The Architecture of Calm: How Biophilic Design Increases Property Value

Ludi Shadowspeaker (00:00)
In commercial real estate, especially the commercial real estate agents, present themselves as sharp, slick, and really quick. And I was saying that sharp, quick, and really slick is not always smart. It thinks it is, and the world thinks it is, because it presents itself as such. And the unique circumstances that I find myself occurring, I’m able to exploit and see through this. I I do think in a sense that it’s unfortunate that I cannot present myself that way, but it’s extremely fortunate that I am not that way.

Cody Crabb (02:15)
Welcome back to the *Real Estate Pros* podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb and today I’m talking to Ludi Shadowspeaker. Ludi is a founding member of Bezel Real Estate based in Oakland, California, bringing a unique perspective on real estate, thoughtful development, and what they call the Architecture of Calm. Ludi, thanks so much for joining me today.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (02:36)
Yeah, it’s my pleasure.

Cody Crabb (02:39)
So Ludi, before we get into real estate, you told me something before we started that that really caught my attention. You said that you sort of your your life philosophy sort of changed a after after a traumatic brain injury, which what which is what you you mentioned to me. Can you kind of tell us that story and kind of explain how it ended up shaping the the person that you are today.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (03:12)
Yeah, well I it’s interesting. You said that my philosophy changed, which it absolutely didn’t change, but it’s interesting that it changed because it happened a really long time ago. I was very young, I was ten years old. So as you can imagine, I didn’t have much of a philosophy. And I kind of or I had a child’s philosophy. It’s it’s interesting because we start putting together the universe at a very young age and most people put it together and don’t really think about how they put it together. I had the great opportunity to put it together again for a second time as a ten year old and kind of watch myself as I did it. Most people don’t have that experience. And that’s interesting. Said know that in change what I was talking about was how I present myself as a slow person. I’m slow because for most people thinking and speaking are one action. And for me, because I lost the ability to talk, didn’t really lose the verbal mind, but I lost the ability to talk. I had to teach another part of my brain to learn. Huh, see, I had to teach it and had to learn the—and the motor skills involved with getting the information out of my verbal mind and out of my mouth. So the the extra step leads to a different a different pace. And in that pace I give up on saying most of what I think, rather than just saying what I think. And I was noting that in negotiation, for instance, with other real estate agents or in the real estate industry that I can expect most people to go with the first option that occurs to them because they can get it out of their mouth and are committed to it once it’s out of their mouth. very quickly and I’ve learned to exploit that difference. So I was talking about that, but I think it’s also very interesting because I was able to build a philosophy of living based on my based on that experience. rather than on the experience of gaining functionality from infancy to adulthood, like most most successful real estate people have done. So the perspective is a little bit different.

Cody Crabb (07:34)
Yeah. I find one of the things I I I think that sometimes people can be a little uncomfortable with silence. Like, you know, if you pause for too long, people want to just jump in and like and start talking, even if they’re talking for you sometimes. So I could absolutely see how in a in a negotiation or in a business setting, how people just kind of wanting to keep that going could really I mean, that could really benefit you for sure. Do you feel like where do you feel like that’s given you advantage specifically in real estate?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (08:09)
Well, another thing, another thing that I was saying was that people—I am not able to present myself as a very quick, very sharp, on the ball real estate person who knows everything and can get it out in seconds. Uh-huh. And I find this a lot in commercial real estate that—and in commercial real estate, especially the commercial real estate agents, present themselves as sharp, slick, you know, and really quick. And I was saying that sharp, quick, and really slick is not always smart. It thinks it is, and the world thinks it is, because it presents itself as such. And the unique circumstances that I find myself occurring, I’m able to exploit and see through this. I I do think in a sense that it’s unfortunate that I cannot present myself that way, but it’s extremely fortunate that I am not that way. And have to focus on my ability to think more deeply and further. And you know, I want to say more authentically, but it’s kind of not that. It’s kind of more intrinsically and more, I’m even gonna say think more heartfelt, that the thoughts arise out of the heart and out of intuition and out of what we know is true rather than what we can make look true based on our presentation that everyone will buy because it went by so quickly that no objection had time to arise. My objections arise naturally. In the time that it took me to say this, people have already dismissed me in a hundred ways, and I am still at showing why this intrinsic thinking is superior. Okay, so like I said, I was able I’m able to exploit that. And while I may may not get the real estate listings, a you know, a commercial real estate listing, or even a commercial real estate buyer, I am able to negotiate with a commercial real estate agent and find the things that they missed. And I want to say almost immediately, but it’s not almost immediately, because it takes me some time. I just mean it’s obvious to me while it’s brushed over by everybody else. And so this perspective allows me to see opportunities that other people missed. It also allows me to see, what’s it called? What’s the opposite of opportunity? I’m gonna use the word pitfall, but it’s not really the word I wanna use. I can’t think of the word I wanna use fast. So allow me to see the mistakes that other people are making or that any person would make because they’re not thinking about it in the same way. So this is extremely an advantage in commercial real estate in in in terms of buying properties to develop.

Cody Crabb (12:35)
Yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (12:48)
And improving properties that have already been developed in terms of seeing where the world is going to be in twenty years as opposed to where it is right now.

Cody Crabb (13:05)
Mm-hmm. So can you give me an example? Maybe like an example or maybe a deal or something where everybody saw one thing, but maybe your approach was different. So maybe you caught something else. Or did do you have any stories like that?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (13:20)
Well, I got a bunch of stories like that and the one that’s occurring to me right now is in residential real estate when I first started when I first started renovating houses. Okay, so I got into the real estate industry in 2008, which is a which is a an iconic year to get in because that’s when everybody got out. Which is precisely why I got into it. It was interesting because at the time I was selling life insurance life insurance.

Cody Crabb (13:49)
Timing. Yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (14:04)
And the fellow who mentored me at life insurance made said this quote, because at that time everybody was getting into day trading. They were quitting their day jobs and getting into day trading. And he said, when the stupidest person you know says, you know, I think I’m gonna quit my job and get into day trading, you know it’s time to get out. So if you flip that philosophy around. When everybody you know is getting out of real estate, that’s the time to get in. Okay, so a bunch of people got out of real estate, and people who were still in real estate were in it, but very cautious. And what I found was that people could not walk into a house that was not ready to go. and see the potential. Now, since then, is what? Now almost twenty years later, industry has been built around seeing potential. In fact, such that people see potential where there is no potential. Walking into a house and saying this house has good bones. What I found was that even the people who were had flipped houses, people who had invested in many houses, were just not seeing, this is a great house. It just and just has poor carpeting and too many shades on the windows, and windows not in the right place, and they’re not exploiting this aspect of the of the house. They haven’t developed this. You know, and because of that passed up hundreds of opportunities and nobody and nobody saying, we can get this and this price and and change it just a little bit and it’d be a great house. They had to spend more on the house that was ready to go right then, which at that time would are were houses that were renovated previous to the crash. So none of the crashed houses. were a the people who were n nobody could buy a crashed house with vision. None of them were available to be improved. And that’s why the recovery was so slow. While now, especially in the Bay Area, we can’t even crash because the houses are improved so quickly, the recovery is immediate. There was a crash, boom, up, there we are. Houses are green. Okay. So there are two examples. The one example in two thousand and eight and the example now. Have you heard anyone say anything like that before? Probably.

Cody Crabb (18:20)
Like what before?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (18:22)
Like well like what I’ve just said about how we can’t crash.

Cody Crabb (18:26)
Yeah, vaguely, yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (18:28)
You have heard that.

Cody Crabb (18:29)
Uh-huh. Just like slight just like in a in passing, maybe, but yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (18:34)
Okay. All right. So here I’m well maybe I’m not so

Cody Crabb (18:43)
Yeah, go ahead.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (18:45)
So in commercial real estate, okay, here’s another thing that I said. I was begging investors to invest in Oakland. And this was probably 2015. And what I was saying was that what’s happening in the flatlands of of Oakland. are you familiar with the not not the What’s happening in the flat land okay, so now Oakland is Oakland and the East Bay, East Bay in general is—and prices are are lower than on the peninsula. The peninsula being where all the AI development is going to be happening. So houses over there are overpriced, and in the East Bay we’re still able to get into the area at at affordable prices. Right. And so it’s being marketed that way now. And what I was saying was just now was that ten years ago, that’s what I was saying was gonna happen. Was that the the the distribution in the flatlands was going to be unrecognizable People were going to stop saying, yeah, but that’s over there. Because what’s it called? A rising tide raises all ships, something like that. Right. Okay. So that was ten years ago. Anyway, those are two examples, not particularly brilliant, but

Cody Crabb (21:02)
No, no, I think why that no, that’s a great that’s a good example. I think that’s that’s helpful to kind of think of like to think through maybe some of the the advantages like you like you were saying. This philosophy, I think, not just philosophy, but the the the kind of mindset that you’re talking about, it coinc—it seems to coincide with something that you brought up with me before we were recording, which was the Architecture of Calm. So I’d love if you could kind of tell me a little about what that is and how that applies to what you’re talking about.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (21:38)
Absolutely. And the Architecture of Calm has to do with the study, the the research of the biophilic technology of home design where you live, not just facilitating your grind schedule. Or another way to go with it is your luxury indulgences. If if you’re super rich, you can design your house to indulge you. Where you live to indulge you. And the Architecture of Calm has to do with designing the home, placing the furniture in the walls, such that it facilitates your psychic and biorhythmic states, your heart rate, your breathing method, your patterns of blood flow, your lymphatic system, all that, all that such that the human thrives in the condition of the home rather than just either their indulgences or in their ingrained philosophy.

Cody Crabb (23:18)
Can you give me an example, maybe just like a a principle or s a kind of something like that, so I can kinda wrap my head around what what kind of stuff is is involved with this?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (23:28)
Sure, it has to do with placement of furniture and the and the rather than filling the space, leaving a void for your joints to feel free as you walk in. A higher ceiling. They call it Feng Shui.

Cody Crabb (23:58)
Yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (24:00)
When it comes to placement of furniture, now the Architecture of Calm has to do with bringing the outdoor nature, the garden space, the forest, the rivers into the design of the home. Hm.

Cody Crabb (24:22)
I mean, yeah, that sounds incredible, but I mean, is is this really just something that’s accessible for someone that’s designing a super expensive custom home, or are there some principles of this that could be applied at any level?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (24:35)
Okay, well here here’s the thing. We are as people, and we’re going to be doing this more and more as we evolve. Okay, and I’m using the term evolve. As and now I’m gonna say as a species, that’s not what I mean. What I mean is as we trend in society. We can shape it however we want. Right? Okay. What do they call it? Urban design. We educate people to design things, design cities. If we integrate the philosophy of the Architecture of Calm into—what do they call it? Well it’ll make it accessible as a society. There’s no reason we have to spend lots of money on it if this is what everybody is doing. Right? Okay, so if we build houses that are that way, we find ways to build them cheaply. I was involved briefly with a company looking to develop in Nevada and Colorado and Utah. And what they did was they built, they built essentially stackable, it would fit together like Legos, construction material. Now you design these with corridors that open up into a open up into the garden. Mm. Bring the garden into the corridor. This makes perfect sense. Yeah, I mean it’s I’m visualizing it. Now because I’m visualizing it doesn’t mean you are. Can you see what

Cody Crabb (27:12)
I mean, I’m probably picturing something completely different than you are at this point.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (27:15)
Yeah, but I like opening up on to into the nature. Now if we put the cities the deep inner cities with no nature in them it’s not it doesn’t—yeah. The space is separated by economic class. But it doesn’t have to be. Now that they put Central Park in the middle of Manhattan is Architecture of Calm. And so bring this philosophy into our urban design. Urban planning. That’s the word I was looking for. So we have urban planning. Right. If we have tract homes and we build homes the way we’ve been building them for the last hundred years, although that changes incrementally, right? The way we build them a hundred years from now shall be different.

Cody Crabb (28:31)
Yeah, I would you would think so. Yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (28:33)
Right. I’m saying let’s bring the Architecture of Calm into it. It’s important. It’s a pedagog—it’s as much a pedagogical tool as it is an instrument to sell more real estate.

Cody Crabb (28:54)
So what what’s a what’s like a like I said, a a version of this that you can start out with? If you’re not designing a home, if you’re not like doing some urban planning, what’s a a mini version of this that someone could start with just kind of what they have?

Ludi Shadowspeaker (29:09)
All right. Bear with me a second. I’m gonna bring a prop.

Cody Crabb (29:13)
You’re good.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (29:39)
A living sculpture. A plant. Plants. Hey, you got one back there.

Cody Crabb (29:49)
Yeah, it’s fake. So not exactly the not exactly the paradigm of what you’re

Ludi Shadowspeaker (29:56)
This grew in the yard. It’s simple. This is moss pulled out of a crack, placed in a cup of water. It’s on the mantle right now. When you put this on a table, this is an example. It’s a living sculpture. You can have as many of these in your home as you like. In fact, you can have a room dedicated to these with your yoga mats and your pillows and ten minutes. You can do it in your living room. corner in your living room. Right? And you can have whole rooms, you can have whole houses. You can have whole cities dedicated to this.

Cody Crabb (30:48)
Yeah. I definitely think that kind of a little it’s it’s just kind of my it’s more mindful, it is calm in the design.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (30:55)
Yeah, absolutely. And so as we study this. integrated into our philosophy of designing homes. selling homes, building homes, our urban planning, our urban design. Here we go. Twenty-five years. Do it now. Twenty-five years, fifty years, hundred years. We’ll live longer. But have a better quality of life. Children will be smarter. We will be smarter. Our heart rates will be more regulated. We’ll have more energy in our life.

Cody Crabb (31:32)
Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think anybody that any anybody hearing this would is probably could probably relate to needing a little bit of calm in their lives, especially because a lot of investors are very like driven kind of rushing around type people. And if if there’s a way to kinda just slow down and back up back up a little bit, I mean that’s there’s never gonna be a an issue with that.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (32:12)
And what I’ve noticed is that people buying in the East Bay, especially tech people coming from San Francisco, are homes that have this built in. One of the stage rooms is dedicated to biophilic design. Wellness rooms. Hmm. Sell quicker. Yeah. Just staying in the room that way.

Cody Crabb (32:42)
Yeah, I bet it will. Yeah. Yeah, that just intuitively. That totally makes sense. Ludi, this has been really interesting. Thanks for thanks for sharing all this with our with our listeners. I I wonder, so as far as you know, if someone wants to get in touch with you or work with you, you know, who should be getting in touch with you and and what do you what could you what could you do for them? And so if if our listeners are are trying to make some contact.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (33:10)
Wow, I can help investors. I can help investors find properties. It’s amazing right now. The people the people the investors are hiring to find their people, their middlemen are just terrible. They and and I’m telling them that. They they need to there’s a great human Architecture of Calm. It was written a long time ago. And people know about it. The Dale Carnegie book, what’s it called? *How to Win Friends and Influence People*. My God, some of the outreach people

Cody Crabb (33:56)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (34:02)
I’ve got to read this book ’cause they’re just terrible. Here, this is what we want. I get texts all day, this is what we want.

Cody Crabb (34:15)
Hmm. And as opposed to that, your approach is normal.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (34:19)
Okay, okay, okay. So I’m not selling my outreach services. What I’m telling you is that the people you’ve hired to find me cannot find me. You need to find me. You need to reach out to me directly. An investor, I can help you. I have the mind for it. There’s no one who thinks like me. No one. And I can help you. figure that out. I have twenty years of experience. in real estate, and before I was real estate I was material science, I was mechanical engineering, I was math. Okay. Okay, so there’s that. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home, of course, I have developed a team, a full-service real estate team, and Bezel Real Estate can help you in residential, commercial. I can help you market a property not just for how it is, but how it will be and how it will be seen by investors. I can I can help find you commercial real estate where the sellers aren’t thinking that way. So I can find you a good deal on commercial real estate if you’re buying. I can sell your commercial real estate for more if you’re selling. I know how to do it. I’ve developed these strategies. Okay, now who should get in contact with me? Okay. So commercial, residential, we have that set up. Urban design, we have that set up. What else should we say? Investors. Yeah. Yeah, I can help all those all those classes of people. So who should contact me? Hmm. The people who hears something like this? and say to themselves, that guy can help me should contact me.

Cody Crabb (36:38)
Yeah, awesome.

Ludi Shadowspeaker (36:39)
If you want somebody slick and quick, I’m not your man.

Cody Crabb (36:46)
Well, I’m sure I’m sure the things you’ve shared have—have really spoken to to a lot of people. Like it just I just need to pause for a minute. Like that kind of vibe is I think a lot of people need it. So thank you. Thanks so much for sharing all this today, Ludi. I appreciate it. And audience, thanks so much for joining us as well. We’ll see you on the next episode. And Ludi, thanks one more time for giving us some of your time today. You have a good one.