speaking of napkin thoughts

the lovespeaks series

Season 2 Episode #10:

Speaking of Napkin Thoughts with Scott Freres

On this podcast we are speaking napkin thoughts. What are napkin thoughts you might ask? Napkin thoughts are where great ideas, dreams and plans begin. My guest on this episode of the lovespeaks series podcast has built a career on this philosophy. Scott Freres is the principal at Red Spade Environments, a landscape design, construction management, design-build firm that makes exterior dreams come true. And most of those dreams begin with a sketch Scott makes on a napkin when sitting down to listen to a client over coffee. We all have dreams. Scott’s story reminds us to go after our own dreams, because our napkin is waiting!

Quotes from Scott Freres:
Love for me is the ability and blessing I have to do what I want every day.

I learned an appreciation of nature that you really can’t see unless you spend time in it.

I love fall. I love the change. I love the way the world seems to slow down, the days get shorter, lighting looks different.

I used to sit at a coffee shop every day and before I would go in to work, and collect my thoughts and collect my ideas and sketch on napkins.

It starts with a napkin. It moves to paper. It takes in the voice of a client or a community and it starts to fashion ideas not a final plan, but ideas. And then from those ideas you hone in on a plan direction.

The other thing a napkin speaks to that is a big philosophy in our companies was the idea that the best designs and the best conversations always happen around food or beverage.

There’s two pens that I always use, and one is a Pentel rolling writer and the other is a Paper Mate flair.

The hallmark for our firm is community engagement.

You have to talk to people and listen. And not only do you have to talk and listen, that’s great. But you gotta show them that you heard them by your actions.

When you’re in that dirt it feels so good. I don’t know what it is, people say it’s gross but I just love it.

Nature is truly the best medicine and your garden costs you nothing, but it can do wonders for your health.

Sustainability is really a philosophy that you need to live by, meaning that it’s a respect for the environment first and foremost.

You’ll learn:

♥ How to use the talents you were born with and the environments that spoke to you as a young person and make a career out of it.

♥ Listening is a skill that is essential to understanding your clients.

♥ An appreciation of nature.

♥ Big plans begin on small napkins.

♥ The best conversations happen around food and beverage.

♥ Forward thinking is a gift.

♥ Community engagement is key to a project’s success.

♥ Nature is the best medicine.

Resources:

Scott Freres LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-freres-53653230/

Red Spade Environments: http://redspadeenvironments.com/

Red Spade on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redspadeenvironments/

The Lakota Group: https://www.thelakotagroup.com/