ANTOINETTE:
Hi, and welcome. I’m Antoinette Trimble, a registered architect, and I’m passionate about helping other architects not just do great work — but be recognised and valued for it.
ALLISON:
Hi, I’m Allison Tsao, an organisation development practitioner. I bring a people and communication lens to the way professionals show up in their work — and that very much includes how they communicate their own worth.
This video is part of a series developed in partnership with the Architect’s Registration Board of Victoria, designed to help registered architects here in Victoria communicate more effectively — with clients, with project teams, and in the marketplace.
ANTOINETTE:
Today’s topic is Promoting Your Value as an Architect. We’re covering three areas:
how you balance self-orientation in a professional relationship,
how to set healthy boundaries,
and how to communicate the genuine value that an architect brings to a project.
ALLISON:
Let’s get into it.
ALLISON:
So Antoinette, I want to start with a concept I call self-orientation. It describes where you place your attention and energy in a professional relationship — are you oriented primarily toward the client’s needs, or toward your own?
ANTOINETTE:
And I’m guessing neither extreme is ideal.
ALLISON:
Exactly. When you’re over-oriented toward the client — constantly deferring, agreeing, absorbing requests without pushback — you slip into what I’d call the doormat end of the spectrum. The client may like it in the short term, but it erodes your professional authority over time. And then there’s the other end — being over-oriented toward yourself— focused almost entirely on your own vision or preferred approach — and that’s where the relationship breaks down in a different way.
ANTOINETTE:
I’ve seen this in practice. An architect who agrees to every extra bit of re-working for free, never raises a formal fee adjustment when scope has clearly changed, never challenges the brief, and goes against their better judgement because the client wants it — the client starts to take that for granted. And when the architect finally does push back, it’s read as unreasonable, because the precedent has been set.
ALLISON:
The sweet spot is balanced self-orientation — where you genuinely attend to the client’s needs and hold your professional position with confidence. You’re collaborative — but you bring your expertise as an equal, not as a subordinate.
ANTOINETTE:
In practice, that might sound like — “I hear that you’d prefer to not get an initial costing to save time, but I want to be transparent about the risk that creates to your budget. My recommendation is that we don’t skip it, and here’s why.” You’re listening, you’re explaining — but you’re not just rolling over.
ALLISON:
In a professional context, what does it actually mean to set a healthy boundary?
ANTOINETTE:
Being clear about what you will and won’t do, what is and isn’t within scope, and what the consequences are if those limits are exceeded. It’s professional clarity, not personal conflict.
ALLISON:
A lot of architects avoid setting limits for fear of damaging the relationship ( or the chance for flow on work). But boundaries build trust. When a client knows exactly where they stand with you, they feel more secure — not less.
ANTOINETTE:
A common example is if you get a phone call after hours.. Setting a clear boundary might sound like — “I’m available Monday to Friday during business hours for calls, otherwise please email.” Said once, clearly, at the start of the engagement. That’s a boundary.
ALLISON:
And you don’t need to justify it at length. You’re not asking permission — you’re informing the client of how you work. The framing isn’t “I hope that’s okay” — it’s “This is how I work, and it means you’ll always get my full attention during those hours.”
ALLISON:
Now let’s talk about how you communicate what you’re actually worth as a registered architect — because this is an area where the profession as a whole tends to undersell itself.
ANTOINETTE:
When a client asks — “Why should I use a registered architect rather than a draftsperson or a building designer?” — architects need a clear, confident answer. There are two key layers.
The first is professional accountability. In Victoria registered architects operate under the Architects Act, with legal and ethical obligations other building professionals are not subject to in the same way. When a client engages a registered architect, they know they are getting a professional who is appropriately qualified and subject to a code of professional conduct and sanctions for failing to meet standards and obligations. These protections are a tangible benefit,
The second is the breadth of what architects do. A registered architect is not just a designer — they’re a trained professional, a project manager, a technical expert, a planner, a contract administrator, and a creative problem-solver. That coordination adds increased protection for clients from cost blowouts, delays, and disputes. The architect’s fee is not just a design cost. It’s an investment in risk management. At all stages of the project from concept to construction.
ALLISON:
How do you say this without it feeling like a sales pitch?
ANTOINETTE:
hmm,well I would make it specific to the client’s project.
For a residential client you may say: “On a project like yours, offering a full service beyond just the DA, I can coordinate the engineer, brief the heritage consultant and coordinate the planning and regulatory requirements, and the administer the contract which includes managing progress payments and variations so that you don’t have to — and so nothing falls through the cracks once you are on site. That’s exactly where a lot of residential projects get into trouble without an architect involved.”
ALLISON:
And for a commercial client?
ANTOINETTE:
I would frame it around risk and programme: “In a commercial project like this, with a fixed lease commencement date and high expectations of quality, having a registered architect means someone is accountable for making sure the contractor delivers to specification and maintains the design intent. That accountability is part of what you’re engaging us for.”
ALLISON:
And this connects back to where we started. Talking about your work with confidence, framing your fee as an investment rather than a cost — none of that is arrogance. It’s appropriate professional self-respect. And the more consistently you communicate that, the more it shapes how clients perceive and engage with you.
ANTOINETTE:
So to recap. Find your balance — be genuinely attentive to your client’s needs, and hold your professional position with equal confidence. Neither deferring nor dismissing.
ALLISON:
Set healthy limits — early, clearly, and without apology. Scope, availability, process — make these things explicit at the start of the engagement.
ANTOINETTE:
And know your value proposition — and communicate it specifically and confidently. Professional accountability, breadth of expertise, project coordination, risk management, ability to add value all the way through construction. Real, concrete value for every client, on every project at each stage.
ALLISON:
Thanks for watching. This is the final video in the Architect’s Registration Board of Victoria’s education series. We hope it’s given you something concrete to take into your next client conversation.
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