AEC Marketing for Principals

Hosted by Katie Cash and Judy Sparks

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104

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Aug 2026

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About the show

AEC Marketing for Principals is the go-to podcast for leaders in the commercial real estate, architecture, engineering, and construction industries who are passionate about advancing their firms through strategic marketing. Brought to you by Smartegies, the leading growth consulting firm for the built environment, this podcast dives deep into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by principals and senior leaders.

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August 12, 202642 min

How UNC Chapel Hill Thinks About Capital Projects, Design Partners, and the Future of Campus Planning

Higher education capital planning, university procurement, and what it really takes to win AEC work with a public university anchor this conversation with Howard Wertheimer, FAIA Emeritus, LEED AP, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities at UNC-Chapel Hill. Howard has spent more than two decades on both sides of the design and construction table. He built his career in private practice, including 21 years as a Partner and Principal at Lord, Aeck and Sargent, before moving into ownership and institutional leadership roles at Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt University, and now UNC-Chapel Hill, where he oversees planning, design, construction, and operations across nearly 20 million square feet of campus facilities. Host Katie Cash sits down with Howard to unpack how UNC's capital improvement plan comes together, from early pre-planning and budgeting through board approval, and what firms need to understand about the state's advertising and procurement process. Howard explains why attention to detail on proposals, from accurate references to correctly spelled university names, matters more than most firms realize, and how outdated reference contacts can quietly sink a submission. He also shares how UNC brought in an independent cost estimator to reconcile budgets on a CM at-risk delivery project and saved three million dollars on a single job, along with a look at the 950-acre former airport site UNC recently acquired for future campus development. Whether a firm is chasing its first project with a public university or working to strengthen a long-standing relationship, Howard's perspective from both sides of the table offers a clear, practical roadmap. It is a conversation packed with guidance for any AEC firm serious about growing its higher education practice. Key Takeaways Sweat the details. Typos, misspelled university names, and language copied from a previous proposal read as a lack of care and are one of the fastest ways to lose credibility with a selection committee. Keep references current and relevant. Outdated contact information undermines a proposal before anyone picks up the phone, and a reference tied to the wrong project type can do just as much damage. Local presence builds trust. For out-of-state firms pursuing public university work, having someone who can be on site within a day matters, especially on the construction side. Independent cost estimating pays for itself. Bringing in a third-party estimator to reconcile budgets between the design team and the CM helped UNC save three million dollars on a single project. Connect with Howard Wertheimer, FAIA Emeritus, LEED AP, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities, The University of NC at Chapel Hill https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-wertheimer-faia-emeritus-leed-ap-6711454/ Resources Mentioned in Episode: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, official website and facilities RFQ postings Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Howard's previous institution University of North Carolina System, Board of Governors UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees North Carolina State Construction Office (SCO) Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Georgia Tech Clough Undergraduate Commons, Georgia Tech Krone Engineered Biosystems Building, Georgia Tech, AIA COTE Top Ten award winner, LEED Platinum Howard Wertheimer's contact email: worthy@unc.edu Connect with Katie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/ https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us, and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

July 22, 2026Episode 10338 min

From Proposal Production to Strategy: How AEC Marketing Must Change

AI promised AEC marketing teams more speed. What it delivered was a mirror. Katie Cash sits down with Rachelle Ray, Head of AEC Marketing Innovation at OpenAsset, about what has genuinely changed in proposal production since AI entered the workflow, and what has simply been exposed rather than fixed. Rachelle brings a rare dual perspective, having led marketing and proposals inside an architecture firm before moving to the vendor side, and she is direct about where AI creates real value and where it introduces contractual risk that firms are not yet prepared to manage. Katie and Rachelle also discuss the guardrails firms need before rolling AI out firm-wide, from approved and prohibited language lists to structured training and review processes. Key Takeaways: Speeding up misaligned pursuits with AI does not save resources; it burns them faster. AI-generated proposal language can create real contractual risk without a review process in place. Firms that succeed with AI treat it as a firm-wide rollout, with training and guardrails, not a single toggle switch. The AEC marketers who thrive in the AI era will build data literacy, relationship intelligence, and systems thinking. Knowledge management, capturing what lives in people's heads, is becoming essential infrastructure for AI to work well. Connect with Rachelle Ray, Head of AEC Marketing Innovation, OpenAsset https://openasset.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelle-ray-marketing/ Connect with Katie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/ https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

June 24, 2026Episode 10249 min

The Evolving Role of AEC Marketing Inside JE Dunn’s Industrial Business Unit

AEC marketing is shifting from a reactive, proposal-driven function into a strategic discipline that drives demand. Justin Davidson of JE Dunn has helped lead that change from the inside. Katie Cash talks with Justin about how that shift played out inside one of the country's largest builders, where JE Dunn built a dedicated vertical market model for its fast-growing industrial and manufacturing practice. He shares why a strong digital footprint now wins work from clients who find the firm online, and how video content and AI-optimized search are reshaping the way owners choose their builders. Whether you support a single office or a national vertical, these lessons will help you move upstream and earn a seat at the strategy table. Listen to hear how JE Dunn turned marketing into a growth engine. AEC marketing construction marketing strategy marketing and business development alignment vertical market marketing video marketing for construction content generation industrial and manufacturing construction digital footprint for AEC firms AI optimized search JE Dunn Connect with Justin Davidson, Marketing Director - Advanced Facilities Group, JE Dunn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindavidson09/ JE Dunn: https://jedunn.com/ Connect with Katie Cash: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/ https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

June 3, 202636 min

How to Build a Data-Driven Growth System for AEC Firms with ProjectMark's COO, Noel Brady

If your firm is still waiting for the RFP to show up before getting serious about winning the work, you are already behind. Katie Cash chats with Noel Brady, Co-Founder and COO of ProjectMark, the CRM built specifically for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. They talk about what it actually takes to build a firm that grows with intention. Noel challenges the deeply ingrained belief that winning work is about personal relationships alone and makes the case that sustainable growth requires systematizing those relationships so they become a firm-wide asset rather than a liability that leaves when a key person leaves. From pipeline conversion ratios to the go/no-go decisions firms get wrong, this episode is an honest guide to replacing gut instinct with clean, actionable data. Noel and Katie also dig into the cultural and behavioral shifts that distinguish firms that merely talk about being data-driven from those that actually do it. If your firm is ready to stop reacting and start leading, this episode is the place to start. • AEC business development • CRM for AEC firms • architecture engineering construction marketing • AEC firm growth strategy • go/no-go decisions AEC • pipeline conversion ratio • data-driven AEC • seller doer AEC • project pursuit strategy • RFP strategy architecture firms Connect with Noel Brady, Co-Founder & COO, ProjectMark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noel-brady-mscsi-mrics-aaaa4547/ ProjectMark: https://www.projectmark.com/ Connect with Katie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/ https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

May 6, 2026Episode 10048 min

Inside The Modern AEC Marketer with Judy Sparks

The old AEC marketing playbook is no longer enough, and as the AEC truth teller, Judy Sparks is here to say what the industry has been too polite to admit out loud… the way you’ve always done it is quietly costing you work. Judy Sparks, Founder and CEO of Smartegies and Amazon bestselling author of "The Modern AEC Marketer," joins Katie Cash for a candid milestone conversation. This is episode 100, and they are celebrating with some long-overdue industry truths. The way you’ve always done work as an AEC firm has changed. And it’s time for your firm to catch up. There is a disconnect between how AEC leaders think about marketing and how marketing actually works. Judy talks about the gap, from treating the marketing funnel as a discipline rather than a diagram, to why top-of-funnel investment is where most firms are quietly losing ground. She also walks through a practical alignment exercise that will quickly reveal who your firm’s highest-value customers are and how to reach them. If you are ready to advocate for a seat at the leadership table, this episode will help create a clearer path for you to get there. Connect with Judy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judysparks/ Connect with Katie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/ https://smartegies.com/ Grab Judy Sparks’ new book, The Modern AEC Marketer: How the Next Generation Will Lead the Industry Forward: https://a.co/d/0hNpFy1G Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!

April 15, 2026Episode 9952 min

Why Podcasting Belongs in Your AEC Marketing Plan with Tom Schwab

Podcasting may be the most underutilized business development tool in the AEC industry right now. Tom Schwab, CEO and Founder of Interview Valet, is joining Katie Cash to explain why they believe podcast marketing deserves a real seat at the table in every AEC firm’s growth strategy. Podcasting goes far beyond content creation; it’s a strategic driver for relationships, reputation, and revenue. From podcast guesting to launching your own show, Katie and Tom discuss how architects, engineers, and construction professionals can build trust, deepen client relationships, and improve visibility in both traditional and AI-driven search. Podcast interviews can be used to influence decision makers, strengthen trust, and create evergreen marketing assets. Katie and Tom even break down the realistic expectations around time, ROI, and how to align podcasting efforts with real business outcomes. Podcast marketing is no longer just for consumer brands. For AEC firms ready to grow their reputation, strengthen relationships, and drive revenue, the microphone may be the most strategic tool in your marketing mix. Connect with Tom Schwab, CEO & Founder, Interview Valet : https://interviewvalet.com/aec Connect with Katie: https://smartegies.com/ Grab Judy Sparks’ new book, The Modern AEC Marketer: How the Next Generation Will Lead the Industry Forward: https://a.co/d/0hNpFy1G Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

March 24, 2026Episode 9838 min

Inside Gensler Atlanta: Leadership, Culture, and the Future of AEC

Good leadership in architecture has never been just about knowing how to design a building. Tory Winn, Principal and Co-Managing Director of Gensler's Atlanta office, has thought a lot about what it actually takes to lead well in this industry, and it comes down to people. How you build a team, how you show up for clients, how you bring someone along who's just starting out. In a conversation with Katie Cash, she talked about why Gensler still believes in getting people in the same room, what mentorship looks like when it's done right, and how firms can stay true to who they are even as the workforce changes around them. She also touched on AI, not as a threat to creativity, but as a tool that helps designers show clients what they're imagining before the words are even there. The throughline in everything she described? Leadership is less about having the answers and more about making sure the people around you feel like they're part of something. The firms that get that right, the ones that invest in culture, in connection, in the next generation, those are the ones doing the most interesting work. Connect with Tory Winn Principal & Co-Managing Director, Gensler Atlanta https://www.linkedin.com/in/tory-winn-ncidq-iida-97a087178/ https://www.gensler.com/ Connect with Katie: https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

March 17, 2026Episode 9739 min

Why Process Discipline Is the Hidden Advantage in Engineering Firms

Great engineering firms do not scale on talent alone. They scale on repeatable systems and a culture of accountability. Suzie Engel, PE, President and Owner of Motz Engineering, shares how she transformed her firm by building a process-driven culture that improves communication, protects quality, and creates better client experiences. By implementing structured systems, data tracking, and clear accountability across teams, Motz Engineering delivers consistent results while empowering engineers to focus on solving complex problems. Suzie also discusses how sharing lessons learned across departments strengthens leadership, improves future project outcomes, and helps engineering firms grow without chaos. For AEC leaders looking to raise standards while protecting team culture, this conversation offers practical insights you can apply immediately. Connect with Suzie Engel, PE President and Owner, Motz Engineering https://www.motzengineering.com/ Connect with Katie: https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

March 11, 2026Episode 9644 min

Aligning Executive Vision with Brand Strategy with Brasfield & Gorrie's Emily Cannon

Brand is no longer a support function in AEC. It is a strategic lever that shapes perception, culture, recruitment, and long-term growth. Katie Cash sits down with Emily Cannon, Vice President of Brand Strategy at Brasfield & Gorrie, to discuss what it really means to elevate the brand to the executive table. From aligning regional leadership to activating entertainment as a marketing currency, Emily shares how intentional collaboration between marketing and the C-suite is reshaping the firm’s internal culture and external presence. She also explores how brand influences retention, recruiting, pursuit strategy, and even proposal performance. If your firm is navigating growth, leadership transition, or brand evolution, this conversation offers practical insight on aligning strategy from the inside out and turning brand into a measurable driver of momentum. Topics discussed in this episode: AEC brand strategy Construction marketing strategy Brand alignment in AEC B2B brand strategy AEC leadership alignment Employer branding in construction Construction firm marketing Connect with Emily Cannon, CPSM Vice President of Brand Strategy at Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilycannon1/ Connect with Katie: https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.

March 4, 202644 min

Engineering Firm Leadership and Marketing Alignment with Barge Design Solutions

What does it take to lead a 70-year engineering firm into its next chapter of growth without losing the culture that built it? Katie Cash sits down with Carrie Stokes, President and CEO of Barge Design Solutions, and Erika Booker, Chief Marketing Officer of Barge Design Solutions, to unpack how leadership vision, marketing alignment, and data-driven strategy fuel sustainable growth in today’s competitive AEC market. From intentional CEO transition planning to integrating communications and sales enablement, they share how employee ownership, disciplined client selection, and CRM-backed business development decisions protect both culture and profitability. If you lead an engineering firm or support one through marketing and business development, this conversation offers a clear look at how alignment across the C-suite and marketing team drives measurable impact and long-term brand strength. Topics discussed in this episode: Engineering firm leadership AEC marketing strategy Strategic growth planning Employee-owned firm model CRM implementation in AEC Business development analytics Connect with Erika and Carrie, BARGE: https://bargedesign.com Connect with Katie: https://smartegies.com/ Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts: We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals . Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you. Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode! And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.