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AEC Marketing for Principals

AEC Marketing for Principals

By: Katie Cash and Judy Sparks
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AEC Marketing for Principals is the go-to podcast for leaders in the commercial real estate, architecture, engineering, and construction industries who are passionate about advancing their firms through strategic marketing. Brought to you by Smartegies, the leading growth consulting firm for the built environment, this podcast dives deep into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by principals and senior leaders.

© 2026 AEC Marketing for Principals
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Episodes
  • The Evolving Role of AEC Marketing Inside JE Dunn’s Industrial Business Unit
    Jun 24 2026

    AEC marketing is shifting from a reactive, proposal-driven function into a strategic discipline that drives demand. Justin Davidson of JE Dunn has helped lead that change from the inside.

    Katie Cash talks with Justin about how that shift played out inside one of the country's largest builders, where JE Dunn built a dedicated vertical market model for its fast-growing industrial and manufacturing practice. He shares why a strong digital footprint now wins work from clients who find the firm online, and how video content and AI-optimized search are reshaping the way owners choose their builders.

    Whether you support a single office or a national vertical, these lessons will help you move upstream and earn a seat at the strategy table. Listen to hear how JE Dunn turned marketing into a growth engine.

    • AEC marketing
    • construction marketing strategy
    • marketing and business development alignment
    • vertical market marketing
    • video marketing for construction
    • content generation
    • industrial and manufacturing construction
    • digital footprint for AEC firms
    • AI optimized search
    • JE Dunn

    Connect with Justin Davidson, Marketing Director - Advanced Facilities Group, JE Dunn

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindavidson09/

    JE Dunn: https://jedunn.com/


    Connect with Katie Cash:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/

    https://smartegies.com/

    Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:

    We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals. Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you.

    Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!

    And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.



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    50 mins
  • How to Build a Data-Driven Growth System for AEC Firms with ProjectMark's COO, Noel Brady
    Jun 3 2026

    If your firm is still waiting for the RFP to show up before getting serious about winning the work, you are already behind.

    Katie Cash chats with Noel Brady, Co-Founder and COO of ProjectMark, the CRM built specifically for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. They talk about what it actually takes to build a firm that grows with intention. Noel challenges the deeply ingrained belief that winning work is about personal relationships alone and makes the case that sustainable growth requires systematizing those relationships so they become a firm-wide asset rather than a liability that leaves when a key person leaves. From pipeline conversion ratios to the go/no-go decisions firms get wrong, this episode is an honest guide to replacing gut instinct with clean, actionable data.

    Noel and Katie also dig into the cultural and behavioral shifts that distinguish firms that merely talk about being data-driven from those that actually do it. If your firm is ready to stop reacting and start leading, this episode is the place to start.

    • AEC business development

    • CRM for AEC firms

    • architecture engineering construction marketing

    • AEC firm growth strategy

    • go/no-go decisions AEC

    • pipeline conversion ratio

    • data-driven AEC

    • seller doer AEC

    • project pursuit strategy

    • RFP strategy architecture firms


    Connect with Noel Brady, Co-Founder & COO, ProjectMark

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noel-brady-mscsi-mrics-aaaa4547/

    ProjectMark: https://www.projectmark.com/


    Connect with Katie:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/

    https://smartegies.com/

    Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:

    We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals. Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you.

    Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!

    And if you haven’t done so already, give the podcast a follow, and you'll be notified when new episodes come out.



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    37 mins
  • Inside The Modern AEC Marketer with Judy Sparks
    May 6 2026

    The old AEC marketing playbook is no longer enough, and as the AEC truth teller, Judy Sparks is here to say what the industry has been too polite to admit out loud… the way you’ve always done it is quietly costing you work.

    Judy Sparks, Founder and CEO of Smartegies and Amazon bestselling author of "The Modern AEC Marketer," joins Katie Cash for a candid milestone conversation. This is episode 100, and they are celebrating with some long-overdue industry truths. The way you’ve always done work as an AEC firm has changed. And it’s time for your firm to catch up.

    There is a disconnect between how AEC leaders think about marketing and how marketing actually works. Judy talks about the gap, from treating the marketing funnel as a discipline rather than a diagram, to why top-of-funnel investment is where most firms are quietly losing ground. She also walks through a practical alignment exercise that will quickly reveal who your firm’s highest-value customers are and how to reach them.

    If you are ready to advocate for a seat at the leadership table, this episode will help create a clearer path for you to get there.


    Connect with Judy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judysparks/

    Connect with Katie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kacash/

    https://smartegies.com/

    Grab Judy Sparks’ new book, The Modern AEC Marketer: How the Next Generation Will Lead the Industry Forward: https://a.co/d/0hNpFy1G

    Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts:

    We hope you’re finding value in our AEC Marketing For Principals. Your feedback is important to us and we’d love to hear from you.

    Here’s how you can help. Scroll to the bottom, rate our podcast with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let us know what you found most helpful from this episode!



    Show More Show Less
    48 mins
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