Building Confidence Through Mentorship with Joshua Ayettey | 117

Don't be afraid to fail.

'cause I've failed a lot and actually I've learned a lot from my

failures, but I couldn't see that.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing.

Welcome to Architecture Business Club, the show that helps

you build a better business in architecture so you can enjoy more

freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment.

I'm your host, John Clayton, and if you're joining us for the first time, don't

forget to hit that follow or subscribe button so you never miss another episode.

Today we are joined by Joshua Aete.

Joshua is a chartered architect and a creative problem solver.

He is passionate about improving the way people live through good design

and mentoring the next generation of.

Problem solving designers.

Joshua is also the founder of Ja DC Studio and Scattered Hub,

which we're gonna be talking a bit more about, uh, in this episode.

So if you'd like to learn more, head over to ja dc studio.com

to learn more about Joshua, or click the link in the show notes.

I think a good place to start would be just a quick explanation

of what is the scattered hub.

Scattered hub.

Is about mentoring, but then there's also a bigger picture as

well, and the clue is in the name.

So I look at Scattered Hub as being this hub of different

individuals who've been mentored.

Maybe ones in Birmingham, maybe ones in London, and they're

all training to be architects.

And so they're scattered.

And then there are Hub.

Hub because they have a way of coming together and maybe collaborating,

maybe helping each other.

Could you share a little bit about how this came about?

Maybe share a little bit about your background and, and how it

led to you starting this group.

It sort of happened organically and that's, I guess, I think.

It's quite beautiful.

Anything that starts organically is quite interesting.

Where it ends up, you know, you only gotta look at certain companies

that sort started organically.

I sort of struggled throughout my architectural training.

I wouldn't say I was very academic, but I was very good at maths and I was creative.

I was, I was a problem solver.

And so I've sort of problem solved my way through architectural training,

and I've found that along the way when I've been struggling, I've

also found myself helping others.

Who might be struggling with things that I've solved I have memories of

being in my final year and, you know, when I should have been focusing on

my product, I was helping big a, a second year student with their work.

There was a, a young guy in the church I was in we wanted to be an architect

and I said, okay, I'll try and help you.

Got him some work experience where I was doing a part one.

Then I guess organic naturally, because we were always seeing each other and he

was trying to get different opportunities.

I just found myself helping him and so then the next time I was helping

him was, um, when he was part one.

He'd been looking for a job for a year and he was about to quit

everything he was, he had lost all.

Confidence and he just felt like maybe this isn't the right thing for me.

And so I was like, right, let's look at your portfolio, look at his portfolio,

you know, gave a few pointers, looked at his LinkedIn and it was like, look, this

is how you can create yourself better.

And guess what?

He got a job in a very good architectural ferb in this area,

and it just got me thinking.

I'm actually quite good at this.

I wonder if I could help more people.

And at the same time, I had my mum who's very proud of me, and you

know anyone who's saying, oh my.

Daughter sons.

Oh yeah.

My son's training as well.

You know, maybe he could help them.

And so I was getting, that's how I was getting referrals.

You could say I was, I was just helping my mum's friend's, children throughout,

you know, and that, and they are actually the current cohort of the Scattered Hub.

I started off doing like one-on-one, spending quite a, a long time with

them, looking through the portfolio being very critical as well.

So not being nice and saying, oh yeah, that's really great.

Although it's great, like trying to propel 'em for the world that they're going into

is actually quite cutthroat at times.

And actually, you know, as architects we're designing.

Buildings that have to meet a lot of stringent requirements.

And actually someone's often, someone's paying a lot of

money to conceive this idea.

So we've got to realize that everything we do has to have a reason.

So I would ask them, why have we done this?

Why have we put this there?

And, you know, stuff like that.

So I started mentoring this young guy from the age of 16 and he finished

his part two Manchester univer, uh, Manchester School architecture last year.

And he now is working in practice as part two.

So you can imagine how many years, you know, that spin.

But um, so he was the first mentee.

I started my company in 2023, and that sort of coincided with a lot

of the help, the work I was doing with him and then also the work I

was doing with other individuals.

So I sort of thought, oh, I wonder if after helping all these people,

maybe they might want to try and help the company in some way.

But I, because.

I have experience of doing a Part one job as an intern, unpaid, by the way,

in London and a nice part of London.

I thought, I'm not gonna exploit them.

I wanna be able to pay them.

So I actually, and you know, if they were ever interviewed, they would be able to

say, yeah, Josh talked to us about paying us and trying to have a contract maybe.

But it got really complicated and I just thought, you know what?

Let's just keep things simple.

Scattered hub and in many years to come.

When they all make it, wherever they make it, they'll all remember

the input hopefully, and that will hopefully encourage 'em to help people

and it'll be like a ripple effect.

That's really interesting.

So it sounds like it's sort of grown or it, it's been organic

in how it's kind of come about.

Before this kind of got started, you mentioned about like you'd

had some struggles yourself when you'd been, um, studying.

Could we talk a little bit about that?

Because I feel that that's probably quite a catalyst for this kind of coming about.

I mean, it took me 13 years to get that

title in my degree, struggled.

I understood the subject matter and I knew I did come up.

I was able to come up with good ideas.

I just really struggled to convey them in the way that my tutors wanted me to.

So to create all these crazy visuals and all that sort of stuff.

And they would off say, oh look, we're hearing it.

We're not seeing it.

And I just really struggled to find the bridge that worked for me though.

'cause I think we've all got our medium.

And then eventually I found that, oh, model making.

I, I like making models.

The people in the, in the scattered hub, we've all got similar, I guess we've all

struggled with the same, similar stuff.

yeah.

So got through my degree just about, and there were other

things that happened during my degree that, um, weren't so good.

So I had a mental health crisis.

That really has transformed how I work because I then,

I basically found my limit.

I found that now I, I can't do all nighters to get work done.

I've gotta find a way to make it work.

But anyway, and I did my part two, I failed my final year

and I had to repeat that.

But then that taught me lessons.

I actually have been invaluable.

And then in my part three, I failed my part three exam.

First time past it the second time.

So I've had a lot of different failures along my journey that have actually.

Become catalysts for this movement?

Maybe.

Maybe it's a movement.

Oh gosh.

I hadn't actually, that just came out.

Dunno where that came from.

Scattered, hub, probably has been birthed out of my struggles.

My journey's a qualification.

Yeah.

what's then motivated me to see the, the need to.

To give back and to try and elevate these individuals, even if they go further

than I can go, it doesn't matter if they become better than me, whatever it is,

just about trying to bring people with me on the journey rather than using people

to just get higher and higher and higher.

I can, I can relate to that.

I mean, I think this, this podcast, this show was, was really born out of

my experience, like my struggles of, um, running a small practice, but being

a small, a sole practitioner primarily, and, um, not having a grasp of, of

business and marketing and sales and, and all of those things that we have

to do as small business owners that we don't get taught when we go to.

Architecture, school or university.

So, um, I absolutely get like those experiences and challenges that you

go through that, you know, they inform and, and can be a catalyst for something

really good, even though at the time they can be really difficult for you.

That can lead to some, some really good things.

Um.

So that's great.

I'm glad that there is something that's, from those personal challenges,

there's something good that's, that's come out of the other side.

Could you share a little bit about kind of, um, setting up the group?

I was acutely aware that.

I had to make, I had to start to make this a more formal arrangement because

I was finding myself in situations where I'm giving up time for free because I,

at the moment, it is free because it's happened organically and I hadn't planned,

I didn't have a business plan or whatever about, you know, maybe doing this to make

money and I still don't know whether I would do it to make money or, I dunno.

Anyway, but so I realized, right, we've gotta make this serious so that.

Time isn't wasted.

It's like, you know, we're giving you, I'm giving you time and you

are going to take what's being suggested and try and do something

with it because it's quite valuable.

This re this information, if I had it at your stage, I would just run of it.

'cause I, I desperately needed it.

So I contacted, got in touch with two other friends who were a qualified

architects and I decided to set up a WhatsApp group because I thought, ah.

If we're all in the WhatsApp group together, question goes in, everyone

sees it, and it almost becomes a peer to peer reviewing platform where you can

ask the architects a question, but then you can also ask another person who's

at your stage, oh, I got this problem.

Anyone know how to fix it?

And, and that's been interesting because I then had to come up with rules for

it as well, because it was like, right, lots of people in a WhatsApp group.

You got numbers in there.

Like you can't add, don't add someone's number and start harassing them or

whatever, you know, stuff to that effect.

And you know, and I got them to actually verbally or via WhatsApp,

read the code of conduct and then replies saying, yes, I'm happy with

this before being added to the group.

So, lot, lots of things like that.

And then, yeah, so.

It's now we've got a LinkedIn page.

Originally the focus was just help graduates get part one jobs because

that was what was really hard.

They've done the uni bit, but they just can't get their job.

They dunno how to position themselves.

So, so far we've helped free graduates get jobs.

In different areas and that's cool.

And the testimonies that they've written are actually on my LinkedIn

page in the featured section and also on the Scattered Hub LinkedIn page.

it sort of transitioned from that to, okay, some of these graduates are

struggling so much, they're thinking, oh, maybe I should look at other avenues.

So it's really cool, John, I've got one of, one of our.

individuals is actually working in a kitchen company at the moment, and

I've been trying to encourage 'em and thankfully they can see it that they're

getting such in valuable experience because they're getting sales experience.

There's a specific brief for a kitchen, so actually they're trying, they're

learning about how to interpret the needs of their customers.

Take what the problem is and then try and find the right solution.

People often follow trends when it comes to style and taste.

So yeah.

And then we've got another person who's doing visualization at the moment.

So what seems to be happening now is that the focus isn't just on

how can I become an architect?

It's just how can I use what I'm learning as in my training and take it.

I dunno, somewhere else.

And so it's quite interesting.

Transferable.

Yeah.

So I've found that, I set it up as one thing and I had this sort of,

okay, maybe this is what they need.

But then there, and it's really exciting.

They're sort of taking, using the group in ways that I hadn't even thought about.

But it's great.

I think that's, that's the beauty of it actually.

But I've also had to obviously make sure that that can still be.

Contained because I think it's important because actually for lots of reasons

that I've really mentioned, you know, privacy, actually, these are individuals

living their own private lives and we've gotta make sure that, I guess,

'cause I guess maybe I'm forming a community and I don't even realize it.

That's what I'm sort of doing.

I'm actually creating a forum.

Yeah.

Whereas I thought it was just like, this is just an

easy way for me to manage these.

Different mentees and help them out without actually taxing my time,

which I need to give to my clients.

'cause I was just running out of time.

I couldn't do all these one-to-ones and then do all

these architect stuff, you know?

And then it's actually leading to other avenues and stuff.

So, yeah, I think that's a very long answer to your question, but.

It's okay.

It's okay.

And it's.

Yeah.

It's interesting you say about, um, it becoming a community, not necessarily

being what you'd originally set out to do, but, but it, it is organically.

Manifesting into that, so that's really interesting.

So we talked a little bit, you shared a, a, a few sort of wins that

people within the group have had.

You've mentioned about some part ones that have managed to

secure jobs, which is amazing.

Um, is there any other wins that you wanna share, basically what

do people get out of the group,

Yeah, that's a good, yeah, so actually, although yes, it's

great that people are getting jobs, what's better than all of that is the

confidence boost and um, people growing.

Because actually it's a bit like how I imagine if you have a life coach and

they're just helping you on your journey, and I guess maybe because a, because

one of my struggles with architect, my architectural training was like

identity and like trying to see my place in the industry and where do I belong.

Because actually that's quite important for us as designers.

Like we, we think about that because when we're designing, we're actually

putting ourselves into what we're doing.

And that's actually what makes us really good at our jobs, that

we bring ourselves into our work.

And that's what I think is very unique about the architectural profession.

And I mean, and I don't mean just architects, architectural technologists,

anyone involved in designing buildings.

I think, you know what, what makes us good is that we could do that.

But also we can meet the brief then it's really encouraging when I'm reading

some of these testimonials and they're talking about how it's really helped with

their confidence and their self-esteem, and they've just got more, they, they

feel more, they're more optimistic about their future because a lot of them,

when I talk to them, they say that they feel like actually they, there isn't as

much help for their generation because actually this is the next generation then.

Even for me as a millennial architect, I think, yeah.

Wow.

It's, it almost feels like things are better when you didn't have

to pay to do your, you know, when you were paid to go to university.

I mean, I had a, I had a baby boomer tell me he was paid to go to university.

I was just like, what?

I mean, I, I'm not gonna tell you how much student debt I've got,

and I'm trying to work out how to recoup, recoup it through my fees.

But anyway, that's a, that's a whole nother podcast.

Um, so yeah, it's just, yeah.

So it's just really encouraging.

I think that if anything, the main goal is just to boost confidence.

I'm glad you've shared that because.

When we think about wins and successes, that, that it doesn't,

it a win or a success for a member.

It doesn't necessarily have to be something quantifiable like

they, they got a job, you know?

Um, that thing about it, building confidence, them feeling supported,

all of that stuff is really valuable.

That is still a win.

It's just not.

The same kind of win.

It's just, it's a little bit harder to quantify it, but it is

equally, if not even more valuable.

You know, the way that that group makes people feel, if that gives

them that confidence boost and they get, they feel supported and they

get all that from it, that's amazing.

You know, that's really great reason to be part of the group.

What about you?

I mean, what.

How does this group benefit you?

You know, what do you get outta it?

Yeah, no, that's a good question.

I mean, I've always liked helping people.

I think it's partly because how I've been raised, so my parents, I've

grown up with watching my parents help people, and so that's inspired me.

And yeah, actually that's quite a key influence.

My, my mum especially, um, has been quite generous.

And so I've, and, and also my Christian faith has also been an influence

because I try and live as she just did.

And I, you know, I want to help people, but then also just.

I think going back to my struggles, just seeing, I guess, experiencing the

journey without the help, that's the key.

And so figure, oh, wow.

And it's like having to do it the hard way.

And I'm not saying no one's helped me.

Of course I've received help, but there's been certain ways that I've needed

people to help me that I've partly not known that I needed that type of help.

So I wouldn't, I wouldn't have known how to ask for it.

You know, I recently did something called a motivational map with a,

with a business coach that I know.

And what was really interesting, and it really surprised me actually, is my two

motivat, my two top sort of motivations were purpose, and I forget what the

other one was, but those two meant that actually I'm very well suited.

For being a coach and a mentor.

So I thought that's just quite interesting.

I didn't, I just did this thing.

I didn't know what was gonna come out.

And it turns out I'm actually meant to be a coach.

Maybe, you know, maybe I, maybe I won't be an architect forever.

I don't know.

maybe I can do both, I just enjoy it.

I don't, I can't explain it, but it just, I, it's like a passion.

It just, I guess like the, the person who likes playing drums

or the person who likes running.

'cause I dunno how people, I don't, I don't know if you like

running, but I look at runners.

I think you, yeah, you're definitely passionate about that 'cause, you

know, but yeah, it just, it, it, it, it makes me come alive and like

many other passions that I have.

Yeah.

Oh, well, I mean, what, what better reason, um, do you

need than, than that one?

It fills your cup and that's great if you find something.

Uh, and that's whether it's paid or not.

Like I'm, I'm not motivated by money, you know?

This podcast, um, I do this.

For free.

People can go and listen to this and or watch this now, and, and it

doesn't cost them anything to access the things that we share on here.

And again, I, I do it because I struggled with it.

I want to give something back.

Um, and I think that's, that's a great reason to do it, you know?

And, um, yeah, as long as you got, you've got time to fit it in amongst the, all

of the other things that you no doubt have going on with life and work and

all the rest of it, then, um, yeah.

Long may it continue?

How, how would you like to see this group develop in the future?

I think I actually like the idea of being a community, and I think

what would be really cool is just lots of individuals who have been impacted by the

work of Scatter hub, maybe there's a, a project that comes up like some form of

tender and you've got all these people who happen to have some big in common, you

know, they were all part of the community and they just decide, oh, you know what?

Let's just come together.

Let's collaborate and let's create.

I, I think that's it, because that'll be the, it, it's a way of bringing

people together because I think.

Something that I'm trying to do in my business is actually collaborate more so

work with other people because we all have something unique to bring to the table.

Um, so, and we do all need to eat,

Yeah.

you know, we do need to make money regardless of whether we're

motivated by money or not, because, you know, I would say I'm, I'm not.

I'm not trying to become a millionaire and I'm not, you know, but at the

same time, I do have a mortgage to pay and all that sort of stuff.

So yeah, it's like getting the right balance, isn't it?

Um, because we go into design roles because we just love designing and

we love, you know, because we all, we all know that it doesn't pay as

much as being a lawyer or whatever, but that's not why we go into it.

the overall goal that I had of it being like an ecosystem of different

designers is still gonna remain, but maybe it's gonna look very different.

Like how, what the actual, what it looks like is gonna look very different.

And so, yeah.

I don't even know if that answers your question, but that's

okay.

It's you, you've been, you've answered it honestly, you know, um, that's fine.

You, you, you don't have a, a crystal ball.

Um, so, you know, maybe that it just continues to develop organically and

then, uh, maybe that's ex something exciting to see where it leads.

Um, just touching on your point about bringing people together to be able to

collaborate on projects and things, um.

I would just mention that there was a couple of, episodes that I made

previously that, for, for anybody that's, that's watching or listening

to this, uh, you might wanna check out.

So there was, um, an interview that we did with Tom Lewith,

who is one of the co-founders of New Works, and Tom talked about.

Their approach to projects now, and they are taking an approach where they're being

more collaborative with how they work.

They're only focusing on certain work stages, and then they're

collaborating with other companies and partnering up with them to be

able to, you know, essentially do more of the work that they really enjoy

doing, and also be able to work on potentially bigger projects as well.

And there was another one that, um, Kevin Cannon, who, um, is an

architect from the States and he talked about building project-based teams.

So this idea of, rather than thinking about in order to grow your

practice, you need to hire extra staff members, you know, sort of,

uh, permanent staff or whatever.

He talked about this idea of, um, just bringing a team together for a project.

Like you could do with the people in the Scattered Hub that they

could all go, yeah, we could, we could all club together here, we

could work together on this project.

So, um, yeah, if you, if you're interested in that concept, then those episodes

are definitely worth checking out.

So it was just a little plug there for some of the other

content that we have here

It's interesting.

I didn't know about that, so I'm gonna check those, those people out as well.

Go and check 'em out.

I will send you the links after we get done with this recording.

If there's anybody that is, uh, has been listening or watching our conversation,

um, do you have any tips for them?

If they're thinking, oh, I'd quite like to launch some kind of community

group or discussion group, do you have any tips or recommendations for them?

Yeah, I guess I'd say that if they've got

ideas, I put them out there.

So that's a great way of testing your concept.

So I, people who know me well know that I like to share what I'm doing.

And I've found over the years actually, that more people I've talked to

about what I'm doing, the more advice I get because someone might just

say, oh, that sounds interesting.

Earlier we were saying that it's taken a long time to sell this podcast,

and that's partly been because I've not wanted to put myself out there.

I've sort of been a bit hesitant to put myself into what I call the

ether, but now I'm finding no, this is actually the best thing because the

more we all do this, then the more.

You know, creativity and innovation we can have.

So yeah, I guess that would be my main tip.

Don't, don't be afraid, I don't think, I think that with ideas, ev, every idea

actually probably could be considered a good idea as long as it's put

through the mill of different people having the chance to interrogate it.

Shape it and maybe even push back so that you can then push, you know, you can Yeah.

Refine your idea.

So yeah, that would probably be my, my

Hmm.

Okay.

I like that.

So you, you're encouraging people to.

Just test their ideas and put it out there, and then they can figure out what

works, what are the good ideas, and which are the ones that maybe not so good.

So, um, I think that is, that is a good, a very good suggestion, I think, because

you mentioned there about, you've been, you, you've been feeling like, you know,

a bit nervous maybe putting myself out there and, and talking on things like

podcasts, but you're doing it now.

You're doing it and you've been able to share, um, something of value today.

So that's been really great.

And you've got your new podcasting Mike now as well, so you

know, there's no stopping you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Gotta gotta get my money's worth

gotta get your money's worth outta that mic.

What were the main thing that you would like everyone to take

away from our conversation today?

Don't be afraid to fail.

'cause I've failed a lot and actually I've learned a lot from my

failures, but I couldn't see that.

Hindsight's a wonderful thing.

In the failure.

I was just like, in fact, October last year, I almost quit everything

because I was just, you know, and I'm saying this on a podcast, so

my clients are gonna see this.

But actually I just took a step back realized, no, you're

just having a tough time.

'cause you're self-employed, you're young, you've still got a lot to learn.

And so I just changed my mindset, but I didn't do that overnight.

I had to talk to people who were like, no, Josh, you know, don't just.

You're actually, you're being hard on yourself.

Just relax.

Just stop looking at LinkedIn and all these people saying they've turned,

they've made this and this and that.

Just, just do what you are good at.

that's the key thing.

Don't be afraid of failure and surround yourself with people who

reflect where you want to get to

Was there anything else you wanted to say that

we, we haven't already covered?

I think that it'd be really cool, and I know there are

architects doing this already, but if architects would start going to schools.

because architecture has lost a lot of relevance in that when I,

when I tell young people I'm an architect, I, I, I'm often surprised

by the fact that they ask me, what, what is an, what is an architect?

What does an architect do?

'cause people don't realize, actually, I think we're so used

to what we do and, and, and I, I guess architectural practitioners.

So everyone in this.

But we don't realize people don't actually understand what we do.

and actually it starts, we go to the grassroots and start in schools.

You know, I know we're busy, but surely we can make time for the next

generations because otherwise we'll have young people that think, oh, well,

architects don't make a lot of money, so I wanna be this person who, when

actually it's not about money, as we've said, you know, I get a lot of joy.

Just doing what I do and I think young people need to understand that choosing

a job because it's gonna pay you a six figure salary is not the road.

Well, it's not always the road.

So I don't want to disrespect anyone who has gone on that

road, but you know, it is.

That's not the only thing to pursue in life.

Yeah.

So true.

Um, thanks for sharing that, Joshua, really appreciate it.

I've got one question, last question for you.

What's one resource that you use in your business that you couldn't live without?

So this could be.

A website, an app, software, a book, podcasts, anything.

Ooh, that's a really good question.

Something I use in my business.

You know what?

Actually, I listen to a lot of podcasts, but non architecture ones.

So a lot of business pod related systems thinking I, I like learning.

Well, I, I like listening to stuff, you know, go for a walk.

So, and I watch a lot of dragons then and Shark Tank, and.

Actually, I've learned a, I've picked up a lot of business tips just from watching

people go on there and pitch their idea.

In the advent of ai, I actually have been following, um, the Google

DeepMind podcast that I've presented by Hannah Fry and Professor Hannah Fry.

But what I've been doing is I've been going, I've started at the very beginning.

I wanted to understand the hype behind ai.

Why is everyone so excited and in doing that, I've seen the work

of scientists I mean, what we're seeing of AI is just the surface.

And yes, there are people saying, oh, we need to be careful and, and we do.

Because it's, uh, I think it's gonna bring a new infrastructure, let's say.

I've just been getting excited because it's also helping me to see where I will

fit in the industry, because my company will use ai, but we're gonna do it

ethically and we're gonna be transparent.

We're not gonna start creating architecture of ai, but I think.

been really invaluable to, to be able to see what's under the hood, you

know, be able to see, understand, have the opportunity that actually

hasn't existed in the past to look behind the curtain and see, wow, so

this is actually what's going on.

This is the journey.

And so yeah.

That's been, that's been a current favorite

Oh, that sounds really good.

I'm gonna check that one out.

Um, we also made some AI themed episodes recently, so you might want to check out

the episode with, um, Brian McCartney and a recent episode with Tim Lewis as well.

So Tim's was about AI versus automation, and then Brian was talking about some.

Practical ways that architects and other service-based business owners

can use AI to do the tasks that they don't enjoy doing so they can

do more of the work that they love, you know, designing amazing spaces.

Josh, thank you so much for joining me today.

Really enjoyed the conversation.

Do you wanna just remind people the best place to connect with you online?

We've got the LinkedIn page, J Studio, um, we've

got the Instagram at J Studio and also we've got the website.

JDC studio.com or jdc.studio will also take you to the website.

different ways to get in touch and yeah, I'd, I'd love to connect with

like-minded individuals, people who are interested in what I've been

saying and talking about today.