287 | Future Earth and the Impact of Urbanism with Andrew Quarrie
Our guest this week on the pod is Andrew Quarrie. Andrew is the founder of the Urbanism Summit, the premeier multidisciplinary annual conferennce for real estate development professionals and community builders focused on the future of cities, their makers and dwellers.
This episode is sponsored by the coaching company of our host, Zelizer Consulting Services.
Resources mentioned in this episode include:
Future Earth and the Impact of Urbanism - an interview with Andrew Quarrie
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer, Andrew Quarrie
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you increase your positive impact your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app that helps more people learn how to have a positive impact or values based business. Thank you so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Andrew Quarrie. And our topic is Future Earth in the Impact of Urbanism. Andrew is the founder of the Urbanism Summit, the premier multidisciplinary annual conference for real estate development professionals, and community builders focus on the future of cities, their makers and their dwellers. Andrew, welcome to the show!
Andrew Quarrie 00:55
Thanks for having me, Paul. How are you doing today?
Paul Zelizer 00:57
I'm doing good. And full disclosure. I live in downtown Albuquerque live a walking, if we were talking a little bit about that before we hit record. So I am not the most neutral observer. I used to live on a farm. And that's where my kid was born and solar and gardening. And now I'm an urban dweller with a garden, you know, a small urban garden with my neighbors and my condo complex have full disclosure listeners. I am not a neutral observer.
Andrew Quarrie 01:28
And that's fine. That's great. You know, we all need farms. Right? You're
Paul Zelizer 01:33
right. And you are in southern Florida, right? Is that my endurance? Yeah,
Andrew Quarrie 01:38
I am in Miami, Florida.
Paul Zelizer 01:41
Cool. So before we get into this whole topic, Andrew, if I'm a listener on like, Who is this guy? And why is he so passionate about urbanism give us a little bit of the backstory?
Andrew Quarrie 01:51
Well, the way I say it is that most people often are not aware how their streets are drawn, how their neighborhoods are divided. The impact that creates when you separate people, historically, you know, through red line and things like that, basically, rather than building community urbanism, can you use a divide. And I really wanted to really focus on the topic to get folks who are typically not engaged in urban planning space, architectural space, or city planning, to get to know their urban planner and to get to know their politicians for rent policy around zoning and things like that. So they can be more active in how their community and places get designed and made. So you know, my passion is really about just getting people civically engaged, and bring it back and bring about a better approach to the design and build of of cities and communities.
Paul Zelizer 02:50
And before we hit record, enter, you said something to me, that really struck me, you said urbanism affects all aspects of your life. Now, yeah, I get that as a theory, but like, if I'm trying were known for getting granular on this podcast, if I'm trying to understand what what do you actually mean by that? And you help unpack that a little bit?
Andrew Quarrie 03:10
Well, you know, urbanism, and new urbanism, which focuses on, you know, building more dense, walkable cities and neighborhoods, it affects us in a way because, for instance, drawing a sidewalk so that pedestrians can have a better way of getting around moving around their neighborhood. It affects how we do deal with transportation, you know, public or other different types of types of transportation, such as bait, you know, basically, you're riding a bicycle. Do we have paths for those? Are there green spaces, so it affects your quality of life? How urbanism is designed in your neighborhood, because truly, you know, it's your live workplace space. So if you don't have quality parks, if you don't have quality, you know, design and housing, as far as density is concerned, then you end up being very focused on you know, driving, for instance, if you live in suburbs to get down to the city, miserable in an hour of traffic or two. So those are some ways that you know, urbanism truly impacts your quality of life.
Paul Zelizer 04:25
I went back and looked it up I know I'm in a fairly at least for the US walkable neighborhood, but there's this score cool. You probably know more about it than I called the walkability score and walk up and score. My walkability score for my condo with 82 which in the US and especially for the Western US is state like New Mexico that's not very common. And what that means is I can walk to several grocery stores there's a park not far away actually several parks but when fairly established, you know, beautiful trees, green space. We can go to restaurants like get all this without having to jump in the car, right. And that's not common in many cities around the world, especially many cities in the US. And the research is that humans are happier when we spend less time in the car. And we can do things like walk through a park or walk to a restaurant is that sort of thing?
Andrew Quarrie 05:19
Absolutely. And, you know, I was talking to a friend the other day, how they just, they just started a subscription subscription to a train that's recently built here in Miami, to hop between, you know, the cities here, the different municipalities, and he's like, I'm happier now, because I didn't, I don't have to drive an hour and a half in dealing with traffic, I can actually work on a train, I can, you know, there's Wi Fi. So it does affect, you know, the quality of life, in every aspect, to be able to have access to these type of transportation options. Yeah, if you if you need to, for instance, get to the grocery stores, and you have to hop in a car all the time, I mean, it's really not very productive. So what I'm saying is that with with the dependent on cars, is not the way forward because we cannot give every single person a car and expect to be gridlocked in traffic and have a happy, healthy life, most of these things are very stressful. Most times you're in traffic, you're very upset because someone cuts you off, or whatever might be on a train if you can, and you know, you can work from a train sometimes on the way to work or whatever it is, your destination will be. So I am truly a big advocate for reducing cars on streets and giving back to pedestrians, cyclists, more opportunity and more spaces to to actually do their thing.
Paul Zelizer 06:48
And the research, I've seen it again, I did a bunch of research before I moved to a more urban environment was that when humans are able to get around by walking by biking by public transportation, like a train, we tend to be both happier, we also tend to be more connected, we're like, we have more social connections, rather than to drive, you know, an hour to go meet a friend every single three hours in traffic in big cities, right just to see our friends, we tend to see them last then I have a friend who literally my gardening buddy lives right across my condo complex. And we're going back and forth, because we're recording this in February, and you can start to plan to march in Albuquerque and I was away and he grabbed a package and you know, like, like, that just improves our happiness and our physical health as well. Because we're walking or biking or, you know, going up and down the stairs to the train or whatever. Right. So yeah, that's some of the research I've seen that you know more about this than
Andrew Quarrie 07:50
it definitely you know, provides a more active an active lifestyle, a healthier lifestyle, you know, to be able to have a walkable neighborhood where your your grocery store is right around the corner, you know, the pharmacy, your friends are in the neighbors are there you get to see your neighbors, you know, the social aspects of it. All of that is, is a wonderful thing in in New Urban Design.
Paul Zelizer 08:16
So talk to us a little bit like, are you coming at this work from like, are you an urban planner or an architect? How did you find your way into this work from a professional training? Or was this more like, like myself, social entrepreneur, I don't have an MBA, I was just like, wow, that's really important. And I want to learn more, and somebody had a podcast, and now I make my living like it was a formal training or informal interest. How did you get into this?
Andrew Quarrie 08:42
Yeah, so here here in Miami, and years ago, about 2012 2014, I jumped into the tech, the tech space. And that focus was on build in connection between freelance writers and journalists, to connect with marketing agencies that need content written for them. So content, marketing, on demand, content, writing on demand. And I would host these meetups to discuss the state of tech here in the city of Miami. And I noticed the sort of, you know, the gathering really grew. And people were interested in, you know, what that's going to look like how we build a tech scene here. And I saw the community growing and I said, Well, let me open this up. Because we're talking about getting people engaged in community. I don't want it to just be so narrow, I want to awaken the mindset of folks around, you know, how neighborhoods are built, what impact in a policies will have on them on the environment, and housing and you know, as we're dealing with climate shifts and population growth, so I didn't come out of this as an actual formal training in urbanism. I saw this as an opportunity to engage community our Leaders and PNR activists and people in every different sector to show that it's all connected, because so much of what we do is fragmented. And everyone works in silos. And it's, you're in this discipline, you're in that discipline, what you don't really talk is not much crosstalk happening. So it was not a formal thing, training wise, but I saw that I, you know, I had an interest in a tech topic of building community. So I just wanted to open it up to urbanism where it affects all of us. So that's where it started.
Paul Zelizer 10:32
And Miami has seen a tremendous amount of growth, it's 11 or 12 years ago, a tremendous amount of growth
Andrew Quarrie 10:39
a lot. Skyline has definitely changed. Yes, yes.
Paul Zelizer 10:43
So somewhere along the way, you decided we need a summit on all of this, and you launch the urbanism Summit, tell us about the urbanism Summit, like what was behind this? Who tends to go, what do y'all talk about?
Andrew Quarrie 10:59
Yeah. So yeah, the urbanism summit, I started around 2016 2017. And we hosted the first one, and the design district to Miami design district, we had a full day conference, you know, over 100 professionals came to this conference, it's the focus was really on how we, you know, focus on building cities, that are really in tune with how nature works, and also addressing the the growth of population, you know, based upon the UN sustainability goals, and, you know, the prediction around, you know, how much more, we're going to be densely populated. In the next, say, you know, 20 plus years, and urban planners are key to to this narrative around how we're going to address this growth and how we're going to address the climate change. So we had very, you know, somebody different topics that really addressed that which we certainly involved, you know, tech, in design. Some of it was about, you know, impact around activism, our culture, walkability of neighborhoods, again, you know, wellness, in architecture, and so on. But all of it was concentrated on really getting all these different disciplines into the same room, and have them spend a day together, address these topics in a way that we can really go out and essentially collaborate afterwards, and not just have, you know, another conference with with a bunch of panelists, but actually tried to go out and implement these ideas. So that's how we got going.
Paul Zelizer 12:49
One other thing that was really excited to have you on the show, Andrew, you're really looking at something holistically, and so many things that I'm passionate about and our audience as well. You know, there's the piece about growing a local economy, you know, if you go back 1215 years, Miami wasn't as well known as the tech space, and you're part of growing that sector. So the economic development, the, the climate issues, you talked about the collaboration that you've had of late with a wonderful group called the C word of the collective, or I'll put a link to them in the show notes. You're talking about redlining and you know, the equity issues of urbanism and urban planning and who's, you know, been steered towards living in certain places and not living in certain places, and what that means in terms of quality of life and wealth building, you know, there are so many issues, the SDGs, and how we can pay attention to things like climate and, and grow a community, but do it in harmony with nature, as opposed to harming nature. That's a very holistic view, anything that you've learned about, you know, how to combine these different impact areas in a holistic way? And any like balls that have gotten dropped? Or, or mistakes or places, you said, Oh, I wish I did something a little different with this big holistic view.
Andrew Quarrie 14:15
Yeah. Yeah, it has to be a holistic view. Because so much of our time is spent focusing so narrowly on things and we should definitely open up the lens to get that wide view because it it is all connected in perhaps, you know, one discipline is struggling trying to figure out a solution when you have the answer by just you know, talk and collaborate and sitting down at the table together. I see that, you know, when it comes to the summit and what work I'm trying to do or what work I am doing, and have done is that once you bring people together and they start talking about these things, you break bread together. Are they really open up to ideas that basically, they can implement as a group rather than as an individual? I say that that that happens quickly that there's that there's a need for committee, there's still that thirst for getting out of my box, and just really trying to focus on, on collaboration. I've seen that a lot within a summit. So people people do want to work together, it's just that you have to gather them to have this proposed this idea of shifting mindset in a way that we can get results around any any sort of, you know, endeavor. And I so happen to focus on urbanism. So, you know, you talked about see where the collective their focus on ocean and regenerative solutions for of course, because Sure, our oceans stay healthy. So whether it's clean up, or tech around, you know, farming, or, you know, ocean farming, bass farming, or, you know, desalination or just protecting, you know, the life that dwells there. But at times, you know, with regards to like, see where see where the collective, they focus on regenerative solutions for the ocean, of course, protecting the ocean, keeping the ocean healthy, and also trying to use that as an economic tool as well. But being that majority of the Earth's surface, right is is definitely water. But it's all connected. So when I get on when I got on the advisory board for seaworthy, my goal was also bring them into the urbanism Summit, which focuses on you know, urban planning and, and land and right, so the terrestrial versus the ocean, but it's all connected. So whatever we do online, all ultimately affects what what happens the ocean, for instance, when real estate developers build on the bay, they run offs from the construction site affects the quality of water, or even destroys the sea life. And that's what happened here in Miami. And so how do we get developers to really think consciously about solutions for making sure they can mitigate any issue of those runoffs and the chemicals and the things that ended up in the bay. So I really feel that looking at everything, in a context of a very holistic package is super important in the way that we approach how we should approach life. And, of course, definitely, in our urban planning and urban development.
Paul Zelizer 17:37
And I can well imagine a city like Miami, why this partnership with the city where the collection is so important, it's such a beautiful, and you just think of, you know, boats and beaches, and it's such a part of the place you then so what a wonderful collaboration into something you said that really inspired me and I used to work for a large conference in Silicon Valley. So I done a bit of time in the conference space, you talked about, you didn't want it to just be a gathering that everybody's kind of like, you know, had a bunch of panels, and then they left? What are some of the things you've learned about how you can leverage a conference or a summit environment to lead towards sustainable change and sustainable collaboration as opposed to like one and done See you next year?
Andrew Quarrie 18:26
Yeah. You know, it's, it took me years to get to the point where I, I figured out well, I need to keep this going not just once a year, because people will forget. And so I started doing them monthly, twice a month meetup among those professionals. So that way, we can connect architects, the developers, the urban planners, policymakers, the realtors, and community activists, just too, we have, you know, networkers mixers, sometimes I'll have invited guests. So we, we split it into a meetup that ultimately leads up to the main conference. But on top of that, now, a startup came out of it. Herb Landia, which focuses on neighborhood intelligence data, to help real estate developers do better within those within the context of neighborhoods. So talking about ESG, environmental, social governance impact, we're focusing on creating a framework of metrics that will help the developers figure out how they're going to impact community, ultimately, how they're, how they're going to implement change in those communities that will be positive. You know, talk about add in, you know, credits for urban farm in entrepreneurship, investing in schools, the walkability to active spaces. So the progress the natural progress of this was essentially, yet not just The Conference and the meetups, but ultimately a platform where everyone will stay connected, and also be able to measure their impact over time. You know,
Paul Zelizer 20:09
one of the things we're known for on this podcast, Andrew is to get really granular because we have really dedicated social entrepreneur listeners. And they want me to ask so. So just a little patience here, if you don't mind. So the urbanism Summit, you're now today in February 2023. As we're recording this, you're like, seven, eight years there. And then you have a spin off, you know, startup, called the herb blend. Yeah. So tell us a little bit like when, in the process of the summit, did you say okay, now we're ready for a more granular startup that focuses on these very specific issues, in addition to the conference in the meetup. So when did our blandy a start in the journey of urbanism being the place, you planted your flag to have an impact.
Andrew Quarrie 20:56
So, Herb Landia, started about two years ago, during the height of the, I guess, the pandemic, we can host our conference in person, obviously, no one had a conference in person. So we went online with that we did a very small, but I was very much the same now. I was very much fixed on I need to do a conferences here, regardless of what's happening in the world. So I did an online version of it. And while I was doing this, it's like, you know, it's time to really make something that scale the conference once a year, it's not scalable. So we wanted to make sure that all the data, the conversations that I've had panels have hosted, the people I've talked to the feedback, I've gotten the testimonials, etc. How do we spin this into something where it can become a tool, and, you know, urbania was born as a result of that. So we looked at ESG as a base. I know sometimes people don't really think through ESG as an effective tool, because they're not one framework within this context of how you measure impact. But we're working on that for urbanism and urban development, so that the conference has informed me, you know, I have to do it for so many years, just having conversations and really being among these different groups of people, that this time at this point was natural progression to to jump into something more scalable. And that's what I was born.
Paul Zelizer 22:35
Just having conversations, I just, I want to push back on that a little bit, because I think, is one of the most powerful transformative things, especially getting people who ordinarily up in siloed, but each have a bit of the wisdom, the power, the resources, the knowledge. And so I love what you're doing, and I don't I don't want to minimize those conversations. I think that's beautiful. And I love that you found a more granular, more like social enterprise focus of like, alright, the conference is great. But now we need to like bake it into what's actually getting built in our community. And it's time for a startup that focuses on that. So I love community, I love dialogue, and alpha lung really rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. And it sounds like the two brands. You have the dialogue gathering community brand. And you have to like, Okay, what's going to get built where and how do we do it as sustainably as something that enhances community as opposed to detract from community as possible? Is that a fair top level assessment of these two brands?
Andrew Quarrie 23:44
Absolutely. And, and furthermore, I really wanted to start out focusing on those historically, blighted communities, segregated communities, the ones that remain very rundown, and the quality of life really just is not there. And, you know, throughout the United States, we have over 8700, plus opportunity zones, as they're dubbed for, for different tax reasons, you know, companies go in have to invest a certain amount of money, keep their money there, and those neighborhoods, and then, you know, they get their tax break after X amount of years doing that, but I'm focused on the human impact. You know, a lot of developers go into communities, they've Bible land quickly, they don't really go in and consult with the actual people who live there. And sometimes they destroy the fabric of that community rather than being inclusive. So we definitely need better. Better leadership in those neighborhoods in those those teams that are actually going out to these communities and saying, Okay, how are we going to read you do redevelopment in a conscious way that we actually are trying to be as inclusive as possible, but still make our money right because at the end of Today, developers hate to say this majority of them don't care about the social impact, or the social good hits the bottom line. And we want to definitely have that mindset shift happen. And this is why we do our summits. And this is why we're glad it exists.
Paul Zelizer 25:18
So let's do this in a moment, I want to come back and unpack a little bit more about what the each of these two brands are doing, how you combine this into a sustainable revenue source for you. So you can live well, Andrew, and a bunch of other questions about urbanism, and what people who want to move the needle in their cities cando. Before we do that, I just want to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. Are you facing one or more important decisions in your impact business, and you'd like an experienced thought partner to develop a plan about how to proceed in the complex times we're living. But you don't feel the need for an extended coaching or consulting contract that's going to cost you many 1000s of dollars, you're looking for an affordable, targeted and time efficient type of support. Through Paul zelizer.com, I offer a strategy session package. These packages are ideal for entrepreneurs who are facing 123 immediate decisions, like how to increase your positive impact, fine tune your marketing strategies to get more results for less effort, launch a new product or service successfully, or refine your pricing structure. So it's both inclusive, and provides you with a great quality of life. You can find out more by clicking below. And thank you so much for listening to this podcast. So welcome back, everybody. In the second part of the show, we like to joke about putting on our entrepreneur glasses. Okay, so Andrew, we got the top level urbanism and why it's important and being holistic, and some of the factors that are really people to bring to the table. Now let's talk a little bit about how does this all work as an enterprise. So like, are these two ventures are the now your primary source of livelihood?
Andrew Quarrie 27:11
So the conference, obviously is an annual once a year thing. And but the meetups happen twice a month. So that sponsorship, that's you know, ticket sales and whatnot, are bland, there is now also a focus on subscription base. So it's a SaaS product. And so both combined right now are planned is very early. But yes, combined, they are my primary. And I do also do some consulting work with different real estate developers, architectural firms, general contractors, to help with help them design decide on how to implement, you know, these sort of this, this this ethos into their product and services that they they offer, you know, they're the environmental impact, the social impact. That's, that's where I'm at right now.
Paul Zelizer 28:05
Nice. So the urbanism Summit, and that's the conference itself. Now also several meetups a month at sponsorships, ticket sales, etc, there. There's a blend dia, which is a SaaS product. And that's get ramping up two years into a SaaS product, I have an idea of what that journey looks like. So if I'm a listener, I'm like, okay, I get that. And you're scaling that. And then there's some consulting on these issues, that individual real estate developers or a neighborhood or an urban planning community group could hire you. And you're well known because of these other activities, it's kind of natural that you could help a particular group or company, make some informed decisions and best practices as opposed to tear the social fabric of a community apart, do environmental damage, you could build, and you can actually do it in a way that enhances the social fabric increases the what's available to nature and the green spaces, and really has positive impact in terms of the economy of that neighborhood, as opposed to tear it apart. Fair to say.
Andrew Quarrie 29:12
Absolutely fair to say. Certainly. Yeah, it's it's, it all comes together. It's all connected. And certainly, everything you said is exactly what we're working on.
Paul Zelizer 29:25
And just a question into no right or wrong, but I'd see different strategies when people have what we would sometimes call multiple streams of revenue. Like sometimes it's very carefully planned out, I'm going to start to urbanism Summit, and then, you know, five years in then I'm going to launch herb Landia. And that's going to be a SaaS product, and we're gonna get some funding and build it out. And then I'm going to do the consult like, on the continuum of very strategic and you know, having dates and action steps, and, you know, being quite formal on your timeline, versus being relatively early. ganache and like, oh, somebody asked me if I could do some consulting. And now like, I'm gonna look into that and say yes to that, like, on the formal to informal style of growing these enterprises, where would you put yourself, I would say,
Andrew Quarrie 30:13
this happened very organically, because when I started this summit, focus, really, it was not even about a business idea, it was just more, I really wanted to bring community together, bring everyone to focus on doing better, especially with the historically marginalized communities throughout the US. But really, just just getting people to come out and be engaged, you know, see how we can be make change happen in a positive way. And then once it started going, I saw the of course, the the feedback, you know, CD engagement, I took off with it as a business. And then, of course, you know, the natural progression had to be something about something I feel that had to be scalable. So I've always thought about, well, how can I create the most impact, it's not going to be just secrete doing one conference here in Miami, I need to put it to put together a tool that can be utilized in all of these offices, the developer, you know, the urban planners, and architects. So I wanted to make sure that I have a tool that could help create this impact at scale. And so that's why Eric Lander came about and came about. So I guess, part, organic, but also, you know, strategically planning for how we combine these enterprises, as you say, to create the most impact over time, let's start certainly started out organically.
Paul Zelizer 31:41
One of the things he said, Andrew, I want to highlight on pull out a highlight or circle of how much listening to the community and being of service to historically marginalized communities, how much that was the leading factor, and not leading with monetization or market research, all those things are great. But like, he really was like, hey, there's something going on here. And I care and I want to bring people together. And not everybody starts that way. But I do want to quote, some research. And I'll put a link in the show notes. There's a wonderful researcher in the Detroit area who's working with the University of Michigan, I believe. And they did a bunch of research on more typical accelerators, and the what happens when social entrepreneurs go into more typical business accelerators. And the result is the failure rate radically go up. Right, these are things that are supposed to help us succeed as business owners. And for Social Entrepreneurs, it has a very negative impact. And the thinking this is a newer research, there's a lot more coming out there. But the thinking is that more traditional business approaches miss that taking the time getting to know the community, particularly when we're working with historically marginalized communities. So I just wanted to highlight what you did there. And the approach you took of listening and gathering people and having intent to be helpful, but not coming in with this like multi layered plan that you went out and got a ton of capital to create the SAS product first, right, which might be something you might see in a more typical accelerator. And again, I'll put a link in the show notes, but mostly what I just want to serve circle for you with a highlighter listener, just notice how much Andrew cared. He knew which communities he wanted to help, he had a sense of who has an impact in these communities in outsized ways, and brought them together, the activist, the urban planner, right, the architect, and the real estate developer, all folks who might not necessarily talk to each other, and started with the dialogue and the conversations and then built an enterprise from that. I think there's a lot of wisdom in that, Andrew, and I really appreciate you sharing that with our listeners.
Andrew Quarrie 33:56
Thank you for that highlight.
Paul Zelizer 33:58
So if I'm a listener, Andrea, and I'm like, you know, I live in a city and we have some things in our city that aren't so great. We have opportunity zones or areas where there's food deserts, or you know, not everybody has access to green spaces or their building like crazy in a way that's not necessarily so great for people who've lived here a long time. What would you suggest for somebody who's not if you're in Miami, well go check out what's going on in Miami. There's some awesome things you can go join. But if I'm not in Miami, I live somewhere else. And I am also resonating with some of the issues that you're talking about what's available to our listeners who are in that position.
Andrew Quarrie 34:37
So there are a lot of really great resources out there. One one of them I'm very excited about is actually Supernature Labs, which is really creating shift as well in thinking in urban design, urban planning, with a new we're calling it bio planning and this is, was founded by A designer, an architect Jor. Benza. tritt. And so I've actually hosted your answer and talk about how rethinking urban planning will impact our planet and the quality of life and, and and how we live to our wellness. But you could check out supernatural labs, of course, there's a Climate Reality Project, you know, the Congress Congress for New Urbanism have a lot of really great resources, as well to kind of dive into how you can be proactive in in and being involved in your local community to help affect those changes. And, of course, look at your, your, your city hall and what they're doing when they when it comes to when they have their meetings around, you know, issues that affects you. So that, you know, you show up to those meetings, and you can not only listen to you sit down and listen, you also give your feedback, when it's time for open comments and things like that. So everyone can do their part, even if it's a small part. But you definitely have to start somewhere, you know, learn what's available to you, as you know, in your community. But definitely get out there and do something about it. Start a bike club, I don't know if cyclin. You know, gates that are run club, a walking club, to kind of highlight the importance of proper sidewalks and, and pedestrian, you know, you know, the pedestrian forward design. Great,
Paul Zelizer 36:32
thanks for those resources and listeners, I'll put Supernature labs and Congress of new urbanism in the show notes. What another great resource. Andrew, you have a conference coming up? As I understand tell us about this year's urbanism some?
Andrew Quarrie 36:47
Yes. So we were back in a design district this year. And it will be May 23. We're focused again, again, a lot of these topics kind of their get reframed, but they're really about the same thing all the time, we had a walkability, how we're affecting our planet, or we're building in harmony, are we talking to each other? While we're employing tech, you know, in all of our processes as far as making things more efficient? And of course, how are we helping community and in the housing, and entrepreneurial space? So it remains, you know, the future of Earth and urbanism and new urbanism? What what is our impact in the next 20 years? And how does that look, from our perspective, from all these disciplines, one of the things that I would like to see is to actually start hosting these competitions within the actual conference is around designing an indestructible city, what does that look like if you were to design a city that can withstand all the unforeseen shocks, you know, natural disasters, manmade disasters? What does that look like, as far as building a city that is indestructible, but also serves, you know, everyone being as inclusive, and I say, No, be as inclusive as possible, resilient, and very future thinking, you know, harmony with nature, all those things. So these are things I'm playing with, as far as you know, for the next year, not this one. But next year to implement a competition, where architects and planners will come together and kind of, you know, innovate and think through what the future cities to look like. So if you can get
Paul Zelizer 38:33
to Miami in May, I'll put a link in the show notes, check out the urbanism Summit. So enter, you got these multiple different vendors. If we look at the urbanism Summit, we've got a Landia. And SaaS product is coming online, and you're scaling that you're consulting with people, like, look ahead, if you were going to look ahead three to five years, what do you see happening in each of these buckets that we just need?
Andrew Quarrie 39:00
Yeah, in five years, I would like to be able to do the urbanism Summit, as a tauren conference. So we'll actually go the different cities around the country, and hopefully, internationally as well, with horses or Blandina, who like to see a lot more real estate development firms really implementing this as a standard as far as when they think about ESG. And they think about neighborhoods, especially, you know, an opportunity zones. And I use opportunity zone as a way to kind of narrow down on our focus, but really, what it just means is, it's communities that have been historically, you know, exploited and segregated and rundown as a result of just terrible planning, but also people not really caring about as their social impact. So, we want to have those buckets scale in both the urbanism summit and Landia itself. And if I'm still available to if I have some time left over, I'll do some consulting work still, because it's important to talk to our organizations. And, you know, these firms and in all these disciplines to help guide because you know, what are taken on an advisor, position, board position for certain for certain organizations, it's super important that we keep our voices out there to keep a community actively listening and participating.
Paul Zelizer 40:30
In, there's two main buckets of listeners, we have one or more established social entrepreneurs like yourself, they know their impact area, they have a product or service or both that already has product market fit, people are like, Ooh, this is this is good, I like this, they're buying it, they have revenue, and they're looking to increase their scale. And they want to help more people grow their company, they want to make opportunities for other people to join their team and do work that feels values align, there's having really positive impact for that bucket of folks, folks who have been around for a little while and are saying, I am ready to have a bigger impact in the world, what would you suggest? What have you learned what kind of resources might you suggest for somebody in that situation,
Andrew Quarrie 41:19
but those who have already, you know, gotten there, you know, there have had success for a while now. I would say if you're looking to scale your impact, think about, you know, how you create accelerators, what companies you invest in, whether you do that, individually, or as a syndicate, whatever it might be. Those are, those are just some simple ways. You can go into community and help other social entrepreneurs, with the funding with the resource demands that you know, the mentorship, whether you know, whether it's capital, or it's just, you know, being able to be around to give advice. But creating a hub, or a vehicle, where you can bring all these ideas into a space where you can help them grow. And then, you know, essentially, release them to the world to continue their impact, because now you're now multiplying yourself, and you're scaling yourself. And I believe that doing things like that could be a path forward, you know, whether it's investment, creating a hub, accelerators, incubators, talking with government, and see how you can help them be a better, you know, stored in community with the resources that they have in connecting community, and entrepreneurs, to actually create more impact, impactful businesses, and, and community organizations and things like that.
Paul Zelizer 42:55
You know, all those are great suggestions. The second bucket of listeners, we have Andrew there, they're the next generation of impact leaders. So they probably have some sense of their impact area, or maybe they aren't quite clear, but they're still working on, you know, building out the product or the service. Or maybe it's like they have an early iteration, and they have some revenue, but it's not yet a full time, you know, enterprise and they're wanting to get to more viability, they're wanting to like really start to turn it into a social enterprise that they can say, I'm proud of this, we're having an impact. Yes, it's not perfect, but they're not quite there yet. What would you say to that person?
Andrew Quarrie 43:37
Keep going. Don't give up. I know, this is the sort of work, especially in early stages, you know, when you hear people say social impact. Traditional investors are not really keen to Oh, well. It just sounds very kumbaya show, you know, what exactly are you do? What's your social impact? How do you measure this? And how is it going to make me money? I say focus on really a course, are in and out what that looks like, as far as your Pat actual making a profit and do making money, you know, and making money but don't lose, lose the core reason why you started. And you you are out here for a reason. You're trying to affect community trying to improve people's lives. You know, you're trying to better certain systems or change systems. And I know it's, it can be hard work. But it's very rewarding to know what your legacy the legacy you're creating, and how you will impact lives, not just now in your lifetime, but and you know, many moons to come. So I would say just keep going. Look for your resources that are out there within whatever space, whether you're in tech or not, but look for the people who are innovating and try to look at those examples and how you can implement that into your own products and services and your own path, but don't lose who you are in the process. Remember why you started? But yes, do focus on also, you know, get into a profitable space as well.
Paul Zelizer 45:11
Great suggestion. Andrew, I could hang out with you all day you're doing such fabulous work. And I know you got a lot going on. And so to our listeners, if there was something you were hoping we would cover, and we haven't gotten to it yet, or there's something you'd like to leave our listeners with, as we start to say, Goodbye. What would that be?
Andrew Quarrie 45:31
Well, I mean, all you've done a great job, and thanks for the interview. You've covered a lot. And the other thing I would say is, you know, in this time, where it seems like there's so much chaos, right in the world, and it had always has been, it always seems that way. But I think it's important for us to focus really on our own wellness, our own mindset, in our mental health is super important. Because it's hard to try to change a world when you yourself need to focus on how you're changing. How are you, you know, approach in life, because all of us, it comes back down to mindset. This is a reason why I created the conference. You know, people were very siloed very focused on traditional methods. And we're we're so entrenched in our ways, we don't get the right sort of innovation happening. And we don't, we're stuck to certain methods and methodologies that are not really scalable, around our, our impact and the kind of impact that we want to create. So we get stuck in that pattern. So I would just say, make sure that you're focused on how your mind has been changed before you go out and try to change the world. That's very important for me,
Paul Zelizer 46:49
one of our core values that our partners as well being so you're talking about, like so many social entrepreneurs are like let me change the world. We like burn ourselves out and crash and burn and then whatever happened to Paul, I thought he was doing that awesome, badass and crashed and burned. And faceplant did because he didn't take good care. Anyway, yes,
Andrew Quarrie 47:09
is important. And I agree,
Paul Zelizer 47:12
like off the charts amount of agreement over here. Andrew, thank you so much for being on the show today. You're doing just fabulous work. And I really appreciate you taking some time with us today.
Andrew Quarrie 47:22
Well, thank you for having me. Really appreciate your time with you.
Paul Zelizer 47:25
So listeners, as always, please take a look in the show notes. Go check out the urban urbanism Summit, go check out herb Landia checkout, if you need a consultant, we hear somebody who really knows their stuff, please go check it out, as well as the other awesome resources that Andrew shared. Before we go. I just want to say it happened again. Andrew is here because one of our former guests in a dear friend of mine, Kim Novak said you need to talk to Andrew and here we are. I tell you that story. Big shout out to Kim. Thank you. You're right, Kim, this is a wonderful fit. I tell you that story because we love listener suggested topics and guests. If you have an idea of a show topic, even if you don't know who to bring on, or you have like, oh, you really need to talk to this person, Paul, go to the AWARE printers website. And on our contact page, we have three simple guidelines, we try to be super clear about what we're looking for. We do get more pitches than I can say yes to unfortunately. But those guidelines will give you a pretty clear idea of you're checking those boxes, there's a really good chance it's a fit, please send in your ideas. So for now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.