Founder Insights: Morgan Chawaga - Architect & Wellness Coach - The Healthy Architect

Firm & Founder

Morgan Chawaga is a licensed architect who has transitioned to a career coach and has spent the last 2 years building The Healthy Architect whose mission is to empower architects to design and build a healthy relationship with their career.  

Her work focuses on many aspects including stress management, one-on-one & group coaching, increasing salary and reducing working hours with case studies to support all her work.

She had previously worked as an architect, earning her B.Arch in 2014 and M.Arch in 2016.

Morgan brings a fresh perspective to starting a business that isn’t directly a design practice but still focuses on design professionals.

Morgan’s Key Takeaways

• Transitioned from a traditional architecture career to creating a coaching agency after experiencing multiple burnouts.

• The coaching agency provides workshops and one-on-one coaching for architects and design professionals on stress management, burnout prevention, and negotiating higher salaries and reduced hours.

• Outreach and marketing take about four hours daily, with the remaining time dedicated to coaching and workshops.

• Different marketing funnels target architecture firms (via LinkedIn) and individual architects (via Instagram and Facebook).

• The decision to niche down to architects was driven by frustration over the lack of action regarding mental, physical, emotional, and financial health in the architecture industry.

• Virtual workshops are preferred due to their wider reach and efficiency.

• The founder contracts professionals like a burnout coach and yoga instructor for specific services. A business coach, grant specialist, and podcast editor also support the business.

• Morgan believes the architecture profession’s culture of overwork and lack of business education contributes to widespread burnout.

Website & Content

Q&A with Morgan

What factors led to the creation of a coaching agency for architects pursuing healthier lifestyles, and what services do you primarily offer?

I got licensed shortly after graduating and began climbing the corporate ladder and basically, that led to burning out multiple times. After the last time of burning out I thought, there's got to be a different way. There's got to be a better way to create impactful architecture, but also enjoy my life again and love my life again. So I started delving into stress management and different types of stress management and how to implement it as a busy architect and as a busy mom.

The Healthy Architect has been around for a little over a year now and we help other architects design and build a healthier relationship with their careers. We not only work with architecture firms but other design firms as well, we provide workshops; stress management workshops and burnout prevention workshops. 1-on-1 coaching with architects and design professionals as well.

Did you feel ready to start your business, or was there a lot to figure out?

It's a little bit of both, to be honest, but I would lean on the side of, I never feel like I'm good enough, or that I'm 100% ready. And that's a part of it, feeling those feelings of insecurity or imposter syndrome, and allowing yourself to feel that and then doing it anyway.

I have to tell myself every day to just keep going. I've got a mission. I've got something to accomplish, and it's not a straight line. It's going to be ups, it's going to be downs, but the consistency is where it's at. Just continue doing it every single day.

What does a typical day look like?

Every day is different, what's consistent is my self-care. I workout every morning at 5am.  I take micro snack walks every single day, multiple times a day. My self-care within working is consistent and my outreach is consistent. I try to spend, give or take four hours a day on outreach. That might mean social media posts, that might be emails, that might mean applying for a conference or just getting the word out there about the healthy architect. Then the other four hours are actually coaching and doing the actual tool itself.

Do you have a sales process and pipeline?

I have a funnel for Instagram and Facebook, and then I have a separate funnel for LinkedIn. So LinkedIn, I'm marketing more to the architecture firms, per se, and on Instagram and Facebook, I'm more marketing to the individual architect or design professional.

I give information, I give value, and then I go in for the; here's your solution. For example, here are the five different types of stress architects experience. Here is what you should look out for, and stress with your colleagues, your coworkers, etc. And here's the solution, which is a stress management workshop with The Healthy Architect.

Something else that I do is when I create content, I make sure that I squeeze every drop out of it that I can. So in the mornings, I create a post, whatever it is. I put it on Instagram, which automatically goes to Facebook. I reword it for LinkedIn sometimes, and then I also reword it for my email list as well. So I try to get every single drop out of that content so I'm not having to rework everything 10 times.

What led to focusing solely on design professionals over a more general audience?

I went for the architecture niche because it was very frustrating.  Everybody was talking about how stressful our community and our industry is and they weren't doing anything about it, and that was really frustrating to me.

So I decided I'm going to actually do something about it, because I don't feel like anybody else really is dedicating their career to do something about it, to take action and not just sit behind the scenes and talk about our industry.

I don’t believe that this is what architecture should be like. And because I know architects, I am an architect, I know exactly how to speak to architects to get them motivated and encouraged to work on their mental health and their physical health. That's the primary reason I narrowed it down to architecture.

I still work with other professionals. I'm doing corporate workshops, meditation workshops in Louisville and virtual for individuals that are not architects. I still do wellness outside of the architecture profession, I just don't market it virtually.

What is one short-term goal for The Healthy Architect?

Trying to create as much impact as possible within the architecture community. Over the next year or so, I'd like to be doing four workshops a month. Right now, I'm probably doing two workshops a month.

So four to eight workshops a month, I would like to be outputting workshops left and right. Going towards that, I'm speaking at two conferences, one in October and one in November. That's my long-term goal, workshops in and out all day long.

What brings in the majority of income for your business?

The workshops are the more expensive options. Right now they are $2,000 which is very low for market standards. The industry standard is probably $6,000 per workshop.

Right now I've priced mine at $2000 because I'm still figuring out the market right now, and brand awareness and name recognition, all of those other things. I'm also giving away a lot of workshops for free.  When I present my workshops, at the end of them I say, here's how you can continue working with me other than a workshop. Then I funneled those individuals into the wellness hub for architects.

Do you have a preferred way to conduct and manage workshops?

I like virtual, the reason I like it is because my outreach is bigger. So I can work with firms that need my help quickly in Portland and I don't have to plan around my children, fly out there, spend money, and come back.

I like doing those every so often. I'm going to Nashville in October, and Hershey, Pennsylvania in November so I love the variety.

But I prefer virtual because I can get more done quicker. Another thing I've noticed and learned is some of the firms I work with say we want you in person. 

How's your team formatted?

They are on contract. I basically sell their services, schedule, and coordinate them, and then I offer them to architecture firms.

For instance, the burnout coach does a certain specific workshop, and I market that to architecture firms.  We record them for architects, and then we offer her services to architecture firms as well.

I have a business coach, I have an individual that helps me with grants and I have a podcast editor.

What's the biggest challenge for your business?

I mean architects are extremely busy. They're too busy. They're stressed. And the last thing that they're going to stop to listen to is somebody calling them that is not a direct line to help.

Showing and telling them that it can be easier if you know how to manage your stress, that you're actually going to be more profitable as an architecture firm, if you manage your stress, your employees are not going to burn out, and you're not going to have as much turnover. Telling them that is one thing and showing them is another. So just having architects pause and slow down for a moment is a challenge.

What do you think is one flaw in the architecture business and why that may lead to burnout?

I think it's the biggest thing is that architects were not taught to own a business.

Most architects believe that if we do anything else, if you focus on anything else other than architecture, such as business or marketing or content creation or podcast then it's looked down upon and that's not normalized within our community and our culture.

That is exactly why, in my opinion, some architects and architecture firms do not do well financially – because they don’t outsource subjects they are not masters in. I learned a lot from people outside of architecture and that's what we should be doing, learning from people outside of architecture.