Has Land8 helped you cope?

[Anonymous]

I’ve had this on my mind for sometime now and I was wondering how Land8 has (or hasn’t) helped landscape professionals cope with the current situation.

 

I decided to hang my shingle and go it alone following a layoff at the end of 2007. After a couple of months or so of working by myself all day (excluding meetings with clients, contractors, architects, etc.), I found myself so disconnected with the profession and people in general. I couldn’t wait for my next issue of LAM. I drove my wife nuts when she came home from work. After a full day in CADland I would start talking her ear off a soon as she walked through the door and most of the time I was talking shop talk. She did her best to look interested but how much can a person take (picture that glazed over look people get when we LAs start going on about our “thing”). I had no idea just how much I would miss being in an office with other LAs.

 

Then one day I was goofing around on the ASLA website and I found a link to Land 8. It was love at first sight. I stayed in the background for some time because I wasn’t comfortable with my writing ability, but after a while I couldn’t contain myself. I found it so therapeutic to just talk about landscape stuff with people who actually care. After the economy tanked it really helped me to know there were people going through the same hard times as I was. It helped my psyche to communicate with colleagues who could relate to the struggle.  

 

This first time actually starting a discussion, I’m anxious to hear some of your thoughts. Biggups to the crew at Land8!

[Heather Smith]

Yes! We love the insight we get from more seasoned professionals…and lets face it…we can all use some encouragement. Graduating during this recession has been very challenging and we greatly appreciate being able to share our experiences and hear others share theirs.

[Jason T. Radice]

Its a wonderful place to comiserate. Not as good as happy hour at the beer garden, but then again, there is simply a vast amount of people and experiences here that the swill-palace cannot match.

 

For an info-junkie like me, the news, techniques, trends, and opinion is great. I thought I was the only one who thought the way I did about certain things, so I was encouraged to see that I was not.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

It, or more accurately – “you people”, have inspired me to quit my job ten weeks ago and go full time on my own. I’m still working part time  in civil engineering through the transition. It made me see a lot more opportunity simply from explaining to others the opportunities that I have noticed from where I sat. You made me realize that I ran out of excuses for not doing it. I expect to take a pretty good hit in the wallet over the next year, but I believe that it will work in the long run despite the economy.

[Heather Smith]

Wow Andrew…what wonderful news! We have learned a lot from you…we will share any of our fantastic business knowledge with you. 😉

1. Charge enough

haha.

[mark foster]

Craig, LOL!  The scenario you describe between you and your wife has been a dominant theme in our conversations with friends for years!!!  Maybe that’s a “new” job for someone out there– independent consultant therapist…..

When I have asked for detail/technical advice on Land8, I have been astounded at the succinct, valuable, and accurate information I have received.  It is now where I go first when I need advice or resources.   Thanks everyone.

[Fiona Chew Mun Mun]

I am wondering how I accidentally found this website last week…. I’m so happy to hang around here, it’s a good place to see what everyone else in different places of the world do for their landscape… good place to share ideas.. I love Land8lounge so far!

[alland]

From the moment I saw the notice for “Land 8” in LA magazine a few years ago, I of course logged on. In short, it has helped. I have been on my own since 2008, and the independence, fear, confidence and awakening that everything has led to this was confirmed by all of those on Land 8.

 

No one said it would be easy, isnt it the ‘journey’ that counts?;)

[Fiona Chew Mun Mun]

yup! it’s the journey that counts!

[Barbara Nazarewicz]

Workshops are great!

Advice on portfolios are great!

 

And most of all – other people’s portfolios!

[Zach Watson]

I have really enjoyed the Lounge, personally I go through spurts as to how much I come on here as some people might attest to, but as I now enter my Senior year of College it has been really nice to bounce ideas off of other LA’s and see both how plausible some of my ideas might be.  Sometimes I wish that I had more to contribute to some of the discussions but because of my lack of experience in some areas limits my knowledge, but I still enjoy reading what others have to say.

[mauiBob]

Craig and Andrew, I have new found respect for you two clowns! (calling you clown is a compliment). You two opened up details of your daily lives. Land8 is therapeutic amid all the chaos around our profession. I do have my foot dipped into the pool of entrepreneurship, but not fully committed. I was at a crossroads in late 2007 between staying in Phoenix at a job or accepting this current one on Maui. I loved it in Phoenix, but went with my gut feeling and it turned out to be the correct choice. 

I enjoy seeing the design projects from around the world that LAM may never publicize or is unaware of its existence.    

To the trailblazers and entrepreneurs…One of my two favorite quotes I keep near my office desk: 

“All Men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

 — T.E. Lawrence

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Bob or Bert, or Robert as I knew you by, I always consider the source when being called something. I spent two years in a studio with you and know the source …. at least as well as anyone else in that studio did.

 

I’m generally pretty darn candid. I just don’t spell out my last name because I don’t want my comments here popping up at the top of searches when people check me out. i don’t think it takes more than a minute and a half for anyone to find it by looking at my profile and searching.

 

Andrew G-a-r-u-l-a-y

[BZ Girl]

Yeah, I think it’s definitely been very helpful. Even when you are working in an office with other people, sometimes you can still feel disconnected and completely alone despite being surrounded by coworkers. Logging on to Land8 and hearing other people’s perspectives and advice is infinitely valuable when i really have nowhere else to turn.

 

Craig, Andrew- bravo to your for blazing your own trails! Fearless entrepreneurs like yourself are the ones that give me hope and inspiration that someday i will also blaze my own trail. Andrew I know it probably will be tough in the beginning as you ‘take a hit to the wallet’, but i want to hear all about your successes and misadventures alike! I still believe that there just must be no greater sense of accomplishment than being your own boss. 

 

As for me, as of next week i join the ranks of the thousands of unemployed landscape architects. But there’s no pity party here!! I am actually thrilled to death. You may remember from one of my posts that my office was filled with crappy-ass mismanagement, and that place was a sinking ship for sure. So i asked them to let me go. I couldn’t deal with the BS anymore, and they really don’t have the cash flow to keep everyone on board, so i asked them to just let me go. And thus a new chapter begins! Don’t know where it will lead, but I am definitely excited to be heading in a new direction.

 

Hang in there everyone! There’s lots of good moral support on Land8! Keep it up!

[mark foster]

BZ, I have been in your place.  It is unbelievable draining to swab the decks of a sinking ship.  You have no idea how light you will feel the first morning you wake up and not have to go back.  Good luck.

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