Was there an “ah-ha” moment where you realized commercial landscaping in Austin could also benefit from your approach?
Commercial landscaping in Austin was actually the first landscaping that made me realize I needed to start Shamballah Home and Gardens! I was still teaching in the biology department at the University of Texas, and some major commercial/mixed use developments were going in around the city in ecologically significant impact zones, and I remember driving by when they were putting in their landscaping and thinking, “there needs to be a better option than this.”
How does your approach to commercial landscaping in Austin differ from residential?
Commercial landscaping is a more complex formula, which makes it uniquely exciting. On the one hand, the potential for benefit–or harm–is so much greater when working with scale. For every property I work with, whether commercial or residential, I consider the surrounding city ecosystem and urban forest, and commercial properties have a significantly higher impact on that ecosystem. So, I need to look at more variables–for example, almost nothing that a single family dwelling could do would noticeably affect the city water table–not to say that what we do in our homes doesn’t matter, because cumulative effect of small changes is super important, but a large scale commercial property can cause an entire creek to overflow or run dry just from how it is developed. With a commercial property, it’s not just about what is immediately surrounding the site; it’s about everything downstream of it. Additionally, commercial properties have the potential to have systems within systems–sections that are, themselves, ecosystems, but come together to create a larger network. And, certainly, the human side of the calculus is different–what is wanted and needed from the land has some unique elements, and mostly just higher variability across the property.
How do you explain the energetic and spiritual components of your work to a commercial landscaping client who may be more skeptical or ROI-focused?
Honestly, whether commercial or residential, it’s all about value–both the value of the product I provide and what we value as land stewards. The difference between commercial and residential settings is that, in residential settings, homeowners are the consumers. But in commercial properties, the developers are actually a middleman between the property owner and the final consumers, and that is the relationship that I focus on providing value to. More and more, market data show consistently growing trends: the consumer market wants sustainability, ecological consciousness, high vibration, spiritual consciousness, beauty, and diversity. The consumer market is tired of cookie-cutter, soulless big-box developments. Even if the stores are the same retail chains, customers want to feel like they aren’t lost in Anywhere, USA. We are seeing increasing demand for commercial developments, whether mixed-use or fully retail, that create a sense of uniqueness, local flavor, and community. Customers want their retail experience to match their values, and landscaping is an enormous, subtle, but foundational part of this. Sustainable landscaping initiatives highlight how the development is different and make people want to lease there, have their business there, and spend their money there. Dozens of studies in the past decade show that unconscious stimuli massively affect human behavior, and engaging with the type of landscape design that we do creates a more successful final development, with more prosperous businesses, higher-traffic areas, and greater overall revenue because we create spaces that people desire to not just come to for a specific purpose and get out, but be in, and that is as much about crafting the energy of a space as it is about the physical attributes.
How does the “as within, so without” philosophy translate to a business rather than an individual homeowner?
So, something that is missing from a lot of business philosophy is that a business is an entity. And that entity is an extension of the people in it. We can see this most easily with a small business or sole proprietorship, right, because that business becomes a more direct, linear expression of that person and their mission. And, indeed, it is this aspect of business that is actually the root cause of why it is so hard to transition a small business to a large one–people say the problem is scaling, etc etc., but it’s actually an identity issue–how to steward the business as its own entity and how to transition from that entity being the extension of a person or small group of people to being an independent identity in its own right. And Hermetic principles apply to everything we do. So, it becomes important that there is internal alignment for a business–alignment between the business as a being and the people who are running it (the within) and also external alignment–alignment between the external activities of the business and its mission (the without). And these relationships are reciprocal (as within, so without, as without, so within)–the more the external activities of a business communicate its values, the more successfully it will attract individuals as both customers and employees that then create the internal alignment the business needs to sustain. We provide the opportunity for businesses of all sizes to create both internal and external alignment.
How does your approach benefit commercial developments in the long run?
Well, I already addressed how our approach makes more successful developments when it comes to the consumer end. But it also decreases the cost of maintaining the development long-term. In this way, it is exactly like residential long-term benefits–just more zeros after the dollar sign! Unlike your “industry standard” landscapes, which require more maintenance, more water, more nutrients, more money over time, all of our designs require less of those things as time goes on and the design becomes a self-sustaining entity.
What’s the biggest difference in how you show up for a commercial client vs. a residential one?
The longevity of the relationship. We are really here to support commercial landscaping clients from start to finish, which means supporting their relationships, as well. Landowners want to work with commercial developers who are going to steward their land and keep it accruing value long-term. Retailers and restaurants want to rent spaces that support them in bringing in as much business as possible by having beautiful, vibrant, high-vibration surroundings. Consumers want to contribute to an economy that is building the future they want. No matter where we come into the process, we are working to harmonize all of these relationships in perpetuity–it’s not just a design delivery system. It’s stewardship of a community.
What do you want your commercial clients to understand about you that they might not get from your website alone?
That I am a master of logistics! I laugh, but actually I love super-complex logistics. It’s why I love ecosystems and systems thinking. It’s like a giant logic puzzle game to me. I love large-scale projects and long-term projects because I love coordinating all of the pieces of the machine–how the daily tasks create the larger milestones that build the flow from start to finish. The way time and space interact, the way the different relationships of moving parts affect one another–it’s like an elaborate dance. I love building the engine of a project because when you optimize the process, the highest-quality product is inevitable.
If a commercial client is on the fence about whether Shamballah is the right fit, what would you say to them directly?
It can be hard to go with an option that doesn’t fit the standard industry box. It’s easy to go with what we know. This is why the saying “people will choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven” exists. Familiarity breeds comfort, and comfort feels safe, even when it’s actually stagnation. So, I would encourage them to step outside their comfort zone, because every great advancement in human history–whether individual or corporate–happened outside of the comfort zone, and whether you want to break through in your life, or you want to break through in your industry, at some point, you’re going to need to do something different, and every great business enterprise knows this.
If you are looking for a commercial landscaping partner in Austin, reach out to us today.