The Shortlist Episode 63: Circles Conference Takeaways

As challenging as it may be to break away from your day-to-day responsibilities to attend a conference, there is tremendous value in being immersed in new ideas, best practices, and inspiring work.

But we don't have to limit ourselves and our learning to the AEC industry alone. In this episode, Middle of Six Marketing Strategist Grace Takehara shares her experience attending Circles, a national creative design conference. Listen in as Grace shares her key takeaways including how to foster your creative spark, unlocking your creative potential, and what truly matters in design efforts.

Grace underscores that the value can extend to your internal team or even your entire company by inspiring others to consider new approaches and attend conferences that push their knowledge further.

CPSM CEU Credits: 0.5 | Domain: 1

Podcast Transcript

Welcome to The Shortlist.

We're exploring all things AEC marketing to help your firm win The Shortlist.

I'm Wendy Simmons, and today we're talking with Grace Takehara to share some of her experiences and takeaways from a recent conference, and I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of inspiration sprinkled throughout this conversation.

Thanks for joining us, Grace.

Yeah, glad to be back.

Thanks, Wendy.

So the topic at hand is really focused on this one particular conference that you went to, but we're going to relate this a lot to how it can inspire you by learning new things and finding new sources of information, and also maybe just getting out of our AEC, dare I say rut, or mindset, or however you want to say, but we live in that world every day.

Grace, first of all, tell our listeners, what conference did you go to that was so inspiring that you want to share about today?

Yeah, so I went to a creative conference that is hosted in the good old state of Texas called Circles Conference.

And it's a conference intended for creatives out there, so folks that are working for creative agencies, in-house, you name it, but very creative focused.

How did you select the Circles Conference?

I selected it by doing some research, good old Googling, and just kind of vetting some suggestions out there for conferences that folks have attended and really responded well to information that's resonated, all of that.

We're in an area, being in the Pacific Northwest, where there's a lot of creative conferences up here, but I really was drawn to going somewhere else, too, out of our region and kind of totally immersing myself in something a little bit more central.

Maybe we're going to get perspectives more from the East Coast that way.

And yeah, I just wanted to get information, get perspectives from folks coming from more places than just the Northwest.

So yeah, I just wanted to expand my horizons and not just exploring outside of the AEC realm but also other ideas from throughout the country.

It's amazing what being in a different location even within the country can do for finding little tidbits and things you're like, oh my gosh, look at this.

They're even eating food, right?

That's a whole reason why people even travel.

It's just to have those different experiences that open your mind up to what you might want to take away from that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Would you consider yourself a conference pro or a newbie or somewhere in between?

What's your conference history?

I would say somewhere in between.

My conference experience has been either attending when I worked in-house and representing the firm at conferences.

And that was definitely more regional or within Washington state attending those conferences.

And since being at Middle of Six, I've had the awesome opportunity to attend PRC.

But, yeah, I wouldn't say that I am super experienced in conference attending, probably medium experience, yeah.

You know what it's like to walk into a room with a hundred people and not know anyone and figure your way around that and navigate, make some friends, and have some good conversations.

So you weren't totally maybe freaked out to go all the way to Texas and jump in that room with the Circles group?

No, not at all.

What size conference was Circles?

What was the attraction?

And maybe if you have any demographics, did they provide any of that info?

So it was between 300, 350 people.

We were, the conference is held in Grapevine, Texas, which is a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

And so they hosted it in this awesome theater called the Palace Arts Theater, a historical theater in downtown Grapevine.

And the theater was filled.

So if that gives you some context of the amount of people there, a really gorgeous, refurbished theater, which was really fun to be in, a very inspiring space.

But the demographic of folks there, I mean, I would say that it was a nice balance of folks from everywhere.

They asked us during the conference when we were all in the main theater at the Palace Arts Theater, you know, how many people is this year's first Circles Conference?

And I would say a majority of the folks there, it was their first Circles Conference.

So that was nice to be in the presence of newbies to the conference, but also to see that they're returning folks to.

A lot of folks were actually out of the Texas area, which I think they were surprised by, pleasantly surprised by, because the conference has kind of, you know, it's in what year?

I'm not sure the year that it's in now, but it's had several years under the belt.

And to kind of see it expand beyond Texas is really exciting for them.

I was in a workshop where they asked, you know, who traveled the furthest?

And I happened to be the one in that room that traveled the furthest, which was kind of fun.

But there were other folks in the room that were from Wisconsin, from, you know, again, the East Coast.

So I think that there was really great representation throughout the country there.

But yeah, that's kind of the lay of the land and scope of the folks that were there.

And I'm guessing you did not run into anyone you knew, randomly.

It wasn't just pleasant surprises, like, what are you doing here?

Yeah, no, no pleasant surprises or, you know, friends of SMPS there.

But it was fun to be able to represent the AEC industry, because there were folks there that I explained what we do and the folks that we work with.

And some of them, just through their agency work, had had experience working with AEC firms, but there was nobody there that was specifically focusing on that niche.

So kind of cool to bring that perspective.

Did you get any comments like, you do proposals all day, every day?

People are wondering, what, how is that possible?

Yeah, I think that, you know, there were firms there and even presenters there that have had to pursue work for themselves through the RFQ or RFP process.

So they had, you know, they've had to experience their new kind of the lingo and what that level of effort can look like.

But yeah, I think that they were pretty impressed that that's our primary, that's what a lot of our work is.

So yeah, it's kind of fun to share in that.

Fun, yeah.

Stand out kind of in an interesting way and get some questions and then even reflect on it ourselves whenever I get that question, like, why would you do that?

I'm like, that's a great question.

Let me think about this because it is really satisfying and fun, and there's a lot of good to it, even though when you're in the day to day of it, it can feel like we're doing the same thing all the time, right?

More resumes, more subconsultant quals, all that good stuff.

But I'm glad that you were able to step outside of AEC for a few days and be around some other creatives.

Did you have some perception in mind?

What was this going to be like?

What were you going to take away?

How many best friends were you going to make?

Or did you go into it just pretty open-minded?

What was your, you know, before you landed your mindset?

Yeah, before I landed, I mean, one, traveling by myself and visiting a new state to me of Texas was I was very excited to embrace that experience and, you know, really take that time to be self-reflective and just absorb all that I could.

So I was just, I was very excited for it.

There were, you know, before the conference, they had workshops, topics listed, sessions listed, and there were so many different topics and sessions that I was really excited to dig into and hear how folks and creative agencies are approaching topics that really resonated to the work that we do at Middle of Six, you know, particularly around client management.

But I think I was very blown away, pleasantly surprised that the content even going in, I thought, oh yeah, this will resonate, but leaving, I was like, there is so much goodness out there, and I learned so much.

And it was one of those experiences, and I think folks that have remember their first SMPS event and just feeling like, whoa, I felt very seen.

And there are other people experiencing very similar things to me.

It was like that, just kind of knowing that others that are doing incredible creative work that you see on like Behance or Pinterest when you're searching for like brand inspiration, that you're like, their work is so cool.

That's like dream work, but I look at a college, you know?

And to hear that these folks also struggle to sell their work, get the folks that are hiring them, their clients to be along for the ride with them, understand the value that they're bringing.

And them just simply saying, creative work is hard, was just really validating to know that, wow.

Like, sometimes when it can feel like difficult work, we're not alone in that.

And so that was really cool to be able to kind of hear how these people that have worked on incredible campaigns have worked with, you know, major, like, baseball clubs.

They've also had these conversations or had these experiences, and just hearing what they have navigated and the lessons that they've learned, I was just blown away by how I was able to kind of speak their language even more than I thought that I was going to going in.

That's amazing.

That's such a great welcoming community to come into and feel like, hey, these are my kind of people.

I belong here.

I'm a creative.

Yeah, exactly.

And yeah, that part about we're not alone in the challenges.

Yeah.

I also, I'll just add, I loved that there were several little elements of the conference that were just nice touches, like the fact that they had live screen printing at this conference for you to get your conference t-shirt.

And also they had, you know, like a letterpress workshop to kind of mix with the client management topics and all of that.

It just was really cool to be around that type of tactile creative experience and to see so many other people kind of nerdy now and being excited about that was really just reassuring and just fun to be around that.

Yeah, I saw some photos that you shared from the screen printing, and I didn't actually ever dig into that, but was it a setup where you could pick your shirt color, shirt size, and maybe like one of the designs from the conference, or like what was the, was there an interactive component to that live screen printing?

You weren't able to customize it very much, but it was made to order, and you saw them grab your shirt, print it, put it in the dryer, the heater that sets the screen printing ink, and it's just really fun.

Just something to go do between sessions and just to see people kind of watching the experience and talking with the printers there and talking about their experiences screen printing in the past.

It was just, it reminded me like I did that when I was at college, and so it was just like a nice reflective moment, a happy moment for me.

So yeah, that's cool.

It's a nice touch, like you said, little things sprinkled in that made it feel special and memorable.

And for people who are into that kind of thing, I mean, you are into printmaking as a person, so to see that live is cool.

Well, I know it's going to be hard to narrow this down to things that fit into the length of one podcast, but what were some of your favorite sessions or you don't even have to go with your favorite?

But I'd love to hear, top of mind, what was something that you heard or experienced that you just loved and want to share?

Yeah, it was a good sign that the first day, which was just entirely workshops, and they were a little bit smaller group format.

So about 50 people in a room, getting to listen to presenters and also ask questions a little bit more, you know, intimately versus just the more auditorium setting for the other two days.

But the first session that I attended, that was a workshop, was called Unlocking Your Creative Potential.

And it just really set the tone where I was like, I'm in the right place.

So the things that they covered in that workshop were the foundations of creative work and the importance of perspectives and systems and structures.

The workshop really emphasized the importance of processes and they got pretty nitty gritty about file organization and how that's important to, you know, going slow, doing the file organization, the processes implementing those allows you to go fast when you need to.

So it was just really fun to see other people in the room nerd out on processes and file organization.

And it was kind of funny.

The presenters was Charlie Howlett and then Michelle Evans from Schaeffer Advertising Company in Fort Worth, Texas.

They were like, we weren't sure if we were going to include this, if this was a little too nitty gritty for this group when we were like, no, we're so glad you presented it.

So that was really fun to just kind of hear about the importance of processes.

And that was definitely a through line throughout the conference was people talking about the importance of not only being a creative person, but also the importance of organization and making sure that there are systems in place.

So then you can work really efficiently when you're on that tight deadline.

So I thought that was really great.

They also walked through five questions that they train their staff to that allows them to share their ideas a little bit more effectively throughout the process of their clients.

And I think that it was very applicable both to Middle of Six work, but also in-house work and presenting ideas.

So those five questions, and there was a lot of information supporting them, but simply the five questions were, am I prepared?

What are we delivering?

Who's doing this?

How do I sell this work?

And what is the best outcome?

And I thought that those were just really five important things to kind of keep in the back of your mind when you go into, let's say, conversation with a principal or leadership about a campaign that you want to pitch, or you're updating them throughout the proposal process, for example.

I think that those are just really important things, questions to have in your back pocket, you know, throughout a process or a project.

So I thought that that was really interesting.

And again, first workshop of the conference, I was like, this, I'm in the right place.

Right.

You're like, I've already taken four sheets of notes in this first 45 minutes.

So that's a good sign.

Yep.

Well, that's great.

Any other takeaways from that session?

Ooh, there was a really, I wrote down a lot of quotes.

And let me just look at.

Quote us up.

I know.

Quote us up.

We love.

So related to the idea of processes and the importance of slowing down to go fast.

It was really interesting.

They had a quote from President Lincoln that said, Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.

So that was kind of the importance of the preparation to be able to put things in order, have systems in place that may seem like, what am I doing?

It's not important, but ultimately allows you to execute when the time hits.

So I was just like, oh, a-blinking.

That needs to be a mantra on every AEC marketing war room door or something.

Right?

Preparation, because we are running from one thing to the next, and we're really good at our jobs.

I'm speaking the royal we, all of us, everyone who's listening, we're trying our very best, and we are the subject matter experts for marketing in our firms.

But man, sometimes being good in that way means that you can skip some simple preparation steps because you can handle it, you can roll with it.

Yeah.

Good quote.

What else?

They also in this session talked about how the speed of expectation among clients is accelerating because AI, Canva, Adobe Express, there's a lot at our clients' fingertips that they feel like, oh, I can just whip something up, or I know how quickly that can be whipped up, you know, using something like AI or these tools.

And those tools are great.

They give us a great basis.

They give us a place to jump off of, but they were just talking about how that's something that they're noticing.

And I think that that resonates with what we're seeing, as well as maybe in-house experience too.

But just having an awareness to that and also thinking about what are the tools, conversations that you can have to, I guess, level those expectations in a fair way.

Since they started off with systems and that, you know, go slow to go fast, has there been anything that you've actually just implemented in the month or weeks or so since you've been at that conference?

Something that you said, yes, this needs to be part of my system now.

Yeah, I think that those five questions that I mentioned earlier about how to share your ideas were really, again, things that just, again, a simple checklist for myself, going into conversations with clients, going into, you know, even starting to develop or kick off a project.

I think that those are pretty foundational.

And so in other ways, I was maybe had a mental checklist, but these were very solid.

And I felt like this is kind of the five things that I need to remember going into a conversation or how I prepare for a conversation.

So that was an instantaneous thing.

I know that Middle of Six, we love processes.

And I think that there's ample opportunity for us to continue to hone and even use some of the tools that Charlie and Michelle shared regarding the different processes that they have at Schaeffer Advertising Company.

So I think that just kind of remembering, at least having the philosophy in the back of my head that separations and the preparation is kind of the key lesson learned beyond just the technical naming of files, that kind of thing.

So I like that question that they had, which is who's doing this.

That's one that even I ask myself on a weekly basis, who's got this?

We kind of all have it, but that doesn't mean that's what's going to happen.

You know, how do I say this properly?

We all have it and we trust each other for sure.

But you still need a leader, someone who's going to control that conversation and guide it in that way.

So that one resonated with me a lot, because it's often that pops into my mind.

Is that me?

Is that you?

Who's got this?

Well, that sounds like a really awesome session and a great way to start off the conference.

Highlights from other speakers, including anything that maybe was like how they spoke, how they facilitated and captured the room's attention.

What did you experience listening to the other creative speakers?

It was just inspiring to be in a room of folks that they're doing really cool work that you see and get inspired by unknowingly.

But there were several speakers that I took a lot away from.

But one in particular, his name is Chris Garcia.

He's the creative and owner of Major Level Creative.

And he was the creative director for the Houston Astros for several years.

And I know, you know, controversial team, but he did do some really cool work with them.

And one of which, which I was like, wow.

I mean, creative work intersects with so much, but he happened to be on part of the organization when they won a World Series.

And so he got to help design the Astros World Series ring, which I was like, that is very cool.

And he actually brought it with him and showed him, let people try it on, which I was like, that's some bling.

But anyways, he had this really great quote that I shot to the team while I was at the conference, because I was like, I think others, like Middle of Six team will be inspired by this.

But he had this quote, and it's from him, and it was, design is a formal response to a strategic question.

And I just, I think we noodle on that every day, all day, about there's a brief, there's something that we're trying to solve for or work towards.

And the design is really a part of getting there, you know?

And I just thought that that was a great way to sum it up, and also to kind of think about it from, you know, when you're working with clients or in-house leaders, I think it's ultimately reminding them that I'm bringing strategy in a way that's maybe articulated a little differently than what you would articulate it as, but ultimately being pointed out that North Star of strategy.

So I just loved that quote.

It just really resonated with me, and I thought it was a good thing to kind of have in the back of your mind as you're approaching these projects.

Yeah, it elevates our role and what we're bringing.

And as someone who has a background in graphic design, and I've talked about it on the podcast before, felt like I was the last person to touch a proposal or get the chance to try to find a creative way to address those strategic questions through design.

It can be really hard.

And we've heard, work your magic many, many times.

And that quote feels like the opposite, or it balances that perception that design can just happen at the last minute and we can work our magic and make it amazing.

And that it isn't as connected to the strategy from the start as it really is.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

And I really appreciated, though, like I think that all of us strive to put our best work out every day and also approach every project with, I'm giving it 110 percent.

But I appreciated that there were speakers there that were like, sometimes you just got to get the work out.

And I appreciated that, like, little bit of humility or just a little bit of maybe being vulnerable about it and being honest.

And so I think we're ultimately aiming for that, being strategic and putting out the most awesome work.

But also it's reassuring to hear that some of them were, most of them were like, yeah, you have those projects where you're just like, I got to get it done.

Got to get it done.

Got to get it done.

We need all the shades in our life, right?

The varieties, it can't, it's probably not healthy for everything to be 100 percent all the time.

That's just, that's a lot.

A little breathing room and to be creative, right?

To rethink things and take that pressure off.

Hey, we don't do as much trivia on our podcast anymore, but I'm just going to throw it out there, Grace, because I was able to Google this.

How much does a World Series ring cost?

Oh, it had a lot of gems and-

A lot of diamonds in there.

Diamonds and, oh, man, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Well, Google said, and now Google has everything, like giving you your AI version, so it has crawled all over the place.

But it says between, they estimate the 2024 World Series ring, which is already out now, of course, to be valued at 15,000 to 30,000, so lower.

And then some of them, like lower in the feed, were like 55,000.

So there's some range.

15,000 is affordable, right?

Yeah.

Well, anyways, that's cool that he had it, you know?

I would have tried that on for sure.

Yeah.

I guess maybe I needed to remember that a lot of people in an organization get a World Series ring if their organization wins.

So I'm like, I guess if all of the rings were $750,000, that would be insane times.

However many people qualify for that in their organization.

Dang.

Good trivia.

That was a little side conversation, but I always like a fact of the podcast every once in a while, even if it's not a fact because it's a range between $15,000 and $55,000.

Mixing it up.

Well, Grace, who else did you meet?

It sounds like there were lots of agency owners and people who were pretty high up, creative directors in their careers.

Did you shake any hands or get to talk to people that you're inspired by and now maybe are following their work?

Yes.

In one of the workshops.

So I attended a couple of workshops on the first day, and another workshop that I really enjoyed was presented by Focus Lab.

And they're a creative agency that works with a lot of tech firms pursuing venture capitalists.

And he wrote a book, and it was very interesting to hear him elaborate on that book.

It's a book called Conquering Your Rebrand.

And he talks about, again, walking clients through the process of going through a rebrand effort, going through a creative effort and how there will be pain points in it.

But really, our job as the consultant is to guide them through the process.

Maybe, you know, kind of resist some of their urges and be the professional in the room.

But I thought that his session was really honest, really approachable, and it was really neat to get to like shake his hand, get to talk with him and see him throughout the conference.

He was attending himself, so it was really cool to see that he was also absorbing the same information, same knowledge as what we all were getting.

Like everybody's learning, everybody's getting inspired by others.

So it was really cool to see somebody that is very accomplished also taking so much from this conference that he's attended in the past.

So that was great.

I didn't get a chance to talk with her, but a session that I was really surprised by how inspired I was by it was this muralist named Lisa Keane.

I think that's how we pronounce it.

It looks good to me.

I think you got it.

Okay, great.

But the session was called The Magical World of Murals.

And she is one of the creatives that has pursued RFQ, RFP work because she's pursued public mural projects.

And I thought that her session, one, she's just like a delightful human that she really believes that murals uplift people and she brings a lot of positivity into the world through these really vibrant works of art that she, with her talent, she brings into the world, which is awesome.

But one thing that she said about getting inspiration for murals and her creative projects was not to lose sight of your own, what resonates with you as a creative.

And so one of her quotes for kind of filtering out, if an idea is worth pursuing is, if it's not a hell yes, it's a no.

And I think that you can kind of get lost in creative work or even working on proposals, you're just trying to get it done, or there are a lot of opinions in the room.

And it's an effort that you need to compromise on multiple fronts and bring different perspectives together.

But I think that that was a really great reminder of that can be something that I'm filtering for.

Does this excite me?

Does this idea excite me as the creative professional, the marketing professional?

And trusting your gut, most likely if you are thinking that something's a hell yes, it's probably going to be a hell yes for others.

So why do you want to put out work that you're not excited about?

I think that it was just a really helpful reminder for me at least.

Yeah, that's good.

That's a very memorable type of quote.

It's the thing that will pop into your mind when you wonder why am I struggling with this?

Yeah, and maybe also help us to your earlier point that things can't be 100 percent all of the time.

Sometimes you just got to get the work done and to let go of that level of satisfaction.

Not everything's going to become that way for us.

But yeah, you probably heard and saw and had a lot of conversations with people who have arm wrestled with these topics for a long time, maybe their whole careers like Bill, Bill Kinney.

Is there anything else that's just you must share on this podcast?

Because I think we've heard a lot of good tips, a lot of good quotes.

I don't want to miss anything before we wrap up, any final takeaways from the Circles Conference?

Yeah.

One, if folks are feeling like they are interested in a creative conference, I would highly recommend looking into Circles Conference at the very, very least.

But I would also encourage people listening to maybe think about what are some of the areas that you need ignited?

You know, whether it is creative work, creative ideas, maybe pursuing and researching for yourself some creative conferences that you'd like to attend.

Or let's say you're like, oh, we're in Dell Tech world, we have CRM, we're not the masters or pros at this.

Is there a conference out there specific to that, that you can deepen your knowledge for?

You know, I think that we can be kind of creatures of habit and stick to maybe those annual conferences that we attend every year.

And those are great.

You know, you have community in that.

You also, there's always a great slate of topics and you always get new ideas at conferences.

But I would encourage those to maybe look at what's an area that you want to hone or you want to get deeper knowledge in, or you just want to see what are some best practices out there that maybe aren't tapped on or presented at those annual conferences that you already have listed for 2025.

So I thought that it was extremely valuable to go to a conference where there are other people from different industries that tackle very similar work.

But they have just different approaches, different best practices, different ideas.

And I took a lot back, not only just different softwares that are out there, but also just ideas and approaches.

So I just encourage others to maybe look beyond the mold.

Yeah.

Well, you've already inspired a lot of people at Middle of Six to even consider the Circles Conference as an option for them.

Your stories have been great and you brought back great visuals, and we've had the benefit of seeing some of the books and swag and all that stuff.

So it's been inspiring to our team too.

But I can say without a doubt that just because this was an AEC focus did not take away from the value it brought to you and our team all together.

So thank you for sharing that, Grace, putting in the effort after the conference to make the content shareable beyond just yourself.

Yeah.

We all appreciate that.

And now look at here, it's on the podcast.

It's going a little bit further into the world.

Love it.

Yeah.

That was a huge reason why I wanted to go to was, I can bring back these ideas to our community too.

That can maybe spur some ideas, maybe some different approaches, processes, all that stuff.

So sharing is caring.

That's a great quote to end on a podcast full of quotes.

Well, thank you so much for being here, Grace, and hopefully we'll get to talk about this topic and more on future podcasts.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

The Shortlist is presented by Middle of Six.

Our producer is Kyle Davis, with digital marketing support by the team at Middle of Six.

If you're looking for past episodes or more info, check out our podcast page at middleofsix.com/theshortlist.

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Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.

Until next time, keep on hustling.

The Shortlist is a podcast that explores all things AEC marketing. Hosted by Middle of Six Principal, Wendy Simmons, each episode features members of the MOS team, where we take a deep dive on a wide range of topics related to AEC marketing including: proposal development, strategy, team building, business development, branding, digital marketing, and more. You can listen to our full archive of episodes here.