We were lucky to catch up with Joshua Foster recently and have shared our conversation below.
Joshua, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
The biggest risk I took in my business was starting it. Although I genuinely enjoyed what I did and where I worked at the time, I felt that in my current position, there was a ceiling to the impact that I knew I could make in the building of up of communities. So I made the decision to leave my job and start my business, JAF. Over the course 90 days, I launched my LLC with the state, opened a business bank account, hired an accountant, designed my logo and website, created a client pitch deck, and took the leap. For me, ripping the band-aid off and diving in head first allowed me to hit the ground running with an intentional urgency to make this work. At that point, with the network I had, I began getting in front of everyone that I knew in the industry and sharing what I do. I pride myself on the genuine relationships built on trust that I’ve made in my career and when people trust you and like who you are as a person, they are more likely to give you opportunities. I knew that all I needed was the opportunity because the space in the market of the services that I offered, the skillset that possessed, and the passion to make a true impact, was a recipe for success.
The quickest way to find out if you are really built to execute on an idea is when your success in it is directly tied to you putting food on the table for your family. And the quickest way to push yourself into sustaining that success is when it is tied to the empowerment of others. My vision was to build up communities to the height of their potential by leveraging the resources of the businesses in and around these communities while celebrating the unique and beautiful culture within. So to succeed in my business was to succeed for family and for the community. When those initial client opportunities arose, I executed. If I came up on a problem that I didn’t have the experience to solve, I figured it out. If business was slow during a certain month and I needed to make ends meet for my family, I drove Uber in the mornings and nights and took meetings with potential clients during the day. If a client had a problem that was remotely related to my skillset, I added that service to my business and got the work done. Failure never was and never is an option in my mind because I believe in the mission and vision of my work and I believe in doing good work. That is what has brought me into the third year of a thriving and growing business.
Joshua, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
A native of the Philadelphia area and former Division-1 student athlete, I am a graduate of Columbia University with a B.A. in Architecture and Sustainability and the University of Southern California with a Masters of Architecture and a Real Estate Development Certificate. An award-winning architectural designer, educator, and speaker, I spent the early years of my career focusing on the design and construction of affordable and market-rate housing projects in Los Angeles County. As I worked directly on projects from the architectural side of the table, I also spent a considerable amount of time alongside the real estate development and construction teams gaining an understanding of what they do. As an architectural designer I always believed that the harmony of human interactions with architecture created a music that can never be replicated but only enhanced with thoughtful and intentional community-driven design solutions.
After, consistent conversations with the real estate development and construction teams and observing the habits of the architecture industry as a whole I began to clearly see that there was a disconnect from my philosophy in community driven design solutions. The needs of the communities that projects were being built in were not reflected in the decisions made by those capable of meeting those needs. In this realization, I felt that I brought a set of skills that could fill this gap as an advocate for the community from the expertise of someone that also understands the nuances of project design and construction feasibility and the reality of a need to see a return on investment on the developer side. I also felt that in my current position, there was a ceiling to the impact that I knew I could make in the building of communities.
So combining those experience with my education and passion in real estate development and community development, I transformed my experiences into the founding of JAF — a community impact focused strategic partnership and engagement consulting firm. Through JAF, I have built an efficient process of authentic engagement outcomes and tangible community impact returns that extends beyond the design and development world through intentional grassroots communication strategies and active implementation.
Community engagement and empowerment is not just a job for me but is truly a lifestyle. Beyond my day-to-day work, I am active in the community is an Adjunct Architecture Professor at East Los Angeles College as well as a local high school football coach in Long Beach. I serve on multiple local and national non-profit boards including, the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) as the National Historian, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Long Beach Community Design Center (LBCDC), Architecture + Advocacy (A+A), and the USC Architectural Guild. I truly believe that the diameter of one’s knowledge is based on the circumference of their community. So through that belief I am intentional in growing and being involved in the community so that I can learn from the experiences of others.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One major lesson that I had to unlearn was the idea that the pathway to success comes after achieving a series of wins after wins after wins. There were moments in the beginning of my business journey where I would let the roller coaster of highs and lows dictate how successful I deemed the business to be in that season. It took multiple moments of self-realization in the midst of that momentary low to realize that success does not follow a strict path and is not dictated in any given moment but instead is the unscripted culmination of how we each deal with the highs and lows of our unique daily journeys. In that realization I began to appreciate the good and the bad moments because every lesson allowed me to grow and become better at what I did for the people that I served.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Anyone that currently or is interested in social impact entrepreneurship should take the time to read “Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World” written by Jacqueline Novogratz. The principles/topics the book covers are: Just Start; Redefine Success; Cultivate Moral Imagination; Listen to Voices Unheard; You are the Ocean in a Drop; Practice Courage; Hold Opposing Values in Tension; Avoid the Conformity Trap; Use the Power of Markets, Don’t Be Seduced by Them; Partner with Humility & Audacity; Accompany Each Other; Tell Stories That Matter; Embrace the Beautiful Struggle. One of the most impactful quotes from the book that I remind myself often as I work alongside communities is, “When we fail to listen to those the world excludes, we lose the possibility of solving problems that matter most to all of us. But when we succeed at listening with all our attention and empathy, we have a chance to set others and ourselves free.” This quote and other ideas from the book has played a large role in the philosophy that I lead within my company.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jafcsolutions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jafoster_the_builder/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuafoster38/