Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to LeQuan Clinton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
LeQuan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
Serving the underserved and giving back to my community has always been a passion of mine and something that I value. Whether I am mentoring inner city youth, volunteering at clothing drives or making and passing out plates of food to those experiencing homelessness during thanksgiving. However, it wasn’t until recently, 2018-2019, that I was able to juxtapose my passion for serving the underserved with my education, talents and skills within landscape architecture, urban planning and design. During 2018-2019 I was in grad school and fortunate enough to land a job as an architectural inspector, tasked with inspecting government owned public housing properties in various wards of Washington, D.C. The inspections consisted of documenting our observations of current resident living conditions, as well as the existing conditions of the housing units through notes and images within four categories; structural, environmental, health and safety. It is this job that led me to completing my thesis work and deciding to title it “Inclusive Sustainability – Preserving Public Housing and Improving Resident Well Being”. 80 percent of the public housing property’s demographics consisted of residents identifying as black, african american or indigenous; historically underserved ethnic groups. This percentage had subsets of underserved groups when broken down on a smaller scale, including seniors/the elderly, young children and single parents. It is my hope that through my thesis work, where I created design guidelines and standards for existing housing, I am able to take part in the preservation of these public housing properties ultimately improving the quality of life and living conditions of the underserved populations residing in them.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a mentor, volunteer, creative, designer and steward of sustainable development. The list goes on but these are just a few words to give you an idea of who I am and what I value. Professionally a landscape architect, urban planner and sustainability consultant that has experience on a range of projects in residential, commercial and mixed-use at various scales with extensive plant knowledge, including native species. My attention to detail, affinity for simplistic design, as well as the ability to create beautiful spatial designs for clients within budget and on time are some of the elements that makes my work stand out and retain repeat clients. With sustainability as a driving element of focus for projects, I use that lens and am able to take what is existing, make the best use of it and recreate it into something elegantly creative. My ideal client on the residential side includes homeowners that want to renovate their homes and implement green/sustainable methodologies (green retrofit), or are looking to improve their landscape design. On the commercial side, ideal clients include existing buildings such as public housing properties, government owned or otherwise, apartment complexes, multifamily housing developments, offices and hospitals.
With design I solve the problem of clients not always being able to receive creative, sustainable designs for their project at an affordable cost. With the recent shift of companies and building standards going “green” to contribute to the preservation of the planet and ecosystems, I recognize the need for this and that more people want to move in that direction but cannot always afford the work required. This not only sets me apart from others but also allows for more interpersonal interactions and relationships with clients that they may not receive from larger big name companies or firms doing similar work. Being a small business owner, I empathize with clients regarding their wants within design, while understanding their budget may not always match their vision. This creates an opportunity for me to provide alternative designs and options that are a juxtaposition between budget friendly and achieving the original vision for the client design.
I am most proud of my unique approach to design and being able to provide high quality design work that is affordable. This allows me to share my creative work with underserved communities and groups while giving back and being of service.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
A time I had to pivot in business, my career and life was around the time the contract of my last office or corporate job was coming to an end. I had to decide if I wanted to continue working for other people and working on projects that were not very fulfilling to me, or go and do my own thing so that I can be my own boss and work on projects that I truly cared about. I made the decision to work for myself and build my own clientele, while working towards licensure to become a registered landscape architect. Although it is challenging at times I believe this was one of the better pivots I have taken.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
A story from my journey that displays my resilience actually connects to the answer provided to the previous question. It is regarding maintaining my business, obtaining clients and having consistent income from projects. Being a small business owner and working for yourself has its own set of challenges and I think I speak for many entrepreneurs when I say the biggest challenge can be obtaining clients and having steady income. Through the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur, working for myself and sometimes not knowing when my next project would be, I had to find other means of bringing in income to stay afloat. This meant taking on odd jobs, side gigs, a lot of self promotion and marketing to get my work in front of potential clients. I received many more “no’s, we’ll see, I’ll be in contact with you, can you come down on the price a bit”, than I received yeses. This can be disheartening and discouraging when received over and over again. My resilience is illustrated simply by the fact that I am still here and still pushing to get my work in front of the right clients. My drive, ambition, determination, will to not give up after being denied back to back and my belief in God, myself, my talent and abilities keeps me going.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lclintondesigns.myportfolio.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lcdesigns/
- Other: book a consultation here: https://calendly.com/lcdesigns3/30min?month=2023-01
Image Credits
LeQuan Clinton Major League Hacking (MLH)