Successfully estimating your project can be the make or break moment that defines your company success. How do other folks do it? We talk about landscape estimating and billing on today's episode of the Green Meridian podcast. Our special guest is Jon Bryant with StickyBid, an application that you can upload to your phone or laptop that allows you to present clients with quick estimates and comprehensive billings in an easy to use and graphically rich format. You can find them at Stickybid.com.

We also talk about Zapier.com, an interface that helps you transfer data between different software systems - for example between CRM and estimating system. Service Autopilot, Jobber, Aspire and LMN are also discussed....and we ramble on about a few of the problems that contractors and designers face in estimating and billing projects with a few troublemakers - Bill Peregrine of Earthdance Organics, Will Anstey from Devonshire Landscapes and Rick Perry from Fallingwater Gardens.

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What if there was almost universal agreement on what constitutes good landscape design? What if we could break a "hidden code" that unlocks the secret to any successful landscape layout? It's fascinating to consider that human beings have a largely consistent sense of what constitutes beauty in art - most of us stand in awe of Michelangelo's talent and line up for hours to see the works in the Louvre or The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's safe to say that folks generally agree about traditional artistic beauty. (Sure there are dissenters and outliers, but let's ignore those folks for a moment). My point is to ask if there might be a "code", or a formula, that could define a sensibility of comfort and calm - beauty really - in a landscape? The studies I found can lead us to a fairly amazing understanding of how humans view our outdoor environments. This kind of knowledge might inform and underpin how we approach landscape design - and set the groundwork for some reliable rules that help us create beautifully functional outdoor spaces.

Have you ever looked closely and been struck by the beauty in a carefully hand fitted stone wall? Do you find certain kinds of garden layouts more appealing than others? Of course you do, and while we can't say that everyone completely agrees, there is a certain consistency in taste that arises generally - and importantly - throughout the world. When you think about it, there is a general throughline within which we agree on this. Thinking about this, I came across a number of studies in which survey research was done internationally - related to different landscape paintings and how different people experienced various outdoor views. And what struck me was that the result of this was an unexpected consistency, in which a singular view was selected by a disproportionately large number of those surveyed as being the most appealing.

Think about this. A singular type of view was consistently preferred. Why is this? This is a crucially important subject within the context of basic human understanding - and surprisingly I've never really heard of this subject spoken about much in the fields of landscape architecture or landscape design. We've all read about the 'rules of design' of course, from finding Fibonacci's spiraling ratio repeated in everything from a flowers corolla to the Crab nebula. We've wondered at the proportions of Leonardo's 'Vitruvian Man' - and some of us have studied architecture and the Palladian ratio of column sizing - and scratched our heads over what makes Frank Lloyd Wright's work so visually stunning - or Japanese gardens to be so contemplative and sublime. The incredible thing to consider here - is that studies will generally show that a disproportionate number of respondents will favorably choose a singular type of view over any other. Why is that? As someone who designs outdoor spaces, I feel like I generally know what I like, but the esoteric question here is, why do I like it? ... is it that I'm trained to find certain types of alignments more beautiful than others? Or is there something deeper and more instinctual at play? Let's talk about this in this - what defines universal beauty in the landscape...

References:

Jay Appleton and Prospect Refuge Theory: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494424001178

Kaplan & Kaplan's Preference Model: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204613002375

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Today's topic is Tough customers: Managing problematic landscape design/build clients.

Do you have occasional client problems?

Why is it important to try to try to anticipate client behavior?

You need to have an awareness about the real Impact client disfunction can have on your business.

A lack of understanding can create put stress on staff and resources, and cause time to be wasted

Without an ingrained and practiced understanding, you will suffer potential time and financial losses and your professional reputation may suffer...

But you can also make lemonade out of lemons - by correcting a problem before it becomes an issue.

It almost goes without saying that you could have absolutely screwed something up - and that can set a client off.

Let's assume for our purposes that this is NOT the issue - and that you will generally rise to the occasion, take responsibility and notify all parties immediately of any SNAFU. (Of course you will! That's why you are loved by all!)

This Episode of the Green Meridian podcast is brought to you by StickyBid.

Visit Stickybid.com

One of the best ways to get started or reach that next level with your business is through the first impression you make, and how "polished" your communications are. In just a few seconds, StickyBid can build your business an emotionally compelling "Sell Page" that you can pair with every estimate you send. StickyBid makes it easy and fast to build customized estimates that are branded with your logo. You can even create templated line items for specific designs, consultations, installations, care services, materials or extra charges - regardless of project type.

Stickybid helps landscaping designers, landscape installation and outdoor care professionals reel in more customers, close more jobs and manage client communications - using a really easy to use simplified CRM, estimating and invoicing system - basically an integrated tool that you can use right from your phone. Your invoices and automated followups are delivered to your clients - personalized and with your logo. Estimating and billing can be done while you are on the go - faster - and with an online payment system that quickly improves your company cash flow and records client work approvals. It’s a really innovative and simplified tool that lets you create polished estimates and visual “sell pages” in as little as a minute. It also has CRM features for managing leads, tracking customers, and creating and sending invoices right from the Stickybid platform.

Check it out. This is a subscription product, but it's being offered for FREE right now to GM podcast listeners and members of the Green Meridian Group.

You can get access at https://stickybid.com/ and sign up now at no charge. Use "StickyBid2T".

Just go to Stickybid.com and generate your new, branded sell page in less than a minute!

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I am taking a moment to restock my understanding of my career here, with a compilation of missed opportunities, unforced errors and last minute three-point shots that bounced from the rim. Mixed in like oil in a bucket of water - are some thoughts about Joan Didion's brilliant essay "On Self Respect". 

Joan Didion's essay: "On Self Respect"

https://sites.gatech.edu/alexburgin/on-self-respect-by-joan-didion/

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We are joined by some irrigation experts for this timely Summer discussion, from national irrigation product marketing managers, to some talented technicians - as we discuss the possibilities and pitfalls in marketing water saving irrigation products.

Our guests include: Mark Guthrie of Puget Sound's Saving Water Partnership, Bryce Carnehl, Specification Marketing Manager Hunter Industries, Sergio Lopez, Business Development Manager with Horizon Online, Trent Allen, manager of Mist'er Rain, a landscape irrigation installer in the Puget Sound region - and some surprise guests with strong opinions!

Check out Mark's handy irrigation "Weekly watering tip" email link here:

https://www.savingwater.org/lawn-garden/watering-irrigation/weekly-watering-schedules/

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From navigating the sudden onset of harsher Summer and Winter weather events, to articulating ideas about lessening the impact of diminishing habitat, landscape professionals need to not only relate the larger climate to what is happening on a specific property, but show and specify new and innovative solutions. From water saving ideas, to pollution limiting drainage solutions, we are in a unique position to contribute a fractional amount to reinforcing a positive change, through design solutions and educating consumers. In this episode, we speak with landscape designers on the East & West coasts about how they approach clients about this critical topic. Now more than ever, it's more important for green industry professionals to be able to speak clearly and convincingly about the effects climate change.

References:

1. ASLA Survey: Continued Increase in Demand for Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change1
2. American Society of Landscape Architects: Biodiversity & Climate Action 101 for Landscape Architects Webinar Series2
3. ASLA Survey: Significant Increase in Demand for Climate Planning and Smart Practices3
4. Landscape Design In Our Time of Climate Change4
5. Climate Change Mitigation and Landscape Architecture5

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On this episode we speak with Andrew tenBrink, the lead landscape architect for the Seattle’s Central Waterfront and Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion.

Working with the firm Field Operations, Andrew is responsible for the overall implementation of this incredibly complex and expansive urban renovation, that includes redirecting urban streets, installation of thousands of native plantings and reconstruction of the Seattle seawall, as well as two of the existing waterfront piers and the creation of a new ferry terminal. With an overall massive renovation to the Pike Place Market area and new interactive ecological displays that will allow the viewing of salmon habitat and the reestablishment of kelp forests, the Seattle Waterfront project is an incredible integration of the urban environment with the reestablishment of wildlife habitat and public education about natural ecologies.

(See a past episode where we talk to 3 Senior designers with Field Operations)

Before leading the design and project management of Seattle’s Central Waterfront and Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion, since 2010, Andrew managed the open space portion of Princeton University’s Lake Campus and the Princeton University Bridge project. His previous work includes the Qianhai’s Guiwan Water Finger Park in Shenzhen, China; Cleveland’s Public Square; and Tongva Park and Ken Genser Square in Santa Monica, CA.

Prior to joining Field Operations, Andrew was a designer with EDAW (now part of AECOM), where he worked on various high-profile projects, including Washington D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park, the National Museum of American History, the Moultrie Courthouse, Woodland Park, and the Potomac Yard Linear Park, as well as New York’s World Trade Center Streetscape. Andrew earned his Master of Landscape Architecture degree with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture degree with honors from Purdue University. 

Join us as we speak with Andrew and discuss these unprecedented scope and complexity of The Seattle’s Central Waterfront and Seattle Aquarium Ocean Pavilion projects!

Some additional links:

https://waterfrontseattle.org/construction/construction-overview

https://waterfrontseattle.org/waterfront-projects/alaskan-way

https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/09/30/seattle-waterfront-park-makeover-promises-new-greenway-native-plants-and-public-fishing/

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/in-waterfront-park-the-seeds-of-a-better-seattle/

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