technology Management Program (TMP)

• What it's like writing for INC Magazine and how it was much harder to land this non-paying job than he'd expected

Creativity and The Local Food System - Charles Barth by 805connect