Chris Martinez on Why an Internal Magazine Became a BD Tool

0:00 · Welcome to Deconstructing Growth and introducing Chris Martinez

Chris Martinez:0:00
So she came on with a lot of fresh energy and new perspective and the ability to write to the emotion and the the feeling of the human experience, which to me I think is a lost art with AI. I think with AI, it it tries to speak in a lot of factuals and and it speaks in a very straightforward and honestly the same cadence a lot of times what you get out of AI. And what she brought to the table was a fresh, like just very empathetic writing.

Perryn Olson:0:27
Hey Chris, welcome to the Deconstructing Growth Podcast. We are officially on episode two. So thanks for ha coming, man.

Chris Martinez:0:35
Well, thanks for the invitation. I'm excited to be on it. And wow, the second guest, man. I couldn't couldn't be more honored for sure.

Perryn Olson:0:42
Yeah, but you're definitely on the short list when I was thinking about doing this podcast. I was like, who who'd be who's got some expertise, who's got some stuff they can share, who's fun. and you kinda hit me with double whammy of love is like you've been an AEC marketer for a while. You and I've had we've shared a lot of stories. but we met through SMPS, the Society of Marketing Professional Services, more specifically the Southern Regional Conference that you've you chaired this this this year in twenty twenty six.

And then I've been on the the board for a while and kind of an advisor as a past chair of the conference. And you've also now switched roles to working at S and P S, which I'm super excited about. So I'd love you to kinda introduce yourself, maybe a little background of what you've done as an AEC marketer, and now your new role at S and P S and even yeah, let's plug S P S because anyone who's listening to this, whether a leader, business developer, or a marketer, should be looking at S P S as a great resource. So

0:48 · How Chris started his career in AEC marketing

Chris Martinez:1:33
Absolutely. Yeah. So my name is Chris Martinez. I have been in the AEC industry my entire career, which is going on now twelve plus years. I actually stumbled upon this industry as most do. I don't know of anybody that have taught sought this out on the marketing and BD side, unless maybe your father or your mother works in the industry. That would be the only reason maybe you knew about it. I actually went to a internship mixer my last semester of college.

And was w looking for a job and began to interact with a couple of really nonprofits that were focused all over the city in different initiatives and left that that meeting, left that mixer really discouraged, really you know, down because there was everybody wanted a free intern and I needed a job that paid money. And so turns out that there was a civil engineering firm that should have been there and the representative for that firm was the daughter of the owner.

And she was pregnant at the time, so she wasn't able to attend. And got all the resumes, filtered through them, found mine, interviewed me, hired me within maybe two or three weeks. And there, there you have it. I started as an intern in the civil engineering firm and I never looked back. And what was the biggest change for me was I had a boss who was a past president of SMPS at the local level here in San Antonio. And so she was super connected, she was really involved, she knew the industry, she taught me all the acronyms.

And so I got immediately plugged into SMPS and the industry at large. I got to meet people who were 10 years in, 15 years in, which as a student coming out, you know, my first year of graduating, it was tremendously helpful to have an upper leg and not have to research and do all the things on my own. I had somebody kind of guide me through that process. And so after that, I was there for about two and a half years and went to a geotechnical engineering firm. after that and which is very interesting. It's a sub discipline of civil engineering. And so a lot of the the engineers have a civil degree but they focus on geotechnical soil testing, material testing. And it was very scientific. I was really intrigued by that aspect of it. We had a lab and we did all the tests in the back of the lab, which was very interesting to learn as a business student. You know, I wasn't exposed to any of that kind of stuff in college.

Chris Martinez:3:57
they had s tremendous success at that firm. You know, some of the years, the five years I was there, we had some of the best years that they'd had in the company's history over the twenty five year history. we were awarded several major transportation projects with the DOT here in Texas. Awesome. And when I drive around the city now, I get to to know I played a part in winning some of that work. that I'm now frustrated about the traffic 'cause of the construction. But It it's cool to to be on both sides of it, I guess. after about five years later. Yeah, go ahead.

Perryn Olson:4:31
That is definitely one the coolest parts about AEC is like you know we're on the marketing side, you it it's you still feel like you're a part of that team that did that because you are. I mean, you're part of the company, even as when I come in as a fractional, you know, it's it's cool to drive around town like, that was a project, or even just that's a client I've worked with and stuff like that. So it's it's cool to see roads getting built, buildings going up, dirt turn into something cool. So I love that you mentioned that.

Chris Martinez:4:54
Yeah. Well and you know, you never know how long it's going to take, right? We won these projects in twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, and is here we are in twenty twenty six and they're just now nearing phase three of the construction. And so and then up we bought our house, you know, a few years ago and right along the corridor of that work it saw every day I have to drive by it, which is really cool. after I left that firm, I went to a landscape architecture firm in Texas.

That focused primarily on the private sector. And so majority of my career up to that point was public sector, city projects, municipal projects, DOT, state infrastructure. And this was a whole new experience for me. Number one being on the architectural design side, was very fun, very new and refreshing to a marketer who appreciates design. And I got to learn a ton about the private market, right? We focused on a lot of multifamily housing, a lot of hospitality, a lot on single family subdivision. design and construction. And so there was a it was really good understanding of a whole market that really drives a lot of the economics of our cities and of our nation. And it was really intriguing. And so for the last five years I had done that. And over the last month I stepped into my new role with SPS overseeing membership. So chief of membership engagement and development now across North America.

And my goal is to really help members of of SPS get the best experience that they can at the local level, at the regional conference level, and at the national conference or national board level. And so it's a tremendous honor. I've been a member the entire time of my career, served as past president of San Antonio and as you mentioned, the regional conference chair for twenty twenty six and the foundation board of trustees over the last eight months or so helping produce the emerging trends research that rolled out here in July. So it's been a lot of things over my career, but the best part about it is meeting people that you pair in the the network, the community, the the connections that you make in this industry are just so personable and things that I don't hear a lot of other my friends talk about in other industries.

Perryn Olson:7:09
Agree. The industry is definitely pretty close. And that I was when I did episode one yesterday, it was one things that guest was talking about with not burning bridges and just because kind of right across these people, you know, sometimes you're subsomene and you never know when you need help or you know, just some advice. And yeah, I I think I mean when you and I met, I mean, it I feel like the first time we talked, everything just kinda clicked and it was we had a lot of similar goals with but similar mindset of how we do marketing and sessioning. And I'd love for you to talk a little bit about like One of the things that really impressed me what you were doing at the Landscape Architect was like you built a really solid team. Like kind of I mean something I was building last time I was internal as well, it was kind of like building an internal agency. Like you had a videographer on staff. Like, dude, like that's awesome. And I I'd love to hear like you know tell us a little bit about the team that you built and like some of the successes that you guys had and just the advantages we've been doing that. Because one of the things I'm seeing more and more with actually with AI is more we need more real photography and videography and content and storytelling.

So I think you were kinda ahead of your time on a lot of that.

7:35 · Structuring an in-house creative team with photography and storytelling

Chris Martinez:8:11
Right. No, it's really great point, Perrin. And and something when I joined the firm learning the private sector industry, I had to figure out a different approach, right? To how we would work, how we showcase our portfolio and and really how do we tell our story as a company. And because the the really I wasn't pursuing a ton of public projects. And so the need for a proposal focused team or umable focused on InDesign in particular was not there. But we needed website.

We needed social media content. We really needed a digital presence. And so that led me to look at the team structure. When I was hired, the team had a tremendous graphic designer on the team. She's amazing. And because of her, we were able to win numerous national SPS marketing awards. And her understanding and her skill set and her ability to translate an idea graphically, whether it was a magazine layout or packaging a certain material to give to clients as a client gift or a new hire box. It was just really tremendous. So we had a great starting point when I inherited the team. and then the next hire really was our photographer videographer. We really needed somebody to capture projects dating back to the pandemic in twenty twenty. They had not captured a lot of projects at this point it was twenty twenty two. And so we had two years worth of projects that were constructed. during the essential construction time period. And we needed to travel. We needed somebody who could travel, somebody who had all the equipment and had the understanding of construction photography. Luckily, one of my best friends has all of that. He had his own photography, videography, creative agency and he was just needing a fresh change. He was needing some stability within his own family. And it just was the perfect time for it. And so funny enough, he actually worked for a pool builder. commercial and residential pool builder early in his career. And so what we were designing on the landscape architecture side, amenity decks for high rise towers and multifamily projects, single family community pools, all of it was very similar to him. And he knew how to capture it in the best way. so he had everything. I mean he had a drone, he had cameras, he's got lights, he's got mics, he's got the whole setup. And so we were able to then implement some really cool storytelling.

Chris Martinez:10:36
for the firm and for our projects. And so that over the next couple of years, you know, really over the next three or four years, we captured nearly a hundred projects. probably shot a good five to ten internal videos. We were able to do a ton of social media content. And it just elevated everything we did because we were able to do it in house, didn't have to go through a third party and communicate and and, you know, jump over barriers or speed bumps. and the last person on our team was a storyteller. We hired her. She actually had no AEC experience, but she was in grant grant writing for a nonprofit that focused on getting Latino women into engineering. And so she was kind of quasi associated with the industry, you know, so she was aware of the engineering world, but she was just trying to help students get scholarships and so forth. And it so she came on with a lot of fresh energy and new perspective and the ability to write. to the emotion and the the feeling of the human experience, which to me, I think is a lost art with AI. I think with AI, it it tries to speak in a lot of factuals and and it speaks in a very straightforward and honestly the same cadence a lot of times what you get out of AI. And what she brought to the table was a fresh, like just very empathetic writing. And that was really refreshing for a lot of our content we were sharing with for our projects and on our website. So with this team, we were able to do a lot of different things and implement a lot of things internally and then project pursuits looked very different. So it was pretty incredible. And then SPS awarded it us as the twenty twenty five marketing innovation firm of the year last year and because you know what we accomplished and all the things that we created, which was a pretty tremendous honor.

Perryn Olson:12:29
Yeah, I remember seeing what you guys did. Actually, I was a judge a juror for that award for this year. So it was man, that was a tough one. I was I've judged a lot of things for SMPS for years. That was one of the harder ones. partly 'cause it's innovation's so broad. I wanna I want to touch on a few things that you just kinda like like I think when people think the st the stereotypical AEC marketing department, it's like proposal specialist, marketing manager, maybe a technical writer. You didn't have that like You were the marketing elite. You had a you know a storyteller, a videographer, photographer, and a designer. And you you were touching this even on the writing part, but I think let's talk a little bit more on the even design. Like I think a lot of people are now thinking honestly, my degree is in design. Design graph design has been commoditized for decades and AI is making it worse. where people think, we just whipped stuff together, but like let's tell it's like where do you see the value in graph design and and especially speaking from a landscape design perspective? portion. Like there's apps out there that you can, you know, put your phone and it'll magically put all the landscaping it. Like you're essentially competing now with generic technology. But like why don't we talk a little bit more of like, you know, neither one of us are anti-AI, but we understand it has a role and it's not the everything for everything. So why don't you talk a little bit about more just like the power of design and getting out of that commoditization?

12:44 · The value of graphic design and human-centric storytelling over AI

Chris Martinez:13:51
Yeah, that that's great because I think one of the things, particularly with the graphic designer, she had worked previously for a magazine, family magazine out of Houston. And so her background was was layout, was graphic design layout, which as it translates to AEC, our proposals were so fresh and were very laid out differently. We were using spreads, we were integrating images and call out boxes, and it wasn't just a flat box. She we she really made it beautiful to look at and read and engaging. which actually ended up evolving into us creating an internal magazine. it started out as a newsletter and then it evolved into a magazine because that was her background. And it was a perfect culmination, honestly, of all the skill sets. We had the photography that was all ours in house that we could, you know, have full resolution photos for. And we had a writer, right? We had our storyteller that was able to interview a lot of our team. And so that was a really cool project that I would look back on really proud of and our team is really proud of because it showcases a work that each of us had to play in that project. And so I would say the the graphic design portion of it, there's such a variet wide variety of skills with that I would say job or niche within marketing, right? Some people are really great at website design and when they're graphic designers. Some people it's it's It's social media graphics, right? And so she was able to adapt and really fulfill all the needs that we needed on the garbage design side. A lot of our graphics for social. She had laid out designs after one of us would start putting one together and then she would just kind of clean it up and make it branded, which is what what she needed to do. And it it just ended up being a fantastic product, but I think when it comes to landscape design and what we're doing in the industry with AI, there's a certain human element that I'll keep referring to that is just needed, right? When you have somebody design your backyard, it people have a conversation about it. What are your goals? What are you really going to use it for? How old are your children? Do you have a pet? Like there's just so many questions that come into it that end up leading itself into the design, right? For a

Chris Martinez:16:11
private multifamily development. Yeah. All the code and stuff like that could be sorted about by AI and what terms of what's needed and ordinances, all of that. But who actually is the use case for it? What are the trends for these amenities? what are what are people actually wanting to be outside for? and outside of the code requirements for trees, for instance, with the current climate of particularly the US, it's hotter. than it's ever been, right, in the history of our country. And so shade and trees are so important. And so it's not just about meaning the minimum now. It's how do we create spaces that have an an tremendous amount of shade that people want to be outside. We're in the South, right? I'm in Texas, you're in Louisiana. Anytime between May and September, you go outside only when you need to. But if we're creating that we want to be outside it makes so much sense. So I I would say like I think there's some tremendous value we can see out of AI with ideation and ideas and creativity, but ultimately you're gonna have to have somebody knowing how to use the space, helping design the space.

17:27 · Turning an internal company newsletter into an external sales magazine

Perryn Olson:17:27
Yeah, and so let's talk. I mean, you published a magazine, which I think is perfect for your audience of developers and architects and even h ri h you know, high end homeowners. What was even the discussion, like what was the challenge you were trying to solve with the newsletter that then eventually s you know evolved into that magazine? But like look this whole podcast about growth challenges and so like what were you trying to achieve with the newsletter?

Chris Martinez:17:51
Great question. The challenge we we came up to is we started to grow across our offices, particularly in Texas, but we also have an Indianapolis Midwest presence. And so one of the things a lot of our teams were essentially siloed in their projects. So the Houston team was working on essentially all of Houston projects. San Antonio and Austin were working on Central Texas together. And then you had the Midwest that was kind of supporting those offices as needed, along with some of their local projects.

So what we were seeing is that if you weren't on any of those teams, or if you were on one team, you weren't exposed to what the other offices were doing, some of the other projects and designs. And so the challenge was how do we communicate what's happening across the firm to each other? and then the second thing was we ended up growing, probably we ended up onboarding almost 60 people. during my time there. And so when you have a bunch of new people, how do you introduce them to each other? Right. You're only going to see each other once at maybe a company wide town hall or a Christmas party. And so how do you the rest of the year get them to integrate and get them to know each other? And so we actually came up with a few ways to do that. during the onboarding process, we created this fun fact, five fun facts about every new hire, would send that out as a part of their onboarding process. So that way When people did interact with them for the first time, they had something to go off of, something fun, coffee and music and movies and their favorite outdoor spot. But that led to having some magazine features, profiles, if you will. And the fun part about that again was we had full editorial style, lifestyle focused photography from our headshots that we did for our websites that we could pull from and it looked like a magazine feature, which was really cool for our team to be able to experience that and be see themselves in that way. projects we featured, right? New projects that were under construction or finished construction or under design, right? The first SD concept that we would share. we also had thought leadership articles. We one of the initiatives we really wanted was to elevate the voice of our leadership team, which represented each department at that time.

Chris Martinez:20:12
And our lead designer, she just was a tremendous writer and she was able to pull a lot of research, which was her background, a lot of research that drives the design and really educate a lot of our company across how we're going to move forward in our landscape design. And so it was just the whole magazine as a whole has so much value, not only for us internally, that our owners actually begin to share it with clients. And The clients actually began to ask for a copy so that way they can be share with their architectural teams or engineering teams. and so it became a BD tool, right? So our BD team was actually asking toward the end of my time there, hey, can we get, you know, three or five, fifteen copies of this? I'd love to s to hand out to really curated clients to give them an insight of what we have going on internally. And so What started as an internal kind of what's happening around the company began to be used as a growth tool and again it just showcased the level of what marketing can do for a firm.

Perryn Olson:21:16
I I I love that and it's I I was thinking it's when you especially when you said magazine earlier, I was just thinking it was an external thing first. but yeah, that internal is is huge. And it's always interesting how that kind of smells out. We did something similar when I worked at Rex was because we had offices in Orlando, Chicago, a suburb of Chicago, Deeperville and Los Angeles and like and across different companies and things and we did it the similar like five questions. We actually gave it was like I think twenty or twenty five and they had a pick five.

And we just would share them internally with people that were already there and then it's some new hires. And then it was like we started actually inserting them in some of our proposals. Like here, meet your team. And it wasn't like where you went to school, your certifications, your degree. It like, what's your favorite Marvel character? What's your favorite movie? Like, you know, where's your favorite place to go on vacation? It was like and some of the clients were like, Wait, what? Wait, I g they have felt w this personal attachment to it. So it's always cool when I you see something kind of internal move its way to external. because it's it is about that human, you know, we are it is human to human at the end of the day. and is about creating that connection. And like I can't say that we want a a deal because somebody liked Iron Man was their favorite, you know, Marvel, but like they had a better connection with them. So

Chris Martinez:22:27
Yeah, if it can spark a conversation and say, hey, my son really loves that, or I that's one of my favorite characters. Like that relational aspect goes so far in business development that a lot of people want to just focus on strategy or focus on business conversations. And I would actually start with personal conversation, man. What what's your background? Where'd you grow up? What do you enjoy doing in your family if you're open talking about that? That that just really began to build a lot of trust because they they Understood that you cared about them as a person first. And ultimately that's what everybody wants to know is do you actually care about me? yeah.

23:04 · Navigating leadership transitions, company growth, and core values

Perryn Olson:23:06
Yes, yes. Well let's talk like just what were some of the challenges you were having as the marketing leader as the company was growing? You talked about adding sixty people, multiple offices, things like that. So like, you know, where were the wheels coming off the bus? Where did you feel the stretch? You know, things like that. So

Chris Martinez:23:22
Yeah, no. So what we ran into is as we grew, how do we maintain the culture and also how do we begin to pursue projects that really fulfill those these new people on the team? And so one of the things that we did when we redid our website in twenty twenty three was I sat down with every team member one on one to get an understanding of what they really wanted to do in their career and in their in the company.

And that led to eventually becoming our values, right? With the way they saw the company, what they really wanted to do. And so the values were truly reflective of the company at that time, which is really hard to say for a lot of companies, right? And so it took a lot of travel on my part. It took one-on-one conversations. But to me, like that was so enjoyable getting to interact with everybody in the company. And I would say the biggest challenge though is how do we get their goals met? How do we try to win some of the projects that they really want to work on. And so I would say some of that was a challenge is everybody wants some different things. Everybody wants to grow at a different pace. And so how do you ultimately take that data and that information and drive it into a strategy? And so I think that was a big challenge. And then I think secondly, we evolved as a company. Our one of our original founders retired in the at the end of the pandemic. We had a first non founder partner promotion at that time in twenty twenty one and they were trying to go in a new direction and re energize and refresh the company, which is part of the reason I got hired, part of the reason we were able to do all the things with marketing. And and then towards the end of my time there, we went through another another change where we promoted two new partners in the company. And so now it's at a third iteration of it and it's it's that was a challenge. Is During my time there, I I would tell people in five years or f you know, four and a half years, I had to market four different companies, right? Because of all the changes in leadership and changes in and project pursuits and that could be a challenge. Whereas if we're at a legacy firm that hasn't changed for twenty years, you know kind of the boilerplate information and everything that you need to do to win the work. And so that was a fun challenge to navigate.

Perryn Olson:25:47
Yeah, but the flip side is I think we've all seen these companies that haven't evolved in decades and you know, they're slowly dying, essentially. If they and we're seeing it right now, I think AI is exposing a lot of that issue as well. Like I I kinda tell people as long as you're doing something in AI, I think you're fine. Yeah, we don't know where it's going. There's so less but if you're not if you're avoiding AI right now, it's like avoiding the internet in the you know, in the early nineties, two thousand or late nineties to early two thousands. Like you know you know, it's

Chris Martinez:26:13
Hundred percent.

Perryn Olson:26:16
You didn't have to necessarily have the first iPhone, but you probably should have had an iPhone Android within a couple of years. Like just one of those things, like otherwise you're gonna get left behind. So Yeah. No, it's cool. I mean, I let's I know we need to wrap up just for some time and stuff. I I I want to hear a little bit more where you're going with S and P S. I know you're still in a new role you're feeding on but you know this the organization very well. I'm super excited as a longtime member of S and P S that we have a member in this role. They've actually created an executive role for this membership, which shows, you know, the the the confidence in you, but also the the need for membership to really have a bigger voice as well in the the leadership team of the society. So why why don't you tell us a little bit what you're doing at the society level and kinda go from there?

26:26 · Driving value, community, and engagement for members across SMPS

Chris Martinez:26:57
Absolutely. He I'm so excited for this new role because I get to interact with people from all over the country. Whereas in my career I've mainly focused on firms that have been either headquartered in Texas, Texas or focused on project pursuits in Texas. And so this gives me a much bigger perspective and connections and being able to network with people from all over. and and the other thing we're what we're seeing is is now in the today and age of AI.

And everybody's competing for time. And so how do we provide value, right? To be a part of an organization, to represent an organization, to volunteer for an organization. And I think that is one of the biggest things that we're looking at solving is how do we continually provide a good value proposition to becoming a member of SPS and being a part of our community? And I think it starts with that we're the we're really the only organization that focuses on marketing and business development in the industry.

Right. If you work for an architect, an engineer construction company, this is the place to be for if you're in marketing or business development. You're gonna network with peers, you're gonna find a community that really understands and gets you, and you're gonna be equipped to go be better at your job and better in your career. Right. So we like to say this. We like to say you want you belong to a community. We wanna help build you and your skill sets and your expertise. And we want you to help build the company, right? Business transformed through marketing leadership. And so That is really one of our main value propositions that we're speaking to and how we implement that, I think, is there's there's a gap up to this point. We have not had somebody dedicated as a society or from the headquarter team on membership for several years. And so there's a gap there where people needing to know that HQ cares about them as a member, has their best interests in mind, and also is continually think future forward about membership.

And so thinking about new ways to gr get people together, maybe digitally, right? Getting figuring out new ways for large firms to engage at a different level when they maybe have ten or fifteen, twenty members across the country. and I think ultimately just being a presence and a representation of members. having been a member for the majority of my career, I think that's the best part of my job now is getting to speak to the voice of the member.

Chris Martinez:29:23
at the at the HQ level and at the C suite level of the society. So I think for me that's what I'm most excited about is some initiatives there. And and then lastly, I want to equip, help equip chapter leaders. So membership chairs, presidents, president elects, how does membership impact their volunteer role? How do they interact with it? How do they help grow and and supplement what HQ is doing at the local level? Because Like we talked about earlier. Ultimately it's who you connect with, it's who you meet. And a lot of times who you're meeting is at the chapter level. So interacting and really resourcing with member leaders at the chapter level is gonna be and a huge priority.

Perryn Olson:30:08
That's awesome. You've always been such a big advocate and for S NPS and I I I it's weird for me to you when you say it is a job. I know it technically is a job, but it's to me it's for you in particular, so it's more of passion to be a you know, represent SNP S and promote it. So I really appreciate you coming on, having this conversation with you. And I look forward to even hearing more of your stories as you talk to more SNPS members and you know, kind of hear what's going on in the industry. I think you're gonna be a great resource for all of us for, you know, kind of this pulse of what's going on in the industry from the marketer's perspective.

Chris Martinez:30:39
Absolutely. Well thanks for having me on, Perrin. We could definitely have a second conversation if that time comes. But I would love to dive into more questions about what you're doing as well.

Perryn Olson:30:50
Yeah, we definitely will tag. Tack Simus.