Ten-Year Anniversary Series: What's Coming in 2020 and Beyond
In 2019 Craig celebrated the ten year anniversary of his dream job leading Craig O’Connell Architecture. Photo by Melissa McArdle.
It’s a new year, new decade, and the last blog post of our Ten-Year Anniversary Series. Read the origin story here, Craig’s design-build approach here, and his design favorites here.
2019 was a big year for Craig, and amidst all the busy-ness, he described it as ’incredibly supportive’.
“I’ve thoughtfully grown my team and feel really well-supported by them,” he says. ” I gained more traction on the business side of things so now I am able to focus on different aspects. I’m placing more of an emphasis on finding inspiration, familiarizing myself with technological advances in the field and on creative pursuits as well as marketing, improving my website and getting my work out to more people.”
Within the last two years, Craig went from a one-man show to three: he is now working with two architects, Alexandra Barrett and Ryan Brown.
“Alex is instrumental in the efficiency for my San Francisco projects since I live in Woodacre (a bit of a drive for those unfamiliar). “She’s a great architect and is my ’on the ground’ person who can go to site visits and move things forward at the building department, for example. Ryan has been with me for nearly two years and is incredibly tech-savvy – his last position was at a big firm and he’s really helped take things to the next level with projects in Revit (architecture software)."
With critical support from his business coach, Adam Piandes, financial guidance from a savvy bookkeeper, and marketing help from his wife Jessica, and a neighbor who works with Jessica on online marketing, Craig can focus on higher-level activity to continue to grow his skills, elevate his brand and connect with more people.
2020: Less about Goals, More about Systems
Craig and Jessica in Costa Rica - January 2020. Photo by Pamela Coleman.
Like most business owners, Craig initially had lofty financial and project goals for 2020 – and then he traveled to Costa Rica with Jessica sans kids for a yoga retreat and a new year re-set.
“I started listening to this book on audio, Atomic Habits by James Clear, that was recommended by my coach Adam. In this book, Clear says you can have goals, but until you really work and fine-tune your systems both in your business and personal life, there won’t be much change. His theory is that your systems/habits feed into absolutely everything, and until your systems are solid, you should let go of your financial goals. This was a breakthrough for me, and I want to continue to focus on our work as a team so that everything is more seamless, efficient, and effortless as well as finding more of a work-life balance.“
To put this into context, Craig and his team created a template file on Revit so they can save a significant amount of time on drafting. And Craig is working with his team to continue to refine internal systems for more efficiency so they can spend more time producing creative, high-level design. He’ll also be focusing on different marketing avenues on various social media platforms.
In terms of his personal habits, Craig wants to make Yoga a bigger priority in his life and continue to meditate daily (he likes HeadSpace), go on daily walks around his woodsy neighborhood, and journal.
"Yoga has been in my life for a long time and I realized I wasn’t practicing enough last year, so I am committed to being more consistent in 2020. I’m also doing more self-care activities like acupuncture and body work—hashtag midlife,” he laughs.
Residential and Beyond
Craig and his team created this rendering as part of their design process for the Calistoga fire rebuild project, a modern farmhouse featuring sustainable design.
In this new decade, Craig also wants to diversify by working on other types of projects beyond residential.
“I love designing homes and I love helping people improve their living environments, and I’d also like to broaden my projects. I’ve designed a yoga studio in the past and really enjoyed that; I can see us doing anything from a tasting room to a school. And as I’ve been really inspired working on the Calistoga fire rebuild project, that is green, energy-efficient and almost totally off-the-grid, I want to continue to bring those elements into all my projects. Designing something completely off-the-grid would be very cool.”
To follow along with what Craig is up to, be sure to follow our Instagram page at craigoconnellarchitecture.