Sep 22, 2026 · 43 min · 10 segments
In this inspiring and masterclass-level episode of The TMA Connection, Tim Markland sits down with Paul Thompson, owner of Architectural Design Works (ADW), celebrating 35 years of shaping the…
Tim MarklandHost
So what did you see in the early days then that, you know, people see all your success now, right? But what were some of the struggles that you had gone through in those early years that really has helped mold you into the success you are today?
The first one was getting my mentor's clients to trust me with their multimillion dollar projects as a 25 year old kid.
And what I needed to do then, I pivoted quickly, was to build my own client base and hustled, you know, came up to Bel Air, which is a very difficult market to break into.
And we gave away a lot of time in an effort to invest in our clients' projects and give them value.
That's one of the reasons our tagline, if you will, is designing value, because we feel like we give a lot more than what our clients pay for in terms of handholding small business people through the process, which is challenging, arduous, even more so today than it was back in the 90s.
But, you know, so that was a difficult threshold, right? And those first 10 years were nip and tuck.
What kind of advice do you give to somebody that's young like say a young real estate agent you know that sometimes you some some of these guys you know they they get their real estate license at 2021 and now they have to kind of portray themselves as somebody that's that's older or be able to sell that that idea that you can trust me even though I look young you know what kind of advice would you give somebody like that
So look, I think you've got to earn it, right? You know, I was putting in 100 hour weeks, you know, to learn as much as I could about the practice, listening to my mentors that were in the latter part of their careers.
They had been there, done that, right? I got out and networked a lot in the beginning.
That's where Chris Reeves and I met and have been good, good friends ever since.
But So I did a lot of networking and effort to get people to feel comfortable.
So what did you see in the early days then that, you know, people see all your success now, right? But what were some of the struggles that you had gone through in those early years that really has helped mold you into the success you are today?
The first one was getting my mentor's clients to trust me with their multimillion dollar projects as a 25 year old kid.
And what I needed to do then, I pivoted quickly, was to build my own client base and hustled, you know, came up to Bel Air, which is a very difficult market to break into.
And we gave away a lot of time in an effort to invest in our clients' projects and give them value.
That's one of the reasons our tagline, if you will, is designing value, because we feel like we give a lot more than what our clients pay for in terms of handholding small business people through the process, which is challenging, arduous, even more so today than it was back in the 90s.
But, you know, so that was a difficult threshold, right? And those first 10 years were nip and tuck.
What kind of advice do you give to somebody that's young like say a young real estate agent you know that sometimes you some some of these guys you know they they get their real estate license at 2021 and now they have to kind of portray themselves as somebody that's that's older or be able to sell that that idea that you can trust me even though I look young you know what kind of advice would you give somebody like that
So look, I think you've got to earn it, right? You know, I was putting in 100 hour weeks, you know, to learn as much as I could about the practice, listening to my mentors that were in the latter part of their careers.
They had been there, done that, right? I got out and networked a lot in the beginning.
That's where Chris Reeves and I met and have been good, good friends ever since.
But So I did a lot of networking and effort to get people to feel comfortable.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.